‘Villagers’ who own Nairobi’s city centre

For decades, the heart of Nairobi has been defined by buildings and shops owned by cooperatives or small groups of friends from particular villages. Over time, even those who remained in rural areas did not need to travel to Nairobi to own a piece of the city - they simply contributed money. 

Recently, when questions arose about the fate of the iconic Imenti House in the Central Business District - with some saying it would be sold - the owners told Nation.Africa that the building was not for sale. What caught the eye of many was the ownership of the building, named after an area in Meru.       

Meru coffee farmers own two prime buildings in Nairobi’s Central Business District raking in millions in rental income every month.

The two prime assets have been at the centre of controversy by a section of farmers in Meru with several petitions filed to government agencies to investigate how the income from the buildings is spent.

The two buildings were bought by Meru Farmers’ Cooperative Union in the late 1960s, before it split into three unions – Meru Central Farmers’ Cooperative Union (MCFCU), Meru North Cooperative Union (MNCU) and Meru South Farmers’ Cooperative Union (MSFCU).

After the split in 1970, assets and liabilities were shared with MCFCU, now Meru Central Coffee Cooperative Union (MCCCU), taking over Imenti House and MNCU taking over Nyambene House.

MCCCU currently has more than 120,000 members from 34 societies while MNCU comprises 13 societies.

Imenti House, which houses a variety of shops, is located along Tom Mboya Street and near the junction of Kenyatta Avenue and Moi Avenue, while Nyambene House is on Tom Mboya Street. 

According to Mr Aaron M’Aburi, who served as the union chairman between 1970 and 1981, Imenti House was bought for Sh9 million through a loan from Cooperative Bank.

“At the time, the management learned that the building was being sold from the union’s accountant who was an Indian. In fact, we outsmarted several buyers including a top official in the Jomo Kenyatta government who was interested in the building,” Mr M’Aburi said in a previous interview.

He said the union managed to secure funding from the Cooperative Bank, after a recommendation from the bank’s founding manager Jason Kimbui, who was poached from the union in 1969. 

MCCU chairman Ephantus Majau said Mr Kimbui joined the Cooperative Bank at the suggestion of President Jomo Kenyatta, who was impressed by his performance after opening the union’s three-storey building in Meru town in 1965.

Mr Majau, who became the union chairman in 2012, said he found Imenti house earning a meagre Sh900,000 every month.

“When I took over, we refurbished the building and rental income rose to more than Sh8 million per month. Proceeds from Imenti House go directly to an escrow account for servicing union loans,” Mr Majau said in a previous interview.

He said after improving its earnings, the union pays dividends to members who had contributed three cents to the union’s operations fund between 1976 and 1981 when the Imenti House loan was paid.

The dividends are paid through the union’s 34 member societies every year.

Meanwhile, Nyambene house which was also acquired through a loan has been a source of scrutiny by former coffee farmers.

In 2020, the Union officials revealed that they were collecting more than Sh1.5 million in monthly rent from Nyambene House.

Earlier, a section of Meru residents living in Nairobi had petitioned the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to probe the Meru North Cooperative Union on allegations of mismanagement of funds.

“Nyambene House, owned by the union, was bought with money contributed by our parents in the 1960s and 1970s. We suspect the income earned by the union is going into the pockets of individuals," said Mwenda Thiribi, one of the petitioners.

However, the union’s chairman Josphat Thiaine earlier told Nation.Africa that when he joined the union in 2006, Nyambene House was condemned and inhabitable.

"I found out that the lease of Nyambene House had expired in 1994 and we were about to lose it. I took over when the monthly rent was a meagre Sh350,000. We renovated the building and increased the rental income to more than Sh1.4 million," Mr Thiaine said earlier.

The union is also fighting to recover a four-acre piece of land in Ruaraka, valued at more than Sh1 billion, after it was sold under unclear circumstances.

Mr Thiaine said most of the union’s income was going into servicing old debts and legal fees for the Ruaraka land case.

In 2021, the Meru County Assembly directed the Cooperatives Department to audit the Meru North Cooperative Union, citing poor financial management.

How 'Rwathia Boys' conquered the City through food, alcohol and beds

Inspired to explore and conquer, a group of young men from Rwathia village in Murang'a County moved to Nairobi in the late 1920s and went on to own hotels, bars and brothels.

The young men first won the hearts of the colonial government and were granted permission to move to Nairobi, where they also secured hawking permits, which they used to bring in more male villagers to work as hawkers and houseboys. 

The young men would later 'litter' Nairobi with sensational businesses housed in famous joints in Sabina Joy/Karumaindo, Njogu-ini, Kagondo, Nyanza/Imani, Alpha, Timboroa, Kinangop, Rwathia Maishani and Milano.

The enterprising men, who had no formal education, took over Nairobi so that every visitor to the city was fed, wined and slept for a fee that went to Murang'a families.

The young men were driven by nothing more than enterprise to escape the poverty of the villages, and when an opportunity arose, they sought out relatives and wrestlers in the village and together formed savings and investment societies.

The young men first worked as hawkers, moved into shops and, after independence, began to take over buildings left behind by the Asians.

It was these buildings that the young Murang'a men turned into hotels, bars and lodgings, and as Africanisation set in, they acquired more property, until by 1980 they owned a significant proportion of Nairobi.

The journey began with the likes of Mr Gerald Gikonyo (1914-2024), who, after making a fortune in hawking, began inviting village friends to come to the city and conquer it.

According to Gikonyo's memoirs, the feat began when villagers who wanted to own Nairobi were mobilised to contribute about Sh100 a share, and the money was used to buy out Asian-owned properties.

"The gospel spread fast in the villages and since the families of the men who had moved to Nairobi were testimony of the good life, men in the villages worked hard and sent money to Nairobi to be guaranteed a pie in the scramble for Nairobi," reads part of the memoirs prepared by Rwathia Distributors director, Mr Kanene Kabiru.

Mr Kabiru during a recent interview in Nairobi said that "village men did casual labour, burnt charcoal, sold logs, and firewood, traded in livestock...and sent their money to Nairobi and their leaders bought buildings, modified them to attract spendthrifts who were swimming in independence fruits.

"These men were very sharp after years of working among Asians. They knew young men with money had three passions: Food, alcohol and sex. They found the Rwathia men with ready hotels, bars and lodgings," Mr Kabiru said.

Mr Kabiru, who joined Rwathia Investments in 1988, says the founders who formed the technical think-tank were "four Mwangis and a Maina".

They were Mwangi Thuita, Mwangi Njuguna, Mwangi wa Mbui, Mwangi wa Gakere and Maina wa Kimere.

"These are the ones who would guarantee a company a prime plot of land in the city centre for between Sh30,000 and Sh80,000," he said.

As more families sent money to the Nairobi group for investment, it was only a matter of time before the Central Business District (CBD) became synonymous with Murang'a investment groups.

"By 1990, Murang'a villages owned more than 80 per cent of the CBD--- the other owners being government and Indians," Mr Kabiru said.

As many families joined the scramble, affiliate societies and partnerships were formed and purchased more properties, the craze attracting other villages beyond Rwathia.

Among the men who embraced the craze but as a sole investor was Mr King'ori Macharia who pooled his own resources and went to Nairobi.

According to Mr John Kamau, 72, who is a nephew to Mr Macharia, the journey saw him shop for an Indian who was disposing of his house sitting on a 20-acre piece of land.

"Mr Macharia was the father of Nairobi's former mayor, Mr King'ori Mwangi (both now deceased)," said Mr Kamau.

Mr Kamau said Mr Macharia began the arduous task of building the five-storey Accra Hotel on Accra Road and also bought another building in the Maringo area of Eastlands.

"The mayor is the one who saw the completion of the Accra Hotel...the enterprising spirit of his father took him on an upward trajectory in the fortunes of the city to the point where City Hall had him as its political leader," Mr Kamau said, adding that the feat led to the King'ori family owning another building in Murang'a town called Rwathia.

While the Murang'a group was scrambling for Indian land, their Kiambu counterparts, favoured by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta of Gatundu's presidency, went after land in the outskirts of the city, with Embakasi Ranching Company Limited being one of the companies used in the exercise.

Mr Kabiru says the nation's founding father played a pivotal role in helping them maximise their profits from their businesses.

"Mzee called these men into a meeting and scoldedat them for using Murang'a names on their business enterprises. He advised them to target communities by naming some of their buildings after regions away from Mt Kenya...That is how buildings with names like Nyanza, Kakamega, Nyandarua, Kinangop and others, emerged in Nairobi— owned by Murang'a families but as a trap of inducing entitlement," he said.

The President also advised them to modernise their accommodation to include self-contained rooms, "a decision that was difficult for the village boys who found it almost an abomination to sleep in the same room that had a toilet".

Mr Kabiru says that Mzee Kenyatta's advice to the Murang'a men brought a flood of profits, 'especially after men from Western and Nyanza regions flocked to establishments named after their regions and spent like there was no tomorrow'.

He says most of the lodges under the control of the Murang'a men saw their rates increase 20-fold after Kenyatta's advice.

Another help came in the form of their fellow villager, John Michuki, who was appointed managing director of the Kenya Commercial Bank in the Kenyatta regime.

"There was a notorious Indian who was a very mischievous bank broker. As more and more Asians wanted to dispose of their properties, this shylock took advantage of the Murang'a's appetite to buy them off," he said.

The broker would take the Murang'a men to banks and help them secure loans that were 30 per cent higher than the purchase price.

"They would sign papers taking responsibility for repaying the loan plus the extra 30 per cent that the broker pocketed. This meant that the total cost of the loan was almost 60 per cent," he said.

When Michuki got wind of the broker's exploits, he had him banned from dealing with banks and also set up an asset finance desk at KCB, which gave the Rwathia group access to loans with an interest rate of less than 20 per cent.

"Michuki did not rest on his laurels as he too became a fast property owner, acquiring more than 500 acres in the scramble for Nairobi," says Mr Kabiru.

As the land grab raged, by 1980 Rwathia alone had more than 10 companies with about 200 members, owning about a third of Nairobi.

The fire also spread, and Rwathia village began to face competition from neighbouring villages such as Wethaga, Njumbi, Kiru and Gathare, which also own dozens of buildings in the city. 

"They are being told by President William Ruto to go into saccos and they are bringing in politics. Those who embrace the idea of cooperatives will be the next movers and shakers of this economy," Mr Kabiru quips.

He said those who embrace the joint growth ventures will need trust, focus and an eye for opportunity.

He added that no money is small and at the same time no money is big, "avoid destructive lifestyles and above all do not live like a consumer... think production".

Former Equity Boss chairman Peter Munga, who also owns Nairobi CBD through Rwathia Investment, spoke at Mr Gikonyo's funeral.

Mr Munga said buildings and land are ideal hiding places for one's savings.

"We will remember him as a man who instilled a culture of unity in saving and investing to the extent that he inspired the birth of Equity Bank. He was the hallmark of resilience, honesty, generosity and compassion. We mourn a fallen mountain of investment that helped many, including me, gain a foothold in wealth creation," he said.

Mr Munga took a swipe at today's youth "who easily lose faith and purpose in life, choose jobs and do not stay in one job for long. The late Gikonyo was orphaned at the age of nine and rose through the maze of jobs to become a billionaire".

Mr Munga advised the youths to ensure that they always treat employment as a platform to plan for the future, deny themselves the trappings of the good life and instead sacrifice for investments that will make them rich and empower others by providing livelihoods.

"If a man with no formal education could achieve all the economic milestones that are recited at his death, imagine what you can achieve with your education, technological minds and many mentors around you," he said, adding that "you too can come together and own a part of your choice".

Ambitions from Makueni

Shortly before Kenya's independence, a team of Nairobi residents with roots in the hilly Kilungu region at the heart of what is now Makueni County got together and started toying with the idea of investing in the capital. 

Driven by a determination to amass wealth, they purchased a building in downtown Nairobi and established the Athusi Bar and Restaurant, which continues to make waves to this day.

Established in 1958, the investment includes a hotel and conference facility. It has outlived most of its founders. 

"Athusi is celebrating 66 years in business. Most of the founding members have passed away over the years," says John Mutaki, one of the remaining founders of Athusi. 

In keeping with the meaning of Athusi - warriors who set out to make a living - the company has spread its tentacles to Mombasa, Emali and Sultan Hamud townships in Makueni County.

Tucked away on Ukwala Road in downtown Nairobi, Athusi sits next to a busy terminus for matatus serving Nairobi and several Makueni routes. 

As such, it is undoubtedly the first port of call for Makueni residents entering the vibrant city. 

Athusi's restaurant specialises mainly in Kamba cuisine, while the bar plays Kamba music, making no mistake about the type of customer the business is targeting.

"Athusi is our home away from home," says Mwendwa Makali, a manager of some of the matatus that operate out of Athusi.

Over the years, Athusi has enriched Kamba popular culture. It is not uncommon to hear one politician dismissing another as unable to fill Athusi. 

This street language has its roots in the Kamba music bands that perform in the bar. The bands associated with hit songs have no trouble attracting crowds to their shows.

Additional reporting by Pius Maundu