Dada Collective Network — Born January 2024
This is not a tech project.
This is a justice project that uses tech.
Built by the movement that filled Kenya's streets. We exist because institutions failed and nobody built what was needed. So we are.
Why Dada exists
1,069
Kenyan women documented killed since 2016
0
Classified as femicide in law
The institutions that should respond — police, courts, prosecution, healthcare — all exist. The gauntlet a survivor faces is not produced by any single institution being absent. It is produced by the absence of connective tissue between them. She carries the file. She retells the story. She pays the transport. She absorbs the delay. Most cases die at the handoffs, not the decisions.
In January 2024, Kenya said enough. Tens of thousands marched. “We Are Human Beings.” The government established a task force. A Penal Code Amendment Bill reached Parliament in 2026. The movement forced every one of those outcomes. Dada Collective Network is what sustains the pressure between the moments of crisis.
The gauntlet
What every survivor navigates alone
Each node is an institution she must visit in person, retelling her account from scratch. Most cases die between nodes, not at them.
Governance
Connective, not hierarchical.
No single body sits above another. Each holds a different kind of authority — binding, advisory, operational, or convening — over the domain it is best placed to hold. Tap a node to see what it does and what it can decide.
Tap any node
Connective, not hierarchical.
DCN's governance is intentionally non-hierarchical. The bodies around the centre share authority over different domains — none sits above another. The Survivor Council is visually distinct and its membership is intentionally not named: anonymity is a safety requirement.
Named individuals will be added to governance records once each has explicitly reviewed and approved the exact wording used to describe their role.
What we stand for
Survivor-led, not survivor-centred
Women are not recipients of services here. They guide this process. Every design decision, every feature, every publication is tested against one question: does this treat a woman as a citizen exercising a right, or a petitioner asking for a favour?
Data as accountability, not performance
We publish numbers because named, counted, timestamped data is the only thing that moves institutions. Not because statistics tell the human story — they don't. We use data to create accountability, and stories to create empathy.
Safety above everything
80% of femicides are committed by intimate partners. Any woman using Dada may be doing so while at risk. No identifying information is ever published without explicit, safety-audited consent. The quick-exit button is not optional.
Independent data sovereignty
The underlying femicide database is owned by its independent research custodian — not by Dada Collective, not by any funder, not by any state body. If that custodian dissolves, the database transfers to a survivor-led successor entity. It never reverts to government.
Technology serves justice, not the reverse
The tech team has no veto rights. Technology is one leg of three — and the smallest one. The movement holds convening power. The data team holds accountability. Technology carries what the movement decides must be carried.
Long-termism
This is infrastructure for 20 years, not a project for a funding cycle. Every architectural decision — technical, organisational, legal — is made for scale: 1,000 users → 10,000 → 100,000 → 1 million. Build for where it needs to go, not where it starts.
Work with Dada
Partner with Dada Collective Network
Dada Salama is a DCN initiative, originated by DCN's Founder and developed with the technical support of our Founding Technical Infrastructure Partner, who will be formally named here once the partnership agreement is signed and infrastructure transfer is complete. We are actively seeking further partners for research, operations, community programmes, and the Dada Salama app build. Governance ensures no single funder or partner can direct the agenda.
See where partners attach in the system →