A small core
Founded and driven by Frederick Mbuya, with a compact senior team across strategy, commercial and operations. Few people, high trust, quick decisions, and one person who can see the whole system.
Two arms, one company
Uhurulabs is the exploratory arm: a digital research and development studio. It partners with the public sector and not-for-profits, grows the technology ecosystem at home and abroad, and tests new ideas, some of which become products and services. Its line has always been "innovation from the motherland."
Uhurunet Technology (T) Limited is the commercial arm, spun out in 2022: a digital-transformation and services company offering standardised, commercial engagements, and contracting Uhurulabs for the R&D. Its line is "Smarter, together." Under the single name Uhuru, they are one team with two temperaments: the lab keeps the field sharp, the field keeps the lab honest.
We are a bridge
On an early field visit, carrying nothing more than a first small drone, we drew a crowd. What stuck was a phrase people kept using: "mambo ya wazungu", "white people's stuff." The assumption that anything advanced must have arrived by someone else's grace. So we picked a young volunteer out of the crowd, gave thirty seconds of instruction, and handed over the controls, to show there was nothing magical about it at all.
That is the work, really. Decades across sectors and continents have taught us to translate: between Western technology and African reality, between what a vendor is selling and what a site actually needs, and between the driver at the weighbridge and the boardroom, or the minister. We bring in what genuinely helps and leave behind what does not fit, because technology only counts here if it is viable in a business sense.
- From the ground. Community mapping in Dar es Salaam's most flood-prone settlements; the last mile of a national tower survey made on foot; mapping Lagos's Makoko by canoe and drone; training students who now work for the national aviation authority and government.
- To the state. Showcasing to Tanzania's Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology; helping write the country's drone regulations with the civil aviation authority; proofs of concept for the Ministry of Lands; and co-authoring an African Union / NEPAD report on drones and Africa's agriculture.
Only about 10% of land in Africa is digitised to a local level, against roughly 87% in the West. Closing gaps like that, with local people holding the controls, is the whole point.
Founder & engine
Frederick Mbuya
Founder, managing director, and the technical engine of the company. A Tanzanian technologist whose career began in Europe, he set the direction, built the core, and still writes the hardest parts himself. The reach and the record below are Uhuru's; he is the person who started it and keeps it running.
He built an internet-based radio programme-exchange system for community radio during the 2000 revolution in the former Yugoslavia, and co-founded the Appropriate Software Foundation in the United Kingdom. His path ran through Finland and the UK, and through organisations including OneWorld International, Map of Medicine, and IT operations in London, before a decade as a technical consultant to the World Bank on open data and geospatial technology, attached to Tanzania's Commission for Science and Technology.
He led the community flood-mapping project Ramani Huria and the Zanzibar Mapping Initiative, for which he received a World Bank Presidential Award for Innovation. He is a founding member of africanDRONE, helped create the African Drone Forum, is a member of the Open Source Initiative, and is a certified remote pilot on both multirotor and fixed-wing aircraft. He has also long served the haematology and sickle-cell programme at Muhimbili in Dar es Salaam.
How we're built
A deliberately small, senior core, multiplied by two things: a deep arms-length network of specialists in every discipline we work in, and a growing team of AI agents. It keeps us lean and quick to answer, then lets us scale precisely to the shape of the job, without carrying a large company between jobs.
A deep specialist bench
Around the core sits an arms-length network of proven specialists we bring in per engagement: a pool of certified drone pilots, geospatial and GIS analysts, infrastructure and systems engineers, and domain experts across mining, construction, agriculture, telecoms and health. You get exactly the expertise the job needs, and only that.
A growing team of AI agents
Increasingly that bench includes AI agents we build, govern and supervise, doing real operational work under written rules and human approval. It is how a small team now delivers at a scale that used to need a large one.
People you may meet along the way include Andrea Blindenbacher (drone expert, formerly global head of training at a leading manufacturer), Hans van Toor (strategy), Said Salim (lead pilot), and advisors across digital markets and government relations.
How we work
We do not build ad-hoc, throwaway solutions; that limits the potential of your data. We build a digital backbone, capture multiple data streams, and train your people to use them.
1 · We engage
We bring in people from across your organisation, from leadership to operations, because a change only works when the whole organisation is on board. The method behind it is design thinking.
2 · We assess
We study the business to find where data intelligence can help, starting with the low-hanging fruit and iterating. Lean experimentation into agile development.
3 · We develop
We build low-cost pilot solutions to learn from, then grow the ones that work into a proper digital backbone. Plan, pilot, performance.
Three core services run through all of it: consultancy, data intelligence, and data technology.
A short history
- 2007 The practice begins: ICT infrastructure, data servers and open-data work in Dar es Salaam.
- ~2012 The long-running digitisation of Muhimbili's sickle-cell research programme begins.
- 2014 Uhurulabs Limited is incorporated, formalising the drone and ICT business.
- 2015 Ramani Huria: leading drone data collection for community flood mapping of Dar es Salaam, as a World Bank consultant attached to COSTECH.
- 2016 Drones for land tenure: a proof of concept for the Ministry of Lands, covered by Voice of America.
- 2016–17 The Zanzibar Mapping Initiative: over 2,300 km² mapped, 380,000 buildings digitised, a world first at the time. World Bank Presidential Award for Innovation.
- 2018 Key organiser of the Lake Victoria Challenge; contributor to the African Union / NEPAD report on drones and agriculture.
- 2019 A UK CAA-standard UAS Operations Manual completed, certified for multirotor and fixed-wing.
- 2021 OreCorp Nyanzaga survey; Mapping Makoko in Lagos by canoe and drone.
- 2022 Uhurunet launches as the commercial arm; a nationwide cell-tower inspection covers all of Tanzania.
- 2024–26 The core turns decisively to building bespoke operational systems and running infrastructure, and the two brands come together as Uhuru.
Mission & reach
Mission
To leverage technology and innovation for the development and benefit of Africa and its people.
Vision
A world where Africa is an equal and fair beneficiary of its own resources and can take full advantage of technological advancements being made across the world.
Home is Dar es Salaam. The work has taken us across Africa (Tanzania and Zanzibar, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Madagascar, Rwanda, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Morocco, Burkina Faso), to Finland and the United Kingdom, and to India, South Korea, the Gulf and the United States.
Certified: LSSP
UK CAA-standard UAS Operations Manual
Strong ties with TCAA & MoD
Chamber of Mines member
RTK/PPK accuracy to 2 cm
15 certified pilots
We are also the Tanzanian distributor for leading two-way radio and network-camera brands, and a long-standing partner of the foremost drone and geospatial-technology makers. We stay deliberately tool-agnostic: the right tool for the job, every time.
Talk to us
Uhurunet Technology (T) Limited · Uhurulabs
Acacia Estates Offices, 1st Floor, Plot 84 Kinondoni Road
PO Box 38568, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania