It seems that the safaricom ipo has had a huge effect on Kenyans around the world.One such person is Mr. Amos wa Kariuki .Mr. Kariuki  started his tomato export business one year ago after getting encouraged by his fellow Kenyans living in Boston.

"I started my business in February 2007 after working in Nursing homes for 5yrs. You know an old man like me is not very good at cleaning up after old people. I never even changed my son's nappy." Said the obviously jovial Kenyan entrepreneur. We met Mr.Kariuki at his palatial condo in Lawrence Ma, where we were joined by his beautiful wife Mrs. Odhiambo.

Mr.Kariuki and Mrs.Odhiambo met at an after party  two years ago and have been together since. "Yes, we decided to do a come with stay since our Kenyan partners are too far away " said Mr.Kariuki. Apparently it is an African custom to get another wife if your wife is too far away from you. The other wife is called "gacungwa" or a small orange.

They have worked together to build one of the biggest Kenyan tomato sauce exporting companies in the world.

The idea for the business came after a day when Mr.Kariuki went to a McDonalds. "I had kicked him out and so he had to go to McDonalds on that day" explained his 45 year old "gacungwa" . Mr.Kariuki noted that all the tomato sauce at the restaurant was free. He even asked if he could carry some in his paper bag and they did not mind.

"I then went home and squeezed out all the tomato sauce from the sachet into a jar." explained Mr.Kariuki with a big smile. It was a wonderful moment for him. He remembered that he was called Amos wa Nyanya back when he  was in Kenya as he used to buy and sell tomatoes for a living. The excitement grew when he remembered that February was the high season for tomatoes and the price of tomato sauce was high.

For two days they did not go for "masaa" ( Kenyan term for working long hours). They called in sick and went to all McDonalds, Wendy's and Burger Kings they could get to and took as many tomato sachets they could get.

They then went back home and squeezed the sachets into jars, repackaged them as "The Kariuki Sauce" and the rest is now history.

 

"We now export more tomato sauce to Kenya than any other company in the world" said a beaming Mr.Kariuki. Their biggest problem was trying to export an un inspected food product out of the country.

 

 

However, they explained to the FDA that Kenyans are so poor they will take anything. " If Kenyans can take Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki and Raila, un inspected tomato sauce means nothing." They won that case.

The couple has huge plans ahead for their company. There are plans already underway to start exporting salt and sugar this summer. They imagine that since a lot of sugar cane farms were burnt during the violence in Kenya, they will be able to make a killing exporting ex- dunkin donut and starbucks sugar and salt.

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5 Comments

Pea April 13, 2008 Votes: +0	Interesting! The part that got me was, 'Mr. Kariuki... his wife, Mrs. Odhiambo..' LOL... but that's such a cool idea, exporting ketchup. Won't the fast-food companies sue them for this? report abuse vote down vote up
wegi April 17, 2008 Votes: +0	Hehe, I hope you understand that makii is not ok in his head. That is one of his fake stories. Word of warning, if a story on this site in 2008 is not on the blog, it is probably very fake. report abuse vote down vote up
moneymaker April 18, 2008 Votes: +0	You know for a moment there, I was a bit hehe. Ok so the articles are jokes and the blogs are serious? You should tell that to nancy and her dildos. report abuse vote down vote up
mson April 20, 2008 Votes: +0	that was an interesting story makii....by the way could you have imported your name from magii in NCIS to makii (the kenyan accent...allowed)....LOL report abuse vote down vote up
makii April 22, 2008 Votes: +0	thanks mson. And no it's actually my name. I am makii. I am jocking but not really. I just don't like being serious all the time. the only serious thing I hope to post here is like in december where I was a bit worried about Kenya. Thanks all for your kind words.Now you need to tell the nation about me. I have to be a superstar. report abuse vote down vote up

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