Gangster-turned-guardian angel

Mubarak Muhamud at his Clime-it shop in London's Camden High Street with colleagues  PHOTOS; SHAMLAL PURI AND COURTESY

Kenya: Drugs, violence, gang-warfare and intimidation – Mubarak Mohamud has seen it all. He has sailed very close to the wind, cheating death several times. At one time, the word ‘fear’ simply did not exist in this former underworld don’s dictionary.

The 26-year-old Nairobi-born Somali, popularly known as ‘Mo’, was no stranger to the London police in his younger days. He was a regular visitor to his local police station in Camden Town, north London.

Mo’s name was permanently etched in their books because of his regular brushes with the law and a record of convictions for possession of cannabis, intent to supply and robbery. He escaped prison by a whisker.

Family and friends despaired, saying Mo was the architect of his own destruction. But he returned from the brink, putting the life of crime behind him and turning a new leaf by grabbing a life-saving opportunity.

Born in Nairobi Hospital, Mo, the son of a Kenya-based Somali diplomat, is one of the ten Londoners recently chosen from a list of 65 applicants and 20 finalists as winners of the Evening Standard’s Frontline London campaign geared towards turning the British capital’s hoodlums into inspirational entrepreneurs.

All the contestants went through traumatic childhoods and homelessness, leading dangerous lives getting involved in gangs and drugs, and being stabbed and shot at.

Describing Mo as “a born social entrepreneur” the organisers, who put all the competitors through nerve-wracking questioning, found him an ideal candidate who had the talent to use his entrepreneurial ability and turn into a successful businessman.

He received a start-up grant of £8,000 (Sh1.2 million) from the Lloyds Banking Group and the British Government, and a life-changing opportunity to launch his own business.

Now a university graduate, he has started an eco-friendly clothing company, Clime-it Brothers, selling jumpers, tracksuits and designer T-shirts. He also opened a drapery shop in the Camden market, employing 17 volunteers with troubled backgrounds and giving them an opportunity to wipe out scars of their traumatic past.

His signature design is a polar bear in an urban setting climbing a ladder or lounging in the sun under palm trees.

Mo, who is now a pillar of the community, says his company is a vibrant social enterprise that promotes positive social change among individuals and sharing awareness about the environmental challenges facing the polar bear.

“We share the similarity between the two through our eco-friendly clothing; both the polar bear and human beings have to adapt to a new environment in order to survive,” he says.

The young businessman says the survival of an individual is linked to his attitude towards society and risking the loss of freedom.

In recent months, his online business selling designer clothes has attracted a wide clientele, including several British celebrities—comedian Julian Clary, retail consultant Mary Portas, actor Ashley Walters and gymnast Louis Smith.

“I am very excited about the prospects of exporting our quality garments to such beautiful destinations as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Middle East, especially Dubai,” Mo says.

He is also keen to get in touch with like-minded people who share similar interests on climate change “as global warming also affects some parts of Africa”.

His father was based in Nairobi between 1986 and 1992 but due to political problems in his native Somalia, left to settle in Britain.

Recalling his early years, Mo who grew up on a Camden council estate, says he was sent to a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) at the age of 13. PRUs are set up by local authorities to provide education for children who are excluded, sick, or otherwise unable to attend mainstream schools.

Bored at school, he became the disruptive class clown and wasted his time hanging out on the street. He got sucked into a life of crime at the age of 13 when his looks and way of dressing prompted passing tourists to approach him in search of drugs.

“Just by standing on the street corners and peddling weed, I made £100 (about Sh15,000) a week. I couldn’t believe my luck. I had so much cash on me that I would buy children from our estate ice cream when the van came around. I would also buy my friends cinema tickets and go socialising with them,” he recalls.

Mo became popular in the estate, and by the age of 17, his income had shot up to a whopping £52,000 (Sh7.8 million) per year from controlling the lucrative cannabis street trade in the Camden area. His friends nicknamed him ‘Moneydoublez’ because of his uncanny ability to generate an income that not even experienced workers could earn in the Britain of 2005.

He then turned his attention to mobsters and became a gang leader. He started a hip hop group called Time for Hustling (TFH), most of whose other members were also drug peddlers.

“When I was younger, I really believed that the so called ‘gangster image’ existed. So I spent a large part of my younger years trying to embody it, from the clothing I was wearing to my behaviour and attitude towards society. Selling weed was part of this lifestyle that I was so fascinated about, and that is what got me into it. No one pushed me into gangs; it was self-inflicted because I was yearning for acceptance,” Mo says of the reckless lifestyle of his younger years.

But a turn of events jolted him out of this dangerous existence and gave him the wake-up call needed to make him turn his back on

The underworld

“There was this party on a Saturday night, which I should have attended, but I was seeing a girl and decided not to go at the last moment. That night, my friend, who I had known since I was five, was fatally stabbed in a gang fight.

“It was the shock of seeing some of my closest friends losing their lives to criminality and the feeling of wanting to make my parents proud rather than embarrassed about my misbehaviour that changed me for the better.”

His worried mother encouraged him to turn his life around, and Mo went to study at the University of East London. His star has been rising since then.

The entrepreneur advises young people who want to turn their lives around “to never lose hope and believe in yourself, keep pushing for what you believe in and never let anyone’s negative opinion of you grind you down.”