Who is the Richest man in Kenya?

The question as to who is the richest man in Kenya is difficult to answer, given how our economy is structured. Ours is an economy where most wealthy is held in the form of real estate and private companies – unlike, say, the USA where most of the wealth tends to be held in the form of shares/stocks/equities whose monetary value can be very easily ascertained at any point in time. It also doesn’t help that some of the richest people in Kenya prefer to keep their wealth secret and are deeply private individuals.

Nonetheless, one of the names that keep on being mentioned whenever there is a discussion on the richest men in Kenya is that of industrialist Bhimji Depar Shar, who is said to be the owner of Bidco. Another name that keeps on being mentioned whenever there is a discussion on the richest men in Kenya is that of Narendra Raval, also known as 'Guru', who is the owner of Devki steel mills and who is said to have a huge portion of the ownership in National Cement, among others. Yet another name that can’t possibly miss in a list of the richest men in Kenya is that of Uhuru Kenyatta, the fourth president of Kenya and scion of Kenya’s first president Jommo Kenyatta. Together with his younger  brother Muhoho Kenyatta and their mum Ngina Kenyatta, they are said to be quite influential – both in terms of money and in terms of political power.

Other names that are often mentioned with regard to the richest men in Kenya are those of Naushad Merali and Vimal Shar. The former is associated with the Sameer Group of companies, whereas the latter is associated with Bidco (as is Bhimji Depar Shar, whom we made reference to). There is also Chris Kirubi, who is said to be considerably wealthy, as are people like Paul Ndung’u and Hasu, the Mombasa Cement company owner down at the coast, with others in that league including Jimmy Wanjigi, Humphrey Kariuki, Peter Muthoka and perhaps Punjani as well.

But as we pointed out earlier, it is difficult to know for sure who the richest Kenyans are, given how our economy is structured and given the fact that many of the wealthiest individuals in Kenya prefer to keep their affairs deeply private. What is not in doubt is the fact that there indeed are several very rich Kenyans, going by the assets you can see wherever you turn. For instance, who can dispute the fact that the owners of Shreeji lorries are likely to be considerably wealthy individuals, as are the owners of Multiple Hauliers trucks? Who can dispute the fact that the owners of companies like Modern Coast and Tahmeed are reasonably rich individuals? Is it not in order to accept that there are indeed several people who qualify to be termed as dollar billionaires in Kenya? So having accepted the fact that there indeed are  quite a number of very wealthy Kenyans, the challenge only tends to arise when it comes to ranking them: as there simply doesn’t seem to be enough public data to determine who is richer than who.