About Kodi Ya Kweli
Kodi Ya Kweli (Real Rent Prices & Tenant Toolkit) is an open-source civic technology platform engineered to resolve structural information asymmetry and deposit forfeiture in urban Kenya.
The Pre-Build Due Diligence & Strategic Pivot
The original concept for this project was an unmoderated crowd-sourced building review site (a “Glassdoor for Kenyan landlords”). In September 2026, we conducted an exhaustive legal and market audit before writing any code. The audit revealed two fatal statutory risks in that model:
Section 22 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act 2018 criminalizes the publication of false or defamatory electronic messages with penalties up to KSh 5,000,000 or 10 years imprisonment. Free-text building smear boards invite immediate retaliatory litigation against both platform operators and vulnerable tenants.
Under the Finance Act 2023, landlords face a 7.5% gross Monthly Rental Income (MRI) tax. Publicly publishing building-level transacted rents triggers intense landlord hostility, as it resembles an unauthorized tax surveillance beacon. This causes retaliatory tenant evictions and offline violence.
Our Pivot: We transformed Kodi Ya Kweli into an objective Macro Estate Cost-of-Living Index coupled with a Zero-Server Privacy Tenant Toolkit. We publish neighborhood-level baseline aggregates (Kilimani, Roysambu, Ruaka, etc.) without naming individual landlords, and empower tenants with formal legal instruments to recover deposits.
Statutory Framework Governing Our Tools
1. Law of Contract Act (Cap 23, Laws of Kenya)
Security deposits paid under a tenancy agreement create a fiduciary holding obligation. A landlord has no lawful right to retain deposits beyond verifiable, contractor-invoiced damages caused directly by tenant breach.
2. Small Claims Court Act No. 2 of 2016 (Cap 10A)
Established to provide expeditious, inexpensive justice for claims under KSh 1,000,000. Our Demand Letter Generator produces the mandatory pre-action demand notice required to initiate a claim at the nearest Small Claims registry.
3. Data Protection Act 2019 (ODPC)
We enforce a strict Content Security Policy (CSP: connect-src 'none') on all toolkit pages. Your tenancy names, rent numbers, and landlord details are processed strictly in client-side RAM and are destroyed when you close the tab.
Open Source Civic Technology
Kodi Ya Kweli is an open-source civic technology initiative built by Ian Ochieng, exploring high-leverage software solutions to ground-truth African infrastructure and housing transparency gaps.