Peter Mwangi Wanjama has become the centre of attraction at the city centre, thanks to his boda ya nyasi which is basically a motorcycle decorated with artificial grass.
“I’ve been in the boda boda business since 2008 and the competition is real; so when I saw my colleagues souping up their bikes, I also tried everything but nothing seemed cool,” he said.
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He added that, “This idea came to me less than two weeks ago and when I tried it, it looked great.”
Mwangi, a former street boy said before he ‘planted grass’ on his motorbike, he would pocket between Sh800 and Sh1,000 a day, but he now gets double that.
“Many people are attracted to my bike, even people in vehicles are begging for a ride,” he said.
The boda boda covered in artificial grass
With this invention, Mwangi is making some money from pimping other bikes at Sh10,000 or more.
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“For 1600cc bikes and above like mine I charge Sh10,000.”
He also pimps super bikes and the charges vary depending on size.
“It’s not an easy task since I have to fit the grass just right,” he said.
Mwangi, a class six dropout, was born and raised in Rumuruti, but after the death of his father in late 90s, he left the village to fend for himself in Nairobi.
“That was in 1996. I was only 16. In fact I trekked for two weeks to Nairobi, only to be greeted by hard life. I ended up in the streets as a chokoraa for five years,” he revealed.
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The father of two kids in class 4 and 3 said that after sometime, he did menial jobs at an eatery along Thika Road where he started developing a love for bikes and practised once in while on borrowed bikes.
“One day, around 2008, a businesswoman gave me her bike to do boda business. I did it for three years and saved Sh160,000 which I used to buy this bike,” he explained. He added that, “It has been seven years now and this bike feeds and clothes my family, hopefully this idea will turn around the business.”
