Anthony Karimi Muthungu
Anthony Karimi Muthungu is a Kenyan electronics innovator proving that world-class hardware can emerge from local factories. Raised in Nyeri County and armed with a diploma in electrical engineering, he launched TotoSci Holdings in 2018 after teaching himself PCB design and injection-mould tooling. The firm began in a single room turning out 300 USB-A cables a day; it now runs a semi-automated line outside Thika that produces 2,000 MFi-grade USB-C and Lightning cables and 1,200 fast-charging adapters daily, supplying retailers in Kenya, Rwanda, and the DRC.
Muthungu holds patents on more than 20 devices, including the Intelligent Blind Stick—a lightweight AI-enabled cane that detects obstacles, potholes, and descending stairs, vibrating and speaking alerts through a bone-conduction earpiece. The device won the 2022 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation and is now distributed through Kenya Society for the Blind with NHIF reimbursement.
To localise the consumer-electronics value chain, TotoSci is commissioning a SMT assembly unit for wireless-earbud boards and has secured KEBS certification to begin assembling entry-level smartphones by 2026. Muthungu mentors high-school robotics clubs via the TotoSci STEM Caravan and sits on the Ministry of ICT’s Hardware Start-up Taskforce, championing tax incentives and skills programmes to nurture Kenya’s fledgling electronics ecosystem.