In 1978, a teenager set out on a journey of faith from Gujarat to Kenya. He had been seconded to Kenya as a child priest.
Thirty-eight years later, Narendra Raval is not only a priest but also arguably the richest Kenyan who is often on the phone with Indian Prime Minister and namesake Narendra Modi.
“He sent my son a card just last month,” said Mr Raval, commonly known by his congregation as Guru – Hindu for spiritual teacher.
Mr Modi arrived in Nairobi last evening from Tanzania on the last leg of his four-nation tour that started in Mozambique and later to South Africa.
His visit means much to the Kenyan Indian community including Raval and the Paunrana family, also from Gujarat State, that owns ARM cement. Mr Modi was born and raised in Gujarat- the western most region of the populous India subcontinent.
“We were friends long before he became Prime Minister,” said Mr Raval, the owner of Devki Group of Companies.
India is among Kenya’s top trade partners, being a source of machinery and medicine – often the cheaper generics to original but costlier pharmaceutical brands.
Thousands of Kenyans troop Indian hospitals every year in medical tourism, enticed by lower costs and high specialisation among medics.
Back home, Raval, the 54-year-old industrialist, owns 11 companies, biggest among them Devki Steel, National Cement that trades under the Simba Brand and Northwood Aviation – a flight charter company with a fleet of three choppers.
Annual group turnovers now exceed Sh65 billion while the staff count is 4,700 employees. Devki’s turnover compares closely with Bidco, the regional edible oil manufacturer whose Kenyan plant is based in Thika.
History for the two firms is intertwined as Bidco’s chairman Bhimji Depar Shah, like Guru Raval, was also born in India before moving to Kenya and settling in Nyeri where he started out with a small filling station.
In a span of a few decades, Bidco and Devki have won global recognition after their owners appeared on the Forbes’ list of richest Africans. When The Standard reached out to him on phone, the priest cum philanthropist who was at the temple in downtown Nairobi said he was excited about Modi’s visit.
“It is a big honour for all Kenyan-Indians,” he said.
His life, however took the most unlikely of turns with the westerly flight that was more than successful, looking back. Armed with nothing except for a return ticket bought at $130 by his home temple, Mr Raval moved to Kisumu where his aunt was living. As it would turn out, Guru’s ticket expired before he could use it on the return leg.
In less than 12 months after arriving in Kisumu, Raval was transferred to a temple in Nakuru where he worked for two years. And in 1981, Raval moved to Nairobi.
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After just four years, he started a hardware shop in Nairobi’s Gikomba market selling steel products manufactured by a company he would acquire at Sh400 million in 1996, with some helping from a bank loan. The business empire has snowballed, thanks to “sheer hard work and focus”.
Raval’s story is retold many times over among the thousands of Indian families, most being in the manufacturing business.
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