Fred Koinange: TV host Jeff’s father was the first Kenyan to open a petrol station, car dealership

Did you know that the first Kenyan to open a petrol station was Fred Mbiyu Koinange, the father of TV host Jeff Koinange?

There are now very many privately owned petrol stations in Kenya. Yet, at some point, only multi-nationals like the defunct Esso, BP and Mobil once called the shots. But did you know that the first Kenyan to open a petrol station was Fred Mbiyu Koinange, the father of TV host Jeff Koinange? Well, Fred was the son of Senior Chief Koinange after whom Koinange Street is named in the Nairobi CBD. The then 41-year-old opened, Koinange Petrol Station, Kenya’s first indigenous in Kariokor area in 1966 - the year he died.

Never mind he had been detained for seven years after the State of Emergency was declared in 1952. Did you also know that Fred Mbiyu was also the first African Kenyan to open a car dealership? In 1948 - when Mr Cooper was also opening the Cooper Motor Corporation (CMC Motors) in a wooden hut along Jackson Road, now Parliament Road - Fred also opened his!