Odinga’s family is an amazingly wealthy family in its own right with a fortune estimated to be in excess of billions. Here are the two business ventures that has helped making this family one of the wealthiest families in Kenya.
Pan African Petroleum Limited
The family’s wealth includes investments in the lucrative petroleum industry. As Energy Minister in Moi’s government he was introduced to the family of Sheikh Abdukeder AlBakari, one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia with interests in petroleum drilling, petroleum exploration and export in the Middle East, Asia, USA and Africa. Through the Saudi contacts, Raila was initiated into the lucrative world of oil business and soon enough he had joined the league of gig independent oil importers via his firm .He struck a concessionary petroleum deal with the Al Bakri Group where he was not only incorporated as a silent partner in the local arm of Al Bakri International but was also supplied with petroleum products from Saudi Arabia at subsidized prices which his firm would sell in the market at normal price.
Spectre International Limited
This company was acquired through the then state-owned Kisumu Molasses Plant .Odinga’s family struck a lucrative deal with Canadian firm Energem whereby the Canadian firm bought 55 per cent of the Kisumu Molasses plant. The Odinga’s family is said to have been paid over about Kshs 420 million to relinquish the control of the molasses plant. The Odinga’s family had paid only Kshs 3.6 million for the property. The Canadians also ploughed in millions of dollars to rehabilitate the plant and it is today one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the country employing hundreds of people and producing at least 70,000 litres of industrial ethanol for local consumption and export. Ethanol from the Kisumu Molasses Plant is used as a fuel additive in east and Central Africa. Among other products coming out of the plant include yeast, carbon dioxide alcohol and related industrial products. A valuation of the plant carried out three years ago placed the Kisumu Molasses Plant at US$100 million (Kshs 10 billion). With the Odinga family owning 40 percent of the plant.