Role of Latent Local Technologies and Innovations to Catapult Development in Kenya

Abstract

The domination of “colonization shadow” may have reduced the manifestation of young indigenous technologies and innovations that with minimal value addition could help local communities overcome many challenges. Rediscovery of these technologies can bring about wealth and well-being to the local people who are also the inventors. Some of these technologies have either been suppressed or picked up by colonizers to the disadvantage of local inventors. This chapter discusses the useful, locally found technological resources that have not helped local communities but sometimes fetch millions of dollars elsewhere. This knowledge is expected to bring about rediscovery and decolonization so as to use the technologies to improve local lives. In this aspect decolonization is necessary in many sectors of the economy such as medicine which failed to take off from herbal- to industrial-based pharmaceutics. For instance, Kenya is the home of over 1100 species, many have medicinal value. While such herds are condemned at “home” as illegal herbal concoctions, they are glorified in other countries as medicine and food supplements. Today, many Kenyans import such medicine and food supplements at unaffordable prices as disease continues to bite. The conclusion is that there are a number of unexploited indigenous technologies and wealth that have remained dormant due to colonized minds and with little decolonization they can earn wealth that can increase wellness and improve livelihoods for the growing population in Kenya.