Ndindi Nyoro: Why I sold meat brought by my sister in campus

Kiharu Member of Parliament Ndindi Nyoro has explained why he once sold some meat brought to him by his sister while he was a university student.

During his years at Kenyatta University, Nyoro says his sister and other relatives came to visit him, carrying some goodies including some meat, ostensibly to help the young man grow up as a healthy student.

Nyoro, however, had other ideas. After assessing the remaining portion of the semester, Nyoro, together with his friend whom he calls Jamo, decided that eating the meat was not going to be to their best interests.

"We were very broke, so we decided to sell the meat and push on with ugali na madodo," Nyoro told participants at a recent business, entrepreneurship and investment forum at CITAM, Nyeri.

But selling meat while in campus was not the only route Nyoro used to sharpen his business acumen. Earlier on, while in high school, Nyoro was a cobbler who used his free time to mend other people's shoes for a fee. In Form Three, the young man spent his holidays at her sister's mitumba business in Thika, a clear indication that his career as a businessman was poised for take-off.

Later on in KU, Nyoro used a portion of his education loan from HELB to pay a whole year fees and used another amount to open a kibanda, Vatican Cafe.

One day, he asked his college mate, Wamwere, to accompany him as he shopped for sufurias in Gikomba, after which they would visit Wamwere's girlfriend who operated a phone accessory shop in Nairobi's Luthuli Street.

The lady, Nyoro explained, was so baffled to see his boyfriend carrying the cooking pots and wondered what the kitchen items had to do with the "serious courses" he had gone to study at the university. She saw no future in him.

"It was Valentine's Day and Wamwere's girlfriend was shocked to see him with sufurias," recalled Nyoro. "Actually, the main problem was that we did not have a clue it was Valentine's Day. Wamwere was dumped."

During his graduation, Nyoro's wish was that his mother and other relatives who attended the event would not pray for him to get a job as other parents did for their children.

"Such a prayer would have killed my investment dreams," he said.

As of December 2024, Nyoro is among the largest individual shareholders at Kenya Power with 30 million shares.