A MAN IN LAIKIPIA COUNTY INVENTS A DEVICE THAT REMOTELY SWITCHES ON AND OFF SECURITY LIGHTS AT HOME

BY SYLVIAH MALOBA

Laikipia county is marred with perennial cases of banditry and cattle rustling ,In the last three months over 14 people have been killed and over 400 displaced from their homes in Ol-Moran and Githiga wards.

Driven by the urge to curb the ever rising cases of insecurity, Elijah Mukundi a 40 year old father of Four has come up with an invention thats is likely to curb high cases of petty crimes that include house breakings more so in his Runda Village and the neighboring Kisima Village in laikipia County.

The Remote Power Control Unit is a gadget that enables a person to remotely switch on and off their security lights while away from home.

“At around 3 am i could not sleep i woke up to pray then an idea came to my mind on how to develop a device that could enable me remotely switch on my security lights at night , i am a mechanic and i have specialized in motor vehicle wiring and installations of speed governors and car alarms ,its from this background that i got my motivation” Said Mukundi.

In the year 2019 the month of December,many cases of insecurity were experienced in his neighboring community Kisima Village, ” it was approaching festive season and as usual we have to travel to the countryside, i was perturbed about the security of my home, i worked on this gadget it two me about two working days to fix it up after a lot of paperwork ,my idea was to create an impression to house breakers that someone was at home by switching on my security lights while away from home , this would scare them away i thought” Narrated Mukundi.

Mukundi’s Invention is made of readily available materials , a fews wires , an sms command unit , a mobile network and one must have a phone to send an sms that immediately responds by either switching on or off the lights at home connected to a consumer Unit.

” I tested this gadget for one year it was working perfectly until a family friend approached me and suggested that i should commercialize the invention , so far i have connected at atleast three homesteads i am hoping to connect more homes in the near future ” said Mukundi.

He explains that the reason as to why he initially did not take seriously the idea of commercializing his invention it was because the high cost of producing the gadget “It would cost me Ksh 7,000 to set up just one i thought of selling it at 10,000 but then i had few clients who could afford that cost , i need more customers in order to produce more devices this will lower the cost production ” Says Mukundi.

Mukundi is urging the Government to provide financial support to kenyans with unique inventions that are likely to help in curbing insecurity cases as well as create employment opportunities to hundreds of kenyan Youth.”I am urging the government to help commercialize our innovations they provide a solution to many of our local challenges ‘this will not only motivate inventors but will ultimately help in job creation”Says Mukundi.

At the moment Mukundi is working on a different invention that is targeted at helping poultry farmers he says he will make it public after conducting a number of trials “I intend to come up with a gadget that a farmer can remotely use to feed their poultry while away from home says Mukundi with his signature smile.