Four young Kenyan women have emerged as the overall winners of the third edition of the GirlCode Kenya Hackathon, held at Konza Technopolis.
Mary Wangui, Linet Mugwanja, Aisha Barasa and Cynthia Chepkorir won the two-day competition with Naulisako, an AI-powered digital fare collection platform designed to streamline public transport payments.
The platform also automates reconciliation for vehicle owners and generates sales records to improve financial tracking and transparency. Speaking on behalf of the winning team, Linet Mugwanja said the solution was inspired by challenges within Kenya’s public transport sector.
The hackathon was organised by Absa Bank Kenya, GirlCode and the Technopolis Development Authority, bringing together 44 young women, including students, graduates, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs. The initiative formed part of the 2026 GirlCode Pan-African Hackathon Series.
The Bots team finished second with Biashara Bot, a solution designed to digitise financial record-keeping for underserved and unbanked small businesses. Korva placed third with Korva Creatives Economy, a platform designed to help digital creators consolidate revenue, engagement data and intellectual property income.
The top three teams received laptops, tablets, Bluetooth speakers, headsets and books. Kenya was the sixth and final stop of the 2026 GirlCode Pan-African Hackathon Series, following events in South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana and Uganda.
The Pan-African winners will be announced on 12 October 2026. The winning team will receive R100,000, equivalent to about KSh790,655, while the winning SME will receive incubation support to scale its solution.
