Nairobi — The just-concluded General Election was fought using cars, helicopters and electronic applications as well. The results should, therefore, tell us the impact of the use of electronic technology on the voter.

Shortly before Christmas Day, I received a call on my mobile phone from a source that did no reveal the number. A deep but courteous voice greeted me in Swahili: "Jambo?" to which I naturally answered. He went on: "I am Mwai Kibaki. ..." After a few minutes, he concluded, "May God bless you".

Indeed, it was the President asking for my vote personally and before I realised that it was a recorded political campaign message, the thought of the Head of State calling me was quite perplexing. Does he know me? Who gave him my number?

Most people received the same message that was broadcast to numbers which must have been randomly selected by the PNU campaign team.

THE ELECTIONS INTRODUCED AN ingenious use of technology in the campaigns, making it quite different from all others Kenya has had in the past.

In 2002, mobile phones were not as common gadgets as they are today. There were no creative advertisements on radio and TV such as was seen and heard this time round.

Digital technology allows for the compression of graphics-video, audio and text into smaller files which can then be easily manipulated on the computer with amazing results. It means, therefore, that what used to take ages to compose will now be put together in just a few hours.

All media houses have invested in new technologies that help to reduce the time between recording and transmission. When it is not "live" coverage, it is always nearly so.

Most TV stations use satellite transmission such as those mounted on the outside broadcasting (OB) van or smaller devices like BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) which makes it possible for the TV cameraman to record, edit and transmit pictures using broadband internet from remote locations to the studios.

The clips could be dropped into a digital server that is easily accessed by the transmission crew who air it immediately.

Through the OB vans, we were able to watch the campaign rallies live. It was exciting and the viewer was the real winner.

SMS was widely used as well. The mobile phone was used to spread propaganda and also, regrettably, hate messages. The cellphone was also very important to politicians.

You could see ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga's wife sharing new text messages with him as they sat at a public rally.

ODM Kenya's Kalonzo Musyoka, on his part, promised to be the most accessible president, saying that he would give his phone number to Kenyans to call him if he wins.

It was interesting how the media houses collected and disseminated results.

There was competition and the expectations of viewers for election updates were high. Some stations set up databases for election results for a quick analysis and presentation.

Again the mobile phone was crucial in the whole process.

Media houses provided election results via SMSs at a premium rate in addition to the breaking news services they had been offering.

I wondered if someone would be smart enough to build a customised database to be accessed on the same short code numbers.

It would have meant a user querying specific results of a polling station or a constituency. You can imagine the number of hits Lang'ata constituency, which generated immense interest, would have attracted in such a system.

ALTHOUGH IT IS COSTLY TO USE, the mobile phone is creating a big appetite in people for the immediacy of information. Kenyans can hardly settle for anything less than live coverage.

But it is only quite recently that communication allowed all this here-and-now culture to flourish. Things were different in the 1980s and '90s.

In those days, President Daniel arap Moi would occasionally want to talk to someone on phone.

Since there were no mobile phones, the Telkom team would quickly construct a line to the home of that important person who must talk to the President.

Then they would go to Mr Moi and say: "Mzee, we have found him". Most likely the line went "dead" thereafter until next time the President had a word for the person again.

I cannot imagine the frustration Kenyans would have gone through to get results for the hotly contested polls if there were no technologies like the mobile phone.

Or maybe the elections would not have been hot if we did not have the mobile phone?