Eng. Wainaina Mungai

Eng. Wainaina Mungai is a digital transformation and strategy advisory expert with over 25 years of experience across telecommunications, broadcasting, ICT policy and public-sector strategy in more than 15 African countries. He is the Founder and Principal of Mafichoni Limited, a Nairobi-based digital and infrastructure advisory firm, and a PhD candidate in Strategic Management. He has served as Senior Consultant to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), on the Open-Source Ecosystem Enablement for Public Service Innovation (OSEEPSI) framework, a regional consultant for SuperBloom NewYork on the Digital Infrastructure Funders Toolkit project and as a trainer for AFRALTI on OTT regulation, new media and mobile technology. His regional regulatory work spans the National Communication Authority (NCA) of South Sudan, served on the Executive Committee of the East Africa Communications Organisation (EACO) with his graduate paper on regulation of gambling advertisements on internet browsers written as part of a project by Opera NA in Kenya.

In South Sudan, he consulted on the development of the NCA Strategic Plan 2025 – 2029, draft Board Charter, Telecommunications Subscriber Registration Regulations (via the iPRIS programme), NCA’s ICT Data Collection Portal based on an ITU-aligned indicators framework; delivered the University of Juba Strategic Plan 2026 – 2030 with participatory input from staff, students and stakeholders, Master Plan 2015 – 2030 evaluation and enterprise commercial strategy and, as Chief Operations Officer of Cello Africa, led the roll-out of Boma Rural Connect’s 200 km Nimule to Juba fibre backbone and the Juba Metro network. Earlier, he headed ICT at Royal Media Services and at Mediamax Networks Limited led technology recovery at Uchumi Supermarkets, and built award-winning broadcast systems for Kenya’s leading media houses.

Eng. Wainaina’s work in research and publications include the ILO Rapid Assessment on Digital Wages for Decent Work (2022), GitHub’s multi-country Social Impact of Open Source Software study (2022), the Opera socioeconomic impact study on digital inclusion in Kenya (2024), and Uchaguzi: ICTs, Statebuilding and Peacebuilding in Kenya (University of Pennsylvania, 2015), alongside peer-reviewed journal and book chapters. A pioneer of African civic tech (BungeSMS, FixMyWard.org), his awards include CIO100 East Africa Hall of Fame (2019), ICTAK ICT Leadership Award (2015), CIO of the Year – East Africa (2013), IT Manager of the Year (2011) and the ICT Value Social Media Excellence Award (2015). He is a former President of the Internet Society Kenya Chapter and a member of Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK), Computer Society of Kenya, KICTANet and the GitHub MERL Center.