Blogpost by James Odede- Co-Founder of Lakehub, Kisumu
Inspiration
We are advised to follow our passion and spent our time doing the things we love. To many, the journey of finding their passion or purpose for existence (PFE) as John P. Strelecky put it in his book “The Big five for life” can last a lifetime. Others are lucky to find during the early stages of their lives, I count myself among the lucky. I joined iHub as a white member in late 2011, I was in my second year of study at Maseno University then where I was registered for CS degree programme. Reading the weekly newsletters by the iWeekly soon became a habit and I got more interested in the kind of knowledge I acquired through this. I found myself always on the know on Kenya and Africa tech scene, stuff that were little known to my
peers at the CS class was my everyday vibe. I was however disturbed by the fact that little was happening at this side of Kenya “Western Kenya” or more precisely at my University. I would take 7 hours of bus to Nairobi every time I wanted to be part of the events/hangouts that took. I enjoyed being around fellow techies, the psyche, the enthusiasm and the feel in the space made me feel part of a family.
peers at the CS class was my everyday vibe. I was however disturbed by the fact that little was happening at this side of Kenya “Western Kenya” or more precisely at my University. I would take 7 hours of bus to Nairobi every time I wanted to be part of the events/hangouts that took. I enjoyed being around fellow techies, the psyche, the enthusiasm and the feel in the space made me feel part of a family.
Life in Campus
At school, I joined a group of fellow students from school of computing and informatics and the school of mathematics and applied sciences, we formed a club which we named “ICT Guild” which brought together students interested in tech and entrepreneurship. We would meet every Sunday, share and learn together. We also hosted events like TEDxMaseno. My love for working with communities grew, I realized the more I taught others what I had learnt the better I got at it. I would get deeper into this when I hosted Akirachix at Maseno University for a three day bootcamp on Android app dev, USSD and mobile web. I was just beginning to pick skills on Android but because I helped organize the bootcamp, my friends thought I was the guru on matters Android. The challenge put pressure on me to get better at it, I trained many students on this. Before I knew there was a growing number of student developers at the University. I went on and help organize the mLab mobile bootcamps at the University and later on iHub and Intel EA campus outreach events. This made life in campus more fun, the fellow students that we did this together with had fun too.
I was selected the Google Student Ambassador for my University class of 2013/2014. This opened more opportunities to be part of a bigger tech community. Later in my last year, I was selected to be Intel Student partner for my University. The two programs made me learn a lot in building communities helped me broaden my network in Kenya and Africa tech scene. I was happy that activities that were only a reserve for Nairobi and its environs could now take place at Maseno University and had great impacts on the students.
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| Session at Lakehub kisumu |
The iHub and the greater Nairobi tech community has shown example that the rest of us can run away with. The Lakehub community is happy to be part of and contribute to Kenya tech community. All these would have not been possible without the efforts from the Lakehub community members, my co founder Evan Green-Lowe, Chandi Tome, Dorcas Owino, Deryl Aduda and Loreta who have continually dedicated their time to help in the day to day running of the space.
Adapted from Ihub Community