President Ruto fetes Kenyan innovators behind biodegradable sanitary pads

Speaking at Kenya's 59th Jamhuri Day celebrations, the Head of State announced that he has requested that the Ministry of Education collaborate with Eco-Bana, the young award-winning entrepreneurs to provide free sanitary pads to all of the nation's schools.

Also recognised was Nelly Cheboit, the founder of Techlit Africa, who was named CNN Hero of the Year on Monday for her work in creating computer labs for Kenyan children to access opportunities in the digital world.

"Among the Innovation Week’s champions are the winners of the 2022 Hult Prize, EcoBana, from St Paul’s University, who employed the concept of green and circular economy to produce biodegradable sanitary pads from banana fibre," said President Ruto.

"I have asked the Ministry of Education to work with these young innovators on the delivery of our pledge to provide sanitary pads for schools."

The team of five innovators comprises Lennox Omondi, Keylie Muthoni, Dullah Shiltone and Brian Ndung’u. 

EcoBana triumphed over five other finalists to win the Ksh.120 million Hult Prize at the competition held in New York City during the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in late September.

During their presentation at the event, the team claimed that by 2024, they hope to employ more than 2,000 people, sell more than three million pads, and earn more than Ksh.6 billion ($50 million).

The company has already introduced its product in the market and expanded to Egypt.

Mr Omondi is the Chief Technical Officer of the company, Muthomi is the Chief Operations Officer, Shiltone is the Chief Financial Officer and Ndung'u is the Marketing Officer.

On Cheboit, President Ruto lauded her for "connecting and inspiring thousand of Kenyan children."

"We also congratulate 29-year-old Nelly Cheboi the founder of Techlit Africa who this morning was declared the CNN Hero of the year for her work in creating comp labs for Kenyan children to access opportunities in the digital world," he said.

Cheboi, who left a lucrative software engineering job in Chicago in 2019 to build computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren accepted the award with her mother, whom she said: “worked really hard to educate us.”

At the beginning of her acceptance speech, Cheboi and her mother sang a song onstage that she explained had a special meaning when she was growing up.

As CNN Hero of the Year, Cheboi will receive $100,000 to expand her work. She and the other top 10 CNN Heroes honoured at Sunday’s gala all receive a $10,000 cash award and, for the first time, additional grants, organizational training and support from The Elevate Prize Foundation through a new collaboration with CNN Heroes.

 Nelly will also be named an Elevate Prize winner, which comes with a $300,000 grant and additional support worth $200,000 for her nonprofit.