Two talented carpenters are set to become the newest millionaires in town after a video of their unique moving furniture went viral.
Kelvin Odari and Stephen Odhiambo in just under 72 hours have received 800 plus orders of their furniture estimated to be worth Shs 20 million.
The Ngong Road-based carpenters became an instant sensation after renowned hotelier Mohammed Hirsi posted their work on social media pages.
And on Sunday, June 14, Mr. Hersi who is also the Chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation has indicated that he has received overwhelming responses from all over the world and he has glad that he has made an impact on the lives of the budding artisans.
According to Mr. Hersi, the poss received over 2.2 Million views on Twitter. 50,000 likes and over in under 72 hours, while Facebook received over 250,000 views, 3600+ shares 850+ comments.
Additionally, the duo has attracted three contacts from South Africa, one in Ethiopia and one in Tanzania who all want to be their agents.
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The moving seat is designed to act as park bench when folded, and a table seat when unfolded. Their prices range from Ksh 25,000 to Ksh 40,000.
“We adopted the idea to assemble this seat from the internet this year (2020) and people love them. Since the video was shared, we have received a number of offers to design them,” says Mr Odhiambo
Odhiambo says that five of them including Odari and him, came up with the idea to work together in 2010 after they met in Nairobi. All five of them stay in Dagoretti and commute daily to their workshop for work.
“All of us learned this trade from watching how experienced artisans constructed and renovated furniture. We started with common structures like beds and seats and adopted this new trend lately.
The five carpenters are looking forward to creating social media pages where they can capitalize on the growing market.
One of their prominent customers is Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua who affirmed that he usually supports the artisans’ work.
“This looks like Dagoretti corner – Ngong road furniture place. That is where I like getting furniture made so that the money circulates among my people. If you insist on quality and diligence, they design for you an equivalent of what you can purchase in imported furniture shops,” Mutua tweeted.
Creative Kenyans……they just some support and not handouts. pic.twitter.com/nYRcSxggps
— Mohammed Hersi (@mohammedhersi) June 10, 2020
