Amani Kamau

Kenyan tech entrepreneur who created Africa's first mobile health diagnostic platform

Amani Kamau (b.1975) founded mHealth Africa in 2002, a groundbreaking SMS-based system that revolutionized disease reporting across Kenya. Her platform enabled real-time tracking of malaria outbreaks through simple mobile phones, reducing response times by 80%. This system was adopted by Uganda's Ministry of Health in 2005 and expanded to 7 African countries by 2010. Kamau's 2003 paper "SMS for Public Health Surveillance" became a cornerstone in telemedicine research. Her 2007 collaboration with UNICEF produced the Mobile Midwife app, providing prenatal care guidance to 250,000+ rural mothers. In 2009, she launched Tech4Health Africa, training 1,200+ tech professionals. Kamau's TEDx Nairobi talk "Why SMS Saves Lives" (2011) highlighted her belief in low-tech solutions for high-impact results. Her work inspired the WHO's 2012 mHealth strategy, and her team's 2015 partnership with IBM produced AI-driven disease prediction models now used in 12 countries. Kamau's legacy includes a $5M innovation fund supporting African health tech startups through her Future Health Initiative.