Title showcases entrepreneurial tips by Kenyan moguls

By JOHN KARIUKI

An anecdote is often told of how former President Moi officiated at a harambee in western Kenya.

When it was the turn of business magnate Ibrahim Ambwere to offer his donation, Moi reportedly refused to accept it. He is believed to have jokingly told the businessman that his contribution did not measure up to his vast resources and could he please add something! So, Ambwere dug into his pockets and offered a bigger donation commensurate with his wealth.

   People have a way of spotting who is on the entrepreneurial crest and can accurately judge one’s worth; you need not be quoted at the Nairobi Securities Exchange! And Moi could only have voiced what was in the public domain.   

The fact and fiction of people’s entrepreneurial roads are often blurred and in most cases an aura of myth surrounds whoever breaks from the pack. Witness the many salacious and occultist details, whispered in undertones, which we attribute to people who land in sudden wealth.

  A Profile of Kenyan Entrepreneurs (EAEP 2012) dispels this narrow-mindedness with which we view self-made and honest entrepreneurs in our midst.

This book comprises of the profiles of thirteen local entrepreneurs whose bottom line is resilience and a clear focus on where they wanted to be. It is a treatise of the human struggle and single-mindedness in nurturing wealth from scratch to the veritable personal brands of people like Manu Chandaria of Camcroft Group, SK Macharia of Royal Media Services and Mary Elizabeth Okelo of Makini Schools.

Others are Mogambi Mogaka of Ourupower chain of stores; Fred Rabongo of Impulse Promotions; Evelyne Mungai of Evelyne College of Design; Bernard Otundo and Njoroge Keige of Omaera Pharmaceuticals; Esther Wanjiru Muchemi of Saamchi Brand; Jonathan Somen of AccessKenya Group; Myke Rabar of Homeboyz Entertainment and Sunil Shah of United Millers.

   The book leads with the profile of Manu Chandaria. He was born in Nairobi in 1929 to an Indian family of modest income. He would struggle through school here in Kenya, India and the US in a particularly trying period.

 Great depression

There was the great depression of the 1930s and the Second World War after. But above all these, his parents were shrewd enough to realise that with Manu’s engineering degree the family’s flagships Mabati Rolling Mills and Kalu Works could only soar to greater heights. And Manu did not disappoint.

Ibrahim Ambwere is a self-made man in the true African fashion as we know it. He began as a humble carpenter, making furniture for his clients. He would diversify and move into real estate, hotels and retail market and farming, carving out a formidable business empire in Western Kenyan and parts of the North Rift.

 But he would realise this a little late in the day when his children were squandering his property. And he would forgive them, salvage his empire and bounce back in a resilience that is characteristic of all notable entrepreneurs.   Like Ambwere, Nelson Muguku Njoroge also started small. Tired of teaching carpentry as an untrained teacher in the pre-independence era, Muguku resigned to rear chicken! He would begin small and grow in leaps and bounds. After independence, President Jomo Kenyatta would endorse his fledgling business when he wondered one morning where the big eggs were from, over State House breakfast.

Muguku would invest all his savings in Equity Building Society, the precursor of Equity Bank. This stake would translate as shares worth Sh3 billion at today’s market rates! A Profile of Kenyan Entrepreneurs mercifully spares the reader stifling jargon and daunting statistics.  In fact, the profiles are almost biographical. This style, coupled with the aptness of the advice and the many anecdotes that readers can identify with, are the book’s strongest points.

Writer teaches Biology/Chemistry at Nyandarua High School