How celebrated techie secures gigs for Kibra women

Four years ago, she walked around her campus passing around fliers for a gig she had secured.

At the time, one fintech company had launched a new product and she was conducting brand activation to create awareness and drive sales. Through such gigs, she was able to afford supplies for the architectural course she was pursuing. 

Elizabeth Mwangi grew up surrounded by scarcity and struggle but established early on in life that her destiny was not going to be tied to the slums.

A hard worker, she placed her bet on books and she gave it her all. After completing secondary school, she got her first gig, working as a cashier in a supermarket in Nakuru.

About a month ago, Ms Mwangi received a call that she was the winner of a global competition, bagging $30,000 (Sh3.9 million) for her tech innovation Gwiji.

The Aurora Tech Award is a non-profit initiative of inDrive, a global mobility and urban services platform. Her dreams were starting to come to life.

“I was shocked because when I applied in November 2022, I did not have any expectations.”

Gwiji, her cleaning service startup, was praised for empowering more than 200 slum women by linking them up with gigs from clients. This was no mean feat, she stood out among 400 applicants worldwide. To the outsiders, it was just another Kenyan putting the country and the continent on the map, but to her, the win was personal. 

She had worked with, shared meals and knew the most intimate stories of the women using her mobile app. And so, it was not just a win for her but for the community of women residing in Kibra, which she first interacted with in 2018 while working on a different gig that sought to stop the spread of HIV. She would recruit them for training and afterwards, they would be linked through the organisation to domestic worker jobs on suburban estates. 

Also read: Gig economy is the future of work: Let’s embrace it

“When the short-term project ended two years later, the impact I had witnessed stuck with me. Also, coming from a low-income area myself, I resonated with their struggle because I could feel their desire to change their lives.

“These women are the breadwinners in their families and finding work ensures their families eat, and their children go to school.” 

In many ways, that experience triggered her to find a solution, which, eventually, birthed Gwiji. The biggest challenge she faced with the women at the beginning was a lack of professionalism.

Ms Mwangi also found it prudent to train them to be tech-savvy and in customer service and client retention. She also does a background check on the women and they are required to present a certificate of good conduct and a recommendation letter from their chief or Nyumba Kumi chairperson.

Having worked in the gig economy, she understood how easy it was to be exploited and that is why on her platform, she has set a minimum wage for the women, depending on the available task.

For any person going into a stranger’s house, there is always a security risk. That is why the application has a panic button that users can press to alert supervisors that they need help.

Ms Mwangi expresses confidence when she speaks. She says that stems from her unwavering faith. "Even when I did not have funds, I never panicked because I always trust the process and am confident in my abilities to solve any arising challenge.”

The application has received positive reviews, if the comments and ratings on Google Play are anything to go by. She credits the performance to their seamless feedback mechanism, which allows the clients to air their concerns for quick resolution.

The uptake has, however, been slow, which she says was intentional because, being in a pilot phase, she wanted to first establish how best the product works. But with a concrete structure in place, she is ready for expansion.

She hopes to make partnerships to provide women who do not have access to smartphones full-time cleaning jobs at small offices.

“It has been challenging working with those without smartphones because giving them directions to clients has been difficult, especially when they are going to new areas. But if they can get a permanent place to report to, it gets easier."

Ms Mwangi also hopes to make Gwiji a talent powerhouse solving unemployment by vouching for gig workers like drivers and plumbers, and giving them direct connection to gigs. In the next year, she is optimistic Gwiji will be a big deal in Kenya.

Outside her platform, she is a key informant working with policy influencers to determine the best policies to regulate the gig economy. 

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