Hudson Owase, 38, rakes millions from his metal scrap, matatu and hotel businesses in Luanda town, Vihiga county.
His has been a life of toil and hard work.
In 1993 Owase lost his father. The next year his mother died.
He was only 12 and the firstborn; his five younger siblings looked up to him.
Their father had been a teacher and their mother a businessperson in Luanda town.
Life was not easy for the young orphans.
“Life was full of guesswork, depending on relatives for food, clothing, school fees and other basic needs 100 per cent,” Owase says in Luanda.
“... my siblings were looking up to me, while I was looking up to my uncles and grandparents.”
His uncles put him through primary and secondary school. “I thank my uncles for the role they played, more so in my education,” he says.
After completing his secondary school education, Owase moved to Kisumu in 2000 in search of a job.
There were no funds for a college education and his siblings still largely depended on him.
Owase knew nothing in life comes easy and he would have to work hard to make something of his life.
“Life in Kisumu was full of ups and downs. I went through hell on earth before landing a teaching job,” he says.
He was hired as an untrained teacher and was paid Sh2,000 a month.
Owase did not stay in the job for long as the pay was inadequate to meet his family's needs.
He had, however, raised enough capital to go into business.
“I moved to Kibuye market to sell mitumba [secondhand] clothes,” he says.
New start
Owase eventually went back to his home village in Mwibona ward where he opened a retail shop and got into the boda boda business.
He started off with two motorcycles and in two years had acquired 20 which he hired out to youth for Sh400 per day.
“One of the things I had to deal with was insecurity, which was very high,” he says.
“My shop would be broken into now and then but life had to go on, I had no choice.”
Owase believes if something doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger for the next level.
He was among the first people in Luanda to go into the boda boda business.
“During the 2007-08 post-election violence most scrap metal dealers in Luanda fled, leaving a business gap,” Owase says.
“I had to take a risk in the scrap business with my investments of Sh60 million.”
He set up a scrap metal collection centre in Luanda where he bought waste metal and sold it to recycling companies in Nairobi.
The business grew as he was the only one on the ground back then.
Owase bought his first matatu in 2010 for about Sh2 million.
The vehicle plied the Busia-Kisumu route. Soon he had 12 matatus.
“I closed down the boda boda business in 2013 to focus on the scrap metal and matatu businesses,” he says.
He used the money from the businesses to buy plots in Kisumu and Luanda, which he has already developed.
In addition, he built a three-star hotel called Triple-T, the first modern hotel in Luanda. Other hotels have since come up.
“What I have is through hard work and the support of my wife and family,” he says.
“My business venture has been a blessing to many youths in Luanda, creating job opportunities for many.”
Challenges
One of the major challenges he has faced in the hospitality industry is theft by workers.
“An employee sells and instead of submitting what he/she has sold that day he/she packs and goes away,” Owase says.
“You have to replan and restock. You also have to deal with fluctuating prices to avoid losses.”
Other challenges include working with untrained staff, unreliable electricity and capital flight.
Finance executive Alfred Indeche says the county is trying to fight the issue of capital flight.
“However the business community within the county should also up their game by improving their facilities to recommended standards that will convince us to shut the door to the neighbouring counties,” he says.
Owase says fuel prices is a major challenge in the matatu sector.
“But the real problem lies with scrap metal; you need to be there personally,” he says.
He says sometimes those receiving the metal may sabotage you on the weighing scales, or sell it and keep the money.
Theft of scrap metal is a big problem as well.
Someone can sell you stolen goods, how will you notice that? he says.
“It’s only when the police walk in to seize the stolen goods, from parastatals such as Railways and Kenya Power,” he says.
Equal opportunities
Owase urges the Vihiga government to give equal opportunities to all players in the hospitality industry for them to benefit from devolution.
“The county has been selective in giving business to those in the hospitality sector,” he says.
“I have the documentation. I did all that they told me to in order to transact business with the county but none has ever gone through.”
Trade, Industry and entrepreneurship executive Kenneth Kiseko said he was not in a position to comment. “Sorry am neither in procurement, contact those in charge,” he said via sms.
Finance executive Indeche said the Procurement department is friendly and welcomes all open tenders.
“We work with open tenders where individuals have to apply. We can’t give you a chance if you are not applying,” he said on the phone.
Indeche said one must be pre-qualified to do business with the county to avoid audit queries.
He said application for tenders is a continuous process.
“In case you pre-qualify for business with the county and you are not given [an opportunity, you] are fully allowed to picket within the county for your rights to be heard,” he said.
Owase finally went to college and did a diploma course in computer science and business management.
He has dabbled in politics. He ran for Mwibona MCA in the 2017 general election and emerged second after Zakayo Manyasa of PPK.
Owase says his aim is to change the area's politics and not to increase his investments.
“I have my own investments and therefore it’s not for them [that I go into politics, I want] to change politics on the ground,” he says.