Six months of Us!!

February to July doesn't sound like much until you count it properly. Six amazing months. Half a year of meetups, of talks, networking, conversations, question and moments that reminded us why we revived NAILUG in the first place. Every session has been memorable. The numbers have been consistent, the networks that have turned into friendships and collaborations.

We started on I love free software day (14^th February 2026.) at KFC and now an amazing collaboration with Mount Kenya University . This was made possible by Dr. Kiboori and Steve Nyasimi . Thank you. We appreciate you!

It's worth lingering here for a moment. Milestones aren't only about celebrating how far we've come. They're also reminders that the best journeys rarely feel extraordinary while they're happening. They become extraordinary because we chose, again and again, to continue.

NextDeploy with Yussuf Hersi

Yusuf Hersi took us through the journey of building NextDeploy from the ground up—a deployment platform purpose-built for Next.js applications. He shared how the project evolved from a simple JSON-based configuration system and a React interface into a full-fledged deployment engine powered by Go. He talked about the tidious journey that is tackling the challenges of developer experience, automation, scalability and self-hosted deployments along the way.

It was a great look into the realities of building and evolving an open-source developer tool.

Watch Hersi's presentation below

Now it's the community's turn.

You're invited to test Nextdeploy, push it to its limits, break it, build on it and contribute. Every bug report, feature suggestion and pull request helps strengthen an open-source tool created to benefit all of us.

Let's rally behind one of our own and support the incredible work that has gone into making Nextdeploy a valuable resource for the developer community.

Opensource Alternatives to Vercel and Heroku with Antony Nyagah

It only seemed fitting that our next speaker would take us through the world of deployment tools.

Anthony Nyagah took to the stage to share his journey of finding free and open-source solutions for deploying applications. As a developer looking to avoid recurring hosting costs, he set out to explore alternatives to platforms like Vercel and Heroku that offered greater flexibility without the price tag.

His search led him to a range of self-hostable deployment tools, with Dokploy taking center stage.

To top it off, Anthony gave a live demo, walking the audience through how to set up and deploy applications with Dokploy, making it easy to see why it's becoming a popular choice among developers looking for open-source deployment solutions.

It was a practical session that showed there are powerful, community-driven alternatives for developers who want more control over their infrastructure without breaking the bank.

Anthony has documented his journey into self-hosting in his blogpost Self-Hosting Is Easier Than You Think: A Guide to Open Source PaaS, making it a great next read for anyone interested in exploring open-source deployment tools.

Kernel and Defensive Ghosts with Danfold Mosongo

Danfold Mosongo took the stage with a session on Kernel and Defensive Ghosts, diving into concepts that immediately captured the audience's attention. From low-level system security to defensive techniques.The talk offered a small yet amusing glimpse into how systems can be understood, protected and hardened against attacks.

You could feel the curiosity in the room as attendees followed along very eager to learn more about the inner workings of operating systems and defensive security. Most of the audience loved the idea of surfing the internet without an address to ping to...simply being the Invisibles.

Looking back, the day's talks almost felt thematic. We started by building applications, learned how to deploy them and then rounded things off by exploring how to secure them. It was a fitting progression that reflected the full lifecycle of modern software development.

If the session sparked your curiosity, be sure to check out Project Kernelling, where Danfold has shared the scripts and resources from the talk for anyone who wants to explore further.

A great reminder that building great software is only part of the journey—keeping it secure is just as important.

Promoting Networking with refreshment

Our host, MKU went above and beyond offering refreshments for the mingling session of the event. Recognize the institution, the club and the lecturer that is offering the space.

We came with bitings and it made an overall great networking session.

My friend likes to say show me a pic or else it did not happen! So a group photo is always taken so that we may always look back to how great we have been growing and look forward with hopes that we keep inspiring more folks and contributors.

August Meetup

Remember, we meet on the first Saturday of the month. Hope to see you on the 1^st of August 2026.

We'll be meeting at Mount Kenya University-Town Campus from 3 to 6 pm.