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The Nairobi Securities Exchange ended 2025 with broad gains across its major indices, helped by a rebound in heavyweight counters and a banking led rally that pulled local liquidity back toward equities.
By year end, the NSE 20 Share Index had posted a strong advance and the All Share Index climbed as well, a turnaround that revived paper wealth for long term owners who sit at the top of share registers. Market commentary through late 2025 also pointed to a sharp rise in market capitalization as prices recovered across several sectors.
This ranking tracks the value of disclosed equity stakes in NSE listed companies, applying official NSE closing prices from the last week of January 2026. Values are converted at KES 129 to $1. Figures reflect listed holdings only, not private businesses, property, or unlisted assets.
1) Philip Ndegwa family
Portfolio value: $180.80 million
Holdings: 14.94% stake in NCBA Group
The family of Philip Ndegwa, the late former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, sit behind the biggest block of shares in NCBA.
2) Mama Ngina Kenyatta & family
Portfolio value: $159.75 million
Holdings: 13.2% stake in NCBA Group
This is the Kenyatta family’s listed foothold in banking, anchored in one of the NSE’s most closely watched financial counters.
3) Zarin Merali and family
Portfolio value: $89.97 million
Holdings: 5.41% stake in NCBA Group; 74% stake in Sameer Africa
The late widow of Kenayn tycoon Naushad Merali oversees the Merali family’s listed footprint, with exposure split between banking and a controlling industrial stake.
4) James Mwangi
Portfolio value: $67.62 million
Holdings: 3.39% stake in Equity Group Holdings
James Mwangi is the chief executive who built Equity into a regional powerhouse and remains a sizable shareholder.
5) Baloobhai Patel
Portfolio value: $66.87 million
Holdings: 49.9% stake in Carbacid Kenya; 1.7% of Co-operative Bank, 1.2% of Absa Bank Kenya, 0.5% of CIC Insurance Group
He is best known for consolidating control at Carbacid while quietly building meaningful blocks in Kenya’s key financial stocks.
6) Suresh Bhagwanji R. Shah
Portfolio value: $61.03 million
Holdings: 10.58% stake in I & M Group
Suresh Bhagwanji R. Shah is a veteran Kenyan banker and investor best known as the founder of I&M Bank, the lender that grew into today’s I&M Group across East Africa. He serves as chairman-emeritus of I&M Bank and is also linked to the I&M Bank Foundation, and he has remained a significant shareholder in I&M Group in recent disclosures.
7) Andrew S. M. Ndegwa
Portfolio value: $57.01 million
Holdings: 4.71% of NCBA Group
A son of the late former Governor of Kenya' central bank, Philip Ndegwa, Andrew S. M. Ndegwa is a Kenyan businessman and boardroom mainstay best known in markets for his long-running links to the NCBA Group, where he serves as a director and has been a significant shareholder through family investment vehicles.
8) James P. M. Ndegwa
Portfolio value:: $56.25 million
Holdings: 4.65% of NCBA Group
Another son of Philip Ndegwa, James is the group chairman at NCBA, and his stake reinforces how closely the register is held at the top.
9) Gideon Maina Muriuki
Portfolio value: $35.2 million
Holdings: 2.3% of Co-operative Bank; 6% of CIC Insurance Group
Gideon Muriuki is the long-serving group managing director and chief executive of Co-operative Bank of Kenya, a role he has held since 2001 after joining the lender in the late 1990s. He is widely credited with steering the bank’s turnaround and expansion into one of Kenya’s largest financial groups, and he has also been decorated with national honors including the MBS and CBS.
10) John Kibunga Kimani
Portfolio value: $27.5 million
Holdings: 33.35% of Kakuzi PLC; 10.43% stake in Centum Investment; 0.52% of Nation Media Group
John Kibunga Kimani is a low-profile Kenyan investor who is best known on the Nairobi Securities Exchange as a large, long-term shareholder in several blue chips.
12, 13)Mary-Ann Musangi and Robert Kirubi
Portfolio value: $21.63 million
Holdings: 30.94% of Centum Investment
Mary-Ann Musangi and Robert Kirubi are the siblings who inherited and now steward much of the late Kenyan tycoon Chris Kirubi’s business estate, including key listed-market positions associated with the family’s footprint in Centum and other investments.
14, 15) Sandip Kana Sinh Babla and Alka Sandip Babla
Portfolio value: $16.02 million
Holdings: 0.9631% of KCB Group
Sandip Kana Sinh Babla and Alka Sandip Babla are a low-profile husband-and-wife investing pair who show up in Kenya’s listed-company registers as meaningful minority shareholders, particularly in blue-chip banking names.
16) Desterio A. Oyatsi
Portfolio value: $15.94 million
Holdings: 1.32% of NCBA Group
Desterio A. Oyatsi is a veteran Nairobi lawyer and boardroom figure who is best known in Kenyan markets as the deputy chairman of NCBA Group. He is the managing partner of Shapley, Barret & Company Advocates.
17) Sarit S. Raja Shah
Portfolio value: $13.11 million
Holdings: 2.274% stake in I&M Group
A son of Suresh Bhagwanji R. Shah, he is part of the Shah family’s leadership bench at I & M, mixing operational responsibility with ownership.
18) Sachit S. Raja Shah
Portfolio value: $12.96 million
Holdings: 2.247% stake in I&M Group
Another son of Suresh Bhagwanji R. Shah, founder of I&M Holdings.
19) Daniel Arap Moi family
Portfolio value: $11.04 million
Holdings: 1.03% stake in Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, 12.5% stake in Kapchorua Tea Kenya
The Daniel Arap Moi family hold their investment in publicly traded Kenyan equities through Shawmut Holding.
20) Jimnah M. Mbaru
Portfolio value: $9.09 million
Holdings: 5.15% stake in Britam
Jimnah Mbaru is a veteran Kenyan investment banker and dealmaker best known as the chairman of Dyer & Blair Investment Bank, one of the country’s longest-running brokerages and advisory firms. He has been a prominent figure in Nairobi’s capital markets for decades, including board roles at listed companies such as Britam, and he is often cited in business coverage as part of the old guard that helped shape Kenya’s modern equities market.
