Kenneth Gichoya popularly known as Njoro on Citizen TV’s Papa Shirandula is decrying wasting his money investing in rental property.
Njoro opened up about his woes while speaking during an interview with Dr. Kingori on NTV.
He revealed that his mother inspired him to buy land and build rental houses which could earn him extra income apart from his other gigs.
The popular actor said he wanted to buy a high end Mercedes Benz but his mother pressured him to invest in real estate instead.
Njoro heed his mother’s advice and now he has several houses in different parts of Nairobi. He rental income helped him more so after Papa Shirandula show which was his main source of income ended abruptly following the death of the main character Charles Bukeko.
However, Njoro stressed that it has not been easy collecting rent from his tenants. He decried that being a landlord made him become ‘evil’ as he has been forced to be brutal to get rent from his tenants.
Njoro recalled how he was once forced to weld a door while a tenant was locked inside. He said the tenant had failed to pay rent for six months and was playing cat and mouse with him.
The popular actor says he didn’t feel guilty for his action because he invested a lot of money and no one is supposed to play around with what he sweated for.
Njoro lamented that as a landlord he is sometimes pushed to be merciless to tenants who live in his houses for several months without paying rent.
He said being a landlord is stressful because he invested his money expecting to get it back smoothly without having to fight with anyone.
The former Papa Shirandula actor also noted that investing in real estate is a waste of money. According to him, when someone invests 10 million shillings in real estate he is likely to recoup the money after 10 years which is a very long time.
He said that real estate is only profitable when one views it as an inheritance for their children.
“If I may tell Kenyans, investing in the real estate in terms of house and rent it’s a waste of money. Because you invest 10 million which will come back to you after 10 years. When you invest in real estate you are investing for the other generation, propbably my son Njamba and my daughter Waithera and the others. I invest for them because hao ndo watakuja kukula sababu they didn’t put money into it but ndo watakulanga rent,” said Njoro.
