Watchman to wealth: Murang'a man who quit KSh5k job builds million-shilling farm
This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.
- For 20 years, Richard Mwangi worked as a watchman at a coffee factory in Murang'a, earning just KSh 5,000 a month
- He chose to find an exit plan when his life nearly came to an end after thieves attacked him while on duty and beat him severely
- Mwangi found refuge in thorn melon farming, an often overlooked crop that earned him KSh 1.5 million in profit during his first year in the business
Richard Mwangi, a 45-year-old former security guard from Murang'a, walked away from a two-decade career as a watchman after thieves attacked and nearly killed him on duty.
It was a bold decision that would eventually lead him to earn KSh 1.5 million in net profit within a single year, Goal Getters reports.
Night That Changed Everything
Mwangi had started working as a watchman at the age of 25, guarding a coffee factory on a monthly wage of KSh 5,000 while raising a family of four.
The work was exhausting and dangerous, but for a long time, leaving felt impossible with no savings and no backup plan. The attack that changed everything happened while he was on duty.
After being beaten severely, he was arrested, questioned and later released without charge. During his recovery, he made a decision he had long been putting off.
"I was aware that resigning was going to be very painful because I did not have an immediate plan for my life. But I was also alive to the fact that remaining poor, but alive was a better option," Mwangi said.
Farming Breakthrough
With no job and no savings, Mwangi spent his days at Muthithi Shopping Centre playing draughts, sometimes earning around KSh 100 a day.
That chapter ended when he visited a farmers' field day held in a neighbour's garden, where organisers presented information on various horticultural crops and farming varieties.
Something about thorn melons caught his attention. Mwangi, who is comfortable with arithmetic, began running the numbers in his head and liked what he saw.
He returned home and bought 100 grammes of thorn melon seeds. He prepared a seedbed, nurtured roughly 1,000 seedlings over three months, and waited.
Numbers That Rewrote His Story
His first harvest yielded 700 kilogrammes, which sold for KSh 49,000, nearly ten times what he had previously earned in a month.
Over the following three months, total output reached 5,000 kilogrammes, generating KSh 350,000.
By the close of his first year in farming, Mwangi says his thorn melon venture had produced a cumulative KSh 1.5 million in net profit. Part of his approach involves keeping costs lean.
He uses compost manure from his two cows to reduce expenses, applies compound fertiliser from the second month of the plant's growth, and later top-dresses the crop with calcium ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
"Out of KSh 100 you make, about KSh 20 covers cost of production," he said, summing up the crop's appeal in straightforward terms.
Mwangi also points to growing consumer interest in the fruit's nutritional value, including its content of vitamin C, potassium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, calcium and sodium, as a driver of steady demand.
His story is ultimately one of a man who chose uncertainty over a dangerous certainty, found direction in an overlooked crop, and built something entirely new from 100 grammes of seeds and a willingness to start over.
Machakos Man Finds Millions in Mangoes
Mwangi's story is similar to Meshaek Ikinya Mutera's who once scraped together a living from jobs that barely covered his basic needs.
Pushed to the end, the Machakos man left the job he had depended on for years to try his hand at what Ukambani is famed for: mangoes.
It was a gamble that paid off, as he now rakes in millions from farming, a decision he does not regret.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
Reporting originally appeared via TUKO. Read the full source for additional context.