Joachim Ndalo is well known by heads of state in Africa and abroad.

He is the artist who has painted and moulded sculptures of leaders such as US President Barrack Obama, the late South Sudanese leader John Garang, and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

Early this year Ndalo, 64, presented a painting of President Yoweri Museveni to Uganda’s head of state at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Mausoleum in Bondo, Kenya.

“This is magnificent and I need to have it,” President Museveni said.  He then requested him to deliver his masterpiece to Kampala, where Ndalo says he was paid Ush10 million ($4,000).

Ndalo makes sculptures from cooked cassava flour.

President Museveni and Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga listened as the sculptor related how he makes the sculptures.

“At first I used clay to make my sculptures, but I realised that when the art pieces fell, they broke easily and were very heavy to carry,” Ndalo said.

He began the search for a better material and started researching cassava in 1990. Ndalo used the cassava flour and found that the sculptures lasted longer and were lighter in weight.

“I also realised that when painted, cassava maintained its lustre for longer. The material is also cheap and readily available.”

The cassava flour is cooked, blended with crushed paper then stuffed into wires shaped into the form he has moulded.

Among sculptures he has made, are a cock and a cow which he intends to deliver to the White House in the US for President Barrack Obama.

Ndalo says art has helped him feed and educate his family of 12 children, four of whom have become renowned artists across the country.

He says that although he is usually not sure when his works will be bought, he makes a lot of money from them.

He has also invested in a boda boda business. Ndalo has also been given contracts by several hotels in Bondo and Siaya, to paint pictures of animals and make inscriptions.

With increased business, has now employed sculptors, as well as carpenters to make frames for his paintings.