The concept was brought to life with the help of investors including RES4Africa Foundation and Startup Energy. Each 50 litre box holds up to seven vaccine vials or any medication that needs to be stored under cold chain technology – a vital infrastructure that protects the biological products in medicines that are time and temperature-sensitive. The VacciBox can transport vaccines in two temperature ranges, between 2 C to 8 C for the AstraZeneca jab and down to minus 20 C for mRNA vaccines. It has a USB port for mobile phones and is small enough to be transported several kilometres on a bike or motorcycle. The box maintains the cold chain for up to 10 hours and has a tracking device that monitors the thermal system to ensure the product arrives safely.

After the coronavirus pandemic struck and vaccines became available in Kenya, the team realised that the cool box solved two problems in one: Not only could it store vaccines and keep them cool, it was small enough to be portable, and so could be used to transport vaccine vials to the most remote outposts while keeping them at the right temperature. “I’ve seen people carry ice cubes in flasks to carry vials, so if they keep it overnight they’re in trouble,” Magero says. “It was all manual – and we wanted to reduce the manual data recording too, with traceability.”

The solution provides a way to transport vaccine vials to the most remote outposts of Kenya, while also keeping them cool.