Zedekiah Kiprop Bundotich alias Buzeki is considered one of the wealthiest businessmen in the Rift Valley region. He is the proprietor of the Buzeki group of companies, which specializes in transport and dairy products.
His success in entrepreneurship cannot be told without mentioning pushing hard, sweat, blood, and resilience. Buzeki started small as a hawker for a milk factory in Kilifi county, earning Sh 80 per day.
His hard work earned him a promotion to a salesperson and later to a sales manager. He executed the role perfectly before quitting to try his hand at entrepreneurship.
With years of experience in the milk industry, Buzeki pioneered the introduction of Tuzo Milk and became the largest milk distributor in Coast Province for Spin Knit Kenya Limited (Tuzo holding company).
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He later expanded into the processing and packaging division for dairy products named Buzeki Dairy Limited. According to reports, Buzeki went back and bought the company that had hired him in Kilifi and made it up of his business portfolio.
It was not long before he acquired another plant in Molo. The Kilifi and the Molo-based plants are said to have been sold to Brookside Diaries in a deal estimated to have been worth Sh1.1 billion.
The Standard reported that Buzeki’s wish was to sell the Molo-based company to the Uasin Gishu county to benefit dairy farmers in the region, but the county did not show interest.
“I wanted the locals to have the benefit of the county owning the company. Uasin Gishu people lost a chance to have an investment that would have helped the farmers. Another interested party came and bought it. It’s business. Nothing is wrong with that,” he said.
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After making a name for himself in the dairy industry, the degree holder in sales and marketing decided to explore opportunities in other sectors.
He saw a gap in the logistics sector and was quick to fill it. Buzeki set up a transport company and acquired trucks that transport goods across the East African region.
In 2017, he made his political debut when he contested the Uasin Gishu County gubernatorial seat as an independent candidate but lost to Jackson Mandago.
He vied for the same seat as an independent candidate in the 2022 general elections but lost again to UDA’s Jonathan Bii.
Besides business and politics, Buzeki is a philanthropist who supports and conducts empowerment initiatives for farmers under his Buzeki Foundation.