A spotlight on the Kenyan technical team
By August 2018, we installed a record 1000 digesters! But what does it take to have a clean blue biogas flame blazing in every rural household around the world? Dive into Sistema.bio’s technical team to uncover it! The team is charged with installation and maintenance of all Sistema.bio digesters in all our regions of operation. Guess what?! They have now installed digesters in 15 counties in Kenya, three countries in Africa and they are just warming up. Every single day this team juggles between company deadlines, farmers eager to use biogas for the first time and the difficult terrain and weather conditions.
“Every week, we install between thirty to fifty digesters across Kenya; many at times, at the furthest ends of the Counties we serve.” – Says Quirin Walter; Sistema.bio’s Technical Manager (Or coach as he is fondly called). “Over my 9 years in the biogas sector in Africa, I have not seen this level of uptake”- he continues. Quirin’s work begins as soon as the Commercial department closes upwards of ten sales every day. He coordinates the biodigester logistics to the site and assigns his team to undertake installations and after-sales services.
Installation comes with a lot of variables that makes it tougher than it sounds; weather being the biggest nightmare. Rain is by far the biggest technical team’s “boss” it literally throws off the team’s schedule. This is because rural roads are not tarmacked and rain simply render them impassable. It takes a committed, disciplined and dedicated team to get the biodigesters on site and undertake installations. “I describe it as a rough and rewarding experience. Sometimes, beating deadlines is just impossible but the smile on farmer’s faces when they light up biogas is just rewarding. It washes away the struggles.”- Says Coach.
Client training and after sales services make up the powerhouse of the technical department; if we had to choose between more installations and customer satisfaction of the 1000 clients, we’d go for the latter. The company has a communication platform which allows all the teams to consolidate feedback and requests from farmers for action by the technical department. Robert Too is part of this incredible team. He carries out day to day maintenance and trainings to ensure that all Sistema.bio digesters in Kericho County are in tiptop working conditions. “When I started I thought I was the ultimate expert until I realized there is so much to learn from clients. I have now developed the art spicing and transferring those learnings to other clients.”- Says Robert.
“I have installed more than sixty digesters, but my most memorable day was the first time I watched a client light up her cook biogas stove for the first time. That was unparalleled satisfaction and one which remains etched in my mind.”- Says Joseph Wambugu, one of our very first technicians.
Operating in the rural areas has exposed Sistema.bio to immense untapped talent. Masons, plumbers and engineers have been trapped in the high unemployment levels in Kenya. Sistema.bio delights in the knowledge that its work has created employment to some of this highly talented people.
The technical team comprises men and women who were born and raised in rural areas and have experienced first-hand the increasing demand for sustainable energy and agricultural inputs. “Having the opportunity to provide quality Sistema.bio products and services to their communities is what keeps them motivated to blaze through the challenges. And that is the exact kind of workforce I want. I am humbled and at the same time challenged, by our technical team. Every day, they clad in overalls, they take up new challenges and we have had remarkable success, thanks to the teams in Githunguri, Meru, Gatundu, Baringo, Eldoret, Bomet and Kericho”- Says Raymond.
Today Samuel Kimani’s digester; that was the first to be installed in Kenya, in Githunguri- Kiambu County stands tall as a monument of the sustainable work that Sistema.bio is doing. While we pride in installing 1000 digesters in just over a year of operation in Kenya, we acknowledge that this is like a drop in the ocean in the efforts towards enabling access to sustainable energy and agricultural.
