Kenyan Man Brian Oruko who is helping Kenyans in Diaspora to avoid being conned by relatives: Because of busy lives or work-related issues in the diaspora or in Nairobi, some people have entrusted relatives with supervising their projects in their home villages. Knowing that blood is thicker than water, they believe relatives or close family members are the best bet to oversee construction of houses back home and all they have to do is wire money for materials and labour for the work to continue.
While some of the projects go smoothly, others become ‘long con’ games of betrayal and deceit, with the investors coming back home only to find there is no value for the money they sent or the project is a white elephant that never took off.
Many have been duped, with their relatives going to the extent of sharing photos of other people’s homes and pretending that these are the houses they are building.
It is because of such fraud that a 32-year-old man from Kisumu has come up with a solution to help Kenyans in the diaspora avoid being conned by relatives.
Mr Brian Oruko is not your ordinary errand runner doing shopping for his clients or taking groceries to hotels or houses. He has given the business a different image and is attracting clientele from the diaspora.
Mr Oruko, popularly known by his Facebook account name Brian Killah-Bee, provides personal assistant services to individuals as needed through his company Direct Errands and Logistics Services-Kenya (Dels-Kenya).
The firm offers ‘home checks and project management’, with Mr Oruko and his staff supervising ongoing construction projects.
“You can now be in the United Kingdom and virtually attend to an issue back in the rural home. We provide you with a project manager who will oversee your project and ensure your estimates are right. If it is a quotation of Sh10,000, he will stick to that and not Sh100,000,” said Mr Oruko.
His clients only follow up through phone and video calls as they pay a monthly subscription of between $150 (Sh18,900) and $350 (Sh44,100) depending on the tailor-made package they choose.
“Currently there are about 10 clients who have subscribed to this package and pay monthly, and some of them have ongoing projects in Gem, Yala in Siaya County and another in Koru Muhoroni Koru,” Mr Oruko said.
He added that if materials such as sand and ballast are to be transported by lorries, the firm will facilitate this.
The personal assistant says he is trustworthy and is always on call when needed.
There is also a service called ‘home checks’, where the firm takes care of ‘simbas’, a Luo word for the first houses built by young men in their father’s homesteads.
This particularly helps young men who are still single or have spouses with them in Nairobi, Mombasa or in the diaspora but would want their houses frequently checked and cleaned.
“As Dels-Kenya, what we do now is visit your simba every month, slash the surroundings, change your bedding, open the windows so that when you travel home, you find a clean house without wasps, bats or termites,” Mr Oruko said.
The firm also offers care-giving services for parents of its clients, including taking them to hospitals when the need arises.
“This means that our sprinters can pick them up using our vehicles and take them to a clinic and back, and we get paid by our clients who cannot travel from the US, UK or Nairobi where they are and come back because it will be costly and time-consuming,” he said.
His team also carries out other tasks, such as delivering surprise gifts or shopping to relatives of their clients.
How the business started
Mr Oruko started the errand business in February 2019 as Kisumu Errands and Logistics Services, using money he received as compensation after he and others were evicted from houses in the old Makasembo estate.
Makasembo was one of the oldest estates in Kisumu and was brought down to pave the way for construction of modern affordable houses.
Around January this year, he rebranded his company to Direct Errands and Logistics Services (DELS-Kenya) so as not to limit himself to Kisumu.
The father of two boys was born and raised in Kisumu. He markets his business on social media.
Besides project management, he also offers errand services to individuals, households and businesses, guaranteeing peace of mind for his clients. He has six people who work directly for him, including drivers, a secretary and assistants.
By Rushdie Oudia
Source-https://nation.africa/
Kenyan Man with Solution for Diaspora to Avoid Being Conned by Relatives
