Eugene Mbugua is a Kenyan content creator, writer, film producer, director and entrepreneur. He is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director at Young Rich Television Ltd.
At just 30, Mbugua has made a name for himself as one of the wealthiest Kenyans under the age of 40, thanks to his interests in entertainment, real estate, beef farming, advertising and publishing, as well as television.
He made a mark in the Kenyan film industry after one of his productions was aired on national television when he was just 22 years of age.
Background & Education
Mbugua was born in November 1990.
The 30 year old attended Upper Hill School in Nairobi between 2005 and 2008. He later proceeded to the United States International University (USIU) and graduated with a degree in Journalism and Television Production in 2013.
Career
Mbugua’s story is an intriguing tale of rags to riches. He grew up in poverty, and this fueled his hunger for success in life.
As a student, he would juggle classes and side hustles as to make money. Between 2009 and 2013, he worked as a director at Tunawashow Junior Media. At the time he was a student at USIU.
He also worked as a film teacher at Makini School between February 2010 and November 2012. At the time, he used to walk all the way from Roysambu to Makini because he did not have any money for bus fare.
Big Break
As he would walk or commute from Roysambu to Makini, he got to learn that some of the properties along the way belonged to young people who had made it in life. That is where he got his first idea of a show.
The show was called Young Rich, and featured millionaires in Kenya under the age of 40 talking about about business and how they made their money.
“Taking the back routes, I would see all these huge homes and young people driving expensive cars.
“I remember when I saw a ‘To Let’ advert for Sh70,000, it baffled me how anyone could spend that much on rent alone. I was curious about how these people had made their money, so I created a show around the topic,” he said during an interview with the Standard in 2019.
He pitched the show to several media houses and it was later picked up by K24 TV. The first episode aired in 2013, on the eve of his graduation from USIU.
“I made Ksh1 million in the first month, with K24 paying a licensing fee of Sh250,000 per episode. It ran for nine seasons,” Mbugua revealed.
TV Shows
The young entrepreneur founded his own production company in 2013 and named it Young Rich Television. He then proceeded to produce several other shows.
They include: Get in The Kitchen, Our Perfect Wedding, Stori Yangu, My Friend, Being Bahati, Foods of Kenya and The Best Of, shows that have aired on K24 TV, KTN, NTV, Maisha Magic East, Showmax, Iflix, Kwese, Startimes and Trigger (South Africa).
Young Rich TV is also the producer of Sol Family, a reality television series on award-winning music group, Sauti Sol.
Mbugua has recently expressed interest in venturing into the Tanzanian market, and has visited the country, meeting with some of the country’s leading artists.
Businesses
Mbugua is passionate about business and creating wealth for himself, and being from a poor background, he has ensured to never go back.
“I’ve been poor before, I don’t want to be poor again. As long as I see poverty behind me, I’ll always be running ahead,” he told Citizen Digital during an interview in August 2020.
Mbugua is the managing director of the Number 7 club and bar in Nairobi CBD and Number 7 Lion in Westlands.
He is also the CEO of a publishing enterprise called My Yearbook Kenya Ltd, which publishes yearbooks for schools, companies, and also the government.
The young businessman is also into beef farming. Together with his friends they run a feedlot in Isinya, Kajiado County where they purchase bulls and fatten them for a period of 12 weeks to become premium beef before selling them off.
Awards
In 2014, Mbugua was listed by Business Daily among Kenya’s male Top 40 under 40 entrepreneurs. In the same year, Eugene bagged the Kalasha Award for his work on the film Child for Hire.
In 2016, he was on Forbes’ list for the 30 most promising entrepreneurs under the age of 30 in Africa, a feat he repeated in 2017.
