The morning mist lifts from Lake Victoria as Michael Otieno surveys the thick, green mats of water hyacinth choking the shoreline. For decades, fishermen in Kisumu have cursed these dense tangles that trap their boats at the beach and steal oxygen from the water below. Yet in Otieno’s modest workshop in Mambo Leo, the same notorious weed is being transformed into crisp sheets of paper, one careful pulp at a time.
This transformation represents more than clever entrepreneurship. It embodies a fundamental shift in how East Africa approaches one of its most persistent environmental challenges, reframing ecological burden as economic opportunity.
From garden ornament to ecological disaster
Water hyacinth’s journey to infamy began innocuously in the early 1900s, when Belgian colonists in Rwanda admired its glossy leaves and delicate purple flowers floating in their garden ponds. The aesthetic appeal proved deceptive. By the 1980s, the South American native had escaped via the Kagera River and reached Lake Victoria, where perfect temperature conditions and an absence of natural predators allowed it to spread with alarming speed.
Scientists dubbed it “the world’s worst aquatic weed” for good reason. The plant quickly began gobbling up open water, choking fishing routes and creating ideal breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes. At its peak, water hyacinth covered up to 17,000 hectares of Lake Victoria’s surface, devastating livelihoods across the region.
“The weed is endangering some fish species such as tilapia by drawing oxygen from the water and blocking sunlight,” Otieno explains. “The fish numbers have declined and access to the lake hindered because the weed clogs the lake making it difficult for fishermen to navigate.”
The economic impact extends beyond fishing. During peak infestations, entire tourism operations collapse. “During the December holidays, many people went out of business because there was too much hyacinth,” Otieno recalls. “Tourists were coming in for boat riding but the boats could not navigate. People were unable to pay rent and school fees for their children.”
Traditional responses focused on costly mechanical removal and herbicide treatment, providing only temporary relief whilst draining government coffers. Kisumu’s entrepreneurs have chosen a different path entirely.
One entrepreneur’s transformation
Otieno’s journey from school dropout to environmental innovator began with heartbreak. Born in Nairobi, he moved to Kisumu in 1997 to attend Kisumu Boys High School, dreaming of becoming an accountant. Two years later, his parents could no longer afford school fees, shattering his academic aspirations.
Reluctantly following his uncle’s advice, Otieno joined the Kisumu Innovation Centre of Kenya (KICK) in 1999, learning to weave furniture from hyacinth and papyrus. The charitable organisation paid weavers KSh 600 ($6) per chair, with trainees receiving half whilst their mentors took the remainder.
His dexterity quickly caught attention. Mr. Muchilwa, his supervisor, began giving Otieno direct orders, allowing him to keep full payments. When Muchilwa learned about his interrupted education, he encouraged the young man to return to school.
By 2002, having saved enough for fees, Otieno returned to Kisumu Boys High School whilst continuing weekend and holiday work at KICK. However, when Muchilwa’s contract ended in 2003, operations halted, again threatening Otieno’s education. Despite frequent dismissals for unpaid fees, he managed to complete his exams in 2004.
After graduation, Otieno reunited with Muchilwa, who had established a home-based paper recycling enterprise. “He trained me in blending waste paper with hyacinth fibre,” Otieno recalls. “After working with him for three years, he advised me to start a business of my own.”
In 2006, despite his reservations about going solo, Otieno established Takawiri Enterprises Limited with basic equipment: a small trough, pestle, and mortar. Operating from his residence in Migosi, he began manually producing business cards, book covers, and envelopes from blended waste paper and hyacinth.
The labour-intensive process proved challenging. “I was not clear about what to do. I was young at the time and trying to venture into business for the first time. But I had nothing else to do, I decided to do it anyway,” he reflects.
Recognition arrived in 2014 when Otieno placed third in the Green Innovations Awards organised by the National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND). The achievement brought seed money that enabled him to fabricate a calendaring machine and pulping equipment, dramatically enhancing production capabilities. NETFUND also supported a one-year business course, providing crucial commercial skills.
With this funding, Otieno rented a quarter-hectare plot in Mambo Leo, relocating the enterprise and expanding his product line to include folders, notebooks, seasonal cards, gift bags, and paper lamp shades. According to NETFUND, Takawiri Enterprises has successfully controlled over 20 tonnes of hyacinth, demonstrating measurable environmental impact alongside economic success.
The manufacturing process
The transformation from invasive weed to commercial product follows a carefully refined process. Hyacinth gets cut into small pieces before sun-drying. During unfavourable weather, the material is boiled for three hours. Waste paper is then added, and the mixture gets crushed to produce pulp before adding wood glue for binding.
The pulp enters a water-filled trough, where it gets sieved using A-3 size filters. These dry in the sun, forming paper sheets that pass through a calendaring machine. Pressure application leaves the final product smooth and foldable, ready for commercial use.
Currently producing approximately 200 sheets daily with five permanent employees, Otieno generates average monthly revenues of KSh 60,000 ($480). However, he operates on a made-to-order basis, limiting growth potential.
Government backing and industrial scale
The enterprise’s success coincided with policy changes that boosted demand. Kenya’s 2017 plastic bag ban created urgent market opportunities for eco-friendly packaging alternatives. Unfortunately, Otieno lacked capacity to secure major contracts with companies seeking sustainable solutions.
“At the moment we can only make 200 pieces of paper per day,” he explains. “Once we get the pulp, we make the paper manually but there is a machine that can give us up to 3,000 pieces of paper in a day.”
Government recognition has begun materialising beyond awards. In 2023, Kisumu received a KSh 40 million ($320,000) water hyacinth harvester from India’s government. This machine can clear vast lake sections within hours, with officials planning to channel collected biomass into fertiliser and animal feed production.
The broader vision extends beyond individual enterprises toward systematic circular economy development. Kenya’s national government has proposed establishing a fertiliser factory using hyacinth as primary raw material, potentially creating hundreds of jobs whilst reducing agricultural input costs across the region.
International support has followed domestic momentum. The United Nations committed KSh 910 million ($7 million) in 2024 to scaling water hyacinth utilisation across the entire Lake Victoria basin. The project specifically targets private sector engagement in converted hyacinth products, providing equipment finance and market development support.
Innovation beyond paper
Innovation continues accelerating beyond Takawiri’s paper production. HyaPak, a Nairobi-based startup, has developed biodegradable seedling bags from hyacinth fibres that decompose naturally whilst providing plant nutrients. Their 2024 distribution programme included testing with Kenya’s military, the Kenya Forest Research Institute, and major agricultural organisations.
Biogas production represents another promising frontier. Dominic Kahumbu’s Biogas International has created digesters converting hyacinth biomass into clean cooking fuel, with each unit processing 50 kilograms of weed daily whilst generating liquid fertiliser by-products.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved organically. Kisumu’s Innovation Centre now showcases baskets, furniture, and decorative items crafted from lake weeds. Local universities have launched research programmes investigating optimal processing techniques and market applications.
Challenges and regional implications
Despite recognition and gradual expansion, significant obstacles remain. Capital constraints continue limiting growth potential. Otieno believes proper mechanisation could generate KSh 100,000 ($800) daily revenues whilst enabling bulk production and additional employment.
“So passionate is this budding innovator that he is convinced his project could eradicate the hyacinth in less than a year while creating employment and conserving the environment by reducing the number of trees used in papermaking,” industry observers note.
Hyacinth seeds remain dormant for up to 15 years, making complete eradication impossible. Quality standardisation affects export potential, whilst limited processing infrastructure constrains scalability. Most fundamentally, successful enterprises must grow faster than the weed itself reproduces.
Yet the psychological shift proves as significant as economic metrics. Communities that once viewed hyacinth with helpless frustration now see potential income sources floating past their shores. Unemployment rates exceeding 30% among young people make such perspectives critically important.
The implications extend far beyond Kisumu’s boundaries. Lake Victoria supports 40 million people across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Similar circular economy models could address comparable environmental challenges throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where rapid urbanisation and climate change create mounting waste management pressures.
For Michael Otieno, whose workshop transforms lake weeds into livelihood, the lesson remains elegantly simple. Environmental problems need not spell economic doom when communities possess skills, support and market access needed to convert waste into wealth.
“I am trying to offer a sustainable solution to the hyacinth problem. The government has tried to eradicate it without success,” he reflects. His journey from reluctant artisan to environmental entrepreneur demonstrates how individual determination, combined with targeted support, can transform both lives and landscapes.
The hyacinth will continue growing, its seeds lying dormant beneath Victoria’s waters for years to come. The question facing Kisumu, and similar communities across Africa, is whether industries feeding on environmental challenges can outpace the problems they seek to solve.
Take action today: Support circular economy enterprises by sourcing eco-friendly products from water hyacinth manufacturers. If you are a policymaker, investor or entrepreneur, fund the machinery, build the markets, and back the innovators transforming environmental pressures into economic opportunities.
Sources: FarmBiz Africa, Kisumu County Government, Business Today, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Biogas International, National Environment Trust Fund
Compiled by Philip Mwangangi
