Kasarani Member of Parliament Ronald Karauri has revealed that his current job as an MP hasn’t earned him much like his ten-year career as a Kenya Airways pilot.
Karauri, a retired pilot, also earned money from his betting company, Sportpesa, before assuming his legislative role.
When he and his business partners set up Sportpesa, the company made Sh12.6 billion in its first five years.
“In my current job as an MP, I have gained nothing. All I do is give and give, I do not see any benefits [in return]. Because when I came in, it was because I realized there was a problem. We have a big leadership problem in Kenya and that’s why I joined to change it from within,’’ he said.
The salary of a Kenyan MP in the financial year 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 is a gross monthly salary of Ksh725,502.
The amount consists of a basic salary of KSh 435,301, additional allowances in the form of a house allowance of KSh 150,000, an official commuter allowance, and a salary market adjustment of KSh 140,201.
Karauri further dismissed claims that he joined politics to protect his Sportpesa business, which has faced a lot of backlash from the government.
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“That’s a misconception because from where we were, we were now able to protect the business. Pevans (the company that owns Sportpesa) was shut down by the government and we managed to get another company and get Sportpesa up and running. At that point, we understood how to survive,” he said.
SportPesa was started in 2014 and it went on to make some of the biggest sponsorship deals including multi-billion deals with English Premier League clubs Arsenal, Everton, Southampton and the relegated Hull City.
It was suspended from operations in 2019. Since then, its owners are rocked in a dispute over how over Sh. 20 billion was shipped out of the country.
According to a report that appeared in the Business Daily, the fight has local owners Paul Ndung’u and Asenath Wacera on one side and SportPesa’s Bulgarian owners with Karauri on the other side.
At the heart of this fight is the allegation that Sh. 29.1 billion was transferred from the company’s accounts to overseas accounts without the approval of some owners.
“Businessman Paul Wanderi Ndung’u and Asenath Wacera Maina, who have a combined stake of 38 percent, reckon they were not informed of the Milestone deal, which was made public by Karauri on Friday.
Ndung’u reckons that local top shareholders of Pevans East Africa, the entity behind SportPesa in Kenya, were excluded from buying shares in the holding company — SportPesa Global Holding Limited (SGHL) — leading to dilution of their ownership in the UK-based firm,” the report says.
Ndung’u owns a 17 percent stake in Pevans and 2.8 percent of SGHL while foreign owners led by Bulgarians own 80 percent of SGHL 47 percent in Pevans. Karauri owns a six percent stake in Pevans East Africa while Wacera owns 21 percent stake in Pevans.
Peter Kihanya Muiruri, a cousin of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, owns a one percent stake. American Gene Grand owns 21 percent, Bulgarians Valentina Nikolaeva Mineva three percent and Ivan Stoyanov Kalpakchiev two percent.
