Kenya Power has listed Mama Ngina Kenyatta as its fourth largest individual investor, making the electricity distributor the only Nairobi bourse-listed company bearing her name on the shareholder list.
Filings with the Capital Markets Authority show that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s mother owns 2.2 million shares or a 0.11% stake in the company, whose ownership is dominated by institutional investors like the Treasury and National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
It’s not clear when she acquired the minority stake, which is small compared to the multi-billion-shilling investments controlled by the Kenyatta family in real estate, insurance, education, banking, manufacturing, farming and hospitality sectors.
Very little is known about Mama Ngina, widow of Kenya’s first President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who has managed to keep a low profile as she presided over the vast family business.
Her Kenya Power stake, currently valued at Sh37.7 million, has baffled analysts on reasons behind holding the minority stake in the electricity utility.
“If the share has not been hived off from a larger trust, it was certainly not bought for commercial reasons,” said Johnson Nderi, an analyst at Suntra Investment Bank.
Similar comments were made by an analyst at Standard Investment Bank. The former first lady earned a dividend of Sh1.1 million. Kenya Power declared a dividend of Sh0.50 for the year ended June 2012, up from Sh0.45 the previous year.
The firm’s shares have failed to benefit from the recovery of the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), shedding 6.3 per cent over the past six months in a period that has seen most counters record double-digit gain.
As the matriarch in charge of the Kenyatta family’s vast business empire, Mama Ngina presides over an enterprise that is associated with well-known commercial brands and blue chip companies.
This includes Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which is Kenya’s largest non-listed lender with total assets of Sh100 billion and last year posted a net profit of Sh2.6 billion. The bank is ranked Kenya’s ninth largest with a market size index of 4.08%.
Others are Brookside Dairy - where the President’s younger brother, Muhoho, sits as executive chairman, and the upmarket and chic hotel chain, Heritage Hotels East Africa.
The family is also linked to Media Max Company, which owns K24 TV, Kameme Radio and The People newspaper. It also owns thousands of acres of prime land across Kenya.
Kenya Power posted a 35.6% rise in half- year net profit buoyed by rising demand and lower tax liability. The firm’s net profit grew to Sh3.1 billion in the six months to December 2012 from Sh2.3 billion in a similar period the previous year.
But its profit before tax grew at a slower pace of 5.05% and a Sh642 million drop in tax liability lead to a faster growth in the net earnings.
The firm’s share has dropped from Sh18.95 on May 9 as investors continue to weigh news of an order by Deputy President, William Ruto, halting planned increases in electricity tariffs.
initially it was Chris Kirubi who was the largest individual shareholder before he sold his shares in 2013. Whoever wrote that article is just playing politics.
power and politics. at times I see big tracks carrying those row blue gum trees to be transformed into fine electricity poles from the villages after high prolific brockets negotiate substantiated prices with the locals who planted the tress at the expense of enriching themselves and their goons only for the exploited to know little about it .when the Same same exploited seller goes to apply for electricity to be dropped to his/her homestead it can take up to 2-4 years for the same thing to happen irrespective of making several frequent visits to kplc offices.Na pia wamesema etiology by the end of the year power costs could have gone down. any we accept and move on, this is Kenya powerless Nation
and someone doesn’t have to think kenyans are fools to be manipulated from jan 1 to dec 31…we can see watu wamerudi kazi after christmas lull…but tumewaonea centreline…
Boss I’m not taking sides but if you read that article keenly you will realize this has nothing to do with kenya power or even mama ngina.
sometimes these journalists are a pain in the ass.
I wonder who those analysts were that got ‘baffled’
When you say ‘tumewaonea’ what do you mean? And wale mume waona si Wakenya? The fact is Kenya Power is an ineffective body and it doesn’t matter which side of the political divide one is from; we all get shafted equally.
we are in what? 2016? someone is quoting trading figures for 2012? story is centered on a minority shareholder with only 0.11 p. c. stake? get the hell out of here!
True, the ‘journalist’ was not factual and objective that is evident. But that company serves some interests because the reduced cost of power Kenyans were promised has never materialized.
Some peasants will defend Mama ngina at whateva cost. The same Mama ngina who when asked if she could give IDPs(same peasants defending her) a fraction of her vast land what was her reaction? Ehe a frowned face zile za hasira hata karibu akule the journalist who asked her this Q.
PS sijasema she is guilty on allegations posted by OP