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Industrialist Peter Kuguru earns PhD at 80
Entrepreneur Peter Kuguru, 80, founder of Softa Soda and Kuguru Food Complex Ltd during his graduation with a PhD in business Management from the Open of Tanzania in Dar e Salaam.
Peter Kuguru, the Kenyan entrepreneur best known as the founder of Softa Bottling Company (Softa Soda) and Kuguru Food Complex Ltd (KFCL), has earned a PhD in Business Management from the Open University of Tanzania.
Dr Kuguru, 80, was recognised as the oldest graduate during the university’s convocation ceremony held on November 27, 2025, in Dar es Salaam.
His doctoral research examined how innovation can strengthen the performance of coffee cooperative societies and improve returns for farmers. The study focused on cooperatives and regulatory bodies across the Kenyan coffee value chain, including the Coffee Board of Kenya, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).
The Open University of Tanzania—established in 1992—is one of the country’s largest institutions, offering distance-learning programmes from certificate to PhD level through a nationwide network of regional centres.
Dr Kuguru said he hopes his graduation at 80 will inspire younger generations. His research, completed over eight years, provides recommendations for revitalising coffee cooperatives, improving crop performance and increasing growers’ incomes. It also offers a framework for further academic work on strengthening Kenya’s coffee value chain.
Dr Kuguru’s business story is widely cited as an example of ambition, resilience and the hurdles faced by local entrepreneurs in developing economies. He built Softa into a major Kenyan beverage brand that took on multinational competitors, even as he navigated structural challenges such as high operating costs, market barriers, limited government support and unfair competition.
Despite setbacks—including the collapse of some ventures—Kuguru has repeatedly reinvented himself. After Softa, he shifted into new business lines, including maize milling through Cateress Milling, which produces the “Cateress” and “Mpishi” flour brands.
Kenyan entrepreneur Peter Kuguru.
He also ventured into unconventional opportunities, such as offering to buy locusts during a major outbreak at Sh50 per kilo for processing into animal feed and supplements.
Through his memoir and public reflections, Dr Kuguru has documented the business, economic and political realities that shaped his entrepreneurial path. He has often said he wants to be remembered as “the entrepreneur who dared to dream big.”
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