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A
Short History of Fly Tying in Kenya, & The Brookside Fishing
Flies Company
The skill of fly tying first came to
Kenya through the Dagoretti Children's Home for the Disabled,
more than 35 years ago. Dagoretti, the headquarters of Gitaru
Division, is a small town on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya's
capital city.
The missionaries who ran the home wisely decided to teach
fly tying to the children at the home, and some of their relatives,
hoping to arm them with a skill that would lift their standards
of living. Most of these people came from disadvantaged backgrounds,
and suffered the double tragedy of being physically disabled,
and also very poor.
Fly tying seemed like a perfect solution as not only were
they now able to perform some kind of work inspite of their
disability, but they could also make some money. Slowly but
surely the knowledge of tying flies began to spread throughout
Gitaru Division, and small cottage industries developed in
various places - among them, Rungiri.
Stagnation
Poor communication and marketing of Kenyan flies have hampered
the growth of the industry. This is unfortunate as Kenya has
some of the most skilled fly tiers in the world! Many flies
produced here are of excellent quality, and produced at considerably
lower cost than in the west.
The
Company
Brookside
Fishing Flies Company is located on the outskirts of Nairobi,
in a small village called Rungiri. From this humble location
come some of the best tyers of top quality fishing flies in
the world.
Two retired middle-level bank managers, a farmer, and a marketing
officer came together in 1999, to try and better their living
standards through a business enterprise - tying and exporting
first class flies. The company now employs nearly 20 experienced
tiers.
As a company, our objective is to tie the FINEST FLIES, deliver
them quickly & professionally, and well within time frames.
Our focus on quality begins from the tier level
- we employ the very best tiers, and pay them ABOVE MARKET
rates. Our company has the reputation for good employment
terms, and is the envy of the industry around Gitaru Division.
It is our firm belief that employment that does not
allow one to grow, cannot be termed as gainful.
We use the finest raw materials to tie our flies. The finest
Hoffman hacke designed to fool even the smartest fish, and
chemically sharpened Japanese & Korean hooks, and in some
cases, Mustad hooks from Norway.
To ship our flies, we use the trusted services of FedEx
and DHL, ensuring that your order
finds you AT YOUR DOORSTEP! For orders above 500 dozen,
this service is offered FREE-OF-CHARGE! Our
vision is to help our tyers, and indeed ourselves, to better
our livelihoods in an extremely hostile economy that has been
on the decline for more than 20 years.
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| Brookside
Kenya at the Trout Unlimited National Convention 2002
- Portland, Maine, USA |
To
achieve this, we have instilled TRUE PROFESSIONALISM [which
has not been forthcoming from the fishing flies industry in
this country] into this business by supplying the BEST quality
hand-tied fishing flies for your market; shipping our flies
quickly and securely [using door-to-door couriers like FedEx
& DHL]; servicing orders on-time; & providing accurate
information about our products.
Meet
Our Key Personnel
Mr.
Karago D. Mbiru - Head of Business Development
kmbiru@flyfishingkenya.com
Mr.
Paul M. Heho - Strategy Director
pheho@flyfishingkenya.com
Mrs.
Caroline W. Mwangi - Chief Executive Officer
cmwangi@flyfishingkenya.com
Mrs.
Emily W. Mbiru - Chairperson
embiru@flyfishingkenya.com
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