Who protects the hustler’s creativity?

Last Christmas was very different for me. I got into a crash programme to learn how to roast meat, thanks to a hustler’s innovation that has made it easier to do so.

The small ‘machine’ helps you raise your meat up and down depending on how much heat you need. Who has the patent for this innovation?

Do you recall using pieces of cloth to mop your house, a back-breaking task? Today, you can mop as you stand, and there’s no need to keep squeezing water from dirty rags, as the mop bucket will do it for you. The innovation has a space for your mop and a side compartment for water. It makes mopping the house fun. Who’s got the patent for this ‘advanced mopper’?

Someone has a patent for non-stick pans, which are easier to clean than the old pans and sufurias that you had to soak in water to ‘release’ food from the bottom or sides. Cooking ugali made matters worse.

A hustler has decided to utilise the same concept with another basic kitchen tool – noted how serving spoons for foods like mukimo or mashed potatoes are wrapped in cling film to stop food from ‘sticking’ to them? Who has the patent for this idea?

Your boda boda has a canopy to keep you from being drenched in the rain or to enjoy some shade when it’s hot. Who has the patent for this canopy?

The last time I got a haircut, the piece of cloth the barber covered me with had a transparent section that allowed me to chat on my phone as I got a shave. Any patent for that?

We can add several other innovations, including carrot graters. Even in services, hustlers never cease to be innovative. What of the person training young men and women how drive bulldozers and other heavy equipment? That driving school, called Sensei (Japanese for teacher), is quite innovative.

There is another school to train women on being wives – don’t bother with one for husbands-to-be. And we can’t forget the several hairstyles we see Kenyan ladies sporting. Could they be patented?

Avenues to wealth

We can go on and on with the list, but the one thing that comes out clearly is that rarely are hustlers’ innovations recognised or protected, denying them avenues to wealth. Their ideas are rarely patented, something that would allow them to expropriate value and escape hustling.

Big corporations protect their innovations, ensuring that they make money from them for the duration of the patent, which is usually about 20 years. In Kenya, we are too liberal with our ideas, letting other people take them for free and make money from them.

Hustlers may not even know that you can patent an innovation; they’re too preoccupied with living a day at a time.

The governments, both county and national, should help hustlers patent their innovations. How else do we ensure that they reap the benefits of the time they’ve spent hustling?

Luckily, hustlers’ innovations are usually realistic and easy to commercialise. If we can help them protect these innovations, the whole country would benefit from jobs, pride and higher living standards. Over to you, Kenya intellectual Property Institute.