Debt -Business mogul Chris Kirubi once pardoned a struggling Pastor Julian Kyula sh 40 million debt. Details have emerged.
The pastor-cum-founder of Nairobi based global financial technology firm which he named Mobile Decissioning MODE, told Cleaning the Airwaves CTA Channel how when he relocated to Kenya from the USA in 2005, and started new businesses which just like in the US, never saw the light of day.
He divulged starting a financial risk and debt management company when he came to Kenya, what was another tall order especially with the Kenyan market which he was new to.
“When I started I realized that starting in the Kenyan market is very difficult, especially when it comes to capital and equity,” he said.
In 2007 when he was about to break the ice through a lucrative deal with South African Group, Kenya went to elections violence interrupting the whole merger plans.
He had taken two floors at Chris Kirubi’s International House Building which would cost him sh 2.5 million every month. He was sure of paying this rent because he had ‘well loaded’ foreign partners. They had even set up a call center ready to bring on board American clients.
“But once Kenya went into war, they freaked out and said that they’d hold on for six months for Kenya to cool down,” said Julian.
To make this worse, the Post-Election Violence spilled into 2008 as the world faced an economic recession as paying office bills became a big challenge. Clients, on the other hand, also took off as his once promising business empire quickly crumbled down.
“All hell broke loose. The shareholders I had managed to bring on board started asking how I got to that point. Employees started threatening to take me to court because I wasn’t paying them. It was stressful,” he said.
Upto that time, he was owing different persons sh 100 million and among them was Nairobi business man Chris Kirubi who he owed sh 40 million.
“I went to Kirubi and told him what happened and how my merger deal had flopped. I told him that I couldn’t find money to pay him Sh. 40 million. By God’s grace, I think he looked at me like a son. As if he saw his younger self in me. He cut the debt to Sh. 20 million. I told him I couldn’t afford it. He cut it further to Sh. 10 million and finally to Sh. 1.2 million!” Julian recounted.
This was a sigh of relief to him because his entire debt would suddenly fall from a whopping sh 100 million to only sh 60 million.
He had to trade his stake same to his shareholders so that to settle some bills as the business struggled on with the Kenyan market until that big business break when things started to pick up exponentially.
Kyula is founder and Senior Pastor at the Purpose Centre Church headquartered in Nairobi.
