Like a lot of young adults in Nairobi, Caroline Masibo developed an interest in watching dramas on TV during the long break between finishing secondary school and joining the university.
Her attention was drawn to one show in particular, Criminal Minds, and one of the characters who caught her eye was a tech-savvy woman who used her skills and experience with computers to help solve crimes.
“She embodied a lot of things I believed I could be. She was bubbly, bright, and very colorful… she was the tech wizard in the team, she would hack into systems, figure things out, and write code. And to me, that seemed so amazing,” says Caroline.
In January, the year after she finished secondary school, Caroline went on to start her Diploma in Information Technology. Today, she is the Principal Engineer in Core Networks Support Service at Safaricom.
She is also a member of Women in Technology, an initiative at Safaricom which was started by women in the technology domain. The initiative works to champion having more women in the technology space and to have more women taking leadership positions at Safaricom.
Through the WIT Initiative, the women go out into the community to encourage the girl child to take up STEM (Science, Technology, Economics, and Mathematics) subjects and consider careers in technology as they believe the girl child are the leaders of tomorrow.
In celebration of International Day of the Girl Child, which happens annually on the 11th of October, we sat down with Caroline and Tima Ali, a Core Networks Design Engineer at Safaricom, to discuss the women’s journeys in the tech industry, what Safaricom is doing to offer more opportunities for girls in tech, and what the national outlook is for girls in tech.
Listen to the podcast below:
