Politics and policy
Why Nairobi deserves the ICT innovation hub of Africa crown
Broadband penetration is growing steadily in Nairobi although it is still very low and outrageously expensive in much of Africa. Photo/FILE
Posted Friday, October 29 2010 at 00:00
Your flight is scheduled to leave at 6 a.m tomorrow morning,” Asani answered, as he put his mobile phone back in his shirt pocket.
Asani, a local street vendor in Nairobi whom I happened to meet moments ago in a bar, seemed amused by the startled expression on my face when I saw how quickly he managed to get flight info for me.
He quipped with a smile, “we Kenyans are more high-tech than you think.”
It was a particularly fitting comment as I neared the end of a week-long trip in Nairobi, a city I discovered is the tech and innovation hub of Africa.
I went to Nairobi last week to represent Mozilla at Maker Faire Africa (MFA) 2010 and lead several Mozilla workshops in and out of the city.
My aim was to engage with local web enthusiasts and developers, to get people interested in contributing to Mozilla.
I wanted to get a better understanding of how we can best push the Mozilla Project forward in Kenya and in Africa in general.
My trips for Mozilla are always rich and memorable experiences where I spend quality time with Mozillians and developers, meet incredibly smart and talented people, and learn so much about the local culture.
My trip to Kenya was no exception. I had heard and read a lot about MFA, especially after our participation last year.
The event brings together inventors and makers from all over Africa to help them showcase their work and celebrate African ingenuity and innovation.
I knew it would be the confluence of brainy, quirky inventors from every corner of the continent, but I had not anticipated such fun, energy and interaction.
Everywhere you looked, creative and colourful inventions from the automatic sisal weaver to the bike-powered phone charger, surrounded you.
Mozilla had a very colourful booth and was manned by passionate Mozillians, including Kwamena, Raymond, Alex, Atlanta and Jeff. Teeming with curious visitors, the “inventions” we decided to showcase were an eclectic set of Firefox add-ons.
For the particularly web-savvy, Kwamena, Raymond and I led short Mozilla workshops throughout the day, covering everything from how to get involved in L10n to how to develop your first add-on.
The response was pretty incredible, with dozens of people walking up to us after to help localise Firefox in their locale and, or, write language packs.
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