Philanthropist Bill Gates has hailed Kenyan innovators and researchers as he tours the country to study progress and challenges in public health, farming and climate change.
Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who is landing in Kenya today will tour Kenya Medical research Institute (Kemri), the University of Nairobi (UoN), and meet with smallholder farmers outside the capital.
One of the richest people in the world, he told Daily Nation he will be touring Kemri “to learn about some of the cutting-edge research taking place in Kenya” whose impact change the world.
He will be visiting the UoN on Thursday to listen to students and dons from across Africa through live and virtual audiences, saying its young population has placed the continent on a firm pedestal through innovations in health, climate and technology.
Gates will engage Africa in a town hall meeting from the University of Nairobi on the theme, “Innovating for Food Security and Climate Change in Africa”. The meeting comes only a week after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to invest $1.4 billion (Sh169 billion) to support smallholder farmers in addressing the impacts of climate change.
In a statement the Foundation said more than two billion people depend on smallholder farms for food and income. “Food and economic crises will last longer and become more severe as climate threats escalate and further threaten food security by limiting smallholder farmers’ yields and resilience,” it said.
The 60-minute “town hall format will focus on the challenges and opportunities in food security and climate adaptation in Africa,” says the UoN . “It will also aim to highlight examples of African innovations needed to help accelerate progress,” say organisers about the discussion to be moderated by pan-African journalist Uduak Amimo and Teresa Clarke, Chair of ‘Africa.com’.
Kenya has been producing techpreneurs recognised in the region and around the globe with funding and training, attracting investors who have pumped billions of shillings into their creations. Unfortunately, the last two years have been stormy for the tech entrepreneurs whose products have faced headwinds.
Some of the start-ups that have either folded operations or scaled down in about one year are WeFarm, Notify Logistics, Sendy, and Kune Foods, their positions made more complex partly by Covid-19 that hit the world from late 2019.
Gates is visiting Kenya when Africa is producing millions of fresh graduates annually whose immediate challenge is employment and access to capital to launch their own businesses.
