“Someone who talked less and acted more.”

“Someone who talked less and acted more.” is Ory Okolloh’s legacy. Okolloh is a Kenyan activist, blogger, and Harvard-lawyer. Okolloh inspires and uses technology to try to create a better life for Africans. She is considered to be one of the most influential by the TIME and one of Africa’s most successful women by the Forbes.

Born in a poor family, she knows and understands the hardships of being poor. According to her ted talk, her family couldn’t afford her education and she was kicked out from her elementary school from time to time until her tuition bills were paid. She missed the cutoff by only one point in her dream high school entrance exam and after a talk with the head, she still couldn’t get in because she doesn’t have the ‘right last name’. From that moment, she swore to herself that she would never beg anyone for anything.

That didn’t stop her from being a Harvard graduate student. Proceeding her education, Okolloh did not abandoned Africa and went back to create Ushahidi, an online service for crowd mapping data, where violent eyewitness reports were documented. She also had her personal blog, Kenyan Pundit, and is active in making the world better. Another of her projects is the Mzalendo, which is a website that keep track of the activities in the parliament such as analyzing speeches and bills. These websites help the people to understand, know what the government is doing, and able to decide whether it is accountable.

This caught Google’s interest, where she is currently working as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She gives engaging speeches across Africa about her legacy, digital activism, and Africa’s tech ecosystem.

Okolloh says technology and social media cannot solely change anything, it is the people walking on the streets that can make actual change. Even the encouragements and hashtags can make a huge impact in the online world; it is no use if people are still inside playing with their computers all day. Technology acts as a facilitator and motivator, which is why she calls it “Digital Activism”

Okolloh has 3 goals to improve Africa’s society. First she wants to make sure that more Africans are getting online access to get people more connected. Second, she wants to ensure that the content Africans see on the Internet in reliable, meaningful, and relevant to them. She also encourages the government to put more content online and create more opportunities for technology developers. Lastly, she wants to focus on the role of technology and how it is connected to the ecosystem. She wants to work with the government and industries to make a broader and more affordable access to technology.

Okolloh sees so much potential within Africa and wishes to see people tell their own story to the world.

For me, Ory Okolloh’s tool for advocacy is quite unique from other people. She utilizes technology to its potential to benefit people, which is a very modern way. I had a lot of fun researching about her and I Hope that she will be able to achieve her goals someday.