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Kenya’s competition watchdog has cleared Tanzanian industrialist Edha Nahdi to deepen his bet on one of the country’s oldest cement makers, approving Kalahari Cement Limited’s plan to buy a big stake in East African Portland Cement Plc from the national pension fund.
The Competition Authority of Kenya said it would allow Kalahari Cement Ltd to acquire the National Social Security Fund’s 27% holding in the Nairobi Securities Exchange listed company, often called EAPC, under a strict condition: no layoffs. The authority said all current employees at both firms must be retained for at least 18 months after the transaction closes.
That safeguard covers 383 workers at Kalahari Cement and 541 at East African Portland Cement, or 924 people in total, according to the authority’s gazette notice. The approval, disclosed in a notice dated Dec. 30, 2025, removes a key regulatory obstacle after months of scrutiny of foreign led consolidation in Kenya’s cement industry.
Nahdi is the co-founder and managing director of Amsons Group, a diversified Tanzanian conglomerate whose subsidiaries have been buying into Kenya’s building materials sector. Kalahari Cement is part of that expansion, and the NSSF block is central because it is one of the largest single holdings in East African Portland Cement.
The deal is priced at 66 Kenyan shillings a share for 23.4 million shares, valuing the NSSF stake at about 1.6 billion shillings, according to earlier disclosures by the company and market reports. The transaction was agreed on Nov. 25, 2025, and follows Kalahari’s purchase of a 29.2% stake previously held by Holcim related entities at 27.30 shillings a share.
Those earlier terms drew sharp questions in Parliament, where lawmakers argued the Holcim price was far below the market and demanded protections for taxpayers’ interests tied to NSSF and the National Treasury. The Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Committee also pushed for assurances on jobs, a concern the competition authority now writes into its approval.
With Bamburi Cement Plc already holding 12.5% of East African Portland Cement, the layering of stakes has fueled expectations that Amsons linked interests could become the dominant force in the company. Business reports have previously put Amsons’ influence at about 41.75% after the Holcim transaction, before counting any NSSF shares.
East African Portland Cement, maker of Blue Triangle Cement, has struggled with weak performance and costly upgrades in recent years, while demand for cement tracks Kenya’s construction cycle. The regulator said it would monitor compliance with the employment condition during the 18 month period, even as other approvals and closing steps remain.
Kalahari has said it notified the issuer, the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the Capital Markets Authority after the agreement was signed. The bourse temporarily froze trading in the stock when reports of the transfer circulated before a formal announcement, saying the pause was meant to protect investors while details were verified.
Closing also depends on other approvals, including capital markets clearances and permits linked to East African Portland Cement’s mining operations. No closing date has been given publicly.
