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Kenya has been grappling with an aging electricity transmission network that is prone to breakdowns causing undue outages, the latest being the mysterious and the longest nationwide outage in the country’s memory on Friday night.

No wonder many Kenyans are increasingly turning to self-generation or adopting solar power rather than making connections to the electric grid.

In Murang’a County, a 30-year-old is making waves with his innovation. John Magiro Wangare or engineer, as his villagers call him, might not have stepped in an engineering class but has managed to supply electricity to his village and now to over 5,000 households by generating it from a river. Unbelievably, all this inspiration began at just the age of eight years when he desired to see his village have access to affordable electricity when they couldn’t raise money to have Kenya Power electricity.

Bicycle Dynamo

 “I was using a tin lamp to study and would walk several kilometres to buy paraffin. When I noticed that my brother’s bicycle could produce power, I asked myself can I use the same bicycle dynamo to generate power in my home,” he narrates.

“While in class three and four, I began thinking of how I could construct a wooden turbine which can be rotated by the water and then the bicycle dynamo and then it generates some power.”

At the age of ten, he came up with the idea of creating a wooden turbine which could generate 0.5 watts.  In Form Two, Wangare discovered that by using a car battery, he could provide his entire village with electricity.  However, the real break for Wangare came after an ordeal with an unreliable power supply at a crusade where because of unreliable power the gathering had to use a diesel generator.

“While people were praying at the crusade, my mind was not there, I was thinking of how I could convert the generator to use water instead of petrol. I packed my things that evening and went home,” he narrates.  He sold all his goats and bought a generator which he broke and after fixing it to the turbine it generated 280 volts which he used to supply power to his village. That’s when his fame picked up as the media too began writing the story of his invention. At this time, he says, he was supplying more than 15 households in the village with free electricity under a programme, dubbed green energy youth innovation in Kenya. 

In 2015, he joined the NETFUND Incubation programme after emerging first in the NETFUND Green Innovations Award Individual category. He also received business training from Daystar and mentorship and coaching from technical experts who assisted him in refining his knowledge of technology.  He afterwards received seed funding that enabled him to install a generator, turbine, control system, pressure pipe, stabiliser, power line cables, transformers, d-iron and posts.

He afterwards registered the company in his name, which is Magiro Power. In 2016, he took part in the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship programme where he got an opportunity to pitch his innovation.

In 2018, he met Mr Thomas, his second director at a green energy event in Belgium where they discussed how they could upgrade his electricity to supply power beyond his village. In 2018, he was supplying around 30 to 70 households who were paying around Sh100 per home for power.

Consequently, Belgian firm, Hydrobox, and Magiro Power partnered and came up with a plan to ensure that they connect one million Kenyans with power by 2024.

So far, they have come up with various sites like Kahendwini, Kiawambogo, Kitugu, Kitugu 1, (Kiamahendu which generate around by December it will be operating. They have another project in Chiki, Othaya and Kirinyaga too where they have another project running in Baricho.

“We have been able to put up a capacity of 300 kilowatts that will combine the hydro and solar as backup. The solar is operating right now at the capacity of 50 kilowatts from the hydropower,” Wangare says.

They have connected more than 5,000 users and have gone within a radius of about 28 kilometres with the Mathioya grid, Kirinyaga and later on the Othaya grid. “We have supplied electricity to a Safaricom antenna and a tea factory called Kiriti.  We have also been supplying electricity to high school and giving them computers for free,” he adds.

So far, they have connected 5,000 users his goal is to have three projects that he is operating.  To get power in an area, the company first ensures that there is a river flowing to generate power.

To get power in an area, the company first ensures that there is a river flowing to generate power. Wangare says that his main aim is to transform the community from within, an idea which he believes the government should follow if they desire to have a steady supply of electricity in the entire country.

“The government is using a lot of money transporting power from places like Masinga dam to Murang’a instead of coming up with an idea that will create certain power stations within their location and then interjecting all the power productions,” he notes.  “For us, what we are doing is we are synchronising all our power sites. We first research the consumption of the area and then it weighs on the amount of kilowatts an area will need. It informs the capacity of the site that we will construct.”

To avoid interruptions of power during the dry season, he has combined both solar and hydropower (hydro solar system) to produce energy.

Blackout issue

To resolve the country-wide blackout issue, Wangare recommends that every county have at least more than five sites so that even if the national grid has an issue, the county can still proceed. “Sometimes we have blackouts of the whole country and some of the main factories that mainly rely on electricity make losses which sadly is passed on to the customers.

“In Murang’a for instance, we can rely on our own electricity because we have our own river. We can have more than five sites here instead of maybe making the Kenya Power and Lighting Company go down.

Wangare says parliament can come up with criteria for those supplying power and collaborate with KPLC when it comes to using the national grid to make sure that the country is connected with power.