Samuel Kamau Macharia

Samuel Kamau Macharia (born 1942), also known as S. K. Macharia, is a Kenyan, founder and chair of Royal Media Services, one of the largest private radio and television networks in Kenya.

The flagship outlets of Royal Media Services are Citizen TV and Radio Citizen.

Macharia was born in Ndakaini Village, Murang'a County in 1942.

He had three sisters and was the second born.

His parents were squatters in Subukia where they worked on British settler plantations under the colonial government.

Macharia's mother died when he was five years old.

The family moved to Arusha in Tanzania.

As a young boy, Macharia kept the company of other young Maasai herders and would traverse long distances with them in search of pastures.

Education

Macharia enrolled in Standard 1 at Ndakaini Primary School in 1954.

He was later enrolled in Gituru Intermediate School, where he took the Kenya African Preliminary Examination (KAPE) in 1958.

He spent a year as a primary school teacher at Makomboki Primary School before enrolling at Kahuhia Teachers Training College.

After completing a two-year term at the college, he qualified as a trained teacher, and was transferred to Gituru Primary School in 1961.

He applied for the Kennedy Airlifts and was accepted in the 1962 group.

It is claimed that his family could not raise the 4,000 shillings required for the plane ticket to the United States.

It is said that he had to travel for nearly two months by road from Kenya to Benghazi, Libya, where he took a ship to England and then a flight to the USA.

On arrival, he enrolled in Seattle Technical College and completed his high school education two years later.

Macharia earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Seattle Pacific University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Washington.

He attained a Master of Science degree in Accounting/Finance, a Master of Arts degree in Accounting and was certified as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Macharia returned to Kenya in 1969 and was employed as a Provincial Local Government Finance Officer (Supernumerary) in the Ministry of Local Government.

He worked with the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) as well as Kenya Industrial Estates (KIE).

In 1973, he was appointed as head of a task force that was charged with auditing and eventually liquidating the Agricultural Development Corporation.

In 1979, Macharia left the Public Service to run Madhupaper International Kenya Limited, a tissue production company he had started three years earlier.

By 1985, Madhupaper had 300 employees and its main product Rosy was becoming a household brand.

Madhupaper was the only tissue manufacturer in Kenya at the time.

On 25 October 1985, Kenya Commercial Bank placed Madhupaper under receivership.

In 2012, Macharia was on the top-10 list in Forbes magazine of African millionaires to watch.

Macharia was on the 2013 Africa Report of the 50 most influential Africans.

He was honoured with the 2015 Eastern Africa Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award.

According to international research firm Ipsos, Citizen TV has a 62.5% share of the Kenyan television market as of 2016.

Royal Media Services radio stations have a combined audience of 80% of Kenya's population (the main radio station Radio Citizen has a 43% market share).

Other brands in the Royal Media Services stable include Inooro TV, Ramogi FM, Inooro FM, Musyi FM, Chamgei FM, Muuga FM, Egesa FM, Bahari FM, Mulembe FM, Wimwaro FM, Sulwe FM, Hot 96 and Vuuka FM.

Macharia is married to Purity Gathoni Macharia and Purity have six children (two girls and four boys).

Gathoni is a sister to former Kenyan Cabinet Minister Njeru Githae and Syracuse a University professor Micere Githae Mugo.