Time we found a way to refine raw talent in villages

Onesmus Mwangi, 20, has built a helicopter worth Sh57, 000 over the last seven months in Githunguri. Even the Kiambu Governor Willaim Kabogo yesterday went to see the helicopter, which is kept at the DO's office for security purposes. PHOTO/ANNE MACHARIA  NATION

By KAHENYA KAMUNYU Kahenya@virn.net
Posted  Friday, April 26   2013 

IN SUMMARY

• It actually does not matter whether the thing flies or not. What matters is that Mwangi is still the guy left with the short end of the stick for building a vehicle out of nothing and the very first thing he is told is that he cannot fly it.

We talk about how the maker community needs to restore our industrialisation ability as a state, but strangely, we fail to learn from events that give us some positive signals.

There are very few things in this world we can openly admire as sheer genius. Putting a motorcycle engine onto bits of plastic and metal and expecting it to fly is one of them.

Onesmus Mwangi, 20, of Githunguri, Kiambu County, has built a ‘helicopter’. He has taken the time to weld and screw things together to make a contraption of what was invented many years ago. It’s not a new idea, but the effort is significant.

It actually does not matter whether the thing flies or not. What matters is that Mwangi is still the guy left with the short end of the stick for building a vehicle out of nothing and the very first thing he is told is that he cannot fly it.

Of course there is the issue of safety, but let’s discuss that down the road.

The first concern is that despite our plan to become an industrialising state by 2030, the government has not publicly encouraged Mwangi for his determination, and neither has the private sector openly expressed support to the young man as a potentially superb engineer who would think outside the box.

Instead, Mwangi has been made to feel like if he continues, he would be prosecuted for flying his budget ‘helicopter’ in Kenyan airspace.

Yet while many are still reeling in self-doubt over what the could do, this young man has done his, and right now, someone somewhere should be guiding him on how he could use his skills better.

The government should be his best friend, not his enemy.

Within the realm of reality, if Mwangi’s contraption flies and crashes and he loses his life, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Such was the attitude adopted by the founding fathers of space travel and aircraft. The Wright Brothers and Howard Hughes were ready to die changing the world.

Mwangi’s effort is an additional proof that this market has the smarts to produce but lacks the ability to support. Let me explain.

He has built a helicopter. A while back, someone built a plane and before that all manner of contraptions came and fell by the wayside even when we knew some of them could make viable businesses. Why?

We have this insatiable need to import technology and sell, but not to create and export. We now import machetes, hoes and other simple farming implements, things that barely two decades ago were made locally and lasted a lifetime.

We have traded that ability with importation of cheap knockoffs that mean we have to keep buying similar items every other year, with the value of that expenditure going out instead of being useful locally for development.

Do you see the problem?

Mwangi has followed through on his dream and the government should have taken a better position in this story instead of erecting hurdles to discourage him.

Past governments have stopped independent power distributors, yet we accept to live through frequent blackouts.

Instead of discouraging Mwangi, someone needs to help him figure out his effort and other ideas he may have.

There is a young man called Jack Andraka, who is only 16 and has invented a simpler, cheaper and yet more effective way of diagnosing pancreatic cancer in its early stages. Previously, this type of cancer was not detectable until it was too late.

If you read Andraka’s story and you compare it with the many we’ve had, you start to see what supportive attitude and mind-set can result in. Andraka is American
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