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{
    "id": 1089320,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1089320/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "We do not need to prescribe on the ownership bit but we must find a way of ensuring that venture capital firms are also providing access to capital to startups that have been established by Kenyans. One does not need to hire a face for them to get money. Many local startups are hiring faces so that they can access capital. Madam Temporary Speaker, the other challenge has been the issue of theft of ideas. There are people who are currently claiming that M-Pesa was their innovation. Some of the biggest innovations in the country have such as ‘Please call me’ mobile messaging that we access on the Safaricom platform has litigation that is ongoing. How can we ensure that we have a proper intellectual property regime, which respects the rights of innovators because in the startups, there will be people innovating and those innovations need to be protected? If we tell the young people to go for patent, have we made it easy for people to apply for patents? In countries such as the United States of America (USA), it is very easy to apply for patent and that is why they are leading in innovation. What kind of regime or environment do we have when it comes to patenting, copy right and intellectual property? When our young people who have a wonderful idea go to a boardroom to demonstrate their idea, the big companies tell their ICT department to find ways of reverse engineering or accessing the source code of that innovation. Many at times, our young people have been used to generate ideas in big boardrooms but when it comes to monetization, the companies do not give them anything. Those are two very serious challenges that young people have been going through. The other challenge that young people encounter is funding. This Bill states that the innovation agency will find out the funding and financing requirements for incubators and startups. However, venture capital firms and even some of the established institutions that are supposed to be providing credit to startups like these; the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) and the proposed development bank that has been a story for far too long. Can we encourage the establishment and the growth of venture capital firms, which focus on the innovations that will be coming from these incubators? This Bill has defined startup with a technology component to it. However, not all problems will be solved through technology even through technology is one of the most efficient ways of solving our problems. If I was to come up with an organization that builds solar panels, will that qualify as a startup within the provisions of this Bill? If I was to come up with a startup that just does driers for fish because once the women in my county fish omena, they have to be laid on the ground for them to dry in the sun. However, through such a process, the omena pick infection. If I came up with a mobile drier for omena, will that be considered a start up? If I came up with a mobile drier for maize so that maize farmers will not have to deal with aflatoxin infections in their maize, will that qualify as a startup? Let the definition of startup not just be ICT oriented because some of the problems that we have can be solved through light industries."
}