Self-taught landscaper plans school to address shortage in the industry

Mr Japhet Mwamba at the Kenya Methodist University in Meru on November 13. PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL  

By AGNES ABOO, aabo@ke.nationmedia.com

Entrepreneurship experts often say that people keen on starting a business should consider turning their passions into an occupation as it increases their chances of success.

Japhet Mwamba, a 54-year-old man from Meru, has done exactly that; he has channelled his love for nature into a successful landscaping business which has seen him land jobs with top institutions in the country.

Mr Mwamba, who did not attend any formal beautification class, started his business with just Sh5,000 and now earns up to Sh500,000 per month.

“I have not been to a single design or beautification class. I have learned everything I know about landscaping through apprenticeship, reading books and practice,” Mr Mwamba told Enterprise.

Some of the gardens he has helped beautify since starting Japanco Landscapers Limited in 1983 include the Bomas of Kenya, Harambee House and Kenya Methodist University ­ (KeMU) main campus.

When Kenya was celebrating 50 years of self-rule in 2013, the government contracted the father of three to re-decorate State House gardens in Nairobi, a contract he said marked the pinnacle of his career.

After completing A-level in 1982, Mr Mwamba decided to turn his love for nature into a business. Despite having attained good examination results, he did not have funds to join college. His father sold off a few trees in their homestead and gave the young Mwamba the money to pursue his interest.

He bought flower seedlings but some of the plants died due to mishandling. “I lacked professional knowledge on how to handle different species of flowers and to landscape gardens differently,” he said.

“Despite these setbacks, I bought more seedlings and grew them through trial and error.”

He landed his first serious job in 1985 when Prof Mutuma Mugambi, a former vice chancellor of KeMU and Kenya Airports Authority chairman, hired him to landscape his home in Meru at Sh15,000.

Mr Mwamba said the assignment was the break his budding career desperately needed. He later secured landscaping jobs with different institutions such as Meru School, Meru Technical Training Institute and Kaaga Girls High School.

As his business was gathering steam in the late 1980s, Mr Mwamba visited Nairobi which he said was at the time a true “city under the sun.”

“The landscaping was something to behold. Nairobi at that time was clean and very organised,” he remembered. The man behind this exquisiteness was British horticulturalist Peter Greensmith.

The late Greensmith, who has been described in books as the green-fingered genius, was responsible for the beautification of Nairobi streets and gardens before and after independence.

Mr Greensmith opened a tree nursery along Lang’ata Road — a site Mr Mwamba visited on several occasions to see the “work of a true expert” — after retiring

“During one of my visits I had a brief chat with Mr Greensmith. The few minutes I spent with him and the numerous garden visits thereafter made up for my lack of professional training,” said Mr Mwamba.

Many setbacks

The self-taught florist operates his business from a 1.5 acre piece of land in Igane village, Imenti Central. He grows and sells seedlings of different tree and flower species with the help of three employees.

He incorporates the latest technology, including grafting, to come up with a variety of flowers which have as many as five different colours.

“I graft different types of flowers to fit my customers’ specifications because some of them want colours that are not naturally produced by plants,” Mr Mwamba said.

He advises his customers to use big trees to design their compounds because they offer shades and can be a good place to relax on a hot weekend afternoon.

There is a shortage of experts in the landscaping field despite the rising number of institutions which teach the subject, he said.

As a way of giving back to the art that has shaped his life, Mr Mwamba is in the process of starting a design and landscaping training institute to address this shortfall.

“We have done many gardens but there are not enough experts to manage them. I cannot landscape and manage all of them alone and that is why there is need for professional training in this sector,” he told Enterprise.

He is working with professionals from institutions of higher learning to develop a landscaping curriculum.

John Muchiri, KeMU’s Dean of Research, Development and Postgraduate Studies, and a beneficiary of Mr Mwamba’s handiwork, said their students have benefited greatly from his expertise and visitors are awed by the campus’ beauty.

“When we started KeMU we had no flowers or trees to make our environment different and beautiful. We now have two artificial lakes, some statues and flowers,” said Mr Muchiri.