Board’s Technical Committee reviews the Institute’s outreach programme to improve stakeholder engagement

Photo: Victoria Kaigai (Right), Chairperson, and Members, Richard Muteti (Left) and Prof. Elijah Omwenga (Right), of the Technical Committee of the Institute’s Board, during the Retreat in Naivasha. 

The Technical Committee of the Institute’s Board has challenged the management to adopt a targeted sector specific stakeholder engagement in order to increase industrial property (IP) awareness in the country.

The Committee Chairperson, Victoria Kaigai, said the Institute plays a critical role in the country and stakeholder engagement will enable it to implement its mandate as provided for under the Industrial Property Act and the Trade Marks Act.

That is to promote inventive and innovative activities and facilitate the acquisition of technology through registration and regulation of patents, utility models, technovations, industrial designs and trade marks.

“We must actively work on strengthening our external partnerships with line ministries, county governments, development partners, and sister state agencies to maximize the Institute’s footprint,” she said during a retreat held in Naivasha and attended by the Committee Members, Richard Muteti and Prof. Elijah Omwenga.

Kaigai said a sector-specific approach to stakeholder engagement would enable the Institute to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time, particularly in emerging and evolving sectors such as cottage industries, horticulture, beauty, artificial intelligence and sports.

This way, the Committee said, more Kenyans will appreciate the role of IP and get empowered to protect their IP assets, which will spur inventive and innovative activities across all sectors of the economy for national development.

Kaigai described the Board Technical Committee as the heartbeat of the Institute, noting that the retreat provided members with an opportunity to undertake an in-depth review of the Institute’s work, interrogate existing processes and formulate concrete plans for strengthening its operations and impact.

“That work must link directly to government and to the Institute’s mandate, because safeguarding intellectual property is central to Kenya's development, to protecting innovation, and to building the knowledge economy we want for this country,” she said.

The Committee reviewed the Institute’s Outreach Strategy with a special emphasis on its implementation, the Industrial Property (IP) Awareness Survey, which was conducted in the 2024/2025 Performance Contract Period, largely focusing on its findings and recommendations and the IP Training materials.

The Committee will present the report of the retreat, which was also attended by heads of the Institute’s Technical functional areas led by Stephen Ngeno, Deputy Managing Director, Technical Services, before the full Board in its next meeting.