The Kenyatta family is poised to receive a substantial sum of Sh1.03 billion as dividends from their investments in NCBA Group.
This significant windfall is a result of the bank’s impressive performance in the previous financial year, leading to a total dividend payout of Sh7.8 billion.
NCBA Group attributes their success to improved banking operations and sound financial strategies, culminating in a profit after tax of Sh21.5 billion in the Full Year 2023 results.
This marks a notable 56 percent increase from the previous year’s profit of Sh13.8 billion. Shareholders, including the Kenyatta family, are set to receive a dividend payment of Sh4.75 per share, reflecting an 11.8 percent rise from the previous year’s dividend of Sh3 per share in FY2021.
In FY2020, the Kenyattas received Sh326 million for each share, amounting to Sh1.5 per share.
Who owns NCBA Group?
The Kenyatta family holds a 13.2% stake in NCBA Group, Kenya’s third-largest bank by asset value. For the year ended December 2021, the family received a dividend pay out of Ksh625.5 million – the highest dividend payout among the bank’s shareholders.
NCBA was established in 2018 following the merger of NIC Bank and Commercial Bank of Africa, with the Kenyatta family having held stakes in the latter. The merger was completed though a share swap, with NIC group shareholders owning 47 percent of the merged entity and CBA shareholders including the Kenyatta family owning 53 percent of the merged entity.
Other Multi-Billion Businesses Owned By Kenyatta Family
1. Brookside Dairy Limited
Brookside Dairy Limited is the largest processor of dairy products in Kenya, with revenues in the billions of shillings. As of 2019, it had a 45% market share according to the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB). Its closest competitor, government-owned New KCC, was a distant second with 25%.
French food processor Danone in 2014 bought a 40 per cent stake in Brookside, with the Kenyatta family retaining a controlling stake. The transaction offered a glimpse into Brookside’s books, as it disclosed the company generated Ksh15.4 billion in sales in the previous year, dwarfing many NSE-listed firms.
2. Mediamax
Mediamax is one of Kenya’s largest media companies. Its assets include K24, The People’s Daily and Kameme FM. The Kenyatta family acquired the company from K24 founder Rose Kimotho, whose company defaulted on a bank loan.
3. Heritage Group
The Kenyatta family has also invested heavily in hospitality through the Heritage Group of Hotels, a chain of high end hotels in Kenya. Their properties include Voyager camp and beach resort in Tsavo and Mombasa, Kipungani Explorer on Lamu island, Intrepids camps in Samburu and the Maasai Mara, Golf Hotel in Naivasha, The Great Rift Valley Lodge and Mara Explorer camp.
4. Offshore Accounts
The leak of the Pandora Papers in 2021 as part of a global investigation offered a glimpse into the Kenyattas’ offshore investments. Among them was a company with stocks and bonds worth $30m (Ksh4.5 billion). The family had registered foundations and companies in Panama, which is known for the ability it offers individuals to conceal their ownership of funds and assets.
One of the Kenyatta companies bought an apartment in central London valued at around $1.3 million, according to filings at the UK Land Registry. The prime property was until recently rented by British MP Emma Ann Hardy.
Hardy’s spokesperson stated at the time that she had “absolutely no knowledge” of who owned the property.
5. Land holdings
The exact size of the Kenyattas’ land holdings is unknown, but the family has vast tracts in several different parts of the country. Before leaving office, former President Uhuru Kenyatta acquired a 1,000 acre ranch in Oloolmongi, Lolgorian district in Trans Mara, Narok. He has been spotted in Narok numerous time since leaving State House.
The ranch overlooks the Mara triangle – a wildlife-rich area managed by the non-profit organization The Mara Conservancy. It is typically less visited and crowded compared to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, and is one of the prime viewing locations for the Great Wildebeest Migration.
A declassified CIA report made public six years ago also revealed some of the family’s land holdings at the time of Jomo Kenyatta’s passing in 1978.
“(Jomo) Kenyatta himself owned only about a half-dozen properties covering roughly 4,000 hectares, mainly farms in the Rift Valley and in the district of Kiambu where he was born. His wife, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, however, owns at least 115,000 hectares including a 13,000 hectare ranch in the Kiambu district, two tea plantations at Matu and Mangu, and three sisal farms near the Tanzanian border. She also has considerable holdings in the resort areas around Mombasa and is involved in coffee plantations and in the Kenyan ruby mines,” it read in part.
