I sniffed good money in snuff

The diesel milling machine roars into life as soon as Alfred Kenduiwa presses a button on its side.

The roar intensifies as the revs increase, turning a pulley on the side much faster.

“This machine is no different from the one that grinds maize. I have only modified some parts because it grinds leaves, not grains,” says the trader, who lives in Nyagichiwa, Bomet County. Kenduiwa grinds the tobacco leaves to make snuff, which is consumed by being drawn into the nostrils and inhaled.

It all starts with buying tobacco leaves from farmers. Kenduiwa, 40, buys a kilo of dried tobacco leaves at Sh100.

Once a farmer harvests the tobacco leaves, he cuts them into small pieces and dries them for two days.

But he should ensure the leaves do not lose all the moisture. Thereafter, the leaves are put in gunny bags, which are closed tightly in a process called fermentation.

Kenduiwa buys as much as 1,000 kilos of tobacco leaves in a week after fermentation.

“I also dry them for two or three days,” explains Kenduiwa, who adds that fermentation helps the leaves acquire taste.

After grinding, the trader adds cooking fat to the powder to make it flavoured and refined.

“I also add soda ash to increase potency. This completes the whole process. The snuff is now ready to be inhaled.”

BEGAN HAWKING

He packs the powder in half-a-kilo, a kilo and two-kilo measures. Learning the trade was not hard task for Kenduiwa since he grew up seeing his parents and villagers doing it.

Those days the leaves were pounded using mortar and pestle.

However, when he started in 2004, the trader did not go straight into processing tobacco. He began by hawking snuff in Bomet and Narok. His main market is in Nakuru and Eldoret. His clients are middlemen who transport it to various parts of the country.

Snuff is used by both young and old men.

“Nakuru offers the best price. A kilo of snuff at the town goes for Sh250, and Sh100, in Bomet” says the trader, who formerly was a tea picker.

What makes prices lower in Bomet is oversupply.

“His ‘factory’ employs several tobacco farmers who plant the crop every year.

From an acre, a farmer can get as much as 1,000kg of tobacco leaves in one harvest, which translates to a good income for rural farmers.

The proceeds from the sale of snuff have enabled Alfred to build a permanent house on a three-acre farm that he also bought using money earned from snuff.