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{
    "id": 1128393,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1128393/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 660,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mukurweini, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Anthony Kiai",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13439,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Githiaka Kiai",
        "slug": "anthony-githiaka-kiai"
    },
    "content": "simple but very effective items. Why should we import toothpicks from China, and clothes and motor vehicles from other countries? We must dream big. We can only do so by ensuring that KIRDI is protected and given the legal foundation upon which to be ground. A government’s support of innovation for reduction of unemployment is also critical. I had a chance to visit KIRDI in Industrial Area about three years ago with my team. I was impressed by what was happening there. They are a hub for cottage industries. I saw young people making pure honey, manufacturing banana flour, cassava flour and other items. They are supported by KIRDI and some of the machines used there are local innovations funded and supported by KIRDI itself. The Director told us that the only issue is that the institution is starved of money. I want to believe that after KIDRI attains an autonomous status, it will be able to thrive better. As we do so, we must also note that there must be a correlation between the law we are making today and other laws that support such innovations. We should have institutions like Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) coming in. We must also look at the Industrial Property Act, under which we have set up the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI). This will ensure that those who come up with innovative ideas have their intellectual property protected. In the absence of protection, we will give pirates a field day. We have seen it in music and other industries. Immediately you produce a hit song, the next day it is out there having been pirated. We have seen what happens in Kenya. The moment you come up with an innovative idea and you do not protect it under the Industrial Property Act; it is copied, replicated all over and the original founder or innovator of the idea goes home bankrupt. As Parliament, we must strengthen the legal framework for KIRDI and provide for inter-linkages amongst all the existing laws to protect those who come up with innovations. I am happy to note that one of the innovations founded by the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) is a banana based flour called Afya Chap Chap, whose innovator is from my constituency. He is doing very well in the market. Suppose we fund such people and such standards through KIRDI, and other institutions and legal frameworks that are in place, what will happen? I have seen him employ young people and farmers. The whole chain that supplies raw materials to that company are employed courtesy of innovation by somebody who was funded and supported by KIRDI."
}