This archive report was first published on 15 July 2020.
On July 15, 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta's intervention gave a major boost to two youthful innovators behind locally manufactured hospital beds. The President instructed the government to immediately procure 500 beds from Mungai Gathogo, 26, and Joseph Muhinja, 35.
The beds are an innovation by the two young entrepreneurs, who rely on locally assembled materials to make hospital beds. The Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) Secretary Andrew Wakahiu and Kiambu County Commissioner Wilson Wanyanga were dispatched to Githunguri to assess the beds and convey the government's decision.
"I have been sent by His Excellency the President to congratulate the young innovators and to confirm the Government's commitment to supporting local innovations and products by providing a market for our own under the Buy-Kenya-Build-Kenya policy," Wakahiu said.
The beds will be a vital aid to public hospitals reeling under the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic. The innovation was caught the eye of the President after the beds started trending on social media.
The Government will also rope in the Numeric Machining Complex to help the budding entrepreneurs with equipment and to hasten the production. The beds will be subjected to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) protocols on their suitability for hospital use.
