Beth Wanjiru Muraya. She is the author of the book Dancing to My Own Drumbeat.
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Millionaire granny Beth Wanjiru authors book on investment as she turns 90
Women have a new and powerful voice urging them to develop themselves financially without relying on their husbands, thanks to a recently launched autobiography.
The book, Dancing to My Own Drumbeat by Beth Wanjiru Muraya, a woman who turns 90 this year in a life characterised by twists and turns, will inspire wives to pursue financial freedom through entrepreneurship.
Having served as the Murang’a chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake in the 1980s and also having chaired the Mother’s Union at the Anglican diocese of Mt Kenya South for 26 years up to 2021, Mrs Muraya has been preaching that gospel for decades.
“I tell women not to wait for everything to be given to them. I encourage them to start businesses, even if they are in formal employment. There is nothing as liberating as being able to buy things for yourself. Every woman should at least have a few coins to buy herself a handkerchief,” she writes.
Coming from a woman who once resigned from her day job in 1981 because “I realised I would make much more if I focused fully on my enterprises” as she reveals in the book, the book is a treatise of someone preaching what she practises.
Though she does not explicitly mention her net worth in the book, the investments Mrs Muraya writes about reveal that she is a multi-millionaire who is into real estate, farming, among other ventures.
Among the offshoots of her entrepreneurial mind is a shopping complex in Murang’a town that the family has nicknamed the Lemon Building. She constructed most of it through her own efforts.
Some of her recent investments are a Sh47 million commercial building with 15 shops and 24 rental units and another worth Sh28 million — a four-storey building of eight units. She seeks to construct more that can later be inherited by her six children because “I enjoy it and it keeps me busy”.
“Rather than leaving my children money in the bank, it is better to leave them a building that can be sold,” she writes.
She has been the head of her family since her husband Ayub Muraya died of cancer in 2009. An article in the book by her daughter, Jennifer Gathoni, reveals that she struggled to adapt to life as a widow, having been married since 1950.
In the book, Mrs Muraya also reveals how traditions sometimes stand in the way of women seeking to be financially independent, sharing how her late husband – then an education officer – gave her a beating for having a sizeable amount of money in her bank account.
“In 1968, I was doing well in the farming business. I had saved Sh800 — earnings from milk and beans. But I had a deep desire to have Sh1, 000 all to myself. I opened a bank account at the Post Office where I deposited the money, planning to top it up gradually. The bank teller, a man, was surprised a woman had that much money in her account, so when he saw my husband, he made sure to mention it,” she writes.
“A few days later, Ayub [the husband] asked me to accompany him to Kitale, one of Kenya’s largest maize-producing regions and about 400 kilometres from Nairobi. He had a meeting there. When we reached Maai Mahiu on the old, scenic Nairobi-Naivasha Road with its stunning views of the Rift Valley escarpment, he asked the driver to drop us off and drive a little bit ahead. There were very few buildings in Maai Mahiu at that time. Ayub asked me: ‘Tell me, how much money do you have at the Post Office?’ I told him Sh800. ‘Where did the money come from?’ he asked. ‘I sold beans and saved the money so that when the next season comes, I’ll have money to buy more beans,’ I said. I omitted the part about trying to save Sh1,000. By the side of the road, he beat me, chasing me around the bushes. My lip was swollen but, luckily, I had a scarf that I used to hide the injury, pain and embarrassment,” she writes, adding that the beating left her bitter for days.
The family tussle aside, Mrs Muraya was the deputy mayor for Murang’a from 1983 to 1986 after being elected the councillor for Kiharu ward.
“In the whole of Kenya [in 1983], only three women were elected to local government offices—Margaret Kenyatta as the mayor of Nairobi, one other lady in Embu, and myself in Murang’a,” she writes.
However, her stint in elective politics did not last long as she lost interest when, during the subsequent civic elections, a close challenger demanded a recount of votes and lodged a complaint as the recount went on.
“‘Give Oluoch [the challenger] that seat,’ I decided. With that, I walked away from politics,” she writes.
Dancing to My Own Drumbeat, a 136-page book that Mrs Muraya developed with the help of a ghostwriter, is also a trip down memory lane. The reader is taken back to the days of Mau Mau and also to how the education system was back in the day.
It begins with a shocking revelation that Mrs Muraya was born “twice”. In 1926, a girl who used to bear her name disappeared on a farm. Her mother had placed her under a tree atop a pile of leaves. When the mother looked in that direction to check on the girl, she was nowhere to be seen. She disappeared without a trace. That girl was Mrs Muraya’s elder sister. When she was later born, she got the same name of the girl who disappeared — Beth Wanjiru.
Another dramatic moment is how Mrs Muraya met her husband.
“Ayub Muraya, a young man, was on teaching practice in Kahuhia Girls. He taught maths and had a unique way of starting his lessons. On his way to class from the staffroom, he would ask random mathematics questions, almost shouting. When he stepped into the class, we had to answer. He also gave us many assignments and would single me out to collect them and take them to his house. I was naïve. I wondered why I was the only one asked to take the books to the teachers’ quarters. Gradually, I realised that he had developed a fondness for this pretty girl. One day, he asked me to be his girlfriend,” she writes.
In 1950, she quit school after she got pregnant with Ayub. They later had a secret wedding as the Mau Mau had banned church functions.
Speaking of Mau Mau, she recalls an attack that left her with a scar that she has to date.
“Barely had we settled down as husband and wife when the Mau Mau uprising against colonial rule began,” she writes. “Three weeks after I arrived in Kangema [where Ayub was the school head], the school was attacked by the freedom fighters. They locked the students out, tied up the watchmen and demanded money from us. Since the school fees were collected by the head teacher, they assumed we had money in the house. They beat Ayub and hit me. We screamed but no one came to help. I gave them all the money I had, about Sh300, and they left when they realised we did not have more. I have a scar on my arm, a constant reminder of the attack.”
The book also speaks of the times when protestant parents loathed taking their children to Catholic schools and vice versa.
“In our home, attending a Catholic school would be like scorning my father. He was a protestant, therefore I was to go to a school run by the Church Mission Society [predecessor of the Anglican Church of Kenya],” writes Mrs Muraya.
Prologued by the famous chapter 31 of the book of Proverbs, which speaks about an industrious woman and her achievements, Dancing to My Own Drumbeat comes out as a practical guide on how a woman can succeed despite the whirlwinds of hatred from in-laws, cultural values and venturing into loss-making business.
Speaking of loss-making ventures, Mrs Muraya writes of a school investment that went horribly wrong and caused losses. She also shares the story of a bus she bought – branded Kaza Moyo – which was stolen before it was a year old.
“I always believe that unless you try your hand at something, you will never know whether you can or cannot do it. But that attitude has also led me to a few failures,” she confesses.
Mrs Muraya was born in Kairo, Murang’a County, and she is a “successful businesswoman who actively mentors business startups up to this day”, as the blurb of her book says.
One of her grandchildren, Jesse Muraya, writes in the book: “Cucu is an astute businessperson. You can easily pick this up from a conversation with her. She often inspires me to see entrepreneurial opportunities wherever I am. I have seen her run many ventures in my lifetime — from making and selling school uniforms to rearing chicken and real estate.”
