Kenyan billionaire Joshua Kulei surfaces as beneficiary in $3.5 billion government contracts

Joshua Kulei, the former aide to President Daniel arap Moi whose wealth and political connections survived three presidential administrations, has now surfaced as a beneficial owner in companies tied to two of President William Ruto's biggest infrastructure programmes, according to records obtained by Business Daily Africa.

Records at the Registrar of Companies show Kulei holds a beneficial stake in Liaison Capital Limited, a subsidiary of the Liaison Group financial services company. Liaison Capital is a key developer in the Sh42 billion ($320 million) Talanta Sports City project and the Sh415 billion ($3.2 billion) Kenya Defence Forces housing programme, one of the largest public-private partnership projects in the country's history.

The military housing programme involves construction of approximately 3,069 residential units across five sites: Roysambu in Nairobi, Kwambuzi in Laikipia, Mariakani in Kilifi, and Lanet and Gilgil in Nakuru County. Roysambu has been completed. Progress stands at 82 percent in Kwambuzi, 85 percent in Lanet, 63 percent in Mariakani and 66 percent in Gilgil, according to April disclosures from the National Treasury's PPP Directorate.

As shareholders in the Liaison-linked entities, Kulei and other beneficial owners stand to receive returns generated above the project cost through the debt financing and equity participation structures built into the PPP model.

Kulei rose from prison warder to one of Moi's most trusted aides during the former president's 24-year rule. By the time Moi left office in 2002, Kulei had assembled a business empire under Sovereign Group Limited, spanning logistics, media, agriculture, hospitality and real estate. The group's ownership is structured through Ruby Trust Limited and Sovereign Trust, an arrangement that has historically made it difficult to trace beneficial ownership.

His legal record has followed him across administrations. In 2009, he was permanently banned from traveling to the United States over alleged large-scale corruption. He was charged in 2017 with obtaining money through the sale of Kenya Airports Authority land. In 2019, he was charged with conspiracy to defraud the Kenya Pipeline Company of approximately Ksh65 million, a case that was subsequently discontinued. In 2024, a court petition alleged he illegally acquired nearly 935 acres of Agricultural Development Corporation land in Nakuru County, now valued at more than Ksh14 billion, through political connections. His Sian Roses flower farm operates on that land. Kulei has denied all the allegations, maintaining his acquisitions were legal.

His re-emergence in government-linked PPP projects under Ruto is consistent with a pattern that stretches across every Kenyan presidency since Moi. Under Uhuru Kenyatta, Sovereign Group and a company linked to the family of former Cabinet Minister Simeon Nyachae secured a multibillion-shilling joint venture to redevelop the Pangani estate in Nairobi under the affordable housing programme. The Kulei and Ruto families have long-standing ties that predate the current administration.

Business Daily Africa did not allege wrongdoing in the Liaison Capital ownership structure. The company has not issued a statement in response to the report.