Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Muhula (muhula.com) is an education platform for Kenya: a school and college directory, MuhulaJobs, MuhulaClass online lessons and the MuhulaKonnect school community app. In this policy, "Muhula", "we" and "us" mean the operator of muhula.com, and "you" means anyone who uses the site.

We process personal data in line with the Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019 and its regulations. For the directory, MuhulaJobs and MuhulaClass, Muhula decides how data is used. In MuhulaKonnect, the school decides what it records about its students and is responsible for it, and Muhula processes that data for the school. If you are outside Kenya, you have the rights in this policy, and the laws where you live, such as the GDPR in the European Union and the United Kingdom, may give you more. Questions can be sent to info@muhula.com.

2. Information we collect

We only collect what you give us or what is needed to run the site:

• Your account. If you sign up with your email address, we store that email and your password (only in scrambled, hashed form, never readable).
• Google, Facebook or Microsoft sign-in. If you sign in with one of these, that company shares your name and email address with us (and, for Google, your profile picture). We never see or store your Google, Facebook or Microsoft password.
• MuhulaKonnect accounts. Your email address and mobile number (the mobile number is stored encrypted), whether you are a parent, teacher, student, staff member or school leader, and, if you are a parent and choose to, the schools your children attend with their grade and class (never the children's names). These let you sign in and recover your account and help us bring schools onto MuhulaKonnect; they are never shown to schools or other members. Students may leave email and mobile out.
• MuhulaKonnect fees and payments. What a school charges for your child, the payments you report (amount, M-Pesa code or bank reference, date) and receipts, kept for the school and you. Online payments go through Paystack; we never see full card or M-Pesa PINs.
• MuhulaKonnect offline use. Pages you open in the MuhulaKonnect app and anything you send while offline are kept on your own device until they are sent; signing out removes them.
• MuhulaKonnect school records. What a school and its teachers enter about a student: name, class, subjects, attendance and the reasons for absence (which may be about health), assignments, photos of work, marks, report cards, diary entries, messages, profile photos, signatures, school photos and videos, incident reports, transport pick-up and drop-off times, and who joined a live class. The KNEC Assessment Number is stored encrypted and shown only to the learner, their parents, their teachers and the principal. While a school trip runs, the driver's phone shares its location with the parents of the riders; only the latest point is kept.
• MuhulaClass. For learners: the learner's name, bookings, payments, join codes and whether they joined. For tutors: profile, qualifications and copies of certificates (and a TSC number for tutors who gave one before November 2026), photos and videos, and payout details (stored encrypted).
• Payments and vouchers. Payment references, receipts and vouchers, with the reason given when asking for a voucher or refund. If a tutor pays by M-Pesa or card, we keep their last M-Pesa number (encrypted) and a token from Paystack so they can pay again quickly. We never keep a card number, and tutors can remove these details.
• Inquiries. When you contact a school or institution: your name, email, phone number, subject and message.
• Admission applications. Student details (name, date of birth, gender, level and grade applied for, previous school, home county and any special educational needs you choose to share), parent or guardian contact details, the documents you upload (such as a birth certificate, report card and passport photo), and the payment method you pick.
• Technical data. Our servers record standard request logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested and time). If you sign in, we set a session cookie to keep you signed in.

3. How we use your information

• To create and manage your account and sign you in.
• To pass your inquiry or admission application to the school or institution you chose, so they can respond.
• To send you messages about your inquiry or application.
• To keep the site secure, prevent spam and abuse, and fix problems.
• To keep Muhula safe for children: text members write on Muhula and MuhulaKonnect (including messages) is checked automatically for offensive, sexual, threatening or hateful words, drugs and political campaigning, and photos members upload may be checked by AI (Anthropic's Claude) for unsafe content. Text with such words is not posted; attempts and matches are kept for the Muhula team, who may warn, suspend or close an account. Members can report an account to the team; the person reported is not told who reported them. These records are kept for up to two years.
• To run lessons, school communication and payments that you or your school asked for.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

To keep school communities safe, we automatically check text for links to outside meeting apps. We do not store blocked text, and no person reads it.

4. When we share information

• Schools and institutions receive the details you submit to them. Once they have it, their own privacy practices apply.
• Service providers process data only on our behalf: DigitalOcean (hosting, in the United Kingdom), our email provider, and the storage holding our encrypted backups. A hidden copy of emails from the Muhula website goes to the team's inbox on Gmail, so the team can help with problems. MuhulaKonnect emails, sign-in codes, password links, join codes and vouchers are left out.
• Google, Facebook and Microsoft handle sign-in when you choose to continue with them, under their own privacy policies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft).
• Anthropic (Claude): in MuhulaKonnect, when a teacher chooses "Read marks from the photo", the photos of that piece of work, the assignment details and the marking scheme are sent to Anthropic's API so Claude can read the teacher's marks and comments. Only the photos are sent, not names or contact details; Anthropic processes them on our behalf and does not use them to train its models. The teacher checks every mark before it is saved. When a school sends Muhula a write-up to be listed, the Muhula team may also use Claude to read it and prepare a draft listing, which the school checks and approves before it is published. Questions typed into the Muhula assistant (the chat button on muhula.com) are sent to Claude to be answered, together with the last few messages of that conversation; Muhula does not store the conversation, which stays in your browser tab. Please do not type personal details into it.
• 8x8 (Jitsi as a Service) runs the video rooms of MuhulaClass lessons and of MuhulaKonnect live classes, holiday tuition and parents meetings. It receives the name shown in the room and the live video and sound of the lesson, under its own privacy policy. Muhula does not record these lessons.
• Mapbox draws school bus routes along the roads in MuhulaKonnect. When a school sets up a route or changes its stops, only the map points of the stops, in order, are sent to Mapbox, with no names, learners or contact details; the live location of a bus is never sent. The road line is kept on Muhula's server, so the same route is not sent again. Mapbox works under its own privacy policy.
• Safaricom (M-Pesa) and Paystack process payments to Muhula when those options are offered.
• Paystack processes online payments of school fees and other school charges in MuhulaKonnect (M-Pesa and cards) on behalf of the school, under its own privacy policy; the school receives the payment and sees what you paid.
• Your school community. In MuhulaKonnect, people see only what their role allows: for example parents see their own children's work, and phone numbers and emails are not shown.
• Tutors see the name of each learner who books with them.
• Authorities, where the law requires it.

5. Data outside Kenya

Some of our providers work outside Kenya, including in the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, so personal data can leave Kenya: hosting, video rooms, email, AI features, bus route maps and sign-in services. We use these providers to deliver the service you asked for and rely on their data protection terms. We do not send more than each one needs.

6. Children's data

A child is anyone under 18. Children's data needs extra care, and the child's best interests come first.

• Parents and guardians decide. Admission applications and bookings must come from a parent or guardian, or with their permission. You must be 18 or older to create a Muhula account yourself. On MuhulaKonnect, a student's account stays closed until a parent approves it in the app, or the school records that it holds the parent's written consent or that the student is 18 or older. We keep a record of each approval and withdrawal.
• Only what is needed. Students do not need an email address or phone number, and school-made accounts have neither. Children's data is used only for their schooling, lessons and safety.
• No advertising or profiling. We do not sell children's data, target them with advertising or build marketing profiles of them. There are no ads inside MuhulaKonnect.
• Private by default. Students' records are not public or found by search engines. Students can message only their teachers, and never other students or parents privately. Muhula's photo work for school pages leaves out close-ups of children.
• Live lessons. Rooms open only to signed-in members or people with a personal join code, the teacher or tutor controls who enters, and Muhula does not record them. Tutors are checked by the Muhula team before they can post a lesson.
• AI. AI may read photos of work so a teacher can check marks. A person always decides, AI never makes a decision about a child by itself, and this data does not train AI models.
• Your rights over your child's data. A parent or guardian can ask to see, correct or delete it, and can withdraw consent. For school records, ask the school first, or write to info@muhula.com and we will help.

If you are a student: your school uses MuhulaKonnect for your work, marks and class messages. Your teachers and parents can see these. We do not sell your information or show you ads. Keep your password to yourself. If something worries you, tell a parent or teacher, or ask them to contact us.

7. Cookies and browser storage

We use cookies only to run the site: to keep you signed in, to remember a device you trust for sign-in codes, and to remember a device used with a join code. Your saved schools, comparison list, recently viewed pages and theme are stored in your own browser; if you sign in, recently viewed pages are also saved to your account. The MuhulaKonnect app keeps pages on your device for offline use until you sign out. Pages also load fonts, scripts and map tiles from third-party providers (Google Fonts, Cloudflare cdnjs and OpenStreetMap), which receive your IP address when they serve those files. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

8. How long we keep data

We keep data only as long as it is needed. Account data is kept while your account is active. School records are kept while the school uses MuhulaKonnect, or until the school or a parent asks us to delete them, unless the law requires us to keep them. Call-back numbers are deleted 30 days after the call. Vouchers last 12 months. Payment records are kept as tax law requires. Inquiries and applications are kept as long as needed to complete them and resolve later questions, then deleted or anonymised. Encrypted backups are replaced within about 5 weeks. Server logs are kept for a limited period for security.

9. Security

The site uses HTTPS, private files are checked on every download, and sensitive details are encrypted. Sign-in codes protect accounts, and school and team administrators confirm every sign-in. Access to submitted data is limited to the people who need it. No system is completely secure. If a breach puts people at real risk, we will tell the Data Protection Commissioner within 72 hours and tell those affected as soon as we can.

10. Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act, 2019 you can ask to access, correct or delete your personal data, object to its processing, or withdraw consent. Email info@muhula.com and we will respond within a reasonable time. You can also complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (odpc.go.ke).

Deleting your account and data: email info@muhula.com from the address on your account and ask us to delete it; we will delete your account and the personal data linked to it. If you signed in with Google, Facebook or Microsoft, you can also remove Muhula's access at any time from your Google Account connections, Facebook Apps and Websites settings or Microsoft account app permissions.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The effective date at the top shows when it last changed. See also our Terms of Service.

12. Contact

Muhula, Nairobi, Kenya. Email info@muhula.com.