What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word IT? Your first thought was something to do with machines, right?

For many of us, we often think of technology in terms of machines. Computers, endless lines of code, or perhaps that one person everyone calls when the Wi-Fi stops working or a laptop suddenly refuses to cooperate.

Meet Fenuel Kalulu, the guy who might just challenge the way you think about IT. Strip away the complicated machines, sophisticated gadgets and big technological ideas, and for Kalulu, technology should make everyday life better.

“The biggest misconception people have about tech is that they think it always involves a gadget,” he says. “They always think it has to be a big innovation, something that does not exist.”

He gives us this example: “Think about someone who wakes up every morning in the village and walks to fetch water for their family. It is an ordinary part of their day. But if someone can find a way to use technology to make that task easier, faster or more accessible, then to me, that is technology at its best.”

Class dismissed! Now, let’s get to know the IT guy himself.

Well, for starters, probably not the quiet IT guy sitting in the corner that you may have pictured a few paragraphs ago. He is warm, outgoing and, by his own admission, quite the talker. Throw him into a room full of people and chances are, he will find his way around just fine. 

And here comes another plot twist. With all this love for IT, Kalulu actually spends his days in marketing.

At first glance, this may seem like an unusual combination. On closer reflection, however, it makes perfect sense. Marketing itself has changed. The days when reaching an audience largely meant hard-copy advertisements and television are long gone. Today, much of that interaction happens online, and Kalulu has found himself bringing his two worlds together.

Kalulu had not dreamt of being the “IT guy.” Growing up in the village, technology was hardly an obvious path. In fact, he had never really pictured himself pursuing it.

That changed when he crossed paths with one of the former deans of Strathmore’s School of Information Technology, which is now the School of Computing and Engineering Sciences (SCES). This encounter introduced Kalulu to a possibility he had not yet seen in himself and eventually led him to pursue his undergraduate degree in IT at Strathmore.

And just like that, IT became one tab Fenuel never quite closed. “Technology has made it easier for me to do the things I want to do. From wherever I am, I’m able to work; I don’t necessarily need to walk into a physical office to get things done,” he says. It is something he has carried into his current role in marketing, where technology continues to shape how he works, allowing his love for people and his love for tech to meet. 

Then came the Master of Science in Information Technology.

A Master’s was always part of the plan. Life, however, had plans of its own. There was work, a family and the everyday responsibilities that have a way of filling up a calendar before you even realise it. Kalulu knew he wanted to go back to school almost immediately after completing his undergraduate degree, but waiting for the “perfect time” was clearly not going to work. So, he made time.

“I still thought, I have to create time and do this Master’s,” he recalls.

When the stars finally aligned, Business Intelligence became his choice.“Many organisations don’t want to blindly invest,” Kalulu explains. “They don’t want to try systems or innovations that are not pre-tested. So I thought, “If I go into Business Intelligence, then I’ll make more change.”

The next two years demanded their fair share of sacrifice. Kalulu was working, raising a family and relearning what it meant to be a student. A normal workday could easily roll into an evening class ending at 8:30 p.m., with coding, assignments and group work somewhere in the mix.

“It wasn’t easy,” he admits. But ask him about the Master’s today and the difficult days do not seem to have won the memory contest. The good ones did.

There was the international academic trip to Europe, one of the experiences he speaks about with particular excitement. Beyond experiencing a different learning environment, Kalulu came back with something he deeply values: connections.

“Having the network that I have created all this time in my studies is a very rich thing,” he says. “Now I can consult as wide as Europe. I can consult globally.”

And yet, even Europe has some competition for the title of Fenuel’s favourite part of the Master’s. His classmates. Actually, scratch “classmates.”

“We were just such a family,” he says.

His class was made up largely of working professionals, so the learning did not stop at theory. When someone stood up to present, they often brought into the room something they were already doing at work.

For Kalulu, that was a game-changer.

There were moments when he simply sat back and listened to what his classmates had come up with and thought, wow. “I realised we have very brilliant Kenyans.”

And the family feeling was not confined to his classmates. Kalulu remembers his lecturers constantly checking in, particularly during his thesis.

“Personalised attention is truly a value lived at Strathmore. The lecturers would follow up to see whether I was making any progress,” he says. “That concern was very touching to me.”

For someone who works at Strathmore, there was something special about experiencing that care from the other side. This time, he was not the colleague in the hallway or the marketer speaking about the university. He was the student navigating a Master’s, working through a thesis and, every now and then, needing someone to check in and ask, How is it going?

“I got the support I needed and that’s something I’m truly grateful for.”

Now, the thesis conquered and graduation here we come!

But here is the thing about Fenuel. We have spent all this time talking about IT, Business Intelligence, data and the future of technology. Yet ask him what actually drives him and his answer has nothing to do with any of them.

“The spirit to serve.”

He has been at Strathmore for 15 years, and in his work he has sat across from countless prospective students trying to figure out what their future might look like. Sometimes that has meant helping someone think through a career path and eventually choose a course. Then years pass.

“I meet this young man or lady who tells me, ‘Sir, do you remember me? You’re the one who made me do BBIT.”

Or Law.

Or Bachelor of Commerce.

For Kalulu, those encounters mean more than material satisfaction ever could.

“It’s so fulfilling,” he says. “What’s driving me is just to serve and serve and serve.”

And service for him did not begin with his job. As an undergraduate, Kalulu was deeply involved in community service and became the first student chairperson of the university’s community service initiative. Years later, the title may be gone, but the zeal is not.

Maybe, then, we should not have been so surprised by his answer at the beginning. We asked an IT guy about technology and he gave us people. Because for Fenuel, the technology, the Master’s and even the career only seem to matter when they can be put to use for someone else.

“The day you stop serving,” he says, “I don’t think you still have anything to do on earth.”

And as he closes this chapter, Kalulu leaves us with one simple takeaway: In whatever you do, keep serving.

Article written by Linda Rerimoi, 4th year BA in Communications.