The people the work is organised around
Career pages tell you what someone can do. This one tells you why they bother, who kept them going, and what they are like when the laptop is closed.
15+
Years in Kampala
4
Degrees earned
5
Core values held
10+
Years of friendship
"Systems change what people are able to do. That is the whole point."
— Innocent Obilil
From a village far from computers to continental data systems
Innocent grew up in a household where the nearest computer was a two-hour journey away. His first real encounter with computing came at Makerere University, where he studied for a Bachelor of Information Technology — an experience that settled his life's direction entirely.
What has kept him in the work is not the technology itself, but the human impact: watching a bean researcher in Ethiopia pull up twenty years of variety data on a tablet in a field, or a broker in Kampala settle a trade in seconds that used to take days.
He is based in Kampala and describes himself as deliberate about being present at home, given the demands of continental programme travel. The balance between field work across Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and the region, and being home for what matters — that tension has shaped how he works.
Based in
Kampala, Uganda
Experience
15+ years
Sectors
Agriculture, Health, Finance
Currently
MSc Health Informatics
The people at the centre of it all
Every decision about which work to take, which to decline, and how to pace the career has been shaped by these relationships.
Wife
Partner in everything
The person who held the household together through six years of evening classes, two postgraduate programmes, and more field trips than either of them counted. The work would not exist in its current form without that foundation.
Children
The reason for the calendar discipline
They have taught him more about clear explanation than any documentation course. The rule is simple: if they cannot follow it, it is not simple enough. That standard has improved every system he has built.
Parents
Where the work ethic came from
They made education non-negotiable at a time when it was neither cheap nor convenient. Four qualifications across twenty years is the direct result of that early insistence that learning was worth the sacrifice.
Extended Family
The village that raised me
Cousins, aunts and uncles across the region who still make sure he comes home for the gatherings that matter. The roots that keep the work grounded in something larger than career milestones.
The people who shaped the work
Careers are not built alone. These are the people whose influence shows up in how he thinks, what he prioritises, and who he calls when it matters.
Dr. Kristina Roesel
MentorSenior Scientist · ILRI
Taught him how research questions become data requirements, and why a scientist's trust in a database is earned slowly and lost quickly. The standard of rigour she modelled shaped how he approaches every research data system.
Mr. Leroy Mwanzia
MentorHead of Digital and Data · International Potato Center (CIP)
Showed him what it looks like to lead data strategy across institutions rather than inside one. The shift from technical execution to institutional influence — that perspective came from watching Leroy work.
The Realtech Cohort
Friends since 2010Developers & Engineers · Realtech Systems Limited
The developers he started with, and still the group he calls when a technical decision needs an honest second opinion. Fourteen years on, the conversations are still the most useful ones he has.
Makerere Classmates
Friends & collaboratorsProfessionals across sectors · Ministries, Banks & Research Institutes
Two decades on, spread across ministries, banks and research institutes across Uganda and the region. Still the best network in Ugandan tech — not because of titles, but because of the shared foundation.
Five things I hold to
These are not aspirations on a wall. They are the reasons he has turned down work, stayed late, and chosen the harder path.
Integrity with data
Data about people carries obligations. He holds the same standard whether the record is an investor portfolio or a farmer's household survey. The person behind the row in the database is never an abstraction.
Education is compounding
Four qualifications across twenty years, still studying — not for certificates, but because the field moves. Each programme has changed how he sees the work.
Leave capability behind
Every engagement should end with someone locally who can do what he was doing.
"Dependency is a design failure."
Show up for people
Family, friends, colleagues, the field team waiting on a fix at 11pm. Reliability is a value, not a soft skill. The calendar discipline exists because people are counting on it.
Community over status
The work matters because of who it reaches. Titles are administrative details. The question that matters is whether the system is still running and still useful after he has left.
When the laptop is closed
The things that fill the time that is not billed, and the habits that have stayed constant through fifteen years of changing roles.
Football
Weekend games with the same group of friends for over a decade. The consistency of the group matters as much as the game.
Travel
Work has taken him across Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and the region. He tries to see the country, not just the conference room.
Health Systems Reading
Currently deep in health informatics literature for his MSc, and enjoying it more than expected. The intersection of data and health outcomes is proving to be the most interesting space he has worked in.
Home Networks
Tinkering with home network infrastructure — described as "the occupational hazard nobody warns you about." The work follows him home, and he does not entirely mind.
Work that is not billed
The engagements that do not appear on the CV but matter as much as the ones that do.
ICT Mentoring for Students
Sessions with secondary and university students in Kampala on practical routes into data and software work. The focus is on what the field actually looks like, not the version in the brochures.
Church & Community Tech Support
Setting up and maintaining basic IT for community organisations that could not otherwise afford it. The same skills that run continental databases can keep a community centre connected.
Open Data Advocacy
Publishing research datasets openly on CGSpace and Harvard Dataverse so African research is reusable by African researchers. The data was collected in Africa; it should be accessible in Africa.
The next two years
Four things on the list. Three professional, one personal, and the personal one is the most overdue.
Complete the MSc in Health Informatics at Makerere University
Publish a practical guide to building donor-funded data systems that survive handover
Mentor ten early-career Ugandan data engineers into institutional roles
Take the family on a proper holiday with no laptop in the bag