Eleven innovations have been awarded by the Kenya National Innovation Agency
(KeNIA) during the 2021 National Innovation Awards ceremony held at the National
Council for Science Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) building on Monday,
June 20, 2022.
The eleven are among 89 innovations which applied for the Big4 Agenda category of
the annual award that aims at recognizing and awarding outstanding innovations in
the priority areas.
The winners were selected after a rigorous evaluation process which involved
pitching the innovations to an external jury, and verification of the innovations by the
agency’s secretariat.
NIA 2021 comprised of the Assistive technology, the Government agencies – which
were recognized during the inaugural Kenya Innovation Week (KIW) held at the
Kenya School of Government in December 2021, and the Big4 Agenda category.

The Big4 Agenda winners

The Affordable Housing category was won by Wilson Omondi, an innovator of Low-
cost building blocks in Kwale County. MjengoApp, a one stop digital shop for building
materials came in second. MjengoApp is the innovation of Njuguna Kaggiah of
Kiambu County.
In the Affordable Healthcare category, Drop access’ solar-powered vaccine fridge
dubbed VacciBox came first, while Medical Oxygen Production equipment by a team
of researchers at the Meru University of Science and Technology came second, as
Medsource group came third.
The Food Security and Agriculture category was won by Mucho Mangoes, a social
enterprise located in the coastal county of Taita Taveta, while the first and second
runners-up positions went to AfyaBoost Nutritional Healthcare and Yalof
respectively. Yalof are the innovators of recirculating aquaculture system based in
the lakeside city of Kisumu.
The Manufacturing category was won by the Uhuru K1 Satellite, a
telecommunication satellite innovation by the Coast Team Innovators located in the
coastal County of Kilifi. The first runners-up and second runners-up positions went to
Worldgates Ecofuel, and Briquettes from Prosopis Tree respectively. Briquetts from
Proposis tree is an innovation of Brian Onyango and is addressing environmental
issues in Kakuma Town of Turkana County.

Support programs for innovators

The Kenya National Innovation Agency with a mission to develop and manage a
dynamic national innovation system that facilitates taking ideas to the market is
constantly striving to strengthen support programs for Kenyan innovators.
“Our measure of success is how many viable innovations get into the market,” says
KeNIA CEO Dr. Tonny Omwansa.
The agency has therefore come up with initiatives like a digital marketplace for
innovators called Kenya Innovation Bridge, the National Innovation Award, and an
annual innovation forum known as the Kenya Innovation Week to help spur
innovation in the country.