A boat that’s making waves

Over the past week, government officials have been visiting Ruiru Dam to observe a simple boat operating in the water just off Thika Road.

Unknown to many Kenyans, they were overseeing the testing of the locally-made boat, which is propelled by cycling a wheel with both feet instead of a diesel engine or paddles.

Thaddaeus Lebanon Muchuma, its innovator, says the hydropedalplane, as he calls it, is the first step in his big plans to build a ship.

“In the short-term, this is ideal for water cycling especially in Olympic games,” says Mr Muchuma, the managing director of Ninon Engineering Works Ltd, “But my ambition is to establish a shipbuilding industry.”

The 64-year-old, who holds diplomas in industrial electronics and structural and mechanical engineering, has toured countries like Germany, Denmark, Scotland and Britain, where he worked with various motor factories and learnt a few tricks in motor engineering.

As lofty as his ambition is, Mr Muchuma’s efforts over the last one-and-half years in which he has invested Sh1.5 million have caught government eyes.

Besides being supervised by the Kenya Industrial Research Institute (KIRDI), he has received a Sh3 million grant from the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), the institution charged with advising, promoting and coordinating science, technology and research in the country.

It is one of the 92 projects out of 357 proposals picked in early 2009, including a Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) solar drier project, being financed by NCST.

“We have completed the mid-term review of 92 projects, which we have been conducting in the last two months. We are now carrying out the final evaluation,” says Prof Shaukat Abdulrazak, the council’s secretary and chief executive officer, who also was at Ruiru Dam on Wednesday.

Preliminary reviews shows that up to 15 projects have the potential of being scaled up. But Mr Muchuma and the 92 other innovators projects are the first in a series the council is funding.

In what’s likely to attract public interest, the council has also set up a fund targeting young innovators without degrees or diplomas.

“These are not inventions, which is something that no one has ever discovered or done. They are innovations,” says Prof Abdulrazak.

They are currently reviewing 90 innovations among them a bicycle-mounted battery charger and a fish-baiting contraption.

“We are open, to crazy ideas such as the guy claiming to be able to make rain,” he says, “Who knows, after reviewing them they could turn out to be great innovations.”

NCST’s aim is to find a way of commercialising innovations and creating wealth for the innovator and the economy. The successful projects will not only receive a Sh1 million grant, but also stand a great chance of being linked with venture capitalists.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we should look at what has been invented and improve it to suit our local needs,” said Prof Abdulrazak.

It is a move that Mr Muchuma feels could spur innovators to not only improve, but also mass produce.

“If I can get equipment, I can produce 50 boats a week with each going for Sh900,000,” said the younger brother of late sports administrator Jonathan Niva, who has been working on the boat from the National Cereals and Produce Board facilities in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.

The council, which sponsors the annual national science congress, plans to start funding winning innovations and researches.

“We want to identify innovators at school level,” he said, adding that good innovations like a cooler made from charcoal and a chaff-cutter that also grinds maize have been exhibited.

Alongside the innovations, the council, which was allocated Sh260 million in the 2008/09 Budget and Sh320 million in 2010/11, is funding research and innovation in universities.

Here it is targeting Master’s and PhD researchers pursuing careers in science and technology, including information and communication, agriculture and environment.

“We fund the research projects and not paying fees,” he said. So far they have financed 47 MSc and 62 PhD researches. Among researches is a women-only fund, which seeks has benefited 30 researches.

To scale up university researches, the council has set up a separate fund for researchers on food security and climate change where successful applicants will get up to Sh15 million.

“This are multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional projects, which will have the greatest impact on society,” he said. The project is three years old and dreams of having items lie razor blades and needles being made locally.

To boost its capacity, the country has entered into partnerships with other countries, such as South Africa, UK and Japan on science, technology and information. But from the projects NCST is funding it has identified a number of challenges.

Apart from duplication of work since most are working individually, Prof Abdulrazak says some researchers and innovators are not following up developments in their fields and are often overtaken by technology.

This is because the country has not set out clear priorities on its objectives in research and development. “If everything is a priority,” he says, “then nothing is a priority.”

To stimulate research, he adds, the government needs to increase its funding from the current 0.3 per cent of GDP to at least 1 per cent.

He also proposes a regional approach-based research. Lack of a monitoring and evaluation means the expected output is unclear, a deficiency that can be addressed support in proposal preparation and mentorship.

Yet, the intellectual property issue remains a major challenge. The council has been advising local innovators and researchers to patent their ideas with the Kenya Industrial Property Institute, a government parastatal that administers intellectual property rights.

“We can ring-fence our brilliant ideas for posterity if we cannot exploit them now,” said Prof Abdulrazak. These are steps that Mr Muchuma has passed through.

Not only has he patented his boat idea locally, he says, but also with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

“It is true that there have been boats since Jesus’ time but what we are talking about here is the new ideas I have added to my project,” he said.

Prof Abdulrazak says he expects the council to be allocated Sh500 million in the next budget. “Don’t hide your ideas,” he says. “If they are good I will fund them.”