Fortune knocks once on every man’s door, a phrase that Allan Kimathi, an off campus hotel owner and a student at Daystar University, says heartily. Allan is a fourth year student studying accounts. He was born and raised in Nairobi South. He had a normal childhood growing up not knowing that one day he’d grow up to be a businessman. Over a cup of tea he narrates the ordeal he went through to open up such a beautiful place. By the looks of him, life seems to be going well for him, from the Versace clothes he’s wearing to the latest IPhone 4 he has. The name of the place is ‘Spicy Inn’. It is located directly outside the Daystar University campus grounds.
Many would ask why Spicy Inn and he says that it’s because it’s a name that stands out from many hotels thus giving it a certain feel of tasty cuisine. Allan came across a substantial amount of cash from his parents and instead of spending it on things that won’t benefit him, he decided to invest. He does not disclose how much but it must have been quite a lot. Very few students would jump at the chance to invest. Some would buy clothes or treat themselves to trips to the coast. Allan motivates students to try doing something lucrative with the cash they receive from parents.
“I had already planned to go to coast but something got the best of me and I thought maybe I can try out business.” Allan narrates.
Allan started out by renting a shop then he bought small items such as a grill, a charcoal jiko, a fridge, a microwave and sufurias. He then hired some carpenters to spruce the place up to give it a hotel feeling. He got furniture for the hotel from a second hand dealer for a throw away price. After all was in place he made posters and menus, bought food stuffs and hired a staff of two local people namely Chalo and Stevo. Every time he gets a profit he re-invests it into the business.
Allan says, “Your business starts growing once you re-invest in it.”
Donald Trump - an American, real estate tycoon - has nothing on this guy, Allan talks as if he’s the sensei of business administration, if he had a business class to lecture most of you would be running helter skelter to register. If you could put yourself in Allan’s shoes, what kind of business would you have tried out?
Every time money comes into most people’s hands, it goes straight out within minutes. Some people would picture themselves opening up a nice hotel, and then the whole idea would later fade. Allan knows a lot about the hotel business and he enjoys what he does, he doesn’t see himself opening a movie shop, a boutique or even a normal kiosk.
For this he simply says, “I love cooking and I relish seeing people enjoying my food.”
Allan specializes in many types of cuisines, his favorite ones being the African dishes. He touches on many African culture dishes such as the Agikuyu’s githeri, The Luhya’s fried chicken, the Luo’s ugali and many more cuisines.
Allan states, “Owning a business has been a life long dream and this is my baby which I am very proud of.”
Spicy Inn caters for Daystar University students, staff, and the surrounding community at large. Students love this joint because of the cheap food and the different African cuisines it has. The University staff love this hotel because they get to try out something new from the food in the school cafeteria.
One student known as John Mungai says, “The food from inside the school is cooked in a hurry and they don’t add love as the secret ingredient.” He laughs and carries on, “If I want to place an order of anything I want, the guys at Spicy Inn march right up to the kitchen and whip me up what I want.”
As for one of the Daystar staff members, I ask a certain Mr. John Mutuku who jovially replies, “Allan has good and cheap food that guys like me can relate with, not too spicy like the school cafeteria food.”
Spicy Inn doesn’t receive praises only, some other customers differ with Spicy Inn. One customer, who asks to remain anonymous, says the place usually fills up during lunch time and the service gets slow so Allan needs to expand and hire more help to make the place easier to manage. As for the staff Allan has, he says that he has never heard any complaints about them.
Allan is proud of his idea and he tries to encourage young guys to engage in small businesses so as to help themselves and their parents, such activities help keep young people out of trouble. Another example is that of the honorable John Michuki, who used to be the minister of internal security. He dropped out of primary school and went to Nairobi city to do odd jobs so as to get money to help him through his primary education. If it wasn’t for his fast thinking of running to the city to look for money, he wouldn’t have made it this far.
Allan plans to expand his business all over campuses in Kenya and if he is lucky maybe outside Kenya like Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and if peace comes to Somalia, Somalia. He wants to be as big as McDonalds (in the United States) or Kentucky Fried Chicken from Kentucky. Such optimism makes one start working hard to make sure their dreams come true.
Some people may say that Allan’s dreams are far stretched but from the histories of many big names in Kenya, they started out with less than what Allan had. People such as John Michuki started off with nothing but now they will leave a big name and wealth behind. Allan takes a sip of his tea, looks at his beloved Spicy Inn and says that if he had spent that money to go to Mombasa, he wouldn’t be where he is. Surely, Fortune knocks once on every man’s door.
GLOSSARY:
Charcoal jiko – Swahili for a small type of a charcoal grill.
Sufurias – Swahili Plural for aluminum cooking pots.
Githeri – A Kikuyu delicacy made by frying a mixture of boiled maize and beans.
Ugali – A Luo delicacy made from maize flour.
VICTOR RUTERE 08-0985
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