TBT Baridi Edition

MkukiMoto

Elder Lister
let me dig up more history on him.
.
The Big G ( Big George) - Kenya and their indigenous entrepreneurs.
The late Sir George Owino, was the man behind chewing gum that came to be a household name in Kenya and East African market. Competing with others like Juicy fruit, spearmint and PK, which became to be known as Orbit.
The manifestation of Sir George's industry and commitment to his projects was the setting up of the Wrigley factory in Nairobi, to cater for the East African market.
Through the success of the Big G, which was the first gum to be manufactured in such a size in the world, the mother company got convinced that setting up a factory to cater for East African would a wise thing.
As the market share of the gum, which was his innovation, grew so did his stature, and he rose to become the chair of Wrigley EA, a post he held till his retirement in 1998 to concentrate his energies on Orbit Distributors, the firm he set up in 1977 to solely distribute Wrigley products in East African Market.
The only child to Patrict Owidh and Maria Obiero ( born 1941), Sir George attended Sega primary school in Siaya County and Shimo La Tewa intermediate school.
Big G passed on in July 2004. His story is closely similar to to that of Sir Henry's.
Story courtesy of Clay Muganda DN - July 30, 2004.
@Meria , this is really good information.
Kenya politicians get more coverage than our indigenous entrepreneur pioneers.
Wakina Njenga Karume have had more positive impact on the lives of regular workers than the ''run-of-the-mill" mheshimiwa.

We hear mostly of sucessful industrialists like Indian_Kenyans like Chandaria...or Madhvani in Uganda...etc.
 
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MkukiMoto

Elder Lister
The Day Njonjo Was Called A Traitor By Elijah Mwangale
The onslaught went on for weeks inside and outside parliament, yet no one dared to name the alleged traitor. All the dumbfounded citizens heard was that the alleged traitor wore pin stripped three-piece suit, drank champagne, smoked Marlboro cigarettes and conducted himself as a co-president both within and outside Kenya.

The traitor debate had been kicked off by president Moi when he claimed that there was a senior politician being groomed by foreigner powers to take over power in Kenya.

Charles Njonjo was in England when the allegations were made. He did not come back immediately and he actually detoured to France before coming back home. When he got back home, he is said to have gone straight to state house to deliver two suits Moi had ordered in London. Moi and Njonjo shared a tailor in London and they often wore similar three-piece suit. After delivering the suits, Njonjo had a brief meeting with Moi where he was assured that he was not the alleged traitor. From state house, Njonjo headed to Nation centre where he held a press conference and denied that he was the alleged traitor.

The attacks continued even with Njonjo’s denial but none was yet ready to bell the cat. The attacks subsided in the third and fourth week and people thought Njonjo was going to pull through. But as it is normal with politicians, Njonjo miscalculated and made a cardinal mistake. He attended a Sunday church service in a PCEA church in his Kikuyu constituency and in this service, a lay leader called Githegi preached about a limping sheep that could not be trusted to lead the rest of the herd. The lay leader happened to be Njonjo’s friend and there and then his goose was cooked and come next week, parliament went for his Jugular.

Elijah Mwangale, a politician from Bungoma and a cabinet minister was the man who belled the cat. In one of the parliamentary sessions, Mwangale, who was sitting next to Njonjo stood on a point of order and told Njonjo ‘My friend Charles, you are the traitor people are talking about, in parliament and in the streets’.

Njonjo was stunned but he nevertheless responded, and only challenged Mwangale to repeat the same outside parliament, Mwangale laughed and told Njonjo he was ready to repeat the same as he was no longer powerful.

After naming Njonjo, Mwangale went back to his office and was followed by GG Kariuki, JJ Kamotho and Stanley Oloitiptip. The trio were of the view that Mwangale did wrong by naming Njonjo as the traitor.

GG was more emphatic, he told Mwangale that Njonjo was so powerful and if at all he wanted to be president, all he had to do was to press a button and the British and French would send their troops. Mwangale started sweating, he was no longer sure about what he had done, maybe Njonjo was indispensable and would bounce back. The next day, Njonjo resigned as a cabinet minister, member of parliament and as Kikuyu sub branch chairman, at least then Mwangale could breathe easy.

Njonjo parting shot after he was pardoned by Moi was that politics was a dirty game and vowed never to rejoin politics.
...Njonjo parting shot after he was pardoned by Moi was that politics is a dirty game and vowed never to rejoin politics...
He is right and never went back on his word.
 
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MkukiMoto

Elder Lister
This was in lower kabete, the current school of government . . ....... Kabete Technical institute was upgraded after Kenya polytechnic was upgraded to Techical university. Kabete National Poly, was a military base ,with underground tunnel from inside ,for escape out at current chapel near the ILRI roundabout at uthiru shopping centre
Kumbe hapa Kijiji watu wana siri mingi and have lots of inside of information.
Sisi raia tuko clueless on some things.
 

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
@Meria , this is really good information.
Kenya politicians get more coverage than their indigenous entrepreneur pioneers.
Wakina Njenga Karume have had more positive impact on the lives of regular workers than the ''run-of-the-mill" mheshimiwa.

We hear mostly of sucessful industrialists like Indian_Kenyans like Chandaria...of Madhvani in Uganda...etc.
Have you heard about Master of Mastermind Tobacco?
Another great entrepreneur
 

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
No. Ni nani ?
I would rather know about all great Kenya entrepreneurs than the politicians.
Ode to tycoon who almost smoked BAT out of business
SUNDAY JUNE 9 2019


Wilfred Murungi, who founded the Mastermind Tobacco company. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
A few weeks before his death, an industrial go-slow was reported at his factory – at a time when he was ailing.
Business had been bad, support waning and the court cases had drained him.
That Murungi had no peace in running a private tobacco company in Kenya is now well documented.
But what he went through silently is perhaps the untold story of the tobacco industry.
It is the story of a Kenyan who tried hard to set up a local giant and got little support.


By JOHN KAMAU
More by this Author
Before tobacco tycoon Wilfred Murungi died this week, what troubled him most was the impending forced sale of his properties to settle a Sh2.9 billion tax claim demanded by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
TAX CLAIMS
Mr Murungi fought hard to save his venture and he got little, if any, political support over all these years. A few weeks before his death, an industrial go-slow was reported at his factory – at a time when he was ailing. Business had been bad, support waning and the court cases had drained him.
Mr Murungi’s Mastermind Tobacco, the makers of Supermatch brand, had been forced to file a consent in court indicating that the pioneer indigenous cigarette maker in Kenya was willing to dispose of 12 properties in order to raise Sh1.54 billion as partial payment of one of the biggest tax claims to a local entrepreneur. He would do anything to succeed.
It was also reported by his handlers that at the tail-end of his life, Mr Murungi was willing to offload 51 per cent of Mastermind shareholding to the global giant Phillip Morris, the makers of Marlboro, hoping to resuscitate his venture. Although Phillip Morris is a global company, it has limited African footprint in only South Africa and Senegal and Mr Murungi hoped that he needed such muscle to survive this callous market.
Ever since he quit as an engineer with BAT Kenya Limited to set up Mastermind Tobacco in the late 1980s – first in Nakuru and then, when the business did well, in Nairobi – Mr Murungi had to fight survival wars in the cut-throat tobacco industry: He fought the government, fought BAT, and fought for a slice of tobacco-growing zones, with different outcomes.
Related Stories
Uhuru mourns Mastermind Tobacco founder
Mastermind seeks out of court deal in tax row
KRA goes for rich club
The entrepreneur had entered the industry at a tricky time when an American academic Prof Allyin Taylor had published an article in the Journal of Law and Medicine arguing, for the first time, that the World Health Assembly of WHO had a legal mandate to assist member-states in strengthening their laws to control the health effects of smoking. Then, the anti-tobacco campaign gained currency and he could not advertise his products.
COMMERCIAL HITMAN
By this time, the East African market was dominated by a giant British monopoly that had been the face of cigarette production in the region from 1907 when they set up a base in Mombasa – before building a factory in Nairobi in 1957 to serve the region.
For years, BAT – with a 20 per cent government shareholding then - promoted the growing of tobacco to ensure a steady supply of raw tobacco leaf with a chain of farmers, stores and extension officers. As a monopoly, BAT did well. Extremely well – and when pushed to the corner, its officials are alleged to have bribed local politicians and bureaucrats to survive. That was until 2013 when its former employee, Paul Hopkins told BBC's Panorama that he was BAT’s “Commercial Hitman” and handed to the British Serious Fraud Office recordings of conversations between Gary Fagan, BAT’s director for East and Central Africa, and a company lawyer, Naushad Ramoly, discussing bribes.
“BAT is bribing people, and I'm facilitating it,” Mr Hopkins had claimed. But BAT has consistently denied Mr Hopkin’s allegations and SFO has not concluded the matter, yet.
This was the environment in which Mr Murungi had built his fledging tobacco industry shortly after the liberalisation of the economy and the entry of imports. It was also the time another US company, RJ Reynolds, had introduced Aspen and Camel brands into the market and had hoped to build a factory in East Africa. It was fought out of the Kenyan market, leaving Mr Murungi to fight BAT alone.
Murungi first ran into headwinds, as expected, from BAT which claimed that Mastermind was infiltrating its zones in Bungoma and South Nyanza; arguably the best tobacco zones in Kenya.
EXPLOITATION
So vicious was the war that BAT was once accused in Parliament of “behaving as if it was the government”. As the controversy heightened, the government intervened and carved out the tobacco-growing regions into zones for the two companies; giving BAT the most productive zones and forcing Mastermind to develop its tobacco industry from marginal tobacco-growing areas.
The core of the dispute was that Mastermind had not established a reliable network of tobacco supplies, and BAT felt the company was leeching, nay piggy riding, on its network of contracted farmers – and not paying for it. But farmers were, indeed, happy with Mr Murungi. He paid them better prices and on time. It was also a political issue.
On July 5, 1991, the then agriculture minister, Elijah Mwangale, zoned the tobacco growing areas for the two companies. While the best tobacco came from Bungoma, Busia and Migori, it was also grown in marginal areas such as Kitui, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Mandera, Isiolo and Siaya.
With that a motion was tabled in Parliament by Joseph Malebe asking the government to formulate a policy that would permit and encourage free and fair competition in the tobacco industry.
“The minister, in his zoning was controlling the tobacco business and also favouring BAT company which has been milking this country in the form of foreign exchange,” Mr Malebe claimed. “When the zoning favours BAT, then we are favouring the exploitation of the economy of this country by expatriating the wealth of this country away.”
EVIL DECISION
So vicious was the trade that the provincial administration was asked to supervise to whom the farmers sold their produce. With the provincial administration in South Nyanza said to be leaning on BAT, the MP said “definitely you cannot rule out the question of graft and corruption, which are the things we are trying to fight in this country”.
It was the first time that BAT had met its match – a former employee. Before Mastermind started its factory in Nakuru, the price of a kilogramme of tobacco leaves was Sh15. Mastermind offered farmers Sh24, triggering a fight.
Publicly, BAT had not asked for protection from any competition and the government’s decision to give Mr Murungi’s company only 3 per cent of tobacco growing zones while BAT was left with 97 per cent was dismissed as “an evil decision” by MP Peter Habenga Okondo.
“In 1970, the BAT fought another company here known as Rothmans until it was out of the market. We never saw anybody going to help it at that time. Why is it now being supported?” posed Mr Okondo.
It was the same sentiments from Maurice Makhanu who claimed that BAT had a tendency to push out competitors having successfully blocked Rothmans’ rise. “I am happy that Mastermind has come up with a very good system of grading tobacco to ensure that no farmer’s tobacco is thrown away. In fact, the company’s field officers are very courteous to farmers because they know that the farmer is very important.”
But that was half the problem. Later, Mr Murungi was forced to source his tobacco from as far as Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
WHISTLE BLOWER
In June 2012, Uganda banned the transit of the Supermatch brand of cigarettes to South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Chad through Uganda. This followed a trade dispute over Supermatch trademark dispute between Mastermind and Leaf Tobacco Commodities Ltd of Uganda.
The BAT whistle-blower, Paul Hopkins, would later claim in the BBC corruption expose that they did some dirty work against Mastermind. That included paying kickbacks to some Kenya Revenue Authority officials to make numerous tax demands and damage its reputation.
“We paid the KRA guy, the right KRA guy a shed load of money. He issued all the tax demands. I mean we have tax demands now,” says Mr Hopkins in a leaked recorded telephone conversation with then BAT Kenya boss Gary Fagan.
While KRA denied the claims and asked those with evidence of any wrongdoing by its officers to present such information to the anti-graft agency for investigation -- what we know is that this was the last straw on Mr Murungi’s venture. BAT has always dismissed these claims.
That Murungi had no peace in running a private tobacco company in Kenya is now well documented. But what he went through silently is perhaps the untold story of the tobacco industry. It is the story of a Kenyan who tried hard to set up a local giant and got little support.
Whether he dodged taxes or not, the jury is out there. Fare the well, Engineer.
 

MkukiMoto

Elder Lister
Ode to tycoon who almost smoked BAT out of business
SUNDAY JUNE 9 2019

Wilfred Murungi, who founded the Mastermind Tobacco company. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
A few weeks before his death, an industrial go-slow was reported at his factory – at a time when he was ailing.
Business had been bad, support waning and the court cases had drained him.
That Murungi had no peace in running a private tobacco company in Kenya is now well documented.
But what he went through silently is perhaps the untold story of the tobacco industry.
It is the story of a Kenyan who tried hard to set up a local giant and got little support.

By JOHN KAMAU
More by this Author
Before tobacco tycoon Wilfred Murungi died this week, what troubled him most was the impending forced sale of his properties to settle a Sh2.9 billion tax claim demanded by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
TAX CLAIMS
Mr Murungi fought hard to save his venture and he got little, if any, political support over all these years. A few weeks before his death, an industrial go-slow was reported at his factory – at a time when he was ailing. Business had been bad, support waning and the court cases had drained him.
Mr Murungi’s Mastermind Tobacco, the makers of Supermatch brand, had been forced to file a consent in court indicating that the pioneer indigenous cigarette maker in Kenya was willing to dispose of 12 properties in order to raise Sh1.54 billion as partial payment of one of the biggest tax claims to a local entrepreneur. He would do anything to succeed.
It was also reported by his handlers that at the tail-end of his life, Mr Murungi was willing to offload 51 per cent of Mastermind shareholding to the global giant Phillip Morris, the makers of Marlboro, hoping to resuscitate his venture. Although Phillip Morris is a global company, it has limited African footprint in only South Africa and Senegal and Mr Murungi hoped that he needed such muscle to survive this callous market.
Ever since he quit as an engineer with BAT Kenya Limited to set up Mastermind Tobacco in the late 1980s – first in Nakuru and then, when the business did well, in Nairobi – Mr Murungi had to fight survival wars in the cut-throat tobacco industry: He fought the government, fought BAT, and fought for a slice of tobacco-growing zones, with different outcomes.
Related Stories
Uhuru mourns Mastermind Tobacco founder
Mastermind seeks out of court deal in tax row
KRA goes for rich club
The entrepreneur had entered the industry at a tricky time when an American academic Prof Allyin Taylor had published an article in the Journal of Law and Medicine arguing, for the first time, that the World Health Assembly of WHO had a legal mandate to assist member-states in strengthening their laws to control the health effects of smoking. Then, the anti-tobacco campaign gained currency and he could not advertise his products.
COMMERCIAL HITMAN
By this time, the East African market was dominated by a giant British monopoly that had been the face of cigarette production in the region from 1907 when they set up a base in Mombasa – before building a factory in Nairobi in 1957 to serve the region.
For years, BAT – with a 20 per cent government shareholding then - promoted the growing of tobacco to ensure a steady supply of raw tobacco leaf with a chain of farmers, stores and extension officers. As a monopoly, BAT did well. Extremely well – and when pushed to the corner, its officials are alleged to have bribed local politicians and bureaucrats to survive. That was until 2013 when its former employee, Paul Hopkins told BBC's Panorama that he was BAT’s “Commercial Hitman” and handed to the British Serious Fraud Office recordings of conversations between Gary Fagan, BAT’s director for East and Central Africa, and a company lawyer, Naushad Ramoly, discussing bribes.
“BAT is bribing people, and I'm facilitating it,” Mr Hopkins had claimed. But BAT has consistently denied Mr Hopkin’s allegations and SFO has not concluded the matter, yet.
This was the environment in which Mr Murungi had built his fledging tobacco industry shortly after the liberalisation of the economy and the entry of imports. It was also the time another US company, RJ Reynolds, had introduced Aspen and Camel brands into the market and had hoped to build a factory in East Africa. It was fought out of the Kenyan market, leaving Mr Murungi to fight BAT alone.
Murungi first ran into headwinds, as expected, from BAT which claimed that Mastermind was infiltrating its zones in Bungoma and South Nyanza; arguably the best tobacco zones in Kenya.
EXPLOITATION
So vicious was the war that BAT was once accused in Parliament of “behaving as if it was the government”. As the controversy heightened, the government intervened and carved out the tobacco-growing regions into zones for the two companies; giving BAT the most productive zones and forcing Mastermind to develop its tobacco industry from marginal tobacco-growing areas.
The core of the dispute was that Mastermind had not established a reliable network of tobacco supplies, and BAT felt the company was leeching, nay piggy riding, on its network of contracted farmers – and not paying for it. But farmers were, indeed, happy with Mr Murungi. He paid them better prices and on time. It was also a political issue.
On July 5, 1991, the then agriculture minister, Elijah Mwangale, zoned the tobacco growing areas for the two companies. While the best tobacco came from Bungoma, Busia and Migori, it was also grown in marginal areas such as Kitui, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Mandera, Isiolo and Siaya.
With that a motion was tabled in Parliament by Joseph Malebe asking the government to formulate a policy that would permit and encourage free and fair competition in the tobacco industry.
“The minister, in his zoning was controlling the tobacco business and also favouring BAT company which has been milking this country in the form of foreign exchange,” Mr Malebe claimed. “When the zoning favours BAT, then we are favouring the exploitation of the economy of this country by expatriating the wealth of this country away.”
EVIL DECISION
So vicious was the trade that the provincial administration was asked to supervise to whom the farmers sold their produce. With the provincial administration in South Nyanza said to be leaning on BAT, the MP said “definitely you cannot rule out the question of graft and corruption, which are the things we are trying to fight in this country”.
It was the first time that BAT had met its match – a former employee. Before Mastermind started its factory in Nakuru, the price of a kilogramme of tobacco leaves was Sh15. Mastermind offered farmers Sh24, triggering a fight.
Publicly, BAT had not asked for protection from any competition and the government’s decision to give Mr Murungi’s company only 3 per cent of tobacco growing zones while BAT was left with 97 per cent was dismissed as “an evil decision” by MP Peter Habenga Okondo.
“In 1970, the BAT fought another company here known as Rothmans until it was out of the market. We never saw anybody going to help it at that time. Why is it now being supported?” posed Mr Okondo.
It was the same sentiments from Maurice Makhanu who claimed that BAT had a tendency to push out competitors having successfully blocked Rothmans’ rise. “I am happy that Mastermind has come up with a very good system of grading tobacco to ensure that no farmer’s tobacco is thrown away. In fact, the company’s field officers are very courteous to farmers because they know that the farmer is very important.”
But that was half the problem. Later, Mr Murungi was forced to source his tobacco from as far as Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
WHISTLE BLOWER
In June 2012, Uganda banned the transit of the Supermatch brand of cigarettes to South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Chad through Uganda. This followed a trade dispute over Supermatch trademark dispute between Mastermind and Leaf Tobacco Commodities Ltd of Uganda.
The BAT whistle-blower, Paul Hopkins, would later claim in the BBC corruption expose that they did some dirty work against Mastermind. That included paying kickbacks to some Kenya Revenue Authority officials to make numerous tax demands and damage its reputation.
“We paid the KRA guy, the right KRA guy a shed load of money. He issued all the tax demands. I mean we have tax demands now,” says Mr Hopkins in a leaked recorded telephone conversation with then BAT Kenya boss Gary Fagan.
While KRA denied the claims and asked those with evidence of any wrongdoing by its officers to present such information to the anti-graft agency for investigation -- what we know is that this was the last straw on Mr Murungi’s venture. BAT has always dismissed these claims.
That Murungi had no peace in running a private tobacco company in Kenya is now well documented. But what he went through silently is perhaps the untold story of the tobacco industry. It is the story of a Kenyan who tried hard to set up a local giant and got little support.
Whether he dodged taxes or not, the jury is out there. Fare the well, Engineer.
Munene, the last sentence captures it all for me. ..... ''It is the story of a Kenyan who tried hard to set up a local giant and got little support''.

Every government and cabinet minister (CS) in Kenya should learn how to support our own industrialists.
Otherwise we will not be able to beat global corporate giants at their game.
The two stories of George Owino and Wilfred Murungi shared by Mkubwaa Meria proves we can compete and win some corporate battles.
 

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member


Munene, the last sentence captures it all for me. ..... ''It is the story of a Kenyan who tried hard to set up a local giant and got little support''.

Every government and cabinet minister (CS) in Kenya should learn how to support our own industrialists.
Otherwise we will not be able to beat global corporate giants at their game.
The two stories of George Owino and Wilfred Murungi shared by Mkubwaa Meria proves we can compete and win some corporate battles.
The keroche lady is being fought on all fronts.
Very sad.
We also had Kuguru and his Softa soda.
Coke with support of govt finished the company
 

MkukiMoto

Elder Lister
How to be a Kenyan was my favourite book nikiwa busia nikichunga maindi zisiliwe na tumbili
Sir, wewee ni royalty hapo Busia(shire). Tuku address na heshima kama 'Sir' nani ??

Ama kitambo you abdicated your ki-dynasty inheritance but still a Duke today :ROFLMAO:
Vile Njonjo, the former powerful AG ni Sir Charles Njonjo, Duke of Kabeteshire.
 

Giggz

Elder Lister
The elite have always milked Kenyans blood. MaDvd and his fellow western clowns have never stepped in to improve the lives of his voters. Even Tinga is largely useless.
 

Duke of Busia

Elder Lister
Sir, wewee ni royalty hapo Busia(shire). Tuku address na heshima kama 'Sir' nani ??

Ama kitambo you abdicated your ki-dynasty inheritance but still a Duke today :ROFLMAO:
Vile Njonjo, the former powerful AG ni Sir Charles Njonjo, Duke of Kabeteshire.
You just addressed me as SIR... enough said
 
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