In my work as a Solutions Architect at Kenya Revenue Authority, I bring people, processes and technology into the same picture. I ask questions, untangle requirements and turn them into designs teams can discuss and build. The part I enjoy is finding the shape of a problem when everyone is looking at it from a different angle.
Frances
Mutahi
Curious about ideas. Serious about making them useful.
Kenya · Technology, policy, literature & people
Hello, I’m Frances.
I’m interested in how things work. Systems, institutions, people. And what happens when we ask whether they could work a little better.
I’m a solutions architect in Kenya, but a job title only tells you part of the story. I’m also a reader, a builder, someone who enjoys a thoughtful debate, and someone who can happily follow a question well beyond where it started.
Technology, policy, literature and people all hold my attention for different reasons. I like the logic of a well-designed system, the questions a book leaves behind, and a conversation that gives me something to reconsider.
I take my ideas seriously.
Ask another question
I want to understand the reasoning behind an answer. I’m happy to have my own reasoning challenged, too.
Make room for people
A sensible plan starts with listening to the people who will live with it.
Try it in the real world
Building something is satisfying. Finding out whether people find it useful is the next part of the work.
Where curiosity takes me
Some of the places I put my thinking to work.
I work on ideas of my own. Some take shape, others change along the way. I’m building, experimenting and learning as I go.
My interest in policy comes back to everyday experience: how decisions are made, who gets heard, and whether institutions work for the people they serve. Through youth leadership spaces and conversations on accountability, I keep exploring where we can contribute and what meaningful participation looks like.
What I bring to the table
The setting may change. These are habits I bring to a new problem, team or idea.
Finding the real questionLooking past the first request to understand what someone actually needs.
Seeing the connectionsNoticing how a decision affects the wider process, organisation or community.
Translating between perspectivesHelping people with different backgrounds understand one another and move forward.
Bringing people togetherCreating room for conversation, shared learning and participation.
Giving ideas a shapeTurning an unclear brief into a plan, a diagram, a prototype or something people can try.
Learning by doingTrying an approach, paying attention to what happens and adjusting along the way.
Still learning
Some learning comes with a syllabus. Some starts with a question I can’t leave alone.
My foundation is in information technology, with postgraduate study at JKUAT and further learning in cloud computing and enterprise architecture. I enjoy going deep enough to understand how something works, then finding a way to explain it plainly.
At the moment, that curiosity includes machine learning and how structured data can become a readable narrative.
Beyond the technical
Literature, policy and conversations about people give me other ways to look at a problem. I like having more than one lens.
A question I’m working on
What makes something useful enough that people choose to use it? My own projects keep bringing me back to that one.
People & community
I value the spaces where we can learn from one another and contribute something of ourselves.
Young people, real conversations
Convening the Nyeri Young Leaders Conference has been one way of bringing young people into conversations about leadership and participation. I’m interested in what happens when we have room to ask questions and take responsibility.
Sharing what I know
I enjoy helping students think through their next steps in technology. Sometimes what helps most is a practical explanation or a conversation that makes the next step feel possible.
Faith & fellowship
Church and fellowship are part of my life, too. Teaching, learning and helping organise community activities give me ways to connect and contribute beyond my day-to-day work.
Room to just be
I enjoy a good conversation, and I’m comfortable with my own company. There’s room for both.
A few moments along the way
Leadership, shared learning, technology and public life.
Nyeri Young Leaders Initiative
Bringing young people together for conversations about leadership and participation.
Ms President
A chapter of my leadership journey through Ms President.
Women in technology
Sharing my perspective at a women’s tech event.
Accountability in public life
Speaking on a panel at the Accountability in African Public Policy and Administration Conference.
Enterprise architecture in Norway
Taking part in a capacity building engagement on enterprise architecture in Norway.
On the judging side
Serving as a judge at a tech challenge.
Sharing a perspective
Contributing as a panelist and learning from the perspectives around me.
Contributing to peace policy
Taking part in a discussion to help formulate a policy on peace.
The library
Books I’ve read, and the one I’m reading now.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Ashlee Vance
Reading
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Read
The Success Principles
Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer
Read
Dream Count
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Read
Happy Sexy Millionaire
Steven Bartlett
Read
The Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield
Read
Unplugged
Jacob Aliet
Read
Unplugged 3
Jacob Aliet
Read
Confessions of Nairobi Men
Joan Thatiah
Read
Everything I Know About Life
Joan Thatiah
Read
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
Read
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Deesha Philyaw
Read
Lean In
Sheryl Sandberg
Read
The Defining Decade
Meg Jay
Read
Why Nations Fail
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Read
Weep Not, Child
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Read
Mad Women
Joan Thatiah
Read
NaiRobbery Cocktail
Empress Ciku Kimani-Mwaniki
Read
The Richest Man in Babylon
George S. Clason
ReadŨrathi wa Cege wa Kĩbirũ
Ũrathi wa Cege wa Kĩbirũ
Daniel Kĩnũthia Mũgĩa
Read
White Nights
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Read
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Read
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Read
Kenda Mũiyũru: Rũgano rwa Gĩkũyũ na Mũmbi
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Read
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter
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