Speakers

Muthoni is a Kenyan computer scientist and entrepreneur who has spent more than two decades building Africa's digital infrastructure, from continental government systems to grassroots mentorship programs. She earned her degree in Computer Science from the University of Nairobi and began her career helping build early university networks in the country.
At 24, she founded OPENWORLD Ltd, a leading e-Government and business technology firm in Eastern Africa. Under her leadership, OPENWORLD delivered major public-sector systems, including ARIS, a reporting platform used by the African Union across all fifty-four memberstates, and Kenya's national Performance Management System. Today, OPENWORLD has evolved to focus on data centre consulting, risk advisory, and professional training services. In 2019, she launched OpenBusiness Africa, a cloud- and mobile-based platform helping small and medium-sized enterprises across the continent digitize their operations and compete in the
modern economy.
Alongside her business work, Dorcas founded AfChix in 2004, a regional organization mentoring women in computing across Africa. Since then, AfChix has run annual career
conferences and built self-sustaining chapters across multiple countries, training women who go on to mentor the next generation themselves. Her contributions have earned international recognition, including the Anita Borg Institute's Change Agent award, selection as a Women's Forum Rising Talent, a 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader honor, and induction into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society in 2012. She continues to serve on the World Economic Forum's Global Council on
Technology Values and Policy, and has been a member of the UbuntuNet Alliance Board of Trustees since 2022, supporting the research and education network connecting universities across Eastern and Southern Africa. She has also served on the boards of Ushahidi, Enset, and HFC/HFCB, on the council of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, on Pompeu Fabra University's Global Advisory Board following her 2017 honorary doctorate, and is part of the Project Liberty network working on people-centered digital governance. Muthoni moves fluidly between building systems, leading strategic board technology decisions, advising in digital infrastructure projects and mentoring women in computing across Africa, and that range is what makes her voice on African digital infrastructure so distinct.