The late Evans Mwaura Gitua. (Photo: Provided)
The news of Evans Mwaura Gitua’s death came as a shock, but also with unanswered questions. Initial media reports said police were investigating after his body was found in Kilimani, with investigators awaiting an autopsy and further analysis.
In moments like these, the public rushes for certainty. The smarter move is to slow down. Leave the work to the investigators. So that families can grieve without making noise.
Then there’s something that Kenyans rarely do well: name the builder and explain what they built.
Githua was part of a generation that chose to step into the newly liberalized communications market and tackle the hard, unglamorous layers of distribution, infrastructure, and integration. According to Comm Twenty One’s own story, the company was founded in 2000, just as “information technology and communications” was collapsing into a single industry, allowing local companies to finally enter a market that had been closed off for decades.
The timing is important. Kenya’s mobile revolution is not a finished product. It was assembled town by town, client by client, by people who could move devices, connect sites, maintain systems, and keep networks available in the real world.
Com Twenty One has since grown into an ICT solutions provider and systems integration company with a presence outside of Nairobi, with branches in Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret and Mombasa.
The company’s old corporate documents also mention retail stores that brought services closer to customers, a detail that suggests that the company moved closer to the everyday telecommunications economy from its early days.
This early proximity is often missing from the way Kenyan technology stories are told. We celebrate apps, platforms, and leading consumer brands. We skip the chains that made mass adoption possible: the people and companies that kept devices running, connections stable, and actually delivering services outside the boardroom.
Twenty years later, looking at the number of connections in Kenya shows how big the market has become. The Department of Communications reported that by the end of June 2025, there were 76.7 million mobile subscriptions, a penetration rate of 146.3, and 47.7 million mobile money subscriptions.
These are national numbers. These were achieved through thousands of choices by operators, regulators, investors, engineers, distributors and integrators. Companies like Com 21 were at the intersection of ambition and execution.
As Com Twenty One has matured, the company has positioned itself in the infrastructure and integration layer, including enterprise infrastructure, integrated security, data center solutions, cybersecurity, and training.
The old document states that the engineering department has a “strong bias towards the telecommunications industry” and includes testimony from Safaricom that mentions work in network engineering. Capital FM’s coverage of Guichua’s death characterized Comm Twenty-One as a systems integration company whose clients include major state agencies and programs.
This arc from the retail frontier to complex systems integration reflects the evolution of Kenya’s own communications.
Initially, the national challenge was access. telephone receiver. SIM. Broadcast time. It was a signal long enough for business and family life.
After that, the country expanded in size. More towers. More fiber. Even more enterprise links. The public sector will become more digital. The private sector is increasingly dependent on always-on systems.
The challenge today is resilience and trust. safety. continuous. The ability to keep critical services running when pressure occurs.
Guichua’s work lived within that arc. He wasn’t a headline chaser. He was part of a group that treated infrastructure as destiny.
That is why those who knew him speak not only of his achievements, but also of his temperament. kind. Strategic. Kind. These words may sound mild until you measure what they create for your business: trust, repeat work, teams that stick around, and customers who call back when the stakes are higher.
A tribute shared by entrepreneur Michael Macharia captures how his peers viewed him within the ecosystem, describing him as a “fellow founder” and “founder of Com21-Kenya”, even though the details of his death are yet to be revealed. Although it has simple lines, it has a profound feel. In the Kenyan ICT market, being a “founder” has often meant pushing through thin capital markets, uneven supply chains, and customers demanding yesterday’s results.
MBS’s George Njuguna made the infrastructure point clear: “Mwaura Gitua understood that infrastructure was at the core. In founding and leading Com21, he was committed to building our connected future. “His legacy is embedded in the networks we rely on every day. I honor the life he lived and send Mwaura off with gratitude and respect.”
“The story of Kenyan telecoms is often told through the big brands, and it should also be told through the builders who make implementation possible. Evans Mwaura Gitua was one of them. We will miss him and we will continue to benefit from the path he paved for us,” said Harry Hare, dx5 Africa Chief Information Officer.
Evans Mwaura Githua is part of the generation that helped popularize mobile. It’s not about talking about impact. By doing the work.
May his family find strength. May the truth of his final days be carefully uncovered.
And remember that Kenya is a market shaped not just by the giants we cite, but also by the solid builders we rarely profile.
