Founder Stories: 5 Innovators Revolutionizing Justice Innovation in East Africa
In February this year, We kicked off the official Innovating Justice Challenge campaign in East Africa, West Africa, Middle East and the North African region. Of all the 64 applications we had in the East AFrican region, 4startups in Kenya and 2 in Rwanda emerged winners and were chosen to participate in the HiiL Justice Accelerator programme. We’re excited to finally introduce them!
Nyumbani Online
Sammy Mwirotsi’s vision for Nyumbani Online was born when he got into a squabble with his landlord over whether his rent had been paid. He wasn’t able to get the payment details as he had no receipt method. Luckily for him, there was a witness who helped sort out the matter. Later, he also noticed that a number of other tenants had the same problem. Hence, Nyumbani Online was conceptualized to help resolve this issue.
Nyumbani is a comprehensive rental property management system that provides complete control rental spaces to owner and property managers. Conceptualized in 2021, the company offers a cloud-based platform whose features include dashboard reporting, invoicing, technical support, payment integration, and digitization, providing property owners with complete control of rental spaces with increased effectiveness and efficiency.
SILQU
Bramwell, Kipskoskei has been in real estate for close to 10 years now as a property consultant and adviser. His main task was to advise what a good investment was and give reasons for his clients to invest in it. However, the clients faced numerous challenges after investing in rental businesses that included management, conflict resolution(tenant-landlord), Fraud in terms of rent payments and lack of transparency in the whole process. The solutions that were in the market addressed a few of these challenges but presented other bigger challenges in terms of cost, reliability, accessibility and effectiveness. It is due to these various obstacles in real estate that led Bramwell to start Silqu.
SILQU is a technological platform that focuses on Real Estate. The first of its kind, the company aims to provide end to end practical solutions for all real estate needs by automating all rent payments, invoices and communication. Additionally, it has an inbuilt payment gateway and billing manager that is fraud proof, Real time and can be accessed anywhere anytime. It is also priced in such a way that it offers the most affordable solution compared to other Offshelve softwares and offline DIY or management solutions. SILQU has built capacity in key real estate functions critical in ensuring delivery of professional services and solutions to any emerging real estate challenges.
Legal Tech Kenya
Nelson Nkari firmly believes that digital transformation will fundamentally change the way we address legal and justice needs. He founded his startup to create new markets and value networks for legal service providers and their clients by embracing digital transformation.
Legal Tech Kenya is Kenya’s first legal work platform. The startup modernises legal practice through technology by providing consulting and technical services for individual legal practitioners, institutional legal departments, and law firms. The team, composed of professionals with multidisciplinary expertise in both law and technology, delivers software that guarantees the best of legal and software practice standards. Founded in 2020, Legal Tech Kenya solves the need for disruptive innovations in the legal sector.
Mama Fua
For Stephine, his journey has been quite inspiring, having lost his mother at an early age to domestic abuse, as she was dependent on the head of the family alongside the rest of the family. His startup journey is dedicated to all the women that fall short of the economic curve in various social spaces.
Mama Fua is an online platform in the laundry and dry cleaning business that offers cleaning services to clients, using the latest technology. Once a client books through the website, the Mama Fua team is able to estimate the laundry basket, clean the laundry and the client pays thereafter. The startup is headed by Steve Ngutah and was launched in November, 2021 out of mere frustration that came with the troubling access to freelance housekeepers in Kenya, not forgetting the low quality of services received.
E-Arbitrator
Are you in need of mediation services? E-Arbitrator is for you! This startup is an online Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) platform where individuals, businesses, and organisations can find an arbitrator, submit their case, and have their disputes resolved all online. E-Arbitrator focuses on serving businesses engaged in cross-border trade and that have dispute issues arising from this trade.
E-Arbitrator was started in 2021 by Angelo Kweri, who has had the misfortune of going through the traditional court system in the past. “The process was long, expensive and so opaque, it felt like the odds were against me and the system was designed to wear one down, and instead of seeking justice, I just couldn’t wait for the process to end.
XanaHealth
Meet XanaHealth, a medical technology company launched in 2019 that digitizes health facilities in Rwanda. The company’s platform specialises in the digital collection of medical records and invoices and provides digital prescriptions to pharmacies, enabling patients to receive frictionless insurance claims.
Angelo Igitego started the startup as a way of solving the problem of data management in hospitals, after having personally had a negative experience as a patient.