As a businessman aware of how far away your market is, would you be willing to cover the lengthy distance in order to satisfy your clients’ needs? The CHAMS media CEO, Alex Chamwada and his cameraman, Humphrey Odhiambo, joined Joel Wachira, a passionate businessman, in a five day trip to Gaborone Botswana where he was to deliver his goods.

The journey commences at 7a.m on a Saturday, where Joel fuels his vehicle before kickoff. His vehicle is well loaded with goods; curios, sandals, shoes and beauty products for his clients in Gaborone. 2 hours into their departure from Nairobi, they arrive at the Kenya-Namanga border.

A citizen from the East African community member countries except from South Sudan, passing through Tanzania to another country is required to have a valid passport and is issued with a one week free transit visa. A foreigner however is charged between 20$ to 30$ depending on the country they come from.  While in Arusha, Tanzania, Joel has to maintain a speed limit of 50km/hr. as per the traffic rules there. At Babati, on their way to Dodoma, the team has their lunch cum supper before calling it a day.

Day 2 begins in Dodoma and Joel explains to the crew that such trips have challenges. He explains that there are some spots where he would not dare drive during the night.

“This year in January, some thieves climbed onto my trailer at a section of a damaged road in Zambia,” he explains, “They stole a lot of my clients’ merchandise.”

After a night’s rest at Tunduma, the Tanzania- Zambia border, they continued with their long journey. The team has to be cleared before entering Zambia. At some point they are lucky to meet their countrymen, Kenyan truck drivers. By Day 4, they are in Mkushi, 860km to the border between Zambia and Botswana. They get to the landmark junction in Zambia, at a town called Kapiri Mposhi where they are impressed at how one road leads to DRC while the other leads to Botswana.

From Livingstone on Day 5, they begin the last leg of their road trip. They are at the Zambia Botswana border known as Kazungula. According to a local they meet known as Leo Mabuku, the river they are crossing is the Zambezi River which is shared by Zambia, Zimbabwe on their left, Botswana on the opposite side and Namibia on their right. They finally arrive in Botswana on day 5 late in the night.

The next day, Joel delivers the merchandise to his clients. He says that to drive from Kenya to Botswana requires fuel of around Ksh.70, 000 and for an organized group he can charge up to Ksh.250, 000 one way.

By the end of the day, the effort and time Joel is seen to include in his goal to deliver the best for his clients just shows how much of a hard worker he is!

As a person who aspired to make a change, Dr. Shadrack Katuu is an example of an exemplary Kenyan who for 21 years, has managed to bring a positive change across the globe due to his interaction with various leaders as well as influencers from all over.

Shadrack Katuu is an information scientist who grew up in Eastlands, Nairobi County. He went to Alliance High School before joining Moi University for his undergraduate.

At this time, one of his professors suggested that since he was full of talent, it would be a great opportunity if he applied for post graduate studies.

Upon graduating in 1996, he returned home where he was later surprised by a letter of acceptance from one of the universities he had applied to: University of British Columbia.

In 1997, he relocated to Vancouver Canada where he started his course at the University of  British Columbia. He agrees that there were a number of challenges including fending for money to cater for his upkeep as his admission did not include a scholarship.

After four years in Canada where he had managed to acquire two masters, he relocated to Botswana to begin a new job at the University of Botswana. Here, in 2001, at 27 years, he became a lecturer. However, after 2 years in Botswana, he decided to pursue his PhD in yet another country.

In South Africa, Shadrack commenced in a small NGO at the University of Witwatersrand. While there, a colleague of his relocated to the Nelson Mandela Foundation on contract.

The colleague suggested that he follow him as it was a great opportunity. Hence in 2005, Shadrack found himself working side by side with Nelson Mandela. After 5 years of working with Mandela and upon completing his PhD, he was on the move again.

 

Come 2010, he found himself a job at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC where he worked for two and a half years. Since then, Shadrack has worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria as well as the United Nations Mission in South Sudan where he is currently domiciled.

The most important lesson he has learnt from his many travels is that every country has its own challenges and thus all these are a constant path towards becoming better beings.

In order to follow in his footsteps, he says, one has to be sensitive to where the opportunity is calling him.

This week we bring you the story of Moffat Andaji, a Kenyan daring in South Africa. Moffat if the CEO of Procet Freight, a shipping company in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Like many Kenyans who have gone abroad, Andaji’s story begins here at home. He was born and raised in Kakamega County. Before settling in South Africa, Moffat had tried his luck daring abroad in the USA and in Dubai.

Our team caught up with him in Johannesburg. He has been here for 24 years now since he relocated in 1994. Upon his arrival, he worked for Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Company under their airfreight department for a while, but unfortunately, the company was sold rendering him jobless.

However, he did not take this lying down and as fate would have it Moffat was inspired to establish his own freight company.

The skills he had acquired back home helped him secure his job and as he puts it, “Kenyans I think the training we receive is a bit superior. We look down upon it but I believe so and I think we are some of the most hardworking people in the world.”

Like in any other business, Andaji had a lot of challenges starting out but has been able to grow. Today, the company handles freight from different parts of the region.

One of the main enablers in his kind of trade is partnerships one of which is with Kenya Airways. “We are one of their major supporters and we do a lot with them especially into Africa where they are strong…so we’ve got a fantastic relationship with them” he says.

Moffat attributes his growth to the exposure he has received working in South Africa. He adds that the experience has helped build his character.

Here is his advice to Kenyans wishing to start businesses in the diaspora, “my advice is you do something in relation to what you went to school for it gives you an advantage”.

Catch his story this Saturday at 9:45pm on both @ktnnews and @ktnkenya channels with Michael tsimangi and Alex Chamwada . A ChamsMedia production for KTN News.

 

This story was written by Emmanuel Yegon for Chams Media Digital. 

Last week's Daring Abroad featured a Kenyan entrepreneur who has managed to be everything she can be while in South Africa. In just 7 years of living in South Africa, she has built a name for herself. This is Liz Ogumbo.

She has successfully managed to penetrate the fashion and entertainment industry. Liz was born in Kenya and at the age of 16, found herself living in the USA and this exposed her to numerous cultural and unique experiences.

Due to her beauty and stature, she managed to join the fashion industry as a model. Here, her passion for fashion was born. In 2005, she moved back to Kenya to start her own business.

“When I moved back, I set up a modeling agency called ‘Imani International Model Management’ and that was my way of bringing fashion back to life,” she says.

In 2 years, the business evolved to a fashion company named ‘House of Imani’. She eventually relocated to South Africa in 2011 to live her dream. She easily managed to establish her fashion house, ‘Liz Ogumbo, the fashion brand’.

TALENT

In addition to her passion for fashion, Liz also managed to make use of her talent in singing that she had for a long time wanted to put into good use. She branded her songs ‘KenSoul’ in 2010 and has since then been able to partner with a lot of musical artists.

Liz Ogumbo is an artist inspired by her culture. She is proud of where she comes from and would like everyone to know of her homeland. Every moment in her life is a creative moment for her that she can include in her music. She claims that she has learnt to balance her time in entertainment and fashion.

As if that is not enough, Liz now is making her own wine.

“It was about time to come up with my own wine,” she explains.

Liz believes that Africa has a lot to offer culturally and would love to see other Africans turn this culture into business.

“If you can afford it, expose yourself and experience the world.” She also has a supportive family and believes that they too have contributed to her success. Still, despite her busy travels and businesses, she loves her homeland, Kenya.

Finally, she concludes by saying that if you put your heart to something then go all the way.

“Dream, and let it come to life.”

We witnessed Liz Ogumbo's passion for her work in fashion and music away from home when we attended the Africa Food Festival 2018 in Johannesburg in September. 

 

Nothing is as exciting as being an entrepreneur with lots of experience and skill gained from various countries. On Daring Abroad this week, we featured a person who believes in nothing less than aiming for the sky.

In the quest to find out more about this influential man, we boarded a bus from Nairobi all the way to Uganda to meet Samuel Kirubi, now Equity Bank Uganda Managing Director. He had lived and worked in Uganda for 3 years.

When Samuel was a young boy, he made up his mind to be a person that fends for the poor in his community. With this in mind, he grew up to study Economics and Statistics at the Egerton University in 1997.

While in school, he met Dr. James Mwangi, C.E.O Equity bank and finally, he made it as one of the first beneficiaries of the Equity leadership program.

Also Read: Why Alex Chamwada is traveling to Botswana by road

No sooner had he completed school than he got attached with the Equity branches in Nairobi, Nakuru and Thika. In time, he was promoted to the Regional Manager for Rift Valley and was posted to Eldoret.

In 2008, he was assigned to help establish the bank subsidiary in Juba, South Sudan as the Deputy Managing Director. Since the environment then was not quite conducive, it was very difficult for him to establish a bank from scratch.

However, by the fourth year, they had made a tremendous change in South Sudan where they even opened 11 branches. In 2011, knowing he was a capable man, the firm transferred him to Rwanda to establish yet another subsidiary.

“For you to succeed in a foreign land as an entrepreneur, you have to own great interpersonal skills,” he says.

In 2015, he landed in Uganda as the Managing Director of Equity bank. He claims his transition into living in Uganda was not hard at all. From what he has observed over the years, the challenges being faced at home are similar to those he faces as an MD in Uganda.

However, he also believes that since he set shop in Uganda, there is much progress that has been made. He says that however much he at times misses family, he believes that the good they have made as a group outdoes his homesickness.

He concludes his meet with the crew by these simple words, “Possibilities lie in our mindsets. It just depends with what you focus on.”

From his travels, he has grown to understand that opportunities are not scarce. One just has to focus beyond his geographical boundaries.

 

Lavender Amunga contributed to this report. 

Updated on Thursday, October 11th

Chams Media CEO and Daring Abroad presenter Alex Chamwada and cameraman Humphrey Odhiambo arrived in Gaborone Botswana on Wednesday, bringing to an end, a five-day-road trip that left tongues wagging.

The adventurous journey began from Nairobi on Saturday morning and will take five days including stop-overs in a number of African cities including Dodoma in Tanzania, Lusaka Zambia before reaching Gaborone.

So why did he travel to Botswana by road and not by air?

In the quest to tell a typical Daring Abroad story, the trip enabled Alex to closely follow the journey of a daring Kenyan entrepreneur, Joel Wachira, who has been plying the Nairobi to Gaborone route transporting goods not on the skies but by van. 

It gave them a first hand experience of the time, resources, and challenges in such a trip and in  this type of business. 

This was not Alex's only road trip. He has been involved in similar trips to Kigali, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Entebbe. But it is his second trip to Botswana, the first one being in 2015 when he traveled there to tell the story of Willy Kathurima, a Kenyan entrepreneur involved in livestock farming and real estate business in Botswana.

Willy Kathurima's story has since then become the most watched and read Daring Abroad feature at Chams Media.

Click here to read Willy Kathurima's story

Speaking to Chams Media Digital while on the road, Alex Chamwada said the touristic experience will also include another visit to Willy Kathurima's ranch, to find out if there are more ventures he is currently involved in.

From this trip readers and viewers of Daring Abroad should get the first hand experience of what it takes to transport goods on the road to two countries that are far apart.

We have arrived safely. We will be meeting our friend Kathurima the cattle farmer this Saturday. Remember George Onyancha too? #DaringAbroad ungekuwa kwa hii trip https://t.co/w0Vlmd4tC7

— AlexChamwada OGW (@AlexChamwada) October 11, 2018

Also on the show, you will hear from other Kenyans daring in various sectors in Botswana, including teachers, nurses and economists like Willy Kathurima.

Alex says there is quite a good number of Kenyans working in Botswana and have in a way contributed to building the economy of that country.

Botswana's currency is Pula and one Pula is equivalent to about 9.50 shillings according to the current rates.

LUWERO, UGANDA- If you were to dare abroad, what is the likelihood that it would be in farming? Very few persons in Kenya today think of going abroad to fully delve into large-scale farming. However, there is one unique farmer in Uganda who has beaten these odds.

Grace Sylvia Mwangi is a Kenyan entrepreneur who grew up in Solai and thereafter moved to Nakuru, where she tried her luck in hairdressing.

In 2013, she relocated to Kampala to venture into agribusiness. Here, she worked with the government of Uganda under the Wealth Creation Initiative. Thanks to this, she got market for her fertilisers and was allocated land for farming.

“Someone got interested in my Kenyan way of planting maize and thus brought me on board.”

Due to favorable farming conditions in Uganda, Grace managed to battle all the challenges she had experienced before. Within no time, she managed to increase her farmland from 5acres to 100acres. She ended up inspiring even the locals there who managed to adopt her way of farming.

Inspired by the positive turn of events, Grace championed a new project on a 2000-acre farm in Luwero district, Central Uganda, in collaboration between Kenyans and Ugandans.

Made up of 8 Ugandans and 16 Kenyans, they have come up with a new way of doing agriculture. They call it agro revolution/ agro pack. They identify a person with a huge amount of land who becomes their landlord and end up sharing their yields with the landlord as a means of payment.

Just like every other ambitious person, Grace has a dream. That one day, she will expand her farm to not only Uganda, but to the entire East African region. She says that this way, she will be able to promote food security.

She claims to have received support from the Ugandan government and thus she can do much more.

“We want to enable this group to realize the productive potential it has,” says John Kigula, Land legal consultant, “we should be able to enable them to get larger pieces of land.”

From her experience over the years, she says that one has to be there in the farm every time for his/her farm to yield fruits. Indeed, Grace Mwangi is a unique case of someone who managed to dare the odds.

He has been caught in the middle of many conflicts in various countries in Africa. His line of work demands that no matter the situation, life or death, he be there to offer support to the vulnerable and to tell the world the reality of human sufferings across Africa. And that, he has done, at least to the best of his knowledge.

Today on our continued African edition of Daring Abroad, we feature Michael Arunga, a Kenyan humanitarian communication specialist who tells us that from 1996, he has missed death by a whisker.

Not once, not twice but on numerous occasions. “We don’t choose to be born in peaceful countries,” he says. “All of us could have been born anywhere." That is what motivates him.

Michael Arunga's journey traces back to 1996, when he joined World Vision. A Non Governmental Organization that offers support to the vulnerable people in the society and victims of conflicts across the African continent.

His work, clearly cut out, is to go to the areas effected, share stories of victims and to call for support from agencies. And in that line of duty, he has lived in tents among internally displaced persons (IDPs), with no food, water and even latrines.

He has been in every major African conflict since 2006 and where he is needed the most, there he has been to. Including places he almost lost his own life.

“There was this day I was to go to the field but decided to ask my assistant to replace me on that trip and they were attacked,” Michael narrates. “Three of my colleagues, including my own assistant was shot at.”

But that was not all. On another occasion, while on duty in Goma in the Democratic Republic Of Congo, Michael says he had to abandon his team and run for his dear life.

Rebels had attacked the town at midday and struck, there was a looming war since this happened near a military barracks.

“In Goma, our office was next to military barracks and the rebels struck the town at midday,” he adds. “I was forced to flee under a hail of bullets.”

So what kept him going despite all the risks in his line of duty?

Catch more on this inspiring and captivating story on Daring Abroad in the video attached.

 

NAIROBI- It is not a common story when one comes back home after studying or working abroad and still manages to succeed. But Eve Rotich, a Kenyan economist who made a name for herself in USA,  returned to become even a much better person back home. Daring Abroad presenter  Michael Tsimanji visited Eve Rotich in her office in Hulingharm, Nairobi County, to get her full story. 

As is known, not every success comes easy. Eve Rotich lost her father at the age of 6 and was brought up by a single mother in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. She attended Green Park Primary then later joined Moi Girls’ Eldoret although with a lot of financial challenges.

“Going through high school was the toughest part… I was old enough to understand shortage, but young enough to just not care.”

Eventually, her hard work paid off. She emerged the best girl in her district when she sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education and thus joined the Equity African Leadership Program in 2007. Also, her academic brilliance also attracted the attention of the Kenya Scholar Athlete Project, a program that is interested in talented yet underprivileged children in Kenya. This program was the key to Eve’s journey abroad.

Eve was admitted to Middlebury University in Vermont, USA in 2008 to study Economics and Psychology. Because of the friendly environment she received from other members of KENSAP when she arrived, she managed to settle in quite easily. She graduated in 2013 and immediately started working as a project manager in Vermont. She later relocated to New York. While working in New York she received a call from home that she was urgently needed back home.

“It was nerve raking a little bit. It was a point I wondered, I’m needed home, what am I going to do there?”

In 2016, she relocated back to Kenya without any idea as to what she would do with her life thereafter. She reached out to James Mwangi, Equity Bank CEO, who immediately agreed to give her a helping hand. That way, she became the project manager of Equity Group. Later on, she got a job as a marketer at Kenol Kobil. Her experience abroad has had a great impact on her colleagues who confirm that she is a hard worker.

“She is very persistent in achieving what she wants to achieve.”

It is because of her experience abroad that she is what she is today!

 

Lavender Amunga contributed to this article. 

ILLINOIS - Computer Science is among the courses taught in Kenyan educational institutions today. Many Kenyan IT enthusiasts throng colleges and universities to take up this course. But for one daring Kenyan, this is new  to him as he flew many miles out of the country to study Computer Science in the United States.

His humble background notwithstanding, Timothy Mwiti is living his dream. To become a software engineer in the future. So why did he opt to study at North Western University in Illinois State?

During our quest to find out more about Timothy Mwiti’s success, we discovered that he not only excelled in academics, but also in extra curricula works. He sat his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination at Burieruri Boys Secondary School in Maua, Meru County and emerged the best student from Igembe South in 2012.

Timothy was sponsored to Northwestern University by Equity Group. And now he feels at home, far away from home.

“I have met a couple of Computer Science students from JKUAT, and I must say Kenyans are very innovative." Timothy said. "There is not much difference between them and those that I collaborate with here."

"However, in Kenya, you find a computer science graduate seated at home waiting for a miracle to happen when you have in your hand a tool you can use to better yourself."

Timothy’s father is a medical doctor in Maua, Meru County while his mother is a teacher. The family said they are proud of their son for being a role model to his siblings, for remaining focused and for making them proud each and every day.

Timothy added that he had an easy time growing into the system since he was well received by fellow Kenyans studying at the university. They all agree that Timothy is a hard worker and positive influencer to hang around.

By the end of the day, Timothy just like everyone else, agrees that East or West, home is best. He says, in 8 years’ time, he would like to return home and use what he learnt abroad to develop his fellow countrymen.

Watch his inspiring interview in the video attached.

 

Lavender Amunga contributed to this article.