Man of steel: Devki boss' iron hold on Ruto's government

For some, Narendra Raval appears to live up to the name that he popularly goes by, Guru. 

For others, he is the opposite of your typical guru – the spiritual teacher – and he is instead a man who has a stranglehold on senior most government officials and his dealing with them borders on state capture.

Aside from being able to get President William to grace the launch of his clinker production facility in West Pokot last year, he has successfully lobbied the Government to increase levies on imported clinker, a fight that pitted him against the cement industry but he won.

 

The man started out humble and was in his teens a temple assistant in Kisumu before opting out of the spiritual world to start business.

His is a classic grass-to-grace story, rising from running a hardware store in Gikomba to making billions from the manufacture of roofing sheets, milling steel and producing cement.

Boda boda rides 

Raval, in past interviews, said despite the billions, he has remained humble. Despite owning choppers, he famously said, he easily hops on a boda boda to work or a meeting whenever traffic gets thick and owns one pair of official shoes. He has also spoken at length about his philanthropy, saying he feeds 500 families a day and gives all the money he gets from the sale of his book – Guru: A Long Walk to Success – which he published in 2018 to charity. 

But recent revelations by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, sacked Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi, and the multiyear fights he has had with cement industry players reveal that Raval is not just a shrewd businessman but one who will get his way no matter the cost. 

While Raval has always maintained that he has steered clear from cutting deals with state officials, the two former state officers say not only does he do so but also at the highest level, including with the president. 

Raval is unapologetic for his dalliance with President Ruto but says he has never sought a favour from the President. He told The Saturday Standard that it is a “friendship” that he has cultivated with previous presidents and would do the same with future presidents.

The former DP claimed on Monday that Raval’s companies, which include the steel firm Devki, National Cement (the maker of the Simba Cement brand) and roofing sheets producer Maisha Mabati, have been supplying materials to affordable housing projects across the country. 

Rigathi in a TV interview explained that he was a defender of the project, which Kenya Kwanza inherited from the Jubilee administration and has become one of President Ruto’s pet projects.

But he stopped defending it after he found that it was loaded with business interests and little to offer Kenyans.

“In the first year, I used to (defend the affordable housing project)... until I realised it is a fraud. It is a business venture between Ruto and Devki to sell steel, cement and mabati. I stopped defending it. And even when the president told me to go on TV to defend the housing programme, I told him I would not go,” said Rigathi. 

He further claimed that the fertiliser donated by Russia and Algeria, which he noted was meant to be given to farmers for free, was instead handed to “a business associate” of President Ruto, who then blended it with counterfeit fertiliser and sold it to the government at Sh4,000.

“Russia donated 40,000 metric tonnes while Algeria donated 30,000 metric tonnes, which were later given to Maisha Minerals Limited, owned by Ruto’s business associate. A report was written by Kenya bureau of Standards, but it was shelved because it would have implicated Ruto. I have documents to support these claims,” Gachagua added.

A week earlier in a radio interview, Muturi referred to Raval as a Gupta, in reference to the Gupta brothers from India, who had so much control of South Africa that they personified the term state capture. 

Guptas

“Guru, this guy of Devki, he is one of the Guptas,” said Muturi, explaining that he had accompanied President Ruto on a trip to India and claimed that at some point, Raval offered him a ride on a plane he had chartered for the president coming back to Kenya. 

“During breakfast, on the day we were leaving Delhi, he (Raval) told me, ‘that plane of the president is not good, I have chartered another one for him, we will be going direct.” 

Muturi was making a point on how the President has been getting into major deals, many of them for personal benefit. In the interview, he said he did not take Raval on his offer but chose to use another flight that had a stopover in Dubai, where Ruto called him and told him to sign an agreement with ‘Russian oligarchs’. 

Raval, however, dismissed claims by both Rigathi and Muturi, saying his steel and cement firms do not do business with the government and, hence, have not supplied anything to the different affordable housing projects that are being put up across the country.

In the case of Maisha Mineral handling fertiliser from Algeria and Russia, Raval conceded that his firm was given the job of blending but noted that it only charged.

No ill will

“The (former) DP and the (former) AG know me well,” he said, adding that he was shocked at the claims that they had made on Devki and his other companies but also said he holds no ill will against them. 

“As a company, we have had a policy for 30 years not to fill any government tenders or do any business with the government. I can confirm that we have never supplied even one kilogramme of steel or cement to the low-cost housing projects to date and never will. In selling our products, we have established dealers countrywide. We only supply them and not any contractors or agents or tenderers.”

While he swears not to do business with the government, Devki’s fertiliser firm, Maisha Minerals and Fertiliser, bid and won the contract to blend fertiliser donated by Russia and Algeria. 

A statement by the Agriculture ministry this week said the 33,835 metric tonnes fertilizer received from Russia was in the form of fertiliser raw materials and not suitable for direct application on crops. It had to be blended for use by farmers. 

“Local fertiliser manufacturers were invited to bid competitively for the blending and granulation of the donated raw materials. Maisha Minerals and Fertilisers Limited won the contract to complete the task as a result of this process,” said the Ministry in a statement, saying while the product was free, the further blending and logistical costs were what the farmers ended up paying for.

Raw materials

“Additional raw materials and micronutrients were added during the blending process. The costs incurred—including blending, granulation, and transportation to National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depots—were what was paid to the blending firm.”

The Ministry said the 33,835 metric tonnes of donated raw materials yielded 103,350 metric tonnes (approximately 2.07 million 50-kg bags) of blended, crop-specific fertilisers, which were distributed to farmers across the country.

Raval provided the specific quantity of fertiliser from Algeria handled by his firm. Maisha Minerals received 8,000 tonnes, which after processing yielded 14,035 tonnes of topdress fertiliser.

He said his firm charged Sh2,100 per 50kg bag for processing the fertiliser and packaging it into 50kg bags, while NCPB would sell it to farmers for Sh2,500. He however insisted that his firm “never supplied any direct imported fertiliser”.

He further denied Muturi’s claims of having chartered a plane for the President or anyone else in government and even said he is open to being investigated for the truth to be established. 

“I do not need any favour from any politician or government official or even the President. I am doing my duty towards Kenya in creating jobs and ensuring that the country is independent of imported goods,” he said, noting that he has over the years done honest business, ending up with his current empire that he says employs 14,000 Kenyans and projects that his expansion plans will increase direct jobs to 25,000, which he will do without favours.

“If protecting local industries and jobs of Kenyans is a crime, let it be so.”

In April last year, President Ruto officiated over the launch of the National Cement’s clinker plant in West Pokot. The high profile function got many talking about the closeness between Raval and the President, particularly how the industrialist had Ruto’s ear. 

But Raval said he has cultivated relations with past presidents. He said he had in the past invited Presidents Moi, Kibaki and Uhuru to launch different factories during their tenures as president. This, he said, was the case with President Ruto, adding that  Ruto is not “my partner and has not been giving me favours… I do not need any favour from anyone.”

“Is it a crime to call the Head of State to showcase investment and request favorable laws in the country to attract more investors to expand and create more employment? If we do not have industries, we will have no jobs,” he said.

“Whoever will be the next president will also be my friend. Let politicians do their job and leave us to do our job and build the country.”

At the function, Raval stunned many when he said President Ruto should be given 25 years to change Kenya. This, Raval now says, is his opinion and that he was expressing gratitude to the President for agreeing to “come all the way to West Pokot” for the launch. He also adds that despite this being his opinion, “I am one person and cannot change the Constitution. But saying it is not a crime and there is freedom of speech”.

However, some, especially in the cement industry, might look at President Ruto’s opening of the clinker production facility as connected to other happenings that had been taking place. 

Earlier in 2023, the government had imposed a 17.5 per cent levy on imported clinker, which would make it hard for local cement firms to use imported clinker and remain profitable. National Cement is the largest producer of clinker locally. With some of the cement producers having inadequate local clinker production capacity, the new levy set Raval to being a monopoly in supply of clinker to his competitors. 

West Pokot plant

The plant in West Pokot increased National Cement’s clinker production by two million tonnes annually to a total of seven million tonnes. It produces clinker at its other plants in Mombasa, Athi River and Emali.

Raval was for years engaged in a battle with other cement manufacturers over raising the levy on imported clinker and had since 2018 been pushing for import duty to be hiked to 25 per cent from 10 per cent.

With the 17.5 per cent Export and Investment Promotion Levy (EIPL) on clinker, which is in addition to the 10 per cent import duty, Guru had won.

The levy had been in place for the second half of 2023 and saw clinker importation fell 77 per cent over the year. Industry estimated that in 2020, players – including those who claimed clinker sufficiency – had been importing about 40 per cent of the clinker used locally.

The National Treasury, in the draft Budget Policy Statement, says the levy saved the economy Sh20 billion in foreign exchange.

“To accelerate local manufacturing, the government imposed levies on the importation of clinker, saving the country Sh20 billion in foreign exchange, as clinker imports dropped to zero,” said Treasury.