Uhuru is on record saying he did not have anything to hide about his family business interests because, as he put it, “our business has been above board and we have absolutely nothing to hide because we are completely legitomate.
We pay our taxes and provide employment to thousands of Kenyans besides providing essential services to Kenyans.” When the young Uhuru returned to the country in 1985 from the US after studying Economics and Politics at Amherst College (US), he got himself immersed in the family business, which at the time was essentially concentrated at farm level.
Major Player
A little known fact of the Kenyatta family is that by the time the patriarch, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, died in 1978, this First Family was far from being a major player in business.
Indeed, Mama Ngina Kenyatta is on record (in one of those very rare media interviews) saying that when her husband died, she found herself having to sell some of the family land to raise funds to educate her children, who were in expensive private schools. Be that as it may, Uhuru Kenyatta started with one, no, two – great advantages that few ever have: A famous last name, and a solid base – land, which in classical economics of Adam Smith, is the primary natural resource of production from which everything else stem.
But Uhuru did not have as much mind and interest in business as his younger brother Muhoho and sister Christina.
So after a few years in the family business, Uhuru was lured into the world of politics leaving the publicity-shy and reticent Muhoho to run the business side of things. The more outgoing Uhuru Kenyatta fitted the bill of a politician constantly in public life.
The taciturn and reserved Muhoho was more suited for the life of a corporate power baron who controls the purse strings from behind the scenes. But unlike his late father whose ‘kitchen cabinet’ almost exclusively comprised of family members and their friends from Kiambu leading to the infamous tag ‘Kiambu Mafia’, Uhuru has a much wider kitchen cabinet.
The cabal of key political players around Uhuru today includes his running mate and fellow ICC suspect, William Ruto, former MP David Murathe, politicians Cecily Mbarire, Rachel Shebesh, brother Muhoho Kenyatta, nephew Jomo Gecaga (who serves as his personal assistant) and one Njee Muturi who serves as the director of coordination for candidate Uhuru.
It was in the hands of Muhoho Kenyatta that the Kenyatta family business empire grew and prospered from basic farming to include controlling interests in a variety of industries as well as investments in blue chip companies.
Hidden hand
The one dominant factor in this growth is the hidden hand and controlling influence of the family matriarch Mama Ngina Kenyatta, who although predominantly avoids publicity at all costs, has larger-than-life influence on most critical affairs of the Kenyattas, and business is considered extremely important among the Kenyattas.
To ensure professionalism and continuity, the Kenyattas have resisted the temptation that bedevils most family business – to pack their businesses with family, friends and relatives.
Instead, the key players in the Kenyatta family business empire include professionals from within and outside the country with only Muhoho and Christina Kenyatta as the two family members at the heart of the business. - The Standard
