Kenya should emulate China in innovation

In Kenya, we have embraced everything Chinese except intermarriage. In Kenya children model toys using clay but in china children make real dolls which are sold to the Kenyan children. In Kenya’s secondary schools, students are taught to draw the body of an insect and to name the different parts, while Chinese children are taught how to assemble the real body parts of a motor vehicle and also make the vehicles. Which students will gain more knowledge fast hand? Which student will be employed after the end of their education?

In Kenya, the costly and complex regulatory processes are a major stumbling block to commercialization of products invented locally. Many ingenious innovations are gathering dust on shelves as the current legal framework has loopholes on certification of such products and approval for public sale. Many prototypes wait for long before getting regulatory approval. That is unlike China where an innovator is given the necessary support and as the government either buys the innovation or give the innovator space, time and money to develop the innovation. I remember the man who first made a plane in Kenya, it failed the first time, and again recently he tried it again, it failed the second time.