By Charles Muchoki | Nairobi
In a packed hall of entrepreneurs, students and church leaders, Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro delivered a charged, fast-moving sermon on money, mindsets and nation-building—part autobiography, part masterclass. His through-line was simple but provocative: Kenya will not leap from “M to B”—from millionaires to billionaires—by clinging to small, cash-only hustles or an obsession with plots and flats. It will take value creation, professional bookkeeping, patient study of markets, and—above all—the courage to share ownership and invite capital.
“There is no billionaire in the world who owns 100% of the business associated with them,” Nyoro said. “Keep your 100%—but ask what that 100% is worth.”
The Kiharu Experiment: Lowering the Cost of Learning
Before turning to markets, Nyoro anchored his thesis in education. Kiharu Constituency, he said, has 112 public primary schools and about 65 day secondary schools with roughly 12,500 learners. Through the constituency’s NGCDF and “backward aggregation” of school budgets, the team has squeezed costs and standardized essentials—from tiled classrooms to new laboratories and books.
The headline figure is startling in today’s economy: day secondary learners in Kiharu pay KSh 1,000 per term, a contribution that also covers simple meals from Monday to Saturday—including a now-famous “Chapati Friday” every last Friday of the month.
The point, Nyoro argued, is not charity but compounding opportunity: “We know the primacy of education in shaping society—from the household level upwards.”
FACT BOX: What Nyoro says is happening in Kiharu
- 112 public primary schools upgraded (classrooms tiled; old structures overhauled)
- ~65 day secondary schools; ~12,500 learners
- KSh 1,000 per term cap for day scholars (with meals)
- Seven new day schools started; KSh 20+ million invested in revision books
- New labs and halls under construction
(Figures as stated by Nyoro in his speech.)
From School Canteens to the NSE
Nyoro’s origin story doubled as a parable of cash flow and grit. As a pupil, he ran a small kiosk; in secondary school he maneuvered into club leadership to operate the canteen; at university he tried a student eatery—“Vatican Cave”—that taught hard lessons about operations and class attendance.
The true pivot, he recalled, came when his former MP steered him into stockbroking, opening a lifelong engagement with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and a broader appetite for IT and financial services. The market taught him a bedrock rule he repeated like catechism:
“You make profit at the point of purchase, not the point of sale.”
For Nyoro, that means negotiating inputs ruthlessly, buying assets when fear overwhelms crowds, and holding cash until crises create value. He cited Warren Buffett’s crisis-era deployments as a template for disciplined timing: “When everyone is fearful, be greedy; when everyone is greedy, be fearful.”
Businessman, Entrepreneur, Investor—Know the Difference
Nyoro urged the audience to locate themselves on a three-step ladder:
- Businessman: deepens an existing line—more pumps for a petrol station, more stock for a shop.
- Entrepreneur: innovates, extends beyond comfort, finds new niches.
- Investor: makes money passively—by putting capital to work in other people’s enterprises.
Kenya’s next frontier, he said, is not more of the same but higher-barrier plays—sectors where expertise, capital or regulation deter copycats and protect margins. That requires data discipline (bookkeeping), market study and corporate structuring. “Stop running a business; start running a corporation,” he urged—one with audited numbers that investors can trust.
The Ownership Heresy: Sell a Slice, Build a Giant
If there was a single sacred cow Nyoro slaughtered, it was the pride of owning everything.
He sketched a simple cap-table journey: a small manufacturer valued informally at KSh 10 million raises KSh 5 million for 10%; instantly, the valuation signals KSh 50 million. With growth visible, a later investor puts in KSh 20 million for 20%, implying KSh 100 million. The founder’s percentage shrinks; the pie multiplies.
He rattled off examples of global founders whose stakes are minority positions—then turned local, noting that CEOs and founders we colloquially call “owners” often hold single-digit percentages, yet sit atop firms worth tens of billions. The lesson: control is not the only path to power; scalability is.
“Don’t seek to own a fish pot,” he quipped. “Seek a slice of the ocean.”
Kenya’s Plot Problem
Nyoro challenged the cultural reflex to park cash in land and flats. Outside a primary home or productive farm, he argued, many real-estate plays lock capital for single-digit yields once the dust settles and vacancies, repairs and arrears bite.
“Even banks lease their headquarters,” he said, urging entrepreneurs to chase assets that compound faster than rent rolls and to match long-term liabilities with genuinely high-return instruments.
Capital Is Not the Obstacle—Silence Is
Many promising ideas never meet money, Nyoro said, because founders don’t ask. Venture capital, private equity, angel syndicates—even revenue-based financing—exist in Kenya, but require founders to polish the proposition: market definition, margin logic, governance, and a path to scale.
He used the tale of Peter Thiel’s early half-million dollar cheque into Facebook—sold years later for hundreds of millions—as emblematic of the transformative power of the idea + capital intersection. The charge to the audience was unambiguous: build investable companies and cultivate investors—including becoming one.
Four Big Decisions, Not 400 Small Ones
Running a business is exhausting. But Nyoro insisted leaders must reserve energy for strategic decisions—the few big moves per decade that bend destiny more than a thousand daily choices: the right acquisition, the right market, the right financing structure, the right partner. Get those four right in ten years, he said, and the slope of the curve changes.
The Investor’s Ethics: Value Before Sympathy
Some of Nyoro’s toughest love was aimed at “relationship sales”—pressuring relatives and congregants to buy out of loyalty. Sympathy is not a business model, he said; value is. Build products so compelling that friends don’t do you a favor; they chase you for supply.
That ethic ties back to his Kiharu schools story: reorganize costs, eliminate waste, measure everything—then scale what works. “Early on, track progress. Use data,” he said, recalling a family cow that, after proper accounting of feed, rent and transport, turned out to be a loss-maker.
The Call: From Dealers to Builders
Nyoro’s final picture was of a hall full of future anchor sponsors—men and women who stop thinking like dealers for big brands and start building the next big brands; who study cycles, time risk, and use other people’s capital responsibly; who accept smaller slices of far larger pies.
If the Kiharu education experiment is his bottom-up proof of concept, the investment doctrine he preached is his top-down blueprint: own less, create more; count honestly, scale bravely.
“Because all wealth is granted by God,” he said, “let us break the ceiling.”
The Playbook (As Set Out in the Speech)
- Know your lane: businessman → entrepreneur → investor. Aim to climb.
- Create value before appealing to relationships.
- Bookkeep or bleed: you can’t fix what you don’t measure.
- Profit at purchase: negotiate inputs; don’t worship the sticker price of outputs.
- Chase high barriers: knowledge, regulation and capital moats protect margins.
- Sell a slice to scale the pie; stop clinging to 100%.
- Study cycles: hold cash in froth; deploy in fear.
- Think corporate: audited numbers, clean cap table, proper governance.
- Make four great calls a decade; ignore the noise.
- Invest like a builder: from “dealers” to founders of enduring firms.
Editor’s Note: This feature draws solely on remarks delivered by Ndindi Nyoro at a recent business forum. Figures and examples are presented as stated by the speaker.