Royal Media Service (RMS) founder Samuel Kamau Macharia popularly known as SK Macharia is a prominent and shrewd businessman and media mogul.
Samuel Kamau Macharia plunged into the world of media and established RMS in 1990 – to becoming Kenya’s leading broadcasting company.
In 2012, he appeared in Forbes’ magazine list of top 10 African dollar millionaires to watch out for and made the list of African Report’s 50 most influential Africans the following year.
Forbes reported that Macharia was among the first in his hometown to buy a transistor radio—villagers would congregate at his home to listen to the news or football commentary and the gadget would turn out to be the pillar of his businesses.
RMS is arguably the largest private media owned by an individual in the East African region.
RMS is home to 3 TV stations: Citizen TV, Inooro TV, and Ramogi TV. Citizen TV caters to audiences speaking English and Swahili, while Inooro TV targets the Mt. Kenya region with programming in Kikuyu, and Ramogi TV serves the Nyanza region with content in Dholuo.
It is one of the largest media companies in East Africa with its radio network boasting 13 stations, with Radio Citizen broadcasting in Swahili, Hot 96 in English, and the remaining 11 stations in vernacular languages.
The local radio stations include Mulembe FM, Musyi FM, Chamgei FM, Egesa FM, Ramogi FM, Inooro FM, Wimwaro FM, Muuga FM, Bahari FM, Bilitu FM and Vuuka FM.
He also has a presence in the digital space through Citizen Digital.
Also Read:S.K Macharia Shuts Down Directline Assurance, Fires All Employees
What Media Mogul SK Macharia Owns
In 1976, he formed the Madhupaper, the first and only local tissue paper manufacturer in Kenya. Its tissue paper brand, ‘Rosy’ exists to date.
It was the only tissue paper manufacturing company which he later sold in 1989 to an investor for Ksh 250 million.
Besides RMS, Macharia had shares in Directline Assurance Company, an insurance company under the Royal Travel which commanded the lion’s share of the motor commercial Public Service Vehicle (PSV) insurance market in Kenya.
However, as of June 10, 2024, he ceased the operations of Directline Assurance due to the freezing of the company’s bank accounts by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA).
Consequently, all employee contracts were terminated, and the company’s board of directors dissolved.
Royal Travel was born after the collapse of the Royal Card Business which in the 90s.
Also Read: Kenyan Tycoons Who Own Multi-Billion Businesses
Aside from the media industry and insurance, SK Macharia has investments in various other businesses, including Serenity Media Productions Ltd, Big Five Conservancy Safaris, Bushfire Media Distributors, and Harbour Capital Ltd.
Harbour Capital provides a wide range of financing and leasing programs to help business owners grow their businesses
SK Macharia also owned the Ribshack restaurant on Kiambu road and the Whispering Palms hotel near Mombasa. However, the restaurants are no longer in operation.
SK Macharia won the 2015 Eastern Africa Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Lifetime Award.
Macharia has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Seattle Pacific University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Washington.
He also earned a Master of Arts Degree in Accounting and became a Certified Public Accountant.
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