Despite the success of her kids in sports, Mama Oliech who resides in a posh house in Lavington, says she still focuses on her Dagoretti fish business.
“It’s is not my money, it is theirs. My money is from fish, and that’s what I use to survive as well as help others,” she says, adding that despite her illness, she still wakes up at 5.30am.
The chair of Dagoretti Traders Association for 18 years adds: “Even if I became a billionaire, I would still wake up to sell my fish.”
She adds that, “Even to date, none of my children, no matter how famous they are, can come here and ignore a client. They know the whole process, from cleaning fish, to preparing it and finally serving customers.”
The fish business, just like sports, she says, is in her blood. Her father owned boats and was a fishmonger.
“By the time I was in class three, I used to go to the market with my father, and help him sell fish. By the time I was in class six, I could do it alone, and he trusted me to always turn over a profit. But by the time I was in class seven, my father started ailing and I decided to drop out of school to get married so that I could support our family,” she narrates.
After school, she was introduced to Boaz Oliech who worked at Kenya Seed Company and lived in Jericho.
“My father never wanted me to get married. He wanted me to clear school, in fact, he refused to accept my dowry,” says Mama Oliech, who set up her fish business in Dagoretti in the late 1980s.
“I have been here for more than three decades, and I used to sell fish to Moses Mudavadi. Nowadays, it’s Musalia who buys from me. Ida Odinga, Engineer Odongo and Sally Kosgei still buy fish here. The list of loyal clients is so long. I have clients who came here 30 years ago,” She says, adding that her fish comes from Tanzania, Kisumu and Uganda.
Scores of homeless children were being fed by her workers as we spoke. “They come here every day to eat. This is just food. I can’t refuse to feed anybody who is hungry. Some of them have eaten here until their breakthrough. One is even a pilot and some are now in university,” she reveals. “They are God’s children,” adds Mama Oliech.
- David Odongo
