Founding a Youth-Based Tech Organization
By Norah Borus
“Silicon Savannah” is a term thrown around frequently in articles, blog posts, and featurettes about the tech industry in Kenya. And rightfully so — Kenya’s tech development surpasses that of all Eastern African nations, and most African nations. The go-to example is our national pride, MPesa, which is the most successful mobile money system globally with 25 million active customers and which has been eyed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. IBM’s 12th global research lab, the first industrial research facility on the continent of Africa, is in Nairobi, Kenya. Funding is trickling into the tech circles of Kenya, with more and more startup pitch competitions springing up, such as 254Rising Hackathon and AngelHacks (hosted this year for the first time in Africa in Nairobi).
A flawed “Silicon Savannah”
Yet, with all this potential, the tech literacy in Kenya is painfully bad. It boils down to the approach universities and high schools take in teaching computer science. One of the main reasons I did not take Computer Studies in high school is that the syllabus is nothing to write home about. There is absolutely no coding involved in the class: the most you learn about programming languages is their history and uses. Computer Studies students graduate from high school with little to no relevant information about software development and the tech ecosystem in Kenya, and only those who somehow equip themselves with the relevant tools and receive adequate support are able to make it in the industry.
The situation is no better at the university level. To say the computer science curriculum is disappointing would be an understatement. In order to learn programming and problem-solving skills, a student has to find some reliable internet and online tutorials and sort himself/herself out. The introductory language is C; the lecturers give brief, casual mentions to important concepts and pay no attention to assignments. Students are completely lost and rely so much on other students who have had prior exposure with coding for help that their reliance could be considered cheating if the situation were not so dire.
These are accounts from students attending the most prestigious public universities in Kenya. Who is to blame for such a poor curriculum? We could blame the government — for not providing enough funding to the tech departments in universities, all the while piping on about the ambitious but poorly planned Konza City; we could blame the lecturers themselves, for doing a shoddy job; we could even blame the students for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. But most importantly, we need to realize that if youth passionate in technology are to succeed in the industry with the current state of education, they are going to have to think much bigger than their classrooms.
Starting NaiCode
Majoring in computer science at Stanford University has given me the opportunity to be taught by brilliant professors going through a thoughtful, detailed syllabus. But most importantly, I believe, it has shown me the importance of initiative. I have met wonderful people doing great things in their communities, running projects and doing research aimed at improving some aspect of society. It’s one of the reasons I applied for funding from Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service for a summer project. My project, I decided, would be to run a free nine-week coding camp in Nairobi, giving other youth the opportunity I did not have. Organizations such as Moringa School were already offering these services, but at high prices ($1400 dollars at Moringa). Thus they remained out of reach for many youth. I named my project “NaiCode” for two reasons: Nai is the short form for Nairobi and is also a Kiswahili prefix meaning “I am,” so NaiCode translates to “I code it.”
Armed with a cool name and a grant, I rallied three of my Kenyan friends to be co-instructors at the camp. We got 96 applications, interviewed 50, and accepted 23. About half of the class had just graduated from high school, and the other half had finished their first year at a university. We held the camp in the youth building at African Inland Church in Lang’ata. Throughout the course of the camp, we had lessons in Java, and then Android, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Approximately once every week, we toured a local tech company making great strides in their work, notably the iHub and Africa’s Talking. We also had a speaker series, where Kenyans in the industry would talk to the students about the startup culture in Nairobi, funding options for projects, hackathons, and tech-related communities such as NaiRuby, a group for Ruby enthusiasts in Nairobi. It was important for the tours and speakers to be of local talent, because sometimes students think that only internationally outsourced technical talent can do good. Kenyan solutions to Kenyan problems are inspiring. In addition to the full-time camp, we also initiated a coding club in Precious Blood Secondary School Riruta (my alma mater), holding two-hour lessons on Friday afternoons for its 30 members.
The participants were inspiring. One of them was a finalist in the 254Rising Hackathon, and his team, with their proposal of a delivery system for supermarket goers, won the startup pitch competition. The end-of-program showcase, where the participants presented the final projects they had been working on during the camp, was a testament to their passion, handwork, and commitment. The Android projects provided practical solutions to problems in the local restaurant, transport, and professional industries, while the Java projects showed rich design and use of graphics libraries.
The future of NaiCode
The full-time camp has ended, but we still continue Friday lessons at Precious Blood. NaiCode has also partnered with the Women in Technology Academy, a 12-week-long internship program at Safaricom Ltd which ran from September 2016 to December 2016. Our members were Java and Android instructors at the academy.
We officially registered NaiCode as a community-based organization in September and set up its committee, which consists of the graduates of the camp. We are working with Africa’s Talking, a local tech company that develops mobile APIs, to expand the program to major Kenyan universities. Nairobi has been the focus of many Kenyan tech ventures, but there are also talented youth in Mombasa, Kisumu, and Eldoret. Stable internet and electricity is really all you need to be a developer, apart from hard work and consistency. Youth buildings of churches are a great space, as places of worship are in most if not all regions and already target local youth. Unfortunately, stable internet and electricity are hard to find in Kenya. There is also the question of laptops: because of limited funding, the participants of the camp were required to have personal laptops or to borrow one from a family member. Many talented, economically disadvantaged youth were cut off by this requirement. These are the main challenges of scaling the program, and they will not be easy to solve. Even so, I look forward to the journey ahead. There is so much to learn about and so much to do for Kenyan youth passionate about technology.
Norah Borus is a sophomore majoring in computer science at Stanford University. She enjoys teaching CS, reading about Africa, writing, and playing the acoustic guitar.
