This archive report was first published on 10 September 2019.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Ksh33.7 billion yacht, Octopus, is up for sale. The 414-foot (126 meters) luxury superyacht was built in 2013 and refitted this year.
According to CNN, Octopus is one of the biggest private superyachts in the world, capable of holding 26 guests and 63 crew members. The yacht features a host of amenities, including a swimming pool and hot tub, a spa, a bar, and a gym.
Additionally, the superyacht has a specially designed recording studio and cinema, a glass-bottomed underwater observation lounge, elevators, and a basketball court.
The price of the yacht is approximately the value of some of Kenya's billionaires, such as Manu Chandaria, who was worth around Ksh31 billion in 2014.
With Ksh30 billion, one can also get approximately 6 billion packets of milk, and around a similar amount of loaves of bread. The price of the yacht is also synonymous with buying over 300 Toyota Land Cruiser VXs or around 1 million trips on first-class of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) between Mombasa and Nairobi.
It is also the same figure, through international digital money transfer remittances, that allows thousands of Kenyan children who are in school to have access to books and educational supplies.
Ksh30 billion is also the estimate that SMEs are receiving from the wedding industry in Kenya, where around 28,000 couples tie the knot every year.
Allen, a Microsoft co-founder along with Bill Gates, and venture capitalist billionaire, died on October 15, 2018, at the age of 65, after suffering complications due to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
