Brother Nicholas Kimulu comes from Makueni County and is the brains behind the Mbathi sya Kumutaia Ngai App. He started developing mobile apps in 2014. He wanted to see applications that he had personally developed running on his mobile phone.
His younger brother, who runs a software development company, had developed applications for java and android phones, while still in campus and he felt challenged by that. “Well, he was poor in user interface design and so I always felt, that I needed a more beautiful design for his apps.” Nicholas exclaims.
“So one day, I asked him to give me his bible app to redesign, because he was abandoning it. This is how I redesigned and rebuild a beautiful bible app called smart bible.” The app has more than 50,000 downloads.
His brother helped him with coding while he did the user interface design as he was still new to android. The smart bible app went live in 2016 and has a rating of 4.8 on google play store with more than a thousand ratings.
He later in 2017 March designed the Mbathi Sya Kumutaia Ngai App . “I had always wanted to have the app, but no one had done it”. “So one day am seated in my office and a phrase from one of the songs is ringing in the back of my mind. Then I realize, I don’t know the next part, so I can’t even sing! So I said to myself, Supposing, I had an app, that would be cool.” he adds.
From that point, he purposed to develop the application. He had to pay someone to type the songs and he developed the app from scratch in 7 months’ time.
From the user reviews on google play, the app is a milestone towards preserving such sacred songs. “It is my desire that all churches embrace such songs. They were sung by men and women who were full of the Holy Spirit of God. ” the developer urges.
His work did not stop with the Mbathi app. He decided to develop the Mbivilia App, which will be available by the end of this month.
On some of the challenges, he has faced, “Developing a community project is a tedious exercise. Because it is not meant for profit, it calls for sacrifice, time, and commitment.”
Some of the users had this to say on the Mbathi app; “it’s amazing no need to carry my hymn book, for I have it in my pocket.” Nixon Mutunga says. He however urges people to ensure that they still buy a hard copy of the hymn book.
When we caught up with him he said, ” Some churches disregard the songs therein. But the songs are spiritual. And they carry a heavier glory than the music we hear from musicians today. It is time, churches stock these hymn books in their libraries and encourage the members to learn them. They are not just songs to sing during a burial ceremony, but are spiritual songs we are encouraged to admonish one another, with.”
One of the things that drive him is this phrase: ” If there is no one to do it, do it yourself.” Apart from software development, Brother Nicholas is also a preacher of the Gospel. Some of his teachings can be found here.