Montezuma Monalisa Funeral Home is today recognized as one of the most prestigious funeral homes in Kenya, renowned for offering world-class services and having overseen the burials of high-profile figures, among them the late Papa Shirandula actor, Charles Bukeko.
But before it rose to become the household name it is now, Montezuma Monalisa started as nothing more than a risky side hustle for its founder, billionaire Benjamin Kibiku, who was at the time working as a marketer for an insurance company in Nairobi.
Kibiku always had a vision of building a state-of-the-art, modern funeral home that would cater to wealthy and influential families.
However, that dream required huge starting capital, which he simply did not have. To make matters worse, most banks were reluctant to finance him.
The morbid nature of the business and the fact that funeral homes were almost unheard of in Kenya back then made investors shy away from his pitch.
Determined to push on, Kibiku continued saving diligently from his day job, hoping to raise just enough money to start small. His breakthrough came in 1988 when he secured a Ksh70,000 loan from a SACCO.
With his savings and the loan combined, he purchased his very first hearse. Unfortunately, the amount could not buy a new vehicle.
Instead, he settled for a second-hand pick-up truck that had been involved in an accident. He spent more money repairing and modifying it into a functional hearse.
The challenges were far from over. He still had to deal with the basics: finding a driver, securing a parking space, and convincing families to hire his services. Advertising in newspapers brought him little success, forcing him to think outside the box.
One of his clever strategies was attending funeral planning meetings pretending to know the deceased. He would then offer his hearse for free—on the condition that the driver distributed fliers advertising his budding funeral service.
The move proved effective. Slowly, word spread, and Kibiku began booking enough jobs to sustain the business. Within no time, he managed to purchase a second-hand van, which he also converted into another hearse.
As demand grew, he expanded his services by selling coffins, which provided an additional source of income.
By 1992, Kibiku was confident enough to quit his marketing career and fully focus on building his funeral business. He began by constructing small facilities to store bodies, laying the groundwork for the empire he envisioned.
The big shift came in 2004, when Kibiku acquired land along Mbagathi Way (now Raila Odinga Way) and embarked on the construction of a modern funeral home. After three years of work, the facility was officially opened in 2007, becoming one of the most sophisticated in the region.
Today, Montezuma Monalisa stands as a fully-fledged one-stop shop for funeral services.
Beyond the sale of coffins, it offers a chapel for prayers, repatriation services for bringing bodies in and out of Kenya, and professional exhumation services—whether single or mass exhumations.
The company often works with local authorities, churches, and even takes up subcontracted projects. After exhumation, remains can be preserved, reburied, or sent abroad depending on the family’s wishes.
From the days of second-hand vans, Montezuma has upgraded to offering luxury vehicles for funeral transportation, along with funeral assurance packages that help families cover the costs of burials.
The main facility can accommodate up to 100 bodies at any given time and has since expanded to three branches: its flagship along Raila Odinga Way, another on Thika Road, and a third branch in Machakos.
From humble beginnings with a single damaged pick-up truck, Benjamin Kibiku has built Montezuma Monalisa into one of Kenya’s most respected and luxurious funeral service providers—proving that even a business once dismissed as morbid could grow into an empire of comfort, dignity, and class.
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