I was born in western Kenya and grew up in a small town called Koru near Lake Victoria after the demise of our father. I then headed on to study at Mang’u High School and eventually joined JKUAT for a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I am a fairly self-taught software engineer.
I have been fascinated by computer systems since my teens. I bought my first programming book in high school after watching a video from MIT students in the US programming robots. I then started learning to code as early as Form 3. My first language was C++ and then I moved to Java as I was waiting to join university.
Since then, I have ended up deploying software in almost a dozen languages. Professionally, I have practised software for around 7 years both in big American tech companies and start-ups in Nairobi. I started building mobile and web applications for various Kenyan government clients, the Nairobi stock exchange and the Nairobi county government.
I then briefly worked for two fintech start-ups that dispersed small loans before eventually moving to Microsoft Corporation in the African Development Centre (ADC) in Nairobi in 2019 as a member of the founding team. There I worked for the Windows and Azure teams for 2 years.
During the start of Covid, Meta(then called Facebook) reached out to me for an opportunity in London and I couldn’t say no to the opportunity to move to London. I ended up relocating in January 2021 and worked with Meta for 2 years as a production engineer.
Recently, I joined Booking.com to work in their infrastructure team as a software engineer, still based in London. These organizations' have given me the opportunity to impact millions of users worldwide through the software I develop.
Hobbies and Interests
One of my life goals is to travel to Antarctica before my 30th birthday!
What has been the biggest challenge and biggest win you've experienced having moved from your home country (Kenya) to your current country of residence (UK)
Biggest challenge: Dealing with the isolation of being far away from the people you love and care about.
Biggest win: New life perspective that ultimately leads to personal and career progress.
