Posts Tagged ‘kenya’

Modified bicycles in Kenya – 100% Afrigadget!

My good friend Jagi Gakunju who runs the Kenyan environmental cyclists club Uvumbuzi club told me about this project which immediately caught my attention. It’s a collaboration with Africans and a Dutch organization.

You can read all about Cycling Blue in Kisumu on their Cycling Blue blog

modified bicycles Kenya Kisumu

The Cycling Blue Kenya workshop is providing courses, micro credit for (modified) bicycles and creating of employment, it is aimed to reduce poverty. In the workshop bicycles will be modified to create bicycle carts (for instance bicycle ambulances) for sale. Who buys them?  Garbage collectors, local entrepreneurs who want a (modified) bicycle to generate income such as the Cool coolbox, bicycles with extended carriers for transport of cabbages.

The idea that bicycles in Africa get modified and adapted for local uses is definitely 100% afrigadget.

Check out the brilliant Cycling out of poverty  website here for more photos and videos.  For more information Luuk Eickmans

Cycling out of poverty
info@cyclingoutofpoverty.com
http://www.cyclingoutofpoverty.com
0031-(0)615895529
SNS-bank 90.61.46.356

If you and your family want a great weekend out on bikes, join the Uvumbuzi cycling club here

Recycling – tyres, motorbike wheels and water pumps

What do you get if you cross tractor tyres, motorbike wheels and a water pump? Well, in Africa you could get anything! Here’s an odd combination of things related to water – recycled tractor tyres cut to make water troughs

This contribution is thanks to Bankelele (the very cool Kenyan blogger) who responded to a recent post on tractor tyres with the comment “I found a similar one last week and e-mailed it to hash, but perhaps the pics should be added to this post as its the same use of tractor tyre for livestock water”. He spotted it in Feb 2010 during funeral at a homestead in kapsowar, Kenya (note to Banks – Thanks for this, and next time send me low res pics dude!)

water pump engine used for a grinder

well it works doesn't it?

Here’s another water related gadget – a water pump turned into a grinder – and why not? This was spotted and photographed in Gikomba in Nairobi Kenya by Dominic Wanjihia.

wheel barrow

A modified wheel barrow that makes so much more sense – motorbike tyres and check out the puncture proofing on the wheel below

wheelbarrow

Puncture proof!

This was spotted on the Limuru  road works near Nairobi Kenya. Have you seen anything interesting that you’d like to contribute to Afrigadget? Don’t be shy! Send it to us – we’d love to get contributions from across the continent.

Drogba in Nairobi at juakali leather works

Deep in Kariokor, a slum and a hub of Nairobi’s juakali leather industry, you can’t miss spotting Drogba hard at work at his home made leather press.

Drogba at work

Drogba at work

Drogba’s leather press is an assembly of diverse components.

The fly wheels are made up of two used conveyor pulleys full of concrete. These are joined together by two used second hand vehicle half shafts.

The half shafts are connected to an old bench vice screw (hope you are singing along here)

The screw is connected to a press foot

(all together now) “Oh hear the world of the lord” (tune of the kids song Dry Bones)

The print plates are placed on the base of the press frame.

God is able - so is Drogba!

God is able - so is Drogba!

When Drogba spins the fly wheels, he sandwiches the leather between the press plate and press foot producing perfect permanent imprints in the leather

leather goods small

This method is used for most of Kenya’s printed leather products, a huge industry that includes Maasai beaded belts, menu covers, wallets, passport holders, belts, key holders, coasters, handbags, purses, and many fashion accessories and leather souvenir products.

Drogba is 18 years old and works a good 12 hours per day on a casual wage. He has just completed high school and is looking for a college placement.  As you can imagine, he’s a huge fan of his soccer celebrity lookalike and namesake.

(special thanks to Dominic Wanjihia for this contribution)

Tractor tyres and bush buckets in Masailand

I have just spent a week in the field studying Masailand ecology and community conservation with Princeton University students. The location is not that remote (Kitengela and Olerai within 40 km of Nairobi) and the community are wonderfully resourceful when it comes to day to day tools for pastoralism.

Masai salt lick made from tyres in Kenya

Tractor tyre trough for water for goats and sheep

This old tractor or truck tyre was somehow cut, opened up and sealed at either end to make a perfectly good livestock watering trough. Even Joy Adamson noted that the Masai question using modern appliances if home made ones do the job anyway.

salt lick2small

Tractor tyre cattle salt lick

Another way to make  a salt lick, Evelyn just cut a truck tyre in half and placed it  on the ground supported by stumps.

traditional bucket small

home made bucket works perfectly

Why buy a bucket when you can just make one with an old water container and a piece of metal?

manure spadesmall

Home made shovel

And if you don’t have a shovel for your manure, just straighten out some corrugated iron, cut it and nail to a stick  and Presto – probably more effective than anything you could  buy in Nairobi. Manure is one of the few products sold to passing trucks on these remote ranches.

beads small

Keeping land open for wildlife migrations in and out of Nairobi National Park can be costly to those living with wildlife. Those in The Wildilfe Foundations land lease scheme earn 4$ per  acre per year to keep the properties open (no fences)  and to supplement their income they make beautiful beaded artworks for sale on Olerai Conservancy.

Maasai ladies making beaded works of art Kenya

It might look like a tough life for some of us, but the Masai out here seem perfectly satisfied and at peace

Motorized Bicycles in Nairobi

Motorized bicycle in Nairobi

I was driving down a street in Nairobi today and did a double-take when I saw a man standing by a motorized bicycle. One u-turn (of questionable legality) later and I was chatting with Samuel Magethe, a local carpenter who does house calls. Apparently, he usually carries his toolbox and wood supplies on the back of the bicycle, though he didn’t have them with him today. He has used the bike for 2 years and says that it’s a great help to him as he gets older and has problems with the hills.

Motorized Bicycles in Kenya from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

I talked with Samuel for a while and found out that he had bought the engine and bicycle in downtown Nairobi. Since I had to go downtown anyway, I decide to hunt out the seller and see if I could get the background story on where the motors come from and the specs on them.

Julius - manager of the downtown branch for Adtec motorcycles

It turns out that the engines, and bicycles, are imported from the ADTEC Corporation in Japan. (As an aside, it appears that Adtec motorcycles are part of the big influx of Asian motorcycles being used as taxis in E. Africa.) It’s a 48cc 2-stroke engine that has a top speed of 40Kph (25mph). The tank can hold 2 litres of fuel and they claim that it gets 70 kilometres per litre.

You can buy the bicycle plus engine for 15,000 Ksh ($200) or just the motor for 10,000 Ksh ($135).

The company that sells them in Kenya, Adventure Technology Company Ltd, has their main office in downtown Nairobi, where they had their last two bikes that weren’t sold. In 2009 they imported 500 bicycles and sold them in their 13 branches across the country. The branch manager, Julius Lumumba, tells me it’s a good business, and they sell very quickly – especially up country in places like Kakamega, Bunguma and Kisumu.

Julius holding up an Adtec motorized bicycle in his shop in downtown Nairobi

Adtec Bicycle Engine

[Note: I forgot my cameras today, so I just had my iPhone to do the pictures/video with, thus the lower-res, sorry.]

Video of home made bicycle repair tools and gadgets in Nairobi

In Africa bicycle repair men can be found everywhere, from under a tree to in the local vegetable market, one of the best places to find African innovations.

At the Karen market I met the charismatic Mohammed Makokha who proudly showed me two of his home made gadgets that are critical for his business.

I’ve obviously been wasting my money in the bicycle stores.

Coconut + Zippers = Handbags

My daughter and I had a lot of fun on Lamu island, off the coast of Kenya, earlier this year. One of the items we came across was this coconut handbag. Some had designs, some were raw, all were incredibly cool.

Coconut + Zippers = Handbags

If I remember correctly, I bargained poorly and bought it for 150/= ($2). The problem was that the merchant new how badly my daughter wanted it so he knew I was stuck. :) This is the one we ended up buying:

Coconut + Zippers = Handbags

Yes, these are mainly for tourists. However, it’s a good showcase of local reuse of what would otherwise be garbage for microentrepreneurial gain.

RoboCon Kenya 2009 Nairobi Regional

First Peaks

The Ministry of Higher Education and Technology has organized a Robot Contest (RoboCon), between Kenyan Universities and middle level colleges. The regional competition is taking place today at the Kenya Polytechnic. Here are the first looks at the Robots from institutions taking part in the competition.

University of Nairobi Robot

University of Nairobi Robot

Nairobi Technical Training Institute Robot

Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology Robot

Nairobi Technical Training Institute Robot

Nairobi Technical Trainin Institute Robot

Kenya Technical Training Institute, The Winner

Kenya Technical Training Institute Robot, The Winner

Machakos Institute of Technology (MIT) Robot

Machakos Institute of Technology (MIT) Robot

Some video will come soon…

For more information on RoboCon click here.

Killer Snares turned into artful message

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time to recognize the amazing work being done by Dipesh Pabari at the Kenya Coast.

When he told me he was turning snares set to kill wildlife into art I didn’t imagine it would look quite like this.

Then he embarked on turning pollution in the ocean into another work of art. This whale shark is the outcome of his labor of love, it’s beautiful and meaningful. Hopefully we all get the message ‘stop killing wildlife and stop polluting the natural environment”. The project is getting a quite some attention.


Last summer as part of their Ocean Project, Camp International, a volunteering organisation running trips to Africa and Asia, coordinated 7 beach cleanups involving gap year students from the UK to cleanup the Kenyan coastline. Over 200 bags of litter were collected which included over 7000 flip-flops. The Camp Kenya School Team Expedition then worked with local artists to create a life size whale shark made out entirely of the recycled flip-flops picked up from the beach.

Cement-bag Bellows in Lamu

I was in Lamu in June and came upon a metal workshop tucked away behind the front row of buildings on the main path from Lamu Town to Shela. Inside were two blacksmiths, Adam Marabu and Abdul Ahmed, working diligently at creating a new anchor. What caught my eye though, was the bellows. They had taken old cement bags and hooked them up to metal pipes in the floor that fed air into the make-shift furnace.

Here’s a short video with some footage of them at work:


Lamu Cement-bag Bellows (AfriGadget) from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

One of my favorite stories on AfriGadget was the other unique bellows I found, this time in Nairobi, made out of an old bicycle. Both of these go examples go to show what can be done with very little. It’s about improvising what you have and overcoming a challenge.

Adam and Abdul make all types of items, but they told me that their main products are anchors, which range from small to large (2000-5000/= or $26-65) and, chisels and coconut shellers. They create a lot of the small metal pieces on the local dhows, and also make doors and window frames for the homes in the town. Really, they can make just about anything that you desire, like experienced metal workers anywhere in the world. What’s amazing is what they do it with.

Cement bag bellows and blacksmiths in Lamu Kenya

Cement bag bellows and blacksmiths in Lamu Kenya