Along the journey, we’ve visited over 10 main towns meeting with dozens of local entrepreneurs and community leaders as they cruise in the back of the Mobius Two. Our road trip journey has taken us to Ganze, Voi, Mai Mahiu Escarpment, Hell’s Gate, Narok, Bomet, Kericho, Kisumu, and Bungoma. And Mobius Two seems to be holding up remarkable well.

Dave and the Mobius mechanics have been making slight vehicle modifications as we enter into our 2nd week on the bumpy and unpredictable Kenyan roads. Surprisingly we’ve still seem to encounter more mechanical problems with our 4×4 vs. the Mobius Two prototype.

Sebastian, Alicia and the rest of the What Took You So Long film crew has been busy behind the lens capturing magnificent sunrises above the mountains, and landscape shots along the roadside. In true guerrilla filmmaking style, the crew has been mounting Go-Pro cameras to the cars, and hanging out of the windows and trunk of our 4×4 strapped with film cameras to capture content for the production of two short films and an advert for the Mobius Two.

It’s all been a part of a grand adventure that’s taken from villages to valleys along and YMCA campgrounds to upscale estates. At night we’ve been gratuitously hosted by NGOs such as One Acre Fund, Peace Corps volunteers and local crop farmers offering us space to setup camp in our tents, and cook up Ugali, Maize and local flavours on our kerosene stove.

Today the weather is on our side, as we head off to Kakamanga and launch into our 2^nd week on the roadius with Mobius Two. Stay tuned for more road adventures as we continue to explore the wild beauty of Kenya.

Our first day of journeying drove us to the beautiful town of Ganze, located in the coastal region of Kenya. As we made our way into town, crowds of villagers ran towards Mobius Two to gain a closer look at the road warrior in motion. As we made our way through the rough terrain and dust filled roads we were warmly welcomed by the ever enthusiastic Village Chief.

As we settled in, crowds began to come down from the dirt filled road to glare at the Mobius Two. About two men, and two women gathered around the vehicle, eagerly inspecting under the hood, and checking around the tires until they met us with a look of true approval. After bit of chatting over the vehicle spec questions, it was time to give everyone a feel for how the vehicle handled on the road. The next few hours were filled with groups of villagers young and old waiting for a chance to ride in the back of Mobius with Joel, and Dave switching off behind the wheel. It was quite enjoyable to watch their reactions when we first rolled up into the village, but their appreciation for the vehicle seemed to intensify after the test drives commenced.

From there we were off to do a bit of filming as the sun was setting for the evening. We pitched tents in the town of Voi where we spent the evening with Ibrahim (the lead Mobius welder) and his affectionate family and rested up for Day 2 on the road.

Day 2 we set off through a breathtaking mountain view across a stretch of highway en route to Mtito Andei, and stopped for a quick rest and to enjoy the heards of Zebras grazing nearby. We were eagerly greeted by the Highway Police, who were curious and impressed with this new vehicle for Africa on the road. We literally had to pull ourselves away from the police to hit the road to arrive in town for the night and prepare tomorrow’s adventure with Mobius to Hell’s Gate. So join us as we journey thru the next two weeks of Kenya road adventures.

As an entrepreneur driven by social and economic return I find it impossible to ignore the possibility of this great continent as well as some of the greatest challenges to its future growth. Over 320 million people in Africa live on less than $1 a day. People with few assets, large families, little education, poor nutrition, chronic ill-health, no safe water, weak infrastructure, poor market access, degraded natural resources, and drought prone farms. These problems are fatally compounded when a lack of transport means people struggle to even access the education, healthcare, employment and markets that do exist – all essential catalysts to socio-development. I believe effective transport is one of the most fundamental challenges facing Africa.

To combat immobility, we aim to mass produce safe, practical and affordable vehicles that can be sold to private consumers or licensed by local entrepreneurs to provide privatised public transport to the local community. This business model has already proven incredibly successful in the introduction and spread of relatively ill-suited vehicles like minivans, auto rickshaws and motorbikes into the African market. Massively improved public transit in rural areas would significantly boost access to life-critical supplies such as improved seeds, farm tools, fertilizers, clean drinking water, health products and medical care, nutritious food, urban jobs, and education. Increased mobility also enables businesses to thrive as local markets swell with previously inaccessible consumers and local entrepreneurs explore the wealth of opportunities that owning a vehicle can unlock (e.g. distributing phone credit or transporting high value items such as water, cooking fuel, or farm materials).

To estimate impact, consider just one of the disruptive vehicles brought to Africa—prior to minivans, people from rural areas had essentially no access to regional opportunities; within five years of being imported into Africa, they are now everywhere, taking children to school and delivering farm produce to markets early in the morning, taking commuters to work and patients to the hospital, and connecting city workers with their rural families. Minivans were not even designed for these environments, yet the demand is so insatiable that most forms of transport like this take off. Imagine now the benefits—immense, scalable and sustainable—that will derive from Mobius as we transform the capacity and functionality of the transport industry, the platform on which all other products and services are delivered from A to B. For us it’s not about deriving impact from any one life-changing product or service but by all the new opportunities that genuine mobility affords more broadly.

This is about building infrastructure and networks and exchange of people, ideas, products, services—all the key ingredients for endogenous growth and development. A vehicle built in Africa, for Africa that will not only stimulate massive domestic employment but will ultimately provide a new form a transport and a new era of socio-economic prosperity to countless people in rural and urban areas throughout the continent.

Just like any other social entrepreneur, I will encounter many more hurdles, setbacks and challenges along the way, but the magnitude of the potential and the reality of the opportunity will keep me moving. After all, it’s about the importance of being earnest. This is shaping up to be an exciting journey and I’d love for you to come along for the ride. Find out more and join us today to make change happen.

Joel