Coding classes are rewriting futures in a Kenyan youth prison | CNN

When Kenyan tech entrepreneur Paul Akwabi visited a juvenile prison on the outskirts of Mombasa, he didn’t see young criminals — he saw himself. Having grown up in some of Nairobi’s poorest neighborhoods like Kibera, among the world’s largest slums, childhood memories of delivering drugs, guns and other illegal items for older boys flooded back. “I thought, ‘This could have been me,’” Akwabi recalled to CNN. Instead, as a young teenager, Akwabi taught himself basic electronics through books and by repairing radios. After finishing secondary school, he worked as a street vendor to support himself and studied Computer Science at the Technical University of Mombasa. “Technology became more than an interest, it became my pathway to possibility,” Akwabi said. Born from that recognition, and a belief in second chances, was his decision to bring his organization TechKidz Africa, the Mombasa-based technology academy he founded to empower young Kenyan innovators, into Shimo La Tewa Borstal Institution and Boys Education Centre. With programs spanning robotics, software engineering, computer literacy, coding, animation, and online safety, Akwabi’s academy for 4- to 19-y