From trash to treasure: The inspiring story behind Mombasa’s ‘Ricky Bags’

When Robert Mrima, 36, was in high school at Dr Aggrey High in Taita Taveta county, he had no idea he had leadership skills in him.

Then, out of the blues, he was appointed the school's assistant captain, when he was in Form 3. That was in 2006.

Mrima then knew he had to do something unique in order for him to be remembered for a long time, if not forever, in the school.

He decided on taking on the bullying menace in the school.

“I thought maybe there was a reason I had it in me and I did not know. I had gone through the Ananda Marga Academy in Kiembeni, where we were the pioneers, without any iota of indication that I could lead,” Mrima says.

Partly managing all affairs of the students in the school had a new taste to it.

“I told my head, the school captain, that we had to significantly reduce bullying in the school if we cannot completely root it out,” Mrima says.

The two began the mission to end bullying.

They would literally cane those who were reported to have bullied anyone in the school, endearing them to Form 1s but creating enemies in Form 2 and some Form 3.

He had no problem with Form 4s because most had stopped bullying the younger students.

“One day we rounded up about 50 Form 2s in our cubicle and caned them. We were only the two of us, the school captain and myself,” he says.

“We just put on a brave face but that was the day I was most afraid of being a school assistant captain, and caning almost 50 students at a go. At the back of our heads, we knew if these students decided to react to us caning them, we would be finished. They could beat us to death,” Mrima says.

He says from that day, bullying started significantly reducing in the school.

“I am proud I made a significant contribution in the school in my small capacity and I learnt something valuable during that time - if you want to pursue something do it to the fullest no matter the odds,” he says.

When he joined Egerton University in 2009 to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Finance, he knew he had to cultivate the leadership skill in him.

In campus, he was in various leadership positions in different departments and clubs including the Christian Union.

He credits his late father Richard “Ricky” Mrima for the religious path he took, saying it is him who instilled that discipline and direction in him.

“He was very strict when it came to church. There was no compromise. When we were young, we thought he was oppressing us, but as we grew up, we realised it was for our own benefit and he was only looking after our best interest,” Mrima says.

It is that discipline that helped him go through a very difficult year in his first job as an accountant at a transport and logistics company in Mombasa.

“We were working our socks off without appreciation form our boss. We did 12-hour shifts, from 7am to 7pm daily, sometimes being called to work on Sundays.

“Yet our salaries were delayed every month for no apparent reason. It was just to frustrate us and make us believe there was no money in the company. But as an accountant, I knew there were no financial problems in the company because it was making a lot of profit,” Mrima says.

He says instead of getting fat, he grew thin because of the stress of work.

“I quit after exactly a year. I started in January and quit in December. I could not take it anymore and decided I should start something of my own,” he says.

He was also passionate about research, having also taken a CPA course.

He survived doing data collection for private research firms, until he got a job with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

“It was miraculous because I was informed of the job opportunity only about three hours to the deadline for submission of applications.

“I think I was the last person to submit my application because I took it physically and when I got to the office there were piles of application letters being sorted then,” he says.

Out of a pool of 10,000 people who applied for the advertised jobs, Mrima was among the only nine selected.

“I think I got the job because there were genuine interviews. There was no knowing who to get the job,” he says.

The job gave him impetus to want to know more about research.

While on the job, a friend in 2019 introduced him to SwahiliPot Hub, an innovation hub for young people in Mombasa.

This is where the idea to start a business of his own, as had been his desire all along, was actualised.

He combined his digital and research skills to come up with the idea of making bags out of waste materials.

“In 2020, there were a lot of activities at SwahiliPot Hub. A lot of banners were being used and discarded after events. It became a menace for me the way the banners were being disposed of. I then approached a friend with whom I started asking around for peoples' views on the amount of waste banners that were at SwahiliPot,” he says.

Most said they would make bags with them. It was a research question but at the back of Mrima’s head, he knew he wanted ideas so he could start a business using the waste materials.

He approached a lady friend who was doing tailoring at an adjacent building and asked if she could make a bag for us from the waste banners.

“She was surprised but she took it as a challenge. The next day she made a tote bag out of the waste banners. It looked nice and we gave her Sh100 for her labour,” Mrima says.

“We approached a lady a SwahiliPot and asked how much she could part with for the tote bag. She said she could give us Sh400. So we sold it to her at Sh400,” Mrima says.

That is how the business started.

With time, there was more interest in the bags and Mrima and his friend started making more of the bags, trying out new designs in the process.

As more people showed interest in the bags, they produced more.

In 2024, Mrima officially called the bags ‘Ricky Bags’ following an official launch of the business.

“Ricky is my father’s nickname. I decided to name the business after him to honour him because he died in 2022. It was very difficult for me because he was one of the my greatest pillars in my business journey,” he says.

Mrima says one time he fell into depression after his dad died, because it was a period during which there were difficulties with the business and the business partner he had at that time.

“It was a challenge. I had to make difficult decisions, with my greatest supporter no longer available to give me advice. He had been pushing me and following up on every move i make,” Mrima says.

He however says he keeps learning every day, taking one day at a time and being open minded as he believes every day is a learning day.

Today, Ricky Bags is slowly penetrating the market.

He is selling between 100 and 150 bags a month and has diversified designs.

He makes about 20 different types of bags and is attracting corporates now.

The bags, which are still made from purely waste materials like banners and clothes, fetch between Sh500 and Sh2,500 each.

He does tote bags, backpacks, travelling bags, among others.

Mrima says he has employed eight people permanently while when need be, he takes up about six more casuals.

“I have learnt a lot during this journey. But I am happy because I keep on learning new things every day.

“My bags have penetrated to countries in Europe like Germany and others in the US. This is because I aggressively market them even at events where tourists come,” he says.

Apart from conserving the environment by recycling waste materials, he is promoting Kenya’s tourist attractions by naming the bags after places and animals.

“We have Chui bags, Tausi Bags, Watamu Bags, Masai Mara Bags, among other names for our bags. We have given them these names to promote the places and animals,” he says.