KCB VENTURE 1 final

INDUSTRY FOCUS: HOSPITALITY
Four men are sitting in a
lounge bar. Which bar isn’t
important. What’s important
is what is about to transpire
in that bar. As lore goes,
the four gentlemen are
knocking back scotch and
bourbons and avoiding the
complimentary peanuts
because they want to stay
in shape. You see, they are
golfers, these men, albeit
amateur golfers.
They often do a round of
golf together in Kabete and
their wives exchange food
recipes. Once in a while,
they take their children for
a holiday somewhere where
they kick about a ball on a
green lawn, or build a castle
on a beach. So yes, you could
say they are great chums.
This is almost 15-years ago.
The guy with the white
socks is Kul Bakoo, who you
might know as the owner
of Kul Graphics in present
time. Next to him is Bobby
Jandu the owner of Allied
Plumbers; they do a lot of
plumbing, air conditioning,
water treatment and all.
The one holding the glass
with his left hand is Mso
Dave Bola; he’s based in
Zambia now, running an
insurance business. Lastly
there is the tall one with
a Godfather sneer. That’s
Nazir Noobin. He, together
with Raju started CopyCat
in 1981. It blew the roof: 32
years later and CopyCat is
now a hundred million dollar
company.
What had previously
happened was that the
American Embassy, which
bought the building they
were now deliberating upon,
after the bombing of their
embassy in 1998 had just
moved to a new building
in Gigiri after selling it
back to Kul Bakoo for a few
hundred million shillings.
The three gentlemen had
pooled resources to help
Bakoo buy it back. Then they
had tried to sell it off with
no success. It was a fortress,
the place; steel, reinforced
walls, blocked windows,
boulders on the side facing
the National Park. They
didn’t know what to do with
that 40,000sq ft building.
Someone had swirled his
scotch and said, “Let’s do a
hotel.” There were chuckles
of cynicism. Nazir sipped
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