For the longest time, the tech world has been a predominantly male industry. But if the situation in Kenya is anything to go by, there is a huge shift taking place. Women are slowly climbing up the tech ladder and taking over. If you look around you, more women are the voice of tech companies. More and more start-ups have their co-founders as women.
The tech world is a competitive world. Even with women taking over, there is stiff competition ot be the best of the best. There are a few women who stand out from the rest.
Here is a list of the top 10 Kenyan women in tech
1. Judith Owigar
If you’ve heard of Akirachix then you probably already know about Judith
Owigar. She is the president of Akirachix; a revolution for African women and
technology, a coder, a blogger and a tech enthusiast. She started off as a tech
support specialist in a Kenyan company called Turnkey Africa. Turnkey Africa is
a start up that provides solutions to insurance companies and banks in Africa.
She later moved to the position of developer at a start-up called Ibid Labs.
There she honed her developer skills. She later moved to Japan Center for
Conflict Prevention (JCCP); an organization the deals with peacebuilding in
Macedonia, Afghanistan and East Africa.
2. Martha Chumo
In the process of applying for medical school, Martha Chumo
happened upon coding through a tech internship which sparked her curiosity to
head straight into the tech world. Chumo was set to attend Hacker School, a
U.S-based retreat for programmers, in New York to master her skills and meet
fellow coders, but she couldn’t raise the airfare needed to do so. She started
an Indiegogo campaign for her trip and ended up raising $5,800. That wouldn’t
be the final obstacle, however. In the end, because Chumo could not demonstrate
to the U.S. government that she had sufficient “social ties†to Kenya to
prove she was returning home after the Hacker School, she was denied a visa.
Instead of giving up, Chumo remained passionate about her desire to learn and
her own hacker school which she named Nairobi Dev School.
3. Hilda Moraa
Hilda Moraa is one of the founding partners of Weza Tele Limited and
Myorder. Hilda graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Information
Technology from Strathmore University and has a Masters in Innovation &
Entrepreneurship by Research. She has published and written numerous research
papers and journals on the thematic focus of ICT, development, and
entrepreneurship.
4. Catherine Kiguru
Catherine Kiguru is a skilled software engineer from Kenya who
has expertise in building mobile and back-end solutions. She is one of the
brains behind Ukall.
She also designed and developed Akida, a mobile application that keeps track of
mobile staff and those located in remote sites. Catherine started out within a
local security firm working with their staff and was tasked with automating
their operations. She kicked off Akida by building their back-end solution.
5. Jessica Colaco
Jessica Colaco is currently the Director of Partnerships at
iHub. She was the Founding Manager between 2010 and 2011 at iHub and Research
Director between 2011 and 2013 at iHub Research. She uses her position at iHub
to court local, regional and international stakeholders to adopt Kenyan-made
and African-made solutions. She is the co-Founder of WMIAfrica and AkiraChix, ISOC-Kenya Chapter,
Treasurer, ACM-W Nairobi Chapter Chair, TED Global Fellow 2009 and upcoming
Guitarist. She was named one of the top 40 women under 40 years in Kenya’s
business scene by Business Daily in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
6. Nivi Mukherjee
Nivi Mukherjee is the co-founder and CEO of eLimu, an
interactive educational platform with rich digital localized content for the
Kenyan Primary School curriculum. She worked in the IT training industry (for
adults) for 6 years before starting eLimu. She also runs Maisha ni Matamu (life
is sweet in Swahili), a social project that aims to bring a day full of joy
every month to children who are underprivileged and/or orphaned.
7. Shikoh Gitau
Shikoh Gitau is the founder of Ummeli, Guitings Education Trust, and TaaSisi. Shikoh, has 10+
years of experience in ICT4D technology design & implementation. She has
established expertise in both African and other Emerging Markets research and
design practice with a specialized interest in issues pertaining to the development
and use of technology in resource-poor communities. She currently leads the
User Innovation efforts at Mercy Corps. In this role, Shikoh uses insights
drawn from continuous and constant interaction with various communities to
inform design and product development for the marginalized communities. Prior
to Mercy Corps, Shikoh worked as a User Experience Researcher with Google
primarily focusing on Emerging Market Users, she has also worked in various
capacities both with the private sector and non-government organizations in
Kenya and South Africa
8. Lynn Sellanga
Lynn Sellanga is the Operations Manager at the Nailab, a tech business
incubator based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has been with the Nailab for close to
three years, starting of as the Liaison Officer and growing to her current
role.
Using her academic, past work experience, and on-the-job training, Lynn has helped to influence the success of various tech-based businesses, for example, Sematime, Gigwapi, Sokotext, and Cladlight by offering training, mentorship, and office support services.
Lynn holds a Bachelors's degree in Information Systems and
Business Administration from the University of Texas. She is also a board
member of Sokotext and
an advisory board member of Young Freddie Collections, a startup currently incubated at
the Nailab. Lynn is also a board member of Afrilabs, the consortium of hubs and incubation labs in
Africa.
9. Jamila Abass
Jamila is the C.E.O and co-founder of M-Farm. She strives to
empower farmers by using technology as well as drive growth in the East African
IT sector. She quit her job at Kenya Medical Research Institute
(KEMRI/University of Washington) where she worked as a Medical Records Systems
developer to co-found M-Farm. She worked as a Software Engineer in other
companies like African Virtual University and also served as the Business
Development Manager of the Akirachix, an IT forum for girls.
10. Catherine Mahugu
Catherine has been involved in various ICT for development projects including with Stanford’s Nokia Africa Research Center building mobile apps for informal communities. She co-founded SasaAfrica, a woman-owned and operated social enterprise that empowers craftswomen to become global entrepreneurs. Catherine joined the SasaAfrica team to help develop a scalable and appropriate technological solution, and manage technology integration across mobile and web platforms