Paul’s first introduction to computers was with an apple ii in Muthaiga kindergarten between 1984 - 1986.

Paul had an enduring passion for computing starting in high school. He was instrumental in pressuring our parents to buy us our first computer in 1997, a Pentium 1 (75 Mhz) running windows 95, then we got a Pentium 2, two years later running windows 98.

Around this time he first started using the internet, and was blown away by it. He made one of the first, if not the first computing related presentations to the Science Congress in 1998, where he demoed browsing sites like the BBC and CNN, though he used saved internet pages. The presentation was well lauded, though he didn’t get first prize because at the time having computers with the internet configured was considered too expensive and impractical. The Science Congress placed a lot of emphasis on projects that were cheaper/easier to sustain.

Paul and myself were first introduced to computers through video games. I remember around Dec 23rd 1993 we first saw Street fighter 2 at the amusement arcade in Sarit Centre, and from that time on we were hooked. We were then bought a NES clone (with thousands of inbuilt games - I forgot what it was called), and we were addicted to that console. A couple of years later, circa 1996 we were bought a mega drive (sega genesis in the US), which were were also addicted to. Initially our favourite game was Sonic 1 and 2 (for which Paul knew all the cheat codes, even years later). Then when we got Super Street Fighter 2, I remember we played the game endlessly.

Paul indirectly helped me get started in my career as a software engineer. He had obtained a large cache of books (illegally downloaded - torrented by a friend called Okongo, who was then a IT administrator at SCI), one of which was called PHP, MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) by Luke Welling and Laura Thompson. When I first started reading this book, circa beginning of 2010, I found it intriguing. When I visited the iHub later that year, I found out there was a fourth edition out and I promptly downloaded it (illegally). This book was fantastic, and it explained web development and programming concepts in a very clear, straightforward manner, which demystified programming for me.

In those days things were quite rough for me, circa end of 2008, beginning of 2009. I was broke and unemployed and we didn’t have fast or reliable internet in Nairobi then. Only few places in town had decent speeds.

Paul also inspired me to start writing this tech blog back in end of 2017, beginning of 2018. I initially didn’t take it seriously, but after a couple of submissions of mine were rejected by DigitalOcean and vultr community tutorials, I ddecided to both write and host my own tech blogs.

Paul eventually got a job at ICANN as a Technical Engagement Specialist, and the job fit him to a tee. Many of his videos are still online at the time of writing.

I will miss his wit, his charm and the interesting conversations we had, especially around tech. I will also miss his can do, never say die attitude, adeptness at improvisation (similar to MacGyver). Rest well my brother and friend.