Una Hakika - Using Technology to Stop Rumours and Build Peace in Kenya

Christopher Tuckwood is the co-founder and executive director of the Sentinel Project, a Canadian NGO dedicated to assisting communities threatened by mass atrocities through direct cooperation with the people in harm’s way and the innovative use of technology. Most recently, Chris has focused on leading Una Hakika (Swahili for “Are you sure?”), which is the Sentinel Project’s mobile phone-based information service which monitors and counters incendiary rumours linked to ethnic violence and violent extremism in Kenya. Chris has also helped to establish the similar Peaceful Truth project which is based on Una Hakika and addresses interreligious violence in Myanmar (Burma). Chris led the initial field surveys which assessed conflicts in both Kenya and Myanmar, ultimately leading to the establishment of Sentinel Project operations there. Una Hakika also serves the additional purpose of early warning and outside of conflict scenarios it has been used to address natural disasters, public health issues, and security incidents such as terrorist attacks. The Una Hakika model is currently being assessed for applicability in a variety of other mass atrocity-prone countries such as Iraq, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Chris also initiated the development of the Sentinel Project’s Sarus Humanitarian Aerospace initiative, which is exploring the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones) in violence prevention, humanitarian, and development roles. Furthermore, he has overseen the development of Hatebase, an initiative which monitors online hate speech worldwide. Chris has a master’s degree in disaster and emergency management from York University and has been involved in atrocity prevention work since leading activities to end atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan while studying at the University of Waterloo. He regularly writes and speaks about atrocity prevention and its relationship with technology.

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