Jerryhillary
New Lister
A photo of Peter Munga,Founder of Equity Bank LTD
According to Dr Bitange Ndemo, a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s Business School, the most successful business people in Kenya or East Africa come from Rwathia village. In one of his publications, Dr Ndemo explains that Rwathia village in Kangema arguably controls almost 20 per cent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and almost 40 per cent of the stock market in Kenya.So how did this come to happen?
In the 1930s, a bunch of poverty-stricken boys from Rwathia village in Kangema, Murang’a County, walked to Nairobi with nothing but tattered clothes and a burning dream to find that elusive thing called money. Little did they know that they would make tonnes of it and would later become Rwathia's first generation of billionaires.
Eighty years on, the value of property owned by the Rwathia businessmen in Nairobi, Thika, Murang’a and other towns runs into billions of shillings, with their billionaire sons and protégés control substantial wealth at the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
“Their forebearers like Gerishon Kirima and Gerald Gikonyo, one of the co-founders of Rwathia Distributors, were successful in spite of the fact that they had limited education. Rwathia’s third generation is succeeding, not just here in Kenya, but in far-flung areas like the United States, ” Ndemo adds.
Some of the second generaion wathia billionnaires include; Equity Bank chairman Peter Munga, The bank’s CEO James Mwangi, Investment banker Jimnah Mbaru, Britam boss Benson Wairegi. Other billionaires from Kangema include businessman Gerald Gikonyo and industrialist Chris Kirubi.
What is striking about these billionaire is that they closely work together, particularly Munga, Mwangi and Wairegi. Their relationship is so tight that they own shares in companies that are cross-listed at the NSE. They also share board directorship in companies such as Equity, Britam and Housing Finance. Their joint investments cut across any sector you can think of. At the NSE, they run the show, owning shares worth billions.
“No brokers (among us). We don’t undercut each other. We don’t sabotage or willingly do something to hurt each other’s business or establishments. It is an unspoken rule that guides how we relate with each other in both business and personal life. That is why you never see us quarrelling in public,” said Munga in a previous interview with the daily nation.
Mr Munga desired a good life from an early age. He would sneak out of school at Gaichanjiru High school (1960-1963) to work as a ball boy for the former internal security minister John Michuki in Kangema who had just discovered a new hobby of playing lawn tennis.
“Michuki was a DO and I admired him so much that I said I would be like him. That informed my decision to join the Kenya Institute of Administration after form four,” Munga reminiscences.
Mr Munga, who was awarded a honorary degree by the University of Nairobi thanks to his inimitable entrepreneurship, had a humble beginning. He spent his time helping his mother to keep a family business afloat. This is where he learnt important lessons, key of which is patience, that would later be critical to him as an entrepreneur.
The tough challenges young Munga faced growing up in Kenya, which was then under oppressive colonial rule, solidified his mettle and emboldened his desire for a better life. He was there when the colonial government declared an emergency in 1954, and suffered its deleterious consequences. His woes were compounded when his father, Ben Kahara was detained by the imperialists. He and his mother were now left to their devices.
During those tough days, he witnessed and experienced unremitting poverty first hand and he vowed to persistently work to improve not only himself but also the living standards of the society.
Mr Munga says business is more fulfilling and makes more sense when you invest in the society. This is what motivated him together with Equity CEO Mwangi to launch the Wings to Fly programme that has gobbled up over Sh8 billion in scholarships to more than 10,000 students in Kenya.
He says the best gift that the society can bequeath its children is education. This, he adds equips them with the necessary tools to fend for themselves and prepares them to confront the myriad challenges they are certain to face.
He says businesses that find a good course to pursue for the benefit of the society have high chances of remaining robust and relevant for a long time.
What other successful business people from the same locality do you know of?
