Zimbabwe tycoon Wicknell Chivayo keeps showing up in Ruto's State House and Kenya's opposition wants answers

Wicknell Chivayo has developed a habit of showing up at Kenya's State House. He visited in January 2026, meeting President William Ruto and Deputy President Kithure Kindiki at Sagana State Lodge and posting effusive social media tributes to both men. He was photographed with Ruto and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu at the State House in Nairobi in 2025. And on June 1, a day after Ruto led Madaraka Day celebrations, Chivayo appeared again, this time at the newly built Wajir State Lodge, where he described Kenya's president as "one of Africa's most accomplished and visionary leaders" and revealed he was in talks with Ruto over an unspecified multimillion-dollar investment project.

Kenya's opposition has seen enough.

"Whenever he comes to Kenya, he arrives via Eldoret Airport. We must begin to ask, what is it that they do with William Ruto?" former National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi told reporters on June 5, displaying photographs he claimed showed Chivayo inside the President's office and in meetings with regional leaders. Muturi linked Chivayo to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and argued that the businessman's political connections across southern Africa shield him from the accountability that would ordinarily accompany his business record.

The record is extensive and contested. Wicknell Chivayo, whose full name is Wicknell Timmy Chivayo, was born in 1984 and grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is the director of Intratrek Zimbabwe, an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractor that specialises in renewable energy projects. He rose to public prominence through a lifestyle marked by conspicuous generosity, donating luxury cars to gospel musicians, distributing cash at public events and maintaining a social media presence that is among the most followed in Zimbabwe.

Behind the showmanship, his business record has attracted sustained scrutiny. He was convicted of fraud in 2012 in Zimbabwe, a conviction that did not prevent him from subsequently winning major government contracts. In 2014, Intratrek Zimbabwe was awarded a $173 million contract to build the Gwanda solar power project by the Zimbabwe Power Company. The project was never completed. Multiple investigations described the arrangement as having the hallmarks of a procurement scandal, with funds disbursed without corresponding delivery. Chivayo has denied wrongdoing in connection with the project.

In 2024, Chivayo was associated with a $40 million tender awarded by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for the supply of election materials, a deal that drew allegations of corruption and money laundering in Zimbabwe's parliament and media. He publicly denied those allegations as well. The BBC has reported on his closeness to political power across southern Africa and the persistent questions about how he generates his wealth in a country where ordinary Zimbabweans struggle daily.

The Kenya dimension began in earnest when Chivayo was granted a Kenyan passport in February 2026, a decision that activist and presidential aspirant Boniface Mwangi made public by publishing a list of foreign nationals who had received Kenyan passports. The disclosure prompted immediate public debate about why a Zimbabwean businessman with a fraud conviction and unresolved questions about multiple major contracts had been granted Kenyan citizenship.

The election angle is what gives the opposition's concern its sharpest edge. Kenya is preparing for a 2027 general election, and Kenyan opposition figures have drawn a direct line between Chivayo's presence in the country and concerns about election technology procurement. The Smartmatic connection is at the centre of that argument. Smartmatic supplied Kenya's Kibra Integrated Election Management System kits in a multibillion-shilling contract. Opposition figures claim Chivayo has been involved in brokering election technology in multiple African countries. He has not publicly addressed those specific claims.

Ruto's administration has not commented publicly on the nature of the investment project Chivayo says he is discussing with the president. The administration has also not explained the basis on which Chivayo received a Kenyan passport or what screening process accompanied that grant.

Chivayo himself appears untroubled by the attention. His Wajir State Lodge post described the access he enjoys as a blessing that "no amount of wealth can purchase, and no amount of influence can manufacture." The Kenyan opposition would argue that his access suggests otherwise.