[IN PICTURES] A Recap of the Ushahidi and Celo 2023 ‘Code Beyond Barriers’ Nairobi Blockchain Hackathon

Ushahidi, an open source software solutions non-profit organization in Kenya, held the ‘Code Beyond Barriers’ Hackathon between January 14 – 21 2023.

Run in partnership with Celo, and with the support of the Filecoin Foundation, the aim of the hackathon was to offer participants the opportunity to build innovative solutions across the themes of:

• Good governance
• Human rights protection
• Climate change, and
• Disaster relief

The theme of the hackathon was ‘Gaining techniques in which Web3 could advance our platform and consequently alleviating some of the technical pains that our Uchaguzi digital teams and global deployers experience.‘

Further, the hackathon sort to bring out innovative Web3 solutions that can be leveraged to give marginalized communities a voice and to make sure the under-represented in communities are equally heard and served.

7 teams participated in the hackathon across beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, with a declared winner, first runners-up, and 2nd runners-up getting awarded.

Team Taarifu (Winning Team)


Team Taarifu built an inventive decentralized citizen reporting platform that employs community-driven curation to streamline the validation and verification of information.

The team received KES 100,000 (~$800) equivalent in cUSD.

Team Inua Sauti (First Runners Up)


Team Inua Sauti built a solution that seeks to:

• Incentivize volunteers who share information on the Ushahidi platform
• Best escalate the issue to relevant authorities
• Verify information shared on the Ushahidi platform
• Crowdfund resources, especially finances, to keep the Ushahidi platform afloat

The team received KES 30,000 ( ~$240) equivalent in cUSD.

Team Kura (Second Runners Up)


Team KURA built a blockchain-based voting system utilizing smart contracts to ensure transparency, security, and immutability of the voting process to guarantee the integrity of votes.

The team received KES 20,000 (~$160) equivalent in cUSD.

In addition to the winning teams, each participant in the ‘Code Beyond Barriers’ Hackathon was also granted KES 1,000 (~$8) equivalent in cUSD.

The judging criteria was as follows:

• Technology – Engineering skills demonstrated and the quality code
• Design – Attention to aesthetics, interaction, and user interface
• Impact – A solution that meets a customer’s need has the potential to be a sustainable, impactful solution
• Presentation – The clarity of written and oral presentation
• Inspiration – How much we love and are excited about the idea

Ushahidi said the goal of the hackathon is to attain an understanding of what Web3 is and how it is useful on a general scale to the African landscape and to the Ushahidi context.

Ushahidi is a global not-for-profit technology company that develops integrated tools and services to enable people to generate solutions and mobilize communities for good. The company came into fame after its founding in 2008 as a tool to monitor and map post-election violence in Kenya.According to the platform, Ushahidi’s crowd-sourcing tools have been used by thousands of groups and millions of people to raise voices, inform decisions, stop suffering and influence change.