By Prudence Minayo
Geoffrey Kago’s story is one that best exemplifies the values of hardwork, patience and putting our knowledge and skills into creating sustainable businesses. Thanks to his innovative ideas, he went from a funeral home undertaker, a cigarette hawker to a multi million poultry farmer. He is the founder of Kaki Village Enterprises where he rears hens and exotic birds and also sells commercial incubators.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Background
His entrepreneur streak started in his formative years. He bought a Spanish Jungle, a rare breed of chicken from his mother at Sh20 while he was a class four pupil. From this one hen, his stock increased to about 200 by the time he was in class eight. He sold eggs at 80 cents each and a chicken at Sh20. This was a way for him to make money and support himself through school whenever his parents were unable to. In high school, when his parents lacked money to pay for his fees, he was not worried since he had the chicken. He drew inspiration from one of the first people in Kenya to make a fortune out of poultry, Nelson Muguku.
While he was still a student, he designed an incubator that went on to win the 1985 high school science congress competition at the District level and it came second nationally.
He suffered a huge setback when a neighbour poisoned his hens.
Taking Job As Funeral Undertaker
He moved to Kiserian where he did a number of odd jobs in order to survive. He worked as a mason, a carpenter and at a funeral home for two years.
“I worked as an undertaker for two years at Montezuma Funeral Home until I turned to manufacturing pool tables which I did for two years,” he told The Standard in a 2011 interview.
Leading up to the early 2000s, Geoffrey Kagobbc started hawking cigarettes and managed to save Sh600. It is this money that he would use to start his business venture.
Kaki Village Enterprises
In 2002, when the late Hon. Kibaki took over the government, his speech resonated with Geoffrey Kago. The late retired president advised Kenyans to do something for their country using their talents and knowledge. He added that the government was willing to support great ideas.
This inspired him to start researching on incubators, breeding of different birds and the use of technology to establish a successful poultry farming. He started Kaki Village Enterprises, Kaki was a merge of the first letters of his name and the first letters of the late Kibaki’s name. He used the Sh600 to buy two hens and to manufacture a still air incubator.
The two hens laid eggs and hatched. In a year, he not only had rare chicken breeds but also quails, turkey, ostriches and guinea fowls. Before rearing ostriches, he made sure to do enough research on the birds and the guinea fowls. He had to get a hatchery permit from the Kenya Wildlife Service which allowed him to collect ten ostrich eggs from the game. He incubated them and only three hatched.
In 2006, Geoffrey Kago sold four ostriches at Sh80,000 each and invested the money into the business including buying a pick up.
In 2009, he hatched ostriches but unfortunately they all died. He learnt that for the first three months of their lives they need careful handling and should be separated from the older ones among other lessons.
Apart from the rare bird species and hens, Kaki Village Enterprises also continued to manufacture incubators. A small incubator holds 120 eggs and his largest holds up to 3000 eggs. He has sold to the government, schools and various farmers across the country. He has also imparted his knowledge of poultry farming to many farmers across the country.
Growth of his business
According to BBC, the business Geoffrey Kago started in 2002 is now valued at $120,000 (approximately Ksh12 million).
