MaurineTheuri
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2022 presidential aspirant Jimmy Wanjigi has dismissed claims that acquired his massive wealth illegally.
Wanjigi, who is estimated to be worth billions of shillings, said he started building his empire with garbage collection business while in college.
The businessman-turned-politician indicated that he was the pioneer of private garbage collection business in the country during the late president Moi’s administration.
“My first business was garbage collection. I pioneered private garbage collection in this country. There was a time during the Moi administration that garbage in this city when we had a city commission headed by Fred Gumo, was a nightmare. Everywhere you went, garbage was not being collected.”
“And the by-laws said that garbage must be collected by the city once it’s put in the receptacle. I got permission, after a lot of lobbying to assist…a complimentary service…that I would provide plastic bags which I would not put in the receptacle. I needed permission to dump the garbage on the Dandora site. I began that business without a penny,” Wanjigi said during an interview on Citizen TV.
He explained that he approached a ‘Mzungu’ friend from his high school days to help him source funds to buy a pick-up for the garbage collection business.
By the end of the first year, the two had managed to buy two other trucks for the business, which he sold later and ventured into other business activities that helped him accumulate his billions. He admitted that he secured lucrative government contracts in Kenya and abroad.
“Government projects inside and outside Kenya. I’m an agent of various companies, and development projects are the biggest projects in Africa, even in Kenya. The government today is 70% of the economy of this country, who would not want to do business or have an inclination to touching business with the government? If you’re a businessman, you would.”