Our story
The gap was never talent.It was infrastructure.
Ongoza Cyber Hub began with a question: why does a continent this young, this ambitious, and this online struggle to fill its cyber roles? The answer wasn't a shortage of people — it was the absence of a system to discover, develop, and connect them.
From the founder
Martin M. Kamethu
Lead Mentor & Talent Architect
In December 2013, fresh out of JKUAT with a degree in IT, Martin walked into his first interview at Serianu — then Kenya's leading cybersecurity startup — and discovered that four years of study had barely prepared him for the real work. Twelve years on, having led security operations across Kenya and Botswana and mentored hundreds of professionals, he kept seeing the same pattern everywhere he looked: technically excellent people getting stuck — strategically invisible, unable to turn skill into a career. Ongoza Cyber Hub is his answer — the system he wishes he'd had, so no one in Africa has to make that climb alone.
“I built OCH for the person I was in 2013 — talented enough to start, with no one to show the way. The gap was never talent. It was the absence of a path.”
The team behind OCH
The people carrying the work.
A small team that mentors, coordinates, and brings OCH onto campuses across the region — close enough to the learners we serve to keep the work honest.
Maureen Muiruri
Programme Coordinator
Maureen Muiruri is an aspiring cybersecurity professional who strategically pivoted from a background in finance and risk management to digital defense. Leveraging her analytical foundation, she is currently pursuing a BSc in Cybersecurity at IU International University of Applied Sciences with a focus on Cloud Security and SOC operations. Maureen is dedicated to building resilient frameworks and securing the digital assets of the modern global economy.
Sherry Obare
OCH Campus Network Ambassador
Sherry is OCH's Campus Network Ambassador, building the bridge between the platform and university cyber communities across the region. She champions OCH on the ground — running campus chapters, rallying learners into missions and events, and carrying student voice back into the product so what we build stays true to the people it's for.
The mentor network
Practitioners who give back.
Working security professionals who mentor OCH learners — reviewing work, sharing the real path, and opening doors. Connect with them on LinkedIn.
An information security leader with 8+ years across financial services, retail and cloud. He has led PCI DSS and ISO 27001 programmes, managed enterprise risk, and run incident response — from SIEM and vulnerability management to cloud security. A Wazuh Ambassador, currently preparing for the CISSP.
From handling highly sensitive data at the global law firm Dentons Hamilton Harrison & Mathews into information security. ISACA CISM-certified — recognised among Kenya's top three — and CompTIA Security+, she approaches security as governance, risk and compliance first.
Bridges core enterprise infrastructure, emerging tech and offensive operations — application security, digital forensics, and securing ERP environments like SAP. Certified across Security+, eJPT, CCNP, ISC2 CC, ASCP and SAP, she helps mentees build cybersecurity on top of their existing IT, dev or business background.
Our vision
An Africa that defends its own digital future — where its youngest, most ambitious generation becomes the continent's strongest line of cyber defense, and no one with talent is left stuck or invisible for lack of a path.
Our mission
To close the gap between credentials and real-world cybersecurity capability across Africa — so anyone, regardless of background, can discover their cyber identity, master real skills through practice and mentorship, and rise into a visible, job-ready professional.
What we believe
The VIP framework
Value, Impact, Purpose — the foundation of identity for every person who joins OCH.
Value
Every learner has intrinsic value. You belong here — exactly as you are, wherever you're starting from. The expert at anything was once a beginner.
Impact
Cybersecurity isn't just a career — it's a superpower. We equip people to make a measurable difference for organisations and communities.
Purpose
We connect skills to meaning. Every mission, recipe, and mentorship moment drives toward purpose-driven, dignified work.
The journey so far
From 11 people on a webinar to an engine for a continent.
OCH wasn't built in a boardroom. It grew, cohort by cohort, from a real community — and every lesson is built into the platform you can enter today.
- Feb 2023
It started with a conversation
Our first online mentorship webinar — 11 people showed up.
- Jul 2023
The community grew
First Nairobi meetup drew around 70 attendees.
- Oct 2023
A structured program
We opened the first call for applications.
- Nov–Dec 2023
Cohort 1
~50 applicants registered for our inaugural cohort.
- Feb 2024
Classes begin
The program officially kicked off with structured sessions.
- Jun 2024
Specialized tracks
Cohort 1 narrowed into focused tracks — 24 dedicated participants.
- 2025
We built the engine
Taking everything we learned, we built the OCH infrastructure from the ground up.
- Jun 1, 2026
Pilot at scale
Launched our first 3-month pilot — 500+ learners, powered by the platform.
- Sep 1, 2026
The platform goes live
The full platform launches to the world.
Our cohorts
The people we've trained.
Every cohort is a class that learns together and graduates together. Here are the learners who've come through OCH — connect with them on LinkedIn.
Cohort 1 · 2024
Our inaugural cohort. 24 participants completed the program and selected specialized tracks.
Africa's cybersecurity future is being built right now.
Join the movement. Discover your cyber identity, prove your skills, and get discovered — all in one place.