Meet Lawrence Kamoni, A Young Man Who Earns A 7-Digit Figure Through Making Jikos.
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| Lawrence Kamoni demonstrating how his 'Kuni Moja' jikos work. |
Things changed in the year 2008 when he bumped into a German
N.G.O. called G.T.Z. that was training some youth on how to make energy saving
jikos. He got interested in the project as everybody around him had challenges
in the kitchen due to the scarcity of firewood and the high cost of fuel.
After some few months of training, Kamoni decided to venture
into the business of making the “kuni mbili” jikos. His jiko is basically a
stove made from clay bricks and permanently installed in the kitchen. It is designed
to use both firewood and charcoal depending on the user’s preference.
Influenced by the challenges his community had to undergo
while cooking, he used his newly acquired skills to create solutions to these
problems by coming up with jikos that suited the needs of each one of them.
They say that charity begins at home. In order for him to
get noticed by his potential clients, Kamoni first made two jikos for his
mother who lives in Uthiru, Kabete Constituency.
The absence of the traditional tree-stone jiko at his
mother’s kitchen without smoke or soot, as commonly witnessed in traditional
kitchens was quite peculiar and created a lot of interest with the neighbours. Gone
were the days when Kamoni’s mother was forced to cook in a smoke-filled kitchen
as well as making daily afternoon trips to the nearby bushes in search of
firewood.
“The traditional three-stone jiko would consume one load of
firewood in a day since it requires a lot of wood. Nowadays it lasts for more
than a month when I use the ‘kuni
mbili’ jiko. Two dry pieces of firewood can cook a day’s meal,” notes Kamoni.
His customers, majority of whom came from his immediate
neighbourhood, fell in love with the kuni mbili” jikos from the word go and within
a short while, word spread like bush fire about this great innovation that as
they said, gave them a break from the headaches or itchy eyes that they
suffered before. One of the biggest changes reported by Kamoni’s customers
however was the massive reduction in the money spent in fuel.
Today, Kamoni has become the local solution to the problem
in poor communities with his cleaner brick cook stove, known as the ‘Kuni
Mbili’, literally meaning ‘two cook sticks’. The stoves use both firewood and charcoal
to cook and is much more efficient than traditional three-stone or the common
charcoal jikos.
To date, Kamoni has already installed and sold over 800
jikos to domestic homesteads and commercial jikos to both hotels and
institutions across the country. It takes him about four hours to make one
jiko.
The smallest jiko that is meant for domestic use sells at sh.
12,000, institutional jikos range from sh. 40,000 and sh. 60,000 depending on
size. The biggest jiko can be used for a 100 litre capacity sufuria. He reckons
that the prices of the jikos should never put off any potential client as the
end results are massive.
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| Another of Kamoni's jikos installed in a client's kitchen. |
“This prices should not scare anyone as in the long run,
what one saves in fuel consumption and costs is so great compared to the normal
jiko. For instance, the firewood that I buy for sh. 5,000 here last me for more
than a year when using this jiko. For the three-stone jiko, the same load will
not even last three months. If you do your math properly, the jiko will be saving
you more than sh. 20,000 annually on fuel, not forgetting the fact that it
cooks faster, it is more efficient, healthy to use and more environmentally
friendly,” says Kamoni.
Testimonials.
60 year old Mary Wanjiru is one of the beneficiaries of this
new innovation. She says that since she started using this jiko, her life has
never been the same again.
“I am allergic to smoke and cannot work in a smoky room. This
jiko emits very little smoke and I can comfortably cook in my kitchen without
worrying about my health. It also cooks very fast and saves me so much money in
terms of fuel,” says Wanjiru.
Challenges.
Initially Kamoni was faced with the great task of having his
invention accepted by the community since it was something new and unknown. After
installing for some few people, this challenge eased and more and more people
started asking for them.
His major challenge include the high cost of doing business
as he has to procure some of the raw materials from as far as Nyeri County. He is
also financially handicapped as he is not able to grow as fast as he would like
to. This has limited him to work with a very small manpower who he contracts on
a casual basis whenever need arises.
Creating awareness of his products has been also hindered by
the high advertisement costs that has limited him to result to the word of
mouth and using social media platforms to reach his potential clients.
Achievements and
Future Plans.
Kamoni prides in his venture as according to him, he has no
regrets ever venturing into the kuni mbili business. His family and elderly mom
depend on the proceeds he earns from selling these jikos. He has managed to put
up two self-contained houses for his family and his mother on a 50 X 100ft plot
of land in an area whose current market price is about sh. 2.5 million.
Currently, he has been able to contract four young men who solely
depend on him for employment.
Kamoni’s vision for the next few years is expand his
business and be able to guarantee more employment to the youth. He is also
willing to disseminate the knowledge and skills he has acquire to as many people
as possible so as to enable more people to benefit from a safe and affordable
means of cooking especially in the rural setup.
He advises the young people to be more innovative and stop whining
about the lack of job opportunities as there are many opportunities as we have
in the number of people around us. All they need to do is to open their eyes
and see the gaps in their areas to take advantage of the same.
You can reach Kamoni via Facebook account Lawrence Kamoni or
call him via 0714116308.
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