Nanjala Nyabola

Kenyan digital rights activist bridging Africa's digital divide

Nanjala Nyabola, a groundbreaking Kenyan writer and digital advocate, redefined technology's role in African social justice. Through her book Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics, she exposed how colonial-era power structures persist in modern tech ecosystems.

Nyabola co-founded Vochama, an AI-powered platform documenting police brutality during Kenya's 2017 elections. Her TED talk 'How the Internet Preserves Colonial Power' garnered 1.2M views, forcing global tech giants to re-examine African data policies.

She pioneered decentralized digital identity systems for refugees across East Africa, empowering over 200,000 displaced people to access services without compromising biometric data.