- S.K. Macharia started as an untrained teacher at Makomboki Primary and qualified as a P3 teacher at Kahuhia TTC before being posted to Gituru Primary in 1961.
- Through the 1962 Kennedy-Mboya airlift, he studied in the US, earning degrees in Political Science and Accounting and becoming a CPA, before returning to Kenya in 1968 to serve in the civil service.
- He founded Royal Media Services in 1990, now Kenya’s largest private broadcast network, described by Forbes in 2012 as “Africa’s Ted Turner”.
There is a big lesson for all teachers in the life of Dr. Samuel Kamau Macharia, the proprietor of Royal Media Services. His story shows that teaching, however humble it may appear, can be a strong foundation for greatness if one remains focused, disciplined and visionary.
Dr. Macharia was born in 1942 in Ndakaini Village, Murang’a County, to peasant parents who worked as squatters on British colonial plantations. Life was very hard from the beginning. His mother died when he was only five years old. During the State of Emergency in 1952, his family’s home was destroyed and he lived on the streets of Thika for months before reuniting with his family. The family had earlier migrated to Arusha, Tanzania in search of employment but returned to Kenya after failing to get stable work.
He started school late in 1954 at Ndakaini Primary School and later sat his Kenya African Preliminary Examination (KAPE) in 1958 at Gituru Intermediate School. Due to lack of school fees, he worked as an untrained teacher at Makomboki Primary School for one year. He later joined Kahuhia Teachers Training College for a two-year course and qualified as a P3 teacher. In 1961 he was posted to Gituru Primary School.
Instead of settling as a primary school teacher, he chose to pursue more education. In 1962, he was selected for the famous J.F. Kennedy and Tom Mboya airlift programme that took bright Kenyan students to study in the United States. His start in America was not easy. When he arrived in Seattle, there was no one to receive him, and he was stranded at a bus station for a week, relying on strangers for food. Later, a church minister intervened, and a childless couple, the Andertons, offered to host him throughout his studies.
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He worked hard and completed high school at Seattle Technical College in just two years. He then joined Seattle Pacific University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, followed by a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Washington. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Accounting and became a Certified Public Accountant.
He returned to Kenya in 1968 and was employed in the civil service under the Jomo Kenyatta administration, where he headed several important task forces. In 1979, he resigned from government service and ventured into business. In 1979, he founded Madhupaper International Kenya Limited, the first indigenous tissue manufacturing company in Kenya, which produced the popular Rosy brand and employed over 300 workers. Although the company later collapsed, he did not give up.
In 1990 he founded Royal Media Services. Today, Royal Media Services is the largest private radio and television network in Kenya, owning Citizen TV and Inooro TV and 14 radio stations, including Radio Citizen, Hot 96, Inooro FM, Ramogi FM, Egesa FM, Chamgei FM, Musyi FM, Mulembe FM and others. His media empire employs thousands of Kenyans directly and indirectly. In 2012, Forbes Magazine described him as “Africa’s Ted Turner” for his impact on African media.
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The big lesson for teachers from his life is that teaching is not a dead end. A P3 certificate was not his limit but his ladder. He teaches us the value of lifelong learning, resilience in the face of failure, courage to fight for what is right, and humility even after becoming a billionaire. From herding cattle and holding chalk at Gituru Primary to owning microphones that speak to over 30 million Kenyans, Dr. Macharia proves that a teacher can become a great employer.
By Enock Okong’o
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