There is a common story among Kenyan diaspora about how they sent thousands of dollars to relatives back home to help them build a house.
While they might have been receiving photos showing great progress, on their return, some of these Kenyans faint upon seeing how different things on the ground are.
Either the house doesn’t exist at all, or the quality of work doesn’t measure up to their hard-earned foreign currency.
A young real estate professional saw this gap and did something about it.
Kenneth Kinyanjui Komu has worked variously in the real estate business, covering construction, estate agency, valuation reporting and property management.
He is also seasoned in selling Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions across Africa, which thrust him into international business in the technology space on the continent and in Europe.
Kenneth grew up in a family that eats, breathes and lives construction: The father is a seasoned contractor, his mother runs a wholesale shop for construction material, while his elder brother is quantity surveyor.
He recalls that soon after his graduation from the University of Nairobi aged 22, he implored on his father to employ him at his construction company, Goodway General Contractors. He declined.
Instead, the father urged him to seek employment elsewhere and learn more from the outside world.
It is at that moment that Kenneth swore that by age 30, he would be an entrepreneur and a businessman. To be that, he had a lot to learn and within a short time.
In an interview with DiploBrief for its Diaspora Segment, Kenneth shared that his company, Guri Build, was conceptualised in 2017.
Guri means house or a home in the Somali language.
“I was playing around with data on real estate, fresh out of campus and I remember stumbling into this diaspora remittances flow and how much went to real estate.
“I wrote to Jamshed Abubakar of CBK, who was incharge of investments, on how we can increase diaspora remittance and offer real estate services of value to diaspora,” Kenneth says.
In the communication, Kenneth noted that while there was huge potential for investment in the real estate sector by the Kenyan diaspora as well as local investors.
Unfortunately, there was a lack of a check off system by the government; which allowed conmen to swindle off Kenyans their hard-earned money, creating fears of investing back home.
GETTING STARTED
At the onset of Covid-19 in 2020, Kenneth says he read How We Got To Now by Steven Johnson, which introduced to him the concept of “adjacent possible”.
“This means that at any point in history, there were ideas that were possible then were not possible before because of changing societal norms, culture, technology and many other factors,” he says.
The “adjacent possible” is the premise upon which following Covid-19, Guri Build became a possibility, he says.
“It taught many businesses how to deliver on output required by consumers remotely. The remote working concept birthed Jenga Gichagi, which was Guri’s initial name. A rallying call to Kenyans to build back home.
“We later morphed to Guri Technologies and today we are Guri Build. The journey has not been without its fair share of lessons learnt. However, our north star remains building Africa for Africans,” he says.
In 2023, remittance inflows from Kenyans living abroad reached a record high of $4.2 billion, marking a 4.0 per cent increase from the previous year’s $4 billion, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya.
However, many of these Kenyans have been swindled of their hard-earned cash many times to a point they lack incentive to invest back home, opting to invest where they are.
“The new generation of Kenyans in the diaspora lack the attachment to invest back home since they were either born away from Kenya, have had their parents conned out of their money or lack the incentive.
With this realization, Kenneth had a clear idea of what he needed to do and how to go about it.
He wanted to offer a clear demystified construction process to people who didn’t understand construction but would like to build, as well as making the dream of Kenyans in the diaspora of owning a home back home a reality.
SERVICES OFFERED
In doing this, Kenneth says at Guri Build, among other interventions, they do verification of land and advise clients on whether to invest on the parcel or not and vet construction professionals by checking their certification and registration status.
Part of this evaluation involves visiting projects undertaken by these professionals to establish the quality of their work from testimonials and engagements they have handled.
“We in turn list these professionals in our marketplace and introduce them as a consortium (architect, quantity surveyors, electrical, mechanical and structural engineers ) to diaspora clients to help them conceptualize and design their dream investments,” he explains.
They also guide clients through the design stage to a point where they can achieve a balance of budget, usability of the building and actual cost of construction and finally get into agreements with clients, the contractor and Guri Build to manage the entire construction.
All this whilst helping clients in financial planning and safeguarding their funds through construction mortgage financing techniques of paying the contractor based on milestones achieved.
During our existence, we have been able to do more than seven projects and take on bigger and larger investments as we grow the trust and portfolio of our work serving the diaspora.
Kenneth Kinyanjui Komu
Additionally, after the handover of the project, they manage it for six months during the contractor liability period.
“We make sure everyone involved in construction is happy and their interests are covered from all angles,” he says.
KEY INCENTIVE FOR THE DIASPORA
Other than misappropriation of funds sent home for a home ownership, Kenneth says he saw a gap for an end-to-end solution for customised houses.
He also noted that those in diaspora did not have access to vetted and registered professionals due to distance, and that lack of trust in family meant saving the money abroad and opting to either invest there or home upon their retirement. Basically deferring investment opportunities.
“The lack of understanding of construction led to substandard construction projects. The diaspora either bought a ticket and took leave from work to engage in construction investments back home or entrusted unscrupulous professionals who did little to no work,” he says.
Asked how the business is fairing, Kenneth says the progress has been impressive, and that he has just left his 8-5 job from a diplomatic mission in Nairobi to fully concentrate on Guri Build.
“During our existence, we have been able to do more than seven projects and take on bigger and larger investments as we grow the trust and portfolio of our work serving the diaspora, ” he says.
One of the projects he is proud of is one in which they built a house for a couple that lives in Arizona, the US.
In their testimonial, Diana and Charles say Guri Build helped them construct their home from Arizona virtually and stress-free.
“Our involvement was appreciated in that we chose the finishes and were able to get what we dreamed of,” the young couple says.
MANAGING COSTS
Among the key challenges among potential homeowners is telling how much and what it would take to achieve the dream house.
To solve this conundrum, Guri Build connects diasporians to the right professionals, request for their budgets and help them have realistic expectations on cost of construction vis a vis the budget.
“We in turn help them with financial planning on the breakdown of costs that are related to works to be carried out over a period of time.
“It’s a very meticulous process our clients have come to appreciate, which we call financial planning of being able to combine budget and cost of project, then program of works and cash flow projections of the project over its lifetime,”” Kenneth explains.
His advice to potential homeowners working abroad is to have proper planning, realistic expectations and engage professionals right from conceptualization to design of the project to give you actual costs of construction all the way to project management.
Future plans for GURI Build?
“We are quite keen on incorporating technology in all our processes and hope to bring in more and more technology for our clients to get value for money.
We are looking at virtual reality, where the diaspora clients can design and walk through their dream investments even before construction starts thus enabling them to spot changes and have a feel of their dream far away yet so near,” he says.
They also imagine a borderless Africa, where a diasporian from Kenya can invest in Ghana through real estate construction.
“At the moment, it’s all about putting our heads down and building the Africa we twant to have our children live in”.
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