From security guard to multi-million entrepreneur

By Morris Aron

Just over ten years ago, Mr Daniel Onyiero was a watchman at the Ngong Veterinary farm where he earned Sh40 a night guarding cows.

In March this year, he shared a platform with President Kibaki as a partner with the Kenya Youth Empowerment and Employment Initiative during its launch at Safari Park Hotel.

What happened in between the years reads like a storybook.

The 31-year-old chief executive of DTV Activate Limited is now a departmental head of the business and technology arm of the initiative, after replacing Mr James Mwangi, Equity Bank chief executive due to the later’s busy schedule.

"My brother who I relied on after completing my high school and moving to Nairobi died in 2000," he says with finality at his home office in Karen.

"I knew I had to take charge and somehow look for a source of livelihood."

Armed with savings from his job as a watchman, Mr Onyiero enrolled in a driving school.

His vision was to take charge of his late brother’s matatu business comprising of one Nissan plying the Ngong-Central Business District route.

Driving test

In his early days at the trade, he doubled up as a tout and continued with his driving classes until he passed the professional driving test.

"I still have tout buddies along Ngong Road," he says.

Lady luck smiled on him in 2001 when he got a job as a driver at a consulting engineering firm, a job he did for three years while still looking after the matatu business.

Currently, through an intricate partnership, one of his roles is to oversee the transportation of Co-operative Bank staff from their head office to Hardy everyday, a job that is outsourced to a company where his former boss is a shareholder.

"We lease cars to the bank to facilitate transportation of staff," he says.

With nothing to concentrate on after he retired, Mr Onyiero and a group of friends formed DTV Active Limited, a media-buying firm which doubles up as creative design outfit cum road show marketing agency in 2007.

"It was not a smooth sail. It is not a good idea to get into business with close friends and associates," said Mr Onyiero.

The company almost went under after disagreements with partners, a fact that almost flashed his savings down the drain.

"I had put a lot of effort in establishing the company and was not prepared to see it go down the drain."

And just when everything appeared bleak, an opportunity struck in the name of new partners.

DTV Activate is now a multi-million company with shareholders such as Engineer Gai Tambo of Tamcon Consulting Engineers and Dr Richard Ayah, the United Nation’s regional health specialist for East Africa.

Latest screens

The company has also diversified to supplying the latest mobile LED screens that are mounted on trucks during activations as well as organising corporate events.

So what is next in the list of Mr Onyiero’s activities?

"My focus is to ensure the activation of 200 projects under the Kenya Youth Empowerment Initiative goes," said Onyiero who once almost dropped out of primary school due to chronic absenteeism.

"It’s time the youth of the country knew where to get all the help and information they need in starting and running a business," he said.

The initiative launched by President Kibaki in March is geared towards lifting the youth from poverty and empowering them economically.

It is a three-year effort to fast track and address youth unemployment.

"We are planning over 200 events to create awareness on opportunities available for the youth to better their lives, be it with the Government, the private sector or Non-Governmental Organisations," he says. "The biggest problem with the youth is lack of information on opportunities available in various organisations and institutions."

If you thought one needed a bachelors degree to do all this, think again. Onyiero does not hold any.

However, he plans to join Strathmore University next year.

His advice to the youth: "If you aim at anything, sheer determination is all you need. Just keep going if you want to become an entrepreneur. Obstacles are just sideshows."

-maron@standardmedia.co.ke