US-Based Kenyan Engineer Wins CNN's 2022 Hero of the Year Award

US-based Kenyan software engineer Nelly Cheboi has won the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year Award and will receive a cash prize of $100,000 (Sh12 million) to expand her work.

Cheboi, who quit a lucrative software engineering job in Chicago in 2019 to create computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, was selected by online voters from among this year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes.

The 29-year-old accepted the prestigious award alongside her mother, who she said “worked really hard to educate us.” She grew up in poverty in Mogotio, a rural township in Kenya. 

“I know the pain of poverty. I never forgot what it was like with my stomach churning because of hunger at night,” she said.

Through her foundation Techlit Africa, Cheboi recycles old computers and uses them to create technology labs across schools in rural Kenya.

Cheboi and the other top 10 CNN Heroes honored at Sunday’s gala all received a $10,000 cash award, additional grants, organizational training and support from The Elevate Prize Foundation through a new collaboration with CNN Heroes. 

In addition, Cheboi will also be named an Elevate Prize winner, which comes with a $300,000 (Sh37 million) grant and additional support worth $200,000 (Sh25 million) for her nonprofit.

Tech Lit Africa repurposes the vast quantity of used technological equipment from companies, institutions, and individuals and refurbishes them for use in communities in Kenya. 

Cheboi received a scholarship in 2012 to study Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at Augustan’s University Illinois. Upon graduation, she worked as a software engineer for New World Van lines and as a full-stack engineer for Kodable, and as a Lead Software Engineer for User Hero.

She was featured in this year’s Forbes’ annual 30 Under 30 list.

 “When I discovered computer science, I just fell in love with it. I knew that this is something that I wanted to do as my career, and also bring it to my community,” she told CNN.

“My hope is that when the first TechLit kids graduate high school, they’re able to get a job online because they will know how to code, they will know how to do graphic design, they will know how to do marketing.”