Education
University of Pittsburgh. Harvard Law School.
blogger lawyer Internet activist
University of Pittsburgh. Harvard Law School.
She is Director of Investments at Omidyar Network. She was formerly the Policy Manager for Africa with Google. In 2006 she co-founded the parliamentary watchdog site Mzalendo (Swahili: "Patriot").
The site sought to increase government accountability by systematically recording bills, speeches, MPs, standing orders, et cetera
When Kenya was engulfed in violence following a disputed presidential election in 2007, Okolloh helped create Ushahidi (Swahili: "Witness"), a website that collected and recorded eyewitness reports of violence using text messages and Google Maps. The technology has since been adapted for other purposes (including monitoring elections and tracking pharmaceutical availability) and used in a number of other countries.
Okolloh has a personal blog, Kenyan Pundit, which was featured on Global Voices Online. She has worked as a legal consultant for Non-governmental organizations and has worked at Covington and Burling, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, and the World Bank.
Okolloh was appointed on the Board of Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, the body that acts as a guardian of the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles in May 2015.
Okolloh was born into a relatively poor family. Her father died of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in 1999.