How expo gave jua kali artisan a lifeline

For Ephraim Kinyua, 37, dropping out of school after Form Four has not haunted him.

While growing up in Karatina, Nyeri County, he aspired to become an accountant, a dream which he never realised due to poor performance, especially in mathematics. He blames this on the many trips he made home to get school fees.

On completing secondary school in 1997, he joined his uncle, who was a mechanic in Kitengela, hoping to learn his trade.

It is here that he met his first boss, who ran a jua kali shop. And through apprenticeship, he learned to make chairs, tables, jiko shells, water cans, pangas (machetes), and meat roasters. He earned his bread and butter from the shop until 2005.

Armed with Sh50,000 savings and Sh30,000 from his farm’s proceeds, he set out to be independent. As fate would have it, during an exhibition organised by the Ministry of Labour in 2005 in Tanzania, Mr Kinyua was invited to participate.

It is at the expo that he learnt how to make a charcoal oven. On his return to Kenya, he acquired space in Kitengela and started making charcoal ovens.

“The first days were not very pleasing as many orders were returned. I learnt from my mistakes and the complaints of my customers,” he told Money in Kisumu during the annual jua kali expo organised by the Micro and Small Enterprises Authority in partnership with the Kisumu County government.

Mr Kinyua’s idea has grown into an investment that employs six other people. He plans to save electricity and help conserve forests through the energy-saving oven.

“It takes two days to make an oven with three of us working together, so in total we manage three to four sets a week,” he said.
Different sizes

He sells six to eight ovens of various sizes every month.

“In my yard, a customer can get five different sizes of ovens any time: The smallest for 20 cakes per baking goes for Sh15,000. The largest can bake 100 cakes at a ago and attracts Sh40,000,” Mr Kinyua notes, adding that the price is negotiable.

He takes home about Sh60,000 on average every month after paying his staff and other expenses. The proceeds have seen him pay fees for his children and siblings.

“We encourage most of the youth who are not lucky to get white-collar jobs to join jua kali,” he says.

He plans to expand his business to start making sophisticated energy-saving ovens besides growing his market reach through social media to attract buyers from countries beyond East Africa.

EFFICIENT MARKETING

“There have been concerns that charcoal burners destroy the environment. We are crafting a new design that uses minimal energy or simply sawdust to power it,” he said.

Poverty is a disease that continues to ravage the youth, yet they have bright ideas that can be turned into money, he said.

Micro and Small Enterprises Authority chief executive Patrick Mwangi said jua kali artisans only require an efficient marketing outlet to thrive. The lessons learnt from jua kali businesses have been tapped by big companies to make money, he added when he spoke at the expo.

“We should not stop that little idea from becoming a reality; there is a lot of money in jua kali,” Mr Mwangi said.