One Plot at a Time

From goats in Merti to a hundred homes in Nairobi

As a boy in Merti, northern Kenya, Ibrahim Halkano Abduba herded his grandmother's goats on weekends and walked before dawn to reach school by seven. A community fundraiser, where grandmothers gave chickens, goats and even their last two eggs, sent him to medical school for one semester. Then the money ran out.

What followed was not a straight line. He ran a clinic before he had a career, lost land to double allocation, paid twice for a plot, built a hotel that failed, and graduated with a PhD while completely broke. And yet, from an ordinary salary, he built lasting wealth.

One Plot at a Time is his story, and a practical guide for anyone who earns a salary and wants it to become more: young professionals starting out, mid-career earners who feel behind, and anyone who has ever wondered whether a salary can ever be enough.

From the prologue

We were pouring the concrete when he arrived.

We were only a few days into the foundation works, and they were almost complete. That morning, the Fundis (builders) had begun pouring concrete into the foundation, and the outline of my future was finally being set into the hard Isiolo ground. Ten apartments. Two bedrooms each. I had it all worked out.

He did not come alone. He came with papers. There was a title deed with a name on it that was not mine. There was a letter from his lawyers. And there was a stop order.

Every lesson in these pages cost me something. My hope is that it costs you only the price of this book.