For the average Ugandan, legal service is too prohibitive to even dream of. Many then opt to nurse their grievances in silence. Victims of violence and abuses hide in shame. But the advent of a tech-savvy legal service provision in the mold of Barefoot Law has changed the dynamics in some way.
As a small scale farmer can’t do away with his hoe, a business has to be tooled with a lawyer for it to survive in this capitalist jungle.
With the a few number of qualified lawyers and high legal fees many businesses were left to fend for themselves in legal oblivion. In 2012, Gerald Abila formed the Barefoot Law, which offers free legal information via the internet with the vision of equipping the citizenry with the law so as they can protect themselves.
Yahoo!, on its news platform in 2015, said Barefoot Law was born when Abila began offering legal advice via social media and Skype on his smartphone in the east African nation.
The website described the Barefoot Law as an “award-winning non-profit social enterprise with nine volunteer staff reaching thousands of people a month, spreading beyond Uganda to countries including even war-torn Somalia, where thousands of Ugandan soldiers are peacekeepers.”
Barefoot Law offers legal aid through phone, text message and email. It brings lawyers on the palm and keypads of those in need of legal service through its website, barefootlaw.org.
All one would need is a smartphone app and internet connectivity. This seems to be a perfect response as 60% of Uganda’s population owns a personal mobile and with the constant increase in internet connectivity.
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“It gives you your legal rights on earth, while the religious book gives you your rights in heaven,” he added.
mSME Garage is one of the package offered by this Bukoto based organisation with an intention of providing micro, small and medium enterprises with free legal, tax and accounting information.
This support is offered through social media, website and direct calls or SMS to the Garage team at Barefoot Law. This hub offers lawyers ready to chat, respond to questions and even meet with entrepreneurs in order to help with formation of the business, daily running and management documentation, enforcement of company rights, taxation among other things they offer.
Barefoot Law partners with Uganda Small Scale Industries Association(USSIA) to provide this package which also includes outreaches by the Garage team upon invite by a group of entrepreneurs.
Such innovation has seen Barefoot Law win the King Baudovia Foundation 2016-17 African Development Prize, from Belgium for being among the three outstanding young tech-entrepreneurs driving social change in Africa.
But the biggest award is the fact that they stand out as the only online legal service provider in East Africa and they are using this status to cause change in the business world
