[kictanet] Dreams of a cosy career that turned into a nightmare

Tue Nov 20 14:25:40 EAT 2012

Grace

I guess that's the question the courts will answer as I believe this has
already been taken up by lawyers for Samson.

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/smartcompany/Dreams-of-a-cosy-career/-/1226/1623712/-/qdkj18z/-/index.html

I think though the bigger question is how are we preparing our young
brilliant minds for the rough and tumble of starting and building
sustainable businesses?

*Ali Hussein*

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  Ali
>
> Does the innovation belong to the employer considering it may have been
> developed to suit the needs of the employer? This might be open to various
> interpretations by different lawyers.
>
>
> This caught my attention:
>
> "According to the letter, KRA has used the technovation and communicated
> it to a third party, although the law states that this entitles the
> technovator to “a remuneration which shall be fixed by mutual agreement
> between the technovator and the enterprise.
>
> This is because KRA went ahead to submit the system to an international
> innovation fair, where it won an award. It has since publicised the award,
> even on its website".
>
>
> http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/smartcompany/KRA-caught-up-in-Sh1-billion-tender-row/-/1226/1623708/-/item/2/-/rpgfcm/-/index.html
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: ali at hussein.me.ke
> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:58:01 +0300
> Subject: [kictanet] Dreams of a cosy career that turned into a nightmare
> CC: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> To: ggithaiga at hotmail.com
>
>
> Listers
>
> This is an interesting case study of the link between employer/employee
> relations on Intellectual Property. Who owns the IP when you
> invent/innovate while working at a company and the invention/innovation is
> directly linked to the work you have been hired to do?
>
> IN SUMMARY
>
>    - When Mr Samson Ngengi beat thousands of applicants to land the
>    coveted position at the tax agency in December 2009, the graduate of Jomo
>    Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) had one thing on his
>    mind; to ensure that he gets absorbed into the job
>    - Mr Ngengi came up with an innovation that links plot boundaries and
>    location, ownership, and building details as well as tax status of a
>    taxpayer as a single view in a computer application, in an effort to give
>    KRA an insight into how to get its pound of flesh from the lucrative real
>    estate sector
>    - His innovation was named the Geo-spatial Revenue Collection
>    Information System (GEOCRIS). But little did he know that he would, early
>    in his career, find himself fighting his employer
>
>
> Is there a strong case here to also focus our Techpreneurs on the 'softer'
> stuff of turning their ideas/products etc into viable businesses? You know
> the boring stuff...the nuts and bolts of building an enduring business?
> Protecting your business idea, building a business system to deliver on the
> values opposition, sales, legal standing (company registration) etc..
>
> What would have happened if Samson had decided to quite his job at KRA and
> develop his idea independently?
>
> There has been lots of news of late about the hype that has become known
> as 'Silicon Savannah'. It would be sad if the hype is not concurrently
> followed by serious efforts to build an ecosystem to support all these
> brilliant (and not so brilliant) ideas and turn them into strong enduring
> businesses.
>
> For every Cellulant there are maybe tens of others that will never see the
> light of day.
>
> There is a case here for a new type of Multi-stakeholder intervention -
> between government, private sector (VC, Companies etc) and Not For Profits.
> I suspect this is already happening in some form or other. More focus is
> required.
>
> Ali Hussein
> CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd
> Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd
>
> +254 773/713 601113
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
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