Ushahidi fires Executive Director due to sexual harassment allegation by former employee

This seems like another Susan Fowler case which caused the chaos that led to the resignation of Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick.

On Saturday, July 22, Ushahidi – a Kenyan non-profit software company that develops free and open-source software (LGPL) for information collection, visualisation, and interactive mapping, fired its executive director, Daudi Were, accused of sexual harassment.

According to the organisation, “Following exhaustive consideration of the testimonies and evidence tabled by the respective parties in a sexual harassment claim, the board of Ushahidi has dismissed Executive Director, Daudi Were, with immediate effect.”

The organisation also announced that Nat Manning, who has been Ushahidi Chief Operations Officer, will stand in as interim Executive Director.

The company also published an apology to the victim, Angela Kabari who lodged the sexual harassment claim against the Executive Director. Angela, a former employee, has published her claim in a blog post titled “Don’t raise your voice here”

Angela said that she joined Ushahidi in September 2015 as a Capacity Development Officer for Making All Voices Count. All was well until January 19th 2017, “when Daudi Were, the Executive Director at Ushahidi asked me to have sex with a colleague, presumably for his own titillation. The events of that night left me troubled and confused.”

She reported the issue to the Ushahidi board but she said she was not happy how the board handled the complaint in a disturbingly casual manner.

According to Angela;

“I have two main bones of contention. The first is Daudi’s behaviour. Based on the additional allegations made via tweets and offline discussions that have occurred since the news of my complaint came to light on 9th July, it would not be a stretch to call Daudi’s alleged behaviour predatory. Such predation is enabled by a culture of silence and secrecy that encourages victims of harassment to “not make a fuss” or “persevere” or “just ignore him until he gets tired or bored and goes away.” This culture leads many, many victims to not call out predatory behaviour and report it as the violence it actually is. This culture feeds into the victims’ fears that there is no point in speaking out against the harassment they face and leads them to feel like they have no option but to suffer in silence. This must stop! We cannot expect victims of harassment to speak up if they are (rightly) afraid that public opprobrium will follow.”

“My second bone of contention is the Board’s response. I have been deeply let down by the actions and inaction of David Kobia, Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich and Jenny Stefanotti. Ever since I lodged my complaint on 4th May, I have been subjected to all the negative repercussions that make victims of harassment afraid to speak out.”

Ushahidi went on to add in the apology letter:

“We wish you all the best in your healing process, and would like to support you in any way we can or you would like us to.”

“Moving forward, know that we are doing everything in our power to make sure nothing like this ever happens again at Ushahidi. You did a fantastic job as an employee here, and we would support your work in any way we can.”

“The staff here are heartbroken by all that has occurred. They are good people who simply want to do good work in the world, helping people raise their voice and standing for justice, safety, and human rights. That is what Ushahidi stands for, that is the fabric of our team. Ushahidi is the people who make this team, it is the people around the world who use our tools to raise their voices or bring help to those in need; and we hope to now repair the organization to be a place we can all be proud of. We are so sorry that the actions of an individual have tarnished that mission and hurt you. Looking to the horizon, we commit to do all we can to make sure nothing like this happens again.”