The so-called juakali entrepreneurs have found a way of using what most may discard as garbage or junk to craft useful inventions. Juakali is Swahili for “hot sun”, and it got its name from the open-air working conditions of such entrepreneurs.

Thirty-four-year-old Matayo Magalasia, a former resident of the Korogocho slums, is one of the juakali techies that is literally shining a light on new opportunities. Matayo, a community worker, grew up in Korogocho where houses are built very close together and light rarely shines through. “This forced me to do my homework outside, using the little remaining daylight after school,” he says.

Many years later, Matayo was inspired to create bulbs out of plastic bottles after stumbling upon a YoutTube video which demonstrated the technology, first discovered in Brazil. Armed with this know-how, he teamed up with Koch Hope, a youth group in the slum, to put his idea into action.

A clear, plastic, two-litre bottle is filled with water and a little bleach. A hole is then cut around the iron-sheet roof, where the bottle is placed with a sealant around it to hold the bottle in place. When hung through the hole in the roof, the bottle refracts sunlight and can produce as much light as a conventional 50- or 60- watt bulb, lasting between two to five years.

Plastic bottles are often obtained from the nearby Dandora dumpsite and thoroughly cleaned to be fit for use. Matayo then makes a small profit on the installation fee. Through this simple invention, Matayo and Koch Hope have brought light into many homes that would ordinarily rely on dangerous, illegal electric connections, candles and kerosene lamps, all of which are very costly to them. Last year, the team installed this bulb in more than a 100 homes in Korogocho.

“My main intention was for the young men to do this as a business,” Matayo says, adding that his aim is not only to make a profit but also to give something back to the community. Samuel Ongoya, 42, is another juakali entrepreneur. He runs Solinika Juakali Metal & General Work in Kibera, a welding business that specialises in window frames, steel doors and steel beds made from scrap metal.

After many years in the welding business, he came up with his first invention, an electric jiko (ceramic stove). Ongoya felt there had to be another alternative to regularly buying paraffin or charcoal and being in a smoky house. He then purchased some coils he had noticed at a hardware shop, and used scraps of left-over iron sheets, wire and other materials to assemble a jiko, which he then wired and fitted with a plug.

To Ongoya’s pleasant surprise, Kibera. “Business is okay, especially when fuel prices go up and people need other alternatives, the jikos come in very handy. We also get customers from other areas, though most are from Kibera,” he says. “Everyone has to do whatever is in his or her ability to make a living. This is why I do what I do.”

While the big increases to Kenya’s GDP might be spurred by more advances in high-tech inventions, Matayo, Ongoya and the other juakali entrepreneurs keep coming up with new solutions to drive their own economic growth and prosperity.