Kura Zetu documentation

Open, transparent, and community-driven vote tallying for Kenya

Kura Zetu is an open source civic-tech platform created by and for Kenyans to enable transparent, community-driven monitoring of election results at the polling station level. It empowers everyday citizens, civil society actors, and developers with tools to track, tally, and verify votes in real time; directly from the ground, where the voting happens.

Important

Kura Zetu is a community-powered parallel tallying system. It is intended to promote transparency and public engagement, but it does not serve as an official or legally binding representation of election results. All data collected and visualized is independently submitted and verified by users, and should be considered a civic tool — not a replacement for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) or its official processes.

At its core, the platform leverages community participation to document and validate results as announced at polling stations, giving ordinary people a chance to be watchdogs of democracy. Through crowd-sourced data entry and review, Kura Zetu aims to build a trusted, parallel tallying system that complements official processes and promotes public vigilance.

In addition to the core results tallying functionality, Kura Zetu includes a special “Community Notes” feature that allows citizens to flag suspicious patterns, discrepancies, or signs of fraud. This mechanism is key in ensuring transparency and accountability during the electoral period.

In this documentation

Tutorials

Hands-on introductions to help you report, track, and visualize polling station results.

How-to guides

Step-by-step guides for contributors and community members on using and contributing to the platform.

Explanations

In-depth discussions on how elections work, how we verify data, and our tallying logic.

Reference

Technical specs – API docs, data models, contributor guidelines, and architecture.

Note

Kura Zetu is not affiliated with any political party, candidate, or organization. It is a non-partisan initiative that aims to promote free and fair elections in Kenya. Whether you’re a software developer, activist, journalist, lawyer, or concerned citizen — you have a role to play.

From frontend and backend contributions, DevOps and infrastructure, legal audits, digital security, community outreach, to social media awareness — this platform thrives on the diverse strength of Kenya’s people and global allies who believe in free, fair, and verifiable elections.

Project and Community

Kura Zetu is entirely open source and driven by the Kenyan people. We welcome contributors from all backgrounds and skill levels. Whether you’re technical or not, there’s a way for you to contribute and make a difference.

This project will grow through active collaboration with:

  • Open source developers (BE,FE,UI/UX,DevOps etc): Build and maintain the software backend, frontend, APIs, and deployment pipelines.

  • Legal and governance experts: Help shape the legal framework and understand regulatory boundaries.

  • Cybersecurity contributors: Audit, test, and secure the platform to protect user data and system integrity.

  • Social media influencers and community mobilizers: Spread the word, educate users, and help track local impact.

  • Media houses and journalists: Use the data to build stories, verify official tallies, and increase accountability.

  • NGOs and civil society: Integrate the platform into civic tech and monitoring initiatives.

  • Ordinary citizens: Report tallies, contribute data, and flag inconsistencies.

  • POlitical parties: Register and verify agents and tally results

Get involved by:

  • Reporting issues and bugs: Help us identify and fix problems with the platform or data inconsistencies.

  • Testing and QA: Help verify new features and ensure the system performs reliably across devices and regions.

  • Improving the documentation: If you find something confusing or want to help others understand better, contribute to the docs.

  • Requesting new features: If there’s something you’d like to see or a way to improve how the system works, we want to hear from you.

  • Writing or improving code: Fork the repository, raise issues, or create pull requests. Every contribution counts.

  • Spreading the word: Share our mission on social media, write blog posts, or host a community info session.

  • Hosting community workshops: Teach others how to use Kura Zetu or get involved in open source projects.

We believe transparency in the electoral process is not just a right but a civic responsibility. This platform exists because of people like you.

Let’s build it together.

Thinking about integrating this platform into your organization or initiative? Want to request a workshop? Get in touch!