Bernard Otieno Ochieng, a father of three, flips a homemade vehicle lightly and starts to fix the small wheel as he checks the two exhausters to confirm if it will run smoothly.
The towering frame above six feet, makes the small orange with the black strip car he has invented look very tiny.
“We will be off, I drove it last from Ndhiwa to Homa Bay which is over 5o kilometres and it did so smoothly, it will pick again,” he said.
When the Star visited him on Sunday, relatives and onlookers stood by to see the inventor, who had also built a homemade helicopter in 2012.
Ochieng tests the engine by putting on a special ignition key using a telecom sim card and the small-vehicle roars to lights as he revs up the engine by pressing the accelerator.
After warming up the engine, he shifts the gear from neutral to one and the vehicle smoothly speeds across the grassy compound.
This looks like a major fete for Ochieng who sat for his KCSE exam at Andiwo Mixed Secondary School in 2010.
However, he has never set foot in an engineering class after he dropped out of school because of a lack of fees.
“I dream of joining a polytechnic, getting employed in a car assembly and manufacturing plant since my interest started from a younger age when I modelled cars using clay,” he said.
Ochieng said he is inspired by looking at cars and draws the parts in a book and his computer before he starts designing by drawing them down.
“I measure the wheels' weight, and distance and know where to place the engine and to design the body to prevent friction,” he said.
The vehicle is topless and can accommodate two people comfortably.
He said he has been inventing smaller planes and vehicles for his children, with the small car costing him Sh80,000 to fabricate the body before he used a motorbike engine he revived from a scrapyard.
“With better resources, I can make a bigger and better vehicle. I dream of working with other assemblies in the country and internationally,” he said.
Laikipia resident Samwel Njogu was allowed to mass-produce his locally assembled car the BJ50, after approval by the Kenya National Bureau of Standards.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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