The transport and logistics industry in Kenya has been on the rise over the years, thanks to Kenya’s strategic location along the East African coastline, and the ever growing East African economy.
The industry has seen the growth of several transport and logistic companies in Kenya, offering employment to hundreds of thousands of Kenyans, while immensely contributing to the growth of the country’s economy.
WoK in this article lists a number of Kenyans who own these multi-million companies.
Bundotich Zedekiah Kiprop (Buzeki)
The billionaire Uasin Gishu gubernatorial aspirant is among the wealthiest individuals in the country. He boasts a vast investment portfolio cutting across various sectors of the Kenyan economy.
The businessman is the Group Executive Director and Founder of the Buzeki Group of Companies which has interests in transport and agriculture. He owns two companies that are vested in transport and logistics; Buzeki Enterprises Limited (Transport Solutions Provider), and Transtruckers Logistics Group Limited (General Supplies Sourcing & Distribution).
Buzeki who holds a higher international diploma in Sales and Marketing from Cambridge University and a degree in sales and marketing, ventured into the transport business in 2004. He managed to get contracts with corporate institutions like Bamburi Cement Ltd, UN-WFP among others, leading to the growth of his multi-billion empire.
Governor Hassan Joho
The Mombasa governor is a wealthy man, and he never shies away from flaunting his opulence.
Joho is a successful businessman and holds interests in various sectors, however, his and his family’s stake in the logistics and transport business is the most popular of their investments.
The governor and his family own Portside Freight Terminals Limited – a cargo services, logistics and transport company based in Mombasa. It is considered one of the leading cargo services companies in the country and has been in operation for about 16 years, offering various services to different clients across the country.
Over the years, the company has made headlines, bagging some of the most lucrative tenders dished out by the government. In some instances, the company has come under scrutiny over the nature of the tenders it has bagged, putting Joho and his family on the spot.
Portside Freight Terminals was incorporated in the year 2006 and is located just a kilometre from The Port of Mombasa in Shimanzi off Zanzibar Road, next to Missions or Seamen.
It focuses its expertise to Cargo services, Transportation, Warehousing services and Supply base for Oil and Gas,with fully equipped supply base.
The company owns a 90,000 sq. ft warehouse, a 165,000sq.ft transit shade (shed7/8) inside the Kilindini port which handles all types of transit and local cargo including stripping of containers and handling of local and transit motor vehicle. It boasts a one stop modern logistics centre to handle all your logistics requirements on land, sea and air.
Moi Family
The family of late President Daniel Arap Moi owns Siginon Group Limited, a conglomerate with with interests in cargo freight, land and air transport. Siginon Group owns Siginon Clearing and Forwarding Services (CFS), Siginon Aviation, and Siginon Transport Ltd.
Siginon CFS is a customs licensed terminal in Mombasa located approximately 5 kilometers from the Port of Mombasa. The CFS facility serves both importers and exporters, both local and transit goods imported and exported in shipping containers or in loose form i.e. in bulk.
In 2021, the Moi Family sold a controlling 51 per cent stake to Kuwait based, National Aviation Services (NAS). Siginon Aviation provides airport ground handling and cargo management services. The company did not disclose the cost of the deal, but it said the enterprise value is about Ksh4.4 billion ($40 million).
Joshua Kulei
Kulei, a former personal assistant to President Moi has interests in various high profile companies in the country. He too has interests in the country’s transport and logistics industry.
According to a report by Business Daily, Kulei controls a 12 per cent stake in Siginon Group Limited.
Vanessa Evans
She is the owner and managing director of Rongai Workshop and Transport Limited. The company is one of the longest established and most respected road transport businesses in Kenya.
The transport and logistics company was founded the late Gordon Eccles in 1947 in Rongai, Nakuru, originally as an agricultural workshop supplying and servicing machinery and building trailers for the rural farming community in the area.
Vanessa Evans oversees the business that her late father built on a shoestring budget nearly seven decades ago. He passed on in 2010.
Rongai Workshop & Transport Ltd which has been in the transport and logistics business since 1947, has a fleet size of over 100 prime movers with 117 skeletal 20’/40’ skeletal trailers with load capacities of up to 30 tons providing great flexibility for our customers’ needs. We also have 5 low loaders, the longest being 11.7 metres.
The company’s Head Office is based in Rongai, Nakuru and has well-resourced depos in Syokimau, Nairobi and another at Port Reitz, Mombasa. Rongai has invested heavily in H.S.S.E, A.E.O. certification, logistics systems and processes, training, maintenance and deployment of our assets and resources.
P.N. Mashru
P.N. Mashru was founded in 1985 on the principle of “Endeavour & Achieve” by the Directors of the Company who embarked upon an ambitious and progressive growth plan with a focused vision, which is to be the transporter of choice in the East and Central Africa region by setting the highest standards of integrity, safety and best environmental practices whilst offering clients a requirement oriented logistics solution.
In 1997, P.N. Mashru Ltd began its own clearing and forwarding department and was an appointed Kenya Revenue Authority clearing and forwarding agent. Therefore, the company is able to offer customers a one stop shop for all the supply chain services related to clearing of all sea/air freight services thus, project cargo, containers, loose cargo, bulk cargo, etc.
In addition to clearing of local cargo, the company also clears transit cargo to neighbouring land locked countries. To maximise efficiency of transporting transit cargo, P N Mashru has invested in owning their own bonded warehouse and yard facility.
P.N. Mashru Ltd started as a transport company with one ford truck, but today this department operates a fleet of over 300 trucks comprising of normal side body trucks, flat beds, skeletal trailers, tipping trailers, and tankers operating locally and across borders. The heavy haulage department is equipped with trucks and trailers for abnormal cargo with various loading capacities from 1 ton up to 200 tons.
The company also has three yards of different sizes; 3 acres, 10 acres and 34 acres respectively; all yards are strategically located along the main Northern Corridor connecting Mombasa port to the rest of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Southern Sudan.
Within the yards, P.N. Mashru has modern warehouses for storage of different types of cargo with 24hour security and surveillance.
