Series of hurdles dashing dreams of Kenya innovators

Kenya has been hailed as an innovation hub not only in the region, but across the world. Well, the country seems to have earned its stripes for such a stature looking at globally acclaimed digital services such as M-Pesa, and a host of other cutting-edge inventions.

However, it is not entirely rosy for local innovators with experts citing a web of stringent regulations, tiresome procedures and lack of government goodwill as the major stumbling blocks standing in the way of an innovation-friendly environment.

For instance, 21 steps are required— including approval from the National Treasury — before private innovators are allowed to enter into deals with counties. With such burdensome laws and regulations in place, analysts say the country pays a heavy price as products and services fail to make it to the market, new businesses go unformed or fail to grow, new jobs aren’t created and new sources of taxes needlessly forfeited.

“It’s hard to estimate how much money Kenya loses due to poor innovation-related policies, but it may be between 5 and 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP),” says Professor Reuben Marwanga, chairman of the Kenya National Innovation Agency (Kenia).

While Kenya is teeming with all manner of innovations cutting across all sectors of the economy, the hurdles lying in wait on the way of innovators are innumerable. Aside from the tough rules, lack of funds to make their dreams a reality, and absence of guidance on how to commercialise their inventions are just another set of setbacks common in the innovation realm.

150cc engine

Take Calvins Odhiambo for instance. The 21-year-old has made his own car using a 150cc engine of his Kingbird motorcycle and scrap metal. Mr Odhiambo from Siaya County says the “Jeep,” as he calls it, is a four-wheeled car that has fuel gauge, headlights, indicators and other parts, all of which he designed.

But his dream has hit a brickwall, admitting that he has no clue how to push the idea further.

“If I had better training,” he says, “I would have come up with something bigger and better.”

Some accuse the ICT ministry of not doing enough to help young innovators such as Mr Odhiambo.

“ICT (ministry) has been urging youth to be innovative,” says Jackson Wambua, who oversees policy and research at the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM).

“Yet the government is unwilling to set aside resources to impart knowledge and startup capital to help the youth…”

He adds that “standardisation procedures are also tedious and costly.”

Another inventor, Hilary Chirchir, from Motosiet village, Kericho County, tapped wind to generate power in August 2012, after just spending Sh20,000. It earned him Sh7,000 per month from supplying 14 households in his neighbourhood with electricity at a paltry cost of Sh500 per household for unlimited power use. The power was also running his posh mill business.

What Mr Chirchir was doing was, however, illegal as independent producers are not allowed to supply electricity directly to consumers. Private power generators must also be approved and licensed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

In 2017, government officials, who had learnt about Mr Chirchir project, toured his home, and “Promised to help me get a licence,” he said, “but I later pulled it (power project down) as the promise was not forthcoming.”

Power generation

“There is a process involved in approving independent companies or individuals to generate electricity,” said Moses Nyandika, a public relations officer at the Ministry of Energy.

An applicant, he noted, must first write to the ministry expressing interest in power generation. The interested party is then referred to ERC, which gives permit and handles power purchase agreement.

However, some requirements are said to be very costly, hence preventing individuals such as Mr Chirchir from taking part.

Mr Wambua of KAM observes that this is another example of government bottlenecks hobbling Kenya’s innovators. In the manufacturing sector, he said, “electricity is a driver of growth and any innovation that reduces cost of power is a game changer.”

He noted that “digitisation of industries too is the way to go” if the manufacturing sector — one of the pillars of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda — is to see the kind of growth that the president has promised by 2022.

Another innovator, Elkana Ajowi, came up with an app called Sinepay ECM (Electronic Commerce Monitoring) to regulate competition between online market platforms and traditional shops. The system can monitor sales made online and remit the data to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) or other tax collecting agencies.

The hardware and networking expert mooted the idea in 2014 when he realised that traditional sellers were under threat from online traders who didn’t have to tax customers because they themselves weren’t paying taxes. As a result, the digital sellers were undercutting their bricks-and-mortar competition.

Lying moribund

“The fact that technology seems to be disrupting the normal way of life for businesses caught my attention,” he said.

He was convinced his innovation was useful and would attract support, but that never came.

While innovators struggle to actualise their dreams, laws and institutions that ought to facilitate them are lying moribund. Other than being recognised under Vision 2030 as a cornerstone for economic growth, science, technology and innovation (STI) are enshrined in law through the STI Act of 2013. This Act birthed the Kenya's National Innovation System,as well as three institutions whose duties include the creation of laws and regulations that support research and innovation. These institutions are Kenia, the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (Nacosti), and the National Research Fund (NRF) under the Ministry of Education.

Raising funds

Kenia is supposed to develop and manage the National Innovation System with Nacosti, the regulator, ensuring quality in research in science, technology and innovation. The NRF is tasked with raising funds from government and other sources to support research and Kenia activities.

“These organisations are not working as they should because Kenia and NRF are stuck in government bureaucracy. Three years after appointment of their management boards, these agencies are still not functional,” said Prof Marwanga.

Laws and regulations, he adds, will always lag behind technology and innovation.

In Kenya, he added, sometimes it takes ages to come up with new laws and regulations “that create an enabling environment for new technologies to flourish.”

“The key therefore lies in stakeholders continuously agitating for changes in current laws and regulations.”