Community leaders have benefited from alerts on home robberies which assists in mobilising quick response.
Image: THE STAR
As the Covid-19 caused panic in the early days of 2020, Nairobi-native Ken Wechuli began documenting criminal activities in Nairobi city.
With many companies shutting or scaling down operations, many youths found themselves jobless which translated to increased cases of crime in the city.
Starting by contacting a few friends for information, and subsequently partnering with a team of software developers, Wechuli has since built a real time database of crimes throughout the country.
This effort culminated in Atlas Crime, a free, invitation-only app that alerts members to incidents of crime in real-time.
Since launching in March 2022, Atlas now collects hundreds of incident reports per month, has over 25,000 users, and is available in all cities and major towns in the country.
“Our vision is to provide every Kenyan with the ability to stay safe, regardless of where they live,” he said.
“We combat the lack of accessibility to public safety resources with technology, and while our platform is invitation-only for security reasons, we hope that all Kenyans will join our community one day.” said Wechuli.
According to security professionals, several violent crimes, including one murder, were interrupted on the basis of the app’s alerts.
According to him, community leaders have benefited from alerts on home robberies which assists in mobilising quick response.
He said adoption of technology in the fight against crime will go a long way in securing communities.