Ken Ruto

Principal Lead, Flux · Nairobi, Kenya

I studied computer science at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Then I repatriated to Nairobi to build the software I wish Africa's institutions already had.

That conviction became Flux Water, then AccessWASH, then BungeConnect, then Flux — a research and technology lab working across civic infrastructure, water and sanitation, open finance, and community health.

My work is predicated on one observation: the technology that could equip Africa's public institutions already exists. The missing layer is someone willing to do the translation work — rigorously, specifically, from inside the context.

I write about this. I build for it. I try to publish the evidence either way.

Currently

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Working papers

WP44 · Latest

The Interface Tax: What a 1990s Signalling Protocol Still Costs Kenya, in Hours

USSD carries the large majority of Kenya’s mobile-money transactions for good economic reasons — and nobody has added up the aggregate human time that costs. A sourced, transparent low/mid/high estimate, built on Herd and Moynihan’s administrative-burden framework.

WP43 Système D as Infrastructure: Nineteen Nairobi Workarounds and the Research That Already Explains Them 7 min WP42 Only the Date Is Settled 32 min WP41 The Word "Personalized" Is Doing Two Different Jobs 32 min
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Get in touch

Open to research collaborations, bespoke software commissions, speaking, and advisory conversations.

Or don't. Go and play Snake on a Nokia 3310 instead →