For the better part of last week to this week, Oscar Sudi, the Member of Parliament of Kapseret Constituency, has been trending. That is after his club in Eldoret, called Timba XO, was broken into by goons who vandalized and looted it during the Finance Bill protests that rocked his hometown on Tuesday, June 25.
After that, to mock them, I believe, he said that he bought his first Range Rover at 22 (I saw it somewhere) and that those who are after his things should try as hard to shelve their ambitions because they can’t kill or drain his pockets. They are large. Sudi is a millionaire or even a billionaire. Everyone knows that. But how exactly did he make his money?
Before we start, it is safe if you know that his full name is Oscar Kipchumba Sudi and that he has been the MP for Kapseret since the 2013 General Elections. He is 43 years old as of 2024 because he was born in 1981, ignoring the internet-known 1980, as, he said, he forced his area chief to change it since he wanted to get a national identity card faster and earlier. He started these things long ago, you know….
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Speaking in a live interview, Sudi narrated how he became a millionaire and his advice on money matters: He said he started as a matatu tout in Eldoret town during his youthful days in the 1990s and every day after work, he made sure he had saved something in a small hole he had made in the middle of the mabati house he used to live in during those days.
“I had dug a hole below the carpet of that house, and I used to save money there. I used to save a lot. I’d put Ksh50 in that hole, Ksh100…” he said.
Sudi, who said that the problem of many youths these days is impatience and wanting fancy clothes and shoes, revealed that when one year ended, he had Ksh21,000 in the hole.
In the second year, his boss, who used to own the matatu, requested him to accompany him to see a certain farm a little far from their village. “By that time, I had learnt to drive cars,” Sudi said.
When they reached the farm, the boss requested to know why his son, who managed most of his property, including the matatu, had not planted anything despite telling him that he would do so in the year, but Sudi said he never knew.
“On our journey back, I asked the boss if I could farm on the land. I didn’t even complete my statement before he approved,” Sudi said. “It was 7 acres.”
From there, he started buying farm inputs every month, partly using the savings and the money he earned while working as a tout.
“I did that until I planted maize on that land. I got Ksh129,000 in that season and had about Ksh40,000 in savings,” narrated Sudi.
He took the money and gave it to his friend Steven, who used to buy and sell petrol within the area.
“We invested the money with Steven, a close friend who used to deal in petrol. He used to sell fuel, which he bought from lorries and trucks, in drums. I don’t know if it was an illegal activity or not. But we could only transport it at night,” said Sudi.
One day, together with Steven, they decided to come to Nairobi and buy a television. It was in 1999, the first time he ever set foot in the Capital City.
While in Nairobi, Sudi, a man of sharp business acumen, was curious to learn about pool tables, which he saw people play in a hotel as they went on to purchase the TV. “They told me that you pay Ksh10 to play. I enquired faster, counting and counting, and I saw that someone had already collected Ksh100!”
They went back to Eldoret and, with the same Steven, travelled back to Nairobi after some days to buy a pool table, which he had been told was being sold at Kariobangi during their first visit.
“I started the business and bought up to 24 pool tables, which I put in many places, including Moi University canteen, Lessos, Kesses and other rural areas,” he said. “By then, it was Ksh20 per game. The more people become experienced, the more the money because they finish the games earlier. I became rich.”
Since that time, he began building meaningful business connections and knew many people, including one businessman who initiated him into the land business, which he did for quite a while.
Sudi’s breakthrough moment came when he networked with David Lang’at of Elite Ventures, who taught him all about the importation and port clearing business in Mombasa. That is how he became a millionaire!
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