Mombasa Governor Joho: How I Made Sh6.6 Million at the Age of 20

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has divulged how he became a millionaire at the age of 20.

Speaking during an interview with Comedian Daniel Ndambuki, alias Churchill, Joho said he was raised by a single mother in a small house in Mombasa’s Majengo slums.

His mum, who separated with his father when he was still young, used to sell tomatoes and vegetables to make ends meet. At some point, Joho was forced to live with his maternal grandmother, aunt, and cousins.

It is while living with his grandmother that he turned into a business-minded person.

"My late grandmother used to make vitumbua (coconut rice doughnuts) every afternoon. So she prepares it through the night and actually make it at around 3 pm. I would help hawk them and that's where I became a really good salesperson," he recalled.

While in high school, he would go to the old Mombasa port to load and offload scrap metals from trucks from which he would earn something.

"It was a really menial job and I looked like a gym fanatic but it was because of the hard labor carrying those loads. It was here that I learned how to import and clear and the documents you needed to have," he said.

He later became a sales agent for Somalis fleeing their country due to civil war, which helped him earn some good cash.

"Somalia at the time was just getting into a war so many people came through the sea and they would import things they left through the port. My brother connected me with these people and I convinced them to become their sales agent. My biggest cheque was Sh6.6 million at the age of twenty years," Joho stated.

Further to this, Joho recalled working as a show promoter when the Redykyulass comedy show debuted in Mombasa.

During the interview, Churchill, who was part of the Redykyulass team at the time, remembered how Joho drove them around the coastal city as a crew driver.

Today, Joho, 44, is one of the wealthiest and most powerful political leaders in the country.