Martha Huro
Martha Huro is the Managing Director for East Africa and General Manager-Kenya at Boomplay, Africa’s largest music-streaming service. The Mount Kenya University alumna began her career in 2011 hawking phones at a Safaricom stall for KSh 500 a day, then climbed through sales roles at Neo Marketing and distribution posts at Despec. A brief stint at Mdundo introduced her to digital music and, in 2017, she joined Boomplay as senior marketing manager. Within two years she was tapped to lead the platform’s East African expansion, a mandate she has delivered with double-digit user growth every year.
Huro has forged licensing deals with more than 2,000 Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan artists, launched the Boomplay Campus Tour series, and integrated M-PESA and Airtel Money payments, pushing Boomplay’s regional user base beyond 21 million by 2025. She secured telco data-bundle partnerships that make streaming 60 percent cheaper for students and introduced the “Stream 4 Trees” CSR campaign, funding reforestation in Mau Forest for every million local streams.
Named to Business Daily’s Top 40 Under 40 Women and a judge for the 2024 Pulse Music Video Awards, Huro mentors up-and-coming female executives through the Women in Music Business initiative, proving that grit and vision can transform a nascent market into a thriving creative economy.