Meru innovators narrate how state robbed them NEMIS copyrights

A Meru-based innovator, claiming ownership of the National Education Management and Information System (NEMIS), has, for the first time, revealed how the state allegedly robbed him of the system.

In an interview, Murithi Kimencu said the digital and manual platforms, as well as the teachers’ guide of NEMIS, which the Auditor General told parliament was unable to audit, belong to him.

He provided documents between his company and state officers to prove ownership of the NEMIS copyright and details on how much the state had promised to pay him for the system.

In the past, the Auditor General, Nancy Gathungu, has said that the Ministry of Education had failed to avail NEMIS ownership, copyright registration, and reservation documents for audit.

Ms Gathungu, during the review of the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 financial years, said the ministry had not made available signed handover documents, including an instruction booklet explaining each functionality to the users of NEMIS.

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The audit query stemmed from the expenditure of Sh239.78 million in 2022, which was allocated for the reengineering of the NEMIS.

Yesterday, Mr Kimencu, 36, claimed he owned NEMIS' digital and manual platforms as well as teachers’ guides. He said a 2018 probe into the system revealed that he was the owner.

“The Ombudsman and the DCI investigations concluded that we are the copyright owners of the NEMIS system. The Ministry of Education inquiry concluded that we could not prove ownership over some technicalities,” Kimencu said.

Years after the unveiling of the NEMIS by former Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i, which was heralded as the 'single source of truth’ for all learners, Kimencu alleges that there has been a theft of intellectual property.

Dr Matiang’i, while addressing a World Bank meeting on education reforms in Washington, DC in 2017, stated that NEMIS was a collaborative project involving both Kenyans and officials from the ministry.

Yesterday, Kimencu said that his three years' work with the Education Ministry's technical experts got an Sh8.9 billion boost from the World Bank.

“Once the ministry embraced the idea, we were assigned an office at Jogoo House, where we collaborated for three years. During this time, we refined the concept that ultimately evolved into NEMIS,” he stated.

Kimencu showed us the documents, including minutes and other correspondences between his Bay Concepts Consultancy Ltd and a ministry officer, to prove his ownership of the system.

He maintained that more than 95 per cent of the NEMIS portal is a copy of his original idea, which was dubbed ‘Achievers Year Book’.

Achievers Year Book is a hybrid evaluation and recording tool for learners that comprises assessment books for primary and secondary school, a teacher's guide, and a digital application.

“We introduced the concept of a unique identifier for learners, which was the first to be rolled out by the ministry. Our idea was to capture each learner’s biodata, academic performance, performance in co-curricular activities, soft skills, and talents in one platform," he said.

He added, "With the unique identifier, a learner was to be given the national ID automatically when they clock 18 years of age.” He regretted the state of the current portal.

In 2014, Kimencu said he and his colleague, Timothy Mwenda, shared their idea with Dr Kilemi Mwiria, who was then serving as presidential advisor on education.

Pleased by the innovation, Dr Mwiria had referred the duo to the Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) for the publication of the manuscripts.

“Dr Mwiria lauded the concept as timely for the African education sector. He challenged us to develop an evaluation parameter tool for grading skills and talents. He also advised us to create a system that would solve the problem of teachers’ absenteeism,” Kimencu reminisced.

After he had improved his concept, Kimencu said he secured a copyright certificate in September 2014 and embarked on his engagements with KLB.

He said that in April 2016, PS Belio Kipsang, who has since been redeployed, welcomed the concept as revolutionary and tasked the ministry’s director general to work with the Kimencu team.

“Ms Leah Rotich, the then Director General at the Ministry of Education, convened the first meeting on April 14, 2016. It was agreed that a technical team from the Ministry of Education would be formed to help in fine-tuning the product to suit the standards of the ministry,” he recounted.

After seven months of working alongside the ministry's technical team, he said they presented the Achievers Year Book product package to the ministry.

“The package included Achievers yearbook hard copies published by KLB, digital platforms, a teacher training manual, a learners’ evaluation parameters tool, and a geographical information system location application for mapping schools,” he said.

He revealed that it was during a meeting in September 2016 that it was agreed that the ministry would formalise the acquisition of copyrights to pave the way for a pilot programme.

However, Bay Concepts was later referred to the ministry’s procurement department, which advised on the valuation of the system by KLB.

“It was agreed that the government would pay Sh100 per learner per evaluation tool and Sh100 per learner for the digital platform," he revealed.

"The ministry was also to pay Sh100 per learner every year in royalties. The government was to pay us Sh2.6 billion upfront and about Sh13 million annually for our innovation,” he added.

"We were given 12 years' consultancy to oversee the rollout of the program from Class One to Form 4. Royalties were to be Sh1 per learner, which was totalling to approximately 14m per year. According to KNBS, there were around 14 million learners in the country."

Kimencu was basking that his team had made a great contribution towards solving the country's education challenges and expected the reward, but they got a rude shock.

He said that in August 2017, he started having doubts after he found a NEMIS manual accrediting a government official as the copyright holder.

“I wrote a complaint citing copyright infringement, but the ministry responded feigning ignorance. They asked me to resubmit the Achievers Year Book product again for perusal."

And afterwards, a mutilated version of the system his team had envisioned was launched by the Education Cabinet Secretary, Dr Fred Matiang’i, he said.

The DCI, in a letter dated March 24, 2022, informed the CEO of Bay Concepts Consultancy Limited (Kimencu) that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had recommended filing a civil suit against the Ministry of Education.

But the previous day, George Kamau, through Netresource Limited, had also filed a notice of motion at the Milimani Commercial Court, citing the Ministry of Education for infringing on its copyright by implementing NEMIS, but it was dismissed in March 2023.

Kimencu’s co-directors at Bay Concepts Consultancy included Timothy Mwenda and George Mathenge.

He now mulls suing the ministry for compensation, but also added that the most urgent matter is for the government to upgrade NEMIS to what his team had envisioned.

“NEMIS was launched haphazardly and does not address the critical aspect of learner assessment. I still have the teacher's training manual, which I did not hand over after I was duped. The ministry officials can come in to address the confusion,” said the businessman who had handed over the management of his business to concentrate on developing the system.

Antony Mwiti, Kimencu's other partner, said that despite trying to get their rights through the Ombudsman, in court through the DPP, who recommended an investigation from the DCI, it has been futile.

Kimencu now focuses on establishing a financial enterprise he initiated to solve the high cases of school dropouts in the miraa zones in Igembe.