Kakamega innovators makes laundry time easier

Joram Moi explains how he came up with his home-made washing machine. [PHOTO: CHRISPEN SECHERE/STANDARD]

KAKAMEGA: Failing to go beyond class eight has not been an obstacle for 36-year-old Joram Moi who has gone on to make a homemade manual washing machine.

The machine has a capacity of washing and ironing eight clothes at once. “My aim is to make clothes washing easier for people who do not have the means to buy costly automated washing machines,” he says.

To operate Joram’s washing machine, one needs to place clothes inside the container, put in five liters of water and then pedal.

This movement makes the clothes soak themselves and move around in a cleaning movement. There is an iron bar on top of the machine that is used to hang clothes after washing.

“Time used in washing mostly depends on the kind of clothes being cleaned and how fast the person peddling is. Also, if you pour a lot of water inside, it generates a lot of heat which make it heavy for the user,” he says.

As a married man with two small children, Joram says the inspiration to come up with such a machine came from his desire to make his family’s life easier.

This and his desire to see all Kenyans have access to affordable laundry machines drove him to engage in research before embarking on the project.

“It took me three months to design this machine and I then visited a workshop to start joining parts to make it a reality,” he says.

Funding is his main challenge owing to the fact that he is the family breadwinner through his bodaboda business which earns him just enough for domestic use.

“Getting parts is not easy and sometimes it requires a lot of money to buy them. I spent Sh12,000 to purchase these metals alone."

"With enough funding, my vision is to make manual washing machines of different sizes that will fit my customers’ needs,” he said.

Apart from the immediate benefit of simplifying laundry time, Joram’s manual machine has two other benefits.

The first is that the process of rinsing out the clothes straightens them and they look as good as ironed once they are hanged out to dry.

Second, the process of peddling is a good exercise workout which can help one loose weight. With this machine, no need to pay for a gym or join other fitness networks.

“I have an ability to innovate things. This machine is just the beginning and I have plans to improve its capacity,” he says.