Elias Thuku, who is currently the CEO of Legrane Limited did not attend any college or university, and not proceeding with school forced him into manual jobs like milking cows and irrigating farms.
Elias spent his childhood in Muramati, a village in Laikipia County. That is where he went to school and in the year 1988, he joined Form One in Muramati secondary school.
While in form two, there was a strike in the school and he was among the students who were expelled from school. He was not able to join another school since he was denied a transfer letter.
“I had to stay home for a whole year, not sure what to do next,” Elias told Kenyans.co.ke.
It was then that his mother got the idea that he should go and stay with his grandmother in Nyahururu where nobody and no school knew him. After serious discussions and considerations, he agreed to go back to Class 8 in Nyahururu.
“That was in 1990, and when I went to this new school at Oljabet, I found that Class 8 was already registered and I had no option but to go back to Class 7. Note that I had moved from Form Two to Class 7," explained Thuku.
As he did his Class 8 exams, his former classmates were doing their form four exams. He was then admitted to Ndururumo High School.
“After my O level, I did not secure a grade to join university and my parents had the rest of my siblings to pay for school fees, leaving me with no college option but to seek a manual job. I went to an aunty in Nyandarua and I was helping in milking and taking milk to the dairy,” explained Thuku.
Elias recalled that one day his cousin, who worked in a horticulture exporting farm came home from Nairobi. He needed to help his friend secure a job in Timau.
His cousin, however, had never traveled to Timau and Elias volunteered to take him there and that is how he also landed himself a job on the farm.
"We were both sent to meet a mzungu with a note written, ‘kindly assist this young man get a manual job.’ The note was referring to the other guy, not me," expounded the Legrane Limited CEO.
“Fortunately, the mzungu asked if both of us were looking for jobs and I was quick to say yes. We reported the next day and were told to do irrigation for the night shift,” noted Thuku
He narrates that one night while working, the European boss came with some instructions.
The man the white man was addressing did not understand so Elias came to interpret what he meant. When the mzungu noticed that there was a man who understood English, he was impressed and the new employee was promoted to storeman in charge of irrigating materials.
It was then that his boss trained him how to use the computer. “I did that job faithfully for two years at a salary of 69 shillings per day," recounted the successful CEO.
He resigned when his boss started his own flower-growing farm and needed a post-harvest manager.
Later, the man from Laikipia was offered an opportunity to start consolidation in Nairobi where a group of growers had a market in Japan and needed someone at the airport to coordinate deliveries.
“That is the opportunity I was looking for," noted Thuku.
He proceeded to tell Kenyans.co.ke that the company became a huge exporting company, and as one of the pioneers, he became the operations manager and later the marketing manager.
“It is during this time that I got an opportunity to travel and meet people from other countries," explained the CEO.
“I had worked for this company for quite long and I decided that it was time for me to quit and build my own brand. It was hard because I loved working with them but eventually, I left and started my own company," expounded Thuku.
He proceeded to say that getting loyal clients and being consistent in the industry was a challenge at first but by the grace of God, he did it.
Elias is currently the CEO of Legrane limited and a pastor at CMF Church Utawala.
