Technology 21 March 2026 Daily Monitor (Uganda)
Ugandan Prodigy Declan Kintu Rises to AI Stardom in Canada at 27
Declan Trevor Kintu, a 27-year-old Ugandan, transformed from coding in Kampala school labs to winning international hackathons and securing a top AI research role at Durham College in Toronto. Source: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/magazines/life/-how-declan-trevor-kintu-became-a-canadian-ai-research-star-at-27-5398224
Declan Trevor Kintu left Uganda in September 2023 to pursue a master’s in Artificial Intelligence at Durham College in Toronto. Passionate about programming, he dove into hackathons alongside his studies, consistently earning top spots and gaining recognition.
Before Canada, Kintu shone at Stanbic Bank Uganda as an Applications Developer after graduating from Refactory Academy. There, he built the Agent Banking platform and explored AI in finance, completing certifications from Microsoft Azure and AWS.
His breakthrough came in June 2025 at the HackTheBrain hackathon, where his team won with an AI tool helping immigrants equate foreign work experience to Canadian standards. This victory led Durham College to hire him as a Research Associate at their AI Hub, developing custom AI solutions.
Kintu’s tech journey started young, inspired by Iron Man and school computer labs at places like Taibah International School and King’s College Budo. He studied Applied Computer Technology at USIU-A in Nairobi before Refactory.
He sees huge potential in AI for finance—fraud detection and personalization—but warns of risks like biased profiling, urging balanced regulations. Kintu champions blockchain as the future for secure value exchange, from crypto to land titles.
Missing Uganda’s warmth and chapatis, he critiques the ‘Suffer Olympics’ mindset at home but loves Toronto’s multiculturalism and plans to stay.
Source: Daily Monitor (Uganda)