Talk about self-employment among the youth and you might have to search for long before you find another of Paul Kihuha’s echelon. 31-year old Paul alias Protisa, makes film equipment from ordinary metal, the likes you will find in any hardware and which many use to make doors and windows.
He quickly hints that if our conversation is anything to call an interview, then it is the 64th.
All the machines he uses in the creation of film equipment are works of his own hand. He made them himself, all from scratch.
Protisa started making film equipment in 2013 and since then he has come up with other ways to help the youth, from awakening their potentials to tangible employment projects.
One of these is Protisa Foundation which he has used to mentor 44 people.
Protisa has his workshop in Kinoo 87, an estate found along Waiyaki way, Kikuyu.
Having mentioned that he is deep into the film industry, the question of what makes people prefer his equipment to imported ones becomes a concern.
“Imported equipment is made from soft metals and break easily. In fact, quite a number has been brought to me for repair. I make durable stuff here,” he elaborates.
He has been contracted by celebrated musicians to prepare shooting scene set ups, costumes and props. He shows us a few scenes he set up in music videos from a large screen held in place on a TV rack he made by himself. Among the artists he has worked with are Khaligraph Jones, Fena Gitu, Sauti Sol and Nameless.
To the question of how he learned how to make all those equipment he says, “All by myself!” And then, to neutralize our shock, he asks, “show me any teacher you know who trains people on how to do what I am doing. The truth is that what I am doing is not what every other person can do.” Could that be what creativity and innovation amounts to?
“In this world,” he smiles, “you learn one thing and you will understand every other thing. Just learn it right.”
Protisa then tells us that his motivation was leading a miserable life coupled with the fact that everything in this world was made, which therefore implied that nothing was impossible to make.
“Initially, I would watch boring films. The film makers did not have enough and efficient equipment,” this too he says was a driving force behind what he is currently doing.
As we leave, Protisa says he has one message for the youth, “if you don’t come from a rich family, let a rich family come from you.”
