Terms of Service

Welcome to Swahili Tutors. Swahili Tutors is operated by Afrika Imara Swahili Tutors, a business registered in Kenya (business registration number BN-KDS3ROML), based in Nairobi, Kenya (“Swahili Tutors”, “we”, “us”). By using our website, apps and services, you agree to these Terms of Service. Please read them carefully.

1. Who can use Swahili Tutors

You must be at least 18 to hold an account, or have the consent of a parent or guardian. A parent or guardian who books lessons for a child is responsible for the account and for how it’s used. If you don’t agree to these terms, please don’t use the platform.

2. What we provide

Swahili Tutors is a marketplace that connects people learning Swahili with independent Swahili teachers. We provide the platform: teacher profiles, booking, messaging, the online classroom, the wallet and payments. Teachers are independent and not our employees; each teacher is responsible for the lessons they give.

3. Your account

Keep your account details accurate and your password private. You are responsible for what happens under your account. We may suspend or remove accounts that give false information or break these terms.

4. Your wallet and how lessons are charged

• Prices are in US dollars. Each teacher’s rate is shown on their profile.
• You pay from your wallet. You add funds through our payment processor, Paystack (card, M-Pesa or bank transfer), between $5 and $500 at a time. Your bank or mobile money provider may charge its own fees or convert currency.
• Lessons are charged by the minute, only while you and your teacher are both in the lesson. The first minute is free, and time when either of you has lost the connection isn’t charged.
• A paid lesson isn’t cut off at the booked length. It continues until one of you ends it or your wallet runs out, so add funds before the lesson if you want the full time.
• Your balance doesn’t expire. If you want money you haven’t spent back, contact support and we’ll refund it to you, through the payment method you used where possible.
• Resources and translations are paid for as shown on their pages.

5. Your free first lesson

Your first lesson with each teacher is free and lasts up to 20 minutes. It must be the first lesson you book with that teacher, you get one per teacher, and it ends automatically at 20 minutes. If the lesson never takes place because one of you didn’t join, you can claim it again. If a teacher isn’t the right fit, try another: your first lesson with every teacher is free. This free lesson is our promise to help you find the right teacher; it isn’t a cash guarantee.

6. Booking lessons

• Some teachers confirm bookings straight away; others receive a request and confirm it or suggest another time. We tell you which applies to each lesson when you book.
• A teacher has 48 hours to answer a request. After that the request expires, the time is released and you’re not charged.
• Weekly lessons book the same time each week, up to four weeks ahead. Each lesson follows these terms like any other, and you can pause or end a weekly booking at any time.

7. Cancelling, rescheduling and missed lessons

• Free cancellation up to 12 hours before. You can cancel or reschedule a confirmed paid lesson free of charge until 12 hours before it starts. A request the teacher hasn’t confirmed can be cancelled at any time.
• Less than 12 hours before, you can’t reschedule a paid lesson. If you cancel, you pay the full price of the booked lesson (its length at the teacher’s rate) from your wallet, and you can only cancel if your wallet covers it. We tell you the amount before you confirm.
• If you miss a lesson your teacher came to, you’re charged the price of the booked lesson, up to what your wallet holds.
• If your teacher cancels late or doesn’t come, you’re not charged, and we keep a record of it.
• The free first lesson is never charged.

8. Refunds

If something went wrong in a paid lesson (technical problems, the teacher didn’t turn up or left early, the lesson wasn’t what was promised, or you were charged for time you didn’t have), you can request a refund from your wallet history within 30 days of the lesson. Our team reviews every request and emails you the decision.

• Approved refunds go back into your wallet.
• If the teacher hasn’t been paid for the lesson yet, you get back the full amount charged. If they have already been paid, the refund is our share of the lesson price (our commission).
• Payments made outside Swahili Tutors can’t be refunded or protected by us (see section 9).

9. Keep payments and contact on Swahili Tutors

No direct payments. Students and teachers must not suggest, offer or accept payment outside the platform, including mobile money, M-Pesa, bank transfers, PayPal, Wise or third-party payment links. Paying a teacher directly loses all refund and booking protection, and we can’t help with any dispute about an off-platform payment.

No sharing contact details (personal phone numbers, email addresses, WhatsApp, Skype, Telegram or other handles) to take conversations or payments off the platform.

Breaking these rules is a serious breach of these terms. We may review messages to enforce them, and may suspend or close the accounts involved; a teacher’s pending payouts may be forfeited.

10. Teaching on Swahili Tutors

• We review every application and may accept or decline it without giving reasons. A profile is listed once it meets our profile standards (photo, description, an introduction video, weekly hours and payout details) and we have reviewed it.
• Commission: we keep 40% of the lesson price for the first 60 paid minutes you teach each student, and 30% after that. You receive the rest.
• Payouts go out weekly, on Fridays, to the M-Pesa number or bank account in your settings. Earnings are in US dollars and are converted to Kenyan shillings at the rate when the payout is sent. After you change your payout details, payouts to the new details wait 72 hours, and we email you about the change.
• When a student cancels late or misses a lesson and is charged, you earn from it as from a lesson. When a refund is approved before you’ve been paid for a lesson, your earning from it is reversed; once you’ve been paid, it isn’t. Earnings that don’t match what the student was charged are held while we check them.
• Come to the lessons you’ve confirmed and cancel early if you must. Late cancellations and missed lessons are recorded and may affect your listing.
• You are responsible for any taxes on your earnings.

11. Behaving well

You agree not to:

• Give false or misleading information
• Use the platform for anything unlawful
• Harass, threaten, abuse or harm anyone
• Scrape or harvest other users’ data
• Get around the platform’s security or payment systems

You can report or block another user from a message thread or a teacher’s profile. Blocking stops messages and bookings between you. We review every report and may warn, suspend or remove anyone who breaks these rules.

12. Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in Settings. This can’t be undone. We delete or anonymise your personal data as described in our Privacy Policy; lessons you’ve already had are kept without your name so teachers are paid for them, and their chat and notes are erased. Upcoming lessons are cancelled and your teachers are told.

If your wallet still has money in it, ask us to refund it before you delete your account. Any balance left when the account is deleted is forfeited.

13. Intellectual property

All content on this website, including text, images, logos and design, belongs to Swahili Tutors or its licensors. You may not reproduce or redistribute it without written permission.

14. Limitation of liability

Swahili Tutors is provided “as is”. We work to keep it available and accurate but can’t promise it will always be. To the maximum extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the platform. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer law that can’t be excluded.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We’ll tell you about significant changes by email or with a notice on the website before they take effect. Continuing to use the platform after that means you accept the new terms.

16. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya, and the courts of Nairobi deal with any dispute about them. If you live outside Kenya, you keep any protections your own country’s consumer law gives you.

17. Contact

For questions about these terms, contact us at legal@swahili-tutors.com.