Outstanding Youth Innovations Spotlighted as SugarTrace Takes Top Honours
The Kenya Sugar Board proudly announced the winners of the Sugar Industry Innovation Symposium & Expo 2025, an event dedicated to celebrating transformative ideas that will shape the future of Kenya’s sugar industry. The competition brought forward exceptional young innovators whose solutions address traceability, sustainability, value addition, and commercialization gaps within the sector.
WINNER: Hudson Olelo Odhiambo
Innovation: SugarTrace – IoT Blockchain Supply Chain
Hudson Olelo Odhiambo emerged as the overall winner with SugarTrace, a groundbreaking IoT and blockchain-based supply chain system designed to enhance traceability, transparency, and accountability across the entire sugar value chain.
SugarTrace captures real-time data from cane farms to factories, significantly reducing fraud, improving monitoring efficiency, and strengthening the integrity of sugar production processes.
This innovation is poised to become a critical digital tool for the modernization of Kenya’s sugar industry.
Award: KSh 350,000
FIRST RUNNERS-UP : Martin Kiyeng & Maria Oloo
Innovation: Biodegradable & Soluble Sanitation Innovations
The team of Martin Kiyeng and Maria Oloo was awarded the first runners-up position for their eco-friendly biodegradable and water-soluble sanitation products. The innovation responds to the need for sustainable waste management solutions within sugar-growing communities while supporting green manufacturing and environmental conservation.
Award: KSh 200,000
SECOND RUNNERS-UP: Lennox Ochieng Onyuro
Innovation: CacaoCane Reserve – Organic Jaggery Chocolates
Lennox Ochieng Onyuro earned the Second Runners-Up position for his unique value-addition innovation, CacaoCane Reserve – Organic Jaggery Chocolates. The concept blends organic jaggery, a natural cane-derived sweetener, with high-quality cacao to create a premium artisanal chocolate range.
Award : KSh 100,000
KSB Chairman’s Closing Remarks : A Call to Courage and Innovation
The Chairman of the Kenya Sugar Board closed the symposium by thanking all participants and partners for their strong engagement throughout the event. He praised the high-quality innovations presented and encouraged both winners and non-winners to continue refining their ideas.
Highlighting examples of resilience and courage among the youth, he urged young innovators to pursue their dreams boldly, embrace failure as part of growth, and avoid being held back by fear or self-doubt.
He reaffirmed the Board’s commitment to supporting innovation in the sugar sector and announced plans to deliver an even bigger and better symposium in 2026.
