Simon Gicharu is one of the Kenyan billionaires who has heavily invested in the Education and communication sectors.
Gicharu is the founder of Mount Kenya University and the now fastest-rising Cape Media Limited, which owns TV 47 and Radio 47.
His story is one of grass to grace, having risen from a milk vendor to one of the country’s renowned billionaires.
Born in Gathiruini village in Kiambu County, Gicharu attended Kiawairia Primary and Gathiruini Secondary before joining Murang’a High School for his O-Levels.
He later joined Kenyatta University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Education in Mathematics and Chemistry.
After graduation, Gicharu started his teaching career in various secondary schools and later taught at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Thika Technical Training Institute.
Gicharu’s entrepreneurial journey
Gicharu turned to entrepreneurship after losing his teaching job at the Thika Technical Training Institute. He started selling milk using an old pick-up to support his parents, who were peasant farmers.
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“I did my rounds in an old Chevy pickup. Friends laughed at me, calling me a ‘failed graduate’. But this didn’t shake me. Self-belief is the key to success,” he tweeted.
In 1995, he secured a scholarship to study managing enterprise development at Cranfield University, Britain, marking the beginning of a new career.
After he completed the course, he returned to Kenya and launched the Kenya Entrepreneurship Promotion Programme (KEPP), which provided loans to SMEs. Gicharu revealed he started the business with only Sh20,000.
KEPP was later renamed Thika School of Management Studies (TSMS) and started enrolling students on management courses. In 2003, the institution rebranded to Thika Institute of Technology.
Birth of Mount Kenya University
In 2008, Thika Institute of Technology was allowed to operate as a private university under the name Mt Kenya University, which was granted full charter status by the Commission of University Education three years later.
The university has since expanded to over 15 campuses with a student population of more than 50,000.
Gicharu buys Inoorero University
The billionaire recalled how he was on several occasions denied a teaching job at the International School of Professional Studies, later renamed Inoorero University.
As they say, what goes around always comes around. He moved on and accumulated wealth and returned to Inoorero University years later, not to seek employment or hire anyone but to buy–yes, buy – buy-the college, its students and buildings.
“Ever been told by a potential employer, “don’t call us, we will call you”? I have, severally. At the School of Professional Studies, where I sought a teaching position, I walked away crestfallen. Several years later, I went back and bought their building,” he recalled.
Inoorero shut operations in 2016, two years after it reportedly got into financial problems. Family Bank then put up for auction its eight-storey campus building in Parklands, Nairobi, when the university failed to service a multi-million shilling loan that was borrowed five years ago.
The building was sold to Mount Kenya University for Sh300 million and currently houses Mount Kenya University Law campus in Parklands.
Other ventures
Gicharu is also the founder of Equip Africa Institute, a TVET-accredited institution domiciled in Mount Kenya University’s Thika main campus. The institution, which was founded in 2016, has other campuses in Kisii, Mombasa, and Nakuru.
He has also invested in the media industry, owning TV47 and Radio 47. The billionaire attributes his success to humility and focus.
“If a lion earmarks on a specific antelope, even if another antelope rubs on its body it will not be distracted from the original target,” he said in a past interview.
