Deputy President William Ruto on Thursday, June 26, bought five chairs from two carpenters (Stephen Odhiambo and Dennis Otieno) whose work of art went viral early this month.
The duo had designed a moving seat to act as a park bench when folded and a table seat when unfolded.
It is this creativity that attracted a lot of Kenyans including the DP who invited them to his Karen office and made an order of the chairs, which he wanted to be delivered in a week's time.
"I was privileged to meet and interact with Stephen Odhiambo and Dennis Otieno, two enterprising Kenyans with innovative ideas on garden furniture," DP Ruto wrote on his Facebook page.
The two explained that the furniture goes for Ksh 22,000 to the common mwananchi and Ksh 50,000 for a person of the DP's statue.
Just like any ordinary Kenyan, the DP wanted them to 'kata kitu kidogo' and the trio agreed that he would pay Ksh 150,000 for all the five seats.
"I will buy all the five seats for Ksh 120,000, isn't that fair?" the DP questioned as Otieno told him that he would sell him the chairs at Ksh 150,000.
The trio laughed about it and the DP stated that he would make a deposit of Ksh 100,000 and add Ksh 50,000, once all the chairs had been made.
The Deputy President also spent a considerable amount of time with the carpenters, just to learn about their work and how he could be of help to people working in the informal sector.
In a previous interview, the duo told Kenyans.co.ke that they had gotten the idea to make the moving seats from the internet.
"Since the video was shared, we have received a number of offers to design them.
"We usually buy wood from workshops depending on the size of the seat we are designing. A piece of an 8x4 wood sells at Ksh 400 and 12x4 sells at Ksh800. To assemble one seat can cost around Ksh 5,000 and can take between 3 to 4 days," Odari disclosed.
The five carpenters are looking forward to creating social media pages where they can capitalize on the growing market.
