Kenyan activist to shape Google’s African policy

Ory Okolloh, co-Founder of the popular open-source platform Ushahidi, has joined Google as their Policy Manager for Africa. Ushahidi is a famed crowd sourcing site dedicated to information collection, visualisation and interactive mapping. Ms Okolloh created Ushahidi in 2007 after Kenya was engulfed in violence following disputed presidential election results. Ushahidi is a Kiswahili word for testimony.

Ory Okolloh is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Political Science. She went on to earn her J.D. from Harvard Law School. Ory is a frequent speaker at conferences including TED, World Economic Forum, Poptech, CGI, Techonomy, Mobile Web Africa, and the Monaco Media Forum on issues around citizen journalism, the role of technology in Africa, and the role of young people in reshaping the future of Africa.

Ory writes on her blog, “The role will involve developing policy /strategies on a number of areas of relevance to Google and the Internet in Africa and will involve working with different parties including government leaders, policy makers, regulators, industry groups and so on. It is a huge opportunity to bring Google’s resources to bear as far as the growth and development of the internet in Africa.”

According to a report in the Daily Nation, her new role at Google will involve developing policy strategies in a number of areas relevant to Google and the Internet in Africa.

“It is a huge opportunity to bring Google’s resources to bear as far as the growth and development of the internet in Africa is concerned. I’m very excited about the move,” she said.