WIPO Director General concludes successful visit to Kenya

Photo: Daren Tang (Left), WIPO Director General, with KIPI's Allan Kosgey (Centre), Board Chairman, and John Onyango, Managing Director, during the World Anti-Counterfeit Day 2025 Celebration held in Nairobi.
 

Daren Tang, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), concluded a successful maiden visit to Kenya since he was elected to the position. Tang, who was elected the WIPO DG on October 1, 2020, engaged innovators and creatives, whereby he challenged them to leverage intellectual property (IP) to commercialise their innovations and creations during his visit that ran from 4th to 6th June 2025.

He pledged WIPO’s support for inventive and innovative activities in the country right from the grassroots level. “We are going to carry out a lot of training programmes in Kenya. We have mentoring programmes where we mentor Kenyan entrepreneurs for six to twelve months. We have done it with the youth and we are going to do it for the Agritech industry,” the DG said during the engagement at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI), Nairobi. He said WIPO has programmes aimed at facilitating the country’s universities to commercialise their research and innovation.  “We are going to help create the right IP policies in seven Kenyan universities so that laboratory ideas can make it to the market,” he said.

During the meeting at KIRDI, the DG was accompanied by, among others, KIPI Board Member Richard Muteti and Managing Director John Onyango, KIRDI Chairman Eng. Peter Mositet and Director General Dr.-Ing. Calvin Onyango.

“IP is an important tool if businesses embrace it, we are going to change lives,” KIPI MD said. KIRDI DG said they have been mentoring and training entrepreneurs. “They go out and create jobs for themselves and therefore grow our economy,” he said.

Besides the innovators and creatives, the WIPO DG also met H.E. President William Ruto, Lee Kinyanjui, Cabinet Secretary, Investments Trade and Industry, his Gender, Culture, The Arts and Heritage counterpart, Hanna Wendot Cheptumo and Dr. Juma Mukhwana, Principal Secretary for the State Department of Industry. He said the specialised United Nations agency is working with the country at the policy level.
“We are going to help Kenya to implement a soon-to-be-released IP Strategy,” said Tang in reference to the National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy, which have already undergone multi-stakeholders’ validation sponsored by WIPO.

Speaking later during the celebration of this year’s World Anti-counterfeit Day, Tang said WIPO intends to engage member countries with a view of introducing IP in the school curriculum whose goal will be to have it taught in primary and secondary schools. On counterfeits, he said some people take shortcuts by counterfeiting and pirating products, services and creations of innovators and creatives. Mary Mutoro a Board Member, attended the celebration.

“Fake goods and piracy undermine innovation and creativity and counterfeiting, which globally is valued at over $500 billion (over Kshs.64 trillion), is a risk to the economy, national security and public health,” said the WIPO DG. Noting that 30 per cent of counterfeits are sold online, the DG called on Kenyans to be vigilant to the new and emerging forms of this illicit trade. The DG praised Kenya for facilitating the protection and enforcement of IP rights by enacting relevant laws backed by the country's Constitution.

During the celebration, Allan Kosgey, the KIPI Board Chairman, stated that counterfeits pose a threat to the country’s innovation efforts, consumer trust, public health, and the economy. He said KIPI has been partnering with ACA and other agencies in outreach activities to increase their visibility and IP awareness among the public, focusing on the processes of safeguarding their IPRs by registering them, as well as the negative effects of counterfeiting. "We have equally worked closely in enforcement whereby we provide expert witness evidence in form of copies of certificates of trade marks, patents, industrial designs, and utility models in our database whenever an IPR infringer is taken to court," said Kosgey.

Speaking during a public lecture at the University of Nairobi, DG Tang said Kenya has got entrepreneurial energy, a very vibrant young population and the foundations to be a leader in innovation in Africa and the global South.  “Kenya is one of the few countries in the world to have IP protection in its Constitution, that is Article 40. Not many countries have this and even Singapore does not have it,” he said.

The DG said, by making IP a constitutional matter, it shows that Kenyans take it seriously. “But the challenge is how to give you all the tools and the support, programmes and policies for you to make use of this (constitutional recognition of IP) so that it is not just a nice clause in your constitution but it comes to life,” he said.  He added that this why WIPO is working with Kenya to come up with the IP Policy and Strategy.  

Article 40 of the Constitution requires the State to support, promote and protect the IP of the people of Kenya. Equally, in Article 11, it requires the State to promote the IP of the people of Kenya and ensure that communities receive compensation or royalties for the use of their cultures and cultural heritage.   Besides those two articles, in Article 69, the Constitution requires the State to protect and enhance the IP in indigenous knowledge and genetic resources of the communities of Kenya.

Two Board Members, Prof Elijah Omwenga and Evelyne Mbaabu, attended the DG’s public lecture at UoN.