Kenyan teenager plans 'hacker school' to help Africa build next Google

A self-taught Kenyan programmer has plans to build a hacker school to help Africa build next Google.

Martha Chumo, 19, was accepted to be part of the Hacker School, a U.S.-based 'retreat for hackers', where budding programmers come together for three months to write code, learn new languages and share industry insights.

According to CNN, the programming boot camp was free to attend, but Chumo needed money to cover her trip costs and buy a new laptop.

As an unmarried adult who was not enrolled at university, Chumo was not eligible for a U.S. tourist visa because she could not show sufficient social ties to Kenya to prove that she was planning to return home after attending Hacker School.

Therefore, Chumo thought of making her own hacker school, if she could go there.

Within minutes of her second visa request denial, on June 4, Chumo was calling her friends to announce that she was starting a hacker school in Kenya.

A few days later, she launched another Indiegogo campaign asking people to help her set up her own school for developers in Nairobi.

So far, she has managed to raise about 12,000 dollars at Indiegogo, out of her 50,000 goal dollars.

Chumo said that even if she does not manage to collect the funds, she'll continue with her plans to provide learning opportunities to East Africa's tech community, the report added.