SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Science, technology and innovation will play a key role as Kenya aspires to become a globally competitive and prosperous nation as envisioned in the Vision 2030. Vision 2030 is a vehicle for accelerating transformation of the country into a rapidly industrialising middle-income nation with a sustained economic growth of 10 per cent per annum by the year 2030.
There is an urgent need for the government to create an enabling environment through the formulation of policies that promote the use of science and technology, integrating the science policy into our nation’s development agenda and ensuring that adequate funding for the implementation of the science and technology plan is available.
It is important to have a national research agenda and prioritise to avoid duplication and maximize our resources. Universities and research institutions must stop doing research for the sake of academic progress. They need to research on ways of addressing food insecurity, unemployment, diseases, illiteracy and poverty.
Greater efforts should be geared towards encouraging young Kenyans to pursue science and engineering courses. This can be achieved by demystifying science education and by creating suitable employment opportunities for them.
Currently we are doing about 200 PhDs per year while in my opinion we need to produce not less than 1,000 PhDs. The country has less than a dozen oncologist’s yet about 80,000 new cancer cases are reported annually. What are we doing to mainstream training in fields like oncology for example?
A strong innovation system is also important. Besides, networking and interactions between key players including policymakers, scientists, civil society and the private sector need to be strengthened. Ensuring increased awareness of science and technology will facilitate public understanding and appreciation of their great potential to improve agriculture, nutrition, environment, water, and health for all Kenyans. The media involvement is paramount to widen the public access scientific information that can transform lives.
Promoting the use of existing new technologies such as biotechnology is also key for development. It is also important to utilise the extensive traditional knowledge available among the various Kenyan communities. It is also imperative for us to promote research and application for forecasting, prevention and mitigation of emergencies and natural hazards, particularly, floods, landslides, drought, and epidemics.
Space science technology using geospatial information systems offers an opportunity to improve environmental decision making to disaster warning and relief services and environment monitoring and management. Increasing funding for basic and applied research at higher institutions of learning will increase the country’s pool of skills and talent through training that is relevant to the needs of the economy.
The creation and sustenance of innovative funding mechanisms such as venture capital to fund development of new and innovative products, processes, and systems and support incubations and start-ups will promote entrepreneurship and commercialisation. We should strive to allocate at-least 1 per cent of our GDP to research and development.
Promoting an Intellectual Property Rights regime that maximises the incentives for the generation and protection of intellectual property will also provide a strong, supportive and comprehensive policy environment for speedy and effective domestic commercialisation of inventions and innovations to maximize public good/interest.