DOT Kenya Nairobi Regional Competition Recap… The journey Continues
It was a Thursday chilly morning, as the DOT Youth Leadership Program (YLP) Cohort 1 participants were supposed to participate in the DOT Kenya Nairobi regional competition. The main purpose of the competition was to enable the competitors to showcase their MVP’s (Minimum Viable Product) of their social enterprise ideas which they had been working on for the past year. In essence it was a pitching contest.
Everyone was settled for the day. The silence is the room alone could dictate the level of tension in the surrounding. The judges of the Day were Petronila Ogola, Kamau Mugure and Eric Mureithi, whereas the MC for the day was Ann Nderitu. Peterson Macharia was the moderator of the day, but one would think he was one of the judges in disguise. He asked more questions than the judges but we realized his curiosity was due to his vast knowledge on matters regarding entrepreneurship in general and specifically social entrepreneurship.
The winner of the day was Brian Mwiti, creator of the Sixth Sense (an echo location tool for visually impaired people). The device uses vibrations (the technology used by bats for navigation), to sense obstacles up to 3 meters thus detecting obstacles in front, on the ground, and above the visually impaired person. This guy is a code Ninja he likes to play around with boards i.e Raspberry pi. Indeed there will be no more white sticks as technology has revolutionized.
Second runner’s up was Maulline Gragau who pitched her social enterprise Tazana which makes affordable, natural and hand-made hair care products for the African hair.
Third, was Anthony Njoroge of Mlinzi which is an escrow service tailored for the African market. “Escrow” is a way of exchanging property or money using a neutral third party. Through it’s platform mlinzi.co.ke safeguards your transactions from fraud; customers buy with absolute safety while sellers have the confidence to use a platform where their funds are secure.
Fourth place was for Reagan Madanje, whose social enterprise Itoopadpal helps disadvantaged girls receive free sanitary pads from their nearest shops in Kenya.
The fifth position was a tie between Michael Anjia of Mathare Digital Center who provides youth in Mathare slums with access to digital literacy education and, technical and soft skills and Doris Mugah of Notaka whose social enterprise collects used materials from tailors to create unique design pieces .
Mathare Digital Center will enable youth to secure jobs or start there own enterprises in the technology space. Notaka is a mobile application that links people with fabric refuses from tailors and others who are in need of them for recycling or upscaling.
Soon after the pitching exercise was done, there was a mentorship talk on entrepreneurship given by one of the guest judges, Eric Mureithi. He is a techprenuer and had a lot of wise words to share on his journey in entrepreneurship.
The DOT Kenya regional competition gave youth a chance to receive feedback on their prototypes and seed funding to enhance their prototypes in preparation for the national competitions in July. The winners will be given a chance to showcase their innovations at the DOT Unconference which will take place later in the year.
In the Nairobi regional competition pitching contest, a thing that stood out was “Utamu wa soda ni kuteuka”, a Swahili phrase meaning “the sweetness of a soda is belching”. How are you belching the great feeling of being part of the DOT Kenya YLP program?
Check out my next blog post for more details on all the amazing innovations that were presented during the DOT Kenya Nairobi regional competition.
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