Gerishon Kamau Kirima was a major
Kenya
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, capital = Nairobi
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n real estate investor and a former Member of Parliament.
Early life
Kirima was born in Kiruri village, a tea-growing area of
Murang’a County on the slopes of the
Aberdares
The Aberdare Range (formerly the Sattima Range, Kikuyu: ''Nyandarua'') is a 160 km (100 mile) long mountain range of upland, north of Kenya's capital Nairobi with an average elevation of . It straddles across the counties of Nyandarua, Nye ...
. He dropped out of school at an early age.
Business
Kirima relocated from his village to the
Kinangop Plateau
The Kinangop Plateau is a region in Kenya that lies between the Kenyan Rift Valley to the west and the Aberdare Range to the east. It takes its name from Kinangop Mountain, which rises in the Aberdares to the east.
Geographical features
The edge ...
where he started a carpentry business. In the early 1960s after Kenya had attained independence, he moved to Nairobi and registered his business ''Kirima and Sons Ltd''.
He was the pioneer carpenter at the
University of Nairobi
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, caption = Coat of Arms of the University
, type = Public
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and operated a small workshop in Bahati and later on in Kaloleni. His first wife, Agnes, would help attend to customers at the Kaloleni workshop. Taking advantage of the rural-urban migration to Nairobi that resulted from the dawn of independence and the end of the state of emergency, Kirima opened bars and butcheries in Asian and African neighborhoods to cater for the growing moneyed class. He is considered a pioneer of ''nyama choma'', a popular Kenyan delicacy.
By 1967, and to the surprise of the better educated African civil servants, Kirima had saved enough money to buy 500 acres of land in Nairobi from an Italian Donenico Masi. In the same year, Kirima bought two more farms in Nairobi - 108 acres from Charles Case and 472 acres from Percy Randall. With these acquisitions, Kirima had positioned himself to be a major meat supplier for Nairobi.
As chairman of the African Butchers Association (later the Kenya National Butchers Union), he successfully lobbied the government for permission to sell meat in the city, a privilege that was hitherto reserved for the still settler-controlled Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) which did not buy meat from African farmers.
Kirima started a private abattoir in Njiru, a development that some believe led to the eventual collapse of the KMC years later.
He would venture into the transport business by launching the Kirima Bus Services. However, the business didn't last long following the liberalization of upcountry transportation by the government in 1973. He opted to focus on real estate mostly concentrating on building rental housing in the low income Eastlands area of Nairobi.
Political career
Kirima served for many years as a city councilor and briefly as deputy mayor. In 1989,
Starehe Constituency
Starehe Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya. It is one of seventeen constituencies in Nairobi City County. It consists of central and central to north areas of Nairobi. The constituency was established for the 1966 elections, with a ...
Member of Parliament Kiruhi Kimondo was dismissed by his party
KANU in 1989. By-elections were held the same year. Kirima contested the seat on a KANU ticket and won. He remained in office until the 1992 General Elections when he lost the seat to his predecessor Kimondo.
Personal life
Kirima had 3 wives, several children and many grandchildren.
Death
Diabetic and partially blind, Gerishon Kirima died on 28 December 2010 while undergoing treatment in South Africa. He was 80 years old.
References
External links
Makers of a Nation - Gerishon Kirima
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirima, Gerishon
Year of birth missing
2010 deaths
People from Murang'a County
Kenyan businesspeople