A few weeks ago I found out an article talking about ten top places to visit while in Kigali and guess what, kLab is on the list. The person who did the ranking was not mistaken at all; kLab is such a unique place in Rwanda where tech innovators gather to develop tech solutions. On June 13, 2013 while wrapping up to head home after a busy day at work, I received a call from someone I really respect, someone behind lots of ICT changes undergoing in Rwanda – Patrick Nyirishema, the Head of RDB-IT. He first asks how are things going at kLab, I give some updates and then comes the big news. “Claude, someone very important will be visiting kLab tomorrow”, he says. With a lot of curiosity I ask, who Sir? “Steve Job’s wife/widow, she in town and would like to visit kLab” he clarifies. By the time the call ended, I was already excited about the news. I personally admire Steve Jobs work – he was a genius! Now Imagine spending some time with the wife – isn’t it amazing? The next day as usual I get at work early in the morning, as usual I first do a to-do list for the day and part of it, I add give a tour to Laurene Powell Jobs. Afterwards the news was disseminated among the wider kLab community.

At around 2:45pm, some bazungu enter kLab, when I go receive them I notice there is no woman among them. We do the introductions and finds out that it’s Steve Jobs brother in law and his son. A few minutes later, Laurene Jobs with the daughters enter kLab, wow amazing! They enter holding bourbon coffee take away cups enjoying the Rwandan coffee while visiting. I give them a detailed kLab tour, as we walk through kLab, Laurene just points at one of the kLab tenants and says; “you made a right choice, you are using a great machine”, we all turn to see what kind of laptop is that. I assume you can all guess – it was a macbook pro. What else should we expect from the brand founder’s wife! The tour goes on, kind of impressed by kLab interior design she asks: “but who designed this place, a local person?” A Rwandan interior designer, I respond. I know some of you are already curious; you are welcome to visit as she did. After the tour, she meets some of the people and goes on asking questions about the project being developed by kLab tenants which she tries to link with her areas of interests. “I develop applications using iOS, a platform invented by Apple (Steve Jobs'), meeting his wife/widow is amazing” , says Peter, a kLab tenant who develops iOS applications.

The tour ends as she heads to Carnegie Mellon University Rwanda located just 2 floors under kLab. It was great meeting the wife of late Steve jobs, one of the greatest innovators of all time.