Kenya Shines at the Appstar Challenge Regional Finals

In what could be be a show of might in the mobile applications front, Appstar challenge Kenyan finalists Gerald Kibugi and Gilbert Rono yesterday beat finalists from South Africa, Lesotho, Egypt and Tanzania to clinch the first and second positions pocketing USD 25000 and USD 15000 respectively in prize money.

At third place was a South African App from SK Theatre group that allows users to book movies anytime anywhere.

Appstar challenge is a competition by mobile giant Vodafone that aims to get the best mobile applications from Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho, egypt and Tanzania. The regional finals were held in South Africa.

Gerald Kibuga, also the winner of the Kenya phase of the competition, overcame a tough challenge to emerge the winner with his game app, Tough Jungle. He walked away with the prize money off US $ 25,000.

Another Kenyan developer Gilbert Rono emerged second with his educational app Eureka.

Gerald kibuga – Tough Jungle – Winner – US $ 25,000

This is a creative and original Kenyan game that is easy to play and navigate through, Tough Jungle contains different levels of play which are unlocked after successful navigation of one level. As a Maasai warrior you have to navigate through the different levels of tough jungles fighting animals such as lions.

Gilbert Rono – Eureka – Runner Up – US $ 15,000

Eureka was developed by Gilbert, a first year student at JKUAT studying Computer Science and Mathematics.

This is an application for those that love solving mathematical problems. A simple and intuitive application that assists in calculating mathematical and arithmetic problems, EUREKA not only provides the solution but also displays a step by step approach to the problem assisting you in better understanding the problem. EUREKA can be used to calculate anything from simple math to complex algorithm functions.

Other apps were EgySmartTrans from Egypt which provides commuters with useful information on traffic, directions and points of interest amongst others.

LesWeather from Lesotho is a weather application with location information for the Lesotho market.

Rithmetic from South African is a fun yet effective mathematics learning app meant for children with several gamification elements built in.

The challenge which has put Kenyan developers in the global mobile applications map accepted applications targeted at Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Java platforms and was run in six countries. The best apps will be featured in vodafone stores across Africa, including Safaricom.

Safaricom intends to have its own app store up and running by early next year.