Kenya courts Silicon Valley as it aims to become Africa’s high-tech centre

Nonetheless, the level of activity and maturity of ideas by Kenyan techies impress him whenever he visits. Mbwana Ali is a Tanzanian immigrant in the US who works with Mr Bragiel’s I/O Ventures. “Entrepreneurs need to make sure they focus on building their product well. A lot of people here in the valley start off solving a problem that they are passionate about, then it grows into a company,” he says.

Timothy Sturgeon, a senior research affiliate at the equally reputable Massachussets Institute of Technology is a Silicon Valley insider having previously been at Berkeley. He has best summarised the Valley’s credo: “Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through the Valley’s past and present is the drive to “play” with novel technology, which, when bolstered by an advanced engineering degree and channeled by astute management, has done much to create the industrial powerhouse we see in the Valley today.”

Mr Ali agrees. “It has all the pieces of the ecosystem solved and it has been done over many years. No one country can jump and become a Silicon Valley in one goal but there are lots of steps to get there.’

lmadowo@ke.nationmedia.com