06/Core programme
Lamu Data Lab.
A free eight-week analytics training programme for young people in Lamu County — and the community arm of the firm.
The programme
Small cohorts meet weekly across eight weeks and work entirely on real Lamu data: county budgets, audit records, census tables and open datasets. Participants move from spreadsheets to public data sources to basic analytical programming, and finish by producing and publishing a short data brief under their own names.
Cost to participants
None. No fees, no prior experience required, and no equipment requirement. The programme runs on browser-based tools that work on modest hardware and shared connections.
Why we run it
Two reasons, and we state both plainly. It is how a community gets analytical capacity that does not leave when a consultant’s contract ends. And it is how this firm builds the trained field and research teams it needs to work at scale on the coast.
How it is funded
A fixed share of the firm’s consultancy revenue funds the Lab. Clients who commission paid work are, by design, funding free analytical training in the county where the work is done.
—/Apply
Who it is for.
Young people living in Lamu County who can read and write English or Kiswahili comfortably and can attend the sessions across the eight weeks. No degree, no prior computer training and no background in mathematics is required. Applications from young women are particularly encouraged: the analytical workforce in this county is not currently balanced, and this programme is one of the few levers available to change it.
To apply, send your name, age, where in the county you live, and two or three sentences on why you want a place. Written applications by WhatsApp are perfectly acceptable.
There is no fee at any stage. If anyone asks you for money to attend this programme, they are not connected to it.
—/Partner or fund
What support actually moves this.
The Lab is funded from consultancy revenue and does not require a large grant to continue. It needs specific things.
Laptops. Used and working is fine. Every additional machine is one more participant per cohort.
Data and connectivity for participants travelling in from outside Mokowe.
Paid work for graduates. Enumeration, data entry and research assistance contracts do more for a graduate than another certificate.
Datasets. County departments and organisations holding Lamu data that could be released or shared for teaching use.
Cohort funding. Transport stipends and materials, accounted for line by line.
Funders receive a written account of what was spent and what was produced, including the briefs the cohort published. Nothing is claimed that cannot be shown.
—/Output
County Data Briefs.
Alongside the Lab, we publish a free series of short analytical briefs on county public finance and service delivery — sourced entirely from published government records, offered first to the institutions they concern, and released openly with a permanent DOI.