I watched a story on television the other day about a young Kenyan ICT student who has been dreaming of being a pilot ever since the age of 5 years old. The long and the short of his ambition is that he has finally come up with a prototype aircraft that was scheduled to commence its trial flight somewhere in Naivasha recently.
It was obvious that his parents are extremely proud of their son who rode to the venue in a convoy of boda boda motorcycles while the aircraft was majestically perched atop a lorry as a frenzied and exited crowd of onlookers followed his every move with a keen eye for surely history was in the making. Not a single policeman or any other person representative of officialdom such as those from the Department of Civil Aviation or the Aerodromes Department (if it still exists) appeared to be on site to ensure proper crowd control and that safety measures were in place.
The kinetic energy for the aircraft was to be provided by a Toyota salon vehicle to which the craft was attached with a tow rope and then dragged behind it presumably until it attained take off speed when the tow rope would be uncoupled ready for flight. For some unknown but seemingly technical reasons that us mechanically challenged individuals will never fathom, the aircraft with its inventor firmly perched on his pilot seat, motor cycle safety helmet providing the required safety to his cranium was unable to take off notwithstanding the impassioned prayers by the father prior to the pre-flight event for journey mercies and such like issues usually reserved for those about to embark on a safari as well as the concerted efforts of helpers to push the craft towards attaining take-off speed since it appeared that the Toyota was unable to accomplish this!
Much as I am a confessed ignoramus in matters mechanical, my own assessment of the situation is that the aircraft was probably aerodynamically challenged and was not streamlined enough and probably did not adhere to the general principles of aero dynamic flight which was surely a monumental disaster in the making had it miraculously attained lift off not only to the pilot but also to the excited bystanders and helpers in dangerous and close proximity to spinning rotors and hot engine parts. The attempt to attain some semblance of flight capability was probably more of a public relations exercise designed more to to get recognition and probably attract some funding from a donor or donors so as to see the project through to its logical conclusion rather than achieve actual flight time.
The inventors' mother who was interviewed on TV had mentioned that she had parted with a princely sum of money (close to 40K shillings) to make this dream a reality but you can bet that the project probably requires millions of shillings before the rudimentary aircraft powered by an underpowered Chinese motor cycle engine could ever take to the skies!!
Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit exhibited by a lot of young Kenyans today who embark on their projects with gusto and enthusiasm sometimes making it big but more often than not burning their fingers and meager savings badly.
What concerns me more is if there is any official body within the Kenyan system that provides guidance and an enabling environment for our young inventors to successfully achieve their dreams given that many often come from relatively poor backgrounds and are technically gifted but lack the resources to even acquire the necessary tools, jigs and molds or suitable workshop premises to manage the whole process of inventing and pioneering a Kenyan made prototype of anything? Do we have technical people who can provide advice and mentor these young inventors & innovators so that their dreams become a reality or even people who can assist them get sponsors to fund their dreams to fruition?
I recall a series that aired on Discovery Channel sometime back where inventors in the US are given the opportunity to showcase their prototype inventions to a panel of potential seed investors who look at the practicality of the prototypes on display and then after a rigorous round of elimination challenges, they pick on one prototype which in their own assessment has a possible future practical use and therefore qualifies for seed funding to enable additional research and development of that prototype to full production including pre and post-production marketing and advertisement.
Why not for example set aside part of our very own Youth Enterprise Fund for such a purpose so that with close supervision and management and administrative structures to ensure that the funds are not diverted to other uses by the beneficiaries we could have our own pool of avid inventors in the not too distant future. The fund could hire advisors and mentors would also be responsible to ensure that all the issues regarding design options, safety considerations, patent applications, copyright violations, statutory approvals and all other related issues are taken care of so that we do not have situations as I observed in Naivasha where the runway somewhere in Naivasha was awash with human beings eager to assist and with no regards to their own safety and where no one in authority was there to police and provide guidance for the whole exercise! It is actually a miracle that no one was injured or killed.
I came to learn at a recent seminar that some of the most innovative companies in the world today devote millions of dollars of their annual profits towards encouraging their employees to be inventors and innovators and even pay substantial amounts of money towards these efforts by providing grants to individual staff members to develop their ideas with no strings attached.
Somehow this earth shattering event is nowhere on the internet though other earlier attempts to build an aircraft by a Kenyan innovator are well documented online. Perhaps in time the heroics of this young man shall appear online but in the meanwhile the young inventor is gearing up for another attempt at attaining take of speed but this time within the confines of a prison (I didn’t know that prisons have runways) perhaps in view of the safety issues that I have already mentioned.
I wish him all the best and journey mercies because surely the sky is the limit for this chap!!
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