Kenya bets on indigenous knowledge innovation bank to turn tradition into economic power

Evans Taracha, the Natural Products Industry programme coordinator during an interview with journalists on January 28, 2026. [Juliet Omelo, Standard]

For generations, Kenyan communities have carried wealth in their memories, in the herbs that healed, the foods that fed families, the songs that preserved history, and the stories that defined identity.

Much of this knowledge was never written down, rarely protected, and often exploited elsewhere, even as similar traditions abroad were transformed into thriving industries.