Michael Otieno

Simple~Devoted~True

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy - THINK of such things. Phil 4:8

[Dr. Raymond Omollo — CBS @ray_omollo]

Promise being fulfilled

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@AmbokoJH Not our fault that we can not do a simple thing as resetting a password on itax platform. Do they expect us to hack into the system inorder to file the returns?

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

Hello @KRACare @KRACorporate,

The iTax password change feature has not been working since Friday.

As a result, affected taxpayers are unable to access iTax and file their tax returns.

Kindly advise when the issue is expected to be resolved.

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@onjolo_kenya Kila mtu afanye kitu ilimleta nairobi!

[Dr. Raymond Omollo — CBS @ray_omollo]

The Raila Odinga International Stadium is nearing completion ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), where it is expected to serve as Kenya's flagship venue in the continental showpiece.

Rising at the historic Jamhuri Grounds along Ngong Road, the 60,000-seat ultra-modern arena has reached its final construction phase, with major structural works complete and teams now finalizing ICT systems, broadcast infrastructure and spectator facilities.

Purpose-built for football and rugby, the stadium is designed to deliver a world-class fan experience, with stands positioned close to the field of play.

Its distinctive architecture draws inspiration from Maasai shield and spear motifs, while the facility incorporates a hybrid playing surface, smart technologies, solar energy systems and rainwater harvesting infrastructure, demonstrating Kenya's ambition to deliver a modern and sustainable sporting landmark.

The State Department for Internal Security and National Administration continues to play a critical role in creating the enabling environment necessary for the successful delivery and future operation of the facility, including coordinating multi-agency preparedness, event security planning, emergency response frameworks and crowd management systems required for a world-class stadium capable of hosting major international tournaments. MORE PICS - https://t.co/P7CpFeFFzp

[Spencer Baggins @bigaiguy]

A French engineer who lives quietly in Paris has spent 30 years writing software that the entire internet now runs on without knowing his name.

He wrote the code that streams every YouTube video, every Netflix show, every TikTok clip. He wrote the code that runs the virtual servers underneath AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. He calculated more digits of pi than anyone in history. He has no Twitter. He has no marketing. He just keeps shipping.

His name is Fabrice Bellard.

Here is the story, because almost nobody outside the systems programming world knows what one man has built.

Fabrice was born in 1972 in Grenoble, France. He studied at École Polytechnique, the top French engineering school. He never went to Silicon Valley. He never built a startup empire. He just wrote code.

In 2000 he started a project called FFmpeg, an open-source multimedia framework for encoding, decoding, and streaming video. He was 28. The project did one thing nobody else had done well. It handled every video and audio format that existed, in one library, on every operating system. He led it himself for years.

Today FFmpeg is the invisible engine of the internet. YouTube uses it. Netflix uses it. VLC uses it. Chrome and Firefox use parts of it. Every Android phone, every iPhone, every smart TV, every video editing tool you have ever touched runs FFmpeg somewhere underneath. If you have watched a video on a screen in the last 20 years, Fabrice's code processed it.

He was not done.

In 2003 he started QEMU, a machine emulator and virtualizer. He wrote it solo until version 0.7.1 in 2005. QEMU lets you run any operating system on any other operating system. It became the foundation of modern virtualization. KVM, the Linux kernel hypervisor, runs on top of QEMU. Every major cloud provider, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, runs virtual machines on infrastructure built around it. The Quick Emulator is the most cited piece of cloud infrastructure code on Earth.

He kept going.

In 2001 he won the International Obfuscated C Code Contest with a small C compiler that grew into TCC, the Tiny C Compiler. TCC can compile and boot a Linux kernel from source in under 15 seconds. In 2004 he calculated the most digits of pi ever computed at the time, using a personal desktop computer and an algorithm he derived himself called Bellard's formula. In 2011 he wrote a complete PC emulator in pure JavaScript that runs Linux in your browser, a project called JSLinux that engineers still cannot believe is real.

In 2019 he released QuickJS, a small but complete JavaScript engine that fits where V8 cannot. In 2021 he released NNCP, a neural network based lossless data compressor that immediately took the lead on the Large Text Compression Benchmark.

Then he turned his attention to large language models. He built TextSynth Server, a web server with a REST API for running LLMs locally. He released ts_zip and ts_sms, compression utilities that use language models to compress text and short messages at ratios traditional algorithms cannot reach. He released TSAC, a very low bitrate audio compression system. In December 2025 he released Micro QuickJS, a new JavaScript engine for microcontrollers, separate from QuickJS, designed for environments with almost no memory.

Fabrice co-founded a telecom company called Amarisoft in 2012, where he serves as CTO. Amarisoft builds 4G and 5G base station software used by carriers and labs around the world. He has been running it for over a decade while continuing to ship personal projects from his own home page at bellard dot org

He has no Twitter. He has no Instagram. He gives almost no interviews. His personal website is a flat list of projects with no styling, no fonts, no marketing copy. Just titles and links.

A quiet French engineer who never moved to Silicon Valley wrote the code that quietly runs the internet.

He is still shipping.

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@BharukaShraddha A true cheatsheet

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@ggiste His rent should be 15k

[KTN News @KTNNewsKE]

He was born Shem Oyoo Wandiga. Oyoo is as Luo as the nyatiti and the shores of Lake Victoria. He left the country for further studies in the US, but when he returned in 1972 after nearly a decade, a PhD from Case Western Reserve University in his pocket, he learned quickly that an overtly Luo identity closed institutional doors. So he stopped using Oyoo in official settings. He became simply Shem Wandiga. “Wandiga”, he told me quietly, sounded close enough to Central Kenya names like Wanjiga. It created a phonetical ambiguity. In a system built on tribal gatekeeping, it forced bureaucrats to pause and wonder. They did not know for sure.

https://t.co/pdRk1ey5No

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@WaihigaMwaura @BBCAfrica An excellent response from the PS

[Dr. Raymond Omollo — CBS @ray_omollo]

As part of the national policy to rotate key celebrations across regions and promote inclusive development, Wajir Town's hosting of this year's Madaraka Day marks a historic first for the North Eastern Region.

In preparation, the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (@KURAroads) and the Kenya National Highways Authority (@KeNHAKenya) are on the ground upgrading critical road networks to bitumen standards, an intervention that not only supports the successful hosting of the event but also unlocks long-term gains in trade, connectivity and urban growth.

The upgraded corridors are being designed to sustain a vibrant 24-hour economy, integrating modern features such as solar street lighting and clearly marked pedestrian crossings to enhance mobility, safety and accessibility within the town.

In tandem, the State Department for Internal Security and National Administration is playing a key role in ensuring that these urban improvements are grounded in safety and order, reinforcing secure public spaces and coordinated operations that support both the event and the town's continued transformation. MORE PICS - https://t.co/mFWdeh9iFS

[The Elephant @theelephantinfo]

The oft-used description of Kenya today as an imperial outpost, isn’t a casual reference but an acknowledgement that this is the place where imperialism “worked” in the sense that it successfully positioned itself as excellence and made a society aspire to it, even decades after the advent of independence. This perspective equips us to cast a knowledgeable eye on our “national schools”, which are analogous to the much-vaunted British “public schools”.
Analysis: https://t.co/OEihJ9CCiB

@m_ogada @wmnjoya @YusufSerunkuma @ObyObyerodhyamb @tony_mochama @ReginaldOduor @ArkAnudDinYaSin @WMutunga @jnyairo @NativeLandgrab @DavidNdii @KiamaKaara @jkobuthi @realoyungapala @johngithongo #IWentToAlliance #TheElephant #EliteMediocrity #Governance

[Yoko @Kibet_bull]

Itumbi won’t tell you this.

Kenyans are now the media

[Christopher Haslett @CJ_Haslett]

Literally no other city on earth has buildings like this next to a road like this.

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@Perunomad @TropicalAir people risk so much, no reptiles in that water?

[˖ Ritz 𓂀 ݁˖ @ridhima_z]

The UK spends 9 months begging for sunshine and then spends 3 days complaining it’s too hot.

[𝐁𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐣𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫👀🇰🇪 @bulljunker]

The architect behind gtc ni top notch... Nairobi needs more of this

[Crazy Kennar @crazy_kennar]

BLENDING IN AS A FOREIGNER IS SOUTH AFRICA 😂😂😂😂😂

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@Adele_lide en meeting mar okombe

[Michael Otieno @mochisoft]

@ehdande Hamtaki tuseme Raila is dead? Ama what exactly is Mbadi's sin?