INTRODUCING
A VIBRANT NINTH COHORT
ANTONY GITAU
FROM PROSTHETICS TO
PANDAS
PLUS EIGHT
ALUMNI WHO ARE DOING
HARD THINGS
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
3
FOUNDER’S NOTE
Welcome to WHOLE.
4
ANTONY GITAU
From Prosthetics to Pandas.
16
EVERLYN ASIKO
The Cultivated Mind.
10
RISING STARS
Reimagining Career Guidance
with ClassifyMe’s Hope, Sera,
Daisy, and Lindah.
32
DORCAS LITUNYA
The Kernel Hacker.
36
ALLAN WASEGA
Not Playing a Zero-Sum
Game.
41
HULDAH KAURA
Wired for Success.
67
CONTRIBUTORS
Imagineering at KamiLimu
with Brian Kimani.
21
THE PLAY STATION
Tease and Please your Mind.
28
GEORGE KARANJA
Wrenches and Workflows.
46
COHORT 9 HIGHLIGHTS
A Collaborative Vibrance.
2
WHOLE
FOUNDER’S
NOTE
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they
seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they
soon become inevitable. This quote by Christopher Reeve
embodies KamiLimu's resilient and remarkable journey over the
last eight and a half years. This magazine will showcase our
community’s story as many journeys of single steps, many first
times that trigger consistency, and many failures, maybes, and
lessons that become triumphs. Where we have come from is a
giant leap towards where we wish to go, and we would not
dare stop now.
In this interactive first issue of 2025, we follow the journeys of
nine alumni spanning the last seven years. We introduce Cohort
Nine's mentees, whose vibrant energy illuminates every
training session with active interaction and presence. You meet
our new mentors and partners, marking the most collaborative
year yet. And, you can tease and please your mind at The Play
Station with a window to KamiLimu.In.The.Ears, a glimpse of
our poetic world, and originally designed puzzles for the keen
reader.
This magazine is to be savoured, slowly and intentionally. It is
to be read and interacted with over several days, talked about
over several weeks, and shared for the rest of time. Welcome
to the WHOLE experience.
This issue has been inspired by the song ‘Some of Us Are Brave’
by Danielle Ponder. Tap on the speaker icon to enjoy it.
Dr. Chao Mbogho
Founder and Lead
3
WHOLE
FROM PROSTHETICS TO
PANDAS
WHOLE
Antony wanted to become a medical doctor.
When he broke his arm at 12 years old, family
visits to the hospital proved frustrating due to
the long queue of patients who could only see
the surgeon once a week. His dad quipped that
if he worked hard, he could become a doctor
and reduce hospital queues. A seed was planted.
However, in high school, Antony’s interest in
Biology waned in favour of Physics. Coupling
this with a strength in Mathematics, he chose
not to pursue a course that would train him to
become a medical doctor but one that would
train him to support medical doctors. In 2018, he
started a Biomedical Engineering degree at
Kenyatta University, bright-eyed and eager.
Three years later, as the COVID-19 pandemic
raged across the globe, Antony found himself in
a surprising conundrum. He grappled with
uncertainty about how he could apply his
undergraduate
skills
in
an
increasingly
multidisciplinary world. While studying a new
and exciting field, Biomedical Engineering
exposed unexplored areas that left him with
more questions than answers. Its popular
narrow view as a profession where experts
diagnose medical equipment in hospitals left
him unsettled and yearning for more. The vast
amounts of data generated by biomedical
processes sparked a curiosity about their utility.
In
the
enforced
silence
caused
by
an
unexpected lockdown, Antony found clarity in
curiosity—a curiosity that led him down an
unexpected path.
Weaving Biomedical Engineering
with Data Science
To quench his thirst for more, Antony sought
various avenues for growth. He spoke to his
mentors about career prospects. He joined the
Institute
of
Electrical
and
Electronics
Engineering (IEEE) society at his university,
eventually becoming its chairperson. He dove
into online courses on platforms like Coursera to
grasp the fundamentals of Data Science. He
applied for internships, including one at Talent
Bridge Africa (now Krowd Works), where he
researched healthcare trends and produced
over 25 weekly reports, thereby solidifying the
importance of processing and exploring such
data.
Combining
these
experiences,
Antony
recognized that one of the complexities of
biomedical data was in its multimodality; the
combination
of
image,
text,
audio,
and
biological data, which solidified his choice to
weave his biomedical engineering knowledge
with the newly found Data Science skills in
Pandas, Matplotlib, Data Wrangling, and more.
As he progressively learned to combine these
two fields, he acknowledged various gaps in his
ability to apply for external opportunities. First,
he yearned for an environment where he could
be challenged to explore his newfound combo
of disciplines. Second, he struggled to package
and communicate his abilities and expertise. It
did not help that he still used a 5-page CV that
he had crafted in high school.
Antony applied to KamiLimu.
ANTONY
GITAU
5
WHOLE
As one of the mentees during KamiLimu’s sixth
cohort in 2021, Antony benefited from the
holistic upskilling that went beyond technical
competencies.
Specifically,
he
leveraged
KamiLimu’s consistent feedback model, which
acknowledged what had been done right and
noted areas for improvement. This approach
taught him greater openness to receiving,
giving, and implementing feedback. ‘I am a
better son, boyfriend, and team player after
embracing the open two-way feedback style I
learned at KamiLimu,’ says Antony. This
feedback style made it easier for him during the
competition phase of the program, which he
found
most
challenging.
He
notes
that
KamiLimu’s
Kaizen
spirit
of
continuous
improvement still propels him today, especially
as he navigates the uncertainty of not knowing
how things will turn out.
Antony found personal support at KamiLimu
through his peer mentor, Derrick Ngigi, with
whom
he
cherished
to
have
lengthy
conversations. He made friends with his cohort
mates, Mark Tanui and Allan Gitau, a friendship
that
supported
him
when
he
needed
accommodation in Nyeri, a town 150 kilometers
from Nairobi, where Mark and Allan resided.
Through collaboration with team members on
an innovation project, learning scholarship
writing skills, and progressing to the semifinals
of the public speaking competition, Antony’s
holistic skills were challenged to grow beyond
his comfort zone. He echoed his desire for a
holistic life in the speech he wrote & delivered
at KamiLimu titled ‘Wash the Dishes’, where he
affirmed that he hopes to live ‘a life that
laughed through the rough terrains and used
data for good.’
I am a better son,
boyfriend, and team
player after embracing
the Kaizen spirit that I
learned at KamiLimu.
6
WHOLE
The skills that Antony gained at KamiLimu
propelled him towards significant achievements
in the field of Data Science. Midway through the
program, he utilized the skills he had learned in
CV writing and interview preparation to secure
two Data Science internships, one at the
research center for Data Science and Artificial
Intelligence (DSAIL) at Dedan Kimathi University
of Technology. He used the scholarship writing
skills to apply for and receive a fully sponsored
ticket from IEEE to present the DSAIL project at
the 19th International Summer School on Data
Science and Engineering in Medicine and
Biology in Crete, Greece. He was also accepted
into a summer school on Probabilistic Artificial
Intelligence at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU).
In all, he has collectively used these skills to
learn from and showcase his multidisciplinary
skills in at least 10 countries in Europe, the
United States, and other parts of Africa, so far.
When Antony returned to KamiLimu’s eighth
cohort in 2023 as a peer mentor, supporting
mentees Bratipah Kioko, Colette Wamuchie, and
Jared Kidola, he was clear which road he wished
to take upon graduation from Kenyatta
University. This path led him to South Africa.
7
WHOLE
Antony was accepted for a prestigious Google DeepMind Scholarship, which selects 40
candidates annually, to pursue an MSc in Mathematical Science, specialization in Artificial
Intelligence for Science, as a joint program between the University of Cape Town and the
African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. This program seeks students who ‘gaze at the
stars and the world around them in wonder, and who want to use their talents to
accelerate scientific discovery’. Antony could not have been a better candidate. Now, in his
9th month of the Master's program, he is working on a research project that examines
whether machine learning models capable of processing multimodal data can be used to
redefine how medical educators effectively assess their students via video.
While pursuing a challenging endeavour like a postgraduate program, Antony appreciates
the preparation in resilience that he gathered at KamiLimu. He muses, ‘Having completed
an immersive program like KamiLimu, I know I can do a hard thing like excelling in a fast-
paced Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence.’ Combining this quest with hiking and biking
up to 30 kilometers at a time, prioritizing time with his family and girlfriend, and drawing
from a family tradition of hard work, Antony believes that he is well balanced to continue
enduring during tough times and energizing from successful periods. His journey, from
engineering prosthetic arms to a deep dive into using Pandas to process data, and now
strengthening his research muscles in Artificial Intelligence, has him well on his way to
realizing his dream of leading a research laboratory. As he reminisces about his time at
KamiLimu, he notes that the people he learned from participated in and contribute to the
program as if it's their life’s work. And Antony has found his.
Having successfully
completed an
immersive program
like KamiLimu, I know I
can do a hard thing
like excelling in a
fast-paced Master’s
degree in Artificial
Intelligence.
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WHOLE
9
WHOLE
RISING
STARS
10
WHOLE