#FlipSidePost
If it's too long, it definitely isn't for you.
The house below is a luxurious house in Nairobi The owner isn't a politician. Just a hard-working individual.
There exists something known as The Kenyan Dream. Many live it. Many dream it. And all it takes to activate it is to have a total mind shift on what you think you know.
Question. Have you ever asked yourself why, with all the money they have, rich people in Kenya never relocate? I mean, Kirubi could easily own a chatteau in France or a villa in Monte Carlo right? Why do wealthy foreigners think Kenya is amazing and want to live here? I mean schools like Turi or RVA host children of Africa's wealthy presidents, businessmen and diplomats. What Kenya is this they see that many of us don't?
Well, it's because, once you tune into a certain frequency of life, all your antennae and transmitters receive are the energies of that frequency. In other words, we are, what we attract.
Reality, is relative. What you think is true doesn't mean it's universally true. What you think is impossible is possible to someone else.
Change your frequencies. Start by changing your social circles, the things you read online and the energy you are attracted to.
The human mind is very interesting. It always finds a way to make excuse for itself when defeated.
We have a very low threshold of inspiration. For instance;
Peter Munga, the founder of Equity Bank is worth $170M.
Manu Chandaria is worth $280M.
Christian Ronaldo, a young footballer has just surpassed the $1B mark.
A musician known as Kanye West is in the ranges of $1B dollars.
A basketballer called Michael Jordan is worth $2.5B.
For objectivity sakes, let's not value politicians for now.
We love to apply our inequities and failures on others' lives and we tend to believe that whatever is impossible to us, must be impossible to others.
Examples;
When one sees a girl they used to know, who disappears and returns with some money, good looks and new possessions, the first thing they will say is that she must have found a sponsor or is a prostitute. To them, there's absolutely no way she could have worked hard on her own.
When they see a young man who was once poor and has succeeded, beyond their expectations, they'd rather assume it's because the young man is into drugs, or this other sorry excuse lazy people call 'illuminati'.
If they saw a middle aged man or someone they had thought was washed up who suddenly makes money, the best explanation will always be "ameiba pesa za tender" or that he is corrupt.
This is because, we project our own inefficiencies to others. Not here. I will show you the other side of things and speak the unspoken.
There's a picture I had posted earlier and captioned it this: Don't be salty. Live the Kenyan dream.
As usual, as with such pictures especially when anything opulent is associated with a politician, many uninformed people go on to spew uninformed commentaries on the same and would easily attribute it to ' Stolen Wealth '.
Be as it may, who told you that owning a chopper is a big deal? there are many unknown Kenyans who have worked hard and own such things. After all, man was created to conquer adversity, not to wallow in it.
I recently wrote that we need to adapt differently and change how we do things to survive post covid economic doldrums. Before we even embark on that self help journey, we must first proudly bring out the possibilities that lie in us. We must testify and evangelize about the Kenyan dream.
7 years ago, I went to see a politician in his office in regards to some digital work for his personal businesses he was offering me. He wasn't a top notch politician, however, what I realised was that he had amassed so much wealth over time. As usual, just like most of you, I quickly concluded that he had made his money from corrupt deals and having his hands in the public coffers.
As the work commenced, he introduced me to his wife who was running their businesses and we toured his facilities accross the country. The more I engaged with them, the more I had a total mind shift on what I thought I knew.
You see, he was an exporter of very expensive office furniture he made in some nondescript location. He had large commercial tree farms and this raked him hundreds of millions every turn. I soon realised that he was a smart politician. He had used his political office to traverse the country and learn it. He explored potential that many didn't even factor and executed his business diligently. To him, politics had been just a stepping stone to access information.
That was my aha moment. To many, including some of you, politics is an end unto itself while to smart ones, proximity to political power means access to information and exposure. If you have a business mind, you take advantage of this.
How many of you know what opportunities your neighbouring counties have? Have you, a Luo from Siaya, explored opportunities in Kwale that Kwale people don't appreciate? Have you, a Kamba from Makueni bothered to know what business you can do in Kisii? Have you, a kalenjin farmer known what you can do in Isiolo? I bet you don't even think of it that way. I see water hyacinth in Kisumu and I see a multibillion enterprise in furniture, bags, apparel and accessories with ready markets globally. Someone else sees a nuisance of a weed slowing down fishing prospects while meanwhile Chinese fish is thriving in Kenya. Adapt.
We can fix Kenya by fixing our individual aspirations.
Young people have what it takes to make it. There's a young man, and he's a friend both offline and here on FB who bought a new Discovery 4 less than 2 years ago out of nothing else but, blogging. He was 26. Yes, these many words we write can transform lives financially if you know what to do with them.
There's also my other associate( some of you who know me personally know who I'm taking about) who built an IT system for a foreign government and bought his Range Rover Autobiography Supercharged 5L cash, from RMA. 30M. Not on bank loans. He was 34. And of course they have many other investments. No corruption. No godfathers. No illuminati . Adaptability.
I grew up in a commercial farming area called Kericho. Many years ago, an old man called Isiah worked for an Asian businessman as a loader in his wholesalers. He later left to start his own indigenous wholesalers and ate into the market share of this Asian businessman. In few years, the old man had spread his wings far and wide. When he was about to retire, he gave his sons the reigns of the business and the sons diversified into commercial haulage. Transport. Their immediate prospects were the large tea farms. The trucks would transport tea to mombasa auction and return with other items for traders in western Kenya. In less than 10 years, the sons had grown the fleet of long haul trucks to more than 150. As they were busy running wholesalers and trucking, some of their peers had migrated to Nairobi to "seek greener pastures". One of the sons once said " I've been to Nairobi and I can't handle all that drama. The only time I'll live in nairobi is when I have a Billion in my bank ". It sounded like a funny joke. But few years later, they got lucrative transport business contracts and as they say, the rest is history. He made his Billion, moved to the most affluent areas of Karen, bought a house in Spain and Australia and lives his Kenyan dream.
There's a gentleman who was once my parents' tenant in Kericho. A very hardworking young kikuyu called Jimmy. This gentleman started as a hawker before we let him space to run his clothing business. He grew his business in strides and as we speak, drives a Porsche Cayenne, has a block of apartments etc. He knew that he couldn't compete in crowded cities...he needed to find a niche and be consistent. No godfathers, no corruption. Adaptability.
Did you know that the owners (major shareholders) of Braeburn Schools are from Kericho? In fact the director spends more time in his farm in short on horseback than in Nairobi. Kenyan Dream.
There are so many such cases I can lose count. And my friends from Kericho most definitely know these people. I have used individuals I know personally and who I can account for because I don't want to make hollow statements about the possibility of a Kenyan Dream.
5 years ago, I decided to challenge myself like the politician I met 2 years earlier. I did my research and realised that being a millionaire wasn't rocket science. During my research, I went to Gikomba in nairobi and saw how lucrative the timber industry was. I learnt about the different kinds of timber and it's uses and the farming process and patience involved.
The shortest a tree could grow for commercial benefits was about 7 years.
I realised that I had some land in rainy Kericho that I hardly used. I visited a KEFRI office and got all data I required. An acre of land could pack up up to 1800 trees with even spacing. There were two lucrative tree types to plant. Eucalyptus Grandis( Blue Gum) and Cyprus. Since Blue gum were not good near river beds, I only planted 500 of them in controlled management on a 2 acre farm. I then went to lease some 10 acres land elsewhere . Those who have done farming understand that it's cheap to lease land. At about 5k an acre per year, I could lease it for 10 years payable annually. I embarked on planting 20,000 trees and had the drama of managing the seedlings for the first 6 months as they settled into the ground. Thereafter, the trees went up by themselves with prunning each year for the first 4 years.
I went back to Nairobi to continue with my hustle and shamba ya mawe brokenness. The politician had taught me something. He had taught me to look at lumbering the trees and selling them as timber and furniture strips but not as logs. This way, one could easily make about 15k per tree instead of 5k per log. I did the math. I bought few logs, and lumbered them and converted them into finished timber products and I actually sold them to wood work workshops and saw the profits. That was in 2014. So I had the confidence to start the journey. 15k per tree multiplied 20,000 times was 300M. Take out all costs and all inputs and you're still in the hundreds of millions. I realised that if I was lazy and didn't want to lumber them personally, I'd still sell them as logs straight from the farm at 5k per log and still make 100M. And the tree stumps would earn some few more millions in charcoal. All one needed was to sit still for few years. He told me " you'd rather run around for 7 years looking for opportunities and markets and doing other jobs knowing that you've literally grown your money".
So, now you know, in 3 years time, look for me we eat mbuzi in Abu Dhabi. Lol
This is a reality many commercial tree farmers understand.
But wait, we love quick fix solutions. Patience is a virtue we hardly bother with.
An accountant buddy of mine surprised friends a year ago with a brand new BMW X5. We knew he was probably paid by a good auditing client.
Wrong.
He had been saving his money and started a kienyeji chicken business. In a span of a year he had rared 3000 birds. As he went around auditing businesses, he marketed his chicken and soon, he got 4 consistent orders of 320 chicken per month. It was a good number because by the time he exhausted the last one he'd have replenished the flock to meet the monthly demand. At a wholesale price of 800Bob a chicken. He was making 256k per month consistently from his chicken side hustle.
Now back to politicians. In rift valley, other than the commercial agricultural towns, land is cheap and arable. Jackson Kibor has more than 5000 acres. He plants maize. Ruto has thousands of chicken and thousands of acres of land. Farming records alone rake these men hundreds of millions per harvest. Buying houses and choppers are not a big deal, asit's within the income range. Plus, as a business man, owning a chopper is another commercial venture. One can net you a million bob per day, so buying one and managing it professionally has good returns on investment. Here's the funny truth, they're not the most successful farmers.
Bhimji Depar Shah an unknown Kenyan businessman is worth $700M while Kenyatta is $580M.
Reality is relative.
The purpose of this very long post is to prove something, that there are few people who come online to look for inspirations. They need to know that even from villages away from the city, billionaires are made everyday. Don't be too embarrassed to own your story. Remember, swag never fed a man.
The likes of Karume, Kirima, Michuki etc are all villagers who came to the city to conquer... So can you.
The quickest way to depression is to look at your qualifications and academic indoctrination and try to apply it to wealth creation.
Right about now, your education won't make you wealthy. Education will inform you, expose you, train you but your adaptability and astutenes will make you survive the tides.
Khaligraph Jones was recently a broke boy from Kayole. Right now he lives well and can fend for his family. He lives the Kenyan dream.
Negativity will slow you down.
There is a Kenyan dream. Try to find it.
