In rural Kenyan classrooms, Samburu, Somali, Borana, or Turkana-speaking children often face a familiar challenge, lessons are taught in English or Swahili, languages many don’t fully understand.
- •Abhinur Ali Mahdi, founder of M-Lugha, saw the gap firsthand and built an edtech platform designed to put learning in the child’s mother tongue.
- •M-Lugha combines AI, offline accessibility, mother-tongue content, and the backing of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship to tackle one of the continent’s most persistent barriers: language.
- •With 19 languages live and growing, Mahdi believes the next era of digital literacy in Africa will begin not with broadband or big data, but with the language children speak at home.
“Imagine walking into a classroom and the only language you understand is your first language, but the system insists on English,” Mahdi says. “It doesn’t make sense.”
UNESCO estimates that 40% of learners globally cannot access content in a language they understand. M-Lugha aims to change that in Kenya by translating the PP1 and PP2 curriculum into 19 indigenous languages, from names and attire to voiceovers and storybooks. The content is fully aligned with Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and approved by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
“If Sweden uses Swedish, and France uses French, why are African learners forced to use English from day one? Start with the mother tongue, build strong literacy, then transition,” Mahdi added.
Early pilots show promising results. Students in Wajir and Turkana who use M-Lugha demonstrate improved foundational literacy, because lessons start in a language they know. The app works offline, solving connectivity issues in remote areas.
“It’s from known to unknown,” Mahdi explains. “A child who speaks Turkana learns in Turkana first, then transitions to English. That’s how literacy should work.”
Many rural schools rely on teachers who don’t speak local languages. M-Lugha includes an AI-powered translation feature that allows teachers to type an English phrase—like “How are you?”—and instantly hear it in Somali, Samburu, or any supported language.
“It bridges the gap between non-local teachers and local communities,” says Mahdi. “The teacher clicks, and the children hear their own language.”
M-Lugha’s development accelerated to Cohort 3 of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, implemented by iHub Kenya. Over eight months, M-Lugha and 11 other startups tested tools in classrooms, refined accessibility features, and built solutions for low-connectivity and under-resourced schools.
“Being part of the Fellowship strengthened our ability to reach learners in marginalized communities,” Mahdi says. “More children can now access mother-tongue content that reflects their realities and improves comprehension.”
The program also revealed untapped potential in Kenya’s Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) tablets, many of which sit unused in schools. M-Lugha now runs on Android, iOS, and Windows, making the devices relevant again.
