A continental hackathon, with a node in Kisumu

Lolwe AI & Robotics is Geekulcha's appointed coordinator for Kenyan participation. We do not own the hackathon, we do not rename it, and we do not run a competing registration. The programme, the judging framework and the platform are Geekulcha's.

What we coordinate is the Kenyan side of it: mobilising builders through the universities in the lake region, standing up the physical node, and carrying the participants through to Geekulcha's own platform. The Geekulcha Student Society chapters in Kenya facilitate the programme alongside us.

Geekulcha wrote to Great Lakes University of Kisumu on 17 July 2026 asking it to host the Kenyan node. The University has not confirmed, so no venue is named on this page. Maseno University, Kisii University and Great Lakes University are the first three institutions approached; none is named here as a confirmed partner, and no university mark appears anywhere in this material until the relevant department has approved it in writing.

Kenyan teams may also enter under Geekulcha's Brand New challenge — a problem of the team's own choosing. That is Geekulcha's own track, open across every node, and it is not a Kenyan focus area.

Existing work qualifies. A team may enter with a product or research project already underway, provided they develop and demonstrate at least one significant new feature or capability during the hackathon weekend. For a department with live student projects, that matters: nothing has to be started from zero.

The expression of interest closed on 11 September 2026. 37 people are on the list, from 7 institutions.

15 of the 37 have no team yet. If you are one of them, or you know one of them, reply to terminal@rebootrepublic.com or WhatsApp +254 711 118 811 before Wednesday at 14:00.

The expression of interest was never registration. Formal registration happens on Geekulcha's Sonke platform, and everyone on the list is contacted when the Kenyan window opens. Nothing is charged and no student travels.

The build weekend is 25–27 September 2026.

Most hackathons end with a cheque and a photograph. The Kenyan node ends with a deployment. Lolwe AI & Robotics takes the winning solution and builds it out with a named institution over ninety days — at our cost, with the team credited and retained on the work. Not a mentorship and not an incubation slot: a thing that runs, in a place that needed it, with their names on it.

The award follows Geekulcha's own adjudication. GKHack26 is their hackathon, judged by their panel; Lolwe AI presents the award on the basis of their decision.

Every part of that total is something Lolwe AI and Makairo Studios deliver ourselves. No cash figure is announced, because none is funded yet — and we will not promise a student money that is not in an account. Any cash prize will be announced separately, once it is.

Two of the commitments inside that total — the pavilion stand and travel from Kisumu to Nyamira — are tied to the KNCCI County Regional Expo, which the Nyamira Chapter postponed on 27 August 2026 under Ref Nymr/26/05. A replacement date has not been agreed. Those two commitments stand; their timing moves with the Expo.