Marilyn Gathiru

Marilyn (Marylyn Mugure) Gathiru is the Research Lead at Kilimora, a Nairobi company that helps youth-led, women-led and family-owned agricultural businesses meet the measurement, reporting and verification standards that climate funders demand. A postgraduate researcher at Kenyatta University with a background in soil science and agricultural systems, she leads Kilimora's verification methodology, impact measurement and university research partnerships.

Kilimora's main product, AgriKonnekt, combines soil sensing, satellite cross checks and plot level environmental records so that cooperatives and agri SMEs can show credible data to carbon and climate finance markets. The company pairs the platform with training for cooperatives and their field enumerators. Her own academic work feeds that evidence base: she has co-authored peer reviewed studies on making antibacterial silver nanocomposites from discarded watermelon rind and on using sunlight to disinfect contaminated well water in Kisumu's Obunga settlement.

Together with Kilimora strategy lead Godfrey Noel, she accepted Absa Bank Kenya's Most Bankable Solution award at the 2025/26 #MyLittleBigThing Sustainability Innovation Challenge, where about 500 applicants were narrowed to 16 finalists backed by Strathmore University and the Absa Kenya Foundation. Kilimora reports that it has since won gold at the UN FAO Global AgriInno Challenge 2026 and the second UNCTAD Supply Chain Innovation Challenge, and that it holds a patent filing with the Kenya Industrial Property Institute.