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Leah carves a niche with chilli oil and stirs up fiery success
Leah Karangi, co-founder and production manager of Ginene Limited, displays chilli products during an interview at the company's premises in Karen on April 9, 2025.
When Leah Karangi first turned to chilli farming in 2020, it was simply a break from office life—a temporary solution to sustain her young family during the Covid-19 pandemic. But what started as a stop-gap soon blossomed into a thriving agribusiness.
Armed with a degree in community development and child psychology, and newly a mother of two, Leah relocated to her rural home in Kirinyaga in search of purpose and income.
She began by growing chilli on an acre of her father’s land with a modest investment of Sh20,000.
“Chilli is a high-value crop, which is easy to grow and has minimal challenges such as pest infestation and diseases, so I settled on it. Additionally, it takes about three years for it to deplete in harvesting,” Leah points out.
Initially, she sold the harvest fresh from the farm, but the returns were discouraging. “A kilo of fresh chilligoes for as little as Sh100,” she recalls. “It wasn’t sustainable.”
Chilli processing at Ginene Limited in Karen, Nairobi on April 9, 2025.
Photo credit: Evan Habil | Nation Media Group
Frustrated by market limitations, she decided to venture into value addition. Using solar energy to dry the chili, she transformed the crop into powder, flakes, paste, sauce, and eventually chilli oil.
The results were remarkable.
“Selling 50 grams of chilliflakes or powder for Sh250 means I can earn Sh5,000 from a single kilo,” she says.
Her business, originally called Fire Chilli, quickly gained traction. Demand for processed chilliproducts began to outpace what her Kirinyaga farm could produce.
A firm believer in collaboration, in 2023, she partnered with Joseph Kamata, founder of Nulands, a real estate company with expansive land under its portfolio.
The partnership proved transformative. “Having the right business partner accelerates growth,” she explains. “We complement each other—he has the land, I bring the concept.”
After meeting at a business conference, the two raised over Sh250,000 to scale up production in Narok, where Nulands owns land. They launched their venture on three acres, but disaster struck two months in—devastating floods wiped out nearly nine tonnes of chilli.
Still, Leah remained undeterred.
“You need a thick skin in business,” she reflects. “Things won’t always go your way. But belief in your vision is everything.”
Two years on, their company—now rebranded as Ginene—is thriving. With 10 acres under chillicultivation in Narok, Ginene also grows pomegranates, dragon fruit, pawpaw, passion fruit, lemons, and oranges.
Chilli processing at Ginene Limited in Karen, Nairobi on April 9, 2025.
Photo credit: Evan Habil | Nation Media Group
The company’s heart is in value addition, with a processing facility nestled in the quiet suburb of Karen, Nairobi. What began as a home-based operation now occupies a 50-square-metre space, though the tools remain surprisingly simple: blenders, pots, grinders, sieves, and gas cookers.
“All the equipment we started with is what you’d find in an ordinary kitchen,” Leah shares.
Their chilli is still dried using solar energy on the farm before it is transported to Nairobi for grinding into flakes and powder.
Their product range continues to evolve. Chilli flakes, made by drying and crushing mature, red, flawless peppers, are among the bestsellers. The drying process uses sun, ovens, or dehydrators before the brittle peppers are crushed into flakes or ground into powder.
But the star product is Ginene’s chilli oil—a versatile condiment used both in cooking and as a finishing touch.
To make it, vegetable oil is infused with a carefully curated blend of everyday spices: black pepper, cloves, garlic, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, and coriander. The result is a fragrant, flavour-packed oil.
With prices ranging between Sh250 to Sh500, the company’s produces volumes are 100 litres of chilli oil per week, with a similar capacity for chilli sauce and paste. For powder and flakes, Leah says that they process about one tonne every week.
Cavenne chilli is displayed after processing at Ginene Limited in Karen, Nairobi on April 9, 2025.
Photo credit: Evan Habil | Nation Media Group
“We primarily target hotels and restaurants in Nairobi, Kiambu, Kirinyaga, and Narok, as well as homes,” she shares.
Growth plans
With demand for the firm's products, particularly the chilli oil on a steady growth, Leah is already plotting how they will break new market ground, especially in the retail sector.
Reflecting on her journey, Leah offered a word of encouragement to aspiring entrepreneurs: “You have to believe in yourself and your vision. You just have to stay focused.”
After a five-year break from employment, does she intend to go back?
“Going back to the corporate sector is a thing of history,” says the entrepreneur whose venture is currently providing employment for 12 people.
