The Pandemic Brings Some African Tech Workers Luxe Lodging

Many of her neighbors have fallen on hard times since Covid-19 shut the city last month, but she's been lifted into the lap of luxury. Akol, who is 28, works for Samasource, a company that labels images and other data for companies such as Google, creating the feedstock for artificial intelligence projects like self-driving cars. She's the main breadwinner in the busy Nairobi apartment she shares with her 7-year-old son and her two brothers, ages 8 and 24. But Akol hasn't seen her family or apartment for around a month because, like most of Samasource's Nairobi staff, she now lives and works from a resort hotel. Her window at the four-star Ole Sereni overlooks the grassy plains of Nairobi National Park--a major change from the company's open-plan office next to a freeway.