Born Christopher John Kirubi in 1941, the late is among the biggest entrepreneurs Kenya has ever produced. A famous tbusinessman, entrepreneur, industrialist and philanthropist, Kirubi took his last breath on Monday, 14th June 2021 after battling cancer for about five years.
1: Born in a very poor family;Despite having built a big business empire, there are some unknown and interesting facts about him. These are
Chris Kirubi was born in a very poor family. Sadly, he also remained a total orphan at a young age, having lost both parents. Because of this, Kirubi resorted to gamble between school and manual work so as to generate school fees for himself and for his brothers.
2: Salesman; He studied at Handel’s University, Sweden and Harvard Business School in USA. After graduation, Kirubi started working as a salesman for Shell. At Shell, he was involved in selling and repairing. According to him, the amount he was paid was not even enough for his dinner.
3: Transportation Administrator;Between 1960s and early 1970s, Kirubi left Shell and started working as an Administrator at a government owned transportation company, Kenatco.While doing this, he was also buying run-down buildings in Mombasa and Nairobi. He would renovate the houses then sell the structures or rent them. This was a side hustle he started in 1971.
4: Among Top Richest Africans; At the time of his death, Kirubi’s worth is approximated to be around $300 million. This puts him at position 31 on Forbes’ list of Africa richest persons.
5: Unrivaled Enterprenuer; As an entrepreneur, Chris Kirubi managed to employ over 1,000 people through his various enterprises such as International House, Tiger Haco Industries, Capital FM and DHL Kenya.
While opening up about this, he said that his happiness is to see people employed and are earning livelihood from his companies. He stated;
“People say I am one of the richest people in Kenya, but that’s not my concern. I mean, they say I am a god of sorts, but I don’t agree. When I look around at my companies and see the number of people we have employed, it gives me joy. It is more satisfying than having all the money in the world.”
In 1998 Chris Kirubi expanded his empire, acquiring Haco Industries. He then expanded Haco from just distributing American and British brands to a big company involved in local made products such as TCB and Palmers.
The company also started dealing with hair and skin care products in the country.
6: Media Owner;The same year, he bought Capital FM, a local radio station. While explaining his reasons behind buying the station, Kirubi said that he did not just wished to acquire the station solely for its financial gains. However, he wanted to love being in the media business.
He also wanted to understand the business and its basics. It was on this that he approached the managers and requested to host a rock radio show. He also asked them to teach him how to become a Disc Jockey.
Kirubi did not end his adventure there. He would then proceed to serve as a member of several groups. Due to his unrivaled leadership qualities, he held chairmanship position in most of these groups.
Some of the groups he served are DHL Express Kenya Limited, Haco Industries Kenya Limited, Kiruma International Limited and International House Limited. He also served Nairobi Bottlers Limited,Sandvik East Africa Limited and 98.4 Capital FM among others.
Chris Kirubi held the largest individual stake in Centum Investments. This is a private equity firm. In a stock exchange listing in Kenya and Uganda, Chris was reported to have market capitalization of $92 million.
It is important to note that Centum has one of the most attractive investment portfolios in East Africa. Due to his financial power, it is reported that Kirubi owns a Maybach worth Ksh 50 million, among other posh cars.
7: Divorcee; After divorcing his wife in 1999, he did not marry again. This opened doors for allegations, where he was accused of having relationship with university girls, especially those from University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University.
8: Motivational Speaker ; Borrowing from his experience as an established businessman, Kirubi doubled as a motivational speaker. He used this to encourage youths to venture into business as a sure way of avoiding depending on others. He was also a strict and a no nonsense man.