JUDITH OWIGAR

President, Akirachix

Judith Owigar is a co-founder and president of Akirachix; a revolution for African women and technology. She is a coder, a blogger and a tech enthusiast. Through Akirachix, women who are interested in technology come together through the activities of networking, mentorship and training. Akirachix works with women who are tech professionals, university and high school students. Akirachix also runs a training program that gives basic tech and entrepreneurship skills to girls from poor urban areas in Nairobi.

Judith was recognized with the Anita Borg Change Agent Award 2011 by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. She has also been honored by the US Embassy in Kenya with the Unsung Heroes Award. This was in recognition of the work that Akirachix has done to promote women and give them a voice using science and technology. Together with a team of 2 other members, Judith was recognized as one of the top 50 SMEs in the Infodev Global forum. In 2009 Judith was named as one of the Top 40 under 40 women by the Business Daily newspaper in Kenya. In 2007 she was named the Best Female Engineer at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers students’ exhibition. Judith went to University of Nairobi where she graduated with a diploma and a degree in Computer science.