Entrepreneur Who Turned His Childhood Hobby into a Million Dollar Resort

I want to be a neurosurgeon when I grow up. Childhood dreams are a thing of beauty, though part fantasy, and part what could really become reality; they give us a direction at an early age.

The year was 1982 and Julius Kamau, then a college student, dreamt of standing on top of his own beautiful hotel with water fountains and flowers sipping coffee. For the young man from a poor family, the prospects of realising that dream then appeared remote if not misplaced.

He spoke to Simon Ciuri and below is an extract of the interview of a man narrating how he made his dreams come true.

What you need to know about Mr Kamau
Mr Kamau came from a humble background and the desire to rise from poverty inspired him to seek
a different life. Now 59, he can stand among Kenya’s millionaires, but according to his workers, a humble millionaire

About the Journey of his million dollar dream
Mr Kamau started the journey to fulfil his childhood dream in 1998 while living in East London. In January 1998, he asked a Nigerian friend to put his dream into a real picture. He did it and Mr Kamau hanged the picture on the wall. Every morning, he would look at it and say, ‘thank you Lord for giving me a wonderful five-star hotel.

When did he decide to make his beautiful dream a reality?

Rainbow Ruiru Resort

In May of 1998, he mortgaged his house and asked his brother to look for one acre piece of land in Ruiru. He was however disappointed as the land was an abandoned quarry that Ruiru Town Council had earmarked as a dumping site. Little did he know that it is at this quarry where his dream was to be turned into reality.

What did his dream become?
Today, he has the Rainbow Ruiru Resort in Kiambu County to show for his hard work; a resort many of his friends thought was a waste of money and time because of its location.

About the resort
The hotel that took Mr Kamau 15 years to build has a helipad, 130 rooms, 12 fully furnished apartments with Internet, a pent house, a cocktail bar, jacuzzi, gym and a business centre.
It has a 300 bed capacity. Accommodation charges range from Sh4,400 to Sh9,900 per night. At the hotel’s 11 floor which houses the helipad, one can see Kilima Mbogo at a distance and the illusion of the mountain moves closer as one watches it from the rooftop.

What are the future prospects for the Rainbow resort?
The team is working on ways to make own bookings directly in coming years. They want to create a clear contact where tourists visiting Kenya will be flown from the Kenyan airport by their own choppers direct to their hotel, landing at the modern helipad.

Mr Mukundi who manages the hotel is confident that with the new devolved system of government, Rainbow Ruiru Resort’s conference facilities will lure more visitors. He also adds that Thika Superhighway has come as a blessing, with the hotel being a few meters from the main road, the demand for decent yet affordable accommodation is inevitable.

Mr Kamau is one man who turned his dreams into reality. How is your dream holding up?