What do they do? or rather where are they employed?

Hehe quite interesting

These are the only ways you will live in Runda/Nyari, drive your S Class and wear Egyptian cotton, within the law. In order of difficulty:

1. Get an international monthly pay grade, while still living in Kenya

if you can somehow get salary after tax and deductions of above 50,000 USD per year or equivalent in shillings, you'll be set to do anything in Kenya.

Hindrances: these types of jobs are not just lying around, and the ones that offer this pay are super competitive

2. Power couple

Say you are making 300k, date or marry someone who is also making 6 figures, mtakuwa sawa.

Hindrances: Kenyan men traditionally date down. Way down. Aggressive career women making 6 figures are also not that many.

3. Own or manage a business selling an essential good or service

In Kenya, you'll only make big money selling essentials. The typical Kenyan budget does not have much room for stuff outside essentials. This also goes for b2b budgets. Be a Chandaria(large shareholder) or a Collymore(chief executive) at a firm selling essentials, utakuwa sawa.

Hindrances: these businesses usually require enormous amounts of capital and experience to start, buy into, or run. Also super competitive.

4. Own or manage a business selling an addiction

Same gist as point number 3, but now we're talking of addictive substances or services like alcohol and gambling. These do very well in a poor country like Kenya because they provide an escape for the disillusioned citizens.

Hindrances: same as number 3

5. Tenderpreneurship

I'm not talking of the phantom tenders where nothing is delivered. Those are completely illegal and don't fit into the criteria here. I'm talking of the tenders where you deliver, but skim profits off the top. Huge money to be made here.

Hindrances: you need political patronage to get in. Foreign competition is also willing to pay massive bribes to secure the tenders. The deal takes ages to complete, with massive uncertainties along the way.


Those are the 5 legal ways to make big money in Kenya. Of course there is the ukora ways of politics, conning, stealing, counterfeiting, land grabbing etc, but that is a separate discussion. If I've missed any legal ways, feel free to add them. Remember, we are talking big money here, not 100k per month.

There is one sure way I know of. People tend to think local, which is very bad. Kenyans are broke. Figure out a way of earning from Europeans, Arabs or Americans, and you will become filthy rich. I am talking about exports. Get paid in green bucks, not local currency. Trying to make billions legally from Kenyans is like squeezing juice from a stone. It is not impossible, but it is very hard. You will sweat 1000 times as much as trying to make a billion Kenya Shillings from a mzungu or arab. Just check beach hotels, and anyone else who earns in dollars. That is why they dont care about blacks anyway, or about locals for that matter. No offense intended...but in most cases, you are we are not the target market. In fact, having too many blacks in a beach resort may be bad for future business.

Didn't know sportspesa is that bad until I met a cousin who wakes up and first thing is to look for newspaper for the day's games. Baaaad!!!!! Bets every day religiously!!!!

Having too many black people in one location/country increases cases of crime,corruption,prostitution,money laudering and tax evasion.Nelson Mandela once said that black people are more prone to being involved in crime than other races.Is it a case of bad genes ????

I have a friend from Embu and he told me if you want to buy agricultural land anywhere you are not familiar with, you should take your time and visit the place different times of the year.

He told me the area he comes from is Arid/Semi Arid but it rains nicely for like a month or so and everything becomes green. That is when people sell their land to people from Nairoberry!!! Wacha urudi after a month or two!!! Utalia machozi!!!

Living in Nyari with 450k a month? I pay rent of 250k monthly excluding service charge in Runda..May be you mean living in an SQ in Nyari