Class Six dropout turns inventor

By Bell Pere

Education is an essential roadmap to successes but if the indispensable is not available, skills may have to come in and try out the shoes.

Peter Ndung’u, a resident of Narok North Sub County leaves residents awed as he makes his own chicken egg incubator machine from the scratch and scrap, a skill that he learned on his own.

He came about his invention from his childhood love for rearing chickens that he would later sell for school fees and pocket money. Albeit, he would raise enough money for fee, his heart and mind was not much into education, and therefore paid little attention in class.

It was in class six that he was asked by his teacher to repeat due to poor performance but Ndung’u resorted to dropping out of school.

It was after shelving his school bag that he went back to his chicken and from parental advice to learn something that would later bring him income. He chose to learn electrical wiring in 2009 from a close friend who was a well-known electrician in the village.

After his apprenticeship, he got a house call by a friend to fix a broken incubator imported from China. It was his first, but after scrutinizing the machine closely and keenly, it did not appear complex as he thought it would be.

After successfully fixing it and learning how the incubator works, from scrap he decided to assemble the raw materials for making his own.

Peter first got a broken down refrigerator for the body, a fan and a heater from a salon blow dry machine to regulate temperature and humidity, a heater from an iron box to warm water and from there he built his first incubator machine.

He did his first egg trial for a number of days which failed to hatch. He didn’t give in. He researched in the internet to see what went wrong with his eggs. He realized that he had not installed a regulator for heat and humidity circulation on his home-made incubator.

Ndung’u’s second trial shaded some light at the end of the tunnel. He managed to hatch a few chicks which he successfully raised. From there he improved his machine to perfection.

He raised some savings from selling the chicks and his electrical job and sought out for raw materials from electronic shops in Nairobi such as fans, heaters, heat regulators, cardboards, metal rods and other materials required for making the incubators.

Ndung’u put up a workshop at home and started making his own incubators. His first client was from Kericho Town whom he sold an incubator at Sh. 45,000. His client made a good word for him and he managed to sell a few others giving him an opportunity to open up a shop at Mung’are area in Narok.

Presently, he makes a variety of incubators depending on his customer’s specifications. His smallest incubator holds 176 eggs, the second 264 eggs and the largest up to over 3960 eggs.

His incubators are unique in that the incubator rotates the eggs after every one and a half hours and has a success rate of 85% to 90% unlike those made in China.

Ndung’u’s largest market is now in Narok and its environs.

His advice to the youth is that lack of employment is not enough reason to plunge into a sea of poverty. Creativity, passion and skills can result success.

He plans to put up more shops in other counties with a central aim of creating more job opportunities for his friends.