Adventurous pensioner gets new wings to fly

Mr Paul Gichohi displays quail eggs in his home. He collects an average 120 eggs and sells each at Sh20. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI 

By BONIFACE MWANGI

In Summary

• Mr Paul Gichohi makes Sh2,400 a day selling quail eggs to his neighbours in Tetu.

Paul Gichohi, 67, retired as a senior Judiciary executive in 2002 without a clear plan for the future. All he knew was that he was returning home to take care of his few dairy cows and tend the tea farm.

However, he was soon jolted out of the comfort zone by the daily expenditures. Sustaining the family on the “little pension” he received and the meagre sales from tea and milk was increasingly becoming difficult. He had to urgently find something to do for a regular income.

Mr Gichohi, a resident of Muthua-ini village in Tetu in Nyeri County, at this time interrupts the interviewer to explain that he does not believe in relying on children after retirement.

“Parents should always have an idea what to do when they retire and stop overburdening their children,” he told Business Daily.

“I had to come up with a way to sustain my family’s demands since the cash I got as pension was too little,” he added.

One day he heard on radio a story of a successful farmer from Karen in Nairobi who kept birds, including the quails. He got interested after listening to the narration and got a few facts on the birds the Karen farmer kept, how much he earned after how long, the source of market, and feeding the wild birds.

Time was ripe to call this farmer whose phone number was read on the programme. He booked an appointment and they met.

“First, I was shocked to see that quail birds are as tiny as the size of chicks and even asked my host whether indeed they were mature or they were still growing,” he told Business Daily.

“After he explained to me and even showed me what he had achieved from their sale, I was more shocked. He informed me that I had to get a permit from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to start rearing the birds.”

Mr Gichohi went back to Nyeri a changed man and the next day visited the KWS offices for a permit. As a condition for getting the permit, he was told to build cages for the birds.

The father of three started with 30 quail birds which he bought at Sh500 each and kept them in four-feet by two-feet cages. He keeps Japanese quails.


After a short period of time, he got more passionate and added other birds and varieties.

Mr Gichohi now keeps 24 guinea fowls, a number of guinea pigs, and 700 quail birds after 10 years.

In a day he collects more than 120 eggs which he sells to his neighbours and others from as far as Nyahururu, Nakuru, and Nanyuki for only Sh20 per egg.

“I am not supplying the supermarkets or retail shops yet since my production is low and the demand high that I am yet to satisfy.”

The retired senior executive says after a decade in the business, it is so lucrative and the demand so tempting that he wants to collect not less than 500 eggs a day when his chicks mature.

 

At Sh20 an egg, he would earn an average Sh10,000 every day and about Sh0.3m monthly.

Mr Gichohi benefits from word-of-mouth marketing when neighbours spread news about his business and how consuming quail’s eggs is rewarding.

Continuous consumption of these coloured and dotted tiny eggs smaller than the tennis ball, rejuvenates the body, he explains. People suffering from diabetes, low and high blood, indigestion and arthritis are his frequent customers.

They have returned with news of satisfaction and improvement, guaranteeing him the all-important repeat purchase.

He is not selling the birds yet, despite the continuous enquiries from impatient consumers and others keen on trying the same business. They will have to wait until the farmer attains the right number of birds; he did not disclose a figure.

Quail is a collective term for several mid-sized birds named according to appearance, behaviour, and other physical features. In Kenya, many are found in wheat- and rice-farming areas. The King quail, one of the oldest types, is kept as a pet.

Mr Gichohi says many people retire without business plans and rely on their children for financial support.

He says: “Many parents have turned their children into ‘toll stations’ and every time they run short of cash they ask for more. This is not wise, it is worse for a parent who had a job.”

This is the main reason many children stay away from parents, he told Business Daily at end of the interview.