by FRANCIS MUREITHI
FORBES Magazine has listed Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta as worth US$500 million (Sh47.5 billion) making him the 26th richest person in Africa and the richest Kenyan in their line-up. Forbes released its list of the 40 richest Africans yesterday. The next Kenyan on the list is businessman Chris Kirubi at number 31 worth $300 million.
Forbes is famous for its annual global Rich List which reports the 1,000 richest people in the world. “Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta, and heir to some of the largest land holdings in Kenya,” Forbes stated.
The magazine claimed that Uhuru and the family own vast amounts of prime land across the country. “The land was acquired by his father in the 1960s and 1970s when the British colonial government and the World Bank funded a settlement transfer fund scheme that enabled government officials and wealthy Kenyans to acquire land from the British at very low prices,” Forbes explains.
However the Kenyatta family has always insisted that its landholdings are not that extensive. Few, if any, land titles are likely to bear Uhuru Kenyatta’s name. “Uhuru and his family also own Brookside Dairies, Kenya’s largest dairy company, as well as stakes in popular television station K24 and a commercial bank in Nairobi, among other interests,” Forbes states in its short section on Uhuru.
All Africa for more