After months of idleness at home due to the closure of colleges at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a group of about 20 youths eventually decided to put their free time to good use.
The youth, who reside at the Nashulai Community Conservancy adjacent to the world-famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve, had just to look at their environment for opportunities to venture into a money-making business.
And what was the most visible resource? Elephant poop. Call it dung.
Inspired by the traditional Maasai use of elephant dung to treat skin ailments, the youth decided to turn elephant dung into herbal soap.
Vivian Sumoi, the group leader, said they settled on the herbal soap idea because elephant dung is a readily available material and it is also eco-friendly.
To turn their dream into reality, the group collects dung every morning when the elephants move deep into the Maasai Mara reserve to avoid potential human-wildlife conflict.
Once the dung collected, it is delivered to their manufacturing centre located within the Nashulai conservancy.
Bernard Rono, who is the group’s technical expert, said the next steps after collection involve drying and grinding the dung into a fine texture. After that, Bernard said, they mix it with olive oil and other chemicals to turn it into liquid soap.
The liquid soap is then solidified and cut into desired sizes ready for packaging and labelling being it is sold to consumers.
Vivian, a junior student at the Mt Kenya University, said that Maasai people used to mix elephant dung with water and use the concoction to treat skin diseases.
She maintained that the herbal components of the soap are improved as elephants consume a variety of herbs and trees while grazing, adding that it comprises medicinal value.
Vivian said she is confident that their business will create job opportunities for the youth as they also earn a 10 percent commission after selling the elephant dung soap at Sh500 per 50-gram packets.
The group said they’ve been selling the herbal soap at the local tourism lodges in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
They said the demand for herbal soap is high and called on the government to help them scale up operations to reach the national and international market.
Elephant dung seems to be a gift that keeps on giving, especially to innovative and creative people ready to think outside the box.
Four years ago, the BBC reported on the growing, albeit still small, paper industry whose main raw material is elephant dung.
The elephant dung paper industry then was centred on the Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, a community-owned conservation area for elephants about 45km southwest of Mombasa City, BBC said.
