Reporter
Those who have worked with billionaire Samuel Kamau (SK) Macharia have described him as a most dedicated and demanding person they have ever met.
At 81 years of age, the Chairman and Founder of Royal Media Services (RMS) Group is still that aggressive young man he was when he took a bus ride to the United States to chew books. The journey to America took 100 days.
Brother SK’s journey of responsibility started with his role as a humble timekeeper and bell ringer at the Gitutru Intermediary School in Murang’a.
Gitutru Intermediary was a boarding school – which means there was a lot of bell ringing to do – to ensure school children woke up in time, took breakfast (I doubt these kids had the luxury of eating breakfast in 1950s), took roll call, lined at the parade and sat for their studies.
Failed Class Six
SK joined the school boarding school from Gicha-gi-ini primary where he had failed Class Six, forcing him to repeat some classes at Gitutru.
SK would stay at the school for two long years, ringing the damn bell and chewing books from 1957 to 1959.
The bell changed his life as he was always the first person to leave the bed at 5am… and woke up even before the teachers. In fact, part of his duty involved waking up the school head teacher before waking up everyone else.
He literally rung the bell to signal start and end of life at the school; from waking up, attending parade, classes, to signal breaks; meals, sports, preps, cleaning the dormitories, and time to sleep. He rang the bell a good 6o times a day.
After spending two years at Gitutru, SK joined Makomboki Primary in Kigumo, in Murang’a to work as an untrained teacher.
Teach and make money
His salary was a meagre Sh8 a month. He had opted to teach and make money rather than join secondary school.
He would later travel to the United States of America where he joined high school, and continued his education.
He would later graduate with a BA in political science at Seattle Pacific University, a BSc and Master’s in accounting from the University of Washington.
Today he owns Royal Media Services group; Citizen TV, Directline, Viutickets, Viutravel, Shabiki.com, Viusasa, Ramogi TV, Inooro TV, and 13 local radio stations among others.