The word unemployment exists to those who do not want to exploit the business opportunities presented to their faces by the circumstances.

Creativity, patience and hard work, is what today Mr Mbugua Kamau is feeding his family of three kids and a wife from.

Necessity is truly the mother of invention, Kamau being unemployed and his family waiting for a daily bread from him sat down to analyse what he can do. He thought of the cap he was wearing and how it would look like if ironed and saw it an opportunity he can exploit.

Being an IDP from Nakuru came to Nyeri as a pauper but as determined as he was he wouldn’t remain a pauper the rest of his life. He started his business of cleaning and ironing kofias at Nyeri town near NYENA Sacco stage where he would earn a decent livelihood for his family him being the sole bread winner.

Creativity had to find its way, every kofia has its own shape and so he needed something that resembled a kofia on a man’s head. Old tattered clothes were all over and he decided to make use of them to come up with different shapes.

Job opportunity lies in your mind; it is only how you organize it that determines its worthiness. Kamau yielded his customers slowly by slowly through giving them free services with the knowledge that patience pays “I started cleaning and ironing for my friends for free with the idea that I he goes wearing the cap looking smart he would encourage another person to come for the service and through this I got my customers” says Kamau.

Day after the other his customers multiplied, from individuals to Mitumba operators coming with bails and asking him to iron them before they made their sales. A kofia that would have probably gone at a cheap price of like ksh 50 would after ironing cost like ksh 150 or even more.

Since 2009, Kamau have had no competitors. Asking him the reason behind this he confidently says “si ati hawakuwangi, wako lakini hawawezi hii kazi. Hii kazi inahitaji hekima na uvumilivu mwingi sana” (it is not that they are not there, it’s only that they can’t manage this business, it’s a business that requires a lot of creativity and patience.)

Nothing would stop Kamau’s business from growing. Despite the many challenges he has faced, Kamau has expanded the business to the outskirts of Nyeri town, he goes to Karatina once per week (Sundays).

Due to the piled up work of the whole week at Karatina, Kamau says he can’t hit the demand so the need to employ a person to help him out.

Rainy season is when Kamau is faced with his greatest challenge. He operates his business from an open field. If rain starts to fall the caps are rained on and bearing in mind that he is using charcoal iron box so the fire definitely goes off leading to him stopping to work for some time until the rain stops.

With the high rise in cost of living, Kamau decided not to hike charges of his services saying that he would loose his customers despite him having been affected by the rise as now the cost he incurs has doubled since the rise in fuel. He says he considers that his customers are not people from royal families but they are just hustlers like him.

For Kamau charging Ksh 20 to Ksh 30 for every kofia is seeing him through in his life. He can take care of the school fees of his two school going kids and give the other basic needs to his family. He says that per day he can clean and iron a minimum of 50 caps and this is smart work.

Kamau urged the many young people and especially those who were affected by the post election violence who have since then sat down waiting for help from the government, that they should at least get something to do and stop relying from the government as it seems to be taking longer than ever expected for this help to ever come.

By Catherine Magondu