Catherine Kiguru is a Kenyan

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

corporate executive Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit org ...

, who is the founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Ukall Limited, a

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

-based software applications company that she established in 2011.

Early life and education

Catherine Kiguru was born in Kenya, in a family of four siblings. By age 14, she had lost both her parents. She attended local primary schools, before she was admitted to ''Mary Hill High School'', in

Thika Thika () is an industrial town and commerce hub in Kiambu County, Kenya, lying on the A2 road , northeast of Nairobi, near the confluence of the Thika and Chania Rivers. Although Thika town is administratively in Kiambu County, the greater ...

Kiambu County Kiambu County is a county in the former Central Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kiambu and its largest town is Thika town. Kiambu County is the second most populous county in Kenya after Nairobi County. Kiambu County borders Nairobi and Kaji ...

, Kenya. She obtained her

High School Diploma A high school diploma (sometimes referred to as a high school degree) is a diploma awarded upon graduation of high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary s ...

in 2004. While in high school, she decided she wanted to study

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

after high school. The challenge was that she had decided not to carry physics and was weak in mathematics. With those odds stacked against her, she went and pleaded her case at the ''Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology''. She was admitted on the condition that she would pass all her classes and tests in physics. She graduated in 2007 with a Diploma n Computer Studies.

Career

While completing her diploma course, she interned at the Kiambu Water & Sewerage Company, in the town of

Kiambu Kiambu is a town in Kiambu County, Kenya. It is from the national capital, Nairobi. It is the capital of Kiambu County, which bounds the northern border of Nairobi. Other proximate towns are Ruiru, Gatundu, Limuru and Kabete. Administr ...

, about , by road, north of the central business district of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. When she completed her diploma course, the town of Kiambu employed her full-time. While there, she automated the Kiambu Water & Sewerage Company's billing system, improving their efficiency in distributing and tracking customer water bills in Kiambu County. After a stint as a "relationship counselor" at ''KenCall'', a call centre in Nairobi, Catherine was hired by ''Tracom International'', a software development company, working in their customer support department as a software developer. She worked there for two years. In December 2010, she developed "Akida", a mobile software application that uses

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

data and biometric characteristics to verify a person's location. She pitched the application to a corporate client, who bought into the concept. In January 2011, Ukall Limited was launched. By June 2016, the company employed seven full-time staff members and had clients in seven countries, including

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Her investment partner in Ukall Limited is Paul Rees, a chartered accountant.

Other considerations

In 2013, Catherine Kiguru won the Best female entrepreneur ward at the

GIST In computing, GiST or Generalized Search Tree, is a data structure and API that can be used to build a variety of disk-based search trees. GiST is a generalization of the B+ tree, providing a concurrent and recoverable height-balanced search tree ...

East Africa Startup camp.

References

External links

Website of Ukall LimitedMeet Ukall: providing HR Solutions for organisations that employ a large workforce
As of 2 July 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiguru, Catherine Living people 1987 births Kenyan computer scientists 21st-century Kenyan businesswomen 21st-century Kenyan businesspeople Kenyan chief executives