App Helps Kenyans with Emergencies

NAIROBI - As crime rates in Kenya shot up during the coronavirus pandemic, a Kenyan developer who was a crime victim himself created a mobile application to help people alert police about emergencies. The application has been so successful that Kenya’s police force has adopted it.

At Kenya’s national police command and control center, officers are monitoring the movement of the public. While the technology helps in catching suspected criminals, the increase of crime during the pandemic is overwhelming this technology. But a mobile application created by a Kenyan developer Vincent Awino is helping to meet this challenge. Called “Upesy,” meaning “quick” in Swahili, Awino’s mobile app enables crime victims to raise alerts to police or security firms. “It’s on your phone, meaning it’s mobile,” Awino said. “The response comes to you anywhere you are. It’s not fixed because we have a large network of providers. All the user needs to do is go on the phone and trigger an alert or click the phone’s power button at least four times in order to get an emergency.”