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Seven things about Hon Steve Mbogo that simply don’t add up


There is a new baller in town. His name is Steve Mbogo. Hon Steve Mbogo. He’s 28 and owns businesses worth Sh13 billion. He has a litany of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and has pledged to bring Africa’s first Formula One to Kenya.

Oh, and in 2017, he is planning to unseat President Uhuru Kenyatta.

So, with everyone wondering who the new kid on the block is, Nairobi News decided to do some digging and came up with more questions than answers. Read on…

1. Bringing first African Grand Prix to Kenya

Pronouncing it “grand pricks” –as opposed to “graan pree (the ‘d’ and ‘x’ are silent)”- in front of the CEO would have easily ended the meeting abruptly.

But even if the CEO was gracious enough to give Steve audience, any F1 fan worth his salt would surely know that the event has been held in Africa before –in South Africa.

For starters, the first South African F1 race was held on 29 December 1962. But after the end of apartheid in 1991, two other races were held in 1992 and 1993 before it was discontinued.

But there is hope. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone confirmed in January he was “in the middle of trying to do something in South Africa”.

“I’ve been looking to going back to South Africa for a long time,” he said, “and now we have a good chance. They’re getting on with it.” He did not mention Kenya.

Hon Steve Mbogo. PHOTO | COURTESY
Hon Steve Mbogo. PHOTO | COURTESY

2. Steve Mbogo hires Sh40M Yacht for Trey Songz and Big Sean 

It was widely reported last week that he shelled out Sh40 million to hire a yacht for the two high-flying American musicians in Abu Dhabi.

There was an invoice dated November 29 on his Instagram page but nowhere did he mention the two.

There were also no pictures of Steve hanging out with Trey or Sean. Would that be too much to ask for a sponsor?

3. Spending Sh10 million on his 28th birthday in early November

The bash was lavish and all, but Sh10 million? Well…

4. During the bash, 20 champagne bottles were lifted for a toast and Sh1,000 notes blew in the air like dust, littering the floor and no one was interested to collect it.

Ok.

5. That ‘Hon’ title…

How and when did he earn it?

6. Owns a diversified conglomerate with approximately Sh13 billion, launched from scratch. At 28!

On his website, Steve claims to own twelve 4-star hotels in Kenya, 32 apartment blocks in Nairobi, two insurance companies in Uganda, six night clubs spread in Nakuru, Kisumu and Nairobi, and a flight training academy in Wilson Airport, Nairobi.

He jointly owns and manages two law firms and three stock brokerage companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Wow!

7. Ranked the richest man under 30 in East Africa by Forbes in 2014

We could not locate the aforementioned list for 2014 –just the 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa 2014 and we could not find Steve’s name.