LEWIS WANYEKI
KENYA, 19
Project: 3DSTechnologies
Basic Human Needs: Health, Safety
During Kenya’s post-election violence in 2008, Lewis’s stepmother was among those who were injured. More than 400 people died that day. Lewis felt he had to take action against the never-ending chaos, corruption, fear and violence in his country, which he believed was largely due to the lack of technology in law enforcement. Lewis and his friends created 3DSTechnologies, a technology startup dedicated to enhancing security and peace in Africa. In 2013, they won first place in the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair and proceeded to the Internationals to represent Kenya in the Eskom Expo. Their first product, PRISM, is a criminal database management and analysis system for government agencies, security firms and organizations. It is currently used by 24 organizations specializing in peace and security, and 60,000 police officers in 11 counties protecting 400,000 citizens. Their second product, Usalama, is a phone app that provides a platform for citizens to share stories and experiences that encourage respect, as well as report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. The app also allows its 1,000 users to access criminal data and view a location’s “danger level.” By the end of 2018, Lewis hopes to grow Usalama to 20,000 users, and have the Kenyan government fully implement PRISM in all 47 counties. 3DSTechnologies will soon have a USSD platform on their products, making them available to citizens without smart phones and Internet access. They are now working to use big data machine learning, predictive analysis and AI to help security organizations easily collect, organize and match criminal data.