Otiato GuguyuI missed the little green-house-like-structure standing next to the Dunga Fish Market Shed because it had no label.
The Dunga Fish Market is better labeled Safaricom’s corporate ad billboard, the local patron, Hon Rose Buyu Akinyi, The National Government Affirmative Action Fund and GoK itself are al stuck on it like scouts pins.
But maybe because the branding makes good perching ground for the Hamerkop that wade around for the small omena at Dunga Beach, and that little green-house-like-structure, is meant to try and stop just that.
When we get to Dunga beach the day’s catch was being traded by fishermen in little hand rowed canoes. The women were gutting and scaling the fish at the rocky shores of the sanguine lake with scores of birds hovering over like houseflies for entrails and unattended fish.
I asked the women there about Prof. Ojijo’s solar powered omena drier and she pointed me back to the little green-house-like-structure we had missed on our way in.
I asked her if she used it, but she said it turns the fish black. I took it with a pinch of salt, in rural Kenya hesitancy towards technology is still high and new inventions are treated with suspicion.
At the small structure we find a woman laying her Omena to dry. She tells us Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Prof. Nelson Ojijo’s invention works as promised.
Prof Ojijo invented the innovative fast-drying and cooling techniques for preserving Omena in 2022. Omena, a vital source of livelihood in the Lake region, faces significant wastage during the long intervals between fishing and drying, thus prompting overfishing to compensate for losses.
One of his inventions is a solar-powered drying machine, accelerates the drying process to two hours, preventing microbial growth and significantly improving the quality of the dried Omena.
The other invention a portable charcoal-powered cooling device, enables immediate preservation of the fish.
The woman demonstrates to us how easy the invention is to use. They operate the machine themselves and do not pay a penny for using the innovation. She says when she switches on the solar powered propellers the heat goes up so high you cannot bring a child in because they would faint.
She said the solar powered drier goes up on demand during cloudy days where women do not have the alternative of sun drying; then, the women even fight for space to dry their omena.
We asked a woman who was still sun drying her omena just next to the solar alternative. With Prof Ojijo’s inventions women at Dunga and Marenga Beach would no longer have had the need to spend time chasing birds away from open air system of drying omena.
It would not only make the process faster but would also free the women to engage in other pressing economic and social needs.
While the woman agreed that with the drier you could go to town and do other things, she did not have much to do today. She said she prefers laying her omena in the open which also makes it easier for buyers to book them while they are still drying.
She adds the drier is great for dried omena, but for deep frying, you do not need it too dry, the open sun will just do.
