FROM WEED TO WEALTH
How a Kenyan Innovator Is Turning Water Hyacinth into Opportunity
What began as an environmental nuisance on one of Kenya’s most important lakes has become the raw material for an ambitious Kenyan innovation.
Across Lake Naivasha, water hyacinth has long been associated with blocked waterways, disrupted fishing activities and challenges for communities whose livelihoods depend on the lake. But for one young Kenyan entrepreneur, the invasive plant presented a very different question: What if the problem itself could become part of the solution?
That question led environmental engineer Joseph Nguthiru to establish HyaPak, a Kenyan startup developing biodegradable products from harvested water hyacinth.
FROM A STUCK BOAT TO AN INNOVATIVE IDEA
Nguthiru’s journey began several years ago when he and fellow students found themselves trapped for hours in a dense mass of water hyacinth on Lake Naivasha.
The experience exposed him to a problem that many communities around the lake already understood intimately. The fast-growing aquatic plant can form thick mats across the water, interfering with boats and fishing activities while affecting the wider lake ecosystem.
Rather than treating the experience simply as an inconvenience, Nguthiru turned it into an engineering challenge.
He changed his university research project to investigate water hyacinth and began experimenting with ways of converting the plant into useful materials.
The result was HyaPak.
TURNING AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM INTO A PRODUCT
HyaPak’s concept is based on a simple circular-economy principle: take a troublesome natural material, process it and give it a productive second life.
The company works with local fishermen who harvest and dry water hyacinth. The material is then transported for processing, where it is crushed, milled and combined with other materials to create biodegradable products.
One of the company’s early applications has been biodegradable seedling wrappers, offering an alternative to conventional plastic planting bags.
The idea connects two environmental challenges facing Kenya: invasive water hyacinth and plastic pollution.
Instead of allowing the harvested plant to become waste, HyaPak seeks to turn it into a commercially useful material.
COMMUNITIES AT THE CENTRE
Perhaps the most important element of the model is that local communities are not simply spectators.
Fishermen who help remove the hyacinth can earn income from the material they collect. According to reporting by TriplePundit, HyaPak has paid harvesters for dried hyacinth, creating an economic incentive alongside the environmental benefit.
For communities that depend on Lake Naivasha’s fishing and tourism economy, the issue is more than environmental.
Water hyacinth can make it harder for boats to move, damage or entangle fishing equipment and increase the effort required to navigate parts of the lake.
By creating a market for the plant, HyaPak is attempting to connect environmental management with livelihoods.
FROM THE LAKE TO THE NURSERY
The company’s biodegradable seedling products have been tested by a range of organisations, including the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), One Acre Fund, DHL, PlantVillage, the Kenya military and private farmers, according to TriplePundit’s report.
This gives the innovation significance beyond Lake Naivasha.
Kenya has ambitious tree-growing and restoration goals, and large-scale tree planting requires enormous quantities of seedling containers. Finding alternatives to conventional plastic nursery bags could therefore create another market for materials made from agricultural or aquatic biomass.
HyaPak’s broader vision is to demonstrate that materials traditionally viewed as waste can become inputs for new industries.
THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES
The story also highlights the important role Kenyan universities can play in turning student research into commercial innovation.
Egerton University provided early laboratory support and seed funding for the project and subsequently acquired an equity stake in HyaPak.
For the university, the project demonstrates how research can move beyond academic papers and into practical solutions for problems affecting communities.
It is also a reminder that some of Kenya’s most promising innovations may already be emerging from university laboratories, workshops and student projects.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
HyaPak’s idea has attracted attention well beyond Kenya.
The startup was selected among global innovations advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and received the $20,000 Prototypes for Humanity prize at COP28.
The company has also attracted partnerships and interest as it explores opportunities to expand its model to other countries affected by water hyacinth, including Uganda and countries outside Africa.
Its ambitions demonstrate the potential of Kenyan environmental innovation to become relevant far beyond the country’s borders.
BUT THE PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED YET
Despite the promise, water hyacinth remains a complicated environmental challenge.
Experts quoted in TriplePundit’s reporting caution that the objective should not necessarily be to eliminate the plant completely. Water hyacinth can also provide habitat and shelter for certain aquatic species, meaning that poorly managed removal could create unintended ecological consequences.
Previous attempts to control the weed have also produced mixed results.
This makes sustainable harvesting and careful ecosystem management essential.
There is another challenge: scale.
Water hyacinth can grow extremely quickly, meaning that the amount harvested for commercial processing may represent only a fraction of the total biomass in an affected waterway. Turning the concept into a large-scale commercial operation will therefore require investment, efficient processing systems, reliable markets and continued scientific research.
A DIFFERENT WAY OF LOOKING AT KENYA’S PROBLEMS
What makes the HyaPak story particularly compelling is not simply the product.
It is the philosophy behind it.
Kenya has no shortage of environmental and economic challenges. From plastic waste to invasive species, agricultural waste and pressure on natural resources, many of these problems are usually described as costs to society.
HyaPak offers another perspective: some problems may also contain the raw materials for new businesses.
By combining engineering, university research, community participation and entrepreneurship, the company is attempting to create a model where environmental restoration and economic opportunity can work together.
For Kenya’s young innovators, the lesson is powerful.
Innovation does not always require importing a solution from somewhere else. Sometimes, the opportunity is sitting in the middle of a local problem, waiting for someone to look at it differently.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
The future of HyaPak will depend on whether it can move from promising prototypes to commercially viable production at scale. But the story already represents an important shift in how Kenya can approach environmental challenges.
The water hyacinth choking parts of Lake Naivasha is still a problem. Yet it is also becoming a source of employment, research and entrepreneurial opportunity.
And that may be the most important lesson of all.
The next big Kenyan innovation may not come from something we import. It may come from something we have spent years trying to get rid of.
SOURCE NOTE: This feature is an original editorial adaptation based on reporting by TriplePundit, particularly its June 5, 2025 feature on HyaPak and water hyacinth in Kenya. The original report was written by Brenda Holo, with photography by Simon Macharia. Additional independent fact-checking is recommended before print publication, particularly for financial figures, awards, company valuation and environmental-impact claims.