When his father died and life dealt him new cards as the eldest son and successor to the throne, he made a strategic move. He learned the game under the stewardship of Michael Karanja, his father’s then business partner, who became his mentor and boss.
When he was man enough to dine with the elders, Mr Karanja again pulled up a chair at the table, and that’s how Mucai Kunyiha became Group Chief Executive Officer of Kzanaka, a Kenyan family-owned investment company with interests spanning manufacturing, agriculture, hospitality, real estate, and business services.
Getting there meant pit stops as general manager, managing director, and CEO. It took him 28 years to become a success. “Success is a journey, not a destination,” he says.
In July this year, he was elected the President of the Comesa Business Council, representing businesses across the 21 member states.
If there’s one thing Mucai, a trained lawyer, believes, it’s that you have to make the most of the cards you’re dealt.
“People waste energy wishing they had different parents, or went to different schools, or had better circumstances,” he says. “You have to make every day choices to get anywhere.”
“On my WhatsApp status, I have memento mori. Memento mori means “remember your death.” Monks used to keep a real skull in their room to remember mortality and not take themselves too seriously. If you realise you are here for a time, you put in your best effort and remain humble. I am thinking of putting a tattoo of the three transcendentals as proposed by the philosopher Plato: the good, the true, and the beautiful.”
You don’t meet a lawyer who runs the agricultural space every day. Was this by design or did you stumble into it?
It was by chance [chuckles]. I studied law partly because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Somebody convinced my dad that law is a good general degree to start with. I explored it before I joined campus, studied it, then joined the bar after my pupillage.
During pupillage, the work wasn’t what I expected. What interested me was creativity. In law, your client brings you their problem statement—whether litigation or commercial—and you solve it. You can apply some creativity, but you can’t create a problem. It is quite limiting.
So I left shortly after qualifying as an advocate and joined the family business. I started by helping my mum run a detergent distribution business, then we opened an office cleaning business.
Unfortunately, two years later, my dad died. His background was in agricultural economics, and he ran an agricultural business with his partners. So I joined the business in 1999 and worked my way up the ranks to become General Manager, Managing Director, CEO, and Chairman of CKL Africa. I have been here for about 28 years now.
What was it like when your dad passed away, and what did you learn about the business while watching him at the helm?
Unfortunately, I only watched him for just two or three years, though he had been in business for about 20 years. As a student, you only see a little bit of what goes on in business. But we learned core values of running a corporate business. When they bought this business, they established a board on the first day. This is still a family business, though.
Dad was keen about paying debts. After he died, we only had one court case regarding this building, but he had no personal debts. His partner, Edward Karanja, has been like a father to me. He became Chairman and guided me through, teaching me how to run a business as clean as possible, how to be strategic, work with people, grow people, and maintain good financial management and transparency.
Do you remember the first time you stood in that office with your dad gone?
Discombobulating [chuckles]. I was very young; this was about 27 or 30 years ago. Being the firstborn son, I also had to take care of the family. What drove me was a conversation I once overheard while driving my dad and his friends. They were talking about a mutual friend who had died earlier and how his family wasted everything they inherited. I resolved not to be like that.
One of my core values, which I have embedded in CKL, is stewardship: taking care of things not just for ourselves, but for future generations. We support farmers who depend on us for quality products to sustain their yields and incomes for their families. We also look after our staff and the environment. Stewardship also extends to political and economic ecosystems.
Are there questions you never thought—or dared—to ask your father, whose answers you still find yourself searching for?
Many. Like advice on bringing up sons, or how to handle stress. I wish he were here to give me tips. And when I achieve success, like seeing my sons graduate from university, I wish he were here to witness it.
Did you feel that being the eldest son invited a different version of fatherhood?
My sister was the firstborn in the family of four children, but as the eldest son, I had a heightened sense of responsibility. Even before he died, I knew where the businesses and bank accounts were, and how things ran. So when conmen tried to approach us claiming my dad owed them money, I had the real picture [chuckles].
What do you hope your sons understand about being a man based on what you observed from your father?
Learning and growing. My dad was about my age when he died. When you are younger, you assume you know everything, but the key is staying open to learning.
One of my core values is seeking and cultivating wisdom. Wisdom is out there; it is about whether you can seek and hear it. That’s what it means to be a man. A major issue today is toxic masculinity—the overconfidence of “I know, and I can conquer.” The best position is instead: “I want to explore, learn, and grow.”
The second lesson is living a life of service. My WhatsApp status is “memento mori”. Memento mori means “remember your death.” Monks used to keep a real skull in their room to remember mortality and not take themselves too seriously. If you realise you are here for a time, you put in your best effort and remain humble. I am thinking of getting a tattoo of the three transcendentals: the good, the true, and the beautiful.
You’ve spoken about (Edward) Karanja mentoring you. Is there an unspoken expectation in family businesses that one child must eventually take over?
Succession is one of the biggest challenges. Fortunately, our business involves two families, so there is a wider pool of potential successors. It doesn’t have to be my sons running the business. We raised them to pursue their dreams and ambitions.
The other day my son asked us what he was going to be, because his Asian classmates were told by their parents that they would be doctors or businessmen. But we told him, “You will decide.” They are young graduates finding their way in the world. Furthermore, in a family business, not everyone has to run the day-to-day business. My siblings and other family members provide important oversight as board members.
CKL Africa Limited Group CEO Mucai Kunyiha during an interview at Mashiara Park in Nairobi on September 24, 2026. Bonface Bogita, Nation
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media
What advice do you have for “dadpreneurs”?
Building a business takes time. While a few lucky people make breakthroughs quickly, long-term business success relies on consistency, discipline, and financial management over time.
You need to build ecosystems: suppliers who trust you, employees who build with you, and customers who rely on you. Look at institutions like Equity Bank, which started in the 1980s. Success requires repeating the same basics consistently. Discipline also means understanding cash flow and distinguishing between your money, suppliers’ money, staff money, capital, and bank loans. Unmanaged debts build up and can cripple you over time.
Have you ever lost everything and had to rebuild?
What beliefs about money have shaped the way you manage it?
The goal is to create and deliver value, not just accumulate cash. Real value is: what am I exchanging or giving that is fruitful? Like planting a tree that continuously bears fruit rather than just stealing the apple.
Money can also corrupt. From a biblical perspective, you cannot worship money, or rather, you cannot serve God and mammon. Money is transient and fungible; memento mori applies here too. It passes through your hands, so use it wisely for future generations.
Be careful about greed and understand what “enough” is. Operate from a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. You don’t have to squeeze every customer or supplier to death today, because another customer will walk through the door tomorrow. I believe in fair value and sharing wealth—suppliers and contractors need to make a profit too.
Now that you are in your 50s, what hard-won wisdom has replaced the assumptions you held in your 20s and 30s?
When you are young, things seem black and white, good and evil. As you grow older, you realise people’s choices are influenced by their upbringing, resources, trauma, or circumstances. You become more forgiving, empathetic, and understanding, while remaining hopeful that people and situations can change for the better.
Second, you learn patience. When we were younger, any issue caused immediate anxiety. I remember when Mwai Kibaki was president, people criticised him for being slow to act. But with time, you realise the wisdom of waiting things out, observing, and seeking deeper root causes before acting.
As you’ve gotten older, what have you become less tolerant of?
I am very tolerant; kwani, what have you heard? [chuckles]. That’s a good question. I am less tolerant of other people’s expectations and rigid social norms. When I was younger, I worried about what people were saying and doing and tried to match it. Now that doesn’t bother me. For instance, at our wedding, my wife and I decided against formal speeches. So we had none [chuckles]. To this day, I get really bored at functions or funerals that take too long.
Has marriage been good for the business?
Absolutely. I have been married for 29 years to my wife, Nancy. I got married at 24, and that brought stability, wisdom, partnership, and someone to walk through life with.
What does Nancy worry about that you don’t?
Haha! As a clinician, she worries about her clinic and practice. Early on, she had difficulty distinguishing our immediate family dynamic from the broader business and extended family. But over time, we’ve built a solid family structure with my siblings and their spouses, ensuring we maintain healthy relationships.
What advice did you receive when you were young that has been good for your marriage?
There is a book called Intimate Allies [by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman] which offered a great principle on problem-solving: separate the problem from the individual. Instead of saying “you are the problem,” frame it as “we are a team facing this issue together.” Whether it is health, finances, or our children’s future, committing to a shared partnership allows you to tackle life’s challenges side by side.
Which decade of your life challenged you the most?
The 30s had stability, young children, and growing careers. The 40s focused on business leadership and understanding people. The 50s bring challenges around succession, caring for ageing parents, guiding adult children, and reflecting on legacy with a shorter runway ahead.
What is the toughest decision you have had to make?
Over the last three years, we faced a major battle fighting off land grabbers. That was extremely difficult because it thrust us into a completely different realm compared to standard corporate governance work with KAM (Kenya Association of Manufacturers) or KPDA (Kenya Property Developers Association).
What mistake do people make when trying to build a meaningful life and a successful business?
Life is about playing the cards you have. People waste energy wishing they had different parents, or went to different schools, or had better circumstances. Much of life involves chance, and unexpected events happen. Sometimes your number is up, and it is not up to you, but you have to play your cards. Sometimes you assume you need a long life to be impactful, but some people have short, impactful lives. Meaningful living is all about accepting your circumstances and playing your cards as well as you can within your limits.
What has success not fixed? My back?
My back? Haha! My mum gave me a plaque when I became General Manager that says, “Success is a journey, not a destination.” Success does not eliminate daily challenges or the need for daily discipline, ethics, and living right. You have to make every day choices to get anywhere. The true measure of success is simply having lived each day fully, as one of my favourite songs by OneRepublic says, I Lived.
What does your exit ramp look like? Why, where am I going?
[chuckles]. Regarding the business, succession planning is active work over the next decade. Beyond business, I am deeply interested in exploring societal beliefs and values because I am seeking wisdom in theology, sociology, and anthropology. I think they hold answers to the problems holding African societies back.
For instance, Kenya is a religious nation, yet corruption is pervasive. We don’t live like we fear God, because if you think about it, how you live is what you actually believe.
Corruption spans across society, businesses, and churches because of a breakdown in stewardship, honour, and accountability. Society has shifted toward individualistic consumerism of “me, myself, and I”, rather than building a national vision or stewarding resources for future generations. We have forgotten we are here temporarily, and life is ultimately about community, relationships, and the impact we leave behind.
Finally, what do you do simply for the fun?
I used to enjoy gaming and watching movies, and I also try to exercise. Now what I truly enjoy is sitting around with close friends, sharing a good meal, and shooting the breeze.
