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Kenya races to finalise IP policy amid pressure from US
Kenya is racing to develop its first-ever national intellectual property (IP) policy in a bid to protect innovators, curb counterfeit trade, and attract investors.
Kenya is racing to develop its first-ever national intellectual property (IP) policy in a bid to protect innovators, curb counterfeit trade, and attract investors into the country’s science and technology ecosystem.
The Kenya National Innovation Agency (Kenia) says the draft IP policy, currently at the stage of public participation, could be presented to Cabinet and Parliament for adoption before the end of the first quarter of 2026 amid pressure from the US.
This is the third time the country is looking at having a comprehensive IP framework after previous attempts in 2005 and 2012 stalled.
Kenia Chief Executive Officer Tonny Omwansa said the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), a United Nations agency, is helping to revive the stalled IP policy agenda following a meeting in Geneva last year.
“It is one of the areas we knew we had to fix in our strategic plan under our pillar on policy enhancement. You can’t succeed with your innovation at the national level if you don’t get it right with your policy landscape,” Dr Omwansa told the Business Daily. “I am not saying that the work of developing the policy in Kenya has not been ongoing. It's been there for many years, but it has faced certain obstacles along the way.”
Kenia is working alongside the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (Kipi), Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) and the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) to harmonise fragmented IP enforcement and protection systems.
An audit by Wipo in 2005 highlighted weaknesses in Kenya’s IP system and called for a national IP policy and strategy, but then President Mwai Kibaki’s regime did not effect this, instead establishing ACA.
A draft IP policy was finally developed in 2012 with support from KIPI, Kecobo, ACA, and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis). It was never formally adopted, but instead gave rise to the Science, Technology, and Innovation Act, which set up Kenia and the National Research Fund.
Kenia’s latest move is part of its 10-Year Innovation Masterplan in 2022, which again flagged the absence of a comprehensive national IP policy as a major gap in turning research into viable ventures and wealth, which ultimately generate jobs.
The development has come against mounting international pressure over Kenya’s weak IP enforcement systems. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, in April 2025, flagged Kenya as one of the markets with “ineffective or inadequate” IP systems, exposing consumers to unsafe counterfeit goods.
The USTR, in its 2025 Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement, linked Kenya to inflows of fake products from China, India, Türkiye and Vietnam, often trans-shipped through hubs like Dubai and Singapore.
Counterfeits range from medicines and automotive parts to electronics, personal care products, footwear, toys, and even aircraft components — posing safety risks while denying legitimate firms and governments billions of shillings in revenues.
“The problem of trademark counterfeiting continues on a global scale and involves the production, transshipment and sale of a vast array of fake goods,” Mr Greer’s office wrote in the report, listing Kenya with Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria and Russia as markets with weak IP protections.
For Kenia, the policy push is closely tied to its wider goal of commercialising ideas from universities, technical colleges, and research laboratories. The State agency is setting up a $100 million (Sh12.93 billion) innovation fund that will mobilise and channel private sector resources into startups and research ventures at the crucial early stages of development.
The absence of early-stage financing— technically called the “valley of death” in innovation circles—has left many inventions stuck at the prototype stage.
A well-structured innovation fund could unlock job creation and new industries through science-driven entrepreneurship by giving young entrepreneurs and researchers access to patient capital.
The fund is being designed to plug this gap by financing proof-of-concept, prototyping, market testing, and early scaling.
Dr Omwansa said operationalising such a fund takes between 12 and 24 months, but Kenia will not wait to hit the $100 million(Sh12.92billion) target. The plan is to raise at least $10 million (Sh1.29 billion) within six to eight months as proof of concept.
Talks are underway with both local and international partners.
“Even if a partner does not commit the entire amount, the important thing is to get them in the pipeline. With time, we can scale up,” he said.
“We have visualised as part of the design that some of the funding will go to support student innovations emerging from universities and technical institutions, research-based ventures driven by faculty and independent startups outside academia, and researchers.”
