Dandora Man’s Remarkable Rise from Sleeping with Pigs to Owning 5 Offices Worldwide
- From a slum room where pigs slept under his bed to a CEO’s desk with offices spanning continents, Anthony Wambugu’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary
- Rejected countless times as a budding journalist, he fought through poverty, heartbreak, and doubt
- Today, he stamps passports for the world, proof that no beginning is too humble for a global destiny
Nairobi — In the dusty lanes of Mailisaba, Dandora, where poverty lingered like an uninvited guest, Anthony “Anto” Wambugu once shared a room with pigs.
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Not figuratively; actual pigs had built a nest beneath his bed, their snouts poking out from makeshift bedding as if they, too, were tenants.
Wambugu's humble beginnings
Wambugu told TUKO.co.ke that he was an aspiring journalist back then, armed with a tiny mino camera, smaller than most mobile phones.
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Given that gunshots often punctuated the night, he would rush to the scene on foot, capture shaky footage, and carry it to the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) offices.
"I faced rejection time and again, and I’d walk back to my slum house, pigs still waiting for me, and cry, thinking the world hated me,” he recalls.
The turning point came not through the newsroom, but from his mother starting a tiny kiosk selling sweets and biscuits.
What started small soon expanded into a fully stocked shop. Together, they built stone houses, a step up from the tin-walled shelter that had once let the pigs in.
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Wambugu interned at KBC
Determined to pursue his dream, Wambugu enrolled in a journalism school and soon landed an internship at KBC.
"Some producers could crush your dreams without blinking,” he added, remembering his experience at the national broadcaster.
When all seemed lost, the late Paul Wakaba chose to believe in him and gave him his first paid opportunity in the media world.
From that break, Wambugu discovered that knowledge and the right allies could open doors he never imagined.
Wambugu's turning point
Shortly after, he got a chance to study in Australia, an opportunity that exposed him to the broader world.
While he was searching for an institution of higher learning, he noticed that getting a good university is extremely hard, especially if you are in Africa.
He, therefore, told himself that apart from studying, he would become the bridge between his countrymen and the West.
When he returned to Kenya, he started VisaExpats, a visa application agency that connects Africans to opportunities abroad.
Source: Facebook
Wambugu now has 5 offices
Today, the agency has expanded and boasts five branches across Europe, Nairobi, Nakuru, and a team in Hong Kong.
He has created jobs for over a dozen young people, a far cry from the days when pigs were his only housemates.
Apart from the agency, the shrewd entrepreneur also owns a company which produces steel nails and recently became a homeowner.
From living with pigs under his bed to stamping passports for the mighty, Wambugu believes life is a movie, and he is still the main character.
Proofreading by Jackson Otukho, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
