Don’t call Caine Wanjau a “tech bro”. It drives him berserk. It’s a dystopian term that camouflages opacity under the cloak of lucidity: tech bro (noun) a nerd with a dream to change the course of the world; starter pack includes an Audi, street racing on the weekends and an angel investor. Caine prefers to be a man who isn’t defined by his role. Or limited by it.
If he were the man he was many a year ago, he would be walking a tightrope. A showboating act that requires grace, guts, and gumption, dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight. For this highwire artistry, he required fearless precision, never more than one careless step away from a disaster. It was a risky life, and didn’t that make it a real life? A good life?
Once you were a highwire artist—well, as long as you were a highwire artist—there was no looking back or down. Keep walking. That’s how he built DigiTax, where he aims to be the taxman’s high priest by linking business invoicing systems directly to tax authorities’ digital platforms. Even by normal tech-entrepreneur-on-a-tight-schedule standards, Caine is a blizzard of busyness, and work has become the star around which other pursuits orbit: travel, soccer, and Formula 1.
And for whatever reason, he also makes it very clear that he doesn’t play golf. “At some point I will, just not yet,” he says. Golf, to him, is the final boss move of being a CEO.
What are the pros and cons of being you? The pros are self-adaptability. I have led a contented life so far. You always need to consolidate your gains and achievements, both professionally and personally. The cons are that I always feel I don't have enough time. Some days feel like they need to be 40 or 50 hours to achieve what you need. Where can I find more hours in a day? [chuckles].
What is your best characteristic and biggest flaw? I'm very perceptive. My background is in engineering. I try to think of things logically, in terms of the 0s and 1s, and what the trade-offs are. I am also an ambivert, which means I can be both extroverted and introverted depending on the context. That helps me bring out the right character depending on the situation. Can I say I have no flaws? Haha! I don’t like making decisions quickly, which can frustrate people.
Namiri Technology Limited Founder Caine Wanjau during an interview at Nairobi Garage, Westlands in Nairobi on July 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation
Seeing as you are both a techie and an engineer, is there credence to the belief that your only form of fun is gadgets? Growing up, I did not have that many gadgets until I was about 13 or 14. I was born on a farm. A lot of my earlier upbringing was not in any correlation to technology. I studied computers in high school, then computer engineering for my degree. The term tech bro is mischaracterised.
What then are your hobbies? I have many interests outside of work. Building a company means you have to think about work all the time. But I like travelling. I watch sports when I can, primarily soccer and Formula 1. And spending time with the family, who act as a counterweight to entrepreneurship. I have three kids.
If I were to ask your children what their father does for work, what would they say? Haha! Great question. One of my sons knows I'm just in meetings. My youngest, a girl, has a bit of an idea, ‘Something to do with computers and tech’. The general answer will be ‘Dad is in a meeting,’ especially when I am working from home.
Working from home tends to turn the home into work, how do you protect the sanctity of your sacred place? It’s a great question. Working from home has blurred the lines between the personal and professional. I tend to focus on ensuring that meetings start only when the kids are away or in school. But I am always working from different areas of the house—dining room, balcony, living area, et al. Some meetings I can take as part of my morning or evening walk.
What’s your most unCEO behaviour? So it's said that the higher you go up the management ladder, the less social or outgoing you are, for various reasons. I try to go to concerts as much as I can. But I go semi-anonymous…[chuckles]
What do you mean? I’ll either arrive very early or just before the main act and then leave just after they have performed.
What kind of concerts are you into? Live music acts.
Do you have any hidden talents? I used to, haha! There was a time I did the tightrope walk.
I have not met many tightrope walkers… It’s not for the faint-hearted [chuckles].
What led you to walk a tightrope? I thought it was something interesting and could give me a good adrenaline rush.
What’s your most memorable experience on the tightrope? I can’t say it is memorable because of the tension and worry, but it gives you good adrenaline and motivation to go the distance.
What would surprise people about how you spend your weekend? How unplugged I can be. During the week, I am actively engaged in communicating. I try to wind down and switch off. Over the weekend, I turn off WhatsApp notifications. I may go a long time before seeing someone’s texts, because it can easily become a distraction, and you have work and other things to focus on.
What’s your idea of a great weekend? A good weekend starts on Friday. Start winding down. Do something social. Whether it is meeting friends or being with family. Sometimes travelling and rediscovering something different from the day-to-day. Even when I read, I look for different material from the skills and qualifications I have, sometimes it could be philosophy, history, architecture, et al. I believe that keeps you engaged and well-rounded.
Namiri Technology Limited Founder Caine Wanjau during an interview at Nairobi Garage, Westlands in Nairobi on July 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation
What’s a book you wish you had written? The Hard Thing About Hard Things [by Ben Horowitz]. It teaches you a lot. It teaches you trade-offs, resilience, and the necessity of making hard decisions—decisions that you don't necessarily feel great about making, but you have to make as someone responsible for an action.
Speaking of, what’s the most important decision you made early in your life that has sustained you to date? When I was about 16, I decided I didn't want to go to university immediately because I was not fully sure what I wanted to do, and I wanted that as an opportunity to know what my next phase of life would look like. So I went to Japan and spent a year there. It became a pivotal moment for me as it opened me to possibilities.
What’s something you took from Japan? I think to survive and thrive in Japan, you have to be organised. Everything there runs like clockwork to the extent that if you get to the train station 15 seconds past the scheduled time, it’s too late for you. That aspect of orderliness and timeliness was one of the big takeaways.
What’s a Kenyanism you couldn’t let go of in Japan? Haha! Looking for ugali and nyama choma. I remember there was a Kenyan who had a restaurant, but he was two hours away from where I was staying. I took a train there and found my ugali and nyama choma.
What’s your favourite holiday spot and why? Japan. It is picturesque and beautiful. Two, Fiji. I was a university student on a budget, so I went and stayed in a village with a host community for a week. I got to see how people in Fiji live.
What’s your top travel tip? Plan early. Be adventurous. Go off the beaten path and remember the memories.
Heavy packer or on the move? Tutajipanga mbele, haha! It depends; however, you take the essentials but always leave space for anything you might find and want to come back with.
What's a simple joy that you enjoy in life? Taking advantage of the greenery in Nairobi. Having travelled quite a bit, Nairobi is very blessed when it comes to indigenous and natural forests that are within and around the city. Those simple joys of walking and clearing your mind are very therapeutic.
What are you afraid of? I think fear is a misconstrued concept in terms of what people are actually fearful of. I say that because the variables of life are also a function of how well you prepare for eventualities or not. If you plan well and optimise for things that could go wrong, the aspect of fear is greatly reduced because you have a mitigation plan.
What’s your self-care routine? Working out. Trying to stay healthy and active.
What do you think most people have that they don’t appreciate enough? The joy of life. Some of these things are relative. If you come from a humble background, then financial security is important. Later, other things become more primary: do you have the right friendships? Relationships? Rapport with your colleagues? Just seeing how one can manage the variables to a point of contentment, that’s my philosophy around it.
What have you learned the hard way? You can optimise for things, but never expect things to go 100 percent as you planned. I can get a great team here, but the variables of life are such that not every hire will work out. What you want to do is build mechanisms to identify that early enough and build mitigation strategies. It’s a ‘What if’ analysis.
If I were to read only one chapter of your life, which would you recommend? The Beginning. Or perhaps when I was in Japan, which was the first time I had spent an extended period outside the country. A new country and culture, and seeing snow constantly. It forced me to grow up and focus on what matters.
What matters to you now? Professionally is being able to serve our industry and customers in the best way possible—being the best player around. Personally, I want to see my kids through their education and set them up for success.
What’s a superpower you would like to possess? Haha, good one. Over the years, I have invested time in understanding what our customers want—who are we building for? Why are we building? And make it easy for our clients to use our products and services.
What have you become better at letting go of? There is a boss of mine who once told me, ‘The best thing you can do is work yourself out of your job.’ It sounds counterintuitive, but what it means is that if you are good at what you do and mentor people to get to the level you are, it means you are ready to take the next step because you are not leaving a gap behind. Letting go of things I used to focus on easily has been crucial to where our company has gotten to today.
What is something success hasn’t fixed? The urge or the need to retire. You always have to keep working. Life is continuous, so despite what you have achieved, you need to keep raising the bar, because you always have more to offer.
What do you think I should know about you? I was to be an accountant, not even a computer guy. This was a last-minute decision. I was strong in Math, but also because my dad was an accountant, I thought I would follow him in that path.
If you could teach the world just one thing, what would you say? Stay hungry, stay foolish. I first heard that from Steve Jobs. Always be curious to push the boundaries. It’s important in life to always think about what's next. If you stay static, soon enough you’ll be going backwards, very quickly.
