Joseph Kairu, alias Khalif Kairo is the proprietor of Kai and Karo, a car dealership company situated in Kiambu Road, Nairobi.
Kairo was previously the CEO of Imports By Kairo, but he left unceremoniously following a supremacy battle pitting executive directors of the company.
Despite the other directors claiming ownership of Imports By Kairo, he insisted that he was the owner of the company and the directors were just investors.
He was forced out of the company but he bounced back and launched Kai and Kairo where he is the sole investor.
Here is Kairo’s story as told by WoK.
Background
In an interview on The Failure Effect, Kairo noted that was born in November 1996 and he grew up in Amboseli, Kawangware, Nairobi County.
His mother owned a kiosk from where she sold basic stuff in their home area.
“I grew up in my mum’s shop and I’d say that she was the one who introduced me to business because when I started growing up she’d leave me in the shop and I’d sell stuff,” he said.
Having grown in business, Kairo started practicing the entrepreneurial skills that he had learnt from his mother after high school.
Business
At the time, he had an interest in cars and after completing school, he sought of ways of making money from his love for cars.
He enrolled for driving classes and after passing his tests, he got into selling cars.
“I went to five showrooms in Kilimani and Ngong Road asking for a job. At that point I’d pray and ask God to give me a footing in the industry,” he said.
Kairo continued looking for a job in different places before one car dealer agreed to take him in and give him a job.
He was given a chance to prove himself, and after one month of working under the company, the then 18-year-old was hired permanently.
“The first month I actually scratched a car but they’d still let me drive anyway. They started risking, the first time they were against me driving around but the next moment they would send me to run some errands,” Kairo said.
Kairo also noted that earning a salary while young also came with its own consequences.
Having a baby when he was 18
“Some of the sins I’m paying for today, it’s because of things that I did when I was 18. Some of these mistakes have long term consequences, I wasn’t really grounded well but everyone makes mistakes,” he said.
Kairo welcomed his son while he was 21, who was born about two months after he resigned from his job to build his own brand.
“I remember calling my mum, telling her my son has been born and I started laughing. She got mad but later came to the hospital, she sees my son and she was concerned because I’m still not mature and I wasn’t sure about my baby mama,” he said.
What followed was a difficult year because he had no job and he is taking care of a newborn baby and a lactating mother.
“There’s a kid who expects you to be the dad but there’s no money, there’s a girl who expects you to man up and take care of her
“However, there was an element of progress because the kid grew and the business was also promising because I was then working as a freelancer,” Kairo recalled.
In 2018, he started a fresh and entered a partnership with a car dealer who paid him a commission-based salary.
The dealer also taught Kairo how to import vehicles from abroad and distinguishing legit car dealers from fake ones.
“He bought me everything from how to source cars, who to buy from and who not to buy from, but I also brought in the social media aspect,” he said.
It was then when Imports By Kairo was born, it started as a Facebook page where he would sell cars.
Kairo worked under the dealership company for a while before he gained popularity across social media platforms and he was advised to set up his own company.
He did not have enough capital to set up the business but he had friends that he could pitch the idea to and they pump in the money.
“Compared to me at that particular time, these two guys were loaded, but I had the brand and the systems. In my perspective we’d make a good team because one of them was in Kenya and the other one in China,” he said.
The two investors didn’t know each other and Kairo set up a meeting where to introduce the duo to each other and hit the ground running.
“We met, Im introduced the two gentlemen and laid down what I thought it would work and at the end of the meeting we agreed we will set up the company,” he said.
While at it, they were wondering what they would call the company and because Imports By Kairo was a big brand, they decided to go with the name.
“They suggested that because I had my own name and I was known, we trade under the name. When I did that and agreed that the company be called that name, we became three shareholders. In other terms, I had sold my name,” he said.
The business was running smoothly until months later when Kairo was sidelined and his voice was no longer acknowledged in the business.
“I started being sidelined despite handling social media, all the marketing, the only thing these guys were doing was bringing in the cars and ensure that there’s money to run the company
“It might sound like a big deal but I’ve realized that if you have a gold repetition you’ll never lack an investor willing to finance your operations,” he stated.
The disconnect grew and Kairo was now voiceless and not allowed to make decisions in the company despite being an equal shareholder.
“They actually opened a secret company to supply Imports By Kairo, I didn’t know about it,” he said.
Over time, the squabbles within the company continued to escalate forcing Kairo to sign off everything he called his and left the company.
“People close to me advised me that with the fight, one person was going to kill the other, and I’d understand because why do you show me such disrespect and this is something that I worked hard for
“My mum tells me, ‘if it means that I sell everything that I have or I do a fundraiser to give you capital, I’m willing to do it’,” he said.
Kairo decided to make the ultimate decision to call it quits.
“I decided I’m not going to fight, ask anything or demand for anything. I called a meeting and I decided that I’m going to quit,” he said.
Months after quitting Imports By Kairo, he was given a showroom by one of his friends where he has set up his new company, Kai and Karo.
