Evans Kidero Wealth: It was court revelations that revealed the money behind Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, who is currently aspiring to be the Governor of Homa Bay.
Revelations on his vast wealth came as part of Mr. Kidero’s fight against claims that his wealth and income have been disproportionate over the years.
Evans Kidero wealth:
He started to accumulate his wealth in 1983 when he was employed as a production pharmacist. Between 1985 and 2012, he had earned Sh. 1.3 billion. This amount was gathered from salaries, allowances, pensions, executive allowances, bonuses, rent and stocks. Strikingly, most of Kidero’s money did not come from employment according to his own account.
He said he earned Sh. 700 million from investment, Sh. 270 million from rent, Sh. 200 million from stocks overseas and Sh. 300 million from stocks option.
“As early as 1994 I had learnt the art of saving and investing. I started to make several individuals oversees investments in equity which have continued to grow to date,” Kidero said. He added: “As early as 1995 I had already started making investments of long-term share options and Executive Share Options with SmithKline Beecham in a bid to grow my wealth.”
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In a clear demonstration of his financial war chest, Kidero said he owns shares in at least eight firms. These are Gem Apartments Limited, Lakeview Apartments Limited, Gem Villas Limited, Gem invest Limited, Gemsuites Limited and Vista Investment Limited. He had also bought shares in Family Bank Limited and Radio Africa.
Kidero claimed his wealth started trickling in soon after he left the University of Nairobi’s School of Pharmacy in 1983. He gave examples of some ten prime properties that he acquired mostly in the 1990s.
In 1987, for instance, he acquired Nairobi/Block 106/220 measuring 0.0139 HA jointly with with his late wife, Abigael. The two again jointly acquired Nairobi/Block 91/156 measuring 0. 28HA in 1991.
Kidero said he earned in excess of Sh. 15.5 million from employment between 1985-1991.
He was first employed as a production pharmacist by PAC Laboratories in December 1984 before moving on to Warner Lambert (East Africa) Ltd in February 1985. In January 1989 he moved to SmithKline & French Laboratories as Field Sales Manager. By June 1990, Kidero says he had become Marketing Director of Glaxo East Africa Limited. It’s in these stations that the former county chief says he first made his millions.
“On 7 October 1991, I was employed by SmithKline Beecham as its Managing Director of East and Central Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique in respect of SmithKline Beecham’s Pharmaceutical products distributed and sold throughout the territory and got promoted severally,” he said.
Between 1992 and 2000, Kidero said he earned in excess of Sh. 65 million as salary, allowances and bonuses from SmithKline Beecham.
He said that in January 1999, he was given additional responsibilities by the same firm to oversee West Africa in Lagos, Nigeria.
But in August 2001, he quit the pharmaceutical sector after he was appointed Managing Director of Nation Media Group until 2003.
During his three-year tenure, Kidero said he earned in excess of Sh. 72 million. He quit Nation in October 2003 to become Managing Director of Mumias Sugar Company.
During his 9-year stint at the helm of the sugar miller, Kidero says he made Sh. 300 million from from salary, allowances, pensions, executive allowances and bonuses.
He said during his time as MD, Mumias consistently made huge profits and was run down after his departure.
Over the 27 years’ period between 1985 and 2012, Kidero says gratuity from all his income was in excess of Sh. 125 million.
Which means that from his employment alone, Kidero had made Sh. 578 million. But this does not include the wealth of his wife, Susan.
Susan is the former President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and the group director of the Eurasia Africa Group (EAG) for women’s economic empowerment at Coca-Cola.
Kidero said his income assessments are the subject of arbitration with the Kenya Revenue Authority.