Maxmuthee/Sikika

Offline civic participation for rural Kenya — AI-simplified county budgets and bills delivered to basic feature phones via USSD and SMS, in Swahili, Kikuyu, and English. # Sikika > Built during the **Democracy & AI Hackathon** — July 4th, 2026 > Hosted by **Mozilla Foundation** & **KamiLimu** --- ## Team | Name | Role | GitHub | |------|------|--------| | Esther Oyoo | Lead Developer | @aah3sta | | Maxwell Gitahi | Lead Developer | @Maxmuthee | **Team Name:** A-Hacks **University:** Kenyatta University, USIU - Africa --- ## Problem & User ### Problem Statement > Over 510,000 rural residents aged 35+ in Nakuru County are systematically cut off from county government accountability and public participation processes, as proven by the county's low score of 25 out of 100 on the 2024 County Budget Transparency Survey. This exclusion happens because official accountability documents are published as complex English PDFs online, while over half of rural Kenyans lack the smartphones, internet, or English literacy required to access them. Existing tools like the Jihusishe app fail this demographic by ignoring the deep urban-rural digital divide, leaving a critical need for an offline, local-language channel built for basic feature phones. ### Target User | Dimension | Detail | |-----------|--------| | **Primary user** | A 45-year-old smallholder farmer in rural Nakuru who relies entirely on a basic feature phone. | | **Tech comfort** | Comfortable with USSD menus and basic SMS; completely offline with no smartphone, web browser, or email access. | | **Language** | Swahili, Kikuyu - No English literacy | | **Current workflow** | Hears about local county development plans late via word-of-mouth or local radio, travels miles to centralized barazas to air their views. | ### The Specific Gap 1. **What's already there:** TISA's Jihusishe digital platform for tracking county data and reporting governance issues. 2. **Why it falls short:** Runs only in English on smartphone apps and web browsers, requiring active internet bundles and text-heavy interactions. 3. **The gap we fill:** Offline, micro-localized Swahili and Kikuyu bill …