Kenyan Entrepreneur Tells CNN ‘African Start-Up’ About A Business Solution to Combat Carjacking

Every day a number of carjacking cases are reported in Nairobi, but one entrepreneur is determined to provide a solution to stop the crime.

This week, CNN International’s ‘African Start-Up’ profiles Kelvin Macharia Kuria, founder of Sunrise Tracking- a Kenyan company specialising in security solutions. According to Macharia, the reason he decided to venture into the security business is because one of his relatives fell victim of a carjacking. “…It was unfortunate we were not able to recover the vehicle. And I thought I could come up with a way to track the vehicle (where) once they’re stolen it’s easy to recover them,”

Macharia told CNN.

Macharia’s company designs security systems like GPS and CCTV systems and then installs them into his client’s cars. He has eight full time employees. “Anytime we install a tracking system in a vehicle, we are able to track it using our fleet management system. Also the client has access to his or her own account to see how the vehicle is moving, from what point to the next, to get reports from where the vehicle has been moving from,” he explains.

One innovation that Macharia has added into his system is the ability to disable a car’s engine by text message. “We immobilize reported vehicles using an SMS and send an alert to the owner whenever it happens,” he told CNN.

Despite challenges, he remains optimistic and says Sunrise Tracking’s immediate plan is to diversify and try to expel insecurities