DORCAS MUTHONI
Passionate Techpreneur transforming lives
Founder of Open World Ltd
Country: Kenya
Sector: Consulting / Information Technology
Dorcas Muthoni is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Openworld Ltd, a specialist computer software company she established in Kenya when she was just 24 years old. Today, Openworld is a leading e-Government and business software services firm involved in the delivery of some of the most widely used Web and Cloud applications in Africa, such as ARIS, an African Union reporting application used by all 54 member states; and the Performance Management System for the Government of Kenya, automating performance contracting in the public sector.
Dorcas is passionate about using technology to positively transform African society through the lives of its ordinary people, businesses and governments and is a co-founder of the regional organization LinuxChix Africa. She also serves as a Director at Ushahidi; is a Member of the council of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa - FOSSFA. Through her day to day work as an entrepreneur and Computer Scientist, Dorcas seeks to see technology positively transforming the lives of the African society, governments and enterprises. In 2012 Dorcas is inducted by the Internet Society into the Internet Hall of Fame.
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Dorcas' Startup Story
My story of success started many years back when I started helping to build networks for universities, being amongst the first women engineers to work with the Kenya educational network. Later I started up an open source company called Open World that develops software for e-government, and in 2004 founded an organisation called AfChix, a technical capacity building initiative for women in the region. For over 5 years in Kenya and across Africa, AfChix’s activities have included organising annual career conferences with a special emphasis on the uptake of computer engineering careers amongst young women and high school girls. This is one of my greatest passions. We have trained many women in many of the African countries that have AfChix chapters, who in turn have become trainers and have trained other women. We also started a mentorship programme in high schools and this involved bringing together girls from secondary schools all over Kenya and inviting women engineers, women web developers, and women computer enginers to mentor the girls and give them advice. This has had a major impact over the last 10 years. This gives me great joy to see so many great women engineers from various disciplines emerge.
- Dorcas Muthoni Ngatia
LoA loves Dorcas Muthoni’s tenacious approach to business and her seemingly in-built innovative nature to finding solutions to key challenges and overall problem solving. Her enthusiasm and passion for what she does is inspirational, as is her ability to constantly juggle her time, business commitments, special consulting projects and work/life balance. She is also a true inspiration to the next generation of young women in Africa who are interested in pursuing a career in IT. In the world of techpreneurship in Africa, she is definitely a woman to watch, both now and in the future. --- Melanie Hawken, LoA founder & editor-in-chief
OPENWORLD has been involved in the delivery of some most widely used Web and cloud applications in Africa, such as ARIS, an African Union reporting application used by all 54 member states; the Performance Management System for the Government of Kenya, automating performance contracting in the public sector; and OpenBusiness, a revolutionary cloud-based small- and medium-size business management tool.
"Through her work as an entrepreneur and computer scientist, Muthoni seeks to see technology positively transforming the lives of the African society, governments and enterprises."
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Awards & Accolades
Dorcas' awards and honours include:
- 2013, Dorcas is selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; an honour bestowed each year to recognize the most distinguished leaders from around the world under the age of 40.
- 2012, Dorcas is inducted by the Internet Society into the Internet Hall of Fame. Launched by the Internet Society in 2012, the Internet Hall of Fame in its virtual museum celebrates Internet visionaries, innovators, and leaders from around the world who believed in the design and potential of an open Internet and, through their work, helped change the way we live and work today.
- Dorcas is awarded the honour Global Connector, recognizing individuals from around the world who have made significant contributions to the global growth and use of the internet.
- Dorcas has been an Internet Society (ISOC) Fellow to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and World Bank infoDev Global Forum.
- 2009 Dorcas is selected to the Women’s Forum Rising Talent Network, a network of highly talented women with the potential to become influential figures in the future.
- 2008, Dorcas wins the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology’s Change Agent award.
This week saw Kenyan tech pioneer, Dorcas Muthoni, founder of Open World and creator of Open Business, sharing her thoughts on doing business in Kenya and the general lack of women in the tech sector in Africa as a whole, during a fascinating podcast interview with the Financial Times. Dorcas talked about the exciting new business opportunities in Silicon Savannah and also about how to avoid corruption in a country which has its challenges in the way that business has traditionally been done.