The governments ban on plastic bags went into effect on Monday, 28th August and every Kenyan has been doing their best to find alternatives. Hilda Gacheri Bundi, a form 3 student at Materi Girls (Tunyai, Tharaka Nithi County) is one of those who've embraced the ban on plastic bags in a very positive way.
Obedience is a virtue and when her time to open school came, she had no alternative but to innovate since she couldn't use plastic paper bags to carry her school shopping.
At her home in Keria village, Nkubu, they use improvised bags to carry yams. Dried banana leaves put together to make an environment friendly bag. In fact she had spent her morning making one after her mother left her to go to work.
By 3pm on opening day, she wasn't ready yet. She was running late. She had no bag and getting one would cost her.
That is when Hilda thought to herself, why not try making the improvised banana fritters bag. This would save her the time of looking for a new one, and of course, money!
She came up with the simplest method ever that was environment friendly, and could not land her in trouble with the law.
This writer interviewed Hilda via phone, with the young lass narrating she had no idea who took her pictures that have since gone viral.
Her maths teacher, Mr. Solomon Kiguru who was earlier identified by humanitarian Ndungu Nyoro who had shared her pictures online, positively identified his student and assisted us in reaching out to her.
When talking to her about it, she sounded happy and had no regrets on rocking her 'bag'.
"I love my environment" Hilda said during the phone interview, "I am happy that the plastic paper bags were banned because they do not decompose, ngombe zikikula hizo nylon papers sinagonjeka, so am happy that sahii hazitatumika tena".
Adding, "When you throw away the banana fritters makeshift bag they can easily decompose and be used as manure."
Hilda also narrated to us how her friends found it weird when they saw her carrying the bag.
"Waliniambia nitupe hiyo kitu ati nakaa mshamba," Hilda explained, "Wengine pia waliniambia nakaa mchawi. But I took courage and defended the reason why I'm carrying it. I told them; 'Don't discourage me with my bag, let me carry it. It doesn't matter! Ebu nikae mshamba but najua chenye nimebeba'."
When asked whether she still has the bag, she said, "Yes I still have it. I will rock it again when we close school."
Trying to inquire on how the teacher reacted when they saw her, Hilda said "Teacher mwenye alikua kwa gate, akaniuliza what I am carrying, Nikamwambia my shopping with my bag, akaniuliza,'hiyo ni bag?' nikamwambia, yes. Akaniambia just get in if it's your shopping. Then when I came here at school, they did not discourage me, they were like, you are so creative."
"I am telling Kenyans to try this method because it is not only preserving our environment, but also bringing more value to our bananas.
After her pictures went viral on social media, Kenyans proposed that she be the next environment ambassador.
This was what everyone who saw the pictures wanted.
On September 5, 2017, she was visited by officials from NEMA and appointed ENVIRONMENT AMBASSADOR despite her pals calling her a 'backward witch' for carrying a bag made from banana fritters.
Here are some of her photos;
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