It takes guts of steel for one to uproot their entire life from their home country to a foreign one to start afresh.
This is exactly what Will Kathurima did back in 1984 when he decided to relocate from Kenya in search of greener pastures.
The ambitious entrepreneur first landed in Zambia where he toiled for 3 years doing odd jobs before he decided to move to Botswana to take up farming.
He started out with a handful of cows, breeding and rearing them with the patience of a kindergarten teacher.
“I started in a very humble situation, in a cattle post with eight cattle. But I now have 1000 cattle and it is because of resilience,” Kathurima narrated to veteran journalist Alex Chamwada.
The rancher currently boasts of thousands of heads of cattle that are flourishing in his 22,000-acre ranch dubbed Nakatsakgama in the very heart of Botswana.
Kathurima is one of the major players in the beef industry, with most of his products bought by the Botswana Meat Commission.
He also serves the European market with his ranch among the few that have been certified and registered by the European Union.
Kathurima mainly deals with bulls for their beef and heifers for breeding among other cow-related products.
A mature bull goes for Ksh400,000 while a young heifer costs about Ksh75,000.
The land economist is determined to help improve the livelihoods of the local residents in Botswana, whom he has employed at the ranch.
Countless Kenyan leaders have made the trip to Botswana in benchmarking expeditions.
"We've had county governors. MCAs, MPs and individual business people who are interested in the industry," he revealed.
He also has a healthy stock of other farm animals such as sheep, goats, donkeys, and horses to name but a few.
During a past interview, the rancher was full of praise for the Botswana government's simple yet effective method of digital animal tracking that has ensured occurrences such as stock theft are practically non-existent.
The budding entrepreneur has also diversified into horticulture in a bid to ensure that his farm had a steady revenue stream all year round. Some of the plants available at his farm are tomatoes, maize, onions, beetroot, and watermelons.
Kathurima currently supplies a lot of agricultural products in the country, contributing to the government of Botswana's quest to rely less on imports of such products from other countries.
The successful farmer tied his seemingly good fortune to resilience.
Most of his family is back in Kenya and he said that he regularly visits and invests whenever he can back in his home country.
Here's a video of Kathurima giving a tour of his expansive farm.
