Haki allows people to look up the Kenyan legal code and call a lawyer in their time of need.
Anyone who has been stopped by the police understands the fear that comes with the interaction. This situation can be all the more stressful if you've done nothing wrong, and without a rule book at your side it can be difficult to defend yourself.
One Kenyan lawyer turned a seemingly random police stop into something positive: a digital legal book that users can call upon in case of emergency. The app, named Haki, is already in its third iteration and provides users with the Kenyan legal code, summaries of laws, and a way to call a lawyer.
Richard Muhereza, the legal mind behind the app, said the idea came to him after one of his own troubling interactions with the police.
He told The Daily Nation in Kenya that he was stopped by two police officers after missing his bus stop and walking under a foot bridge to save time. He politely asked the officers what he had done wrong, and they told him that due to a number of road accidents, people had to walk on the footbridge and were not allowed to cross under it.
"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 told the newspaper.
Just days later, two of his friends were arrested for minor violations that they did not know were rules, and Muhereza decided to take action.
His company, Knownafrique, created an app to teach the public about local regulations and laws that they might not have heard about before. He wrote summaries of laws and crowdsourced helpful instructions from other lawyers and organizations who were eager to help people avoid minor crimes they may be stopped for. The third iteration of the legal helper now transfers you to a lawyer who can answer your questions on the spot. Available in the Google Play store, the app charges users for phone calls with lawyers by the minute.
Since December, the new version of the app has attracted more attention, with 400 downloads and 10 cases where lawyers were used.
"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," Muhereza said, adding that Haki has expanded to seven employees and recently received a grant from HiiL Justice Accelerator, an NGO based at The Hague.
Studies by the NGO have shown that nearly two thirds of all Kenyan adults have been in situations requiring a legal process, and an understanding of the rules on the books is needed to handle the most common disputes, like crime, land, family, employment and disagreements over money.
His hope is to continue expanding and offering more robust legal services to average people. He also wants to take it international, with apps for the legal codes in 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 told the Daily Nation.
"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."
*this article was featured on Download.com on August 8, 2018: https://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/a-legal-advice-app-helps-kenyans-grasp-local-laws/