The winners of the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) logo design competition have recently been announced by The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
The Kenya Space Agency is housed within KDF under the Ministry of Defence as confirmed by Kenyans.co.ke.
James Mungai emerged the winner while Adams Kuja and Jansen Jonathan Omoro came in as first runners up and second runners up respectively.
James will receive Ksh 200,000, Adams will be awarded Ksh 100,000 while Jonathan will walk away with Ksh 50,000.
“The winners will be contacted soon for the official award ceremony,” read a KDF statement.
Although Kenya has not been at the forefront of the race to space, it has increasingly shown interest in recent years towards joining the scientific discovery journey.
Space activities in Kenya began in the 1960s with the establishment of a Satellite Launching and Tracking Base at Malindi, a collaboration between Kenya and Italy. Over 20 sounding rockets and 9 satellites have been launched from the facility.
The board is headed by Major General (Rtd) James Aruasa, who was appointed as the Chairperson of the board by President Uhuru Kenyatta on 20 July 2018.
The composition of the Space Agency Board includes Principal Secretaries for Defence, National Treasury, University Education and Research, Environment and Forestry, Information, Communications and Technology ministries.
On May 11, 2018, the first-ever satellite developed by engineers from the University of Nairobi in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) was launched into space from the International Space Station.
Although the nanosatellite in the shape of a cube measures 10 by 10 centimetre, the miniaturised satellite is capable of performing commercial missions that previously required larger satellites.