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"content": "things that we are talking about, including even the farms that we have just talked about. Remember that during those old days, people used to go to farm with a wooden hoe; but you can no longer do so now because science and technology have improved and they have brought a lot of innovation until we have mechanized farming. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, because of not putting a lot of effort in science and technology, our system of technology has continued to remain the rudimentary one. This is where you just pick a physics textbook and read the theories that are there without applying them. I will give you data here which is a bit surprising. For the last five years when the Government decided to put money for science, technology and innovation at a higher level in the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) which is the apex of science and technology in Kenya here, only 405 applications have ever been received. Out of this, only 74 of the same have received very little funding. What that means is that almost 18 per cent of the innovations and technologies that were generated by Kenyans here have been funded while the rest are still ignored because there is no money. I will quote three of them here which are very brilliant, which were tabulated in the NCST Book of Funded Innovation Projects dated May 2012, which is just last year. One scientist by the name Jeremiah Murimi did research and came up with a very brilliant idea on how you can ride a bicycle in the rural areas and, in the process, charge your mobile phone. When this idea was generated, funding was given, but nothing has been commercialized yet; it is still stuck with Murimi, wherever he is, because our Government has not realized that we can upgrade this by linking the idea to the industries. That is why I am talking about upgrading and bringing up our innovations in the rural areas. This fellow is just a young man. He was just doing his degree. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other innovator is called Purity Muthoni, who decided to do research and innovation on “Solid Waste Management for Markets Through Vermicomposting.” We have a lot of rubbish and dust in our cities. Our people have come up with a few innovations and technologies through which we can harness onto the same and upgrade it, but we have not done so. Eric Kithinji Muriithi decided to talk about “Emergency, Security and Disaster Management System” (ESDMS), where if you are in your house with your phone, and you are attacked by robbers or anything else, it is a system where you just press your phone and it just connects directly to the department that handles emergencies. We could have done this if this system was there when Westgate attack happened. So, you will notice that a lot of innovations have been done because of science and technology, but at a higher level; this is at now Masters and PhD levels. What I am proposing in this Motion is that, do our children know what science is when they are born? Do our children in primary schools know what science and technology is? Yet at that age when you are still very young, you can touch anything under the sun; you have fingers and your mind is moving very fast. The examples of countries that I am going to read here, you will be surprised: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, United States, et cetera . Their economies are primarily now driven by science, technology and innovation. Nothing else! Everything that we have here is from outside. Are we saying we are of a lesser breed in this world; that we cannot innovate and our children cannot discover anything? We have 42 million people in Kenya, but we cannot innovate anything? We can if only we put emphasis and train our children in the basics of science. We should put a premium on our nursery schools and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}