Mama Ngina Kenyatta is Kenya’s first President’s widow and mother to the country’s fourth President Uhuru Kenyatta.
She is one of the most powerful and wealthiest Kenyan women today.
In 2012, Mama Ngina was featured in a Forbes article by the title Ten Female Millionaires to Watch in Africa.
The author of the article said Mama Ngina owns multiple properties and businesses around the country.
Nigeria’s Ventures Financial Magazine has previously described her as a dollar billionaire, to say the least.
So, what’s Mama Ngina’s net worth?
Here are some of the assets and businesses as well as other sources of income in her name that could be used to compute her net worth.
Parcels of land
Mama Ngina owns large tracts of land in the country.
She inherited the parcels from her late husband Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Word has it that she, alongside other Kenyatta family members, controls of over 500,000 acres of land.
The said properties are located in Kiambu County, Nakuru County, Laikipia County, North Rift and some parts of the Kenyan coast region.
Most of these parcels arein prime locations and are worth billions of shillings.
Company Shares
Reliable sources indicate that the Kenyatta family matriarch owns over 2.2 million ordinary shares in Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC).
That accounts for about 11% of the total market capitalization of the national electricity distributor as of June 2020.
The shares are worth Sh. 3.34 million if the current market share prices are anything to go by.
KPLC is the only company listed in the Nairobi Stock Exchange that has listed Mama Ngina as a shareholder.
Even though KPLC does not pay dividends regularly, being a shareholder with the firm gives Mama Ngina an opportunity to dispose them for millions of shillings when the markets are favorable.
As at the time of the merger between NIC and CBA banks, Mama Ngina, alongside his sons Uhuru and Muhoho, held a portfolio stake worth sh 8.5 billion which was about 13% of the bank’s shareholding at the time.
NCBA bank’s market share prices have risen tremendously over the last few years due to good financial performance of the bank.
That has seen the Kenyattas gain more than 58% (Sh. 3.2 billion) share value appreciation.
Hotels, Resorts and Lodges
Mama Ngina owns a number of luxury resorts, lodges and hotels scattered across the country.
She owns the Heritage Group of Hotels that manages the Voyager Beach Resort in Nyali, The Great Rift Valley Luxury Lodge in Naivasha, Intrepids Lodges in The Masai Mara and Samburu, Mama Ngina Tourist Hotel in Mtwapa, and The Golf Hotel among others.
Groups of Companies
The former first lady runs a chain of companies that are mostly managed by his son, Muhoho Kenyatta.
The best known among these companies is Brookside Dairies where the Kenyatta family is the majority shareholder.
Another enterprise is the Peponi Group of Schools Ltd which operates a senior secondary school in the family ranch in Ruiru, a Peponi House Preparatory School in Lower Kabete as well as Peponi House Kindergarten in Kabete.
Cash Crop Plantations
Mama Ngina Kenyatta owns a number of plantations around the country.
She has two tea plantations in Mangu and Matu in Kiambu County.
She has a vast sisal plantation in Taita Taveta County near the border with Tanzania and several coffee plantations.
The plantations are located in her parcels of land in the mentioned areas and earn her millions of shillings every year.
Debts
The Kenyatta family matriarch has no know debts that could significantly weigh down her net worth.
The only publicly known debt in her name was owed to the defunct Mombasa Municipal Council twenty years ago.
The municipal published a list of 245 land rates defaulters, among them Mama Ngina Kenyatta, in 2003 as reported by one of the local daily nespapers.
Other Incomes
Besides the many assets in her name, Mama Ngina is also paid a salary and pension by the government.
In 2019, media reports emerged that Mama Ngina has been earning a salary of well over Sh.500,000 every month form the State exchequer besides pension she gets for being a retired first lady.
A state salary for what? One may ask.
She gets the monthly paycheck by virtue of being the wife to Kenya’s first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
These revelations caught many Kenyans by surprise.
A city lawyer revealed that the salary is enshrined in the laws of Kenya which entitles a sitting or retired president’s spouse to 40% monthly salary of the current president in the event the president dies.
