Terms of Use

Definitions

In these Terms of Use, the following words have the following meanings:

• "Mwangaza", "we", "us", "our" — the operator of the Mwangaza mobile application and associated services.
• "Service" — the Mwangaza mobile application, backend infrastructure, SMS delivery system, push notification system, and all features contained within.
• "User", "you", "your" — any person who downloads, installs, registers for, or uses the Service.
• "SOS Alert" or "Alert" — an emergency notification triggered by the user through the Service, sent to designated trusted contacts.
• "Trusted Contacts" — persons designated by the user within the Service to receive SOS Alerts.
• "Third-Party Services" — external service providers used in the delivery of the Service, including but not limited to Google Firebase, Supabase, SMS gateway providers, and device manufacturers.
• "Premium Subscription" — a paid tier of the Service that unlocks additional features as described at the time of purchase.

Acceptance of Terms

By downloading, installing, registering for, or using the Mwangaza application, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organisation (such as a company, school, or community group), you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation to these Terms.

These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Mwangaza under the laws of Kenya.

Nature of the Service

Mwangaza is a supplementary personal safety tool designed to alert your designated trusted contacts when you trigger an SOS. The effectiveness of the Service depends on a combination of factors outside our direct control, including:

• Your device's internet connectivity at the time of an SOS
• Your device's GPS availability and accuracy
• The availability and responsiveness of your trusted contacts
• The reliability of third-party infrastructure (mobile networks, push notification services, SMS gateways)
• Device permissions granted by you
• Device battery level and operating system background restrictions

We make no guarantee that any Alert will be delivered successfully, acknowledged promptly, or will result in timely assistance. Mwangaza is a tool to increase your safety options — it is not a guarantee of safety.

Eligibility

To use the Service you must:

• Be at least 16 years of age. Users aged 16–17 should have parental or guardian awareness of their use of the Service.
• Provide accurate and truthful information during registration, including your correct phone number.
• Have access to a compatible Android device with an active SIM card or data connection.
• Reside in, or primarily use the Service within, the Republic of Kenya or another jurisdiction in which the Service is made available.

We reserve the right to refuse registration to any person who does not meet these requirements.

Your Account

Registration

You must register using a valid Kenyan mobile phone number. You are responsible for ensuring your phone number is current and accessible. An OTP (one-time password) will be sent to your number for verification.

Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your secret access code and account credentials. You must notify us immediately at hello@mwangaza.app if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.

Accuracy

You are responsible for keeping your profile information, emergency contacts, and trusted contact list accurate and up to date. Outdated or incorrect contact information may prevent alerts from reaching the intended recipients.

One account per user

You may not create more than one account. Duplicate accounts may be suspended.

Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service only for lawful personal safety purposes. You must not:

• Trigger false SOS alerts — deliberately triggering an alert when no emergency exists causes distress to your trusted contacts and may constitute an offence under Kenyan law
• Harass or alarm others — using the Service to repeatedly send unwanted alerts or notifications to any person
• Attempt to reverse engineer any part of the application, its source code, or backend infrastructure
• Circumvent security measures or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service or the accounts of other users
• Use the Service for commercial purposes without our express written consent
• Impersonate another person or provide false identity information during registration
• Interfere with the Service's operation or attempt to overload our servers

Device Permissions

Many of Mwangaza's core safety features depend on device permissions that you must grant. You are solely responsible for ensuring the necessary permissions are enabled on your device.

The following permissions are required for the corresponding features to function. If a permission is denied or revoked, the related feature will not work, and we accept no liability for any resulting failure to deliver an alert:

• Location permission denied or GPS disabled — SOS alerts will be sent without location coordinates. Your trusted contacts will be notified but will not know where you are.
• Notification permission denied — you will not receive incoming SOS alerts from your trusted contacts, and certain system notifications may not be delivered.
• Microphone permission denied — audio evidence will not be recorded during an SOS event.
• Battery optimisation not disabled — Android may suspend background safety services (including check-in timers) when the screen is off, causing features to be delayed or non-functional.
• "Display over other apps" permission denied — the floating SOS button will not appear outside the Mwangaza application.
• "Schedule exact alarms" permission denied — fake call and safe check-in timer features may trigger late or not at all.

User Responsibility for Alert Delivery

You acknowledge and agree that the successful delivery of an SOS Alert depends on conditions within your control. Mwangaza accepts no liability for alert failure arising from any of the following user-side conditions:

Device and connectivity conditions

• No internet connection — the device has no active mobile data or Wi-Fi connection at the time of the SOS trigger
• Device powered off or battery depleted — the device has no power at the time of or during an active SOS event
• Aeroplane mode enabled — the device is in aeroplane mode, blocking all outbound communication
• Device storage full — insufficient storage may prevent audio evidence from being recorded
• SIM card absent or deactivated — preventing SMS fallback delivery
• Operating system restrictions — the Android operating system, at the device manufacturer's discretion, has killed background services (common on Tecno, Infinix, Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi devices with aggressive battery management)

Permission conditions

• Any device permission listed in Section 07 has been denied, revoked, or not granted
• Location services have been turned off at the device level
• The app has been manually force-stopped by the user
• The app has been uninstalled from the device

Contact conditions

• Trusted contacts not set up — you have not added any trusted contacts, or fewer contacts than recommended
• Incorrect contact information — phone numbers saved for trusted contacts are incorrect, outdated, or belong to someone other than the intended recipient
• Trusted contacts unreachable — trusted contacts have their devices switched off, are out of network coverage, have blocked the sender number, or are otherwise unable to receive or respond to the alert
• Trusted contacts have not installed the app — contacts who are not Mwangaza users may receive SMS notifications but will not receive push notifications or have access to alert detail screens

User action conditions

• The user cancels the SOS alert during the 5-second cancellation window
• The user fails to trigger the SOS in time to send an alert
• The user has not familiarised themselves with the app's trigger mechanism before an emergency situation arises

Third-Party Service Failures

The Mwangaza Service depends on third-party infrastructure that is outside our ownership or control. We accept no liability for any failure, delay, or interruption in alert delivery caused by third-party systems. This includes but is not limited to:

Mobile network operators

• Network outages, congestion, or degraded service affecting Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom, or any other Kenyan or international mobile network operator
• SMS delivery failures caused by network operator filtering, routing issues, or outages
• Poor mobile signal strength in the user's physical location

Push notification services

• Failures or delays in Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), including Firebase service outages, token expiry, or delivery queue issues
• Expired or invalidated FCM tokens due to the recipient not having opened the app for an extended period
• Android operating system restrictions on receiving push notifications in the background

SMS gateway providers

• Failures, delays, or capacity issues affecting our SMS delivery partner(s)
• International SMS routing failures where a trusted contact uses a non-Kenyan number
• Spam filtering by recipient networks that may block or delay SMS alerts

Cloud infrastructure

• Outages, degraded performance, or data loss affecting Supabase (database and file storage), Render (hosting), or any other cloud infrastructure provider we use
• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or other cyber incidents affecting our backend services

Device manufacturers

• Operating system updates that change background processing behaviour and affect the reliability of background services
• Manufacturer-level battery optimisation or memory management systems that terminate background processes without user action
• Conflicts with other installed applications or device management software

Limitation of Liability

Where liability cannot be excluded entirely by law, our total cumulative liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to the Service shall not exceed the total amount paid by you to Mwangaza in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or KES 1,000, whichever is greater.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for certain types of damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Mwangaza expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including but not limited to:

• Implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement
• Any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free
• Any warranty that the results obtained from use of the Service will be accurate or reliable
• Any warranty that defects in the Service will be corrected
• Any warranty relating to the availability of network coverage, GPS signal, or device functionality

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from Mwangaza or through the Service, shall create any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Mwangaza, its directors, employees, partners, agents, and affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, or fees (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:

• Your violation of these Terms
• Your use or misuse of the Service
• The deliberate triggering of false SOS alerts
• Your violation of any applicable law or the rights of any third party
• Any content or information you submit to or through the Service

Subscriptions & Payments

Premium features

Certain features of the Service are available exclusively to Premium subscribers. The current Premium subscription price is displayed within the app and may change with notice.

Payment

Payment for Premium subscriptions is processed via M-Pesa. By initiating a subscription payment, you authorise the deduction of the subscription amount from your M-Pesa account.

Renewal

Subscriptions renew at the end of each billing period unless cancelled. You are responsible for cancelling your subscription before the renewal date if you do not wish to be charged.

Refunds

Due to the nature of digital services, we do not offer refunds for subscription payments already processed except where required by Kenyan consumer protection law or where the Service has experienced a material failure attributable to Mwangaza (not third-party services or user conditions). Refund requests should be directed to hello@mwangaza.app.

Feature changes

We reserve the right to modify, add, or remove Premium features. Where a feature you are currently using is removed, we will provide at least 30 days' notice via the app or email.

Organisation subscriptions

Organisations purchasing subscriptions for multiple users agree to these Terms on behalf of all covered users and are responsible for ensuring those users are made aware of these Terms.

Termination

Termination by you

You may delete your account at any time through the app's settings. Upon deletion, your personal data will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Termination by us

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account, without notice, if:

• You have materially breached these Terms
• You have repeatedly triggered false SOS alerts
• We reasonably believe your account is being used fraudulently or to harass others
• We are required to do so by law or regulation

Effect of termination

Upon termination of your account, your access to the Service will cease immediately. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 10, 11, 12, and 16) will continue to apply.

Service discontinuation

We reserve the right to discontinue the Service or any feature at any time, with at least 30 days' notice where reasonably practicable. We shall not be liable to you for any discontinuation of the Service.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in our Service, applicable law, or our practices. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this document
• Notify you via push notification or in-app message at least 14 days before changes take effect
• Where the changes materially affect your rights, seek your fresh acceptance within the app

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of the revised Terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not accept the revised Terms, you must stop using the Service and delete your account.

Governing Law & Disputes

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Kenya, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service shall first be attempted to be resolved through good-faith negotiation. If not resolved within 30 days, disputes shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Nairobi, Kenya.

Nothing in this clause prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief from a competent court where necessary.

Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us: