Student hits on idea to produce hydro-electric power

When John Magiro Wangari’s Standard Four age mates were fiddling with their toy cars and any other plaything which would amuse a child at that age, he on the other hand was intrigued by how a bicycle dynamo worked to produce light.

Now a Form Four student at Mihuti Secondary School in Mathioya area of Murang’a County, his interest in light energy has seen him use locally available materials, including old bicycle parts, to  produce hydro-electric power, amazing his teachers, fellow students and neighbours.

The 21-year-old has so far spent Sh60,000 from well-wishers and his savings to produce over 300 kilovolts, which is used by his mother and siblings for lighting and charging phones.

The irony is that Magiro scores an average of ‘E’ in his examinations including physics and can barely spell simple English words. Without prior knowledge of power production and installation and with very little assistance from his teachers, Magiro has painstakingly been working on his project for the last three years and only managed to have power at his mother’s home this year.

“When I was in Standard Four, I was always amazed at how a bicycle dynamo produces light and would spend hours after school observing a neighbour’s bicycle. My curiosity has driven me to produce this hydro-electric-power,” he said during an interview last week at his “power plant.

“I was intrigued by how the dynamo could produce light and from that time I developed an obsession with things power,” he adds.

He has tapped water from River Godo in his Kahindu-ini village and using an old bicycle rim, an old chaff cutter part and a conveyor belt from an old chaff cutter to make a turbine, a gear box and a generator, he has managed to produce the power.

“It was an idea I had been thinking about since I was very young and when I joined Form One and learnt a few basics of electricity production and immediately embarked on this project,” said Magiro.

But his poor performance in school is in stark contrast to his ingenuity and this has perplexed his teachers and neighbours.

“The fact that I do very badly in my examinations does not prevent me from achieving my dreams,” he says.

He started his mini hydro-electric power plant by raising Sh6,000 from his mother and also by selling some goats and rabbits that he had kept at home. He then bought an old chaff cutter part to act as his turbine while an old bicycle rim served as the wheel to drive the turbine.

For poles, he cut down some old trees from his mother’s compound and used thin zinc wires to transport power to the house about 300 metres from the river. And using old metal parts, he has even made some special climbing shoes to go up the high poles.

The student also did wiring in his house and his mother’s by himself and has a cut-out point in case of a power surge. He uses old plastic jerry cans as insulators.

“I now want to begin selling power to my neighbours but I do not have money to produce a lot of electricity and supply it,” says the confident student.

Magiro says he now wants to make an electric car and many other “inventions” which he believes will turn life around for his family.

Mihuti Secondary headteacher Jane Muthoni Murira says the school is amazed at how Magiro has managed to come up with such a venture.

His physics teacher James Mwangi says his student had encouraged others to become more innovative.