Catherine Kathure, CEO of Homelink Mabati, has quietly become one of Kenya’s most compelling business stories — not through fanfare, but through results
By John Kariuki
There are leaders who manage businesses, and there are those whose vision becomes something larger than the enterprise they run. Catherine Kathure, chief executive of Homelink Mabati, belongs in the second group.
She is not the loudest voice in the room. She does not need to be. Her record speaks with a clarity that renders self-promotion unnecessary. Under her stewardship, Homelink Mabati has grown into more than a supplier of roofing materials. It has become, for many Kenyans, the first tangible step towards owning a home.
That is no small thing.
The construction and building materials sector in Kenya is competitive, capital-intensive and historically dominated by men. To lead within it requires not only commercial acumen but a particular kind of resilience — the willingness to be underestimated and to keep going regardless. Kathure has demonstrated both qualities in abundance.
What distinguishes her leadership is its texture. She combines commercial discipline with a genuine interest in the people her business serves. Clients are not transactions. Suppliers are not just vendors. Staff are not simply headcount. This orientation — rare in any industry, rarer still in construction — has shaped the culture of Homelink Mabati in ways that are visible to anyone who has dealt with the company.
She understands, too, that a roof is never just a roof. It is security. It is dignity. It is the physical expression of a family’s ambition. A business that grasps that truth about its own product is a business with a clear sense of purpose, and purpose, in Kathure’s case, translates directly into how the company is run.
Her story carries weight beyond Homelink Mabati. For women navigating Kenya’s business landscape — particularly in industries where their presence at senior level remains the exception — she is a straightforward example that the space exists, and that it can be occupied with authority and grace in equal measure.
She has not arrived at this point by accident. The journey reflects sustained effort, sound judgement and the kind of consistency that compounds over time. There is no shortcut embedded in her biography. There is simply the work, done well, over a long period.
Kenya’s private sector needs more such figures: executives who build institutions rather than profiles, who measure success by what their organisations deliver rather than by the attention they attract, and who understand that enduring reputation is earned quietly.
Catherine Kathure is one of them.
