Kevin Okwara is the owner of Noble Hotel and Conference Centre, a three star-rated hotel located in Kapsoya in the outskirts of Eldoret town.
Okwara who also tried a hand in politics at some point describes himself as a businessman with interests in hospitality, education and agriculture.
Other than owning the iconic Noble Hotel, he also owns Alphax College and Alphax Kindergarten which is just next to the campus.
The playground area at the kindergarten also serves as grounds for weddings and social events such as music concerts.
Here is Okwara’s story as told by WoK.
Noble Hotel was established in 2006.
In an interview with Business Daily, Okwara mentioned that the land where the hotel sits was patchy and rocky, and he had to transform it into the beautiful establishment it is.
He used a little over Ksh 2 million to evacuate rocks from the land, landscape it and source different plants for the garden.
“I decided to embrace this concept because I was running away from having a brick-and-mortar hotel like what we have in most towns. Gardening does not just make a place beautiful but therapeutic,” he said.
The hotel boasts over 100 different plants which include variety species of grasses, flowers and herbs like lemon grass, rosemary and mint.
“We have plenty of bamboo here for fresh air and in fact, people tend to tell us that this place is cold because bamboo gives a lot of oxygen,” he said.
Okwara noted that he sources the plants whenever he travels but he gets majority of them from Eldoret, Nairobi, Mombasa as well as Uganda.
“When I travel and I see a special plant, I bring it here. There is no formula I use to select plants, I tend to integrate different plants because what makes a forest beautiful is the diversity of plants,” he stated.
With variety of plants in the vicinity, the hotel offers a natural habitat to over 50 different birds species, insects like bees and other animals such as chameleons.
Over the years, the hotel has risen to become a favourite spot for things weddings, engagements, anniversaries and bridal parties.
The charges for the same depends on time; for instance, a party costs Ksh 7,000 for two hours.
“The peak seasons are during holidays April, August and December when schools are closed. There is good money in gardening,” Okwara said.
Okwara has employed five gardeners on permanent basis to take care of the plants in the garden.
“Plants are like babies or sick people; you have to look after them throughout. Most people just plant them, leave them to grow on their own and expect them to grow. Most of the time they end up being disappointed,” he explained.
He added that he experiences among other challenges lack of water during dry seasons and destruction by guests.
Politics
As earlier reported on WoK, Okwara ventured into politics in 2017 when he vied for the Turbo Constituency seat.
Contesting on a Jubilee ticket, he beat 14 aspirants for the party’s ticket during nominations.
However, there was a lot of discontent from other aspirants who painted Okwara as an ‘outsider.’
When the elections day came, Okwara was beaten by an independent candidate, Janet Rotich Sitienei.
