One unfortunate victim was developer and entrepreneur Edwin Inganji. He was attacked by a group of men who stole his laptop. "I felt hopeless and I couldn't get any help. Luckily, they just took my stuff," Inganji describes.
After this incident, Inganji, and his two friends James Chege and Marvin Makau -- also developers, sat down and considered what they could do to help make people safer. They thought: what if people in need of help could, at the flick of a wrist, alert emergency services?
They put ideas into action and created "Usalama," a mobile app that sends a distress signal when a user shakes their phone three times alerting emergency services of their location, as well as their next of kin, and every "Usalama" user within 200m.
"Usalama" might not have prevented Inganji's phone from being stolen, but it could have at least quickly and accurately alerted the police and ambulance services of his whereabouts. "In an emergency seconds can be the difference between life and death," Inganji says.
It's been the dream of sci-fi enthusiasts and inventors for decades, but has this Nigerian man created a flying jet car that can dodge traffic? Kehinde Durojaiye, or "Kenny Jet", is attempting to build an aero-amphibious jet car. He's driven it on sea and land. Now it's only the air that he has left to conquer.
Welcome, to the bleeding-edge of African innovation: VR, 3D printing, AI and the rest. The continent isn't just driving technological change for Africa, but for the world. Click through to discover the inventions and innovations coming out of Africa.
3D printing - 3D printing is gaining traction in Africa. In 2013, WoeLabs tech hub in Togo made the first "Made in Africa" 3D printer from e-waste. They want to use the 3D printer to revolutionize Africa. They're starting by putting a machine in every school within 1km of the workshop. Buni Hub is another tech center, based in Tanzania, that is building 3D printers.
Biomedical smart jacket – Pneumonia is a deadly condition. It's responsible for 16% of all deaths of children under five. A main contributing factor to this is slow diagnosis. Ugandan inventor Brian Turyabagye has created a biomedical smart jacket that can diagnose the condition four times faster than a doctor. It's also more accurate. It analyzes the chest and then sends the information via Bluetooth to a smartphone app.
Read more about this biomedical breakthrough.
Virtual Reality – VR has the potential to change many industries. One example is mining, a profession which has its dangers and risks. In an effort to create a safe yet accurate training environment, a team at the University of Pretoria, South Africa have a created the continent's first VR mine. The center allows students and mining staff to train in a simulated mining environment. African filmmakers are also making forays into VR experimentation. Examples of recent releases are Let This Be A Warning and The Other Dakar.
Solar energy revolution – According to the International Energy Agency over 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity.
Off Grid Electric, an African startup backed by Elon Musk's Solar City, is looking to solve this by initiating the rapid supply of solar panels across Africa
They charge $7 a month for the system. It already powers 125,000 households.
Could this be a big step forward for the 1.3 billion people globally who lack access to electricity?
Read more about this solar-powered energy revolution.
Panic button app – Three developers from Kenya, Marvin Makau, Edwin Inganji and Kenneth Gachukia, have created a panic button app that sends a distress signal with the shake of a phone. The app, Usalama, works by connecting people with emergency service providers, and sends their exact location when they shake their phone three times. It also alerts a next of kin and every other Usalama users within 200 meters. They're looking to expand their technology beyond the continent and help make people safer.
Welcome, to the bleeding-edge of African innovation: VR, 3D printing, AI and the rest. The continent isn't just driving technological change for Africa, but for the world. Click through to discover the inventions and innovations coming out of Africa.
3D printing - 3D printing is gaining traction in Africa. In 2013, WoeLabs tech hub in Togo made the first "Made in Africa" 3D printer from e-waste. They want to use the 3D printer to revolutionize Africa. They're starting by putting a machine in every school within 1km of the workshop. Buni Hub is another tech center, based in Tanzania, that is building 3D printers.
Virtual Reality – VR has the potential to change many industries. One example is mining, a profession which has its dangers and risks. In an effort to create a safe yet accurate training environment, a team at the University of Pretoria, South Africa have a created the continent's first VR mine. The center allows students and mining staff to train in a simulated mining environment. African filmmakers are also making forays into VR experimentation. Examples of recent releases are Let This Be A Warning and The Other Dakar.
In Kenya, contacting emergency providers can be cumbersome. "Access to emergency services is very slow," Inganji tells CNN. In 1998 the Kenyan police service switched off the emergency number claiming they didn't have the resources to operate it. In 2013, they reopened the line only for it to be overloaded by prank calls.
Initially, the team were met with scepticism from emergency providers about the new technology. But after a series of free trials they gifted to various private companies in the sector, they now have a number of security, health and women's organisations onboard.
They're developing the app beyond the 'panic button' function. "If you are going home late at night, you can set the app so that you and a friend make sure you return home safe. We're also introducing a timer where if you're not home, say within an hour, it sends a distress signal," Inganji explains.
The "Usalama" team say they have had interest from an organization in America and are working to introduce parts of the app to college campuses to help address safety concerns for women.
"Usalama" isn't the first foray by Kenyan developers into public health and safety issues. Five Kenyan teenagers, who call themselves "The Restorers," have created an app called i-Cut which aims to connect girls affected by the outlawed practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with legal and medical experts.
While technology co-working spaces, known as "incubation centers," have fostered innovation and opportunities, high crime rates continue to blight everyday life. Nick Reding, director of S.A.F.E, a public health and anti-violence NGO, told CNN: "When you have this kind of inequity (in Kenya) between privilege and poverty you're going to have a lot of crime."
The success of "Usalama" relies, in part, on the willingness of police, ambulance services and other emergency providers to sign up to the app -- a pursuit which has proved difficult, they claim, especially on the part of government.
In light of this, the team has sought to broaden "Usalama" -- Swahili for security -- to connect users themselves and generate awareness about how to be safe.
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