Paul Njuguna, a retired technical manager at the Agricultural Development Corporation, invested Ksh 16 million in 2019 to set up Elgon Pine, a refined oil and animal feed plant in Eldoret. At its peak, the plant processed 90 tonnes of canola, sunflower, and soya annually, with capacity for 300 tonnes. Njuguna contracted about 100 farmers who supplied raw materials, while he also farmed 10 acres himself.
The business also produced poultry feeds and soap from crop by-products.
The venture collapsed after Kenya Power slapped him with a Ksh 400,000 bill in August 2021, compared to his usual monthly bill of about Ksh 30,000. Njuguna disputed it as an error and filed a complaint, but Kenya Power claimed underbilling and refused to adjust. When he failed to pay, Kenya Power disconnected electricity to both his plant and home. Though EPRA ruled in his favour and ordered reconnection, the power was never restored, forcing him to shut down operations.
The shutdown affected the entire value chain - contracted farmers, suppliers, and employees - all of whom lost income. Njuguna now questions whether the disconnection was deliberate sabotage and why Kenya does little to protect small industrial ventures. His case has raised concerns about how utility billing errors and slow dispute resolution can destroy promising local businesses and the livelihoods tied to them.
@shadrac_matata Utaskia big English soon courtesy of Antropic + Innovation. Devs won't believe it. 1 single premium license ya Claude will replace 100.
@vinwambua@ngwata_ Draw lessons from India. Tata Electronics' flagship semiconductor fabrication project in Dholera - They have been on it for many years. Recently an executive exited at a critical phase - but India soldiers on. In a decade they will be one of world's top 5 in the SCI.
Netflix, Wikipedia, Airbnb, Dropbox ~ all run on the same web server.
One quiet Russian engineer wrote it alone. For free. 🤯
> Meet Igor Sysoev 🇷🇺
> Russian software engineer. Born 1970 in Soviet Kazakhstan.
> Failed his first university entrance exam.
> Joined Rambler in 2000 as a system administrator.
> 2002 ~ started writing a new web server in his free time. Alone.
> Goal: handle 10,000 simultaneous users on one machine ~ a problem Apache (the dominant web server at the time) couldn't solve.
> 2004 ~ released nginx publicly. Free. Open source.
> Zero marketing. Zero PR. Just the code.
> 2008 ~ nginx was serving 500 million requests per day at Rambler.
> 2011 ~ founded Nginx Inc. with co-founder Maxim Konovalov.
> 2013 ~ Netflix scaled its streaming CDN to 40 Gbps per server using nginx.
> 2019 ~ F5 acquired the company for $670 million.
> December 2019 ~ Russian police raided his Moscow office over a fake copyright claim.
> The Russian tech community publicly defended him. Charges were dropped.🚀
> 2021 ~ nginx overtook Apache as the #1 web server on Earth.
> 2022 ~ left F5 quietly. No farewell tour. No book deal.
> Today nginx powers Netflix, Wikipedia, Airbnb, Dropbox, Cloudflare, WordPress.
> 33% of every website on Earth runs on his code. Apache trails at 26%. Microsoft's IIS isn't even close.
> Still 100% open-source. Still free.
One man wrote it alone, in his free time, for free.
He never sought publicity. He never asked for credit.
A third of every website on Earth still runs on his work.
Webserver GOAT 🐐
If you ever wonder why so many Ghanaians in South Africa want to return home, this is part of the reason, and I speak from experience.
Many arrive after being promised good salaries and commissions by salon owners and other employers. The first few weeks often seem fine, but when it’s time to get paid, the reality can be very different from what was promised.
By then, many have exhausted their savings, their return tickets have expired, and some don’t know how to regularize their stay. Without proper documentation, they live in fear and avoid drawing attention to themselves.
The real issue is exploitation. Some workers spend months trying to repay debts to employers who financed their travel, leaving them trapped in difficult situations.
I was lucky enough to have received information about permit applications. So I have legal documentation to stay in South Africa. But many others do not.
This is why so many people are now looking for a way back home.
@kijana_misa The constitution says gifts to public officers are by default public property. He can only donate to a public institution or give to treasury to sell
Europe's youngest self-made billionaire never set foot in Silicon Valley ~ started with €5,000 at 19 from Estonia. 🤯
Meet Markus Villig 🇪🇪
> Estonia. Population 1.3 million. Smaller than most cities Uber was fighting for.
> His brother Martin worked at Skype ~ proof that tech could come from anywhere.
> 2013 ~ fresh out of high school. Couldn't get a taxi on a Friday night in Tallinn.
> Borrowed €5,000 from his parents. That's the whole budget.
> Walked the streets signing up drivers one by one. No PR. Just conversations.
> Uber was in London, New York, Paris. Big cities. Big money. Big fights.
> So he took Eastern Europe. Then Africa. Cities nobody was building in.
> One city at a time. Quietly.
> Drops out of university after one semester ~ app growing faster than he can manage.
> Taxify becomes Bolt. Rides, food, scooters, groceries.
> 100M+ customers. 45+ countries. $8.4B valuation. 🚀
> Europe's youngest self-made billionaire at 27.
He still lives in Tallinn.
He still doesn't own a car.
Built an $8.4B transport empire by going where the giants weren't looking.
Absolute Legend. 🐐
Mid Term 2, 2026 CBC papers ready for download.
Play Group, PP1 & 2, Grade 1 - 10 CBC Exam papers with Marking Schemes.
Go to https://t.co/uJlx9BI5nX to download