A year ago, I coined a phrase that grounded my passion for human centered design and is the reason I wake up every morning. “Africa cannot afford un-contextualized design, the stakes are simply too high” never is this so true than in education.

One of the reasons I joined and love BRCK is because BRCK dares to go where others won’t. This week we’re in northern Kenya, a remote place with many challenges. Many don’t go to these extreme environments because of the geographical, social and economic constraints. However, we at BRCK hold a different point of view, that they matter and it makes both social and economic sense to design for the real Africa.

Mark Kamau taking quick notes as the teachers learn the Kio Kit

Tirrim Primary School is a good example. It is school in the desert, a long way up from Isiolo town, and has been the top primary school in testing in Marsabit County since 2008 sending their graduates to the most prestigious schools in the country. It is a charity school paid for by missionaries and has 620 pupils. Their dream, according to one of the teachers, is to become the “RVA (Erik’s former school) of the desert.” It is a lofty and worthy goal, especially considering people of Korr think on themselves as ‘Kenya B’ because of the sense of isolation and neglect of this desert folk feel from the rest of the country. Despite their limited access, these kids are expected to sit the same national exam and pitted against the same yardstick tablet wielding, smartphone trending students in Nairobi.

As a human centered designer with a passion for Africa, this is amazing territory. The Kio Kit sets out to answer a fundamental design question. ‘How can we convert any rural classroom into a digital classroom?’

In tackling this difficult challenge we made some assumption and learnt some lessons these are specific to this expedition.

1. CONTEXTUALIZED GUIDES

We set out to create guides for using the Kio Kit is English as it is the national language upon which all examinations are taken, but the role of local language in education, even when explaining technology is simply too effective to ignore. Today I observed a nuanced but interesting example. One teacher was trying to explain to a class of lower primary kids what the back button was on the tablet using conventional English and it took him a while to get them on board. Another said please click the “Khonjor” and all the students understood it immediately.

Some Rendille children on the Kio tablets

In the Rendille language Khonjor is a sickle, one the kids grow seeing their parents use for cutting plants. This shape allowed them to understand the reference as the blade points “back”. I also observed that even a few miles apart, the nuanced pronunciation of the same word meant the difference in understanding of things. While it is means more work, we have to contextualize the Kio Kit guides in localized videos.

2. COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCES

With tablets, the idea is that students each get a tablet and are able to access content individually. In this construct, it is easy to diminish the importance of collaborative learning. The younger students are, the more they learn from observing and collaborating with each other. The content and games on the Kio Kit that we tested emphasized the need to have even more experiences in the Kio Kit that take advantage of this collaboration.

A teacher with the Kio tablet

2. AUTHORITY CHALLENGE

The typical construct of a normal Kenyan school is that the teacher has the authority, they dictate what happens in the classroom and assume leadership, responsibility and authority. The tablet presents a different paradigm because with the tablet in their hands, the students have more responsibility than listening and writing. They play a more active role in their own learning. Handling this shift is challenging to teachers and their usual classroom control skills don’t directly apply. We therefore need to invest more time on classroom management training with technology.

There are many more lessons we have learnt from technical centered challenges to human centered challenges that energize us as we ride back home to make the Kio Kit work even better. Most of all, interacting with people motivates us to want to do even better.

Yesterday, while staying with the Samburu near Kalama, I had the opportunity to ride into Archer’s Post with my new Samburu friend Mike. Mike has the distinction of being the seconds tallest Samburu and his size brings with it an equally warm disposition. We loaded in the Land Rover – with an old man from the village who just tagged along for a free ride to do his shopping – and headed across the sandy track that meanders some 20km back to the tarmac.

Tall Mike and myself with the village kids

As we bounced along I turned up the radio and Mr. Marley was singing about “One Love”. Mike asked me if I liked reggae, which I quickly confirmed. I asked him the same question and he said he did, particularly Alpha Blondy. I was shocked that he even knew who Alpha Blondy is and so I quickly switched to my Alpha collection. For those of you who don’t know Alpha Blondy – and it would seem that I have grossly underestimated his popularity – he is a reggae artist from Cote d’Ivoire. Having spent 4 years in Cote d’Ivoire for secondary school had given me a huge appreciation for Alpha Blondy and The Solar System. This was the local music of my youth and something that I and my friends hold dearly to as part of our heritage.

Here I was driving through a land that is completely unlike the terrain of West Africa listening the singing of ja man from a Mande tribe that is nothing like the Nilotic Samburu people who were hosting me. Their dress is different. Their customs are wildly different. Yet, here we were singing about political oppression as loud as we could to drown out the rumbling noise of the diesel engine. Mike starts to explain to me that the words of the song – which is partially sung in the Jula language – sound to him like they are talking about camels resting. He sings the lyrics and describes how he understands them in either Samburu or Swahili. Of course Alpha Blondy doesn’t sing about camels but Mike doesn’t care and it certainly won’t detract from his intense enjoyment of the music.

How is it that people from such differing backgrounds could so easily bond over the simple expression of ideas through music?

Music is not alone in providing such a practical cultural bridge. Technology has just as much potential to be a cultural equalizer. However, just like the mistranslated lyrics, technology is easily misunderstood as it transitions between cultures. A big part of our job at BRCK is to ensure that technology is well optimized to serve as an enabler for cultural exchange. We want to equip these children with the capacity and the skill set to be globally competitive. We are striving to use technology as a tool for enabling this realization. Some aspects of this task are easy – kids from every culture are captivated by animated lessons on handheld tablets. Others are far more difficult – getting the teacher to understand the distraction that comes from putting a long coveted gadget into the hands of students for the first time. We can’t just rework the equation to solve out the bad from the good – unfortunately it all comes in the same glossy, irresistible package.

Elders are elders

Our self-imposed mandate at BRCK is to be champions for culturally relevant technology. To invest ourselves in designing and building platforms and tools that transcend the boundaries of our differences to bring about a unity of purpose for educating children from every socioeconomic strata. This Expedition has been a powerful reminder of how essential the human-to-human connection is to make this happen. If we want to change the entire concept of digital education in the African classroom then we – and everyone else who has a similar objective – needs to spend us much time as possible in the dirty, dusty, sandy recesses of this continent to get to know the students and teachers and find the common grounds of understanding that enables us – as technologist – to build the bridges between our different (yet not so different) cultures.

Children at Kiltamany Primary school

On the road to Korr

Philip fords a sand river in an old BMW R80G/S

Peter shares his love of photography

Kio tablets in action

Kiltamany Primary School is your typical forgotten school. A 20km dusty path from Archer’s Post leads to a small village between Kalama, Samburu and Westgate conservancies. Most women make beaded necklaces and most of the men herd goats. The children giggle coyly when you speak to them, but, like children everywhere, they are curious and eager to learn. As we sat around the campfire last night, it dawned on me how much energy we draw as a team from our “inner child.” I’m thrilled we are working with children this Expedition.

When we arrived at the village yesterday evening, the women sang and danced to welcome us. We took many pictures of their warm and carefully rehearsed welcome. At one point, a woman pulled out her phone and took a picture of us. In that beautiful moment all our hearts soared!

Until 3 years ago, the women of Kiltamany village would walk 13km everyday to fetch water. The new solar powered borehole water tower now means they have a few extra hours in their day. 6 months ago, they starting using tablets and learning how to read, write, add, subtract and now multiply. I watch in wonder as a 50-year old lady learns the concept of division. She weaves her thin fingers between the 12 strands of a beautiful beaded necklace to show me 3 bundles of 4 strands each.

Wmalimu Elijah and his class

The Kio Kit charged in the school last night. This morning, the headteacher, Mr Elijah Njogu rang the bell and the children from surrounding villages began to trickle in. “December holidays” do not apply to Kiltamany. We ran 3 classes back to back today. It’s crucial to our design process to understand how exhausting it is to be in a hot, dusty classroom with excitable children all day. Our appreciation of the work of teachers grows every time we go to schools. The children, like all children, take little time to start using the tablets. The headteacher lead them through lessons in counting, nutrition and force. After watching the catchy Ubongo songs, the students remembered key concepts that would otherwise take several lessons to reiterate.

The Kio Kit in a school room

Two children on the Kio

The BRCK Kio Kit

As always, we notice challenges and strive to learn valuable lessons. The classroom where the Kio Kit charged was dusty and the lights of the Kit attracted many bugs; we wonder how many dead bugs we will find in the Kits in a few months, what damage they may do. A shy girl peered at us through the classroom window as her goats grazed nearby; we have come a long way, but still have some work to do to ensure every child has the opportunity to go to school.

The community has not asked anything of us. They express again and again how much they value education and what they dream of for their future. As we sat around the fire tonight eating goat with the elders of this community, we heard a vision for a community that desires equal access to education for all of their children – boys and girls. This cultural shift towards a future that would see a small girl from Kiltamany one day sit as Chief Justice or even President of Kenya is a harbinger of the future that we as BRCK Education are honored to play even a small role in realizing for our country.

Loading up the Kio Kits for our education expedition to Samburu

The trip from Nairobi went well, as you can expect when you’re on the best roads in Kenya. There was only one small problem with a fuel line on the tired out old 1981 R80G/S when we got to Archer’s Post. I’m not bitter at all that my much nicer 2007 Suzuki DR650 is constantly overlooked by everyone as they drool over the old Beemer. We fixed the fuel line by finding a local motorcycle mechanic and raiding his parts bin.

Fixing a fuel line on the 1981 BMW

Shortly after, we shunted off of the main road into the dirt and made our way past Kalama town. Kiltamany Primary School lies about 15km past Kalama, and is the education facility for 170 children. We rolled into the school as the sun was setting, to the singing of the women in the community and the elders waiting for us for initial introductions.

An unexpected outcome of the evening was that we were going to be shown how the women are learning. Sylvester, the younger Samburu man who was responsible for this program, explained that he had built this program to teach the older women and mothers in the community how to read and do basic maths in order for them to understand the value of it. This encourages them to send their girls to school for the full first 8 years of primary school, and possibly beyond.

What was encouraging to see was just how hungry for learning the women in the community were. Sylvester asked us to be the teachers for the evening, so Nivi took over the classroom and worked through some mathematics with the ladies.

The Kio Kit was brought from the vehicle and the ladies watched a video on counting and number placement in Kiswahili. It’s by one of our partners, Ubongo Kids, out of Tanzania. This is one of the great values of the digital education kit, and our content agnostic approach, since we can partner with specialists on education content from anywhere and help get distribution of their content to the far edges of the country.

The Kio Kit about to be introduced to Samburu women

We ended the night with the Samburu elders showing us a luga (dry riverbed) and leaving us to camp for the night. Most places don’t have great connectivity, but we’re getting fairly strong 3g reception here and are able to do posts like this fairly easily.

Day 2 is going to be spent with the children from the school. Focusing on training up the teachers on digital tools like the Kio Kit and making sure that they’re comfortable, then doing some classroom exercises with the students.

This morning finds us on the road north of Nairobi, heading to Samburu country in northern Kenya. [Actually, it finds us delayed by 2 hours as we troubleshoot a bit of the new education software, but that’s besides the point!]

Each year we do an expedition, last year we did a trip to Uganda testing around education. The year before that we went up to the shores of Lake Turkana. Here’s a video from our trip last year to South Africa overland:

Kenya to South Africa / Nairobi to Johannesburg from BRCK on Vimeo.

Samburu Schools

This year we’re going up to Samburu county to do two installations of our BRCK Education school system called the Kio Kit. This kit comes with 40 seven-inch tablets that are all wirelessly charged and the BRCK device acts as the brains of the network, loading content supplied by a number of different partners. All the info on the Kio Kit is in this video below.

We Introduce the Kio Kit from BRCK on Vimeo.

The trip north takes us to a school near Archer’s Post, and then a couple days later to one near Korr. Both of them are well off the road, but have been electrified by the Kenya government’s school electrification program. So, while we’re going with some extra solar kits, we’re expecting to be able to use the school’s power system.

On this trip is Mark (UX), Jeff (Design), Nivi (Education), Janet (Ops), Rufus (Customer Service) as well as Philip, myself, Juliana and Peter. It’s a full roster and we’re looking forward to having an adventurous road trip.

We’ll be posting on this trip for the next few days, so you can follow along here on our blog, on our Twitter account @BRCKnet and on our Instagram account @BRCKnet.

BRCK is at it again. Over the past 48 hours, much has been said about “BRCK Education’s” launch of their flagship products the Kio and the Kio Kit.  The Kio is a ruggedized tablet for African schools and the Kio Kit is a revolutionary digital classroom in a box. It consisting of 40 tablets plus a BRCK+PI acting as a Micro server and then there is the genius behind the packaging that brings it all together. Journalists from every corner of the earth, on Forbes, Quartz, ZDNet, techweez , the blogosphere and techies in general got their fix on juicy tech stats and congratulatory messages galore ensued.

This blog is for the non-techies, the behind the scenes of an Apple-esque product launch, what the product is and why it is a big deal.

The journey starts 3.5 years ago with the birth of BRCK a Nairobi consumer electronic company that decided to design and engineer connectivity devices for Africa. Africa has it’s fair share of infrastructure, power and environmental curve balls that make electronics made for other places as severely handicapped as my golf game. So several years later, the BRCK, a ruggedized, dust/drop proof, connectivity-source-agnostic, modem + router has been sold in 54 countries worldwide in 5 continents. It has an 8 hour battery life with 20 devices connected to it making it the ideal way to connect in the Masai Mara, some places in the Scottish highlands and right now as I sit at a Java house at Adams Arcade Nairobi, generally one of the most reliable Wi-Fi locations in Nairobi but today I am greeted by a “Limited access” message on the Wi-Fi screen.

For the backstage pass to the launch, let’s start a year and a half ago, we the BRCK team at this point are working in schools in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya solving connectivity issues using the BRCK in schools at the edge of the network. The lessons learned from this super cool pilots is that by using the BRCK to cache content, the students got to experience better digital learning. The education space is a dynamic space. We needed a platform that kids could surf infinite amounts of information from the web but cache it on the BRCK. We also needed a platform that could be remotely updated; as we all know PLUTO has A.D.D., it could be a planet, demoted to a moon and partially re-promoted to a dwarf planet in a span of a few months. Whatever that means, kids in a school by the Serengeti should be able to enjoy the drama unfold just as much as kids in New York.

So BRCK did what it does best. People first, Design second and then Technology brings it all together. The BRCK team does no less than 5000 Miles of “adventure” trips a year to make sure that they understand the environment in which they design for. So visiting schools in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania became a staple for the team. The outcome was the two products that I mentioned earlier. The Tablet was named Kio, and then many designs later, after dropping, breaking, igniting and crashing several iterations, the Kio was ready for prime time. How do we then introduce it to the world? How better than to make a “Tough Mudder” type of video to showcase its robustness. Drop it from over 2ft/70cm onto concrete, pour a glass of water on to it, into dust, finish off with sticky chewing gum fingers, the Kio is ready for whatever Africa can throw at it and it fits perfectly into the hands of a 7 year old.

“But building the Kio is climbing half the mountain” – Erik Hersman. BRCK needed to make sure that these Kios are housed, charged and have a “brainiac” of a mother onboard to take care of the children. So a Kio Kit was designed, hardy, waterproof, portable, intelligent, in a couple of words, beautifully rugged. A class in a box that has one power button each to bring both the BRCK+PI and the Kios to life. When turned on, the wireless, induction charging is what techies would call sexy.

After many sleepless nights, globetrotting to find the best partners in tech and content, the likes of Intel, Mozilla, JP, Pearson, e-limu, eKitabu the Kio Kit was ready to be launched. So now the hard work to find the venue, Event Company, set up design and execution.

For product launches, there are generally two schools of thought, the first and mostly applied, is to throw a big party, get everyone totally partied-up and boozed up. The problem is that you get to be the most talked about company in town but for the party and not the product. The second approach, which is what Apple and Tesla do and BRCK is following closely which is to unveil your product in a well-choreographed event and let the product speak for itself.

Enter Nivi, President of BRCK Education and Angie, the Program Manager, the two most efficient machines in multi tasking, planning and coordination. Several white boarding sessions later and a 22 page excel spreadsheet of plans nothing is left to fate. Invitations, guest lists, venue, program, transport, catering, lights, camera and action all accounted for. Then the larger BRCK family went to work gnawing at the huge launch piece by piece. Design, print, packing, moving, building, decorating, early mornings, late nights, a diet of coffee and pizzas, pretty soon the day was upon us.

The event went on with the precision of a world class event, Forbes, Quartz, Twitter and the gambit in attendance, you can go there for the glitz and glam. As a behind the scenes blog, I will dwell on the things that were not going as planned. The first thing to cause us a sleepless night was the foam plastic K from the big BRCK logo tumbled off stage breaking into a million pieces at 4pm the day before the launch, our fabricators had to perform magic to replace the K. This is just one of several more hurdles to jump, dry runs, team meetings, more pizza, several ubers and we went to sleep really late.

Early Tuesday Morning, Erik Hersman the CEO sent a wake-up call to everyone at 6:27am. An hour later the team was applying final touches to the space, fresh coffee from Pete’s a much welcome kick-starter but that big locomotive of an espresso machine tripped the whole electricity system crashing it minutes before the event started. Saved by the bell, the awesome event company (HomeBoyz) came through again by providing fusing and stop gaps. Another disaster averted.

The guests came in ready for the BRCK Yellow carpet. Many smiling faces, friends, family, the press in large numbers, guests from all walks of life including the class one school children from our piloting schools. Soon the show and tell was in full force, partners being recognized, product unveiling, a few loud EDM songs, captivating presentations and wowing videos.

Finally how better to showcase the product than walking out of the auditorium to find a full classroom set up with the kids learning, growing and playing on the Kios with the Kio Kit in full display. Everyone had a chance to look, touch, feel and get up-close with the products. The BRCK team at the ready to answer all the questions.

In conclusion, Education in Africa will never be the same again. It is time for a kid in sub-Saharan Africa to be able to enjoy videos of Africa’s child Elon Musk’s rockets going to the space station just like the kids in the Palo Alto area. A few people were concerned about the way to finance these Kits but I am not afraid of that. Already there is exciting interest from some schools, the awesome CHASE BANK KE has a no interest loan to schools and several pioneers like African Wildlife Fund are deploying Kio Kits to schools in Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo and beyond. I was quick to remind people that the Kenyan citizen is called Mwanainchi which means “child of the country/soil/earth” so together, we will see this dream of digitizing our children through to fruition. END

BRCK Education Kio and Kio Kit Launch from BRCK on Vimeo.

When we set out to build the BRCK, we wanted to take care of the rampant connectivity and power issues that prevent many people in the developing world from being as efficient or as effective in their jobs. We did this, and we ended up becoming one of Kenya’s first consumer electronics’ companies. We were very excited about this, and the recognition we were getting, but the BRCK was built to be much more. When it was designed, we included a USB port and a micro web server, that at the time, just seemed like cool features. Over time, we came to appreciate that they were so much more. You could access content from the BRCK but we felt this was not enough, so we combined the BRCK with a Raspberry Pi computing module to give it a bit of a boost. This enabled access to rich and interactive websites and content, from the same rugged form factor as the original BRCK.

There are numerous challenges facing education in developing countries. Since the BRCK together with the Pi, enables access of locally-cached and web-hosted content, we thought it could prove a useful tool to both teachers and students if they could access up-to-date educational materials, and give them an edge and enable them to compete with schools with more resources. This was in line with our ethos of promoting equality in education and levelling the playing field by using the same technologies as the rest of the world but tweaked to our particular context. At BRCK Education, we do not think the only sources of knowledge and information in a classroom should be teachers and textbooks. The four walls of a classroom should not limit a child’s access to learning, playing and growing. This technology, however, cannot replace the role of a teacher. It makes access to information much easier.

The easiest way to deliver educational content to students is through tablet computers. Initially, tablets, even the ones made for schools, were not durable and did not have the kind of features we needed: a long battery life, an easy-to-use interface and some sort of durability. Until now. Due to the demands of our environments, and the fact that children are bound to drop and spill fluids on the tablets, we designed and engineered the Kio Tablet, to be rugged, adaptable and unbelievably functional. We built the Kio specifically to the needs we exhaustively identified during our field tests in schools. Even with the progress we made, we felt like we had only climbed half the mountain.

Having the tablets was well and good, but tablets need to be charged. One of the barriers to using tablets effectively is the inconvenience of remembering to charge them and the fact that charging cables break frequently. Also, tablets present a security fear: they are small and can be easily stolen. So, how about a rugged kit, that provides both the charging and security needed for the tablets in one go? The Kio Kit. It comes with wireless charging and is lockable, and in case a tablet is taken away from it, we built the firmware to prevent flashing of its operating system. The Kio Kit can hold and charge 40 tablets, each of which can run for 8 hours on a single charge.

What we are doing is not just selling technology. We passionately believe in our ability to positively impact the quality of learning of students in Kenya. But, we cannot do this alone. We are proud that both local and international organizations, both big and small, have joined us to make this dream a reality. The Kio Kit will be available for pre-order today, limited availability begin on November 1st and we expect general availability from January 1st 2016. The Kio Kit will go for USD 5,000 and a Kio Tablet will go for USD 100.

For more information, you can visit our website at education.brck.com. Also, feel free to email us at [email protected] or tweet us at @brcknet. You can also find us on Facebook at brcknet.

With the recently announced learning division of BRCK Inc led by Nivi Mukherjee, comes this exciting news about a major agreement signed between BRCK Inc and the venerable Kenyatta University.

Do see the announcement on the Kenyatta University website too.

Kenyatta University, BRCK sign digital literacy MoU

Nairobi, 7 August 2015 –Kenyatta University, a leading Kenyan academic institution and BRCK, a local technology firm based in Nairobi, have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote digital literacy in the country.

The MoU covers among other areas, joint collaboration in the design and development of innovative technological solutions, research, advocacy and stakeholder engagements, content development and training and capacity building.

Speaking after the signing ceremony, KU Vice Chancellor Prof. Olive Mugenda said the partnership will enable the two organisations to leverage technology as an enabler of delivering educational content and impart knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will have far-reaching changes in the education sector.

“It is a great pleasure to partner with like-minded organisations such as BRCK with whom we have a shared vision and an appreciation of the role that technology can and should play in the overall education process. Both BRCK and KU are at the forefront of developing and rolling out cutting edge digital solutions that will transform the way education is delivered resulting in an enhanced learning environment that offers competitive advantage in the workforce for the young people of Africa and generations to come,” she said.

The partnership will also firmly establish Kenya as a global hub for digital education, by creating a unique centre where deployments of digital learning solutions, teacher training, curriculum design and device design, manufacturing and logistics knowledge gained will come together leading to a 21st century digital education centre.

The two organisations will leverage each other’s strengths to ensure a successful joint venture delivering uncompromised standards and techniques in teaching and learning. Kenyatta University has a dedicated division of research and a very vibrate innovation and incubation centre which has seen the creation of winning start -up companies in the country.  The institution also has a very strong digital school which was re-engineered recently.

On the other hand, BRCK has an unrivalled ability and capability to develop innovative connectivity technologies making the two partners a formidable, dynamic, forward-thinking team.

As part of the agreement, Kenyatta University will host the manufacturing and assembly plant which will enable the institution to manufacture more tablets. This will result in the creation of jobs for the youth, technology transfer and will also mitigate depreciation of the exchange rate through local production rather than importing the devices.

“We were the first university in the country to use tablets to deliver content to the students in the digital school. The tablets are very interactive with software that makes teaching easy and interactive. Following our partnership with BRCK, we hope to start a manufacturing plant to make cost effective tablets as well as scale up their use to other schools,” Prof. Mugenda added.

This partnership will create the infrastructure and skills not only for the digital learning but design, build and manufacture a myriad of technologies in future creating indigenous digital solutions for a myriad of applications in education and beyond that will be deployed around the continent.

BRCK Board member Juliana Rotich said: “Education has been identified as the common thread that will shape a sustainable future for economies around the globe and digital technology is one of the tools that will provide a leg-up to this new mode of learning. Through this joint venture, we aim to overcome barriers in the sector and offer constructive value through content, connectivity and functionality.”

About Kenyatta University

Kenyatta University is an international university based in Nairobi Kenya. It was established in 1985 through an Act of Parliament. The University’s main campus is located along the Thika Superhighway, 20 kilometers from Nairobi City center with 10 Satellite campuses and Distance and elearning Centers each. It offers over 500 programmes across 17 schools.

By April 2015, the student population was over 70,000 with a staff capacity of over 3,000, both teaching and non-teaching. Its infrastructural set up among other key ranking points has placed the University as the best in the country and regionally.

Kenyatta University has a cutting edge over other universities due to their emphasis on practical hands-on knowledge and the skills training imparted to both students and the larger international community.

Kenyatta University is home to some of the world’s top scholars, researchers and experts in diverse fields. The institution prides itself in providing high quality programmes that attract individuals who wish to be globally competitive. Towards this end, the University has invested heavily in infrastructure and facilities to offer its students the best experience in quality academic programmes under a nurturing environment in which its students learn and grow.

The university has partnered with other key organizations for example Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) which is supported by the U.S. Government and the African Centre for Transformative and Inclusive Leadership (ACTIL), which is sponsored by the UN WOMEN.

About BRCK 

BRCK is a hardware and services tech company based in Nairobi, Kenya.  As the first company to pursue ground up design and engineering of consumer electronics in East Africa, it has developed a connectivity device also known as BRCK, which is designed to work in harsh environment where electricity is intermittent. BRCK can support up to 40 devices, has an 8-hour battery life when the power is out, and can jump from Ethernet, to WiFi, to 3G, to 4G seamlessly. The initial BRCK units started shipping in July of 2014 and by February of 2015, thousands of BRCK’s had been sold to 54 countries around the world.

BRCK is a spin-off from the world acclaimed Ushahidi, a Kenyan technology company which builds open source software tools and which has received accolades for the impact that its creative and cutting-edge solutions are having around the world.

 Media contacts

Evelyn Njoroge, africapractice [email protected] 0721704712

Sally Kahiu, africapractice [email protected] 0706322488

There’s a press release (which always seem boring to me, but have added it to the bottom of the page) about Nivi Mukherjee, the founder of eLimu and long-time iHub member, joining the BRCK team offically. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her grow her company from nothing, getting out ahead of the curve to create a new way to learn, study and test for the big KCPE exam that every kid in Kenya takes in 8th grade. She’s fought and shown the scrappy leader that she is for 4 years, so when we started looking at BRCK Education more seriously six months ago, Nivi was the one I went to for help. While we know a lot about tech and hardware, she knows a lot about education, teachers and students. She also taught us new fancy words, such as “pedagogy“.

The past 4 months have seen us working closely together with the eLimu team on some great projects, and without her understanding of how the education system works we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Nivi is now the President of BRCK Education, a new business unit for us that focuses school-based solutions where the BRCK software and hardware can be used to make a real difference. We’ve seen this happening in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya as more schools get started with tablets and computers. Nivi’s job will be to fulfill on this in our own backyard here in Kenya, and also to take it to the rest of Africa and the world.

More news on this front soon…!

Press Release

BRCK appoints its Education President
Nairobi, 4 August 2015 – BRCK, a local hardware and services technology company based in Nairobi, has announced the appointment of Nivi Mukherjee as the head of its newly created division, BRCK Education.
Ms Mukherjee will be charged with driving BRCK’s efforts to provide hardware and software solutions to enable online and offline learning.

Commenting on the appointment, BRCK Board Member and Ushahidi Executive Director Juliana Rotich said:
“We are delighted to welcome onboard Ms Mukherjee who has a wealth of knowledge and expertise to take over the Education division. Through this division, we aim to creatively and effectively deliver 21st century technology that will revolutionize the education sector and eventually take digital literacy in Kenya and in the African continent to the next level.”

Ms Mukherjee joins BRCK from eLimu, one of the most talked about EdTech innovations in Africa where she spearheaded the digitization of KCPE curriculum content for Kenyan upper primary students and the development of a literacy application in English and Kiswahili.

The new president is expected to leverage the BRCK, a pioneering connectivity device that is designed to work in environments where electricity and internet connections are problematic. The BRCK is a WiFi access point with an 8-hour battery-life and the ability to store up to 2 terabytes of educational content.

“I am excited to join this great team that has demonstrated its ability to innovate effectively for Africa. I am privileged to be able to leverage this game-changing device, which will enable instantaneous access for up to 40 devices, to promote digital access in education. What remains now is to curate localized and culturally relevant digital content that will improve the learning experience and outcomes for millions of students on the continent,” Ms Mukherjee said.

She reinforced BRCK’s user-driven commitment towards developing sustainable and interactive tools adding that the organization is keen and ready to partner with teachers, parents, students, like-minded organisations and government institutions in order to bring far-reaching changes in the way education is delivered.

Notes to Editors
About Nivi Mukherjee
Nivi is a social entrepreneur, technophile, community volunteer and 2014 East African Acumen Fellow. She is passionate about educational initiatives that foster development and fun. She has spoken as an expert on eLearning, the African tech scene and innovation at: TEDxStellenbosch, South By South West – Austin TX, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Business Conference Africa Innovate as well as appearing on Al Jazeera, CNN, Euronews and being featured on BBC and The Economist. In her spare time, Nivi organizes cultural festivals, bakes, knits, runs half marathons, folds origami and plays Fusball.

About BRCK
BRCK is a connectivity device designed in Kenya to meet the demanding challenges of life and work in harsh environments where electricity is intermittent and the internet is spotty. BRCK works to alleviate these issues by delivering a redundant data connection combined with a reliable power source to ensure that nothing gets in the way of getting the information you need. BRCK can support up to 40 devices, has an 8-hour battery life when the power is out, and can jump from Ethernet, to WiFi, to 3G, to 4G seamlessly.

BRCK is the first company to pursue and deliver using entirely ground up design and engineering of consumer electronics in East Africa. The initial BRCK units started shipping in July of 2014 and by February of 2015, thousands of BRCKs had been sold in 54 countries around the world, in both developed and developing markets.

The company is a spin-off from the world acclaimed Ushahidi, a Kenyan technology company which builds open source software tools and which has received accolades for the impact that its creative and cutting-edge solutions are having around the world.