Today, Samuel Kamau (S.K.) Macharia is one of Kenya’s most influential media moguls, owning Royal Media Services, which houses top TV and radio stations including Citizen TV, Radio Citizen, Hot 96, and Inooro FM, just to name a few.
His journey was not a walk in the park, as he came from a humble background and later faced significant obstacles on the path to his dream. At one point, to further his education, S.K. Macharia had to travel from Kenya to the United States for nine months due to financial difficulties at home. How did this happen?
Times Digital Kenya takes you through S.K. Macharia’s upbringing and how he moved from Kenya to the U.S. to further his education despite financial challenges.
Early Life
Born in 1942 into a squatter family in Murang’a, S.K. Macharia lost his mother when he was only five years old. This marked a difficult childhood, growing up in poverty at such a young age.
In search of greener pastures, his family moved to Arusha, Tanzania. It was here that a young S.K. Macharia spent most of his childhood herding livestock alongside Maasai boys.
When they returned to Kenya, the 1952 state of emergency led to the destruction of his family home, forcing him onto the streets of Thika. After several months living on the streets, Macharia was finally reunited with his family, thanks to the help of a family friend.
Education and trip to the United States
A few years after reuniting with his family, S.K. Macharia began his primary education at Ndakaini Primary and later attended Gituru Intermediate School.
After completing school, he worked briefly as an untrained teacher before enrolling in a two-year course at Kahuhia Teachers Training College, where he qualified as a P3 teacher.
As one of the beneficiaries of the Kennedy Airlifts, which supported Kenyan students to study in Canada and the U.S. in the early 1960s, Macharia did not take any chances. He did everything he could to ensure he joined university despite his family’s financial struggles.
To make ends meet, S.K. Macharia traveled to the United States mostly by road to further his education.
The long journey took an incredible nine months. He first traveled from Kenya to Libya by bus, then took a ship to England. From England, he finally boarded a flight to the United States.
“I went to the U.S. by bus. It took me nine months, with KSh 1,200, and I left my father and three sisters without a piece of land in the village,” Macharia recalled at a past event.
While in the USA, S.K. Macharia pursued several courses, including political science at Seattle Pacific University and accounting at the University of Washington. In 1968, Macharia returned to Kenya, where he worked for the Kenyatta government.
