From surviving ‘by God’s grace’ to fending off cyberattacks from around the world, Kevin Korir head of ICT has turned KEWI’s ICT environment into a modern, secure and integrated ecosystem.
If Kevin Korir, head of ICT at KEWI, had an ICT environment that were a movie, it would be pure action, the kind with non-stop plot twists, tight deadlines and no time to catch your breath.
When he arrived at the Kenya Water Institute, he joked that they were “surviving by God’s grace.” Today, he is leading ERP rollouts, AI-powered platforms and smart water initiatives with the relentless energy of a hero who knows the sequel is already being written.
Kevin’s journey into ICT began long before he stepped into the public sector. He followed a long-standing curiosity that began with childhood questions about how early mobile phones worked.
“I was very curious about ICT,” he recalls. “I remember when the first phones started coming out. I wanted to understand how they worked.”
That curiosity took him from telecommunications engineering to Oracle, then to a Master’s programme and work experience in the UK.
His years abroad further shaped his perspective.
“From a technology perspective, Kenya is basically at par,” he says. “Even the UK is still grappling with legacy systems. When I came back home, I brought with me a mix of global exposure and practical experience that KEWI needed as it prepared to modernise its systems and rethink how technology could better support its mandate.”
At KEWI, that blend of curiosity and experience met an institution ready for transformation but still held back by years of manual processes.
When I joined here, a lot of things were manual,” he says. “Systems were operating independently of one another. Critical functions like student management, finance, human resources and accommodation were all running in silos, with very little digital integration.”
Building the digital core
His initial focus was to establish a strong technological foundation. This led to an ambitious ERP implementation across four campuses, complete with integrations to national platforms including eCitizen, banking payment systems and the government’s e-procurement portal. It was a complex process that demanded both speed and precision, and Kevin approached it with the confidence of someone who understands how modern systems should work.
Once the new systems were taking shape, cybersecurity quickly became the next critical area. Coming from environments where security was non-negotiable, he immediately recognised the risks of operating without proper safeguards.
“We actually did not have cybersecurity implemented here,” he says. “Most of our functions were still manual.”
The absence of basic protections sharpened his resolve to build a secure digital environment from the ground up. He introduced KEWI’s first firewall, established monitoring systems and began generating regular reports on attempted intrusions.
“You can get attacks from Thailand, Australia, the Netherlands,” he says. “Many of these attempts are masked by VPNs, which makes it difficult to trace their true origin. The reports were an eye-opener for us, especially as an institution that had only recently begun its digital journey.”
Before the firewall was installed, there had been no visibility at all into who was probing the system or how often. Now, with monitoring in place, Kevin could see the constant stream of attempts targeting their environment.
For him, these weren’t random blips on a dashboard. They were a reminder of how quickly risk scales when an organisation moves from manual processes to integrated digital systems. “Security was a core part of that,” he says. “Once we started bringing in new systems and integrations, we had to take cybersecurity seriously.”
Security as strategy
The frequency of attacks reinforced his belief that cybersecurity could not be treated as an afterthought. What stood out was his ability to elevate security from a technical backroom concern to a strategic pillar of KEWI’s transformation, ensuring that every new system, integration and digital service was built with protection as a core requirement..
He understood that as KEWI adopted modern systems, its exposure would grow, and he pushed for a culture that appreciates security as part of everyday operations. His work is now shaping future efforts around business continuity and disaster recovery, areas he views as essential for any institution that hopes to modernise responsibly.
Kevin enjoys keeping active and spending time on interests that help him unwind. Football is his favourite pastime, both as a player and a fan, and he often plays in teams that get competitive from time to time.
“I have recently developed an interest in podcasts and I keep up with current affairs through the news. Football is life; a simple phrase that captures how I balance the demands of an intense ICT role with the things I enjoy most,” he says.
