President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the Young Scientists Kenya (YSK) National Science and Technology Exhibition to be made a national event from 2019.
Addressing participants at the inaugural event held at the KICC on Thursday, Uhuru heaped praise on YSK for providing students drawn from various secondary schools with a unique opportunity to showcase their scientific projects and gain support to advance their ideas.
"YSK is a platform that I personally would like to see grow to become a truly national event involving more of our youth from across the country...
"I think that would be a wonderful thing if we could all work together and see that we make this a national event over the next year," he stated.
Acknowledging that YSK was backed by the Embassy of Ireland, the Ministry of Education and Safaricom's BLAZE among other partners, the President guaranteed that his administration would work closely with the YSK board to make the vision a reality.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta is taken through a project at YSK on 05/07/2018"]
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He gave examples in health, agriculture and education as areas in which unique technology could be deployed to boost the country's fortunes.
If made a national event, students from all 47 counties would have an opportunity to take part in the competition that seeks to identify unique innovations that offer workable solutions to the country's most pressing challenges.
Over 160 students from 80 secondary schools spread across 10 counties participated in the inaugural edition.
Ireland Ambassador to Kenya Vincent O'neill asserted that they were committed to making YSK the most impactful young scientists' movement not just in Kenya, but in Africa as well.
He noted that many of the 92 projects that were presented either had great commercial potential or social impact potential.
[caption caption="Dr Vincent O'neill speaking at YSK at KICC on 05/072018"]
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