Nanjira Sambuli is a mathematician, new media strategist and technology enthusiast based in Nairobi, Kenya. She's a keen observer on how technology is impacting governance, media and culture. With iHub Research, Nanjira has developed a framework for assessing the viability, verification, and validity of crowd-sourcing information for her projects. One of them is Umati, an online dangerous speech monitoring project currently running in Kenya and Nigeria. Another is a publication on ICT and Governance (Civic Tech Landscape) in East Africa.
Sambuli has worked with organizations such as UNEP, Africans Act 4 Africa, and Global Power Shift, on their pan-African and international new media based campaigns. On the technology front, Nanjira is the editor of Innovative Africa: The new face of Africa tech essays collection.
Her Work: A Woman of many parts
She is presently on of the Board of Trustees of mySociety in London, United Kingdom. They build online technologies that give people the power to get things changed, and we share these technologies so that they can be used anywhere.
She is a Member of the Board at Media Policy Research Centre and also an advisory board member for SUMOFUS.
From January 2016-April 2016, she was the Research Lead iHub Nairobi, overseeing the mandate, and leading a team of talented researchers towards driving local tech research in East Africa.
Between August 2014- April 2016, she was the Network Co-Coordinator for Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network.
At iHub Nairobi she worked on developing a framework for the viability of election-centered on crowd-sourcing, with the 2013 Kenyan general elections as a case study. The report and framework can be found here.
Nanjira also worked on the Umati project, which seeks to identify and understand the use of dangerous speech in the Kenyan online space in order to find and use non-government ways to reduce its effects of violence in Kenya.
From May 2012-July 2012, she consulted for UNEP, on social media usage for World Environment Day 2012 and the Rio+20 Summit.
In September 2011, she worked on setting up and rejuvenating Sandstorm online customer service, online presence/interaction, and digital marketing.
In November 2010, she handled the online presence and communication for Nairobi Kinanda Arts Festival.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
What isn't there to love? Nanjira is a dynamic young woman. She understands the unfolding impact of ICT adoption in governance, entrepreneurship, innovation and societal culture across the African continent.
Barbara Mallinson is the Founder and CEO of Obami; which means 'Mine' in Zulu. She is married to Ennis Jones. Barbara is a graduate of University of Capetown where she earned a B.Sc. in Marketing and Economics. Barbara is an advisory board member for Mobile World Capital, a global initiative driven by the city of Barcelona and GSMA. She is the only sitting African.
She has received several awards in the Tech space such as: -
Her Work:
She founded Obami in 2007; a community learning platform that combines social networking tools. These social networking tools include profiles, profile pictures and news feeds. It helps to bring pupils, teachers and parents together to connect and exchange ideas. It also provide school administrators with a comprehensive platform to make school management easy and effective. The platform features digital assignments, worksheets, quizzes, tests, exams and questionnaires.
In 2010, she took part in Old Mutual’s “Do Great Things” campaign. She was also identified as one of the Mail & Guardian’s “Top 200 Young People to Take to Lunch” after spearheading successful innovative companies. These companies set a new standard on the local and international front.
From 2004-2005, she was the marketing Executive for Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc. She worked as a marketing manager at Axicom Limited from 2005-2006.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Technology is a great enabler that can transform lives and society. However a successful one for us is when someone is able to use such medium to change or improve the way things are being done. Barbara has utilized the social networking space to enhance and enrich the education sector of her country which is such an amazing innovation.
