Franklin Sagini, CEO and head of AI at Esheria. Esheria is using technology to make legal services in Kenya more accessible and affordable.
The courtroom doors may be open, but for many Kenyans, the path is blocked by towering legal fees, convoluted procedures, and silence in the face of injustice.
When the pursuit of justice feels beyond reach, technology can become the great equaliser. Esheria is making legal knowledge accessible to all, breaking down the walls of Kenya’s legal fortress, the barriers of cost and complexity that have long hindered fair access. Through innovative use of artificial intelligence, the platform guarantees access to justice for everyone, regardless of socio-economic background.
Created to bridge the gap in affordable and accessible legal services, Esheria targets those who lack awareness of their rights and the legal processes, which often leads to exploitation.
“Barriers such as the high cost of legal representation, bureaucratic hurdles, and limited access to legal professionals made it clear that a tech-driven solution was necessary,” says Franklin Sagini, CEO and Head of AI.
His technical expertise, along with the practical insights of early pioneers like Austin Ekesa, Macrine Boisabi, and Maxwell Ochieng, shaped the creation of the platform, an efficient and fair solution designed to help people navigate and assert their rights confidently.
Esheria aims to simplify the process of seeking justice, making legal support more affordable and accessible, while alleviating the burdens on law firms and small businesses. The traditional legal system, often laden with jargon-filled documents and lengthy procedures, can be daunting, alienating the very people it is meant to serve.
“Overburdened court systems and limited legal aid services only exacerbate the problem, resulting in justice being delayed or, in some cases, denied altogether,” says Ekesa, one of the founders.
To address these challenges, Esheria developed an AI-powered digital platform that provides instant legal assistance. Its flagship product, LexChat, is an AI-driven chatbot designed to simplify legal information and offer real-time guidance on a wide range of legal topics.
“We have developed a proprietary language model tailored to Kenya's legal framework, enabling LexChat to provide real-time legal updates, interactive Q&A, and simplified summaries of complex legal issues,” he explains.
Draft legal documents
Esheria's AI can analyse contracts, draft legal documents, and provide simplified legal information with step-by-step guidance. Users can also access real-time advice on various legal matters, such as tenant rights, business contracts, family law, and more.
It also supports in-depth legal research, generates demand letters, reviews contracts, and offers comprehensive legal opinions. This innovation empowers individuals and businesses to navigate legal concerns without incurring excessive costs or waiting for prolonged periods.
Seated from left: Macrine Boisabi and Austin Ekesa, (standing from left) Franklin Sagini and Maxwell Ochieng' are co-founders of Esheria, a Kenyan legal tech platform using AI to simplify access to legal knowledge and justice.
In the beginning, sourcing and structuring Kenya's legal data was a major challenge. Additionally, scaling computing resources and recruiting top talent was costly, while persuading the conservative legal community to adopt their innovative approach took persistent effort.
They bootstrapped their operations by combining a strategic Sh2 million loan with personal savings.
“Early on, we began generating revenue from enthusiastic early adopters, reinvesting every profit. We believed in the mission so strongly that we embraced stock options,” he says, adding that this disciplined, self-reliant approach has allowed them to build and scale the platform. The cost of using Esheria’s services includes a standard monthly subscription priced at Sh799, with an advanced plan available for Sh2,999.
For mid- to top-tier law firms, it offers custom enterprise plans tailored to their specific needs. Additionally, partner community organisations receive free access to support legal empowerment initiatives. Ekesa says they regularly retrain their fine-tuned model using the latest open-source advancements to ensure their technology remains cutting-edge.
“Our system is updated daily with the latest case laws and legislation to keep the database current. We also use model assessments, statistical evaluations, and user feedback to continuously improve LexChat's reliability.”
Using AI in the legal sector presents challenges, such as model hallucinations and data privacy concerns. To address these, high-quality legal datasets are curated, and citations are ensured to be precise and trustworthy.
To maintain ethical and unbiased AI-driven legal advice, a multi-layered approach is employed, including reinforcement learning from human feedback, expert-labelled datasets, and continuous evaluations to ensure accuracy, fairness, and mitigate bias.
Esheria is enhancing legal accessibility through multi-modal AI agents that support voice inputs in vernacular languages, particularly benefiting rural areas. It features a unique AI model fine-tuned on Kenya’s legal domain, setting a new standard in legal research.
With tools like assisted case submission, competitive pricing, and fast legal research, it makes legal services more efficient and affordable. Users can access case laws, draft legal documents, and analyse contracts in real-time, empowering both legal professionals and the public.
LexChat interface
When visiting Esheria’s website, users can click on the "Try It for Free" button to access the interactive LexChat interface, where they can explore sample questions, register, and begin their journey.
After logging in, they can chat with up-to-date case laws, request document drafts, and search for legal topics, receiving accurate guidance instantly. LexChat also offers a comprehensive library of legal documents and templates, including affidavits, conveyancing forms, court applications, company documents, copyrights, trademarks, trust deeds, stamp duty forms, and more.
Each template is carefully crafted to meet current legal standards. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the legal information provided, precision is guaranteed by anchoring every citation with direct source links for easy verification. The platform features a multi-agent workflow, with a secondary model that rigorously reviews and corrects responses before they are delivered.
The system is fine-tuned using advanced models like DeepSeek R1 to ensure every answer is accurate, reliable, and up-to-date. Legal advocates can manage larger workloads more efficiently, resulting in lower billing rates. Community paralegals are empowered with advanced tools, enabling them to serve effectively at the grassroots level. It also supports pro bono initiatives and collaborates with legal aid organisations to provide free or subsidised services to detainees and remandees.
Esheria partners with organisations like Usikimye to educate gender-based violence victims on their legal rights and assist community paralegals in representing vulnerable groups, such as street children.
In collaboration with Huria, they help displaced communities defend their land rights and, through grassroots efforts, webinars, and educational resources, they promote legal awareness, simplifying complex issues like the Finance Bill 2024 to empower citizens. The company is also collaborating with the African Union through the African Union Civic Tech Fund, managed by GIZ, CTIN and Ushahidi.
Esheria plans to expand across East Africa, targeting key markets such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. With a 55 per cent AI adoption rate in the legal tech sector, their solutions aim to democratise access to justice. To stay ahead, they are strengthening partnerships and recruiting top talent to maintain their leadership in legal tech innovation.
