Enterprise

How the goldsmith family of Kirinyaga Road struck it rich

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Peter Munyoki takes measurement for a wedding ring at his Kirinyaga Road shop. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU |

Nairobi’s Kirinyaga Road is known for many things.

For instance, it hosts most motor vehicle spare part shops in the city. It is also infamous for being the capital of the grey market.

In one seemingly deserted building on the road, Peter Munyoki is holed up in a small room striking a rusty metal rod and heating it over a naked flame.

The 63-year-old goldsmith has mastered the art of making gold and silver rings as well as other valuable ornaments using precious stones such as tanzanite, ruby, rhodolite and green garnets.

“Gold is a symbol of wealth and achievement and many people are drawn to the metal,” he says.

“Our customers are from all walks of life, and with varying purchasing power. They come in search of rings for use at engagement ceremonies, weddings or for use as day-to-day accessories.”

Mr Munyoki, a Form Two dropout, buys gold dust from traders who source it from mines in Tanzania and Migori while silver is recycled from old accessories such as rings and chains.

He buys 10 grammes of gold at Sh35,000, meaning a kilogramme is Sh3.5 million. Old silver accessories are purchased at Sh40 per gram or Sh40,000 per kilogramme.

A black toumarine stone retails at Sh8,000 per kilogram, rhodolite goes for up to Sh100,000 a kilogramme while green garnet and tantalite stones retail at about Sh200,000 per kilogramme.

On the afternoon that the Business Daily visited his cramped workshop, the entrepreneur was busy casting two gold rings for a couple who were set to wed in three weeks.

Mr Munyoki, who works with his two sons, casts different grades of gold rings ranging between nine and 22 carats.

The ring-making process begins with melting the gold and silver in an open flame after which the mixture of the two metals is poured into cold water where it cools into small particles.

Silver is used as a purification agent. Each gram of gold requires five grammes of silver to refine it.

The small gold and silver particles are then placed in nitric acid that further purifies the mixture through a chemical process in which impurities are removed, escaping in the form of smoke.

Silver dissolves in the nitric acid while a purer form of gold settles at the bottom.

The gold particles are once again placed over an open flame at more than 120 degrees centigrade, leaving the metal in a state ready to be used to make the valuable accessories.

“It is now up to the goldsmith to weigh the amount of gold he needs to make a certain ring according to a customer’s specifications,” Nicholas Munyoki, one of Mr Munyoki’s sons, told Enterprise.

“Most wedding rings weigh between three and five grammes each. We, however, get customers who make orders of rings that are 10 grams each and which are definitely expensive.”

Gold rings made at Munyoki’s range between Sh3,500 and Sh24,000, prices that are relatively cheaper than what mainstream jewellers in Nairobi charge. Silver rings, on the other hand, cost between Sh3,000 and Sh9,000 depending on the size of ring and whether a customer needs a precious stone like tanzanite set to it.

Gold ring clients also get to select the finishing they desire on their accessory such as grooves or slight incisions at the edges.

Mr Munyoki says he serves about three gold ring clients each week while those who buy silver rings are about 20.

The father of five, who hails from Kitui Central, says his entry into the business was purely accidental. After quitting secondary school, he was employed as a store keeper at Nairobi-based Abbey Pharmacy where he worked until 1992. He says he used to earn Sh7,000 a month.

His employer shared his shop with a business partner who was a jeweller.

“He used to make jewellery out of gemstones, tanzanite and green garnet and sell them to customers in Europe,” he said.

Mr Munyoki says he keenly observed him at work. But when he lost his job after the pharmacy business collapsed, the man who once had ambitions to become a soldier, decided to venture into the jewellery business. However, he did not have capital to invest in the enterprise.

He decided to travel to Tanzania where he secured a job making rings from precious stones, his first hands-on experience in the trade.

The pay was meagre, but Mr Munyoki, who was getting increasingly homesick, still had a growing desire to set up his own business.

Lady luck finally came calling when Nagin Pattni, a local jeweller synonymous with wedding accessories, contacted him in 2007 and offered him a job in Kenya.

“Three years into the job, I quit employment and using the experience and contacts I had made over the years decided to finally set up my own business,” said Mr Munyoki.

He had saved some money that he used to secure a small working station at the Kirinyaga Road premises.

The monthly rent at the time was Sh7,000. One of the merits of being a small-scale goldsmith, he says, is that it is neither saturated nor capital intensive.

“Start with what is available and invest where your passion lies” is Mr Munyoki’s advice to budding entrepreneurs.