African Church Information Service (Nairobi) / October 23, 2000 / Eric Ombok, Nairobi
Gichinga Ndirangu of Action AID Kenya AAK says that 97 percent of the patents granted in Kenya by the Kenya Industrial Property Office KIPO are held by the Developed World.
He adds that the patent system in the Third World is favours the Developed World. The situation is worsened by the fact that during the last World Trade Organisation WTO meeting focussed on intellectual property rights and required world states to put in place modern legislation towards this end.
So far, 43 countries are yet to do so, Kenya included. On May 4 this year, however, Kenya's Attorney General, Amos Wako, published the Parliament before the end of October.
Ndirangu says that a similar Bill had been published by the government in 1999. The Bill had reached the committee stage of Parliament when the August house went on recess. The Bill therefore lapsed and according to the standing orders of the Kenyan parliament, it had to be introduced afresh.
Of particular concern to the civil society, says Ndirangu, is the protection of agricultural and pharmaceutical products and their manufacturing processes. Equally crucial is indigenous knowledge which he says "should be protected as a sub set within the intellectual property rights".
A law lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Dr Otieno Odek, refers to indigenous knowledge as information that is communally possessed by a people. He adds that usually it has been passed on from one generation to another.
The Bill seeks to extend the protection period to 20 years with no provision for renewal... Indeed the Third World has borne the brunt of intellectual property rights exploitation.
Odek defines intellectual property as "creations of the human intellect. Results of human creativity". He adds that some are industrial - have industrial application - while others fall under the copyright law. It is only the former which can be patented.
A patent grants the inventor of a product protection from exploitation by the product's users. Much like the copyright law which is inherent in the arts and compels users to seek permission and acknowledge the inventor-authors and musicians for instance.
Kenya has a Copyright Act, Trademarks Act (1957) which was adopted from British jurisprudence and the Industrial Property Act 1989).
The latter which is due to be amended by the Industrial Property Bill (2000) grants inventors a patent for seven years from the date of filing the application. It further has a 10-year renewal period.
The Bill seeks to extend the protection period to 20 years with no provision for renewal. Indeed the Third World has borne the brunt of intellectual property rights exploitation.
In spite of having such a law in Kenya, the situation on the ground contradicts the theoretical ideals. Odek says that in spite of having over 50 years of a patenting system in Kenya (since 1957) innovation and transfer of technology has not improved while FDI has declined sharply over the years as inventors are exploited.
"Protection by itself does not spur creativity," he says. He adds that the national budget of Kenya allocates a mere 0.1 percent to research and development.
KIPO which came into being in February 1990 through an Act of Parliament is due to be strengthened by the new Bill.
Stella Munyi of KIPO says the Act was hastily drafted after the Kenya Medical Research Institute KEMRI discovered, KEMRON, a drug said to have curative value in managing AIDS.
The new Bill further intends to change KIPO's name to Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) and give it more mandate.
Dr James Karuga, Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs IEA has challenged the Bill. He maintains that it shall reinforce Multi National Corporations MNCs stranglehold on the patent system.
Dr John Mugabe, the Director of African Centre of Technology Studies ACTS in Nairobi wonders whether the Bill seeks to protect innovation or monopoly held by MNCs over products, some of which they are not original inventors.
Similarly the new Bill fails to consolidate and harmonise various Acts on intellectual Property into one law.
