Deputy president William Ruto has acquired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s media house. This follows the acquisition of a controlling stake by Mr. Ruto in Mediamax, a media group that has previously been the property of the Kenyatta family.
Reports say that Mr. Ruto now owns a 60 per cent stake in MediaMax. This is after he acquired another 10 per cent on top of the 50 per cent stake he had bought a while back.
“What is not immediately clear is whether he purchased part of the Kenyatta family’s 38% or the 12% held by a group of Central Kenya investors, who include Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi. However, it is the Kenyatta family that has been looking to sell as it set its eyes on both the Standard Group and Nation Media Group, but no firm deals were secured,” reported a local media news blog.
This latest acquisition positions DP Ruto’s wealth among the leading in the country. Mediamax owns the People daily, and runs K24 TV and Kiswahili radio, Milele FM. It also has a Kikuyu language TV station, Kameme TV, as well as several regional FM stations Kameme FM and Meru FM (Mt Kenya and Nairobi), Pilipili FM (Coast) and Mayan FM (Maasai).