Sci-fi dream that paid off big time for innovative students

When news trickled in last week that a group of students from Strathmore University had won a continental award for innovation, we expected the inveterate image of unkempt fellows in dirty jeans.

What we encountered, however, was a quartet of smartly dressed young men still marvelling at the fact that they had just scooped Sh600,000 in prize money as runners-up in a US Department of State’s software competition.

Their innovation? A calculator targeted at the rural farmer.

Elisha Bwatuti, a Second Year Bachelor of Science in Informatics student, oozed confidence as he explained the concept behind Mkulima Calculator (M-Calc), which he said would change the way farming is been done in this country and beyond if applied well.

“I was having a shower last year when the idea came to me in a flash,” he recalled.

“I shot from the bathroom and rushed to my roommate, Harris Dindi, who listened keenly as I narrated what by then sounded more like a sci-fi script than a farming concept for rural Kenya”.

The M-Calc is a mobile application designed to help farmers access information on weather patterns and soil types in their area.

The idea for its development came at a time when the northern parts of the country were going through a devastating famine.

Stirred to action by the depressing photographs of millions of starving Kenyans that were splashed across the world during the ravaging famine and nudged on by a burning passion for information technology (IT), the duo, in partnership with other friends, set out on a mission to actualise the M-Calc dream.

“While still trying to find our way around the idea of M-Calc, a software competition called Garage 48, in which one is required to create an application from scratch in 48 hours, happened on the scene,” said Bwatuti inside the noisy and expansive Student Centre at Strathmore, the venue of our meeting with the young techie.

“Garage 48 gave us a goal and a purpose. It gave us a platform on which we could direct our energies.”

With Garage 48 behind them, they pooled their collective might and started working on the M-Calc.

The group had by then grown from just the two roommates to four, with Abdalah Salumu and Andrew Paul Abuoga chipping in with their mastery of digital technology.

After months of tests and re-tests, the four felt that they had created a game-changing application and enrolled it for the US Department of State-sponsored Apps4Africa competition.

Last week, they emerged third in the global competition and are now Sh600,000 richer.

“The money will be sent to us through the university and we intend to use it to enhance the M-Calc,” says Bwatuti, a Mang’u High School old boy who would have been a musician had he followed his childhood dream.

“Some of it will also be used for marketing campaigns.”

The M-Calc uses a mobile phone platform to send information on weather patterns, soil types, and other information to farmers, hence helping them to make informed decisions on what and when to plant.