| Samuel Kamau Macharia. | |
| Birth Place: | Kenya |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Nationality: | Kenyan |
| Citizenship: | Kenya |
| Known For: | Founder and chair of Royal Media Services |
Samuel Kamau Macharia (born 1942), also known as S. K. Macharia, is the Kenyan founder and chair of Royal Media Services, one of Kenya's largest private radio and television networks. Royal Media Services' flagship outlets are Citizen TV and Radio Citizen. In 2012, Macharia was on Forbes Top 10 List of African Millionaires to Watch.[1] He was on Africa Report's 2013 list of the 50 most influential Africans.[2] And was honoured with the 2015 Eastern Africa Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award.[3] [4]
Macharia was born in 1942 in Ndakaini, a small village in Murang'a County.[5] He is the second child and only son of his parents' four children, who were squatters in Subukia working on British settler plantations under the colonial government. After his mother died when he was five years old, the family moved to Arusha in Tanzania. As a young boy, Macharia spent time with young Maasai herders, traversing long distances with them in search of pastures.
Education
In 1954, Macharia was enrolled in Standard 1 at Ndakaini Primary School. He later went to Gituru Intermediate School in 1958, where he took the Kenya African Preliminary Examination (KAPE). Macharia spent a year as a primary school teacher at Makomboki Primary School, before enrolling at Kahuhia Teachers Training College. After completing a two-year term in 1961, he became a qualified trained teacher at Gituru Primary School.
Macharia applied for and was accepted to The Kennedy Airlift in 1962. Because his family could not raise the 4,000 shillings needed for the plane ticket to the United States, it is claimed he travelled nearly two months by road from Kenya to Benghazi, Libya. Where he travelled by ship to England to take a flight to the U.S.[6]
Two years later, Macharia enrolled in Seattle Technical College to complete his high school education. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Seattle Pacific University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Washington. Macharia also obtained a Master of Science degree in Accounting/Finance, a Master of Arts degree in Accounting and was certified as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
After his return to Kenya in 1969, Macharia worked as a provincial local government finance officer (supernumerary) in the Ministry of Local Government. He then worked with the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC), as well as Kenya Industrial Estates (KIE). In 1973, Macharia was appointed as head of a task force charged with auditing and later liquidating the Agricultural Development Corporation.
In 1979, Macharia left public service to run Madhupaper International Kenya Limited, a tissue production company he started three years earlier. By 1985, Madhupaper's was the only Kenyan tissue manufacturer and had 300 employees. Its main product, Rosy, became a household name. The company placed under receivership on 25 October 1985 by Kenya Commercial Bank.[7] [8]
As of 2016, the international research firm Ipsos cites Citizen TV as having a 62.5% share of the Kenyan television market.[9] Royal Media Services radio stations have a combined audience of 80% of the Kenya's population. Its main radio station, Radio Citizen, has a 43% market share.[5] Other brands in the Royal Media Services stable include Inooro TV, Ramogi FM, Inooro FM, Musyi FM, Chamgei FM, Muuga FM, Egesa FM, Bahari FM, Mulembe FM, Wimwaro FM, Sulwe FM, Hot 96, and Vuuka FM.[10]
Macharia is married to Purity Gathoni Macharia and the couple has six children (two girls and four boys). Gathoni is the sister of former Kenyan Cabinet Minister Njeru Githae and Syracuse University Professor Micere Githae Mugo.[11]