AkiraChix
AkiraChix trains promising young women in Kenya for careers in the country's growing tech economy, where a gender gap keeps many out. Its year-long residential program in Nairobi offers full-scholarship housing, meals, and coding training, then connects graduates to jobs. Graduates earn an average of $512 a month, more than 75% of Kenya's formally employed workers.
Challenge
In Kenya's cities, young women with the aptitude to code often cannot break into the tech jobs opening up around them. The obstacle is rarely talent. It is that the shortest path into a tech career runs through a university degree, and employers rarely look beyond that pipeline. A young woman who teaches herself to code stays invisible to the companies hiring.
Free tech training exists, but most of it is short and classroom-only. For a woman from a low-income household, that is not enough. Reaching an employable skill level takes close to a year, and a year without earning is a year she cannot afford. So she drops out before her skills are ready, and returns to informal work.
The stakes are wide. Hundreds of thousands of young women in Kenya face these barriers at once, shut out of an economy that is expanding without them.
Solution
AkiraChix runs a year-long residential program in Nairobi for promising young women aged 19 to 22 with a strong aptitude in maths and science. Each student lives on campus with housing, meals, and wellbeing support fully covered by a full scholarship. That matters: without free housing and meals, low-income women cannot afford a year away from earning, and most drop out. Freed from that pressure, she spends the year building coding skills, professional development, and confidence on real community-driven projects. AkiraChix then connects graduates to jobs through partner tech companies, and they can keep upskilling into specialized, high-paying roles in AI, data science, and machine learning.
Impact
Success for AkiraChix looks like one thing: a young woman who finishes training, lands a formal tech job, and earns enough to stand on her own. The numbers show that path opening. codeHive graduates earn up to 4.4 times more than peers who never joined the program, and their average entry-level salary of $512 a month beats what 75% of Kenya's formally employed population takes home. The money follows a shift in how graduates see themselves: 85% say they can pursue a tech career without feeling intimidated. Graduates who move into specialized roles in AI and data science earn 4.9 times more on average than those in general roles.
SDG Alignment
AkiraChix exists to close Kenya's tech gender gap, training young women to enter a male-dominated tech economy; 85% of graduates report they can pursue a tech career without intimidation.
The codeHive program connects graduates to formal tech jobs through partner companies, with graduates earning an average of $512/month—more than 75% of Kenya's formally employed—moving them out of informal work into decent employment.
The one-year residential codeHive program delivers coding instruction, professional development, and full-scholarship housing and meals, while codeHiveX provides ongoing upskilling into AI and data science.
Leadership
Linda Kamau | Founder & Executive Director
According to a profile snapshot, Linda Kamau founded AkiraChix in April 2010 and leads it as Executive Director, styling herself its Chief Fixer, with a mission to address poverty, unemployment and gender inequality in access to ICTs through training, mentorship and outreach for women in tech. She spent nearly nine years as Lead Developer on the Ushahidi Platform, serves on the board of WISER Girls School, and was a founding working group member of the African Visionary Fund. She completed the Stanford GSB Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship and holds a BSc in Business Information Technology. Her strengths span web development, mobile applications, PHP, MySQL and JavaScript, and she has been recognized as an Obama Foundation Leader: Africa and one of Business Daily's Top 40 Under 40 Women in Kenya.
Leadership team & Board (6)
Zipporah Njoroge | Finance & People Operations Lead
According to a profile snapshot, Zipporah Njoroge has served as AkiraChix's Finance & People Operations Lead since February 2015, ensuring financial sustainability and operational efficiency across budgeting, donor funds management, audits, internal controls and people operations. A CPA(K) with an MBA in Finance & Administration and a BSc in Economics, she brings over ten years of financial management experience, having previously worked as an accountant at Mvuli Hotels and Metrocosmo Limited. Her strengths include financial reporting, grants management, budgeting and forecasting, and tax compliance.
Lydia Oduor | Partnerships & Communications Lead
According to a profile snapshot, Lydia Oduor joined AkiraChix as Communications Lead in April 2022 and has served as Partnerships & Communications Lead since January 2024, forging partnerships across Sub-Saharan Africa, supporting the Executive Director on fundraising and donor communications, and leading the organization's communication strategies and campaigns. She previously served as PR and Communications Specialist at Compassion International Kenya, Communications Executive at Levanter Africa, and a communications intern at the ICRC in Nairobi. She holds a BA in Public Relations from Daystar University and brings strengths in strategic communications and impact storytelling.
Kelly Ogutu | Operations Lead
According to a profile snapshot, Kelly Ogutu has led operations and hospitality at AkiraChix's residential campus since March 2021, overseeing kitchen, service, security, housekeeping and maintenance, enforcing safety and compliance standards, and supporting recruitment and major campus projects. He brings 13 years of hospitality experience, including executive chef roles at Zita Properties' Highview Hotel in Tanzania and Superior Hotels Kenya, and a sous chef role at Panari Hotels and Resorts. He trained in hotel and catering management at Kenya Utalii College and brings strengths in operations, culinary and facilities management.
Board
Chilande Kuloba-Warria | Board Chair
Cher-Wen DeWitt | Board Member
Julius Kabangi | Board Member
Last updated: August 2026. This profile was created with the help of generative AI, based on documents and information directly provided by AkiraChix. Profile updates are requested on an annual basis and profiles must be updated a minimum of once every 24 months to remain published.