The Lower Eastern Times Opening The Third Eye
President William Ruto’s daughter, Charlene Ruto, recently held her traditional Koito engagement ceremony with Tanzanian technology entrepreneur Isaya Yunge, drawing widespread attention to the innovator behind a career rooted in technology, entrepreneurship, and digital solutions for young Africans.
Yunge, the man at the heart of Charlene’s Koito celebration, is the co-founder and chief executive of SomaApps Technologies, the company behind SomaApp — a mobile platform designed to connect African students with scholarship opportunities.
Click here to join our WhatsApp Channel
According to multiple reports, Yunge’s journey into technology was driven by a desire to use digital tools to address challenges facing young people. SomaApp was born after he and his team identified a gap: many local and international scholarships go unused simply because eligible students don’t know they exist. The platform aims to close that gap by consolidating scholarship listings and matching students with opportunities they may qualify for.
SomaApp, however, is just one of his ventures. Yunge has also founded KAYA, a smart speaker powered by artificial intelligence that collects Africa-focused data, as well as Somafit, a smartwatch built to track health indicators such as blood pressure and heart rate in real time. His broader goal is to accelerate the adoption of mobile software, AI, and Internet of Things technologies across Tanzania and the wider African continent.
Yunge’s academic and professional path has taken him well beyond Tanzania’s borders. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Institute of Finance Management and has studied at the University of Cambridge. He has also received training from the Swedish Institute on sustainable business models and completed additional coursework on leading change at Cambridge.
Beyond business, Yunge has built a reputation around youth leadership and advocacy. In 2006, he was elected chairperson of the Junior Council of the United Republic of Tanzania, later representing young people at international platforms, including speaking at a G8 Summit in Berlin after being selected as a UNICEF Africa Youth Ambassador.
His work in technology has also earned significant recognition. In 2017, his startup won the GSMA Mobile Money Africa Hackathon award for best startup in Africa, and he was later named to Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 list, which honors young entrepreneurs and changemakers across the continent. In 2018, he received the Queen’s Young Leaders Award from the late Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his technology-driven work to build sustainable solutions and uplift communities. By 2019, he had been named among Tanzania’s 50 most influential young people.
Despite his many achievements, Yunge has spoken openly about a challenging upbringing far removed from the privileged circles he now moves in. Raised by his grandmother, he spent part of his childhood herding goats and cattle and working on rice plantations.
His passion for technology deepened in 2014 after attending a talk by American economist Jeremy Rifkin on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the sharing economy, and collaborative commons — an experience he credits with strengthening his belief that digital technology could help solve some of Africa’s biggest challenges.
Today, Yunge employs several people through SomaApps and continues to champion a technology-friendly environment for startups and innovation across the continent. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Programme and remains a vocal advocate for youth involvement in shaping technology-driven solutions.
His engagement to Charlene Ruto brings together two young individuals with prominent backgrounds and established public profiles.
