Muhoho Kenyatta, son of Kenya's founding president, is revealed as NCBA's top individual shareholder with a $154 million stake

Muhoho Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding president Jomo Kenyatta and younger brother of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, has been publicly identified for the first time as the largest individual shareholder in NCBA Group, holding 227.3 million shares in the bank currently valued at Sh20 billion ($153.8 million), a disclosure made in connection with Nedbank Group's offer to acquire a controlling 66% stake in the Kenyan lender.

The revelation, contained in a May 4 circular to shareholders, makes Muhoho's NCBA holding the largest disclosed personal fortune on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. It also establishes that his stake is substantially larger than anything previously known publicly, with prior disclosures showing him as a direct holder of only 12.7 million shares worth Sh1.1 billion ($8.5 million). The additional 214.6 million shares are held indirectly through investment vehicles that trace back to the Kenyatta family's long association with the Commercial Bank of Africa, the institution that merged with NIC Group in September 2019 to create NCBA Group.

Muhoho, who is approximately 60 years old, joined the NCBA board as a non-executive director on December 1, 2025, during the period when buyout talks with Nedbank were already underway. His status as a director triggered the disclosure requirement that has now brought the full scale of his family's stake into public view.

The Sh20 billion position will earn him a dividend of Sh1.6 billion ($12.3 million) for the year ended December 2025.

Two founding families

NCBA's shareholder register is built around 2 founding family legacies that predate the bank's current form. The Kenyatta family's investment vehicle Enke Investments holds 217.4 million shares, equivalent to a 13.2% stake, separate from Muhoho's personal and indirect holdings. The total Kenyatta family position across all disclosed vehicles is therefore substantially larger than any single line on the register suggests.

The Ndegwa family, descendants of the late Philip Ndegwa who served as Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, hold their primary position through First Chartered Securities, which controls 246.1 million shares representing a 14.94% stake. Individual Ndegwa family members hold personal positions on top. Andrew Ndegwa, a non-executive director, holds 77.6 million shares worth Sh6.83 billion ($52.5 million) and will receive a dividend of Sh551.3 million ($4.24 million). His brother James Ndegwa, who chairs the board, holds 76.6 million shares worth Sh6.74 billion ($51.8 million) with a dividend of Sh543.9 million ($4.18 million).

The comparative picture on the NSE puts Muhoho's position in sharp relief. Equity Group CEO James Mwangi, who built Equity into East Africa's largest bank by customer numbers over 25 years, holds 127.8 million shares in Equity worth Sh9.6 billion ($73.8 million), earning a dividend of Sh734.9 million ($5.65 million). I&M Group director Suresh Shah holds 174.9 million shares worth Sh8.6 billion ($66.2 million) with a dividend of Sh656 million ($5.05 million). Muhoho's Sh20 billion surpasses both by a significant margin.

The Nedbank deal

South Africa's Nedbank Group has made a cash-and-stock offer to NCBA shareholders for a 66% controlling stake, valued in total at 13.9 billion rand ($751 million), equivalent to approximately Sh109.3 billion. Shareholders can tender 66% of their holdings. Of what Nedbank acquires, 80% will be converted into Nedbank shares at a rate of 4.02994 Nedbank shares for every 100 NCBA shares, with those Nedbank shares priced at 250 rand ($13.51) equivalent to Sh1,928.50. The remaining 20% of tendered shares will be purchased in cash at Sh2,100 per 100 NCBA shares, or Sh21 per share. Shareholders too small to qualify for at least 200 Nedbank shares will receive a cash price of Sh105 per NCBA share.

Nedbank has capped its cash outlay at Sh31.6 billion ($243 million) and its share issuance at 43.8 million Nedbank shares. NCBA will remain listed on the NSE after the transaction with minority investors retaining a 34% float.

For Muhoho and the Kenyatta family, the deal presents a significant transformation: those who accept Nedbank's offer will convert most of their NCBA exposure into shares of one of South Africa's largest banking groups, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. NCBA's board endorsed that outcome, describing the JSE as one of the most liquid exchanges in emerging markets offering natural portfolio diversification, deep market depth and banking sector exposure backed by robust South African regulation.

Who Muhoho is

Muhoho Kenyatta is the lastborn child of Jomo Kenyatta and Mama Ngina Kenyatta. He was educated at St. Mary's School in Nairobi before going to Williams College in the United States, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1985. He has led the Kenyatta family's business operations for decades, with his most visible role as Executive Chairman and CEO of Brookside Dairy Limited, which he co-founded in 1993 and has built into East Africa's largest dairy processor, with a partnership with French food giant Danone that holds a 40% stake in the company.

Before the CBA-NIC merger, he served as Vice-Chairman of Commercial Bank of Africa, cementing his role as the family's banking steward. He is known for a deliberately low public profile. He has rarely given media interviews and does not seek political attention, preferring to manage the family's portfolio from behind the scenes. The Kenyatta family's interests span NCBA, Brookside Dairy, MediaMax Network, Heritage Hotels East Africa, Peponi School and vast land holdings across Kenya, giving them a combined net worth that the family has never publicly disclosed but which independent estimates have placed above $2.5 billion in domestic assets alone.

The NCBA disclosure has brought a portion of that wealth into the open in a way the family has never before had to accommodate. The Nedbank transaction, if completed, will convert much of that concentrated Kenyan banking position into a globally diversified financial services holding, the first such transformation of the Kenyatta family's institutional wealth since independence.