When the Narc government rose to power, ending President Daniel arap Moi’s 24-year rule, it appeared as though most of Moi’s “untouchables” would also capitulate.
It did not take long before Moi’s longest-serving and reclusive personal assistant, Joshua Kulei, was summoned to the CID headquarters — now the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) — for questioning over the Goldenberg scandal, one of the country’s biggest financial scandals involving the fraudulent payment of export compensation for fictitious gold and diamond exports in the 1990s.
Thereafter, Mr Kulei, who had amassed an enviable fortune during the period he oversaw President Moi’s private business interests, saw his name feature in one probe after another.
Ultimately, however, little appears to have come from the investigations and inquiries. Instead, more than two decades later, Mr Kulei seems to be doubling down on his big-money deals.
Mr Kulei has emerged as a shareholder in a firm linked to multi-billion-shilling public infrastructure projects financed through novel funding models, as the Kenya Kwanza administration races to deliver its flagship programmes.
It is a reflection of the camaraderie that Mr Kulei and his associates appear to enjoy with President William Ruto — himself a protégé of former President Moi — and who is likely to have interacted closely with the businessman during the years when Kulei served as the second President’s influential confidant.
Records at the Registrar of Companies show that Mr Kulei is among the beneficial owners of Liaison Capital Limited, a subsidiary of financial services giant Liaison Group. Mr Kulei rose from a prison warder to become one of former President Moi’s “untouchables”, in the league of the late Nicholas Biwott, famously known as the “Total Man.”
Liaison Capital is behind multi-billion-shilling development projects, including the Sh42 billion Talanta Sports City and the Sh415 billion military housing programme, some of the government’s flagship public-private partnership (PPP) projects. The firm has also submitted a privately initiated proposal to build a grand headquarters for the Attorney-General’s office under a PPP arrangement.
The media-shy tycoon has an estimated 32.99 percent stake in Liaison Capital through his investment vehicle, Sovereign Group, making him the firm’s second-largest shareholder.
Liaison Capital is one of the two partners in Linzi Finco LLP, the special purpose infrastructure financing vehicle behind Talanta Sports City, now renamed Raila Odinga International Stadium.
Through Sovereign Trust Limited, Mr Kulei holds a 33 percent stake in Liaison Capital, underscoring the growing business footprint of the long-time Moi associate, whose interests span hospitality, aviation, flower exports, education, media and logistics.
Mr Kulei’s holding company, Sovereign Group, owns 3,209,999 shares in Sovereign Trust, while Ruby Trust Limited holds one share. His two sons, Christopher Kiplagat Kulei and Kennedy Kipruto Kulei, are directors of Sovereign Trust.
He owns 999 ordinary shares in Sovereign Group, giving him an indirect interest of close to 33 percent in Liaison Capital, the main partner in Linzi Finco LLP. Kennedy, one of his sons, owns one ordinary share in Sovereign Group.
Politically, President William Ruto and the Moi family may no longer see eye to eye, but his administration appears to have no qualms doing business with Mr Kulei.
For a long time, Mr Kulei’s business dealings and those of former President Moi were so intricately linked that it was difficult to separate the two.
As personal assistant to President Moi, Mr Kulei — though quiet and unassuming in manner and style — amassed so much power that he was arguably among the four most powerful, influential and wealthy figures in the Moi government.
However, it is said that after Moi vacated office and his son Gideon Moi aggressively moved to consolidate control of the family fortune, Mr Kulei was initially pushed into the cold. This may explain the humiliation he suffered when he was asked to record statements before junior police officers.
Mr Kulei, a Baringo “homeboy” who owed much of his fortune to Mr Moi, was viewed as the perfect man to earn the former President’s unequivocal trust.
A man of modest education, Mr Kulei started out as a low-level clerk at State House before rising to become perhaps the most powerful man around the President.
Mr Philemon Chelagat, a close friend and agemate of Mr Moi, had introduced Mr Kulei to the future President when Moi was still Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs under President Jomo Kenyatta.
When Mr Chelagat introduced the young Kulei to Mr Moi, all he wanted was for his jobless nephew to secure a position in the Prisons Department.
Mr Kulei was subsequently employed as a prison warder in Nakuru, eventually rising to the rank of corporal. He often supervised groups of prisoners assigned to work on Mr Moi’s farm in Nakuru.
Over time, and with some assistance from Mr Chelagat, Mr Kulei slowly won the Vice-President’s trust and confidence.
When President Kenyatta died and Mr Moi ascended to power in 1978, the new Head of State needed trusted individuals to handle his private business affairs.
Initially, the Comptroller of State House and Private Secretary, the late Andrew Limo, played that role. When Mr Kiptanui later took over after Mr Limo’s death, he continued in the same vein until President Moi deemed it fit to separate official State business from his private dealings. That was when Mr Kulei was picked for the influential role of personal assistant to the President.
By then, Mr Kulei had quit his mundane job as a prison warder and started a new career as a stores clerk at State House.
Hailing from Mr Moi’s Baringo District and being the nephew of one of the President’s closest friends helped place Mr Kulei in the right place at the right time. He also enjoyed a close working relationship with Mr Henry Cheboiwo, then one of the most powerful men around the new President.
Born in May 1948 in Baringo District, Mr Kulei became even more influential after Nicholas Biwott fell into trouble in 1991 following the murder of Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko. Mr Biwott was briefly edged out of mainstream politics after his arrest.
A quiet but extremely shrewd operator, Mr Kulei moved swiftly to fill the vacuum created by Mr Biwott’s temporary exit from the centre of power.
By the time Mr Biwott staged a comeback after the 1992 General Election, Mr Kulei had firmly entrenched himself at the heart of President Moi’s inner circle.
By the early 1990s, he had become the nerve centre of a vast network of business holdings in which the President had interests.
Mr Kulei ventured into business through companies linked to Moi-era elites before building his own investment vehicle, Sovereign Group, with interests spanning logistics, hospitality, media, floriculture, insurance and real estate.
Today, companies linked to Mr Kulei include logistics firms Siginon Group, Regional Logistics Centre and Kenya Aerotech, which operate in cargo handling and aviation services.
He is also associated with flower exporter Sian Roses, Chemusian Tea Estate, hospitality ventures such as Maasai Ostrich Resort, Merica Hotel and Crater Lake, as well as electronics dealer Mobile World Regent Group.
Mr Kulei’s interests further span real estate firm SPC Properties, agribusinesses Kenya Bixa and African Diatomite Industries, construction materials company Quality Quarries Kenya, private security provider 911 Security Group, insurer Fidelity Insurance and media house The Standard Group PLC. Other ventures linked to him include Afribridge Trade Exporters and Sunshine Secondary School.
