Gombea Terms of Use
Welcome to Gombea.
These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of the Gombea website, applications, services and related features.
By accessing or using Gombea, you agree to these Terms.
If you do not agree with them, please do not use the service.
1. About Gombea
Gombea is an independent information aggregation platform designed to make publicly available information about Kenya's political representation, elections, public institutions and related matters easier to discover, understand and explore.
Gombea is not a government service.
Unless expressly stated otherwise, Gombea is not affiliated with, operated by, sponsored by or endorsed by:
- the Government of Kenya
- any county government
- Parliament
- any electoral authority
- any political party
- any politician
- any candidate
- any campaign
- any public institution
The appearance of a person, organisation, political party or public institution on Gombea does not indicate endorsement of Gombea.
Similarly, Gombea's inclusion of information about a person or organisation does not constitute an endorsement of that person or organisation.
2. What Gombea Does
Gombea collects, organises, connects and presents information obtained from publicly accessible sources.
This may include information concerning:
- elected representatives
- public officials
- political parties
- electoral areas
- candidates
- elections
- parliamentary activity
- professional and educational backgrounds
- public institutions
- news coverage
- political composition
- public records
- historical political information
Gombea may use maps, charts, statistics, summaries, classifications and other tools to make this information easier to explore.
3. Gombea Is Not an Official Record
Gombea should not be treated as an official government, parliamentary, electoral or legal record.
Where an authoritative answer is required, you should consult the relevant official institution or original source.
Gombea may provide links or references to original sources where available.
4. Information May Change
Political and public information changes frequently.
Examples include:
- elections
- by-elections
- resignations
- deaths
- court decisions
- appointments
- dismissals
- changes of political affiliation
- boundary changes
- changes to public offices
- changes to candidate status
Official sources themselves may sometimes be incomplete, inconsistent or slow to update.
Although Gombea aims to provide useful and current information, we cannot guarantee that every record will always be complete, current or error-free.
Where possible, Gombea may display information about a record's source, verification status or last review date.
5. Report Incorrect Information
Gombea may allow users to report information they believe is incorrect, incomplete or outdated.
Submitting a report does not automatically change the information displayed.
Reports may be reviewed against sources such as:
- official government records
- Parliament
- electoral authorities
- government publications
- gazettes
- county institutions
- credible public reporting
- other appropriate sources
Gombea retains editorial control over whether and how information is corrected.
Submitting multiple reports does not determine whether information is true.
6. Political Neutrality
Gombea does not tell users:
- which political party to support
- which candidate to support
- how to vote
- which political position to adopt
Political information, statistics and visualisations are provided to help users explore available information.
The presence, ordering or visual representation of political information should not be interpreted as political endorsement unless explicitly identified as paid advertising or sponsored content.
7. Maps and Political Boundaries
Gombea may display geographic and electoral boundaries including:
- counties
- constituencies
- wards
- other administrative areas
Map information is provided for informational and navigational purposes.
Boundaries displayed within Gombea may be simplified for visualisation or based on available geographic datasets.
Where precise or legally authoritative boundaries are required, users should consult the relevant official authority.
8. Political Composition and Statistics
Gombea may calculate statistics concerning political representation.
Examples may include:
- party representation
- gender composition
- age ranges
- professional backgrounds
- education
- incumbency
- election margins
- candidate composition
The meaning of a statistic depends on the underlying dataset.
For example:
Share of elected offices held by a political party is not the same as that party's share of the popular vote.
Gombea aims to clearly identify what a statistic represents.
Users should not interpret representation statistics as opinion polling or voter-intention data unless explicitly identified as such.
9. Automated Analysis and AI
Gombea may use automated systems or artificial intelligence to help organise and present information.
Examples may include:
- news summaries
- topic classification
- professional-background classification
- education classification
- sentiment analysis
- entity matching
- statistical summaries
- generated explanations
Automated systems can make mistakes.
AI-generated or automatically classified information should not be treated as an original source.
Where appropriate, Gombea may provide access to the underlying source material.
Users can report suspected inaccuracies.
10. Sentiment
Gombea may provide sentiment or similar analytical indicators derived from publicly available information.
Sentiment analysis is inherently approximate.
It may reflect automated analysis of available material and should not be interpreted as:
- an opinion poll
- election prediction
- public approval rating
- statement of fact
- Gombea's opinion of a representative
The methodology used for significant analytical features may be explained separately.
11. News and External Content
Gombea may display or link to content published by third parties, including news organisations.
Gombea does not necessarily own or control third-party content.
A link, headline, summary or reference to external content does not mean that Gombea endorses:
- the publisher
- the article
- the political position expressed
- the accuracy of every statement within it
Users should consult the original publisher for the complete content.
External websites operate under their own terms and privacy policies.
12. Political Parties and Branding
Gombea may display:
- political-party names
- abbreviations
- logos
- symbols
- colours
- candidate information
These are used for identification and informational purposes.
Their appearance within Gombea does not imply sponsorship, partnership or endorsement unless explicitly stated.
13. Accounts
Some Gombea features may require an account.
When creating an account, you agree to provide information that is reasonably accurate and not deliberately misleading.
You are responsible for:
- protecting your password
- maintaining the security of your account
- activity performed through your account
- notifying us if you believe your account has been compromised
You must not impersonate another person or organisation.
14. Public Profiles
Gombea may allow users to create public profiles.
Information deliberately published to a public profile may be visible to other users and potentially to people who do not have a Gombea account.
You are responsible for information you choose to publish.
Do not publish:
- another person's private information without permission
- passwords
- identification documents
- financial information
- precise private addresses
- sensitive personal information that should not be public
Gombea may remove profile information that violates these Terms or applicable law.
15. User Content
Gombea may allow users to submit information such as:
- profile information
- correction reports
- feedback
- comments or contributions
- source links
You remain responsible for content you submit.
By submitting content intended for publication or use within Gombea, you grant Gombea a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, process and display that content as reasonably necessary to operate the service.
This licence does not transfer ownership of your content to Gombea.
16. Community Contributions
Community participation can help Gombea identify outdated or incorrect information.
However, users must not deliberately submit:
- false information
- fabricated evidence
- defamatory allegations
- impersonation
- manipulated documents
- spam
- harassment
- threats
- private personal information
- coordinated false reporting
Gombea may restrict accounts or submissions where abuse is detected.
17. Prohibited Uses
You must not use Gombea to:
- violate applicable law
- harass or threaten another person
- impersonate another person
- publish private personal information without lawful justification
- compromise another user's account
- attempt unauthorised access to Gombea systems
- interfere with Gombea's operation
- distribute malware
- circumvent security controls
- manipulate community-reporting systems
- submit knowingly false information
- use automated systems in a manner that materially degrades the service
- falsely claim affiliation with Gombea
- use Gombea branding to misrepresent political endorsement
18. Automated Access
Reasonable indexing by legitimate search engines may be permitted.
Other automated access, including large-scale scraping, crawling or systematic extraction, may be restricted where it:
- materially affects service performance
- circumvents technical controls
- violates third-party rights
- collects user information
- creates an unauthorised competing dataset from Gombea's proprietary work
- violates these Terms or applicable law
Gombea may provide official APIs or downloadable datasets in the future.
Where such services exist, their separate usage terms may apply.
19. Public Source Data and Gombea Content
Some information presented through Gombea originates from public sources and may not be owned by Gombea.
However, Gombea may own or have rights in elements such as:
- software
- interface design
- original graphics
- Gombea branding
- database organisation
- original written content
- original classifications
- original summaries
- analytical methodologies
- proprietary datasets created through substantial processing
The fact that underlying information is public does not necessarily mean every Gombea-created presentation, compilation or asset may be copied without restriction.
20. Intellectual Property
The Gombea name, logo, visual identity, application design, software and original content are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.
Unless expressly permitted, you may not use Gombea branding in a way that suggests:
- partnership
- endorsement
- political affiliation
- government affiliation
- sponsorship
Fair reference to Gombea for commentary, reporting or attribution is not prohibited by this section.
21. Advertising
Gombea may display advertising.
Advertisements should be distinguishable from Gombea's independent informational content.
An advertisement appearing on Gombea does not necessarily mean Gombea endorses the advertiser, product, service or political position involved.
Additional restrictions may apply to political advertising.
Gombea may establish separate advertising standards governing what advertising is accepted.
22. Sponsored Content
If Gombea introduces sponsored content, it should be clearly identified as sponsored or paid content.
Payment should not secretly determine:
- factual political records
- representative verification status
- political-composition statistics
- election results
- source information
Editorial information and paid promotion should remain distinguishable.
23. No Professional Advice
Information provided through Gombea is for general informational purposes.
It is not:
- legal advice
- financial advice
- electoral advice
- professional advice
- an official government communication
Users should obtain appropriate professional or official advice where necessary.
24. Availability
We aim to keep Gombea available and reliable, but continuous availability cannot be guaranteed.
The service may occasionally be unavailable because of:
- maintenance
- technical problems
- infrastructure failures
- security incidents
- third-party service failures
- circumstances beyond our reasonable control
Features may also change as Gombea develops.
25. Changes to Gombea
We may:
- introduce features
- modify features
- remove features
- change data sources
- change visualisations
- alter account functionality
We will try to avoid unnecessarily disrupting users.
26. Account Suspension and Termination
Gombea may suspend or terminate accounts where reasonably necessary because of:
- serious or repeated violations of these Terms
- security concerns
- fraud
- abuse
- legal requirements
- attempts to interfere with the service
Where appropriate and practical, users may be given notice or an opportunity to appeal.
Users may also delete their own account subject to the processes described in our Privacy Policy.
27. Third-Party Services
Gombea may rely on third-party services for:
- maps
- infrastructure
- analytics
- advertising
- authentication
- communications
- content
- external links
Gombea is not responsible for third-party services outside our reasonable control.
Their own terms and privacy policies may apply.
28. Disclaimer of Warranties
To the extent permitted by applicable law, Gombea is provided on an "as available" basis.
We aim to provide accurate and useful information but do not guarantee that:
- every record is complete
- every record is current
- every source is error-free
- automated classifications are always correct
- the service will always be uninterrupted
- every external link will remain available
Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or warranties that cannot lawfully be excluded.
29. Limitation of Liability
To the extent permitted by applicable law, Gombea and its operator will not be liable for indirect, incidental or consequential losses arising solely from reliance on information provided through the service.
Users should verify information with authoritative sources where decisions require official, legal or otherwise definitive information.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability where doing so would be unlawful.
30. Indemnity
To the extent permitted by applicable law, you may be responsible for losses reasonably arising from your unlawful use of Gombea, serious violation of these Terms or infringement of another person's rights.
This provision does not limit any consumer rights that cannot legally be limited.
31. Privacy
Your use of Gombea is also governed by our:
These documents explain how personal information and tracking technologies are handled.
32. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms as Gombea develops or legal requirements change.
The latest version will display its last-updated date.
If a change materially affects registered users' rights, we may provide additional notice where appropriate.
Continued use after updated Terms take effect constitutes acceptance where permitted by law.
33. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of Kenya, subject to any mandatory consumer or data-protection rights that may apply to users in other jurisdictions.
Disputes will be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts of Kenya unless applicable law provides otherwise.
34. Contact
Questions concerning these Terms can be directed to:
Gombea
Email: [email protected]
Independent Platform Notice
Gombea is an independent information aggregation platform.
Gombea is not affiliated with, operated by, sponsored by or endorsed by the Government of Kenya, any county government, Parliament, electoral authority, political party, politician, candidate, campaign or other public institution unless a specific relationship is expressly stated.
We aggregate the information. You explore the picture.