President William Ruto’s daughter Charlene Ruto’s traditional engagement to Tanzanian technology entrepreneur Isaya Yunge has thrust the spotlight on the innovator behind a career built on technology, entrepreneurship and digital solutions for young Africans.<\/p>\n
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Yunge, the man at the centre of Charlene Ruto’s Koito ceremony, is the co-founder and chief executive of SomaApps Technologies, the company behind SomaApp, a mobile platform that connects African students with scholarship opportunities.<\/p>\n
Koito is a traditional engagement and dowry negotiation ceremony in the Kalenjin community of Kenya. The word means “to give away” or hand over a child to start a union, serving as the vital cultural step where a private relationship becomes a formal, community-recognized family bond.<\/p>\n
\u200eYunge\u2019s technology journey was shaped by an ambition to use digital tools to solve problems affecting young people.<\/p>\n
\u200eSomaApp was developed after Yunge and his team identified a problem: many local and international scholarships go unclaimed because potential beneficiaries do not know they exist.<\/p>\n
The platform seeks to bridge that gap by bringing scholarship opportunities together and matching students with opportunities for which they may qualify.<\/p>\n
\u200eHe has also founded KAYA, a smart speaker that uses artificial intelligence to collect Africa-related data, and Somafit, a smartwatch designed to monitor health indicators including blood pressure and heart rate in real time.<\/p>\n
His wider ambition is to accelerate the adoption of mobile software, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technologies in Tanzania and across Africa.<\/p>\n
Academic and professional<\/p>\n
Isaya Yunge holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from the Institute of Finance Management and has studied at the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n
He has also undergone training by the Swedish Institute on sustainable business models and has pursued studies in leading change at Cambridge.<\/p>\n
His profile has been built not only around business but also youth leadership and advocacy.<\/p>\n
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\u200eIn 2006, he was elected chairperson of the Junior Council of the United Republic of Tanzania.<\/p>\n
He later represented young people at international forums, including speaking at a G8 Summit in Berlin after being selected as a UNICEF Africa Youth Ambassador.<\/p>\n
\u200eHis achievements in technology have also earned him recognition.<\/p>\n
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\u200eIn 2017, his startup won the GSMA Mobile Money Africa Hackathon award for best startup in Africa.<\/p>\n
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\u200eHe was subsequently named among Forbes Africa\u2019s 30 Under 30, an annual recognition of young entrepreneurs and change-makers on the continent.<\/p>\n
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\u200eYunge also received the Queen\u2019s Young Leaders Award in 2018 from the late Queen Elizabeth II for his work using technology to develop sustainable solutions and improve communities.<\/p>\n
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\u200eIn 2019, he was named among Tanzania\u2019s 50 most influential young people.<\/p>\n
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Behind the accolades, however, Yunge has described a difficult childhood that was far removed from the privileged circles in which he now operates.<\/p>\n
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\u200eHe was raised by his grandmother and spent part of his childhood herding goats and cattle and working around rice plantations.<\/p>\n
His interest in technology intensified in 2014 after attending a talk by American economist Jeremy Rifkin on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the sharing\u00a0 economy and collaborative commons.<\/p>\n
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\u200eThe experience, he said, reinforced his belief that digital technology could provide solutions to some of Africa\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n
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\u200eToday, Yunge employs several people through SomaApps and continues to advocate for a technology-friendly environment for startups and innovation.<\/p>\n
\u200eHe is also an alumnus of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Programme and has positioned himself as an advocate for youth participation in developing technology-driven solutions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u200eHis engagement to Charlene, therefore, brings together two young people with prominent backgrounds and public profiles.<\/p>\n
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