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WOMEN IN ENERGY AWARDS
WINNER:
Entreprenuership Award
Scarcity
With the high cost of charcoal and scarcity
of trees in Kenya, Lesan thought the same
knowledge could be applied back home.
She took countless drives through Nairobi
researching and observing the type of
waste available and how it could be
converted into fuel. Armed with facts and
experience from Tanzania, she pioneered
a small venture in 2015 that was run by a
single person. Today, her firm has grown
to employ 8 individuals.
Chebet focused on organic waste and
started collecting heaps of it. She recalls
how people around her including family
did not understand what she was doing
and some even thought that she was
going insane. This did not deter her.
Her next challenge was securing a
machine to compress and convert the
organic waste into fuel. They were
relatively expensive for a start-up.
Undeterred, she turned to local artisans
from Kariobangi in Nairobi to assemble a
machine for her.
Breakthrough
As expected, the first machines kept failing
but Lesan always encouraged the artisans
to keep trying until a breakthrough came
in January 2016 when the machine started
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WATTS UP MAGAZINE APR - MAY 2017
Chebet displays compressed organic waste
working. She finally launched her product into the market in October 2016. Her
key clients are in the hospitality industry as more hotels strive to become eco-
friendly. Lesan’s efforts have earned her the Queen’s Young Leader Award, which
she is due to receive later in the year. The award recognises and celebrates
exceptional people aged 18-29 from the Commonwealth countries who are taking
the lead in their communities and using their skills to transform lives. She holds
a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from the University of Nairobi and is a
Mandela Washington Fellow
‘‘
From what they had learnt
in an earlier training with
International Development
Network, the visiting
students showed the family
how to convert maize stalks
into fuel through a process
of stalk compression and
carbonisation
‘‘
Living on agricultural land, the family had
just finished harvesting maize and there
were stalks strewn all over the homestead.
From what they had learnt in an earlier
training with International Development
Network, the visiting students showed
the family how to convert maize stalks
into fuel through a process of stalk
compression and carbonisation.