 Linkon Wamai, founder of Link Cell Technology, thanks to the internet, is a self-taught engineer who makes electric cultures from recycled parts for the disabled. I deal with mobility permits for people living with disabilities. I still have a line that deals with electric scooters for normal people daily commuters, so mainly we deal with electric mobility for people with disability and mainly for daily commuters, people who commute daily to work because they see a lot of time from getting stuck in traffic. I was raised in a very humble background. I didn't want to do mechatronic when I when I completed my form four levels but I never managed to do that. I'm a form three dropout that was back in 2008 but that never stopped me from achieving and fulfilling my dreams. I had to figure out ways to fulfill them and try to make myself an engineer and I would say everything I do till today, I've learned through internet, following the right channels and I would say it's God-given talent. Having made the first prototype in 2016, Lincoln's motivation was as a result of the large number of persons with disabilities he noticed, especially in Nairobi. I was raised in Nanyuki, Likipia County. It's not a big town. When I was in Nanyuki, I never saw more than I would say in the highest number of people with disability at once was maybe five. So in 2014 when I came to Nairobi, I was very shocked. I had come to Nairobi on several times before then but this when I moved to Nairobi, I saw a lot of people with disabilities at one point. That was on a rainy season and it was on Russia when people wanted to go home. It was very challenging for them because no matatu could accept them in the matatus because you have to carry them, put them into a matatu and again they have a wheelchair that you need to some some wheelchairs are not even foldable. So it's like for everyone one person with disability it's like you have to carry them to the matatu again you have to carry the wheelchair to the rooftop of the matatu so that you can take them home. So I saw that people with disability were being neglected by our drivers, our conductors as in public means were really negating them and I thought of how I can come up with a solution. It was tough for me to think of what to do but I had to come you know before I used I am someone who brings solutions for the problem that I see. So I figured out a way of helping and coming up with a solution and the only thing I could have done or I could do at that point was to design a wheelchair okay that time it was not a wheelchair to design something that can ease the mode of transport for them a vehicle that can carry them from home to workplace and take them back home in the evening. It was challenging because I've been a green champion I love electric mobility because I don't like fuel so one thing I had to design a vehicle that must be powered by batteries secondly I'm a good champion of recycling I love using second hand things like I had to get second hand motors second hand batteries from laptops so it was very challenging for me to collect all the materials for me to build the prototype it took me two years to do that the first year was to collect the materials the second year was to build so from 2014 I completed my first wheelchair in 2016 it was very successful people would literally accepted it and I received a lot of feedback from the society post a feedback and that was how I started building wheelchairs a prototype is the original version of what you are building the first wheelchair I built it was a testing version uh I still I'm still keeping it as originalist was the first day so right now it's it's I think this is the sixth the fifth year it it has been running for the last five years he explains the process of making the wheelchairs okay I always make sure that what I build has at least 50% recycled materials uh I've been building electric wheelchairs and electric scooters and I've never imported a batch not once we have a lot of electronic waste locally so everything I build like the batteries I've been sourcing them locally so first of all you have to get to source batteries you have to get a good a good supply for batteries because you know batteries are needed in bulk secondly you have to get the correct electronics we have motors we have speed controllers and generators so at least now we have good channels for good suppliers and within a day we can even build two wheelchairs within five hours I'm able to complete a one wheelchair I've never consulted anyone on designing I'm a designer and I'm a maker so and by the way this okay I didn't know there was a difference between what I do mostly people design in a computer a model in a computer then they make a prototype unfortunately for me I design it in my mind and I build it then I draw it in a computer that's how I operate mine is quite the opposite of yeah mine is the other way I I build I design it in my mind build it with my hands and then draw it for in order for me to keep records though many youth indulge in wayward behaviors Lincoln is lucky to have escaped the trap the more reason he offers employment to his fellow youth talking of drugs and think that the youth are doing nowadays if I didn't have a vision and a focus I could I think up now I would be using drugs but since I was focused and I had something I wanted to do to fulfill in future uh I started to get the resources that I needed you know first of all I wanted a computer it was very hard for me to get one and I think most people or most of the youth in Kenya are doing they are not they are doing things that are not are not building the nation because they lack resources for me I wanted a computer to be able to learn online to get online unfortunately to get one was very hard but I got one using not good ways but at least I I achieved to get one I used that computer to educate myself to turn myself into between from I useless person to a useful person in the society actually my first project I did was in 2010 from from 2008 I did my first project in 2010 I had a project and a vision of getting out of Kenya so what I did I started designing a drone a drone that could carry me and take me to a place away from Kenya but not in Kenya unfortunately that project was way expensive for me so talking of the drugs I think some youth are using drugs because they lack resources of which that is not a solution you have to be focused and think of a way you can survive and make make something to help the society some youth most of the youth or some youth have very good ideas the problem is lacking exposure support from the government and resources because you can have a good idea like in my case I had very good ideas of building a wheelchair and still I have more ideas but I lack enough resources to fulfill them so I know they are still and I have people who I've been working with who have good ideas in fact there are people I have people who've been coming to my workshop and doing their own projects not related to my project because they have very good ideas but they don't have the resources to fulfill the dreams so I think we lack no I think I'm very sure we lack resources exposure and support from the government my vision has been creating employment and making creating employment and bringing mobility solution for all that include the disability and people who can work because I build scooters and wheelchairs employment has been my key thing employing the youth because I understand you know there was time I was looking for employment it was very challenging so it feels nice when I employ youth and train them to be useful people because in my company I don't like employing people fully because I like training people to be important people in the society that can they can do something impactful to the society the fact that he uses electronic quest does not exempt him from challenges yeah we have a lot of challenges like right now people are getting to recycling batteries so now the batteries are not we are not getting enough batteries that is the main challenge you know our wheelchairs are our wheelchairs of vehicles are powered by batteries so if you don't get batteries they won't move so we have that challenge of batteries I understand we have a lot of institutions where they have a lot of batteries but they don't know where to take them I can because I've been recycling I'll keep them I'll put them in good use so if you have batteries that you're not using we can have them because right now we have a big challenge of batteries sometimes you have the challenge of importing and things get delayed before they get and you had promised a customer in this time the wheelchair will be ready so those are kind of the challenges we have with shipping companies again like the products we make the wheelchairs we make we don't have designated place for them to be reading on the highways that is the main challenge with the users now that is a complaint from users we don't have designated place for wheelchair users in our roads I think the government should leave a designated place for bicycles and other small vehicles like wheelchairs because we can't you can't you are it's not safer to use a wheelchair on the highways so if you had a safer place a designated place for the wheelchairs it would be safe for the user and for other road users I think in the society people with disability don't get the attention they require like this issue of being neglected by public transport and for those who care for them in public transport because they are those people who care for them the vehicles are not designed to accommodate them when I create a solution that is making their mobility easy for them they it helps them become independent uh help them make their day to day as it helps them become independent and when you become independent you are able to get an income you know some I have some customers who use the wheelchairs to do some hawkings in town like selling sweets uh like I would say like in there's a lady in a place called kiaaba who is using the wheelchair to do to sell some peanuts and other small stuff in fact she converted the wheelchair to be a shop we have three types of wheelchairs we have the foldable wheelchair that one goes for 80 000 we have uh an offroad we have two different types of offroad wheelchairs one with a single motor still goes that one goes for 90 000 and we have now the strong version that has two motors meant for going uphill that one goes for 110 000 so those are the products we have oh and I forgot about the scooters we have scooters as slow as from 25 000 one thing we had to consider when we were building we were designing I was designing the wheelchairs I had to make them affordable to be the imported ones I think as for now the cheapest wheelchair you can get an imported wheelchair the cheapest you can get is 130 000 and mine is 80 000 so I think there's a great difference but what we're offering is a solution you know the imported wheelchairs are not meant for Kenyan roads we have bad roads but the wheelchairs we design and meant for offroad capability they have shook up soba to make the roughest rain so smooth and for those who can't afford because I understand most people in this village are associated with poverty of which sometimes sometimes you know the the correct thing to say but we have like for me most people who buy wheelchairs from me they rely on the society to contribute do a contribution and buy a wheelchair for them in my case like for instance if someone is being donated people are donating for someone to buy a wheelchair there's a percentage I give a discount I give for people who are being who are who are being a contribution for a wheelchair but for those people who can afford a wheelchair I don't I don't I actually don't support them because we have people who actually need that support who can't afford that wheelchair at all there's a program that you want to start where a customer can purchase a wheelchair in higher purchase you pay in bits that will make the wheelchair more affordable because according to the feedback I get from society we have people who can't be able to afford that 80 000 at once but if you ask them to be paying like 100 bob daily that one they can afford you know when you get a wheelchair you are able to work and when you're able to work you can be able to to to pay that balance you of the wheelchair so we want to introduce a system where people can pay the wheelchair in bits thanks to technology he is grateful to social media for the role it plays in promoting his business I don't have a marketing team I rely on social media and referrals from people who've been using the wheelchairs because I believe every wheelchair that I build will perform like I promised and if the wheelchair perform I know the customer who uses it will give referrals good referrals that's how we've been surviving my greatest achievement is seeing a product that I designed solving a problem of mobility in Africa secondly creating employment I told you the other time I was looking for employment it was hard for me so when I have a team of people that are relying on this company it makes me feel like part of my dreams are being achieved though he uses junk materials there are those that he must import there are some parts I import like the speed controller school it's easy to import them to to make to manufacture them locally in fact we didn't have the facility that could be able to manufacture electronics but at least now we do but the capability for them to manufacture is beyond what we need so right now is still importing but in future you want to be supporting local manufacturing factories and local youth to grow lincon also gives back to society especially to persons living with disabilities we actually visit the less fortunate who are disabled we love visiting them and sometimes we even donate wheelchairs to those who can't afford at all yeah again through social media we've been we've been able to reach out to even people who are brought by wheelchairs for our local people here so mobility I would say mobility is that is the thing that we want to solve for political disabilities due to his love for the environment lincon's workshop is solar powered due to my love for green energy we even made sure that our workshop is fully powered by solar solar solar panels we use we make sure everything we build is powered by batteries our wheelchairs I'll build using solar power energy because we run the workshop using solar panels so we love we love solving the environment and not polluting it and I wish I wish most people could start using electric mobility because you understand right now we've been having a lot of pollutions people are buying vehicles and the vehicles are polluting the environment we have a solution we have scooters you can use a scooter to ride to your workplace instead of using a vehicle it will decojas the cities cause zero pollution and almost zero maintenance he is lucky to have received financial grants that aided his work I think the only thing that I've ever received was a grant from UK aid through a program called AT2030 assistive technology 2030 um I want the grant because of the wheelchair I design and build the rest have been receiving through services I offer and selling the wheelchairs although what we make from selling the wheelchairs is not enough for us because you know we are dealing with someone who we don't want to sell our products that expensive so that people can be able to afford them so the revenue we make from selling the wheelchairs is not enough to sustain us and that's why we even designed scooters and other products that are using batteries lincon gives a thumbs up to cbc the new curriculum for the mere fact that it supports skills and talent for instance in my case I might be talented but if I were to look for a job in a company without papers I would I wouldn't get employment so I think the way the government has done this into supporting talents from that young age that is that was a good move the cbcs will will do a good job you know uh there are people who are talented in doing things other things than uh in the books so the at least they will get the support they need so it was a good move for the government to accept the new curriculum his message to young people therefore is to capitalize on their ideas for to my fellow youth uh if you have an idea uh a solution would like to solve get the right channel get the right resources give it time uh sometimes the financial support is what we lack give it enough time like if you know how much it will cost you you can save it you can save for it because sometimes getting them the financial to support those project is the biggest challenge like for me I I see that I got that challenge too I give it time get enough resources and work work work on it and I swear some at some point at some point it will give you a good feedback because I've come to understand Africans love things designed created in Africa because it was created by someone who understand the problem better than anyone else