Kenya's largest data leak reveals Empire Kenyatta

Written by Oral East Africa

When confronted with questions about their wealth former President Uhuru Kenyatta holds that what they own is known and open to the public. And he is partly right, as you rise above the capital Nairobi, you feel the Kenyatta wealth, expansive land stretching Northlands in a breadth of greenery against the concrete blocks of the rest of the city, quartered and pinioned to hold five million bodies.

But the Kenyatta wealth is also invisible, stashed away in Panama and the British Virgin Islands over the last few decades, and hidden in a web of proxies, until now. After Moldovan firm B2Bhintt leaked Kenya's largest trove of company data, now Kenyans really know what the Kenyatta's own.

With the vast landholdings accumulated by Kenya's first president Kamau Ngengi-Jomo Kenyatta and fourth wife Mama Ngina Kenyatta, and backing from international investors and Swiss Bankers, the Kenyatta's have expanded locally and abroad to include farming, media, banking and insurance, and upscale hotels and high-end rentals in London.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the family began to accumulate much of its offshore wealth while Uhuru Kenyatta was a rising political star, opening their first Panama accounts as Predint Daniel Moi groomed his mentor's scion.

A decade of President Uhuru Kenyatta's presidency saw the commercial interest of the first family expand rapidly with the banking estate for instance, quadrupling into the country’s third-largest lender. The diary now business straddles the entire Kenyan market and the region, with several brands including Brookside, Ilara, Tuzo, Molo, Kilifi Gold, and Delamere.

As the Kenyattas now set sights on a multi-billion city that is taking shape on the family 11,000 acres in Ruiru, they have been offshoring their dollars while roping in powerful local and foreign partners to protect the wealth and grow into the future beyond the Kenyatta regime.

Heritage Hotels, Brookside Dairy, NCBA, Northlands City and Mediamax Group top the list of Kenyatta business units on the charge – having either recently acquired rival firms, announced plans to expand or opened subsidiaries across the border.

Enterprise Kenyatta or ENKE, is the known Kenyatta business sitting at the tip of the empire, and owns at least 30 companies straddling agriculture, banking, real estate, and education.

Secret keepers

The companies are held via lawyers Jacob Ongechi, Jacqeline Hinga, ENKE investments, Goodison trust, family members including Mama Ngina, Muhoho, Margaret Gakuo, Ngina Kenyatta as well as trusted partners like John Stuart Armitage who was awarded head of state commendation in the president’s last year in office.

Brookside Africa Limited one of the family’s flagship companies, is owned by Brookside Dairy Holdings Mauritius, Compagnie Gervais Danone and Brookside Group Limited with directors including Marina Alejandra Sagramoso, Frederic Leblan, Peter Gichuru Njoka, John Stuart Armitage and Muhoho Kenyatta.

The milk processor has control of over 40 per cent milk market share in the country's formal milk market, which could be higher since the data on the dairy market is scanty.

Over the last ten years the business has expanded by acquiring rivals and roping in powerful partners with diplomatic and financial muscle to drive the Kenyatta business into the future.

Mergers and aquisition

After acquiring Spin Knit Dairy, with its Tuzo, Lea and Ever fresh milk brands through deal with private equity fund Aureos Capital in 2010, Brookside bought out Buzeki Dairy Ltd in 2013 in a Sh1.1 billion deal that brought Molo Milk brand into the fold.

The 2014 deal with French yogurt company Danone SA who acquired a 40 percent stake in Brookside Dairy Ltd brought the company the French shareholders.

By 2015 the emergent milk giant was ready to flex its muscle in the region tapping the late Naushad Merali’s Sameer Agriculture Livestock limited (SALL) in Uganda in a deal that saw the company buy 16,000 shares at $67 each share; bringing the total deal to $1.06 million (Sh126 milion).

Brookside further acquired Dalamere yoghurt in 2017 resulting to increased market share even as the company sold off its Tanzania stake to its French partner Danone.

Growth in the milk business was overshadowed by the banking business where the Kenyatta’s now own the country’s third largest bank NCBA.

The Kenyattas owned 24.92 percent stake in Commercial bank of Africa (CBA) bank which in 2013 was tier two lender ranking seventh and grossing Kes4.4 billion in profits.

The lender had assets worth Kes124.8 billion and was expanding through M-shwari which was launched in January 2013 giving the lender access to millions of Safaricom’s mobile subscribers. The product currently disburses Kes103 billion in loans annually.

bankers

The lender banked on the Safaricom partnership to create one of its most profitable lines, Fuliza a lending machine that pushes Kes833 billion digital loans a year more than the country’s largest lenders.

CBA was also the force behind Stawi loans, a mobile-based small business loan product launched by the Central Bank of Kenya in 2019 in partnership with NIC Bank, Co-op Bank, DTB and KCB.

What was a small tier two lender is now part of a banking behemoth that churns out Kes15 billion profits before tax annually thanks to the merger with rival NIC Bank to create NCBA.

NCBA Group with a combined assets of Sh591 billion is Kenya’s third largest lender behind Equity Bank’s Sh1.26 trillion and KCB Group’s Sh1.16 trillion.

The Kenyatta’s stake in the new entity stands at 13.2 percent, a level of ownership that slightly surpasses the 11.75 percent stake that the family of the late CBK governor Phillip Ndegwa owns in the merged business.

The family has not only been consolidating existing businesses but are ambitiously pursuing a multibillion real estate dream city that will dwarf projects such as Tatu City.

The Kenyatta family hosted Brookside on their Ruiru land along Uhuru Kenyatta Secondary School and Peponi School occupy.

The land is now being prepared for the Northlands that will incorporate low-to-high-income residential areas, commercial space, a central business district, schools, an industrial area and an agricultural zone.

city of the future

The family has already started selling the land to potential investors including AMREF that has broken ground to set up the AMREF International University campus within Northlands.

The closely guarded project will also benefit from state infrastructure upgrade that is building a key interchange to the expanded Eastern Bypass that links the city to the newly constructed Expressway.

Northlands is owned by Sukari Development Company Ltd, Enke Management Ltd with directors including Jacob Ogechi Ombongi, Muhoho Kenyatta and John Stuart Armitage.

Mr Muhoho and Armitage are also directors in the Kenyattas hospitality giant Heritage Hotels owned through Heritage Holdings and Enke Management.

Heritage Hotels East Africa operates establishments in the Maasai Mara, Lamu, Samburu, Naivasha, Mombasa and Taita Taveta have also done exceptionally well over the last decade.

Heritage Hotels owns the Voyager Resort in Mombasa and Tsavo, Interpids camps in Samburu and Maasai Mara as well as the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha. Mara Explorer Camp and the Kipungani Explorer in Lamu Island are also part of the establishment.

The family has upgraded Voyager Beach Resort setting up a new pool area and watersports zone, along with a new dining area and extended outdoor space while the Swahili lounge now offers new day beds and ‘moon beds’.

Ngina Kenyatta the only daughter of President Uhuru Kenyatta has also ventured into hospitality with The Green Experience in Lari, Kiambu County located in the middle of Kenyatta's family tea estate

"client 13173"

The Kenyatta family has also made significant investments in its media company, which is fighting to gain market share from established rivals.

Mediamax Network Ltd owns 12 media brands including the flagship People Daily newspaper and K24 TV station.

The family is also said to be establishing a strong presence in the mining sector where billions of shillings are expected to be made in the next decade following recent discoveries of valuable deposits such as oil, niobium, coal, gold and titanium.

As the empire continues to churn billions of shillings in profits, a massive leak by the ICI revealed the family was stashing some of their profits in tax havens abroad.

President Kenyatta and his family were cited for a hidden fortune in excess of $30 million (Sh3.3 billion) in overseas tax havens.

The records – from the Panamanian law firm Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) – show that the family-owned at least seven entities, two registered anonymously in Panama and five in the British Virgin Islands.

Codnamned "client 13173", the Kenyatta's are said to have stashed assets worth more than $30 million in tax havens including London prime property, which was rented by British Labour MP Emma Ann Hardy, worth close to $1.3m.