Muhoho Kenyatta receives a Posthumous Decoration award of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta by the Republic of Angola on behalf of the Kenyatta family, November 9, 2025. /HANDOUT
Brookside Dairy CEO Muhoho Kenyatta has advised Kenyan youth aspiring to become entrepreneurs that a good business idea is only the starting point, with success requiring focus, hard work and patience.
n an interview with Young Millionaire Talks on Sunday, Muhoho said having a promising idea is important but does not, on its own, guarantee success in business.
He urged aspiring entrepreneurs to remain focused on their goals and understand that building a successful venture takes time.
"The one thing that I think everybody needs to remember is that we just have to have an idea, focus and just keep your head down and know that nothing comes overnight; it comes out of hard work and it comes out of doing things over a long period," he said.
Muhoho, the son of Kenya's first President Jomo Kenyatta and younger brother of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, has held senior positions in the country's corporate sector.
An alumnus of St Mary's School, Nairobi, and a Political Science graduate of Williams College in the US, he is the executive chairman of Brookside Dairy Limited.
He was also vice chairperson of Commercial Bank of Africa Group before its merger with NIC Bank and currently sits on the board of NCBA Group Plc Uganda.
Muhoho also oversees most of the Kenyatta family's business interests.
During the interview, he emphasised the importance of building good relationships and surrounding oneself with people who bring positive energy and support one's goals.
"Never be around people who have negative energy or who are trying to distract you from your goals. We have to be able to focus, keep your focus and don't look at people who are going to bring you down," he said.
Find your true calling
Muhoho, however, cautioned against portraying entrepreneurship as the only route for young people seeking to build successful careers.
He said young people should instead identify areas that align with their skills, talents and interests.
Those with strengths in social sciences, he said, should pursue opportunities in those fields just as those talented in engineering should consider careers where their abilities can be optimised.
"Look for your true north," he said, arguing that an individual's inner drive should help shape their choice of career.
"It's not everybody who should wake up and say, 'I have to run a business'. Sometimes we get that wrong and people who should be the biggest engineers developing that great idea give that up to open a small business and they lose a huge opportunity."
For those whose skills and abilities align with entrepreneurship, Muhoho advised them to reinvest their profits rather than treat their businesses as sources of immediate personal wealth.
He said entrepreneurs seeking to scale their ventures should resist the temptation to spend their first profits on expensive lifestyles and instead channel the money back into the business.
"If you want to scale up your business, it's a matter of reinvesting, to look at your business not as a cash cow from day one — the minute you make your first profit you go out to make your first celebration or your first big car — no."
Muhoho said consistent reinvestment was key to achieving substantial business growth, describing the process as the power of compounding.
"Life is about compounding, it's not about running out and buying the next suit or the next car or living in a big house. It's about sitting down and reinvesting your money to grow your business."
In his parting advice, Muhoho urged young people to put God at the centre of their lives and decisions.
"We have to have something that anchors us in life and God is that anchor," he said.
Muhoho has over 30 years' experience in financial modelling and governance in the financial, manufacturing and agricultural sectors both locally and internationally.
He founded Brookside Africa Limited that remains the largest dairy processing group in East and Central Africa with factories in the region located both in Kenya and Uganda, amongst others.
