Sabina Joy owner built empire, lived like pauper

The tycoon was a free spirit who believed in living life to its fullest. He married four wives, sired 23 children and more than 300 grandchildren and 100 great-grandchildren.

Kanyuira ate anything and enjoyed his drink, but had a phobia for driving because he believed car could kill him early.

The owner of the notorious commercial sex den, Sabina Joy, in Nairobi said in media interviews that he did not take seriously guidelines given by doctors on diet or alcohol.

“Never be limited by bad advice on how to live your lives. Eat whatever your body is craving and drink anything that your throat demands,” he would say.

It is a common medical advice for older people to go slow on red meat and booze to avoid lifestyle illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

“When other people are avoiding meat, I eat plenty of it. I take traditional brew, sometimes even bottled beer and above all, I love my snuff. No doctor will tell you to live like that but, see, I’m over 100 years old,” he said in a 2014 interview.

Kanyuira was the owner of a sprawling business empire, despite being illiterate.

And with all the money, he lived a conservative life. He had property and businesses in Nairobi, Thika, and Murang'a.

“I deliberately refused to learn how to drive a car since I feared how those machines violently kill people,” he said.

A media report in July 2020 that erroneously announced his death shook him.

People who knew him, including regular patrons at his Alfa Hotel in Nairobi, describe a man who lived like a rural dweller and was too frugal to be viewed as a successful.

“Sometimes I would see him at the hotel here and if you were new, you would not believe if you were told he was the owner. He wore clothes and a he did not frequently change his coat. It was easy to look down upon him or dismiss him,” Karuga Mbatu told this writer.

James Mburu, who frequents Sabina Joy, Kanyuira was not keen on spending his money but treated his body to every delicacy. 

When Kanyuira's body was interred at his Murang'a home on Saturday, June 22, it was a return to his village that he and others left in the early 1930s for the big city to look for money.