Trash-reporting app Report Taka emerged the winner of the #SmartCityNairobi Challenge, taking away US$10,000 in prize money from a hackathon aimed at creating solutions to problems in Nairobi using Twitter’s API with the support of Twitter’s Developer Relations Team.
Disrupt Africa reported in April Kenyan innovation space iHub and Twitter had teamed up to launch the #SmartCityNairobi Challenge, rewarding innovative ideas with cash prizes and incubation.
The winning solution – Report Taka – takes the form of both a Twitter account and an Android app, and aims to deal with hygiene and waste issues by allowing users to report incidences of trash around Nairobi.
Report Taka then aggregates these reports and forwards them to authorities – in this case the County Council – for appropriate action. They can also receive images and location data to give a clearer view of the situation to the authorities.
First runner-up was NaiMotion, which walked away with US$7,000. The platform focuses on traffic in Nairobi, allowing drivers to avoid such delays by mapping traffic flow in real-time via location data from app users and tweets.
Second runner-up Fix Mtaa, which won US$5,000, is a reporting tool for notifying authorities of various neighbourhood issues while having them tagged on Twitter. Users are able to send a tweet over an issue – such as power outage, unattended garbage or dilapidated road – to the platform’s handle, also tagging the responsible authority. This automatically generates a ticket and the tweeter receives a response from Fix Mtaa acknowledging receipt of their report and assuring follow-up.
