How City Tycoons Made Hundreds of Millions In Just One Day

While thousands of Kenyans got stranded or trekked to work on Tuesday this week after matatus went off the roads for lack of approved speed governors, a handful of businesses moved in and made a huge kill.

This is Kenya and there might have been more beneficiaries of the crisis. However here are the known leading four companies, so far.

Dalcom Kenya –Ksh 175 million
Run by businessman David Kiarie, the company based in Ngara made Ksh 175 in just 24 hours. What was his trick? Mr. Kiarie imported a large number of speed governors and at the last minute, matatu owners rushed in to buy them at Ksh 40,000—double the usual price.

With sales of 5,000 speed governors by Monday evening, Mr. Kiarie had made Ksh 175,000 by the close of the day, reports Nairobi News.

Power Governor-Ksh 150 million
The firm which is based in Ngara sold 10,000 speed governors on Monday alone. At the cost of Ksh 35,000 instead of the cost of Ksh 20,000 for the PGL brand, a month ago. In a nutshell, the company made an extra Ksh 150,000 in that one day.

Mr. Chrispus Kinene, the businessman behind the company could even afford to complain about the roaring business that day: “PSV operators should have taken advantage and installed the gadgets early, but they waited until the last minute and are now straining our technicians at the garages.”

Umoinner Sacco

The matatu operator which plies the City Center-Eastlands route planned ahead of time to cash in on the fateful Tuesday. “We got the digital speed governors from the Matatu Owners Association at Ksh 21,000 a month ago and saying that there’s a shortage of the gadgets in the market is a lying to the public,” says Christopher Muiya, the sacco chairman.

Their fleet of 100 mini-buses had 86 fitted with the gadgets by Monday—a fact which enabled them make double profits even as their rivals remained grounded. The fares were increased on some routes while their number of trips too rose due to overwhelming demand.

Utimo Sacco
According to the sacco’s manager Walter Onyimbo, their fleet of minibuses plying the City Centre-Umoja route extended their working hours from 6am-9pm to 5am-11pm on Tuesday. The number of trips their 115 minibuses made also moved from 10 to 16 while other matatus were off the roads.

Mr. Onyimbo could not disclose the exact amount but staff at Utimo Sacco must have been patting each other on their backs for being clever ahead of that day: “We wanted to maximize profits though I cannot reveal how much we made on Tuesday but I can assure you it was good money; double what we make an a normal day and this is because we did not increase our fares,” he says.

Well, now you know why one man’s problem makes another man richer. And this year’s April Fools’ Day was indeed a day of serious physical exercise; and serious minting of money too.

Source: Nairobi News

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