Ivy Kendi

Detail-oriented Swahili Audio Transcriber and Linguistic Annotator with over two years of experience producing accurate transcripts for interviews, meetings, podcasts, and AI language data projects. Fluent in Standard Kiswahili, Kenyan Swahili, Sheng, and English, with excellent listening, proofreading, and grammatical skills. Experienced in speaker identification, codeswitching, non-speech event annotation, and quality assurance.

Committed to delivering high-quality work while meeting strict deadlines and maintaining confidentiality.

Swahili Audio Transcriber at African Language Data Services (2024-01 – Present)

• Produce accurate transcripts of Swahili and bilingual (Swahili-English) audio recordings.
• Identify speakers and format transcripts according to transcription guidelines.
• Annotate pauses, laughter, background noise, overlapping speech, and other non-speech events.
• Review and proofread transcripts to ensure grammatical accuracy and consistency.
• Handle regional Swahili dialects, including Kenyan Swahili and Sheng.
• Consistently achieve quality and productivity targets while meeting project deadlines.

Freelance Transcription Specialist at Freelance (2022-05 – 2023-12)

• Transcribed interviews, meetings, podcasts, lectures, and research recordings into well-formatted written documents.
• Produced both verbatim and clean-verbatim transcripts according to client specifications.
• Managed projects with varying audio quality and multiple speakers.
• Maintained confidentiality while delivering assignments within agreed turnaround times.
• Performed quality checks to ensure transcripts met client standards before submission.

Bachelor of Arts in Kiswahili and Linguistics – Kenyatta University (2018 – 2022)