Financially Incorrect

For most people, wealth looks like cash. For Walter Mangutha, wealth looked like land. Long before earning a salary, Walter was collecting rent, managing family property and learning that money isn't always what sits in your bank account. Those early lessons would shape every financial decision that followed. In this episode of Financially Incorrect, Walter opens up about growing up in a famil...

Everyone wants quality education. Very few people understand what it actually costs to build it. In this episode of Financially Incorrect, Chinezi Chijioke, CEO and Co Founder of Nova Pioneer, takes us inside one of Africa's most ambitious education businesses. From raising nearly a billion shillings to build campuses, surviving investor pull outs, managing schools that can take years before b...

What does it take to walk away from one of the most coveted careers in Kenya and build a company capable of competing with telecom giants? In this episode of Financially Incorrect Personal Money Stories, Agnes Limo shares a journey that starts in a village where money was scarce, opportunities were limited, and entrepreneurship was never considered a realistic career path. Growing up in Eldoret, A...

Jeffrey Imani thought he had made it. After years climbing the creative ladder, winning international design competitions, building a respected reputation and leading some of East Africa's biggest campaigns, everything came crashing down during the COVID lockdown. A suspension letter. Lost income. A lost house deposit. Months of uncertainty. For many people, that would have been the end. For J...

There are entrepreneurs who start with capital. Then there are entrepreneurs who create capital by betting everything they already have. Before Ian Henderson built one of Kenya's most recognised residential developments, he had already lived several careers. He left engineering before completing university, spent years washing and managing rental cars, built a logistics company from the ground...

For years, Kenya's car rental industry operated on trust, phone calls, spreadsheets, and WhatsApp messages. Cars would disappear. Bookings would get double-sold. Customers would reserve online only to discover the vehicle had already been rented to someone who walked in with cash. Bradley Opere saw these problems firsthand. After working in private equity, consulting at McKinsey, advising Keny...

For years, Major Boke wore the uniform of the Kenya AirForce. Today, he leads one of East Africa's fastest-growing security, HR and staff outsourcing companies. In this episode of Financially Incorrect, Major Boke takes us through an extraordinary journey that started in military barracks, moved through corporate leadership at KICC, survived multiple career exits, and ultimately resulted in th...

Most people would have quit after losing everything. Derrick Kayobyo lost hundreds of millions of shillings to fraudsters. His workshop was burned down. Businesses collapsed. Deals went wrong. Yet those setbacks became the foundation for one of Uganda's fastest-growing real estate companies. In this episode of Financially Incorrect Uganda edition, Derrick shares how he went from selling timber...

"You should stay in school and work hard." That's the advice many people receive. Nyawira Muraguri did that. But she also worked in her parents' business from the age of nine, negotiated aggressively throughout her career, used side hustles to clear debt, bought land with loans, stayed at home longer than most of her peers, and benefited from a support system that gave her room t...

There is a perception amongst many that financial freedom is about earning more money. Pius Muchiri believes it's about reaching a point where your investments can sustain your lifestyle even if your salary stops tomorrow. In this episode of Financially Incorrect Business Edition, Barrack sits down with Pius Muchiri, CFA and Managing Director of Nabo Capital, to unpack a career spanning accoun...

For years, Queen Gathoni Kimuyu was helping shape some of Kenya's most recognizable television productions while quietly carrying battles most people never saw. Before becoming an award-winning producer, writer, activist and storyteller, she grew up in poverty, became a young wife, survived an abusive marriage, raised a child through financial uncertainty and spent years trying to build a sust...

Brian Kiriba shares the story behind building Jaba Juice from scratch, growing it into a business that now moves tens of thousands of units every month. In this episode of Financially Incorrect Business Edition, he discusses his early entrepreneurial ventures in Pakistan and the United States, the failure of his immigration startup, losing money after returning to Kenya, and his unsuccessful attem...

Most people see cars as liabilities. Earl Karanja sees them as alternative assets with global demand, cultural value, and appreciating long-term upside. Before brokering million-dollar Bugattis and rare Ferraris to collectors across Europe, Dubai, and New Zealand, Earl was a Kenyan kid raised in a strict teacher-led household where discipline, education, and financial restraint shaped everything....

Africa does not have a shortage of entrepreneurs. It has a financing problem. In this episode of Financially Incorrect, we sit down with Ethiopis Tafara, Regional Vice President for Africa at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to unpack one of the biggest economic bottlenecks across the continent: why millions of African businesses remain stuck despite creating the majority of jobs. SMEs...

For decades, Suzanne Gachukia Opembe sat at the center of Kenya’s creative economy. Producing music, managing artists, negotiating distribution, surviving industry politics and helping shape an entire generation of Kenyan sound. But behind the success stories were delayed payments, collapsing partnerships, broken royalty systems, visa denials, debt pressure and years where even groceries became di...

Most people see skincare as beauty. Milkah Wachira sees it as trust, systems, education, customer psychology and cash flow management under pressure. Before building Skin Reveal Clinic into one of Nairobi’s growing aesthetic and corrective skincare brands, she burned through bad inventory decisions, unstable partnerships, weak financial structures and painful business losses. One failed clothing v...

Muthaka thought talent would be enough. Then she discovered the business side of music. In this episode the award winning Kenyan singer and songwriter Christine Muthaka opens up about the financial realities behind building a music career in East Africa. From earning 3,000 KES cover gigs at malls and restaurants to signing a restrictive label deal, producing a 600,000+ KES independent album, survi...

Most people think financial collapse happens suddenly. For Shira Karungi, it happened quietly. The businesses were working. The money was coming in. Multiple mobile money kiosks. A thriving clothing business. Strong monthly cash flow. But behind the visible success was a dangerous cycle of borrowing, delayed payments, lifestyle inflation, and poor financial tracking. At one point, the debt reached...

Ogutu Okudo did not enter Kenya’s energy sector through engineering or petroleum science. She studied foreign policy and diplomacy, then made a sharp pivot after Kenya’s 2012 oil discovery and positioned herself inside one of Africa’s most competitive and male dominated industries. In this episode Ogutu breaks down the realities behind oil and gas, the politics of energy investment, why Kenya lost...

Waithera Mugo did not build a tax law firm at the right time. She built it when there were no clients, no savings, and the world had slowed to a halt. In this business edition, Waithera Mugo, founder of Ithera Africa, breaks down what it actually takes to survive and scale in one of the most complex, high pressure legal specializations, tax. From defending multi million shilling tax disputes to na...

What does it take to move from traditional banking into shaping the future of financial inclusion across an entire continent? In this episode of Financially Incorrect, we sit down with Esther Waititu Chief Financial Services Officer at Safaricom to unpack a career that spans banking, international markets, and now fintech at scale through Safaricom. From earning between Ksh 9k - 15k a month earlie...

What does it actually look like to walk away from stability and build something of your own? In this Uganda edition episode, Matthew Nabiswo breaks down a journey that most people never see clearly until it is too late to turn back. After two decades in corporate, rising from a $100 salary to $1,000 a month, he found himself pushed out at a moment that could have easily defined the rest of his lif...

Alemu Emuron has spent over two decades building campaigns across 34 African countries for brands like Coca-Cola, Airtel, Unilever, and Diageo — winning Cannes Lions and Grand Prix awards along the way. But before the continental footprint and the accolades, he was a broke young creative sleeping between a Kampala office and a bar, surviving on credit and stubbornness, watching his advertising car...

Ivy started out earning 100 KES a day doing laundry during COVID. She got docked down to 6,000 KES a month as a supermarket cashier. She tried crochet, braiding, web development, and forex trading none of it stuck. Then she noticed something nobody else was paying attention to: Nairobi had thousands of empty Airbnb units and zero one-stop place to book them. Today, Nairobi Spaces manages access to...

What do women really need to thrive today? At What Women Want 4.0, - Let's Make Money Honey session , we sat down with three accomplished leaders, Mumbi Ndung’u Founder CEO PLP, Dorothy Ooko Co- Founder WSN and Moonika Jurgenfeldt CEO FXPesa for an honest conversation on money, leadership, negotiation, confidence, career growth, and the realities women still face in professional spaces. This e...