On July 13, 2015 Makerere University students were heart-broken on hearing the news of the death of Desire Mirembe, a first-year student of Speech Therapy. The 19-year-old had left her hostel for a Christian fellowship in Jinja, only for her body to turn up in a sugar plantation in Lugazi. Up to now, her friends still wonder who really murdered Mirembe.

These and many other chilling incidents continue to unsettle students at the university. That is until Dan Nkoba, a fourth-year student on the bachelor of Laws programme, decided to find a solution in the software world.

“As Africans, we need to get out of our comfort zones and see how to help ourselves. We can’t keep dying like this,” he says.

“So, Orahi application is here to help resolve the problem.” Nkoba adds that he was motivated by Writivism, an association that brings together passionate writers.

HOW ORAHI WORKS

The web version of the app can be accessed from www.orahi.tech, and the app can be downloaded from Google play store. Orahi is a Runyankore word for where are you?

The app has a feature called Wekume which is used to ensure people’s safety when they are travelling. It shows several providers, including transport, restaurants. 

If one wants to travel to Jinja, one selects approved transport means and service provider. The app unveils the various means and the user chooses one which is registered in the system. The user then sets up five emergency contacts.

In case the user fails to get to the destination in time, the app sends a notice (usually an alarm) to the user to find whether they have arrived. One has to respond accordingly. 

However, if the user fails to respond, the system will send a message to the five emergency contacts at a cost of Shs 300 (deducted from the subscribers’ airtime), indicating that the subscriber was meant to be in a particular destination and has not arrived as scheduled. It is these contacts to call the subscriber or alert emergency agencies such as a police, if the user can not be found. 

The emergency contacts do not have to be subscribers of the app, but once one arrives at a destination, they are advised to update their status to avoid alarming the contacts. 

The app uses googlemaps to locate places, so one can assess the distance covered when travelling to a given place.

ASSEMBLING THE TEAM

Not being from a science background, Nkoba assembled a team of devoted members, some of whom are students, while the rest are graduates. They include Esther Atek, who developed the mathematical formula on which app is based; Joel Mwanja, a computer scientist,  who developed the app; Matts Bahane, a third-year Industrial Art student, who developed the app’s graphics; as well as Lyn Tukei, a second-year student of Journalism and Communication, who works as a public relations officer.

Others are Grace Kitaka, a third-year Civil Engineering student at Makerere University, who manages the accounts created by the users and service providers’ accounts; Haggai Mubanza and Josh Mugabi (who are graduates), 

Apart from Mwanja, who was paid for the initial effort of setting up the app, the rest of the team is operating on a voluntary basis, as they move to update their subscriber and service provider base.

Tukei says she is very happy to be part of this innovation, even though she is not being paid.

“These are talented [app] developers who can put up a system like Orahi, but fewer can match the seamless integration of all our moving parts into one. This isn’t a simple thing, yet free for our customers to use,” Tukei said. 

These server providers will include hotels, events, restaurants, accommodation facilities, cabs, boda boda guy, delivery systems, couriers, banks and ATMs, mobile money agents, and police stations.

CHALLENGES

Nkoba acknowledges that although it is a step in the right direction, the app has its challenges. He admits that his team did not factor in the challenge of a subscriber losing their phone during transit.

He also adds that they are working around using googlemaps more effectively, since it is still not possible for one to locate a phone and the user once the user loses it during transit.

OTHER SERVICES

Nkoba says the app could find other uses as it develops further, especially among businesses looking for a solution for their failures.

“We have a mathematical method that can automatically show the number of customers a service provider has been having, and their comments about the products. This information would be available to all the customers and the service providers,” Nkoba says.

He adds that the app will expand to provide other options.

“If you are too busy, you can just click or tap on hotel services, you will be taken to google map and showed all the restaurants and hotels around you. You can follow those hotels and make your orders [for a meal], and the deliverance will be made at Shs 3,000 as transport fare, anywhere in Kampala.”

Mwanja adds that bringing all services to people’s mobile phones, has always been their target and they are now happy that their dream has come true.

“I believe Orahi is the future of service consolidation, where one gets every service in one application. It is [where the service heads to] other avenues,” Mwanja says.

But just as we are beginning to think, he is converted to the world of software, the lawyer in Nkoba shows up.

“Because we are looking forward to changing the whole perspective of how people look at online platforms, we have to secure all the patents for our mathematical formulas, and any who pirates them, will face the law automatically,” Nkoba says.