Gerald Gikonyo Kanyuira, the billionaire businessman who founded Sabina Joy – a famous entertainment joint in Nairobi Central Business District passed away on Thursday, June 13, 2024, at the age of 110 at his home in the city’s Luthuli Avenue.
Sabina Joy houses several entertainment venues that attract a wide range of clientele, playing a significant role in Nairobi’s nightlife economy.
Gerald Gikonyo lost his mother at the age of four in 1918 and would later lose his father in the year 1922.
During a past interview with the Nation, Gikonyo disclosed that he began working as a farm helper at Mathari Catholic Mission, tending coffee bushes at the tender age of six, earning Ksh4 for his labor.
By the age of 12, he relocated to Nairobi and obtained a job at the Kenya Coffee Planters Union (KCPU). Working from 4 pm to 1 am, he earned a salary of Ksh20 during nighttime hours.
Businesses Gerald Gikonyo Owns
Gikonyo, renowned for his involvement in establishing Rwathia Distributors, oversaw the creation of unique investments in real estate and the liquor business.
His business empire included Magomano, New Kinangop, Timboroa, and Alfa hotels, along with several high-rise commercial buildings.
Gikonyo, a polygamous man, had four wives and 23 children. He once estimated his grandchildren to number more than 300, with over 100 great-grandchildren.
Proudly, he stated that his firstborn was born in 1936 and his lastborn in 1972.
Life of the Tycoon
While others avoided meat, Gerald Gikonyo indulged in plenty of it, along with traditional brew and occasionally bottled beer. Above all, he cherished his snuff.
“No doctor would advise living like that but look at me—I am over 100 years old,” he remarked earlier.
Despite his age, Gikonyo intentionally refrained from learning how to drive a car due to his fear of their potential to “violently kill people.”
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Seven years ago, the then Nairobi governor Evans Kidero recognized him as a lifetime VIP. As a result, Gikonyo was exempted from paying parking fees and granted free access to all City Hall offices, facilities, and functions at no cost.
He mentored many successful businessmen, including Equity Bank chairman Peter Munga, who once worked as a casual laborer in one of Gikonyo’s hotels.
Gikonyo Among Rwathia Boys Who Built Multi-Billion Business Empires
The journey to acquiring massive wealth for these exceptional entrepreneurs began in 1930, when a group of boys from Rwathia village in Kangema, Murang’a County came to Nairobi and started a vegetable hawking business.
Gikonyo Kanyuira was the last surviving patriarch of the renowned group of Rwathia entrepreneurs, known as the Rwathia Group, who control a variety of properties and businesses in downtown Nairobi.
“We used to buy vegetables from Marikiti (Wakulima) Market from traders in Limuru and sell them to Asian families,” he recalled in a past interview.
“There was a wave of boys from Rwathia coming to Nairobi. We encouraged it because we all wanted to do business together.”
Since there were no banks available for Africans at that time, the boys would send one of their friends back to the village to deposit some savings with the elders for safekeeping.
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When they needed to expand their investments, they would return to the village to retrieve their savings.
Eventually, the Rwathia boys decided to form several savings groups, with each person belonging to multiple groups.
After seven years of selling vegetables and engaging in other businesses in Nairobi, these savings groups began purchasing buildings from Asians in Pumwani to establish shops and small dukas.
According to reports, in 1931 no Kenyan owned a car something which made Mr. Gerald Gikonyo Kanyuira and his friend stand out when they pooled together Ksh150 each to purchase a Ksh300 Austin car.
It was an even bigger dream considering that transport in Nairobi then relied mainly on hand-pulled rickshaws and ox-drawn carts, which were mostly used by whites.
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