Tabitha Mukami Muigai Karanja is a Kenyan businesswoman, entrepreneur and industrialist. She is the founder and current Chief Executive Officer of Keroche Breweries, the first large brewery in Kenya owned by a non multinational company. Keroche accounts for 20% of Kenya’s beer consumption, as of October 2012.
Tabitha was born on August 29, 1964 near Kijabe, in central Kenya. She attended Kenyan schools after which she gained employment in the Ministry of Tourism as an Accounting Clerk. She met and married her husband, Joseph Karanja, who owned a successful hardware store in Naivasha town. In 1997, the couple closed the hardware store and went into the wine-making business.
In 1997, Tabitha Karanja and her husband took to production and started making fortified wine, targeting the lower end of the market. In 2007, when the government enacted heavy taxes on locally made wines, her product was priced out of the market. She switched to manufacturing ready-to-drink gin and vodka.
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In 2008, she added beer to her collection of alcoholic drinks, beginning with a brand called “Summit”. In 2013, the factory began expansion plans and increased beer production from 60,000 bottles per day to 600,000 bottles per day.
On 31 March 2015, the refurbished plant was commissioned by Adan Mohammed, the Cabinet Secretary for Industrialisation,
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Tabitha is blessed with four children; James Karanja, Anerlisa Muigai, Edward Muigai and Tecra Muigai. Her husband, Joseph Muigai Karanja serves as the Chairman of Keroche Breweries Limited.
