Kelvin Ng'eno
Building scalable solutions that solve real problems with frontier technology. 6+ years experience serving tens of thousands of users.
About Me
I started building frontends in 2019 and haven't stopped shipping since. Over 6+ years I've gone from React and React Native apps to full-stack systems with FastAPI, Django, and PostgreSQL — and more recently into AI/ML, fine-tuning models and building agent workflows.
Right now I'm CTO at Navismart AI, building an immigration platform that uses AI agents to guide users through complex application processes. I'm also building Galexia, an educational platform that turns questions into interactive visualizations — flowcharts, 3D molecules, animated canvases, 13 types in total.
Most of my work has been for East African businesses and users. I've helped SMEs go digital for the first time and built consumer apps used by 20k+ people on networks where every kilobyte matters. That shapes how I think about performance, UX, and what "good enough" actually means.
I use AI tooling daily — Claude Code, Google Antigravity, GitHub Copilot — and I think seriously about where these tools help and where they don't. I also fine-tuned a Gemma 3 model for Kikuyu-English translation, a language spoken by 8M+ people with almost no AI tooling. I build what's missing.
Experience
Full Stack Developer & CTO
Leading a team to build navismartai.com, an AI-powered immigration platform for individuals and agencies.
- •Migrated backend from Django to FastAPI to improve async throughput and concurrency under load
- •Designed and implemented AI agent workflows using OpenAI Agents SDK and Langgraph
- •Implemented PII security with field-level encryption at rest, RBAC, audit logging, and secrets management
Full Stack Mobile Developer
Built three apps in the Jobzy ecosystem (Talanta AI App, Service Provider App, Client App).
- •Scaled Talanta AI App to 20k+ active users across web, iOS, and Android
- •Added AI-powered resume and cover letter generation, improving user engagement
Founder
Founded a software consultancy delivering custom solutions for web and mobile apps.
- •Managed client relationships, contracts, and delivery, gaining business-side experience
- •Built apps for SMEs in e-commerce, service platforms, and internal tools
Consultant Developer
Conducted a 2-week consulting contract reviewing code and UI/UX for M'Network and M'Butic platforms.
- •Identified performance bottlenecks and UI/UX issues and delivered optimization recommendations
- •Redesigned key UI components to improve usability and user flow
Full Stack Engineer
Built award-winning multivendor e-commerce platform for construction materials (1st place Kenya E-commerce Award).
- •Designed and developed vendor dashboards, admin portal, and the mobile app
- •Optimized architecture, cutting load times by over 40% and improving user experience
- •Built robust payment systems including Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) support, improving accessibility and sales
Full Stack Mobile Developer
Built three apps in the Jobzy ecosystem (Talanta AI App, Service Provider App, Client App).
- •Scaled Talanta AI App to 20k+ active users across web, iOS, and Android
- •Added AI-powered resume and cover letter generation, improving user engagement
- •Contributed to Jobzy winning Startup of the Year
Full Stack Developer
Built a service procurement platform end-to-end, covering both web and mobile.
- •Developed the React Native mobile app for service providers, published on both Google Play and App Store
- •Created the landing page and web portal using Next.js for SEO and fast performance
- •Built real-time chat with web sockets for better in-app buyer-seller communication
Mobile App Developer
Built a laundry service app using React Native and Expo.
- •Converted UI/UX designs from Adobe XD to code
- •Integrated Stripe payments for seamless user checkout
Frontend Developer
Contributed to Zumaridi, a video conferencing platform.
- •Converted Figma designs into responsive, production-ready interfaces using React.js and Tailwind CSS
- •Delivered clean, maintainable front-end code with proper user experience
Frontend Developer
Implemented solutions using React, React Native, HTML, CSS, and SCSS, applying modern frontend practices.
- •Developed and deployed the official website for Jipas Tentsail with React and SCSS, hosted on Netlify
- •Implemented an Android app for Mangu High School using React Native
AI/ML Developer
Conducted independent research and development in AI and machine learning.
- •Implemented various AI models including LLMs and GANs
- •Developed audio transcription systems using OpenAI Whisper
- •Created text-to-speech solutions with Tortoise TTS
Projects
Navismart AI
AI-powered immigration platform serving 2k+ users across 50+ countries. Features eligibility checks, smart form filling, AI guidance, multilingual support, and secure application tracking.
Galexia (In Development)
AI-powered educational platform that transforms questions into interactive visualizations. 13 visualization types including flowcharts, timelines, concept maps, 3D molecules, and animated canvases. Uses AI to dynamically generate the right visualization for any topic.
Kikuyu Translator (English ↔ Gĩkũyũ)
A fine-tuned Gemma 3 4B translation model for bidirectional English-Kikuyu translation. Trained through 4 progressive stages over 55+ hours on 141k translation pairs including Bible, FLORES-200, Bloom Library, agricultural terminology, and synthetic data. Features LoRA fine-tuning achieving 0.746 final loss.
Talanta AI App (Jobzy Limited)
An AI Powered Job Search React Native mobile app for iOS, Android, and Huawei devices, enabling seamless job searches with advanced filters, personalized job alerts, and intuitive navigation. You can use AI to generate Resumes, CVs, and Cover Letters as well as job application emails.
M-Farmz
Custom farm management software with mobile application and admin site. Helps clients manage their farm activities, track expenses, income, and overall farm operations.
M-jenzi Platform
Construction e-commerce platform connecting clients with service providers. Platform includes vendor dashboard, client interface, and mobile applications.
M-jenzi Mobile App
Mobile application for purchasing construction materials and requesting services from providers. Integrated with the main M-jenzi platform.
M-Jenzi Vendor Dashboard
Comprehensive vendor management dashboard where vendors can register and manage their products. Complete e-commerce management solution.
TaskForge - Elixir OTP Task Scheduler
A concurrent task scheduling and execution system built with Elixir/OTP patterns. Features GenServer-based task management, ETS-backed high-performance storage, DynamicSupervisor for worker processes, and fault-tolerant supervision trees with automatic retries.
TaskForgeWeb - Phoenix Real-time API
A real-time task management API built with Phoenix Framework. Features RESTful JSON API, Phoenix Channels for WebSocket-based live updates, Ecto changesets for validation, and a complete task lifecycle management system.
Claude AI Chatbot UI and Backend
An open source feature rich, developer friendly, modifiable chatbot UI and backend for Claude AI. Supports projects.
Audio Transcription with OpenAI Whisper
Implementation of OpenAI's open source Whisper model for audio transcription using PyTorch.
Text to Speech with Tortoise TTS
Implementation of Tortoise TTS for high-quality text-to-speech conversion.
FashionGAN
Implementation of Generative Adversarial Network for fashion image generation.
Skills & Technologies
Frontend
- React
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Redux
- Vue.js
Backend
- Elixir
- Phoenix Framework
- Django
- Python
- Node.js
- Express
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
Mobile
- React Native
AI/ML
- PyTorch
- Neural Networks
- TensorFlow
- LangGraph
- OpenAI Agents SDK
- Numpy
- Scikit-learn
Writing
All postsThe State of AI Coding in 2026
A working developer's honest assessment of where AI-assisted development actually stands — what works, what doesn't, and what most people get wrong.
Fine-Tuning Gemma 3 for Kikuyu Translation
How I trained a bidirectional English-Kikuyu translation model using LoRA, progressive fine-tuning, and 141K parallel translations.