Historically, women in Kenya, along with women in numerous other countries, have faced a lack of representation in the technology sector. However, an increasing number of women are taking the lead and becoming role models for those currently in or aspiring to join the rapidly evolving industry that has a global impact.

Mariam Abubakar Ahmed is a  teacher at Mahmoud bin Fadhil Primary School in Lamu and a graduate with a diploma in ICT. After attending the stem Cafe program by Pwani Teknowgalz in 2019, it sparked her dreams and passion for technology. The digital marketing and website development skills she gained during the STEM Cafe program motivated her to come up with lamu digital women organization. 

“Our mission is to provide Lamu community women, teachers, and students with 21st century skills.Our target or future plans is to open a safe space for women where they can get access to computers and free wifi to enable them work and do there research on different sectors in Lamu”

Mariam, being a teacher by profession and having the passion to empower the next generation of youths in technology, has actively been participating in the Africa Code Week and African Code challenge, a yearly program that empowers students across Africa with digital literacy skills

Through Africa Code Week ,she has  managed to train students on coding using scratch for 2 years in collaboration with Pwani Teknowgalz .This has inspired her to start an innovation club in her school where she meets her students weekly to train them on scratch. She managed to get support from the  curriculum support officer from  TSC in Lamu .

“Soon we will train one  public school teacher per school from Lamu west and lamu central”.

Her journey in exploring and advancing her skills in technology did not stop there,  In 2022 ,Mariam applied for the Codehack Flutter program by Pwani Teknowgalz in collaboration with Google.The program targeted young women to develop mobile application solutions using #Flutter a free mobile application tool by Google.

“I developed the  Lamazon app, an E-commerce application that will enable natives of lamu county to sell different types of products which are handmade online. The artisans from lamu will be able to ship their products to different parts of Kenya and in the future even abroad”.

According to former ICT chief administrator Maureen Mbaka , women are under-represented in ICT jobs, top management and academic careers and reports show that men are four times more likely than women to be ICT specialists. At 15 years of age, on average, only 0.5 per cent of girls wish to become ICT professionals, compared to 5 percent of boys. This has widened the ever existing gap of women in technology. Women bring unique perspectives, experiences, and problem-solving approaches to the field of technology. By increasing the representation of women, we can tap into a broader range of ideas, insights, and creativity. This diversity of perspectives leads to more innovative and inclusive solutions that better serve the needs of a diverse user base.