Grace Kimathi: Former Teacher Who Sold Ksh2M Runda Home to Build Picnic Site

An large picnic place 35 kilometers from Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) and overlooking the gorgeous Ngong Hills has become a go-to spot for Nairobi residents yearning for adventure.

Shallom Picnic Gardens is an eight-acre tract of property in Ngong, Nairobi, with well-kept lawns and beautiful features like conference halls, offices, makuti bandas, tents, and cooking sites.

A former high school teacher took a major gamble in the early 2000s, and it paid off handsomely with the picnic garden, which is still thriving.

Grace Kimathi fetched Ksh2 million for her home in the exclusive Runda area. She placed her business investment on an impending estate at the time, Ngong, in order to construct a Christian retirement center with her husband, James.

“This was the only way I could get money to buy four acres of land in Ngong town to pursue my vision,” she stated previously in a media interview.

The decision to ditch the idea of building a Christian retirement centre was influenced by lack of funds, so the couple decided to build a picnic site instead.

Pumping all her her retirement benefits into the project, the woman developed the piece of the land in the course of four years.

“We built the place over four years and that is how Shallom picnic site came about, though we rebranded to Picnic Gardens,” she noted.

As the site began drawing attraction, guests pushed Kimathi and her husband to build a guest house, to which the duo obliged.

For Kimathi, developing the picnic site has not been without its fair share of challenges, financially as well as low stream of customers.

“You have to work hard and sacrifice a lot. You also have to have a good rapport with your clients, patients, and good public relations,” she pointed out.