Kenya Honours Huawei ICT Competition Winners

President William Ruto has honoured Kenya’s winners of the 2025–2026 Global Huawei ICT Competition after the country secured its first-ever Grand Prize in the global contest, marking its strongest performance since joining the programme.

Speaking during a State House ceremony in Nairobi, Ruto congratulated the students for placing Kenya among the world’s leading ICT talent hubs, describing their achievement as proof that the country is producing globally competitive digital skills.

The winning Cloud Track team earned the competition’s highest honour, the Grand Prize, during the global finals held in Shenzhen, China, in June. The team comprised Kevin Tuei of Tharaka University, Catherine Atieno of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Brian Ngugi Kamau of Mount Kenya University and Salem Kim Lumumba of Machakos University.

Kenya also claimed Second Prize in the Network Track, while an all-women Computing Track team from JKUAT made history by securing Second Prize and winning the prestigious Women in Tech Award. The team consisted of Joan Kinoti, Faith Mosonik and Melanie Minayo.

The achievement came in one of the competition’s largest editions, attracting more than 210,000 students globally. After national and regional qualifying rounds, 131 teams from more than 40 countries and regions advanced to the finals, competing across cloud computing, networking, computing and artificial intelligence categories.

Ruto used the ceremony, which also launched the competition’s 11th edition in Kenya, to encourage young innovators to continue developing technologies capable of solving local and global challenges.

“The future belongs to those who imagine, invent and build the technologies that the world has not yet conceived,” the President said.

The event was attended by Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy William Kabogo Gitau, Principal Secretary John Tanui, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Guo Haiyan, Huawei Kenya Chief Executive Officer Gavin Gao, university leaders and senior government officials.

Principal Secretary Tanui attributed the results to sustained government investment in digital infrastructure, innovation and ICT skills development.

He said the government’s Digital Superhighway Programme is expanding the country’s digital capacity through the rollout of an additional 37,000 kilometres of fibre-optic infrastructure, the establishment of hundreds of digital hubs and the training of more than 1.9 million Kenyans in digital skills.

The Huawei ICT Competition forms part of Huawei’s global ICT Academy programme, which partners with universities and technical institutions to provide industry-aligned training, certification and practical skills development. Students progress through national and regional competitions before qualifying for the international finals, where they are assessed through practical cloud, networking, computing and AI challenges.

Kenya’s performance also highlighted growing female participation in advanced technology disciplines. The all-women JKUAT team not only secured a global Second Prize but also won the Women in Tech Award, underscoring efforts to increase gender diversity in ICT.

The ceremony also marked the official launch of the competition’s 11th edition, with the government and Huawei expressing confidence that Kenya will continue building a pipeline of globally competitive ICT talent through expanded digital infrastructure, university partnerships and industry-led skills programmes.