Highlighting this as one of the factors that could negatively impact on Kenya economic growth in future, the Wealth in Kenya 2014 report says that a common thread running through almost all the dollar millionaires is their political connections as well as their ownership of large tracts of land.
The list of the wealthy political dynasties and billionaire landowners reflects Kenya’s top political leadership.
However, the report does not give details about how their wealth was acquired and does not suggest in any way that the wealth was acquired irregularly.
The Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki, Karume, Kulei, Biwott, Nyachae, Odinga, Saitoti, Michuki and Mwau families are listed among the wealthiest in the report compiled by a British organisation. The same families also own large tracks of land.
Other large individualland owners include Mr Swaleh Nguru, Mr Saleh Said Sherman, Mr Tahir Sheikh Said (TSS) and Kamlesh Pattni.
The group is likely to get even richer because property prices continue to rise.
According to the report, Kenya’s residential property prices rose by four per cent in dollar terms and 42 per cent in shilling terms, fuelled by strong economic growth and high demand by foreign buyers particularly in Nairobi and coastal area.
The price of top end property in Nairobi was valued at $1,700 per square metre in 2013, according to a Knight Frank report. This made Nairobi the fourth most expensive city in Africa for property after Cape Town, Johannesburg and Luanda. Nairobi also ranked ahead of Lagos.
Some of the families have been selling the land and this has raised their cash holding.
THE KENYATTA FAMILY
The family of the founding father of the nation is one of the richest in Kenya. President Uhuru Kenyatta is a scion of the family.
Going by the rankings of the New World Wealth report, the family can be ranked among centimillionaires, whose wealth range between $100 million and $1 billion.
The family, with Enke Holdings at the core of its wealth, has interests in banking — with a stake in Commercial Bank of Africa — tourism (Heritage Hotels among others), mining, insurance, airline, education, real estate and energy. It also has interests in telecommunications, dairy farming (through Brookside Dairies) and transport.
The size of land owned by the Kenyatta family remains the subject of debate but according to the Ndung’u Commission report published in December 2004, the family has about 94 acres in Kiambu in the name of Jomo Kenyatta’s widow Mama Ngina. It also has 89 acres and 59 acres in Thika District.
The family is believed to own land in Endebbes, Rumuruti, Nakuru, Naivasha, Nairobi and Thika but its exact acreage is unknown.
THE MOI FAMILY
Retired president Daniel arap Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years, ranks among the richest Kenyans with an estimated wealth in hundreds of billions of shillings. In line with the New World Wealth report, the Moi family easily fits in the centimillionaire category.
The family has interests in various sectors, including....continue reading
PAGE 1 2
Advertisemen