Group develops mobile app that could help track Kenyans intelligence lapses

The Staff of Optimax Solutions and Consultancy Limited from left Jeremiah Ndirangu, Christopher Ng'ng'a, Gibson Njagi, Solomon Ndichu and Gichuhi Ndirangu at the I$M building. PHOTO: GOVEDI ASUTSA/STANDARD

NAIROBI: President Uhuru Kenyatta and his top security officials will remember the day they told Kenyans that "security begins with you".

That is because five men in Nairobi have designed a software to be used to report crime and expose the inaction within the rank and file of the police and intelligence command.

If adopted, the mobile application will allow Kenyans, wherever they are, to anonymously file reports about accidents, crime, corruption and anything, which needs the attention of authorities through their smartphones.

The application named 'Najua' (I know) is meant to allow the public expose criminals in the neighbourhood, without receiving any backlash.

Once the message is sent, it will be directed to specific police stations and to the handsets of the officers in charge, and in case something happens, then those in authority will have the administrative ammunition to hold the officers to account; either for inaction or for wrong decisions.

"We are tired of the blame games. Every time people are killed, you hear that there was intelligence but someone did not act. It happened at Westgate, in Mpeketoni and now in Garissa. Nobody ever tells you who the weak link in the chain of command is," said Gichuhi Ndirangu, the leader of the techno-savvy group aged between 27 and 36 years.

They regard the application as a cheaper option for a Government that has been talking about a Sh15 billion surveillance project, without actually stopping the terrorist attacks and general crime in the city.

SECURITY LAPSES

They five are aware that the cameras can't cover the whole country; and that the police hotline has no accountability. "Once you report, do you know what happens?" asked Mr Ndirangu.

The news of the application comes just days after the President made changes to the top military command where Gen Julius Karangi is set to retire at the end of this month with Samson Mwathethe replacing him as the military chief.

It also comes hot on the heels of a legislative threat from Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung'wa who wants to file a motion to censure Garissa police bosses for "negligence and abetting terrorism and murder".

House Committee on National Security Vice Chairman Alois Lentoimaga has been pushing for the top police brass in Garissa County to be hauled to court and charged.

The officers are accused that when the April 2 terrorist attack happened at Garissa University College, they were aware of the alerts of a possible attack at the university, to the extent that even the principal of the college, Ahmed Warfa, had asked for additional policemen, but there was no action.

Now the app will allow people to report tips anonymously and put the public in the know of the tips.

"If you walk into any police station to report anyone, there's a possibility that the criminal will come for you. The police will confront the criminal and say so-and-so has accused you of this and that. The criminal can then come back and even kill you. That is why we want the whole thing done quietly," said Ndirangu, who led the team to the Standard Group offices in Nairobi.

However, with such an application, the potential for people to issue false alerts will increase and may subject the policemen and other security agencies to a wild-goose chase.

But Ndirangu and his colleague Gibson Njagi said the public will "give tips" and that "it is upon the professionals to see what they can do with the information to keep the public safe."

NON-SELECTIVE SAMPLING

"When you are collecting intelligence, you get all sorts of data: true and false, threatening and non-threatening, but it is upon the disciplined professional officers to analyse and verify and act," said Ndirangu.

What about punishment for false alarm? Well, to them, nobody knows; but if a person is arrested and it turns out that the tip was a lie, then there's a way they can track back the message and decide the appropriate action to take. It is the one chink in their technological armour against crime and terror.

Mr Njagi added that the way the system – the mobile app is now on android platform – works is that people will download it to their phones; then they will send the tips to the mobile phones of the police station and police boss in the nearest scene of crime.

They said if the President decides to take the application to try it as part of the Nyumba Kumi initiative, then he will have access to a web portal to help track the state of national security.

"We will make it in such a way that if any person in authority wants to see what concerns them, then they can just log into the portal and see," said Ndirangu.

The five want the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, the National Police Service Commission, the National Intelligence Service and State House to have access.

"It is the only way the big people will know about corrupt officers, incompetent superiors and the liars within the force!" added Njagi.

Can it work? They believe it can. And for a police force that has resisted reforms, the application might just be one way to help reforms come in faster, or perhaps, just another of those optimistic youth initiatives that rarely impress the Government bureaucracy.