Machakos Girl Develops App To Curb Insecurity In Estates

Five high school girls have developed an application that could help tame insecurity in residential estates. After two years of intensive research, students from Misyani Girls High School, Machakos County, have finally completed the app intended to digitise crime reporting. The app works by detecting strangers then relaying their identities to police and relies heavily on data from the database at the Government’s registration bureau.
 

According to Rachel Ngeneke, Student Team Leader of the programme dubbed Digigirlz, the app’s underlying logic is that each estate has a manager who has a database of its tenants. Digigirlz is a Microsoft Youth Spark programme which educates young women in science, technology, engineering and math, to enable them participate in global economic growth. “To use this app, the entrance gate should have a CCTV camera and a biometric system that captures the eye’s iris,” Ngeneke says adding that the cameras are night sensitive and can work both day and night.

The programme is being spearheaded by I Choose Life Africa (ICL), a local NGO, in partnership with Microsoft. “When non-registered foreigners visit the premises, their irises are captured then verified with the Government database to first establish whether they are in the country legally or have been cleared by the authorities. If they are not cleared, the system – connected to a police hotline, automatically signals the police by sending a text message,” she said. If the person is Kenyan, the estate manager contacts the home owner or tenant being visited for clarification of the visit.

According to John Mutisya, a teacher overseeing the app development, if the visit is approved, the system connects to the mobile phones of the 10 neighbours and sends a text message that a certain house has been visited by an unusual visitor. “The Government is currently looking at the Nyumba Kumi initiative to tackle insecurity and if this app is adopted, it could boost such efforts,” he said. According to ICL CEO, Mike Mutungi, the app offers learning lessons for young women who would wish to take up tech courses in universities. “This is critical in enabling them (women) to position themselves to take advantage of existing opportunities that are currently dominated by their male counterparts,” he said. The security app runs on Android, IOS and Windows phones and also hopes to, in future, incorporate metal and explosive detectors
 
Read more at: Standard