Kenya: “Hustler Nation” and Startup State
Kenya: “Hustler Nation” and Startup State
Build back better from the bottom up.
Key Takeaways
A key to political stability under William Ruto’s new presidency is his ability to unleash Kenyans’ latent economic potential.
A key requirement for the success of “hustler nation” is the creation of innovation ecosystems – infrastructure which opens the door to more and more complex goods and services invented and produced domestically.
Tools available to the Ruto government and Kenyan innovators include Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA), Kenya National Research Fund (NRF), Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), and Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI).
Egerton University exemplifies the opportunity, where they recognize what needs to be done including higher rates of innovation via infrastructure like the Agro-Science Park innovation hub.
Will Kenya be able to successfully link its aspirational national vision to existing academic infrastructure?
An outside observer might be forgiven for thinking that this time Kenya has gotten it right, despite August’s general election taking a predictably concerning turn. Following the pattern of previous elections, a narrow margin of victory prompted the losing side – in this case outgoing President Uhuro Kenyatta and Azimio la Umoja party presidential candidate Raila Odinga – to allege “massive fraud” and petition the Supreme Court to overturn the result. But when the Court struck down their petitions, thus confirming William Ruto’s victory, subsequent events took an encouraging turn. Odinga and Kenyatta accepted the ruling, signalling their support for Kenya’s democratic institutions and preventing supporters’ grievances from spilling over into the street. The ruling and its widespread acceptance made clear the strength and independence of Kenya’s highest court and citizens’ desire for democracy and the rule of law.
Both Ruto and Odinga made campaign appeals to Kenya’s working class but Ruto’s plan to “build back better from the bottom up” sparked the electorate’s imagination. By bottom up, Ruto refers to Kenya’s “hustler nation,” young, ambitious people searching for more and greater opportunity.
Creative economic thinking, rule of law, and an engaged, supportive electorate are vital to a nation ranked, in 2022, as the world’s 33rd most fragile. And while the overall picture makes clear the full extent of Kenya’s challenges, the same picture reveals a nation making significant improvement across a wide array of key indicators. Measurable reduction in economic inequality, improvements in human rights and the decline of external interventions all contribute to the perception of a country regaining its footing and able to assert itself as an east African “anchor state” capable of playing an important regional political and economic role.
But truly tapping into Hustler Nation’s potential obviously means far more than wheelbarrows and handcarts. It means an innovation ecosystem providing access to the education and infrastructure young people need to become true innovators and drivers of transformative, long term economic development. Only then can the dream come true – Kenya as an inventive, digitally transformed, regional economic powerhouse, reliably and continuously generating intellectual property, products and services.
Attempts are being made to create a sustainable culture of innovation, linking government, funding sources, the private sector, external agencies, and universities to researchers, inventors, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) students and entrepreneurs. And there are a host of tools available to the Ruto government and Kenyan innovators. These include Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA), Kenya National Research Fund (NRF), Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), and Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI).
Technology and Innovation Support Centers are another example. TISCs are an implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization; 15 Kenyan branches are currently listed on WIPO’s site. TISCs are intended to “provide innovators in developing countries with access to locally based, high quality technology information and related services, helping them to exploit their innovative potential and to create, protect, and manage their intellectual property (IP) rights.” As of September 2021, research by Lugasi and Odhiambo shows that eleven of the centers had managed intellectual property, eight had generated IP-related revenue while “3 out of 14 TISCs were fully operational with an equipped office, trained personnel and offer services to innovators.”
Lugasi and Odhiambo note that while there is enthusiasm and talent at TISC offices, and a cordial, supportive environment for innovation, overall community awareness is low, resourcing could be better and the innovation ecosystem itself is weak. The latter bears further elaboration to address an apparent contradiction: Ruto proudly describes a hustler nation, Lugasi and Odhiambo refer to talented and enthusiastic personnel, and financial benefits accruing from at least three TISC offices. But a “weak entrepreneurial/ innovative culture” is structural. It means that absent places and processes where innovation is constantly practiced, the professionalization of innovation cannot occur as quickly or as robustly as required. This includes the objectives of (1) a research and innovation pipeline producing a steady stream of technologies and startups, and (2) developing, sharing and widely adopting innovation management best practices.
If innovation is where creative potential goes to be unlocked then “a world class university for the advancement of humanity” would seem an ideal place for a nascent innovation ecosystem to take root and thrive. Egerton University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Isaac Kibwage, says “institutions of higher learning carry a grave responsibility as a catalyst for socio-economic development through the creation of new knowledge, research and innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship, and the eventual commercialization of outputs emanating from these initiatives.”
Njoro, a three and a half hour drive from Nairobi, is home to Egerton’s main campus. (Egerton’s relative distance from major urban centres is worth mentioning because it reminds one about what developing nations must do to succeed. Their governments need to reach, serve and ensure citizens in every part of their territory have access to basic services -from education to health- and the opportunity to fully participate in the economy. When the venture of nation building becomes a shared goal, citizen satisfaction and stability result.)
It is from here that the University’s Directorate of Research and Extension plays a vital role linking the visions of the Kenyan government and university administration. The Directorate works with faculty building teams around research projects, providing support services, monitoring uses of funds and measuring project results. Director Prof. Nancy Mungai describes the quality of research conducted at Egerton as a key asset and is building the Directorate’s strategy around growth. She envisions greater levels of research and commercialization stemming from Egerton’s “vibrant research community” and a wide array of external partnerships designed to accelerate commercialization opportunities. The importance of this work cannot be overemphasized. Food security is a major concern in a nation enduring some of the worst drought conditions seen for decades; the Directorate wants to strengthen Egerton’s work delivering innovative technologies and methods to their local networks of farmers, with whom the university works directly.
Egerton is strategically well-positioned to tackle food security challenges. Roughly fifteen minutes drive northwest of the main campus, its Agro-Science Park is an innovation hub focused on the “promotion of innovations, products and services to be commercialized; linking university with industry for uptake of these products; bringing together academics, farmers, graduate students, business, agro-processors and manufacturers in one stop-shop to share information and innovative ideas, commercialization and wealth creation.” The Park is led by Founding Director Prof. Paul Kimurto.
The linkages between the university and the national government are clear; both understand and recognize the importance of innovation culture. What is needed? Considering an innovation ecosystem as a portfolio of research projects, from which some projects will yield socio-economic benefits (for example, food security solutions of use to farmers), then it follows that a well-resourced, strengthened ecosystem -following best practices- is capable of supporting more projects. These will yield more technologies, startups, and partnerships, at a higher rate of success. Under conditions of drought and food insecurity, such research and extension initiatives are a matter of strategic national interest.
William Ruto aims to “build back better from the bottom,” re-establish Kenya as a regional anchor state, raise its profile with partners, and amplify its partnerships with the rest of the world. In order to accomplish this Kenya needs a strong, modern, inventive economy. This leads directly to innovation ecosystem policy, enacted through a national innovation strategy in which investment, steadiness, transparency, and long term commitment are assiduously protected and promoted by successive elected governments. Done right, Kenya will not only become an anchor state, but a startup state, where the nation’s industriousness, determination and hustle launch the regional economic powerhouse its people want and deserve.