Meet Eliud Gilisho, Kenyan Innovator Behind App That Makes Stolen Phones Scream ‘Huyu ni Mwizi’
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Eliud Gilisho has developed an app that screams ‘Huyu ni Mwizi’ whenever a phone thief snatches your smartphone.
In a Citizen TV Made in Kenya segment, Gilisho revealed that the app lets phone owners remotely trigger a loud alarm when their phones are stolen.
How a Violent Robbery Inspired Gilisho
The idea for the anti-theft app was born in 2025, when Gilisho was the victim of a violent robbery.
He was walking home one evening when criminals riding a motorcycle attacked him with weapons.
They harassed him, stabbed him, and stole his phone. This left him without important contacts, personal documents, and other information that he had stored on the phone.
This experience prompted him to come up with an alarm system that would make it harder for criminals to escape with stolen phones.
Gilisho, who describes himself as an innovator, subsequently made an app that makes a stolen phone scream, attracting the attention of nearby people.
How Gilisho’s Anti-Theft App Works
Unlike conventional phone-tracking applications, Gilisho’s alarm announces a theft the moment it happens.
The app comes with a remote. When someone snatches your phone, you press a button on the remote, triggering a loud alarm.
The stolen device begins blaring loudly, screaming that the person carrying it is a thief.
Gilisho also explained that thieves cannot silence the alarm by reducing the phone’s volume or switching it off.
The only thing that can stop the alarm is the phone’s battery draining off. Once the battery is charged, the remote can reactivate the alarm again.
Anti-Theft Smartwatch
Gilisho is currently working on transforming the handheld remote into a wearable smartwatch.
The smartwatch will allow owners to activate the alarm quickly, rather than wasting time frisking in their pockets or handbags to look for the remote.
Gilisho’s system also allows a person to track the phone’s location, which will make it easier for law enforcement agencies to recover stolen phones.
He added that the technology could help victims of gender-based violence and other dangerous situations.
According to him, the smartwatch will have an emergency alert mechanism that the owner can activate using a predefined keyword.
Once it has been activated, the system will share the victim’s location and video footage of the incident with three of their preferred contacts.
This will allow the victim’s trusted relatives or friends to receive emergency information even when the victim cannot communicate with them directly.
State of phone theft in Kenya
Gilisho’s invention comes at a time when smartphone theft in Kenya has been a growing thorn in the flesh.
Citizen TV estimates that three out of every ten Kenyans have lost a phone to theft. Also, about 10 phones are stolen every 20 minutes in Nairobi alone.
Another investigation by ENACT Africa linked at least ten deaths in 2023 to attacks involving mobile phone theft.
Kenyan law enforcement authorities believe that some of the stolen phones were linked to a suspected syndicate involved in transporting stolen devices to Uganda.
Gilisho said that he believes that the phone alarm system will make Kenya safer.
“Tourists will have confidence that once they come to Kenya, their phones and equipment will not be stolen,” he said.
Aside from the phone alarm system, Gilisho has previously attracted media attention for developing other systems.
In July 2024, Citizen Digital profiled him as the founder of Candy Kash, a mobile gaming platform that allows players to earn money through competitive gameplay.
The game was inspired by the popular Candy Crush game.
