Man uses ‘worthless’ reeds to mint cash

In a region where reed is treated more like a worthless weed, Mzee Budi Ngoge refers to it as a ‘hidden fortune’ which he uses to make baskets.

He weaves on order, depending on the purpose for which the woven equipment is meant. Tea pickers, fish mongers, poultry keepers and crop growers are his regular clients and he also deals in granaries.

Until the bungled 2007 elections, Budi manned a successful business in Naivasha. But, as things took a turn for the worse, he found himself in the village empty handed after loosing all his worth in the ensuing skirmishes.

“Apart from being an employee in the flower farms, my retail shop was thriving. I dealt in all kinds of food stuffs and house hold equipment. But all that was reduced to ashes when goons looted my premises. I lost all my sweat and returned home a pauper,” he says.

With two children in school, Budi had to seek for an alternative and sought help from a friend. But, instead of loaning him money, the friend introduced him to the weaving trade.

“Being a weaver himself, he offered to train me and that’s how I became an expert in weaving,” he says.

The trade has seen him provide for his family and educate his children without breaking a sweat.

Budi says that on a bad day he pockets about Sh800 and he can make as much as Sh2,000 on a good day. His biggest dream now is to diversify into seat making. “Very soon, I will be making wooden chairs coated with reeds. I have received enough training on doing that from a friend and I am now set to begin and dominate the market,” he says.