Dr Shem Ochuodho is a man of many hearts. He is a scholar, a corporate guru, and a politician, having served as Member of Parliament for Rangwe and contested as presidential running mate in the 2013 election.
As of May 2024, he was the Global Chairman of the Kenya Diaspora Alliance and a Senior Policy Advisor for Africa.
Dr Ochuodho is an alumnus of the University of Nairobi, where he attained a Bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics and a Master of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
He attended the University of York (UK), earning a PhD in Software Engineering.
Through his political and corporate career, Dr Ochuodho is hailed for several achievements, but the one that stands out is his role as a pioneer of the internet in Kenya.
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Internet in Kenya
According to the former Rangwe legislator, the Internet entered Kenya on 24 October 1995 at 3 am.
Explaining the journey to get internet in Kenya, Ochuodho noted that the journey began with a simple system for storing and forwarding emails.
File image of Dr Shem Ochuodho. [Photo: Courtesy]
"All e-mails to and from Kenya came through a store-and-forward server in one of my bedrooms that would poll an internet service provider (ISP), GreenNet, in London, initially every Wednesday at midnight, which subsequently increased to once daily and, ultimately, hourly," he said in a past interview.
Ochuodho divulged that the journey to getting internet into Kenya received a significant boost when the United States National Science Foundation gave them equipment and sent an Internet engineer named Randy Bush, who helped with the installation of the signal, leading to the internet's premiere in Kenya on 24 October 1995.
Kenya's First Website
Following the internet's arrival, Dr Ochuodho and his team leveraged it to connect Kenya to the world by dispatching daily news summaries to Kenyans in the diaspora. The team also offered internet training for adults and children.
He notes that the first website in the country was "designed and developed by someone without hands, Godfrey Ipalei, currently IT manager at Kenya Wildlife Service."
The space later opened up, leading to the tremendous internet growth we enjoy today, including high-speed internet in the comfort of our homes.
Ochuodho's contribution to the development of the Internet in Kenya earned him several recognitions and awards, such as the Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) Award for Excellence.
He was also invited by foreign governments, such as Rwanda and South Sudan, to offer consultancy services on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
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