Ndindi Nyoro to get Ksh13.8m dividend from Kenya Power

Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro is set to earn Ksh13.77 million dividends from his investment in Kenya Power.

This follows the utility’s historic performance in the year ended June 2024, where it earned a record net profit of Ksh30.08 billion.

This was a drastic turnaround from a record net loss of Ksh3.19 billion that the company made in the year to June 2023 when the company was heavily hit by high finance costs due to local currency depreciation.

The performance, which was driven by a strong shilling and increased electricity sales, saw Kenya Power announce a Ksh0.70 dividends per share.

Kenya Power will pay the dividend on or before January 31, 2025 if it is approved by shareholders during its scheduled annual general meeting (AGM). The book closure date for the dividend is December 2, 2024.

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It is its first dividend since 2017, handing a timely relief to its shareholders who had endured a 7-year dividend drought.

One of these shareholders is the Kiharu MP, who owned 20.72 million shares in the company at the beginning of the year.

The government of Kenya retains a stake of 50.1% in the power distributor, while private shareholders own 49.9%.

It is so far unclear whether Nyoro has since sold or bought more Kenya Power shares.

But going by his shareholding at the start of 2024, the lawmaker will get a dividend of Ksh14.5 million before it is taxed at 5% in line with the law, leaving him with Ksh13.77 million.

Nyoro raised eyebrows in 2022 when he started to purchase the company’s shares aggressively.

At the time, the Kenya Kwanza coalition under which he serves had just clinched power and he was given the powerful docket of the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman.

Observers viewed Nyoro’s moves with a keen eye, believing he was likely privy to some privileged information that was not available to the public that enabled him to make the purchases.

Kenya Power’s announcement of a first dividend in seven years has pushed its share price at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to Ksh4.70 per unit on Wednesday.

This puts the value of Nyoro’s shareholding in the utility at Ksh97.3 million, which is more than three times the value of Ksh29 million that his stake had at the start of the year.

Kenya Power is one of only four energy and petroleum companies that are listed on the NSE.

The others are TotalEnergies Kenya Marketing Plc, KenGen and Uganda’s Umeme Limited.

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