05/06/2026
James Mwangi is the 72-year-old founder and owner of Sunshine Hotel Limited, an 84-room hotel in Kericho that’s one of the busiest in the region.
The hotel is known for hosting high-profile guests like former President Uhuru Kenyatta, President William Ruto, and the late Raila Odinga. It hit national headlines in 2018 when it turned away then Laikipia Woman Rep Catherine Waruguru and her lawyer husband William Kiget for failing to produce a marriage certificate.
Sunshine Hotel enforces a strict no-casual-dating policy: every couple must show a marriage certificate at check-in, a rule management refuses to bend even under pressure from MPs and former CSs.
Mwangi’s journey started from poverty. In the 1960s his education at Nakuru Bahati ended early when he couldn’t raise Ksh20 for school fees. His father was a cook for European settlers, and young Mwangi herded goats for 50 cents a month.
Despite the setbacks, he was passionate about hospitality. In 1989 he pooled Ksh20,000 with two friends to rent a kiosk at Tengecha Lane, Kericho and start an eatery. His friends quit when profits were slow, but Mwangi persisted.
His first customer, a mechanic, said the food was so bad he’d never eat it again. Mwangi kept practicing, learned to make chapatis and mandazis, and gradually built a customer base. He worked as cook, cashier, and waiter until hiring help and expanding.
By 1991 revenues allowed him to hire a manager and buy his first pickup. Investor Benjamin Tirop later offered him a 9-room commercial building at Tengecha Lane. Mwangi relaunched it as Sunshine Hotel, improved the menu, added guest rooms, and kept his core rules: no alcohol and no couples without marriage certificates.
From a kiosk with one kilo of meat and flour, he grew the business into an 84-room hotel that employs over 200 people. Today, Mwangi says his strict policy is about morals and protecting the hotel’s image.