Many of Nairobi’s Gikomba market entrepreneurs are millionaires raking in cash despite the muck.
It is Nairobi’s most down-market selling location, renowned for second-hand clothes and scorned by many for its muddy trenches.
It is in this popular market that several Kenyans have rose to become known millionaires in the country.
Mkenya Leo takes a look a few businesspeople who started out as mitumba sellers in Kenya.
Charles Kipngeno Langat
He is Kericho businessman popularly known as Chaglano, has gone against the grain to prove that education is not the only way to success.
Having risen from hawking secondhand clothes (Mitumba) to a millionaire, his is a story of how youths can succeed when they nurture their talents and engage in entrepreneurship activities.
Langat, 40, only wants leaders and members of every community to teach youths to accept their situations and move on in life.
“My background was pathetic but I was employed to hawk second hand clothes in Kericho town. After a while, I started selling my own and the construction company I opened five years uplifted me” he says.
Patrick Mwangi
In 2005, he completed his secondary education at Laikipia Boys High School and began his career.
He relocated from his hometown of Nyahururu to Thika, where he began selling mitumba in a little kibanda near Thika Stadium.
He used to buy mitumba garments in Gikomba and sell them for a profit in Thika. He ran the firm for a year before leaving to work as a driver in Malindi.
He put aside the little money he earned from his employment and when it reached Ksh 25,000, he quit his job and moved to Mombasa.
“I got into a row with one of my friends, it was so serious that it turned into a police case because it happened on someone’s property,” Mwangi narrated.
Then a student at Laikipia High School, he would buy clothes from a supplier, which he would later sell to his friends and schoolmates during the holidays. He continued with his hobby, which now turned into a venture even after completing secondary school.
Thanks to his mini-business, he looked better and dressed better.
However, an altercation with a friend would see him leave his Nyahururu home to search for greener pastures elsewhere.
As he continued with his daily hustle, the need to survive was soon surpassed by the need to thrive. He wanted a better future for himself.
Today, Patrick Mwangi aka Mwangi wa Mercedes, is a well-known car salesman in Mombasa and Nairobi who owns multiple car yards.
Nancy Wamaitha
Nancy Wamaitha is the owner of Nairobi’s famous Gateway Mall in Kamukunji.
She defied all odds and daring to follow her dreams through a tough journey selling mitumba clothes in the streets of Nairobi and worked her way up to owning the tallest mall in Kamukunji market.
During the official launch of the mall in 2nd June 2021, DP William Ruto praised Nancy claiming that she is the true definition of a hustler.
Hudson Atichi
After completing his secondary education, his guradians couldn’t afford to take him to college for further studies.
Being the firstborn, his siblings looked upon him to salvage them from the chains of poverty and so Atichi decided to leave the village and travel to Kisumu in search of a job.
He started selling mitumba clothes in the famous Kibuye market in Kisumu city. He did the business for two years and made some good money which he used to start his next venture in the Jua Kali sector. With the help of a bank loan, he invested Ksh60 million in a second-hand motor vehicle spare parts and scrap metals business.
The businessman was affected by the 2007 post election violence that forced him to close shop and move back to Luanda.
He later joined the transport industry by first investing in the bodaboda business and later acquiring a fleet of matatus.
The businessman currently owns over 12 matatus, a fleet of apartments in Western and Nyanza region.
He also possesses massive piece of lands and the famous Triple T hotel which was the first modern three-star hotel in Luanda.
