A building expert has accused the Ministry of Housing of releasing his invention to engineers without his consent.
Architect John Gachara wants the Nakuru High Court to order the government to pay his construction company, New Building Engineering Construction, royalties amounting to Sh3 billion over alleged misuse of the patented building technology.
Gachara told high court judge Hellen Omondi that the Ministry of Housing failed to honour a process of acquisition of a patented building technology he invented after researching for 20 years.
The World Habitat Day Award Winner for best practices of 2010 is accusing the State of going against the international intellectual property rights.
In a witness statement filed in court, Gachara said he registered his invention in 2002 at an 11-country member organisation – African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation –which has its headquarters at the Zimbabwean capital of Harare.
The court further heard that the complainant trained over 20 ministry engineers during the demonstration of the highly hyped technology.