By: Angela Okune and Leonida Mutuku (iHub Research).

Discussant: Seyram Avle

Abstract:

Drawing out a genealogy of Kenyan STS that links to and also complicates Nairobi as a hub for techno-capital and venture philanthropy, in this essay, we build on work by critical computing and communications scholars to better understand the increasingly fraught discussions about race, privilege, expertise and capital which are transpiring in the Nairobi tech sector. As founding members of iHub Research, the research department of Nairobi’s flagship co-working technology space, we interweave our experiences from five years of strategizing and developing the research department of Nairobi’s flagship technology center with critical analysis of policy documents, research reports and funder narratives to understand the emergence of Nairobi as “Silicon Savannah” and the production of the Black African Techpreneur as another figure of international development.