TECHNOLOGY

President William Ruto has directed that the Kenya Innovation Agency be domiciled in the Office of the President to commercialise key innovation opportunities in the country. Speaking during the opening of the Kenya Innovation Week 2024 in Nairobi, the president announced that the decision stemmed from a need to commercialise innovation activities especially those from higher learning institutions. Ruto announced that the directive will also help the government track key innovation ideas and technologies advanced by Kenyans. ”It becomes necessary that this agency moves to a central place where we can harness all these opportunities and assist in creating the momentum for job creation, I, therefore, instruct that the Kenya Innovation Agency moves to the Office of the President.‘Because of the cross-cutting nature of innovation across different fields including agriculture, technology, and the necessity to harness university education, it is therefore important to move it to a central place,” he added. The head of state noted that the directive helps the government through the agency to create more jobs for the youth even as the country struggles with high unemployment rates. He also proposed an additional Ksh 500 million allocation to the agency to help it promote the intake of innovative ideas noting that he will write a formal proposal to Parliament. ”I am going to be proposing to Parliament Ksh 500 million for the innovation agency and a Ksh1 billion for the startup fund so that we can provide resources to derisk some of the venture capital that is coming to Kenya,” he added. KENIA is a state corporation established under the Ministry of Education with a core mandate of developing and managing the national innovation system.