For posterity, some billionaires will collect iconic paintings or jewelry made of precious metals, such as a gold ruby or a diamond crown ring.
Others will snap up extra acres of land or luxury houses to inflate their largesse. Then there are those like John Kibunga Kimani who are tickled by accumulating stocks. Those who have fallen in love with companies, for better or for worse.
Mr Kimani, who recently increased his shareholding in Centum Investments, loves to hoard shares. He relishes buying shares of companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and holding them for the long run. Patience is not just a virtue to him; it is his character.
Virtually all the investment decisions Mr Kimani has made over the years paint a picture of a stoic investor; a man who can sit through the most violent storms—including an inordinately extended bear market—without flinching. To Kimani, investment is a long-term game that, as the Russian author Leo Tolstoy would put it, can only be won with time and patience.
Silently and consistently, he has built up a multi-billion portfolio which includes shares in Kakuzi Plc, Safaricom, Centum Investments, East African Breweries Limited and the Nation Media Group. At 79, his fascination with accumulating shares has barely tapered off.
In the six months to December last year, Mr Kimani increased his stake at Centum Investments to a new high of 9.7 percent, after buying additional shares worth Sh233.6 million, to cement his position as the second largest shareholder of Centum, regulatory filings show.
Earlier in 2023, he bought additional Safaricom shares valued at Sh113.12 million, cementing his position as the telco's second-largest East African individual shareholder.
Although Mr Kimani's every decision at the NSE is followed closely, his name does not elicit excitement like that of, for example, James Mwangi, the Equity Bank CEO. Financial journalists have christened him reclusive.
A reclusive tycoon. He is described as reclusive partly because he has not been easily available for interviews or he has hardly been spotted hobnobbing with top honchos in the corporate world. He is a lone hunter.
Save for the activities at the NSE, little is known about Mr Kimani's personality or philosophy. But by gleaning over the regulatory filings which have shown how he has kept on increasing his shareholding, especially in Kakuzi Plc, where he is the second largest shareholder behind British Camellia, a philosophy emerges.
His reclusiveness is typical of the billionaires in Murang’a, who have built business empires in real estate, finance, agriculture and hospitality without being ostentatious about it. Those who know him say the bespectacled man drives a jalopy and owns a few suits. He is a stark reminder that real money is silent.
Mr Kimani was born a squatter 79 years ago in Makuyu, Murang’a County, where Kakuzi Plc has its headquarters. For a long time, the community around Kakuzi, of which Mr Kimani is part of, has accused Kakuzi of taking their ancestral lands leaving them squatters on their soil. Kakuzi controls 32,900 acres of land in Murang’a County.
Between 1902 and 1966, Kakuzi—formerly known as Kakuzi Fibreland Limited—amassed extensive land holdings acquired from former British settlers in Kenya.
“These settlers had obtained land primarily through legal mechanisms and forceful dispossession during the colonial era,” noted the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO).
The NGO adds that in the early 1960s, Kakuzi relinquished the parcels to the Kenyan government and secured a 999-year lease in 1966.
“However, these communities were not resettled on their land. Today, descendants of the original farming communities rely on waged labor on Kakuzi farms and endure harsh living conditions,” added the NGO.
Since then, the communities have been agitating for what they believe is their land. They have sent petitions to the National Land Commission which is supposed to address some of the historical injustices. Inevitably, Mr Kimani has been caught up in this fight.
Despite growing his stake in Kakuzi to over 30 percent from a low two percent in 2005, to becoming the second largest shareholder, it was not until November 2020 that he was allowed onto the board of the agricultural firm.
Earlier in 2018, Kakuzi rejected Mr Kimani's intention to join the board of Kakuzi despite being the second largest shareholder.
Mr Kimani was not only a major shareholder who deserved a seat in Kakuzi's boardroom, but he also had the right professional qualifications. He has a Bachelor's degree in agriculture, a Master's degree in agricultural economics, and PhD in Development Studies, Economics and Socio-Anthropology. Just what Kakuzi needs.
He even had cheerleaders in the form of local shareholders during the annual general meeting in 2018.
"Somebody who has invested quite a lot of money in this company, don't you think you can get a lot of value from him? What is your, if he comes to the board?" posed a shareholder.
However, the then chairman Graham Mclean said the board of the NSE-listed firm had no room for additional directors.
“It is something that is under continuous review by the board to consider directors for the future,” said Mclean in response to queries from shareholders on whether the board would bring Mr Kimani on board.
Mr Kimani himself suspected that being the son of the soil, Kakuzi feared that the tycoon, whose foundation-Kakuzi Neighbourhoods Development Foundation has also been buying shares in Kakuzi, would rock the boat from within if allowed a seat on the boardroom.
"They may think I will be disruptive but I would like to assure them that I am at the heart of Kakuzi," Mr Kimani said at the forum.
It was not until Kakuzi’s boardroom was shaken following claims of human rights violation orchestrated by its employees that Mr Kimani was offered a seat on its board of directors.
Meanwhile, the Kakuzi squatters, through the Kimani-backed Kakuzi Neighbourhoods Development Foundation, have found a different path to reclaiming their lost lands: Owning the company they accuse of disenfranchising them.
In 2022, Kakuzi Neighbourhoods Development Foundation, increased their shareholding in the agricultural firm by 250,000 shares to 466,598 shares for Sh101.5 million going by the then Kakuzi’s average share price of Sh405.80 in that year.
No one knows how Mr Kimani wants this game to end. And although age is catching up with him, he has not run out of patience. Perhaps Kakuzi Neighbourhoods will carry on his dreams. Perhaps his estate.
Yet the man himself remains a mystery, preferring to pull strings behind the shadows. But the ideas behind the man—of patience and time— are quite conspicuous.
