Form 4 Leavers Build Bionic Arm to Assist People with Disabilities.
Two Form Four students from Thogoto in Kiambu County are the talk of the town after inventing robots to help people with disabilities function normally.
David Gathu and Moses Kiuna’s workplace is a complete disaster despite their enthusiasm for robotics and engineering!
The two are assembling gadgets that only top scientists can dream of, littered with various types of e-waste.
The only difference is that they do not use cutting-edge raw materials to support their innovations.
Theirs is scrap gathered from dumpsites in Nairobi and its environs.
“We go to dumpsites and collect these materials you see here. Others we get from clients whom we help to repair their gadgets like TVs and computers,” Gathu says.
These self-made inventors created a bionic arm out of wood, wires, rubber, and leather. The arm is intended to assist those who are unable to function normally.
Gathu and Kiuna began building the arm in 2011 after studying scientific material to learn how the human body works.
According to Gathu, the first arm was created in 2013 to assist a friend who was born with a congenital amputation.
“Our friend was born without an arm. So we decided to put our minds together to make one for him.
“We asked ourselves if that arm can be able to move, why can’t we come up with something that connects to the arm and makes it complete? So we developed the arm and it has been helping him since.”
They are not only producing arms. When Covid-19 hit in 2020, the two inventors created the machine that uses oxygen to sanitize masks and money.
They were aiming for shops and businesses where money is exchanged with innovation.
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Kiuna claims that they still have many ideas that, if funded by the government, will help provide jobs for the country’s youth.
Their biggest challenge, they say, is a lack of funding and support to take their innovations to the next level.
“The owner of the business needs to place the money in the box, turn it on and from there the money will be sanitised completely. The machine helps to kill the virus in the money. It can also sanitise masks,” Gathu adds.
"It is our hope that well-wishers and other stakeholders will come on board and help us make this a national treasure,” Kiuna says.
For the time being, they are anticipating the arrival of such assistance in order to begin mass production.
Form 4 Leavers Build Bionic Arm to Assist People with Disabilities
