Kelvin Gacheru
Kelvin Gacheru is a Kenyan water-resources engineer and social innovator who is turning real-time data into reliable taps across East Africa. After graduating with a BSc in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Nairobi, he managed rural piped-water schemes before spotting a bigger challenge: most utilities and property managers had no idea how much water they were losing, or when tanks ran dry. In 2016 he founded Mobi-Water, a Nairobi start-up that pairs solar-powered ultrasonic sensors with an SMS-and-app dashboard, enabling users to track reservoir levels, flow rates, and pump status from any phone.
Under Gacheru’s leadership the platform has grown from a garage prototype to more than 4,000 deployed units in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Madagascar, serving hospitals, schools, shopping malls, and 40 informal-settlement water kiosks. Clients report up to 45 percent reductions in non-revenue water and a 60 percent drop in emergency deliveries. A 2024 integration with M-Pesa now lets landlords automate billing and leak alerts, while an AI module predicts refill schedules based on weather and usage patterns.
Recognised by the Africa Climate Tech Awards and the GSMA Innovation Fund, Gacheru mentors engineering students through the Kenya Water Institute and is piloting a low-cost household sensor aimed at drought-prone arid counties, advancing his mission to make every litre count in a water-stressed continent.