Felix Orinda

Kenyan software engineer, making tools other developers build on.

I build KickJS, fcms, fordb and the Forinda RTC SDK in the open, and ship production platforms as a software engineer at Datawise Africa.

Work

KickJS

A production-grade, decorator-driven Node.js framework for TypeScript. NestJS ergonomics without the weight: dependency injection, modules and generators, end-to-end types from Zod and Vite, and your choice of Express, Fastify or h3 underneath.

hello.controller.ts
@Controller()
export class HelloController {
  @Autowired() private readonly hello!: HelloService

  @Get('/')
  index(ctx: Ctx<KickRoutes.HelloController['index']>) {
    return this.hello.greet('World')
  }
}
$ npx @forinda/kickjs-cli new my-api
  • @forinda/kickjsCore: DI, decorators, pluggable HTTP runtimes
  • @forinda/kickjs-cliScaffolding, generators and custom commands
  • @forinda/kickjs-dbCode-first ORM with reversible migrations
  • @forinda/kickjs-clientTyped fetch client, end-to-end response types
  • @forinda/kickjs-wsWebSocket controllers on ws or Socket.IO
  • @forinda/kickjs-aiAI providers, tools, streaming, RAG and agents
All 17 packages

fcms

A self-hostable CMS where your whole site is one readable file, edited through the admin, the CLI, or an AI agent over MCP. Postgres runs inside the process, so there is nothing to set up.

fordb

A keyboard-first desktop client for PostgreSQL, SQLite and MongoDB. Every destructive change is shown as SQL and confirmed before it runs.

Forinda RTC SDK

A framework-agnostic WebRTC SDK: publish, view, chat, share screens and record from TypeScript, React, Vue or Web Components, against any signaling backend.

Client work and earlier projects

  • Datawise Africa

    Production platform for an AI and data research company partnered with Kaggle and Lacuna Fund.

    Software Engineer

  • Datalab Africa

    Data collaboration platform where data creators keep ownership and users get verified insights.

    Software Engineer

  • UrbanEcho

    Urban intelligence platform with data-driven insights for planning and development.

    Software Engineer

  • nuxt-swal

    SweetAlert2 module for Nuxt 3 with global alert methods, a composable API and TypeScript support.

    Creator

Writing

All articles

About

I started coding while studying Computer Science at Egerton University and moved quickly from coursework to production systems. Using tools was never enough; I wanted to know how they worked underneath.

That curiosity became KickJS, a framework that began as a scaffolding script and grew into 17 packages running on Express, Fastify or h3. Today I ship production platforms at Datawise Africa and keep building open-source tools: fcms, fordb and a WebRTC SDK.

Languages
TypeScript, JavaScript (ES6+), Python, Go
Systems & APIs
Node.js, Express.js (v5), GraphQL, REST API Design, WebSocket / SSE, Flask / FastAPI
Frontend
React.js, Vue.js, Tailwind CSS, Responsive Design
Data & Storage
PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Prisma ORM, Drizzle ORM
Infrastructure
Docker, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), OpenTelemetry, Linux / Shell
Messaging & Scheduling
BullMQ, RabbitMQ, Apache Kafka, Cron Scheduling

Experience

  1. Software Engineer

    Datawise Africa

    Engineering production platforms for an AI and data research company. Leading development of the Datawise Africa platform and the Datalab Africa collaboration system.

    Dec 2025 – Present

  2. Software Engineer Intern

    Datawise Africa

    Built and shipped the initial Datawise Africa platform and the Datalab Africa collaboration system.

    May 2025 – Nov 2025

  3. Software Engineer (Contract)

    Enaton

    Designed and built backend services, APIs, and data pipelines for production systems.

    Aug 2023 – Oct 2024

Education and certifications

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

Egerton University, 2019 – 2025

Focus: Software Engineering, Systems Design, Algorithms

  • Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador

    Microsoft, January 2022

  • Learning Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Developers
  • JavaScript: The Tricky Bits
  • Learning ECMAScript 6+ (ES6+)
  • Docker for Developers

Contact

Open to remote roles, contracts and open-source collaboration.