Retirees set up poultry venture to improve income

Retired Teachers (1997) Group chairman Joseph Mwenja (left) and secretary Gidraph Kimatta refers to the Constitution during a past Press conference in Nakuru. The government is facing a pension time bomb. FILE 

By STELLAR MURUMBA

A group of retirees from Tetu in Nyeri county has ventured into poultry to beat boredom and old age poverty.

Kenya Association of Retired Officers (Karo) last week launched a Sh7 million poultry project at Kiandu Market in Nyeri County.

The project, comprising of 17 members and trustees, boasts of 3,500 broiler chickens on contractual farming with Brade Gate Poultry Industry, a multi-million shilling business with the largest slaughter house in the region.

According to the project’s chairman George Githae Ngure, a retired principal of Kaigonde Secondary School, group members meet the third gender parity requirement of the new Constitution.

“Ours is not just to stay at home and die. We did not leave our brains behind when we retired and when we set out to construct this chicken house in 2013 we knew we would make an impact,” Mr Ngure said.

He said the venture would keep them busy and maintain their role model status in the society.

Mr Ngure said that they acquired one-day old chicks from Brade Gate at Sh65 each. The broilers are now mature and they will be selling mature chickens at Sh200 each. “It cost the group Sh227,500 to acquire chicks. We also got chicken feeds from Brade Gate,’’ he said.

‘‘We expect to realise about Sh2.8 million as proceedings from this project at the end of the year,” he said.

No corruption

Mr John Mucheru, the project’s vice chairman, said they had a lot to offer. “It is a noble course for those who served their motherland unreservedly when there was no corruption and retired and need moral support,” Mr Mucheru said.

However, he said, they were not self-sufficient and would appreciate external help not necessarily financial, but moral as well. Marytriza Kimuri, a retired teacher and a trustee in the group, said the project was a long-term scheme which had given them hope and something to look forward to.

“After retiring there is still life and this is a long-term venture that can be inherited by other retirees and even family members. It gives us a purpose and reason to live longer,” Ms Kimuri said.

Group members appealed to the government to improve feeder roads in the area for easier transportation of their products. The project is open to retirees from Tetu sub-county.