I struggled to keep money until I did this: the story behind the Kede app

If you had met me before May 2024, you would not have picked me to build a money app. I was probably the last person you would trust with money. I struggled to keep money for years. This is the story behind the Kede app, and why I built it. It is also the Kede app story I wish someone had told me years ago.

The story behind the Kede app begins with a problem

That is strange, because I had already founded Kartel Tech in 2018, a company based in Uganda that works with businesses in Uganda and around the world. We design websites and do SEO, branding and digital marketing, build custom software, SACCO systems, mobile apps and business portals, set up office networks, Wi-Fi and server rooms, teach ICT, and supply computers and accessories. The work was there, and so were the clients. Yet in my own pocket, the money came in and the money went, and I could not tell you where. Earning was never my problem. Keeping was.

I was not lazy. I worked, and I worked hard. But every month ended the same way: I had earned, and I had nothing to show for it. In between, I never saw the money.

Saving was impossible. How do you save what you never see?

The voices that stirred me

All along, I was hearing. I listened to Apostle Grace Lubega, and something was being stirred in my spirit: that I must be faithful with what has been entrusted to me, and that a faithful person knows what comes in and what goes out. Then I heard Mr. Patrick Bitature say that a man who does not save cannot invest. That one hurt, because it was about me. If I could not save, I could never invest. I was stuck at the bottom of a staircase, looking up.

Why I built Kede: it started with Excel in May 2024

The story behind the Kede app really starts here. So I did something small. In May 2024 I opened Excel and wrote down every coin in and every coin out. Even a visit to a public toilet, I recorded it.

It was slow and ugly. But for the first time, I could see. And what I saw was uncomfortable: I had been losing out, all along, in places I never noticed. Small amounts, again and again, adding up to the money I could never find.

You can't fix what you can't see. Now I could.

Why Excel did not last

But the sheet did not last.

Excel lived on my computer, and my life did not. I earned and spent out in the field, far from any desk. By the time I got back to the computer, the day was a blur. I could not remember what I had spent, or on what. So the sheet had gaps, and a sheet with gaps tells lies. I tried it on my phone, and it was a nightmare: tiny cells, endless pinching and zooming, a keyboard covering half the screen, just to write one line. Nobody does that standing in the sun with money in one hand.

A computer is not something you carry in your pocket. Money is spent anywhere, at any time. So the record has to be wherever you are.

I could not go back to not knowing. But I could not live with Excel either. I needed something small, fast and always with me, something that could take down a spend in seconds, the moment it happened.

How Kede started: a tracker in my pocket

So I built it. The first Kede was simple: what came in, what went out, on my phone. That became the Tracker. And for the first time, the month made sense.

The Kede app dashboard (demo account)

Money I had promised and forgotten

Then I watched Pumla Nabachwa, an economist and certified financial literacy coach at the Bank of Uganda, speak about income, expenses and saving, and how they fit together. One thought stayed with me. My problem was not only the money I could not see. It was the money I had already promised away and then forgotten: rent, school fees, a supplier, a worker's pay.

So I built the Workplan. Every bill, with its amount and its date. Pay it in parts, and Kede keeps the history. You know what is paid, what is left, and what is late, before it catches you.

Learning to save

Then Mr. Bitature's words came back to me: a man who does not save cannot invest. Pumla's teaching was the same: save as soon as you earn.

So I built Goals. Kede looks at what you really earned and spent, and suggests a weekly amount you can actually keep up. It can even create a savings wallet for the goal, so your savings have their own place.

Quotations, invoices and an AI money coach

As I used it, I saw that many people were like me, and many ran small businesses. They needed to look professional and to know who still owed them. So Kede grew to let you generate quotations, invoices and receipts for free, and to show you who still owes you.

Much later, I added an AI money coach. You can type "sales 250,000, lunch 7,000" and Kede turns it into entries you check before saving. You can ask "Where did most of my money go this month?" and it answers from your own records, in simple words.

Why I opened Kede to everyone

Through it all, the same voices kept me going. Then in 2025 I watched a long conversation about the money game. Wesley Ogude measured his wealth for the first time, 38 years after leaving school. He felt depressed and happy at once. Depressed at the number. Happy because his eyes were open.

I knew exactly how he felt.

For a long time I used Kede alone, because I wanted to be sure it truly helped. When I was sure, I opened it to everyone, in October 2026.

Where the Kede app story leads today

The story behind the Kede app ends here, and your story can start. I did not build Kede to be another app. I built it because I was tired of working all month and never seeing the money, and I did not want you to go through that.

Kede is the income and expense tracker I once wished for. It fits in your pocket, so you can record money in seconds, the moment it moves. Your bills are planned, so nothing catches you late. You save with a weekly amount built from your real numbers. You can generate quotations, invoices and receipts for free and see who still owes you. And when you are stuck, your AI money coach answers in plain words, from your own records.

It works on Android, on iPhone and in any browser, and it is free to start. You do not need to be good with money, and you do not need to have a lot of it. You only need to be willing to see.

Kede never holds, moves or lends your money. It only helps you see it, plan it and keep it.

What the name Kede means

And the name? Kede comes from the Greek word kēdemonía, which means guardianship: the faithful care and oversight of something entrusted to you. Your money is exactly that. However you earn it, daily, weekly or once a season, it was entrusted to you. Kede exists to help you guard it well.

If you are where I once was, you are not the worst. You just can't see yet.

Get started for free at kede.app, and let's guard what is entrusted to us. You can also read a plain guide to everything Kede does and a first-week walkthrough.