Students from Ronald Ngala Memorial Secondary school in Malindi Sub County, Kilifi County have come up with innovation projects to aid safe marine environmental activities.
The innovations are also aimed to promote digital literacy in the country.
In the first project innovation, two form four students, Liz Maua and Mariam Sidi constructed a pedal-pushed boat that will only be peddled which they say if adopted, will reduce environmental degradation in water bodies.
The project dubbed ‘Hydro rider’ is made up of a bicycle frame and pedals erected on floaters made from jerricans.
“This is basically a road bicycle that has been modified and improvised in such a way that it can float on water.
The frame has been extracted from a bicycle and metals have been wielded together to come up with the propeller and the blades,” said Mariam.
She dedicated the project to the ministries of Mining and Blue Economy and the Transport ministry since it will help improve the cleanliness of the marine ecosystem and also encourage travel across the creeks.
The innovation, however, cannot be used during high tides or in the open sea due to its vulnerability.
Her partner, Liz Maua said that they tested the project at Mida creek and it was very efficient adding that it can carry 199.8 kilogrammes.
“It can accommodate more than two passengers at one time. The buoyancy of the jerricans enables it to float easily and it can be peddled forward and backwards,” she said.
The project took four months to develop with assistance from the school management.
In the other innovation, Zaina Abei and Jedida Mwende have come up with a computer that can be controlled via a mobile phone.
This they said can be adopted by the ministry of education to promote digital literacy in schools.
Jedida said that the operator can activate and deactivate the computer or laptop from wherever they are and nobody can gain access until it is activated on the phone.
It entails a normal computer fitted with a sim card chip where the operator will make a call and receive a response from the computer with options for opening and closing.
“We would love to dedicate the project to the ministry of education because our main aim is to make education in our schools better and this can be achieved by easy access to computers.
The initial government digital programmes are veiled because of the cost implication but with this program, it will be relatively cheap,” she said.
She urged the ministry of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to help develop the project more and enable Kenya to manufacture its own computers.
She added that the project took nine months to develop with the assistance of the school management.
The four students now want the government to tap the minds in schools to improve the lives of Kenyans through innovations.
The teachers, who helped the students in their activities led by Mr Rogers Wesonga and Nzwili Daniel, challenged the government to tap into talents in schools for a prosperous and industrious nation.
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