Question 1

Who is Richard Ruoro?

Accepted Answer

Richard Ruoro is a Nairobi-based Technology Architect, Product Builder and AI & Digital Innovation Consultant with 25+ years building digital infrastructure, platforms and AI products across Africa. He is Co-Founder & Lead Technology Architect at Silicon Savannah Talent (SST Oracle), CTO at DataLock (Kinga), and founder of Kioo, Unganisha, Zabuni and Savanna Avia.

Question 2

What does a technology architect do?

Accepted Answer

A technology architect designs how an organisation's software, data and infrastructure fit together to meet business goals: choosing the stack, defining how systems integrate, setting standards for performance, security and cost, and guiding engineering teams through delivery. Richard operates across three layers most architects pick one of: infrastructure, product and strategy.

Question 3

What products has Richard built?

Accepted Answer

Zabuni (tender-to-bid automation for Kenyan suppliers), Unganisha (privacy-first blood donor matching on PostgreSQL + PostGIS), Kioo (AI beauty technology with skin-aware try-on, built in Flutter), Kinga (a community operating system for boda boda SACCOs with M-Pesa and bank rails), SST Oracle (AI candidate search on pgvector) and WingsPath at Savanna Avia (aviation management software). Most are live; see the Work section for status.

Question 4

What is Zabuni?

Accepted Answer

Zabuni is Richard's tender-to-bid automation product. It reads a Kenyan government tender PDF, turns it into a structured checklist, tracks statutory certificate expiry, runs a gap analysis, fills the price schedule and produces one serialised submission PDF. It is live at zabuni.ruoro.co.ke.

Question 5

What is Unganisha?

Accepted Answer

Unganisha (formerly DamuLink) matches a patient who needs blood with compatible donors nearby across 1,620 Kenyan towns and 1,051 health facilities. The blood-compatibility rules live in the database itself and privacy is enforced by the schema: no names on public pages, no diagnosis tracking, identity data purged on a schedule. It is live at unganisha.co.ke.

Question 6

What is Richard's role at Kinga?

Accepted Answer

Richard is CTO of DataLock, the company behind Kinga. He designed the Kinga brand first, then built the complete app: a working proof of concept in one month, followed by hardening towards the Google Play release, including the M-Pesa and Co-op Bank Open API payments rail.

Question 7

What is SST Oracle?

Accepted Answer

SST Oracle is the AI candidate-search and talent-intelligence platform built by Silicon Savannah Talent, where Richard is Co-Founder & Lead Technology Architect. It combines semantic vector search, structured CV data, recruiter scoring and milestone escrow so teams can find and pay African talent that other platforms miss.

Question 8

What is Kioo?

Accepted Answer

Kioo is Richard's AI-powered beauty technology platform. It uses ML Kit face-mesh and Gemini-driven recommendations to give skin-aware virtual try-on tuned for African skin tones, paired with personalised product matching.

Question 9

Does Richard also build ordinary business websites?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Alongside the platforms he has designed and built websites for schools, hotels, construction firms, retailers and property companies, for example Ridgeville Perazim Montessori School, Lacienda Kitui Resort, N Global Realty and Min's Baking Supplies. Most clients start with a website and come back for a full product.

Question 10

How can I hire Richard for AI consulting, a fractional CTO role or technology advisory?

Accepted Answer

Use the "Start a Conversation" form on ruoro.co.ke or message him on WhatsApp at +254 759 000666. Typical engagements cover AI product strategy, technology architecture review, fractional or acting CTO roles, platform engineering, fintech rails and digital transformation programmes.

Question 11

Can I invest in one of Richard's ventures?

Accepted Answer

Several of his own ventures are open to investors: Zabuni, Unganisha, Kioo, SST Oracle, Savanna Avia, Shamba and KopaBro. The Opportunities page lists each one with its stage and a short summary. Use the contact form with the venture name as the subject.

Question 12

What was Richard's role in Kenya's AI policy and the AI Bill 2026?

Accepted Answer

Richard filed a formal response to the Ministry of ICT on the Draft Kenya AI Policy in August 2026 and submitted a memorandum on the Kenya AI Bill 2026: practical input from a builder's perspective on AI adoption, governance, and how regulation lands on the people actually shipping AI products.

Question 13

Where is Richard based?

Accepted Answer

Nairobi, Kenya. His work covers East Africa and the wider African continent. Clients have included telcos, fintechs, schools, hotels, talent platforms and policy bodies.

Question 14

What technologies does Richard work with?

Accepted Answer

Next.js and TypeScript on the web, Flutter on mobile, Python (FastAPI) and TypeScript (Fastify) backends, PostgreSQL with PostGIS for spatial queries and pgvector for AI retrieval, Redis, Gemini and other LLMs, n8n for orchestration, M-Pesa Daraja and Co-op Bank Open API for payments, and Docker on self-managed Linux servers behind nginx with Let's Encrypt. The deeper toolkit covers messaging platforms and telco integrations built up across 25 years.

Question 15

What is the 150M+ SMS figure on the site?

Accepted Answer

A cumulative count covering the Sasanet free-SMS platform (about 1 million free SMS per month from 2006), the Committee of Experts (CoE) constitutional-education campaign that reached Kenyans during the Katiba referendum, and enterprise messaging volumes at Global Message Company.

Notes from building in Africa.