Nicholas Ouma Okeyo, a Bachelor of Commerce graduate, is all smiles because, finally, his experience in what he calls "dirty jobs" is beginning to pay off.
The former Kisii University graduate used Sh200,000 in venture capital to start his Timber Yard in Rongo town, Migori county, and has been generating more than Sh100,000 in profit for every project completed.
A complete project here means buying trees in the forest or farms, splitting them with a power saw and having all the split timber sold at his yard located along Rongo - Homa Bay road, adjacent to Rongo Primary School.
"Timber business is very lucrative. My case is that of an opportunity meeting preparedness," he said.
There are several other timber yards in Rongo but this has never stopped him from making sales.
"I have the competitive advantage over them because I am skilled in operating a power saw. Most of my competitors are just businessmen who cannot operate the machine. So, I even supply them with my excess timber," Ouma said.
The 28-year-old says that there is money in dirty jobs, recalling that his business did not make any loss despite having opened its doors in 2020 when Coronavirus struck.
Ouma has employed two more helping hands who help him to move timber at the yard.
His wife, Mercy Mutheu, who is a trained teacher of Math and Chemistry, has since quit her job at a local school to help him with accounts at their new business.
"I decided to quit my job at the school because I was being paid less. Here, after sales and after doing our calculations, I get much more money. So far I have no regrets at all," Mutheu told the Star.
The mother of one said that she will only consider going back to teaching profession if she is employed by the Teachers Service Commission.
The main items in Ouma's yard are eucalyptus (blue gum) timber, which is a hardwood that, he says, most people prefer for construction works.
According to the Kisii University graduate, he sources his products from Kisii county.
This follows an 2018 order by Kisii county to have all water-thirsty eucalyptus tree species removed from riparian lands.
"I took advantage of an Executive Order by the Kisii county government which required residents to cut eucalyptus trees from wetlands," Ouma said.
"The order said the trees were sucking the ground dry and contributing to water scarcity and adverse climate change in the region. This order reduced our problems with the anti-logging forest officials," he added.
Lately, environmental activists and scholars in Kisii and Nyamira are concerned that the region is a perfect definition of a green desert because of the millions of blue gum trees on the river banks.
Former National Environment Management Authority director and first Vice Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Prof Ratemo Michieka, who hails from the area, said that the trees are causing climate change which is dangerous to the region.
"Someone might be comfortable that the rains are ever pounding Kisii and so it is okay to have the eucalyptus. The problem is that the ground has dried and now they have to walk several kilometres down the hills in search of water, even immediately after rainfall. Crop production is also failing," Michieka said.
"Our people need to plant indigenous trees to achieve the 10 per cent tree cover, not a tree which is hazardous to the environment."
Ouma said he targets and buys mature blue gum trees from farmers who are complying with the call to save the environment.
A mature blue gum costs between sh10,000 to sh100,000 in buying price, depending on its size. Younger ones (round poles) are bought in the range of sh50 to sh250.
So, where did he get the often scarce venture capital? Well, Ouma begins by revealing that he had been in the timber business for nearly 10 years before finally pitching his own tent in Rongo town.
In their Orinde home in Kojwach ward, Homa Bay county, the future was always bleak and he was often encouraged by his poor parents to value education because that was his only saviour.
But when he joined secondary school, the struggle to stay in school became a huge challenge because he would be sent back home due to unpaid fees.
However, when he looks back on those bleak times, he says they were a blessing in disguise.
It is then that he started associating with lumberers in the village, working with them as a helping hand to earn Sh500 a day.
This happened from 2010 to 2014 when he finally bought his own power saw at sh64,000, then."I have been a lumberer since 2010 although I only ventured into it fully in 2014 when I saved money and purchased my own machine," Ouma said.
Using his newly acquired machine, he would be hired to cut trees and split timber for people in the villages, but this did not pay him much.
He then decided to buy his own trees, split and then supply to timber yards in Oyugis town, Homa Bay county. This would generate about sh50,000 in profits after dispatching a full tipping truck.
"Problems arose again because payment would delay after delivery of products," he recalled.
Ouma first sat for KCSE was in 2012 but failed to attain the minimum qualifying grade for joining a university, due to his divided attention between class and hustling.
In 2014, he sought admission at Ringa Boys High School in Homa Bay in Form 3 and managed a grade A minus a year later. Paying school fees for the two years at Ringa, he recalls, was a nightmare.
"Life has not been easy. At times when schools closed, I would talk to the school principal to allow me go back and split logs for firewood at the school. This would pay my arrears in kind."
The year 2016, now in Kisii University (not very far from his Orinde village), he still had to balance between class and business and even family, because he had now become a father.
"Most of the times, I had six hours everyday to be in a lecture hall. The rest of the day I would be in the forest in Marani subcounty hustling. Overtime, I also acquired a motorbike that I would use to transport passengers in the evenings to add in some cash," Ouma explained.
He said that the boda boda business enabled him to pocket at least Sh1,000 everyday despite it not being his main focus.
Ouma's advice to young people is that they should not hate any "dirty work" so long as it has prospects to give you money in the end.
"My peers should identify what they are passionate about no matter how degrading it might seem. What counts is whether you have money or not. No one will come to fix your problems."
(edited by Amol Awuor)
