• Covid-19 pandemic has compelled us to re-purpose our scientific research and use it to create solutions to the problems facing us.
• Science and technology holds the key to the progress and development of any nation.
Image: OZONE
During a recent Covid-19 media briefing, journalists prodded Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe to share a roadmap detailing when Kenyans will start receiving the much sought-after coronavirus jabs.
The anxiety was, and still is, understandable given the damaging health and socio-economic effects that the pandemic has visited on our lives for nearly a year.
As Kenyans await the vaccines from other countries, I think time has come for us — as a country — to direct more resources to scientific research.
Covid-19 pandemic has compelled us to re-purpose our scientific research and use it to create solutions to the problems facing us. Recent media reports indicated that Kenyan scientists from the Kenya Medical Research Institute in conjunction with Wellcome Trust are hard at work on the country’s first Covid-19 vaccine trials.
This phase one trial of the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine is welcome news because our local scientists are part and parcel of a global initiative to offer solutions to one of humanity’s greatest public health threats. Citing interim trials done in several other countries such as the UK, South Africa and Brazil, the University of Oxford said the vaccine’s efficacy is 90 per cent.
As Kemri — a national agency responsible for carrying out health research in Kenya —strives to place Kenya at the front and centre of the global march for a Covid-19 vaccine, our policy makers should move to underline the pivotal role played by science and technology in improving the quality of our lives.
In fact, science and technology holds the key to the progress and development of any nation. With proper strategic orientation of our national science policy environment, it is possible for science and technology to play a more fundamental role in wealth creation, improvement of the quality of life and usher in real economic growth and transformation in our country.
With our national focus now shifting to the Building Bridges Initiative and the 2022 General Election, we need to start amplifying the role of scientific research in our nation’s prosperity as provided in Vision 2030, among other policy documents.
How do we boost our national research endowment fund to support advancement of scientific research, inventions and innovations? How do we build capacity in science, technology and innovations sector to broaden its contribution to the nation’s shared prosperity, one of BBI’s key focus areas? The answers to these questions will only be in the affirmative when our policies state clearly how much money we will be required to set aside annually for scientific research.
Once we do this, Kenya wouldn’t struggle to wait for a vaccine from the West or other established economies to counter Covid-19. But the good news is that we have already engaged the right gears.
The National Research Fund, a state agency established under the Science, Technology and Innovation Act of 2013, became operational on November 9, 2015. NRF’s objective is to facilitate research for the advancement of science, technology and innovation.
In fact, the Act that established this state agency stipulates that the fund will constitute a sum of money amounting to two per cent of the country’s GDP every year and such other monies designated for the Fund by Parliament, donations, endowments or grants or gifts designated for the fund.
Therefore, organisations such as Kemri, NRF, ILRI, KFRI and other research firms need strong support through innovative policy options that will enable us reap multiple benefits from science and technology such as a home-grown Covid-19 vaccine. It is attainable.
Let us utilise all platforms in emphasising science at all levels of society with a view to re-orienting Kenyans towards scientific thinking in order to develop new technologies and adapt existing ones to improve our wellbeing.
A good place to start is to push political parties to entrench the critical role played by scientific research in national development as we approach next year’s electioneering period.
This will assure the country of responsive science, technology and innovations policies that will strengthen Kenya’s potential in the realm of science and technology.
The writer is a strategic communications specialist. He can be reached on [email protected]