INVESTIGATION ON ENTREPRENEURIAL VIABILITY OF INDIGENOUS INNOVATIONS IN KENYA. A SURVEY OF BARINGO AND NAKURU COUNTIES ON MURSIK MILK.

Abstract

Indigenous  innovations  can  aid  developing  nations  embark  on  a  cumulative  path  of  positive growth by providing great opportunities to stimulate economic growth leveraged on indigenous  knowledge, cultural practices and resources residing within native communities. Mursik is milk preservation traditional technology among Kalenjin community in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. The community is renown worldwide for producing dominant athletes in the world, especially in long distances races such as marathons. The trademark heroic welcome of these athletes is a sip of this prized Mursik. Over the years scanty businesses have attempted to market this milk in food outlets with a few also attempting to process and pack it. However, the success and commercial performance or future potential has remained unknown. This study therefore aimed at investigating on entrepreneurial viability Mursik so as to propose a framework model for its commercialization that can be generalized to other related indigenous innovations that abound in diverse communities in Kenya. Specifically, the study determined supply side characteristics, demand side characteristics, innovation€™s characteristics, and moderating effect of innovation promoters. Data was obtained using semi-structured questionnaires administered on a snow-balled sample of size of 59 accessed enterprises. However, only 35 of those enterprises completed the data collection adequately for analysis. The selected enterprises comprised caterers, hotels, foods outlets and processors where Mursik. Each provided one respondent who was the senior manager or entrepreneur of the enterprise. The findings obtained indicated that whereas there was huge supply of milk in the proximal catchment area the supply was not consistent and suppliers preferred delivering it to large milk processors who had not yet adopted Mursik as part of their line of products. Further, the consumption demand for Mursik was dominated by members of the indigenous Kalenjin community and who also preferred home brewed Murisk for better quality and its cultural associations. The innovation itself strongly possessed necessary characteristics for potential for massive adoption. It was also found to elicit a lot of interest with new users who were willing to try it. However, the knowledge and technology transfer capacity was very constraining. The traditional production process was also inevitably slow and would not be consistent with rapid production process associated with most milk products in fast moving consumer goods. The researcher therefore recommends an experimental study on technology improvement to enable rapid production and yet maintain quality and value attributed to the original Mursik product, and also determination of means of value packaging, promotion and distribution beyond the traditional users of the product.