The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. For the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's gas company, East Africa Spectre, it all began with a Ksh12,000 car and an Indian tycoon kicked out of Uganda.
In a past video clip the former Prime Minister shared, he explained that the founding of the now multi-billion company was by chance after being advised by a friend.
At the time, Raila, worked at the University of Nairobi, was told that an Indian tycoon, who had good machinery, had been chased away from Uganda and that he was selling the property at Ksh12,000.
The former Prime Minister, who was surviving on a Ksh2,000 salary, then decided to sell the car, a German Opel left-hand drive, to acquire the machines which he set up a shop at the Industrial Estates. It focused on window panes and still doors among others.
“I was teaching at the University of Nairobi when an Indian friend who was a technician told me that one of his friends had just been sent away from Uganda and had uprooted all his machines from Jinja to a yard at Parklands and was selling quickly to go to Great Britain.
“The entire machinery was being sold at Sh12,000 which I didn’t have, my salary was only Sh2000, so I sold my car to raise the cash and that is how I started," he recounted.
In 1971, he seized an opportunity to start manufacturing gas cylinders after a severe shortage hit Agip Oil Company. At the time, he had experience in the industry after his stint in Germany.
His hard work was visible and one German national at the time took interest and introduced him to Kenya Industrial Estates, the country's heart of manufacturers.
“When he came to my workshop and saw what we were doing, he was impressed and took me to Kenya Industrial Estate under Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) and that is how I went to Kenya Industrial Estate.
When the company was set up, under the name Standard Processing Equipment Construction and Erection, it was the sole local manufacturer of Liquefied Petroleum Gas and has supplied its products to Total Kenya and Shell.
Since then, the company has seen gradual growth including the acquisition of new manufacturing space along Mombasa Road and the installation of the new state-of-the-art cylinder manufacturing plant.
Some of the notable machines that were installed include Heat Treatment Furnace, Hydrostatic Testing rig, Shot-blasting Machine as well as Spray Painting system and Oven Drying.
Coupled with other investments, the company has catapulted the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's net worth to the three-comma digit level. As of 2020, the former Prime Minister's wealth was pegged at Ksh2 billion.
Raila Odinga currently serves as a Director at the company while his brother Oburu Odinga is the Chairman and his wife Ida Odinga serves as a Managing Director.
