iKatiba a Crowd Sourced Mobile App

Its been quite a while since i have written anything on Whive, but we have been busy working on a slew of applications all scheduled to be released on Alpha by the end of the year .

Our first and perhaps most important App is the iKatiba Mobile Application which we released on beta about 2 months ago. We currently have almost 800 users who have registered for it.  We are currently Crowd Sourcing its multi-lingual development and adding a few more features including Payments Gateway before we release it on Alpha later this year. iKatiba/Whive.mobi has also had a lot of local and international press for its use in civic education for the just concluded Referendum in Kenya. We will have a report on this soon.

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Our second application is our SMS Facebook Application facebook.whive.com which we have been beta testing in the first 2 weeks of August, we say many thanks to the 193 Users who have helped us iron out the bugs.  We are currently looking for sponsors to sponsor(click here) the application ahead of its showcase at Maker Faire Africa 2010.

FREE SMS http://facebook.Whive.com

Our third application has been in the brewing from 2008 when we acquired PostKenya.com complete with its 3300 users. In this regard we have also had to upgrade our servers to ensure we deliver an effective lite email service that will also be available on iKatiba and Whive.mobi. We are currently Beta testing the service at http://WhiveMAIL.com.

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Find Love Here

NiHuyu.com is the fourth Web App that we are about to fully release. This will eventually be a paid service that allows our members to source from the crowd suitable friends and that special mate. This product has actually been one of our oldest products as those who have been with us from the start will remember that Whive was at one time a Valentines gift service.

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PesaPay Payment Gateway Download

Our last Application is our Stand Alone payment gateway PesaPay which we will be fully crowd sourced and FREE to Download. We intend to give our platform away for free so that Kenyan Developers and SME’s can support epayments as well as mpayments without going through any third party. Whive will also be providing Market Data from our Whiver.com API to PesaPay users to enable them make sense of Kenyan markets.

The Whive Cloud is now averaging 1.2 million hits a month with a 20% increase in traffic each month. We would like to thank our team, members, fans and sponsors who are responsible for this modest progress.

Special thanks to incubators such as the *iHub_, Tandaa and naiLab who have so far provided an excellent forum  for our and other ideas to Crowd analyzed and tested. We have also opened our Micro Data Center dubbed ^bHive¬

Join me John Karanja at the Maendeleo Speaker Series at Nairobi Baptist on 25th August 2010 where i will be giving a speech on Social Media for Business.

Join the Whive Team at Maker Faire on 27th/28th at Nairobi University.

Social Media Day

Social Media Day Nairobi was held at the iHub on 30th June 2010 and sponsored by Mashable.

Here is the coverage of the day.

• http://www.whive.com/ is @ Social Media Day sponsored by @mashable will be covering the event here on this channels #whive#smdaynairobi
• social media day begins with introduction on what is social media by Joe #whive #smdaynairobi
• Panelist introduce themselves Kachwanya, Marten Schoonman, Tirus and Odssey #whive #smdaynairobi
• Joe talks about old social media youtube,myspace,yahoo and Postcards lol #whive #smdaynairobi
• Kachwanya talks about SMS, Social Networks #iborian #whivebeing important evolutions of social media in Kenya #whive#smdaynairobi
• Kachwanya also mentions blogs and mobile apps as future communication tools for Kenyans. #whive #smdaynairobi
• Marten Schoonman 4rm Media Focus 4 Africa has a great Chronology Social Media 4 Africa I feel like a boy inside a candy shop @ #smdaynairobi
• Its interesting how Kachwanya’s Apps presentation syncs with Martens localization he is talking about use of sheng in media#smdaynairobi
• Marten elaborates on impact of Facebook in informal settlements in Kenya #whive #smdaynairobi
• How can Social Media change Kenya? Marten’s parting question…#whive #smdaynairobi
• Tirus steps up to talk about security in social media mmmhhh#whive #smdaynairobi
• Tirus opens the pandoras box of FaceBook privacy, i take dis opportunity 2 say no such problems on #whive #smdaynairobi
• “The CIA runs Facebook and is tagging all our photos” Says Tirus Shucks thats like 200 Tags 4 me  #whive #smdaynairobi
• Tirus presentation is truly scary :{ FB is like Hotel California once u check in there is no checking out. #whive #smdaynairobi
• Oddsey organizer of this #mashable event continues on the data privacy theme albeit less scary #whive #smdaynairob
• Odyssee drifts into consumer issues and social responsibility with social media. Great!!! #whive #smdaynairobi
• This is the first time i hearing of Social Media Rights from Odyssee will this be the next issue of our age #mashable #whive#smdaynairobi
• Concluding Odyssee says we(Africa) should own our own social media for our own needs and privacy and security. #mashable#smdaynairobi
• Open Forum begins @ iHub on Social Media Day. Thats a wrap from me. Take Care.Notes at http://www.whive.com #mashable#whive #smdaynairob
• Thought it was a wrap but Jessica of iHub is giving a summary on what has been talked about. #mashable#whive #smdaynairobi

Tech Community at iHub

The Kenyan Government back in 2008 introduced a 40% local content rule for Kenyan Television Stations and the result has been a rapid growth of local programming that has seen  fairly rejuvinated local production companies emerge.

What has surprised many is that the Stations which had previously protested the move are now tripping over each other to secure lucrative deals with Kenyan Production Companies.

Much thanks has to go to Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo who has been at the forefront of ensuring that these policies are implemented.

Now if he can re-enforce a similar rule for Kenyan Telco’s he will be able to witness a similar but more rapid revolution in the development of Kenyan oriented  solutions made in part(40%) by Kenyans.

This is even more critical considering Telco’s are a huge chunk of Kenya’s economy generating almost 1 Billion Dollars in revenues and expenditure each year.

Why should this money go outside the country.  If 40% – $400 million remained in the Kenyan economy  the planned Malili Technopolis would undoubtedly materialize over the next 15 years.

But instead we have big monopolies that have virtually conned almost every Techprenuer i know. This has had the most unfortunate effect of driving this techies underground.

Many argue that Kenyan techies are not good enough to be awarded contracts. Even if this were true the only way to develop the necessary skill sets is through exposure.

Thankfully government is also providing alternative investments in this sphere (See ICT.GO.KE) but to ensure that the big boys of the private sector are reined in more needs to be done.

What are your thoughts?

iPhone Magic Wand

The other day i was sitting at home waiting eagerly for a World Cup game, i happened to be scrolling the channels and decided to listen in on a Parliamentary session on Health Care in remote parts of Kenya.

In this case the MP from Samburu North stood up to demand from the Minister of Medical Services why they had not built a District Hospital in his constituency after having promised to do so way back in 2004.

In his response the Minister said that he needed to have around 750 million to 1 billion Kenya Shillings to build the Hostipal and therefore because treasury had only given him like 16 billion for this year that hospital would never get built.

Being a Sociologist as well as a Techie I immediately wanted to stand up on a point of order and if i was in parliament this is what I would have said.

Me: Mr speaker Sir! I would like to inform the Minister of Medical Services that with 1 billion shillings you would solve about 70% of all medical problems in this country.

The response would probably have been something like this…

Minister: Is it in order that the Honourable MP of Kariamandu should mislead the house that he can solve almost all medical problems in this country with 1 billion shillings. Is he some sort of a Magician??? (MURMURS  &  SOME LAUGHTER)

Speaker: Orderrrr, Honourable Mp please clarify what you said or I will have to find you out of order and recommend that you visit the nearest Hospital as soon as possible. (HOUSE LAUGHTER)

Me: Yeee… Yes Mr Speaker sir, i wish to clarify my statement with a brief statement… allow me 10 minutes to do so .

Speaker: (THINKING)mmmh If at the end of this ten minutes i feel stupider i will rule you out of order and request that you come back with a written letter from a Psychiatrist before we let you back in the house. (HOUSE LAUGHTER) PROCEEEEED!!!

Me: Thank you Sir, Mr speaker Sir i believe that you have a mobile phone perhaps even now in your pocket. As you are probably aware the mobile phone today has allowed Kenyans to communicate with each other and even for some allowed them to keep money in some form of virtual account that they can easily access and transact business with. As you will appreciate this has opened up the economy in ways that we could have only dreamed of 10 years ago…

Speaker: I am all ears, go on…

Me: Mr Speaker today i want to talk about opening up not just the economy but also social aspects of our people and in particular health.
In this regard i would like to inform the Honourable from Samburu North that the hospital he is asking for will probably never be built at least not in his lifetime.

MP for Samburu North: Point of order!!!Mr speaker point of order…

Speaker: Order!!! Mp for Samburu…

MP for S N: Is it in order for the MP of Kariamandu to condemn my people to death in this manner…

Speaker: (NODS IN MY DIRECTION)

Me: Mr speaker sir i am mearly illustrating the point that if we are to build 254 district hospitals in Kenya and it takes 3 years to even get 1 project approved, we would require trillions of Shillings which we don’t have and many decades to complete them, as such many of us may not live to see hospitals in our constituencies.

You see Mr speaker the good news is today we have the technology to meet the health needs of our people by bypassing the huge cost of setting up huge physical structures.

I am only suggesting that we make use of fairly sophisticated but much cheaper mobile technologies and focus on offering services when and wherever they are needed.

I will give you one example. I have in my pocket the new iPhone 4G which i have just bought from my recent trip to London.

Speaker: Mp, If i thought that your presentation would involve you boastfully flashing your new phone in the house i would have come with mine… (HOUSE LAUGHTER)

Me: Indulge me Mr speaker you have already gone so far…

Speaker: Consider yourself indulged… Proceed!

Me: Thank you…You see more than any other device (ever invented) this device can be used to solve real world problems in real time . I will give you one critical Kenyan based example.

Imagine you are a surgeon or doctor stuck somewhere in Samburu North where there is no electricity, no hospital, no nothing but you happen to have your Surgeon’s kit with you and a critically ill individual complaining of unimaginable pain somewhere in his belly.

Speaker: Imagining… (HOUSE LAUGHTER)

Me: You are not quite sure what the problem is but if you can (once you open up the belly ) relay the pictures to Jane (your colleague in Nairobi) a more experienced surgeon she should be able to tell you within seconds what to cut in your patient.

Without a camera and without Jane the man in pain is probably as good as dead in the next few minutes.

Step in the iPhone 4. (FLASHING PHONE)

The iPhone 4 has 2 cameras one in the front, 8 megapixel and one in the back 5 megapixels. With 5 million pixels per square inch the surgeon can take High Definition Video/Pictures and even relay them in real time (Video Chat or Skype) to Jane the specialist. Because of both cameras she is able to involve Jane in the Operation and therefore greatly minimize the risk .

In more simple operations the surgeon can simply query WebMD iphone app for a diagnosis based on the systems and get a possible diagnosis that would allow him/her to make critical decisions in real time.

MP for S N: What is this App App you keep yapping about. (HOUSE LAUGHTER)

Me: Sorry, an App is basically a tool that allows you to provide any real world solution on a mobile phone. Basically the App can diagnose and also collect data which is used by specialists like the Minister to make decisions.

Minister: Point of order Mr Speaker…

Speaker: Yes Minister proceed.

Minister: So John are you saying that if we distribute your phones like that one. We would be able to solve many of this problems that Kenyans are facing.

Me: All i am saying is that we need to think outside the box if we find ourselves boxed in by factors beyond our control.

(HOUSE STAMPING OF FEET)…

Investing in a framework for a network where our 4,000 surgeons and doctors using such sophisticated tools in the field will help save billions and more importantly lives.

With 1 billion shillings you can establish a Mobile Health Network that ensures that basic services reach people across the country.

I think that is all Mr Speaker Sir.

Speaker: Minister anything to say…

At this point the noisy buzz of the South African Vuvuzelas broke me from my reverie.

More on the Apple iPhone 4G Click Here.

Whive Nokia App

John Karanja is the Founder of Whive.com a Social Media Platform for Africa. He is also a Reader at Oxford University, England.

Sponsored Ad: Get your Mobile Application developed in Kenya by SpaceKenya.com [Example of App developed iKatiba.com which is a multilingual mobile social network developed for NOKIA Corporation

iKatiba Mobile Application Suite

Whive.com through its Whiver service has just released Swahili and Sheng applications to the general public and is also set to release Kikuyu, Luo/Lwo and Luhya applications over the next few days.

This is consistent with one of the goals of  Whive.com which is to provide information through mobile technology to African masses.

Whive.com recognizes that in order to achieve Vision 2030 Kenya has to utilize its rich cultural diversity as one of the tools of development.

In this regard we have worked very hard to bring to you a suite of applications in local languages collectively dubbed as  iKatiba.

These applications will be available shortly on the Nokia Ovi store for Kenya. You can view the entire Whive.com application space and timetable for release at ikatiba.com

See Business Daily Feature [Click Here]

Stefan of Mocality with *iPad_ @ *iHub_ @ Barcamp (Photo by @whiteafrican)

Barcamp day 2 was kicking with Whive.com, Google and Kenya ICT Board making presentations in the early morning session.

Since i was participating i didn’t have a chance to  take any notes on the other presentations but here is a brief summary of what i talked about.

You can read more on the other presentations at WhiteAfrican.com and iHub.co.ke

I showcased Whive.com as an African social networking platform that is offering social networking tools to Kenyans in their colloquial languages.

I also  showed for the first time our social networking Mobile App for Nokia.

This application will be available on iKatiba.com Kenya’s first Mobile App Store from this week. You can view the release dates here http://www.ikatiba.com. Also See our  iKatiba facebook photo album by our fans here

I got a number of interesting questions from the community on use and business case for this applications and demonstrated that we need to innovate at the local level with global thinking.

Here are some of the tweets regarding this

downeym Looks like Whive.com will be a good competitor to
@naijaborn and @camerborn in west africa #BarCampNairobi

whiteafrican Coolest thing about Whive is that it’s being done in 9
colloquial languages in Kenya: http://www.whive.com/ikatiba #barcampnairobi

Amasy RT @iHubNairobi: First up is John Karanja from http://
whive.com a new mobile & web social network. #barcampnairobi

Had an interesting conversation with Bridgette Sexton from Google about integrating google maps which we currently doing at Whive.com

Thanks to the BarCampers for their participation as i really enjoyed both days of the event.

Come back on Monday evening for a full update.

JohnKaranja.com @ Barcamp Nairobi 2010

So I spent the better part of the day not blowing my Vuvuzela endlessly (like i did yesterday) but listening and interacting with some of the techiest minds in Kenya.

Here are my rough  notes on what happened throughout the day.

I would summarize the Camp as having been one which laid an emphasis on the Openness and Transparency of data access from the myriad of  web and mobile platforms that exist in Kenya and in Africa today.

It was also nice to see Government and Web operators singing the same song for once.

THE SONG:Transperancy and Openess

Tariq did a useful demonstration of data use and how governments in the UK were and are providing their Aid data on open platforms for citizens to track how their taxes where being used to in other countries.

Thuo spoke about outsourcing governments simple functions using a framework to know what to outsource. The end result i smaller government with better processes and using subcontractors.

Paul Kukubo in defence of government talked about increased Government transparency  and activeness  through programs such as subsidized bandwidth in Universities.

Digital Villages and Grants for innovative content for government (worth $10,000 and $50,000) for building Government applications and digitization of Government records.

I had a chance to talk to Kaburo who is running the grants program applications are made online on their platform to enhance transparency (Apply Here).

End Result: You will be able to search for company records in minutes that means government is your laptop.

Other examples

• Influence both laws and projects.
• Cisco teleconferencing for Judges.

Paul lamented that connectivity and innovation doesn’t see response from the techie activists on the web. Being good at technology doesn’t mean good at business.

Therefore greater response to government tenders is needed.

Tariq came back with another live demo i.e. opengovernance.info

Alex Gakuru raised issues on openness and governance and the negative effects of crony capitalism in Kenya.

Interoperability of Government Data

Surprisingly government has an inclination towards open source and is supporting local applications.

Infact Government bills on Data Privacy and Protection are already tabled in parliament. We need to turn our attention to these issues .

Tariq indicated that XML is a useful tool in open data this we find to be true as our mobile platforms are both using and sharing XML data (see here).

Final word from Paul is you need to protect your ideas and knock doors for partnerships.

OPEN STREET MAP and GEOTUBE

Mike Maron talked about mapping Kibera using GPS units and walking papers with QR Code.  Access to Open data is the motivation of building this GEOMAP

Voice of Kibera talked about their Ushahidi install http://www.kibera.ushahidi.com you can contact them to help at contact@mapkibera.org

Issues that came up is Geo-Location is not precise as opposed to Geo Mapping.  GEOTube is doing Geo mapping in USA and collecting Geo spatial data. The application is built in WebFlex and has a set of Widget and Console containers.

whiteafrican

Total registered members at #barcampnairobi was 600+ today!

moseskemibaro

intellectual property question from a developer to Mike Micharia at #barcampnairobi. How is this addressed in Kenya?

tandaaKENYA

Sevenseas have set up innovation lab to develop skills in market. Very fwd thinking #barcampnairobi

tullyme

calling kenya devs! tweet @lkamau if u have experience working w @ushahidi code or skilled in php. putting together dev list #barcampnairobi

mdailey919

Cool! RT @butterflyworks: iKatiba.com Kenya’s 1st Mobile App store http://bit.ly/dix7YE #BarCampNairobi via @afrineurs @afrinnovator

kaburo

So looks like won’t talk about the tandaa grants today afterall. Time run out. Talk moved to tmrw 11am. #barcampnairobi

IKATIBA MULTILINGUAL VERNACULAR MOBILE APPS

On day 2 I will be showcasing to anyone who is interested our Mobile Application for Kenyans, including 9 vernacular languages.  We want to collect as many views as possible so we will be there till they kick us out.

The Mobile APP store is at http://www.ikatiba.com

The Web platform is at http://www.whive.com

Do come back on Monday Evening for a fully updated post.

Spirals Here Spirals There

I was lucky just when i started blogging almost 2 years ago i bumped into (or rather my house mate Gerry O’Brien) showed me this scientific website called TED.com. He was and is working on mind blowing, earth shaking and i don’t know what else theories and implementations of what we coined on one night of boring British TV as  ”Savantology”, but hey i digress.

Anyway in this TED website there is one scientist or what i would call Afrologist called Ron Eglash who posited the case that it was Africans who were the first ones to invented the Binary system.

This binary system which most of us know as the atomic building blocks of computing  i.e. 1’s and 0’s was intricately represented by the way Africans weaved their baskets and designed their villages.

Just to illustrate, in almost all cases the chiefs hut or building was usually designed to be the focal point of the village with his wives huts and other important peoples structures spiraling outside in a manner that suggested authority or importance to the community.

In essence the chiefs hut was the hub and the elders were his guardians or what we call today System Administrators.

This system also served well to banish the outcast/criminals out of the village to the outskirts of this spiral network.

The African oral tradition also ensured that information also flowed in a similar manner with more information being given to those who could handle the responsibility. I.e. the village seer was the Information Hub (iHub). In truth the Seer didn’t possess any magical powers (unlike Safaricom) but really correlated all the village information using his nurtured good judgement. Where this system was properly utilized it worked well.

In this manner the African Tribe had clearly created the internet in its most coherent form, where information flowed from the hub to those who were responsible over the masses and as it cruised down through the spiraling network it landed at the children’s feet as stories of Ogres, Wise Tortoises, Clever Rabbits and insanely Powerful Magicians.

This as you are probably imagining filtered out all the disinformation and corruption that is ever more present today because of our current chaotic system which  is very disorderly.

Well the rest is history and now we now find ourselves borrowing from the Anglo Saxon model which has brought, as Philip Ochieng would say, misery to people of all races with the Black African being the hardest hit.

Furthermore in its current corrupted form our capitalistic ways have ensured that globally we are now staring at the biggest depression and total collapse of this economic model.  Locally we face marauding too big to fail monopolies that are killing innovation ruthlessly and without second thought. We also face physically a real danger of a lower class cum religious revolution/uprising should evolutions such as the New Constitutional Dispensation fail to materialize.

So what are the mostly young Kenyans/Africans ment to do if everything is going to hell this fast.

The answer lies in my opinion in borrowing from Afrology the African way of Sustainable Community Organization.  From this so called Green Technologies that are sustainable will emerge. No one advocates for this more than the current U.S. President Barack Obama who hails from a tribe that not too long ago was a perfect example of sustainable development.  That is why perhaps i also have him at the top of my blog because he represents this kind of change that scientists (those with knowledge not information) are calling for.

In conclusion i think our African hereos will not only be Africans but people like O’Brien, Eglash and others who have dedicated their lives to understanding what Africa has to teach the rest of the world. Nairobi ancestral home of hugely ignored, often ridiculed and culturally rich Masai would be a good place to start finding this heroes, i heard many of them congregate at a place called iHub

Footnote: We need to somehow begin collecting African cultural and historical data to begin mapping some of what Mr Ron Eglash is talking about.

This will enable come up with both the hardware and software needed going forward.

At Whive we have developed a platform called Whiver.com to do just that, but we need more suggestions/criticisms on the best way forward.  I also suggest that we look at using Ushahidi to do the same the more the merrier.

Whive.Mobi Nokia APP

Just from bubbling from being declared yesterdays blog of the day on Business Daily i have decided to be a bit generous with my “brilliant” ideas and help out Zain Africa catch some leg up on the roaring Lion of  Kenya that is Safaricom.

Now that Safaricom has shown us how packaging voice products and adding a sprinkle of Mpesa can churn billions in net profit from what is supposedly a 3rd world country, it is clear that the next and perhaps only frontier of war for the other operators is Data.  Enter Mxit…

Mxit a mobile social network from South Africa is Safaricom’s latest magic trick. Its entry one week ago has kicked up a storm amongst Kenya’s local developers (Storm1, Storm2 and Storm3). One thing is for sure, this is either Safaricom’s waterloo or greatest show ever, it cannot be anything other than those those two options. Why?

Well this move by Safaricom to put it mildly angered many of the country’s developers  (refer to storms above), thinkers and bloggers.  This cannot be good for Safaricom even though it ostensibly has the money and mechanisms to buy back some love from the angered folk and thereby mitigating against any future loss.

Granted that this may be, as I said earlier, the best business decision ever by Safaricom,  it has certainly made key and influential people in Kenya distrust its intentions.  Don’t forget perception is KEY e.g. Andriod of Google is now gaining ground on Apple iPhone because the latter  is perceived to be a closed system with ill intentions.

Why should Safaricom give a hoot?–

Safaricom has 16 million subscribers last time i checked, of which 8 or so million are banking on Mpesa a system that does NOT belong to Safaricom. Therefore any pressure on them would not necessarily lead to the quick and spontaneous action that may be needed for its looming battles.

On the other hand Zain soon to be Bharti has a 45 million or so subscriber base in Africa and even larger one in India. Importantly it already has an App Store with more than 1000 Applications in use in India that probably would not differ too much from the Kenyan or African Use case or Business case. This makes Data a clear entry point for Zain.

So here are some pros and cons for such a move by Zain.

PROS

1. They have a disgruntled set of pretty skilled APP developers in Kenya that they could entice with hugs that smell of Kshs.
2. They have a huge subscriber base in Africa which speaks an indigenous language SWAHILI.
3. They have a burning desire to embarrass Safaricom even if it is just once.
4. They have the experience needed to enter this space at will.
5. They own their own payment platform Zap unlike Safaricom.

CONS

1. They have been upstaged by Safaricom’s magicians time and again.
2. They have failed to understand  Kenya’s “peculiar” habits.
3. They also do not engage Kenyan developers.
4. They have not luffed to the debunk for a very long time.
5. Importantly they do not have the 3G data infrastructure to beat Safaricom.

This last point is what i suppose should be worrying the guys in Zain head office and i have what i think should be a solution. Zain should opt for a Distributed Application Network Space. What i call DANS. Why?

The main advantage is that they would be able to ride on Safaricom’s fantastic(by Kenyan Standards) 3g network thereby saving billions in infrastructure cost. In this case they would give incentives to already existing application stores/platforms in Kenya like Whive.com, Symbiotic Labs and SpaceKenya.com to port products to their subscribers for decent commissions.

Another case is that they would not necessarily need to advertise too much as great APPs will go viral (Remember Makmende.com).

By focusing on Mobile and Web Apps at the same time Zain would win the data race and steam ahead of the competition, giving itself breathing space to build the Data infrastructure it would need to compete with Safaricom the Great.

So as a developer of Mobile Apps including the one in this post I humbly asking the people at Zain to consider this option and give the battered and almost defeated developers in Kenya some hope.

This move could possibly go south because of the insanely huge magical powers of the Safaricom’s Maestro(s) but at least we will say we gave it a shot… and hopefully  someday we will all luff to debunk even if its just my local Mpesa/Mkesho Agent

John Karanja is the founder of Whive.com and was recently a Chairperson of Mobile Web East Africa Conference in Nairobi in January.