Know your farmer

Mugendi Mburia

Mugendi is the inspiration behind Iburu, co-founder and the father to the founder, Gakii Mugendi. The challenges he faced as a smallholder coffee farmer in rural Kenya inspired the establishment of this project. Tapping into his resourcefulness, knowledge, and passion for coffee farming, Iburu grew from one farmer as others joined in. Sadly, he passed on after a short illness in August 2019. His family continues to take care of the coffee and project.

Miriti Baranya

His farm lies right at the edge of the Mount Kenya forest. He often tells of the rain-forest, once much greener with its beauty. Although he inherited some coffee from his parents, Miriti planted most of it. He's lived through the price crises but retains most of his coffee bushes. When asked why, he says, that coffee farming has been a big part of his life. Miriti was the second farmer to join Iburu in its early stage.

Graham Mutuma

Meet our youngest and vibrant farmer, Mutuma. He's an automotive engineer student who typically shares his time between school and farming. One of his farm crops is coffee, which he inherited from his parents. Despite the challenges associated with the coffee sector, he remains optimistic that he'll access better market opportunities and returns for his produce.

Kithinji Njeru

Kibaara M'Rithaa

Eric Munene

Mburia Mwirichia

Mburia is a passionate farmer. He planted his coffee in 1958 as one of its early adopters in our village. The returns offered to the farmers were good, and access to the extension services from the cooperative. In addition, they got subsidized farm inputs and access to financial credit to cater to school fees, hospital bills, etc. He says farming coffee used good business! However, after the crisis and decline in coffee prices in the 80s, most farmers uprooted their coffee. Nevertheless, he still values coffee farming and hopes that farmers can get decent returns and support.

Charity Njeri

Njeri practices mixed farming alongside her small-scale business. The family started as small-scale farmers with an initial 1000 coffee trees and sold through the local cooperative. But with supplementary returns from the business, they expanded into medium-scale coffee farmers. The large quantities let them have a micro mill for value addition, thereby more opportunities to sell. Njeri remains an inspiration to our smallholder farmers in the region as she shares her experience and expertise.