Juliana Rotich

Rotich was born in 1977 in Kenya. After attending elementary and secondary school locally, she was admitted to the University of Missouri–Kansas City, in the United States. She graduated from there with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. She is an MIT Media Lab Fellow.

In 1999 Rotich started working at Sprint Nextel Corporation. In 2005 she left and moved to Chicago, Illinois, to work at InterCall Inc. A year later, she joined National Seminars Group, where she designed and maintained SQL Server databases. In 2007, she joined Hewitt Associates as a data analyst.

In 2008 Rotich co-founded the non-profit company Ushahidi, an Open-source software project which uses crowdsourced geolocation, mobile phone, and web reporting data to provide crisis reporting and information. She served as the Executive Director of Ushahidi from 2011 until 2015.

"Ushahidi" is the Swahili word for "testimony." Ushahidi was first put into practice during the Kenyan presidential election crisis of 2007–2008; it has since been used in Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Haiti.

As a blogger, Rotich has authored articles on Afrigadget.com, acted as Environmental Editor of Global Voices Online, and participated in the TED Global Conference in Arusha in 2007. As a public speaker, she is known for her commentary on technology in Africa and voicing concerns about the loss of indigenous forest and water catchment areas in Kenya.

To help solve the lack of internet access due to blackouts in Nairobi, Rotich co-founded BRCK Inc., which produces a battery-operated modem that can run for eight hours without electricity.

In 2014, Rotich presented at the annual Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town. From 2014 until 2015, she served on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, co-chaired by Enrico Giovannini and Robin Li.

In 2017 Rotich participated in the W20 Summit in Berlin, Germany and took part in a panel discussion together with Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF director Christine Lagarde, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, Ivanka Trump and others, where she represented BRCK.

In 2022, Safaricom named Rotich as its Head of Fintech Integration Solutions where she oversees the company’s financial solutions, which are anchored on M-Pesa.