Samwel Kumba
5 September 2008
opinion
Nairobi — It is Sunday afternoon and everything seems slow in Nairobi despite the increased human traffic ahead of the reopening of schools the following day.
I have just stepped into the Hilton Hotel lobby for a meeting when an animated exchange between the staff and a female guest catches my attention.
It later emerges that she is trying to trace her luggage after checking into the hotel from South Africa.
Moments later, my host introduces me to the woman whom, I learn, has stopped over in Nairobi en route to London where she lives.
And not only that: Mrs Mabel Muruli Marks is here for a big mission -- one which may make her one the hottest business people in town. She plans to, in three months, start an airline in Kenya.
She was in Nairobi this week to do what she has perfected in London - initiating and developing businesses to multi-million-shilling entities.
She is already in the millionaires club, thanks to her London real estate business, which she started in 2001.
Mabel is one of the few Kenyan businesswomen who can say with certainty that they are successful and satisfied.
She intends to use her Mabel Air company to open up Kenya for investment and economic growth in not only the major towns, but also the rural areas.
"We are interested to serve even those with the smallest degree of prosperity and provide opportunities not yet envisioned," she told the Saturday Nation in an interview after the chance meeting.
Mabel Air is already licensed by the industry regulator, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority. KCAA spokesman Mutia Mwandikwa says the licence was issued on July 23, this year.
This is further confirmed by the Kenya Gazette notice of August 8, which shows that the airline is licensed to fly passengers and cargo within, out of and into Kenya from East Africa using aircraft C208, DHC8 based at Wilson, Jomo Kenyatta International and Kisumu airports.
It is allowed also to operate non-scheduled passenger flights using helicopter Bell 427 based at the airports, besides scheduled domestic flights on various routes.
Mabel says she is pumping more than £10 million (Sh1.25 billion) into the project, most of the capital having come from her UK investments.
She was born in Kakamega, and her maiden name is Lusanji Muruli. Today, her Kimberley Group firm has properties in the UK and the US valued at more than Sh2 billion.
She was from South Africa where she was voted the best inventor and innovator at a symposium held on August 27-29 and inaugurated by President Thabo Mbeki at the time of our meeting.
More than 3,000 women from all over the world attended the symposium, among them South Africa's Deputy President, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The conference aims at inspiring businesswomen to innovate and invent for a sustainable future for all. Later, Mabel toured a number of provinces giving motivational talks to women groups.
She was accompanied by Dr Hanaa Alasam, the director of Dubai-based DoctorInternet, Dr Jill Sawers of South Africa's Entrepreneurship, an innovation hub management company, Ms Tanya Ewing of the UK and Ms Minx Osborn, the editor-in-chief of Absolute Media of South Africa.
Mabel is now among top-notch entrepreneurs who have attained success in a world in which self-made millionaires are more respected than Nobel laureates.
Nothing inspires her more than US TV talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's belief that doing the best at this moment puts one in the best place for the next moment.
Mabel told Saturday Nation that she is currently involved in staff recruitment and training, especially on health and air safety.
"My maiden flight is later in November," she said. "I have about 90 days of training my employees. I will blend a bit of leasing and buying of the aircraft."
She comes from a humble background, having started off as a primary school teacher in Kilifi district. She left Kenya in the 1990s to study assertive skills, information and communication technology as well as English in London.
She is a university graduate with extensive training in management and teaching. She is also law literate. She has over 15 years' experience in corporate management.
Initially, Mabel's dream was to continue teaching in the UK, a vision she now describes as "the biggest joke" of her life. Instead, she plunged into a different career altogether, working as an immigration adviser as she counselled and helped students and asylum seekers.
She sympathised with the conditions in which the asylum seekers lived and decided to make a difference.
According to her, the longer she saw the pathetic living conditions as the people accommodating them were paid handsomely, the closer her heart got to achieving the goal of giving them a better deal.
"I decided to challenge the status quo by providing humane accommodation, a chance for education, medical care and social orientation," she says of the move.
Thus Kimberley Group was born. First, with her meagre savings, she bought houses on mortgage. Today, she houses over 3,000 people.
But it was not a bed of roses; the company had numerous challenges, including obtaining government contracts, but that did not deter her in the least.
"When I made my first £1 million (Sh125 million), I went on a shopping spree, buying anything that appealed to me," she recalls.
"One day, I blew a whopping Sh1.12 million on clothes, shoes, handbags and perfumes. But I have outgrown that now."
Mabel lives near the famous Wembley Stadium because, she says, her husband Tim Marks loves football. They have three daughters -- Kimberley, after whom the company is named, Eleanor and Annie.
She urges the Government to initiate an exchange programme that would see Kenyan women entrepreneurs visit their counterparts in other countries to gain experience.
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