Terms of Service

1. Who these terms are between

These terms are a contract between you ("you", the person signing up) and MyChama Ltd (registration in progress), a Kenyan private limited company ("MyChama", "we", "us"). They govern your use of the MyChama platform at mychama.app, origin.mychama.app, and any related apps or services (together, the Service).

If you are signing up on behalf of a chama, group, or other organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that organisation to these terms.

2. What the Service does

MyChama helps a chama (savings / investment group) run its operations digitally:

• Track monthly contributions, loans, welfare claims, and investments.
• Generate member statements, balance sheets, and arrears reports.
• Schedule meetings, store minutes, send reminders.
• Receive M-Pesa payments via STK Push and paybill reconciliation.
• Send notifications by email, SMS, and (on eligible plans) WhatsApp.
• Manage member roles, permissions, and invitations.

MyChama is a record-keeping and workflow tool. It is not a bank, credit provider, payment service provider, sacco, or fiduciary. We do not hold member funds. Money moves between your chama and its members via your own bank or Safaricom, not through us.

3. Your account

• You must be 18 or older to create an account.
• The information you provide at signup must be accurate and up to date.
• You're responsible for keeping your password safe and for anything that happens under your account. Tell us quickly if you suspect unauthorised use.
• We may suspend or close accounts that show signs of fraud, impersonation, or serious misuse — with notice where the situation permits.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use MyChama to launder money, evade taxes, or circumvent AML/KYC obligations.
• Upload false, defamatory, or unlawful content; or content that infringes someone else's rights.
• Try to break the Service — denial-of-service, scraping, reverse engineering, probing for vulnerabilities without our written permission.
• Resell the Service or use it to build a competing product.
• Pretend to be someone you're not.

5. Subscription plans and payment

We offer a free tier and paid tiers. Current prices and included features are listed on our pricing page. Payment is via M-Pesa (for Kenya-based groups) or bank transfer on invoice (for annual plans).

• Billing cycle: monthly or annual. Your cycle starts on the day you subscribe and renews automatically unless you cancel before the next cycle.
• Cancelling: you can cancel any time from your account settings. You keep access for the rest of the current billing period; we do not refund the partial month unless it's required by law.
• Changes to price: if we raise prices, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice by email. The new price applies from your next renewal.
• Failed payment: if payment fails, we'll retry and email you. If it still fails, we'll move the account to a read-only grace period before suspending paid features.
• Taxes: prices are exclusive of applicable taxes; where VAT or other taxes apply, we'll add them at checkout.

6. M-Pesa payments and Safaricom terms

M-Pesa integrations use the Safaricom Daraja API. When you pay through MyChama, your transaction is also subject to Safaricom's developer terms and the regular M-Pesa customer terms. MyChama is not responsible for delays, errors, or fees introduced by Safaricom's systems.

7. Your data, your content

Your personal data is governed by our Privacy Policy. Content you put into MyChama (transactions, documents, minutes, photos) stays yours. You grant us a limited licence to host, process, back up, and display that content so we can operate the Service on your behalf.

You can export your chama's data at any time from the Service, and again within 30 days after cancellation. After that, we may delete your data, subject to the retention periods in our Privacy Policy §7.

8. Our intellectual property

The Service, the MyChama brand, and everything we create to deliver it (code, templates, design, documentation) belongs to MyChama. We licence you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service while you're a customer in good standing — nothing more.

9. What we promise — and what we don't

We work to keep the Service available, secure, and accurate. Nothing we say below limits or excludes any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 2012 or any other Kenyan law that consumers cannot waive.

That said, to the maximum extent allowed by Kenyan law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We don't warrant that it will be uninterrupted, bug-free, or fit for every purpose. You're responsible for making sure the Service suits your chama before depending on it.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or related to these terms or the Service is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the claim arose.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary losses; loss of profit, loss of business, or loss of goodwill; or any lost or corrupted data (beyond restoring the last successful backup).

These caps do not apply to, and we do not try to limit or exclude liability for: (a) personal injury or death caused by our negligence; (b) fraud or wilful misconduct; (c) gross negligence; (d) our obligations under the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019; or (e) anything else that cannot be limited under Kenyan law.

11. Indemnities

You agree to indemnify MyChama against claims, losses, and reasonable costs arising from (i) your misuse of the Service, (ii) your breach of these terms, or (iii) content you upload that infringes a third party's rights. We'll let you know promptly of any such claim and will cooperate reasonably in its defence.

We'll indemnify you on the same basis against third-party claims that the Service, as supplied by us, infringes that third party's intellectual property rights — subject to the liability cap in §10.

12. Suspension and termination

• You can close your account any time from settings.
• We can suspend or close your account for material breach of these terms (e.g. non-payment after notice, illegal use, security risk). We'll give notice and an opportunity to fix the issue unless urgent.
• Sections that naturally survive termination (data protection, liability, governing law, accrued fees) stay in force after your account closes.

13. Service levels and changes

We don't yet publish a formal SLA. We aim for high availability, monitor continuously, and communicate planned maintenance through the in-app banner and email. We may add, remove, or change features as the product evolves; where a change materially reduces functionality you rely on, we'll give at least 30 days' notice and a data-export window.

14. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with them is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Kenya. Either party may elect to refer a dispute to arbitration under the Kenyan Arbitration Act, seated in Nairobi, with a single arbitrator and proceedings in English.

Before any formal action, the parties will try in good faith to resolve the dispute by direct discussion for at least 30 days.

15. Changes to these terms

When we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page, bump the version, and notify you by email. We'll ask you to re-accept the updated terms the next time you sign in. Minor wording or clarifying fixes don't trigger a re-accept.

16. General

• These terms plus the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and MyChama about the Service. They supersede prior drafts, proposals, and conversations.
• If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• Our failure to enforce a term isn't a waiver of that term.
• You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.
• Notices from us will go to the email address on your account. Notices to us should go to [email protected].