Thuranira Thiaine, an entrepreneur from Meru, has launched Mazao Organic to provide affordable organic fertilizer made from local waste materials to farmers. Founded in 2020, the company aims to restore degraded soil health damaged by chemical inputs. It now serves over 5,000 farmers across Kenya.
Thuranira Thiaine drew inspiration from thriving forests that grow without fertilizers, believing human farms could benefit similarly if soil health is restored. Between 2015 and 2017, as a communications officer in Meru County, he witnessed long queues of farmers waiting for fertilizers. “What touched me most was not just their numbers, but their faces—people who have toiled with sweat, elders who farmed their whole lives but now captives of a system that fails to meet their needs,” Thiaine says.
This led him to question why farmers struggle when raw materials are abundant. After leaving county service, he partnered with engineer Charles Onyango to found Mazao Organic in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. They raised Sh5 million from savings, including selling a plot of land for Sh2.5 million.
The company produces water-based fertilizer using livestock manure from cows, goats, sheep, and chickens, along with ash and live microbes from forests and saline environments, such as mesophiles, thermophiles, and saline microbes. This cuts production time from six months to under 10 days. The fertilizer is enriched with Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium (NPK) and combats crop pests and diseases.
They also make Mazao Digester to treat waste and sewage sludge. Leftover ash is converted into fuel briquettes. Today, the factory in Kianjai, Tigania West, produces over 1,000 liters per month, up from 100 initially. One liter at Sh2,000 covers one acre and serves more than 5,000 farmers. The company employs 12 permanent staff and 120 indirect workers.
Thiaine, who graduated in 2005 with a degree in Communications, previously worked in banking before entering agriculture, noting that farming is tangible and impacts people's lives directly.
