As the sun dips behind sugarcane fields in western Kenya, darkness once arrived quickly in the village of Bukalama in Busia County.
Evenings ended abruptly, books were closed early, phones went silent, and night settled heavily over homes.
Today, however, the rhythm has changed, and dusk now brings a quiet glow instead of sudden darkness.
Small bulbs flicker on across several houses, light spills onto mud walls, and a television hums softly.
Phones vibrate as they charge, stretching the day beyond sunset and restoring life to the evening hours.
This electricity does not come from the national grid, nor from diesel generators humming nearby.
It comes from a pit latrine.
A dream stalled by school fees
Behind the unlikely innovation is Edwin Wandera, an 18-year-old student whose university dreams stalled for lack of fees.
Edwin grew up in Bukalama village in Busia County, where electricity remains scarce and costly.
Like many rural areas, Bukalama sits largely off-grid, leaving families dependent on kerosene lamps and fading daylight.
After completing secondary school, Edwin hoped to study engineering, but his family could not raise the money.
For many young Kenyans, that moment ends ambition, quietly and permanently.
For Edwin, it marked a beginning.
“I started asking myself what I could do with what I had,” he told Citizen TV.
What he had was curiosity, time, and a pit latrine behind his family home.
Experimenting with what was available
Driven by online videos and basic reading, Edwin began studying electricity, chemical reactions, and batteries.
With no formal training and no laboratory, he turned his backyard into a place of experimentation.
Inside the pit latrine, he mixed human waste with oil and acid, hoping to trigger an electrical reaction.
At first, nothing happened, until a faint current appeared, weak and unstable but undeniably real.
Sensing potential, Edwin assembled a crude transformer using scrap materials found around the village.
Without copper wire, he improvised, replacing it with barbed wire normally used for fencing.
There were no safety manuals, no insulation, only persistence sharpened by necessity.
Busia Power Innovator:
18-year-old improvises system to generate electricity
He uses a mix of oil, acid and human waste
Edwin Wandera is generating power for three homes #CitizenSundayLive pic.twitter.com/puleb9pqQK
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) February 1, 2026
From disbelief to light
Slowly, the current grew strong enough to light a bulb, drawing curious neighbours to his compound.
Some laughed, others doubted, but disbelief faded when the light stayed on.
Word spread quickly, and Edwin extended cables to nearby houses, one connection at a time.
Today, his system provides lighting and phone charging to six households.
Children read after sunset, families linger longer, and small businesses stretch into the night.
For residents long accustomed to darkness, the change feels deeply significant.
“The power is small,” one villager said, “but it has changed how we live.”
Innovation born of necessity
Kenya is celebrated for innovation, especially in Nairobi’s Silicon Savannah, yet Edwin’s idea came from scarcity.
Across Africa, many breakthroughs emerge this way, born from gaps, neglect, and urgent need.
Despite online attention and widespread praise, Edwin has received no grants or technical support.
He acknowledges safety concerns and says professional guidance could help refine and scale the system.
A future still under construction
His ambition now reaches beyond Bukalama, toward powering 100 homes and studying engineering.
Each evening, as the lights glow, his resolve hardens.
“I don’t want this to stop here,”he says.
READ ALSO: Busia boy who trudged 87km to Maseno School receives full scholarship
As night deepens, the pit latrine remains ordinary and overlooked, yet it now fuels something extraordinary.
In a village once defined by darkness, imagination has rewired possibility.
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