Mercy Mutemi
Managing Partner, Nzili & Sumbi Advocates
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“I want to see technology that puts people first: technology that is not built on the broken backs and minds of African youth, technology that benefits Africans and allows African innovations to grow and compete on a global stage.”
Mercy Mutemi is the managing partner of Nzili & Sumbi Advocates, a law firm in Kenya that works toward fair regulation and deployment of technology across Africa. Through her work, she focuses on restorative and retributive justice solutions for those who have been harmed by technology. This includes workers who have been exploited to build and maintain technological systems and those who have been harmed by algorithms.
Mercy has worked on several cases and initiatives focused on addressing inequality and unconsidered consequences of tech algorithms for African communities and societies. She is currently representing a cohort of content moderators based throughout Africa in a suit over workplace human rights violations. In 2023, she was included in both TIME’s “100 Next” and Business Daily’s “Top 40 Under 40” lists.
Mercy aims to further a “people-first” approach in which tech companies benefit African people and catalyze local industries that uplift the communities they are in. By supporting people affected by inequality in internet access and algorithmic priorities, as well as workers who keep global technology running, she sees a world in which everyone, no matter where they are located, can define their own digital future.