The long fight against systemic inequity in the Kenyan startup ecosystem.
Its heading to the third anniversary since I was ousted from a tech startup I built from scratch back in 2017.
I am a Kenyan of African descent, and in a scheme by my white co-founders at the time, I was fraudulently deprived of my stake in a startup I had co-founded. This was a startup that I built through sweat, blood and tears for over an year while my co-founders were in school pursuing their MBA. After working tirelessly to take a technical product from concept to prototype to piloting and eventually raising seed funding, everything was taken from me by my American partners.
My name was expunged from the startup’s list of co-founders/shareholders and I was terminated from the company, losing my position as the chief data officer. To add insult to injury, I was handed a summary dismissal which was designed to deny me any financial resources I could have used in challenging what had happened.
In that incident, I lost my intellectual property, countless hours of sacrifice building a product from a concept, shares which had already vested and some stable income I had long awaited after bootstrapping for over a year before raising funding.
A few months after kicking me out of the startup, my former co-founder (someone who I had once counted as a good friend) would go on to release a bizarre statement branding me nothing more than a former glorified employee, who had only been given the tag co-founder in “recognition of his passion”.
I know many of you might be wondering how such a scheme unfolded. Let me just say various tricks were used by my former co-founders to alter our agreements and facilitate the fraudulent takeover. I was unwittingly led down a cleverly constructed matrix by people who always intended to appropriate my intellect, innovation and hard work.
This scheme was aided in no small part by the inherent structural inequities in the financing of the startup ecosystem in Kenya. Taking advantage of racial and class biases, my former co-founders devised a scheme to exploit me for their own gain.
The calculated elements of the confidence trick they used require a separate post to fully dissect, thus I will not delve into it here. Suffice to say I was a victim of fraud by people who exploited quirks in the global venture capital model. A model that has been shown time and again to be racially biased but has yet to come out and acknowledge this reality or pledge to transform.
The traditional response from the top players in this industry, whenever issues of racial equity arise, has been to maintain a studious silence. There seems to be a consensus among investors and their gatekeepers such as hubs and incubators, that the problem should remain unacknowledged.
Unfortunately closing of the eyes, covering of the ears and refusing to talk about an evil that is already among us won’t make it go away.
It also does nothing to bring justice to those who, like me, have suffered the human impacts of this deeply flawed system.
Fighting systemic inequity requires deliberate, targeted and concerted efforts that are consistently executed until system change is effected. These efforts must be made by all players in the ecosystem. By everyone who affirms their belief in the principles of equity.
Through parliament, regulations are beginning to spring up with the intent of protecting local players in the technology space. A recently enacted bill aims to ensure locals have a stake in any technology startups launching in Kenya. The effectiveness of this approach is questionable, but its signaling is crystal clear. Even parliament and the government acknowledge that there is something seriously wrong with the demographic profile of the Kenyan startup ecosystem.
Meanwhile as debate on the status quo rages on, those who benefit from the inequity continue to prosper while those whom carry its burden continue to be weighed down.
Safi Analytics, the startup I was ousted from, has grown its operations in East Africa and even expanded to Latin America. One article referred to them as a US company, oblivious of the company’s Kenyan roots and of the African heritage behind its globally selling product.
Investors and gate keepers continue to enable false narratives that steer the Kenyan startup ecosystem deeper into racial inequities. This is despite their awareness of issues that have been raised severally and continue to affect the industry.
I, on the other hand, 3 years after the fact, am yet to find any restitution and continue to chase after elusive justice. A long, slow process that is draining from an emotional, psychological and financial perspective.
I was both a co-founder, shareholder and employee at Safi Analytics. I launched a suit in the industrial and labor court regarding my irregular termination from employment. I plan to launch a different case in the commercial court for my intellectual property and the shareholding I deserve in the company I founded.
Various factors have slowed my pursuit for justice, chief among them being a lack of resources. I am hoping to mobilize support from those who believe in justice to fund my suit in the commercial court.
The psychological price I have paid to fight systemic inequity has left its mark on me. Anyone who has launched a startup can attest to how mentally taxing the process can be, even without any external distractions.
Picture then handling such pressures while also fighting a case on the side, against an adversary with far more resources. I’d say the past few years have really tested my mettle.
Despite my moving on to other projects in the years since, that incident from 2018 remains like a cloud, hanging over my head and casting a shadow on my life. I can only hope that justice will be done one day and I will finally be able to close that chapter.
As mentioned, I will be launching a suit in the commercial court as the running suit only covers the labor aspects of what transpired. The status quo plays into the narrative being advanced that I was just an employee, hence why I am launching the new suit for my IP claims.
Any support, including in the form of raising awareness about this case, is highly appreciated. Perhaps by standing together against such overt injustice, we can lay foundations for a world free of systemic inequities.
