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Mobile phone networks can also be useful in other situations when time is of the essence. For example, during and immediately following elections, control of ballot boxes and vote tallies is critical. In Kenya, mobile phone networks have been used to keep elections fair and honest – thereby preserving people's right to take part in the government of their country – by reporting vote tallies before they could be tampered with.

During Kenya’s 2002 presidential elections, independent monitoring groups used mobile phones to keep the election process honest by reporting vote tallies from each polling place immediately.

In previous elections, votes had to be physically transported to key counting points before any results could be released. Although observers monitored this process, the delay did leave open the possibility of fraud, or the suspicion of fraud. The instant communication mobile phones provide made it hard to change results. In many Kenyan polling stations there are no fixed land lines.

Two groups, who were given credentials by the election commission to observe the vote count, monitored the election: the Institute for Education in Democracy (IED) and the Kenya Domestic Observer Programme (K-DOP). IED volunteers were stationed in 178 of Kenya's 210 constituencies. Volunteers used their own phones and were given an allowance of 2000 Kenyan shillings (about US$26). They called a central IED office to report as soon as votes were counted; the numbers were posted immediately on the Internet. Volunteers also called in to report violence and malpractice. The IED results were available even before the official results of the Kenya's electoral commission, largely because the commission had a more complicated protocol for releasing results.

The second group, K-DOP, also used a network of volunteers, but did not have standard provisions for reimbursement. Kenyan election commission officers also reported results by phone, using government-supplied satellite phones or their own mobile phones where no land lines existed.

The transparency created by these several networks reporting results quickly and independently helped prevent violence that may have occurred if people on the losing side of the election suspected fraud. The fast reporting forced both major candidates, and their supporters, to accept the results as legitimate.

Mobile phones are increasingly used as a way to ensure that elections are fair and that the basic human right of expressing one's will in a free and genuine election is preserved. Even fast communication, however, cannot always speed up bureaucracy. One observer in Kenya noted that, while officials used mobile phones to report problems such as voters not included in the rolls, some voters were still turned away because of the complicated protocols involved in fixing the problem.

(Photo above taken by Evans Wafula)