Chris Kirubi lost both parents young and worked school holidays to support his siblings. He became a Nairobi property and industry builder.
A salesman who repaired and sold gas cylinders, Chris Kirubi began buying run-down buildings in the early 1970s. He later chaired companies and held large stakes in Centum.
Chris Kirubi was born in 1941 in Murang’a County into a poor family, and his parents died when he was young. He worked during school holidays to support himself and his siblings. After finishing school, his first job was as a salesman repairing and selling gas cylinders for Shell.
Buildings and loans
During the 1960s and early 1970s he worked as an administrator at Kenatco, a government-owned transport company. Around 1971 he started buying run-down buildings in Nairobi and Mombasa, renovating them to resell or rent out. He also began acquiring prime land in and around Nairobi and built rental and commercial properties, using loans from Kenyan financial institutions.
A portfolio
He became the largest individual investor in Centum Investment Company, which is listed on the Nairobi and Uganda stock exchanges. He owned 100 percent of Haco Industries, a Kenyan household goods manufacturer, and the Capital FM radio station in Nairobi, and held investments in Kenya Commercial Bank Group and Nation Media Group. He chaired several firms including DHL Express Kenya and Nairobi Bottlers.
Kirubi died in 2021. The pattern in his story is easy to follow and hard to do: work early, find an undervalued asset, improve it, and use the proceeds to buy the next one.
