In a world of superlatives—the biggest, the brightest, the rarest—Eric Kimani chooses a life of asceticism, a hedonist on the pilgrimage to dervishhood. Wealth was wind and he was the wind catcher. Having spent half his life making money, he now dedicates the rest to giving it away, in Rotary, in philanthropy, and in mentorship.
Tall, broad, and erect, Kimani, now 67, is still buoyant and playful, and only one thing seems certain—he had known hard work, and it showed in face and body, with wrinkles sieging the bland smoothness of the face beneath. “60 to 70 is the most productive age group,” he says, “And I have never felt younger.”
It’s hard not to believe him. He still cycles. Can kick a ball hard, but, “Mostly I’ll miss the ball”; does regular stretches here and there, does this and that. But his true luxe tableau of indulgence is sitting on a boat and fishing, thinking about his cenotaph, “I want to be remembered as a good man.”
At his residence in Runda, his true inheritance is what he leaves in you rather than what he leaves for you; Life is abundant, he says, there is enough for everyone. Up in the grey creasing sky, the birds chirp and sing, threatening to swing into points of conversation.
How do you talk about yourself? I describe myself as an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a business leader. On the sidelines, I am a motivational speaker and mentor to young people, but that is part of my philanthropy. The three words that describe me are entrepreneur, business leader, and philanthropist.
What led you specifically to philanthropy? You know, I really don't know. I think I just fell on a good idea and was brought up in a philanthropic family. My mother, who is still alive, is very philanthropic in her lifestyle and her life. Maybe she influenced me. I joined Rotary 36 years ago, and I learned, organised philanthropy and saw how world-class philanthropy works. And from that, I founded the Farmhouse Foundation, which has been very successful as a local philanthropic organisation. I sit in an advisory capacity on the boards of many philanthropic organisations, now and in the past.
Palmhouse Dairies Limited Executive Director Eric Kimani at his home on July 22, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation
After all these years in business, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy, how do you define ambition now? Ambition is identifying something you want to do and doing it to your satisfaction. The problem is that we define ambition like it were something for people who live in places like this [points to his house]. Ambition can happen even to people in the slums; it is really what you desire and getting what you desire. I always quip and tell people I consider myself the richest man in the world because my ambition is maybe that small, and I've achieved my ambition [chuckles].
You say it's that small, but it doesn't look that small…I'm sure to somebody it looks big, to another it looks very small, especially to a lot of people chasing billions. But that's my ambition.
When did you know it was enough? It's not enough, and it's never enough. If you give me Sh100 million today, of course, I would distribute it to a lot of people because that's what I enjoy doing. But it will never be enough, even if I add another zero and another two zeros. If you ask me when I knew or how I know, I think it's just God's blessing. I know that I don't have to wake up chasing the world or cutting corners to make it in life.
Did you have a number in your head that you said if I reach this amount, then I'm good? I did not have a number, and even now, I continue to work very hard. I wake up every day at 5.30am. I've been in this office where you found me for 17 years. I wake up every day to work, and I make money every day; and I touch lives every day in philanthropy. I'm not suggesting that I'm made enough to get into a plane and never work again in all my life. Work is godly. Whether you have money or not, work is work. So you must continue working. So the question of enough is never there. But to realise also that money cannot buy life, it cannot buy much.
Where does your sense of achievement and meaning come from? What I call the abundance paradigm, which is an understanding that there is enough for everybody. We cannot exhaust the world’s resources or the provisions of God in this lifetime. I do not need to put you down for me to be up. I do not need to have more for you to have less. We can all have more and still be enough—for my children, for my great-grandchildren. I do not have to wake up every day to make money for my grandchildren. That's absolute stupidity.
But the Bible says a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children…Precisely. And I've left an inheritance, but the problem is that you define inheritance as money. It's not. What I've planted in my children is much more than any billions I would have left them. An inheritance means giving them the ability and opening that abundance paradigm of life. It's teaching them how to make the money themselves. Teaching them how to be philanthropic themselves, and how to care for other people in the world and the environment.
Did you grow up like that? To a large extent, yes. My parents were Christians. My mother is 90 today, and I think in the last 2-3 years she was still paying school fees for her relatives. She was a primary school teacher, and it's not that she has the money, but she showed us how to do it. But I think I have learned more than I have inherited from my parent. I have gone into the world with my eyes open. And that's what a lot of people don't do. To see the opportunity. Because of what I have just explained to you.
Where did you grow up? I grew up in Githunguri.
What do you remember most about your time in Githunguri? It’s hard to remember. This weekend I attended a funeral of a lady who was a helper in my mother's house as we grew up, and I met the son, who told me he remembers that I caused him to injure his leg chasing him. I am now 67 years old; I can't remember such things [laughs]. What I remember is that in my youth, I was an obedient child. That doesn't mean I wasn't errant haha! I reared rabbits and chickens, and grew tomatoes, which laid the groundwork for my understanding of business.
What do you miss about your childhood? I am a very playful man. If I had the opportunity, I would have time to just go out and play football with you, with other people, with children. I love children. I wish I could live amongst children even today and just play with them every day. I miss enjoying life as a child. You didn't care less. Today I wake up every day with a long list of things to do [chuckles]. I wish we would live like children and just wake up and your parents provide. Children are lucky.
How are you remaining childlike in your life? You'll find me cycling a bicycle. When I was young, I almost died. The biggest accident I've ever had was with a bicycle. I was just going down a hill, and this thing just got out of control, and I injured myself badly at that point. I keep fit and exercise. Exercise is very kiddish, especially for me as I do it by myself, and if someone caught me on camera, they’d be wondering what is wrong with this mzee, haha! You won't find me in the field except when golfing.
Palmhouse Dairies Limited Executive Director Eric Kimani at his home on July 22, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation
What are these exercises you do? I think people call it yoga, but I don't understand yoga. I only do it for fitness. I stretch, you'll find me lying down, or upside down. If I found young people playing football, I'd be tempted to get onto the pitch and play, of course, I’d miss the ball haha!
How do you take care of yourself as a man? I am a very spiritual person, I am a believer, and I believe in spirituality as the foundation of everything, and that helps me to keep the river coming back to the course. Also, I'm a very structured person. I'm driven by almost a formal framework of life. What I want in my life in terms of my mission and vision. So I'm very focused, wealth-focused, philanthropy-focused, and intellectual-focused.
You are a father, husband, a leader, CEO, a Rotarian—but who are you to yourself? Well, besides being what they call a fallen man? [chuckles]. I like rewarding myself by forgiving myself because I make mistakes, and for me, right and wrong are black and white, which in this world is almost impossible to live with that perspective. But recently I've decided that I'll be a bit more rewarding to myself, so I take a day at a time, one day in the week for myself, which is not always possible. And I think that's my greatest failing. I'm a yes man to everybody, so I am trying to deal with that. Saying no, especially to people, is my biggest struggle.
I can imagine. I'm sorry for that. If you're always pouring into others, who fills your cup? I have friends, one or two men, but I can't boast that I have very many friends. Sometimes I almost admire the life of others, who I see have a big group of friends. I have a good neighbour whom we have known each other for years. I have a men's breakfast group that I have been part of for the last 20 years, but I haven't been very good at attending, because I travel too much, although they call me the chairman. I met a childhood friend after so many years, and I felt quite guilty because he was my best friend in the village. But you know life is like that. When you get less busy, you lose. But perhaps as we grow older, it will get better [chuckles].
Leadership is lonely, so is being a man. How do you handle this loneliness? I don't know. I have a very good friend who lives in the same house, my wife. And she's a very good storyteller. I also play golf two to three times a week. So I'm getting out, and I guess my busy life also helps me to escape any boredom.
Are you ever worried about what comes after the busy life starts slowing down? I am not worried. I know I will grow old and die. My part is to do what I can do best today. One, to delay my ageing and make it a little more bearable. I will still hunch at one point. But how will I hunch? The main thing is to make sure that even if I died today, I would have no regrets. I want to die a happy man, but I will stay young for a very long time. I don't think I'm going anywhere soon [chuckles]. I have many grandchildren. And that's my other profession that I enjoy these days, grandparenting. I can't wait to be with the grandchildren. Spend time with them and spoil them a little where I can.
Speaking of, what is the one parenting learning that you are now using on your grandchildren that you could have done better with your children? Young parents go through so much trouble to try to provide excessively and give the best to their children. The best does not matter. It's how well you brought them up, and how responsible they are, and how you created a sense of purpose. I tried to send my children to better schools, but with hindsight, I should have taken them to the school nearest to these premises, because it really didn't matter. But hindsight is wisdom for everybody [chuckles]. I would not push myself so much to compete, to live like the Joneses.
What is the one thing you hope is carried throughout your family, from your children to your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren as well? The sense of abundance. The understanding of the abundant life that frees you completely. Even people in the slums can have an abundant mentality and an abundant life. If they understood that, my life would be sorted. The rest I can give to philanthropy, I can work for philanthropy. I don't have to work for them.
Why would you think most people have the scarcity mentality? The scarcity mentality is ingrained in our everyday lives. We learn it from the very beginning, let me grab because if I don't grab, you will grab. We learn it from our political system—we will elect you as a member of parliament to go and try and get the biggest share of the cake for my people. That is a scarcity paradigm. I wrote a book, which is online, Wisdom for Abundant Living. I keep seeking that wisdom so that I can live abundantly.
What brings you joy now? When I am with my grandchildren, I think it must be reincarnation haha! Maybe because it is the propagation of life. But also when I see people I helped through mentorship or listening to me, and they say I helped them. I am joyous when I see people succeeding. And also my children have all left home successfully.
What did success not fix? I now understand why Solomon said it is ‘meaningless’. Success will never fix the meaninglessness of life. Waking up to do the same things and wondering what's next? Life is transient.
What will people mourn about you when you are gone? Just a good man. And I work every day to protect that epitaph on my grave, that he was a good man.
What’s a good man? A good man is a good man; he cares about other people, everything around him, not about himself. I give my best to everything I do. You give me a responsibility; I will do my best.
What would you say is the most misunderstood thing about you? [chuckles] How much I struggle between right and wrong. They think I find life easy, and they ascribe to me a better person than I am, but I have my failures and lows, because I cut this image that I am satisfied and have figured out the abundant life, but I know that life is meaningless.
What’s a belief you held 10 years ago that no longer rings true? I believed that at this age I would be an older person. I don’t feel it. I have energy, excitement and more zest for life. When I was 40, I thought I would be older as a 50-year-old, but the older I get, the more I find more things to do, which is not what we teach people; we tell them to retire and sit back.
What’s your idea of a great weekend? You want to make me show off [chuckles]. If I had my way, it is to sit in a boat and fish, and have an afternoon in the water. I have a boat so when the weather is good, that is what I do. I like golf, but if you are not careful, it can engulf you. I am a loner, and I don’t mind my own company.
Who do you know that I should know? Haha!I know everybody that needs to be known, and I hope that comes with the humility I intend behind those words. If I needed to see President Ruto for the right reason, I would. There is nobody whom I feel is unreachable. If you want to knock every door, any door, this here is the secret: it cannot be about you, it must be about other people. If you learn to serve mankind, it will open more doors for you than if you were the CEO of the top-most company in this country. Be a good person; that is the key to any door.
