Where art thou? Community calls from the Weekend that was. AWS Community Day Kenya 2025 from my lens as MC!
Build, Innovate, Inspire!!
That was my final clarion call as I pointed the mic towards the AWS Community Day Kenya 2025 crowd as they repeated this year’s theme after me. A surreal moment of accomplishment after finishing my day of service as an AI/ML Panelist and the Master of Ceremony (MC) for this year’s edition.
For us to get to that moment, it would make sense if I rewind all the way back to Thursday, to where and how it all started. In the evening, I was driving to the city to join the Organizing Team and volunteers for final preparation. Thought we would get to the city in time for our alx_africa Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group Build with Gemini Event alongside Samir Khan, only to be forced to stop at a coffee shop to host the event. 240+ happy attendees and dozens of apps built with a 93% CSAT, I could proceed to the city ready for a packed weekend.
The night felt like a power nap, and there we were at it again, the staff at Alluvium hosted me for an engaging Alluvium Knowledge Zone Session as I shared tidbits on how the organization can foster meaningful engagements with the community.
Took a couple of questions and bam I was off to KCA University to check out the final preps for the AWS Community Day Kenya 2025. Great to see a beehive of activity and Mark Orina all over the place, as usual. Ran through the program together just to be sure, and then it dawns on me, Kev, you are the MC, no going back!
Preps at KCA, check! Off to an exclusive dinner with Veliswa Boya together with the AWSome Organizing Team. A ton of niceties exchanged, scrumptious food (including a hotel mutura that Adeline seemed to like, for me it’s street Mutura or nothing). Muriithi having to go “early” was enough of a cue that it was getting late for the “Eastlands” folks, not so much for the Upperhill residents.
Goofy selfies and off to sleep, long night for me because I couldn’t catch any deep sleep. The thought of waking up late past 10 am, yet I am the MC, played like a marquee on my closed eyelids. My 5:25 am alarm put me out of my light sleep misery, even without an ounce of consideration to snooze it to 5:30 am for the official wake-up time!
African print top, check! Black half-jacket, check! Clean Boots check! Clean specs, check! Light breakfast, check! One final look at the mirror, check! Now it was time to step out, reminded me of the KIWI Black Shoe Polish advert back in the day. I could tiptoe to the car if I could, just to make sure I don’t wake up the village haters from their slumber and find myself in a quagmire of issues that would hinder me from taking the AWS Community Day 2025 Spotlight! Short drive, completed security checks, and we were finally at the Main Hall.
My ritual for every stage, especially big ones, is to get there before everyone and get attuned to the sweet ambience of the room/hall before networking chatter and laughter rent the air! With that done, I had a couple of intriguing chats with the early-comers, including Erick Odipo and Daniel, who I also felt had a similar ritual. We had a conversation on various issues, including projects and initiatives that drive impact. Unknowingly, we even asked ourselves why East Africa and Africa at large had not had the privilege of a new AWS Hero for a couple of years now, little did we know what was to happen later.
The start of the event was edging closer, the hall was slowly filling up, and the “devil” on one side of my shoulder was like, “It’s getting real, are you sure you are cut out for this?” The “angel” on the other shoulder was like, “You got this, have you forgotten who you are? Tuei, a household name in the Cloud Industry! ” As we get ready to welcome the guests, I warm up to the stage by asking the audience to take a selfie and make the first post under the hashtags of the day.
Just as I was reminiscing about how far I have come, I see the Dr. Werner Vogels entourage stream in from one door of the hall at the far left, and a hushed voice inside my head says, “This is it!” A quick final confirmation from Mark on the order of speakers and I take the stage to ask the audience to rise for the Kenya National Anthem, as it plays I organize what I am going to say next, who I am going to invite first and how I will start engaging the audience, it perfectly settles with the end of the anthem.
I get into my element, and I invite Alexander Njuguna from KCA to invite Dr. Abraham Rotich, Director of Research and Innovation at KCA, for his Welcoming Remarks. No one oriented me that being an MC can be overwhelming, from thinking on your feet, to taking the risk of pulling a joke that’s funny only to you and everything in between.
My proudest moment was when I had the pleasure to invite Dr. Werner Vogels on stage to deliver his keynote. With his re:Invent 2024 Welcome in a distant memory, I used the exact lines to usher him in as he was during his Simplexity Keynote in Las Vegas.
The claps died down, then the tech started doing what it does, pretty relieved that the AWS Solutions Architects, led by Siya, had a solution up their sleeve. By now, you must have seen a couple of posts on the content of his keynote on the 7 lessons in Frugal Architecture my main takeaways were: “Make Cost and Sustainability a non-functional requirement”, “Build evolvable systems” and “Define your meter because unobserved Systems lead to Unknown Costs”
Dr. Werner, swept us off our feet with his final slide being the announcement of Adeline Makokha as the first AWS Community Hero in East Africa. A well-deserved accolade remembering the sheer number of people in the community she has impacted and given an opportunity to grow through the communities she has built, not only in Kenya but across the region. Who better to share her story than Mark Orina one of the people who has been by her side as she consistently took strides to this moment of becoming an AWS Hero.
After the tears of joy, my hands aching from all the clapping (I didn’t even know Mark could do chants, I was like wth?) we settled in for the Fireside Chat as Dr. Werner kept poking on Adeline as she asked her set of questions, “Hero!” And we just laughed! It was awesome to hear the story of our “baby”, the AWS AI/ML User Group Kenya — the first AI/ML-specialized AWS User Group on the continent — being shared by Mark and acknowledged by Dr. Werner himself.
In a jiffy, the Fireside Chat was over, and Dr. Werner’s turn to be surprised came. From being adorned with Maasai Shuka, “Hakuna Matata” Hat, Leadership “Rungu” to the Kenya Shield denoting resilience. The gifting ceremony did not end without a Kenyan baptism as “Kimani” the Adventurer!
The photo session almost turned out to be another exhausting session as people could not get enough of getting snaps beside the Amazon Enigma in Dr. Werner “Kimani” Vogels. The only option was now to have him and the team retreat to the boardroom for a brief networking over tea and a mini award session for Adeline, the Cloud Queen to get her long-awaited crown in the form of a gold coin + necklace. The first and only to have such!
Did I mention my “kimbelembele” together with Pauline and Nelly, and the proactive nature of Muriithi led us to getting a rare one-on-one photo with Kimani?
With that, Kimani had to leave; he was spent for the day.
For sure, what else would you expect from a guy born in a community of Marathon Runners? Now it was time to run back to the hall for the second half of the keynotes.
From there, one esteemed Keynote Speaker after the other, it started feeling like collecting Pokémon cards. Robin Njiru, Regional Lead — Public Sector at AWS, Veliswa Boya — Sr Developer Advocate at AWS, Erick Odipo — Kenya Country Lead — Silicon Overdrive and Edwin Ngaruiya, Regional Lead — Public Cloud at NTT Data.
I was happy to see my Nairobi DevOps Community peers at our booth and meet Ian, Tabitha, Kadima, Alvin, among others, whom I greatly esteem in the DevOps and Cloud Native Space.
Did I mention that we were graced by the presence of a CNCF Ambassador all the way from Nigeria at the event? “Na haturingi” — We are not even showing off!
My work as an MC eased up after lunch as the Panel Hosts took over the Mics, and I also changed into my AWS Jacket (I believe it will be a golden one soon) to reflect my identity as a panellist for the AI/ML Panel alongside Cynthia, Samuel, and Muriithi.
Our Panel Host, Kevin (not me), did an amazing job moderating it, apart from throwing shades at me in a funny way from time to time. Afterwards, the Cybersecurity and DevOps Panels took place in the Hall, while the Women in Tech and Inclusion Panels occurred in the other breakout rooms, along with the technical demos and paper talks. Proud to have been part of the selection team for the AWS Community Day 2025 CFPs. Quality all over!
Talking of over, before it was all over, many side chats along the hallways with enthusiastic attendees. I still can’t get over the fact that I missed a RedBull Energy Drink giveaway, but I compensated by buying myself one. I know that Pauline Namwakira, in her LinkedIn post, stated that she won the Counting Fingers Math Game; such a big lie! I was already tired by the time she started getting the hang of it!
What more can I say? The day was over, and as I got into the car and sat in the driver's seat, I was like God, I didn’t know you could make a little heaven down here! To your Glory and Honour, we did it! Your MC, whom the “devil” had cast doubts on that he was not cut out for it, had been chased away by the flames of confidence and delivery.
That was how AWS Community Day 2025 and my weekend were from my lens as your Host, MC and Panelist!
Now let’s go build!
