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Muchiri Wahome spent his childhood as a normal kid, playing soccer, hockey rugby and everything sports, before finding himself undertaking odd jobs in warehouses soon after enrolling at The Nairobi School for his A-levels.
“It was a basic, typical, middle-class growing up, there was no luxury but Dad and Mom were very supportive in my education. During A-levels I would find jobs and work from clerical labor to warehouses making some pocket money, some drinking money really,” he says in an interview.
Wahome is the Chief executive of clothing and household goods retailer, Deacons East Africa.
The confident, croaky-voiced father of two who grew up in Mombasa turned 54 years recently, and says that his quest to prosper led him into taking a great amount of sacrifices and risks when he joined the retailer almost three decades ago.
“I’m not an early riser. So I’ll probably get out of bed at about 6 o’clock, meditate, read a chapter or two of a book that I’ll be reading at the time. Have breakfast, be at work by 7:15am, meet my staff, run a series of meetings and close work at about 6 o’clock, latest 7pm and some days I break up a bit early to go and get a swim,” he narrates.
He was prepared to travel in the wilderness of the unknown and would do anything to succeed in what he says has been his first and only employment.
The father of two started out at Deacons as an Operations Manager, rose to a General Manager position before he was confirmed as the company’s Ceo in 2003.
“Ooh going thirty years, my first and only job. I started on the shop floor, worked through the ladder to become Ceo in 2003. And over the years I have learnt a lot of leadership lessons, people, understanding the business, systems and trying to remain relevant to customers’ demands,” says a graduate in Economics at the University of Nairobi.
Wahome who also has interests in real estate and charity projects back in his village in Othaya Constituency, credits his achievements to strong family ties he’s developed despite his demanding diary. He also reveals his unwillingness to take part in the country’s political spectrum.
“I have invested in various rental property the usual stuff that Kenyans do. You invest to secure your retirement days. But I don’t have political ambitions, I however think there are other leadership roles as a Kenyan I can play. I don’t think I will run for a political seat in my lifetime,” says Wahome.