Invention and innovation during pandemic times

The Covid-19 pandemic has no doubt upended our lives in many different ways. But beneath the surface, something good is happening. Young people are coming up with innovative ideas or enriching the existing ones to combat the virus.

While pandemics always impact our lives negatively, history shows that such crises often act as inspiration for innovation.

For instance, the economic depression of the 1930s saw the invention of instant coffee and television, and the creation of nylon which revolutionised clothing.

The great recession of 2008 gave rise to companies such as Airbnb and Uber who offered cheaper accommodation options and cheaper rides.

Now, four months since the first case of Covid-19 was announced in Kenya, we have witnessed a wave of inventions across the country.

Hear from these four youth who have come up with new, effective, award winning projects inspired by the pandemic.

Elizabeth Achieng, 28, Innovation: Vertical Gardens

Thousands of households in Kenya cannot afford nutritious and healthy meals every day. Often, especially in urban areas, the quality of food is poor, which exposes consumers to harmful contaminants.

This is why I decided to explore this idea. Vertical gardens come in different designs that can be installed in different places such as balconies, backyards and roof tops of urban households.

More and more people are turning to homegrown, indigenous food, and my team has so far helped and guided more than 500 people to transform their open spaces into gardens. Crops from our vertical garden are grown organically and are rich in nutrients.

Also, we have established large-scale vertical gardens across the city where we grow organic green groceries and distribute them to consumers within two hours of harvesting.

Vertical gardening is my first innovation and I am so happy to see it come to life. I’m also earning from it, which is fascinating because I studied something completely different in college – project management.

The biggest challenge we have encountered so far is keeping up with the demands of the market. The more we excel, the more competitors we have to deal with. However, we have recorded many wins, such as the Green Innovation Award which we recently received from Netfund for our contribution in creating innovative solutions for the prevailing environmental challenges.

Jackline Muthuri, 30, Innovation: Handwashing Bay

When the first case of Covid-19 was detected and measures to control the spread of the virus announced, I knew that my salon business would take a mighty blow.

I am a hairdresser with a hair dressing and beauty diploma certificate to show for it. As the number of new positive cases increased, the number of clients visiting the salon decreased significantly. I had to evolve or find another source of income. I chose the latter.

I closed the salon and started selling second hand clothes. While at the market, I saw how the public was struggling to fight the virus by regularly washing their hands. But what struck me more was a clip I came across that showed a woman opening the lid of a bucket full of water, washing her hands, closing it and leaving the remaining water for others to use. She thought she was practicing proper hygiene.

I thought to myself, what if I came up with an effective hand washing bay?

But I wasn’t good at DIY (do it yourself) projects. I tried converting a water storage tank into a hand washing station but failed. I decided to try again, this time with the help of a plumber.

My hand washing bay has an inlet, an outlet and a sink. The water flows in from the source and out to the septic tank. It can be used in open markets, hospitals, schools, churches, hotels and even homes. With this device, users don’t need to keep pouring out the dirty water since the outlet is connected to a septic tank.

This has become my new source of income and I’m doing it on full-time basis. I have also learnt to make puff seats. The journey has not been smooth especially because this was my first time getting involved in such a project. My biggest challenge so far is the scarcity of materials, and inadequate capital to scale up my project. However, I’m getting more inquiries and referrals, so things are looking up.

Brian Nyagol, 29, Innovation: Startup Suite

I have a full time job but I spend every evening and early morning running Brainverse Technologies. This is an IT firm made up of 16 young individuals that aims to help businesses grow their digital footprint and build internal operational strength. The team has been working remotely for the last four years.

I am passionate about technology and its ability to solve problems, and I have an electrical and electronics engineering degree from Moi University.

Since all our staff are working from home, coordination and project management is crucial. At Brainverse, we tried a couple of solutions to manage our employees and projects, but we realised that we needed to get premium subscriptions for online apps and services such as Zoom. This bloated our expenditure and slowed us down because we kept jumping from one solution to another.

Early this year, with just a handful of staff, we started Startup Suite. The programme has three integral modules that offer all-round, digitised operational mechanisms for the businesses that use it. It is built to emulate people, processes and systems, which are the three critical components of any great company.

When the coronavirus hit Kenya, we realised that almost every small and medium company would need Startup Suite. Normal office operations had been disrupted and employees had to work from home.

This was the turning point for the system. To effectively manage their businesses, companies needed to manage their staff, customers and documents virtually. Without the requisite infrastructure and knowledge, it can be quite difficult to run a business remotely, and this is exactly what Startup Suite is built to do. To help workers in any field transition from the traditional office to remote working. We recently launched a special package for freelancers too.

We started in the Nyanza Region and we aim to impact 500 businesses in Homabay, Siaya, Kisumu, Migori and Kisii counties in the next three months by conducting trainings on creating and managing work-from-home teams, and using digital technologies to market and brand their businesses.

To reach our goals, we need financial support, technical infrastructure and human capital. Startup Suite recently received an award from Konza Technopolies for best innovation in a nationwide innovation challenge dubbed “The Great Covid-19 Innovation Challenge.”

Peter Mbiria Maina, 29, Project: Automatic Resuscitator

When I tell my childhood stories, the toys I made for myself take centre stage. This just shows how much I enjoyed creating and improvising things even as a child.

While in Form Four in 2009, I joined the Science Congress and competed all the way to the national level with my invention of a self-defense taser that used a modified camera flashing unit.

When the first case of Covid-19 was announced, many were scared, but I kept thinking of what I could do to make things better. As I was doing my research, I found out that ventilators were critical in handling emergency cases related to Covid-19. My friends shared links to articles containing useful information and Anthony Muthungu, the founder of TotoSci, called asking if we could work together to create a ventilator.

I was so zealous and committed to the idea that I took only 16 days to come up with the final product. The ventilator, which is actually an automatic resuscitator, is compact, and can either use electricity or a 12V battery.

The goal was to create an automatic resuscitator that could be used in ambulances when transferring patients who can’t breathe on their own, at homes for those who need breathing support and in intensive care units of hospitals in the event that all the available ventilators are occupied.

The automatic resuscitator has a display and two knobs that allow doctors to set the number of breaths per minute as well as the amount of air that is to be availed to the patient.

So far, we have filed a patent for the ventilator, and are collecting feedback as we continue to fine tune it.

We have not started earning from this innovation because it yet to be approved by the Kenya Bureau of Standards, but I earn a living from my previous inventions. I was once invited to attend an engineering symposium at Oxford University, and was invited to the UK for two weeks to learn about innovation and business and to make a presentation to the Duke of York, Prince Andrew and other guests at the Buckingham palace in 2017.