Teddy Kinyanjui – Towards Energy Conservation

At a very young age, Teddy Kinyanjui was diagnosed with dyslexia. This condition resulted in his poor performance at school. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and while this learning disorder impeded his academic progress, it also led him to explore his creative side. The crafts corner of his kindergarten class became his stomping ground as he realized he was good at drawing and creating items using clay. The more Teddy struggled with his schoolwork, the deeper he delved into unearthing his artistic gifts.  

In 1999, while in his tenth grade at St. Andrew’s, Turi, Teddy’s frustration with his school performance reached its peak. He decided to halt his studies, opting to take a General Educational Development test that would ascertain his high school-level skills. Having witnessed his battle with dyslexia through the years, his parents consented his decision and reminded him that his abilities were not confined to his classroom knowledge.  

The turn of the century marked a new chapter in Teddy’s life as he shuffled through the career options best suited to him. For guidance in this matter he turned to his parents who recommended that he accompany his father to work. His father was a brilliant craftsman who had founded Wood Energy Technologies, an organization dedicated to researching, making and selling energy-saving jikos. Confident that this profession would enable him to cultivate his creativity, Teddy agreed to this proposition. From that point, Wood Energy Technologies became a second home to him and a place where his learning disorder could not hold him back.  

After years of struggling with pen and paper, this new environment and the learning experience was exhilarating. Teddy spent time in the workshops understanding the engineering that went into jiko-making, starting with its structure then proceeding to the importance of the jiko’s materials in energy preservation. Once this knowledge was acquired, he learnt how to hammer metal into sheets, bake clay in the furnace and assemble these objects to a final product.  

Teddy enjoyed making the jikos so much that despite his struggle with schoolwork, he wanted to add to the experience he was receiving with more education. Wanting to spend some time with his maternal family living abroad, he enrolled into the Univeristy of New Mexico to study environmental science in 2005. His decision to revisit the world of words was not an easy one to make. Working alongside his father, Teddy had learned that conservation of the environment through forestation was just as important as making jikos that minimized the use of wood fuels. His chosen course was therefore necessary to increase his knowledge on forestation. Unfortunately, dyslexia worked to his disadvantage and he discontinued his coursework a year later. By this point Teddy had learned not to be disheartened by his academic shortcomings and to embrace his creativity when things went awry. In the two years that followed he took on jobs in other industries such as food and beverage, working as a chef in restaurants, and even trying his hand at organic farming. This experience proved his suitability to a crafting job and when he returned home, he went back to where it all began – designing energy-saving jikos. 

By 2010, Teddy considered himself an expert and took a major leap, one he remembers fondly to date. With the support of his family, he established Cookswell Jikos and his sisters joined in to build the brand with him. Business picked up steadily as their clientele base grew from nyama choma joints to home barbecues. Feedback about the efficiency of Cookswell products was elating for Teddy and encouraged him to work harder and further increase the quality of his jikos.  

While Teddy enjoyed his work and had found his passion, he was perceptive to the impact of charcoal and firewood use on the environment. His plan to learn about conservation measures through the conventional school-going means had proved ineffective, so he took it upon himself to research on ways to make charcoal a renewable source of fuel. In 2016, he found a solution to this problem. Cookswell Jikos partnered up with Chardust, an organization that has been cleaning up the charcoal dust waste from some of the highest-density and lowest-income urban areas of Nairobi since 1996. Together the two came up with the concept of producing seedballs, tree and grass seeds encased in a layer of soil and charcoal dust. Seedballs enable the distribution of a large number of seeds to deforested areas in Kenya and keep the seeds protected until they sprout. Through this joint effort, over ten million seedballs have been distributed in the last four years.  

Teddy’s resolve to succeed is inspiring. His accomplishments are proof that nobody is defined by their setbacks and we cannot wait to see where his journey will lead him. 

#KeCrafters 

Susan Kinyanjui and Teddy Kinyanjui in Cookswell Jikos workshop at Farasi Lane. Image credits: Joel Kazsorwrski

Oven made by Cookswell Jikos. Image credit: Joel Kazsorwrski

Seedballs made by encasing a seed inside a layer of soil and charcoal dust. Image credits: Joel Kazsorwrski

Plant sprouting from the seedballs distributed by Cookswell Jikos. Image credits: Joel Kazsorwrski