Gerishon Kirima

Gerishon Kamau Kirima was a major Kenyan real estate investor and a former Member of Parliament.

Early life Kirima was born in Kiruri village, a tea-growing area of Murang’a County on the slopes of the Aberdares. He dropped out of school at an early age.

Business Kirima relocated from his village to the Kinangop Plateau where he started a carpentry business. In the early 1960s after Kenya had attained independence, he moved to Nairobi and registered his business Kirima and Sons Ltd.

By 1967, and to the surprise of the better educated African civil servants, Kirima had saved enough money to buy 500 acres of land in Nairobi from an Italian Donenico Masi, which the De Masi family have contested claiming that Kirima grabbed the land since he does not have the title deed. In the same year, Kirima bought two more farms in Nairobi - 108 acres from Charles Case and 472 acres from Percy Randall. With these acquisitions, Kirima had positioned himself to be a major meat supplier for Nairobi.

As chairman of the African Butchers Association (later the Kenya National Butchers Union), he successfully lobbied the government for permission to sell meat in the city, a privilege that was hitherto reserved for the still settler-controlled Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) which did not buy meat from African farmers. In 1989, Starehe Constituency Member of Parliament Kiruhi Kimondo was dismissed by his party KANU in 1989. By-elections were held the same year. Kirima contested the seat on a KANU ticket and won. He remained in office until the 1992 General Elections when he lost the seat to his predecessor Kimondo.

Personal life Kirima had 3 wives, He is estimated to have had 12 children

Death Diabetic and partially blind, Gerishon Kirima died on 28 December 2010 while undergoing treatment in South Africa. He was 80 years old.