From the simple job of selling and repairing gas cylinders to being the second richest man in Kenya, the life story of Chris Kirubi is nothing short of an inspiration for everyone in the struggling stage of their life.
Chris Kirubi is a self-made industrialist who hails from Kenya. He is a very successful entrepreneur. As per the ranking of the richest people in Kenya by Forbes, Kirubi was ranked in the second position.
Kirubi used to work as the director of Centu, an investment company, which is an East African investment company and a business conglomerate. Chris owned the largest individual share in the company. Fighting against his bad health from around 2016, Chris Kuribi passed away on June 14, 2021, due to cancer. He was 79 years old.
About Chris Kirubi
Originally named Christopher John Kirubi, he was born into a poor family in the African country of Kenya. Kirubi had a very unfortunate childhood as both his parents passed away when he was just a young boy. In order to support himself and his siblings, Kirubi had to find work while he was just a school-going boy.
Kirubi received his formal education from the Friends School Kamusinga. He also studied at Harvard Business School, one of the most reputed educational institutions in the world. After completing his school education, Chris Kirubi started working for Shell, which is a petroleum conglomerate. He did the work of selling and repairing gas cylinders.
Career As A Businessman
Chris Kirubi started working as an administrator for Kentaco, which was a transportation company that was owned by the government. After working as an administrator, around the 1970s, Kirubi started the first step towards his business career. He bought old and run-down buildings from and around places like Nairobi and Mombasa.
They renovated those buildings and he either rented them or he sold them for a profit. The capital that he needed to take his venture forward was acquired by him from Kenyan financial institutions and his business turned out to be successful. He acquired many properties in and around Nairobi and he started introducing commercial properties in his ventures.
Just like his successful business in real estate, the shares he held in some of the top companies also contributed to the growth of his wealth. Some of the notable investments made by Kirubi included;
- Centum Investment Company
The company which is better known as Centum is a business conglomerate that functions as an affiliate of the Kenyan government-owned Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation. Kirubi was the owner of the largest share which was owned by an individual in the company. His stock was listed on both the Nairobi Stock Exchange and also the Uganda Securities Exchange.
- Haco Industries Limited
The company which dealt with the production of personal and home care products was founded by Chris Kiruni in the year 1974. He is the sole and complete owner of the company. The company mainly operates in the East African regions and the Comesa regions.
- 98.4 Capital FM
The Kenyan urban music radio station which first aired in 1996 is owned completely by Chris Kirubi. The station is the second radio station that has opened up in the country. During his Kenya visit in 2015, then-President Barack Obama gave an exclusive one-on-one interview on the radio and 98.4 FM was the only radio station in Kenya to have that privilege.
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This is not all, Kirubi also has shares in other ventures like Kenya Commercial Bank Group and also the Nation Media Group. According to the reports available, the net worth of Chris Kirubi was estimated to be between $400 – 500 million.
Chris Kirubi Personal Life And Relationships
Exact details about the wife of Chris Kirubi or the date of their marriage are not available as of now. From what we know, Chris Kirubi has made it clear that he divorced his wife in 1999. According to his philosophy, he saw marriage as slavery and stated that marriage was a jail for most men and that many of them were not happy in the institution of marriage.
Even though he has not been together with his wife since 1999, Kirubi has two children from his marriage. His daughter Mary Anne Wambui, who is 47 years old, follows the path of her father and owns a successful business and is also a member of multiple public and private company boards.
His son Robert Kirubi is currently the Head of Global Programs at DHL service logistics.
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