Transcript of Audio Clip Recorded November 30, 2020
Leo Mutuku:
Yeah, so the one thing I would want to avoid is thinking that the iHub... Like it's a part of the
technology story...but as you said, it's only like, especially the work we did, it's only five years
worth of this technology story. So I feel like concentrating on the iHub story, it raises
a lot of very important other narratives and experiences and spaces that have shaped Nairobi tech.
Angela Okune:
Yeah.
Leo Mutuku:
Yeah. So that's my worry about centering the story around iHub.
Angela Okune:
Yeah.
Leo Mutuku:
So I feel like iHub should be like a part of the narrative and how maybe it accelerated growth.
Because of the diversity also it attracted not just from local developers, entrepreneurs, etc. but also it really is what became attractive for international people to participate in tech in
Kenya. Like I feel like a lot of even these companies you said that received funding really
probably would not have thought of Kenya as a fertile land if it wasn't for, at that point, what the iHub represented, that optimism, that possibility.
This transcript is part of the source data for the article "Becoming an African Techpreneur: geopolitics of investments in “local” Kenyan entrepreneurship" by Angela Okune and Leonida Mutuku, published in the journal Engaging Science, Technology, and Society.
Find the full associated data here.
Explore other data published as part of the STS Spaces and Places Thematic Collection.
Leonida Mutuku and Angela Okune, 30 November 2020, "2020 Nov 30. Transcript of an Audio Clip on Contextualizing the iHub.", contributed by Leo Mutuku and Angela Okune, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 16 January 2023, accessed 26 April 2024. http://www.stsinfrastructures.org/content/2020-nov-30-transcript-audio-clip-contextualizing-ihub
Critical Commentary
This is a transcript of an audio clip recorded during a Zoom call between the co-authors Angela Okune and Leonida Mutuku which took place on November 30, 2020. As part of conceptualizing their paper, the co-authors were discussing the importance of contextualizing the iHub within a broader narrative of Kenyan tech (i.e. tech in Kenya didn't start and end with the iHub) while also recognizing its unique and important role in attracting international people and attention to Kenya for technology.
Find the audio clip associated with this transcript here.