How a brush with the law led to 'mobile lawyer' app

Four years ago, Richard Muhereza was arrested by police while going about his errands.

Being an advocate, he was going to meet a client. He had boarded a City Hoppa matatu and was to alight near the Department of Defence, area commonly referred to as DOD.

However, the public service vehicle drove past the stage because he was on a phone call and, therefore, had to alight at the next one on Valley road.

No sooner had he alighted from the vehicle and crossed the road under a footbridge, than two policemen pounced on him. He was under arrest.

He politely asked the police officers to explain what he had done and how it amounted to a criminal offense warranting prosecution.

“They came over to tell me I was under arrest and despite being a lawyer, I had no idea or clue that crossing a road under a footbridge is an offense,” said Muhereza.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

According to Muhereza, the officers told him the arrests were meant to avert accidents and force the public to make use of footbridges.

“So I asked them to tell me if their relatives from the village who perhaps come for a visit in the city would know what I did was wrong, why there were no sign posts or public education about it and how sustainable it is for the government to have officers under every footbridge,” he said.

The officers agreed with him that many people do not know that crossing under a footbridge can lead to arrest and prosecution. \

They also admitted that police do not man every footbridge in the country.

He was lucky he did not end up in the cells but was freed and was extremely late for his meeting with his client.

Several days later, two of his friends were arrested in separate incidents and they contacted him for help as a lawyer.

One was arrested at Junction for smoking in a no-smoking zone while waiting to board a taxi, while the other was caught cycling without a reflector.

With these experiences, it is then that the thought of doing something to educate the public about existing laws as well as helping the common mwananchi in accessing justice came to his mind.

MOBILE LAWYER

Passionate about public interest litigation, he came up with an application to sensitise people about existing Kenyan laws using mobile phone technology through his company, Knownafrique.

The first version of the mobile app contained summaries of laws which he sent to friends and organisations before upgrading it to a website.

The current version of the app, which was launched last year and is the third version, is in the form of what he terms as a mobile lawyer called Haki.

It automatically links anyone in need of a lawyer to one at low cost just by logging into it using a phone.

The app enables the public to have the chance to get advice from several lawyers at a cheaper cost.

The app can be downloaded from Google’s play store. A user is charged per minute.

Even though the rates for making the phone calls vary, Mr Muhereza says the app sets the limits so as to bar lawyers from fixing their own prices.

A user only needs to have airtime to get connected via the app to a lawyer.

“Lawyers in our app are to give information, they are not selfish, which is a niche for us because the callers are paying to make such calls,” he says.

Being the founder and Chief Executive of Knownafrique and Haki, he started the project alone but is currently working with a team of seven to set up a hub as well as a law practice at their offices based on Nairobi’s Ngong road.

Since the launch of the current version of the app in December 2017, Haki had over 400 downloads and at least 10 cases.

GRANT

The app last year won a grant from a non-governmental group based in The Hague known as HiiL Justice Accelerator.

This year, he was listed among winners for the Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurs award from Kenya.

He hopes to creates job opportunities for fresh law school graduates and expand beyond the Kenyan borders to other African countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt and Ghana.

“For the things that can be done on phone, we believe they should be. Anyone owning or having access to a smartphone can simply find a lawyer using the mobile application the same way taxi hailing Apps like Uber work,” he explained.

He added: “people don’t have to worry about unclear fees as they will know beforehand, how much they are likely to pay and in fact they will choose how much money to spend based on a preferred time slot.”

Mr Muhereza’s initiative comes against a backdrop of a recommendation by a research conducted by HiiL innovating Justice and the Kenyan Judiciary in 2017, which indicated that promotion of innovation in the justice sector is one way to foster easy access to solving disputes using the formal channels.

LEGAL PROBLEMS

In a research dubbed Justice Needs and Satisfaction in Kenya, it was noted that between 17.2 and 17.9 million Kenyan citizens have experienced one or more legal problems in the past four years.

The research report showed that every two out of three adults have experienced situations in which an accessible, affordable and fair justice process is needed.

It further revealed that crime, land, family, employment and disagreements over money are the most frequent legal problems. But, formal adjudication is perceived as costly and stressful.

From the report, growing middle class and urban population, rapid economic and technological changes plus the fact that Kenyans are increasingly more aware of their rights and entitlements.

These are considered as some of the factors that define the trend of cases spilling over to the courts.

About 6,000 randomly selected individuals from 28 counties across the country were interviewed for the research.

EXTREME STRESS

The most outstanding finding about it was that a majority of Kenyans report extreme stress or mental health problems, losses of time, income and problems with relationships as a result of encountering a justice problem.

Men report more loss of time and income than women, while women report more stress and problems with relationships than men.

According to Mr Muhereza, his team wants to help people make informed choices when it comes to finding lawyers.