Limitless Possibility Kenyan entrepreneur talks about innovative ways to bring Africa and China closer
No human is limited. When Edwin Mwenda, a 32-year-old Kenyan entrepreneur, quoted his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge at the Africa Dialogues held in Beijing in October 2019, was he referring to his own story?
Bold as a lion
At 9, Mwenda left Kenya to join his mother who had departed five years earlier to the UK to create a better life for herself and her son.
After a promising start, everything seemed to indicate that he would pursue a good career in the UK. However, far from being content to remain in his comfort zone, Mwenda chose to shake his life and, in doing so, push his own limits.
“Moving to China is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life ... My family expected me to continue my career in the UK because the work I had there brought me a rather comfortable life,” he told Xinhua News Agency. According to Mwenda, China is unquestionably the next world power and its transformation over the past 40 years offers many lessons to countries like Kenya and Africa as a whole. The opportunity to compare and contrast with the trajectory of Britain in its development, especially during the industrial revolution, was for him a great inspiration.
In China since 2014, Mwenda earned his MSC degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University and is currently a PHD candidate in Political
Economy at the University of International Business and Economics. “I finance my studies myself. I do it for my personal development and, at the same time, I build my business,” he explained.
Supporting good causes
Starting a business abroad is not easy. Especially if you do not speak the language. “I speak very little [Chinese]! Not for lack of effort, but because of my studies and business, I just do not have the time. I hope to spend more time at the beginning of next year,” Mwenda told Chinafrica.
It is by ignoring all the troubles and relying on the team around him that Mwenda built his company, AHAVAH.
AHAVAH’S mission is to create a platform
that can help build sustainable businesses, create social impact and support what its founder will call “good causes.” The focus is mainly on exploiting trade and investment opportunities between China and Africa in the agriculture and renewable energy sector.
To cope with the droughts that frequently afflict Kenya, and the various other agricultural problems in Africa in general despite the vast arable land, the AHAVAH team aims to find region-specific solutions by adopting Chinese agricultural technologies.
“Half of [Kenya’s] land is difficult to cultivate because of drought and underdeveloped cultivation facilities. Mismanagement, lack of information and the dysfunctional market do not make the situation better,” explained Mwenda, adding, “China has a long history, but also decades of experience in how to develop in the modern world.”
Thus, the entrepreneur offers comprehensive tools such as automated biogas digester greenhouses, equipment powered by solar energy, mobile technology software licenses for payment, monitoring of farms and processing machinery.
Through innovative solutions, Mwenda aims to reduce the dependence on nature for agricultural production.
“Agricultural infrastructure in Kenya is still lagging behind. But they have huge potential. By 2025, we hope that those living in extreme poverty will have a better life,” he stated.
Women’s empowerment
But Mwenda and his team do not intend to stop there. Their company has just launched a new brand for sourcing and exporting high-quality flowers. Named Nelly, in reference to Edwin’s collaborator Nelly Njoroge, this brand aims to challenge conventional narratives and cliché, seeking to value, empower and celebrate women around the world by encouraging each one of them to discover the true beauty and the power that lives in them. Njoroge, who grew up in Naivasha, where Kenyan flowers came from, knew that the female flower-farm laborers handpicked flowers every day without ever really discovering their own beauty or purpose. According to Mwenda, enjoying flowers for their unique beauty is something that every woman deserves. Whether in a relationship or not, every woman must remember every day that she is beautiful and powerful, while collectively celebrating her unity and differences.
“I think that African women are underrated and underutilized. If we give them the right platform, collectively, they could hold the key to unleashing the great potential of Africa. This is the message our brand is trying to share: The life of a flower begins with a few scattered seeds, but when exposed to the right conditions, it thrives and brings joy and beauty to others,” said the Kenyan entrepreneur.
Mwenda thinks the continent should evolve in an innovative way. He defines innovation by using the example of his grandmother: “In the eyes of all, my grandmother did not accomplish much; she did not beat any world record. She did not even go to school. However, she never stopped sending her children, including my mother, to school at a time when in our village no one else advocated education, especially for young girls. She had experienced our country’s struggle for independence and the struggle for continuous change. She never boarded a plane, but through innovative thinking, her children and grandchildren traveled around the world, working for different organizations at different levels and making a contribution.”
“Ultimately, I think the real innovation lies in seeking to create an impact in this world, even at the smallest level,” he concluded. Indeed, “no human is limited.” CA
Do you have other projects?
We are currently in the process of forming the African Diaspora in China Network (ADIC Net) through the support of the African Union Citizen In Diaspora Organization (AU CIDO). The initial objective is to connect all existing networks on a common platform and thereafter introduce a range of programs and projects that will benefit all members. We believe this agenda will usher in a renewed spirit of Pan Africanism!