Jacaranda Hotels Group acting general manager James Chege during the interview at his office in Westlands, Nairobi, last week. Photo/Diana Ngila
One year after tycoon Njenga Karume died, his empire remains calm and steady — making a big statement in a country where succession has proved a hard nut to crack for the wealthy.
The late Karume, whose journey from rags to riches has inspired many Kenyans, appears to have pulled off one last act before his departure — securing his legacy and ensuring continuity of the multi-billion business empire.
The Karume estate includes luxury hospitality facilities such as the Indian Ocean Beach Resort and Lake Elementaita Lodge, which sits on more than 100 acres of land in the heart of the Rift Valley, real estate and shareholding in some of Kenya’s big corporations.
James Chege, a hospitality industry expert who is also the group’s sales and marketing manager as well as the acting general manager at Jacaranda Hotel, describes the Karume succession as a tidy affair whose execution began long before the politician’s death on February 24 last year.
“Karume wrote his will and delegated the running of his enterprises to a trust long before his death,” he told the Business Daily describing the politician as a man who believed good was not good enough. “He was a perfectionist who believed in planning.”
Mr Chege says support from the Karume family and the determination to build a legacy has made managing the multi-billion- shilling estate an easy and orderly affair.
Research shows that only 20 per cent of successions involving wealthy Kenyans pass without incidents.
A former employee of Sarova and Intercontinental Hotels, Mr Chege places the execution of strategies that incorporate the late Karume’s wishes with regards to the development of Jacaranda hotels top of his agenda.
Succession has become a key issue among the Kenyan elite in the past 10 years as most of those who acquired wealth at independence in the 1960s exit the scene passing the baton to the younger generation.
The failure by many Kenyan families to plan their succession continues to generate drama in the local media leaving the courts as final arbiters.
The full extent of how bad succession can go became clear three years ago following the death of Nairobi businessman and politician Gerishon Kirima.
The murky dispute over the Kirima estate and the bad publicity it generated highlights the importance of succession planning and execution.
To secure his legacy, the late Karume, for instance, long before his death formed a trust — the Njenga Karume Trust — into which he put all his investments to be managed in the interest of his successors.
The trust is run by a board of trustees that the late politician picked before he died. It manages the trust as provided for in his will.
The trust is run professionally by a team of managers led by Ms Tella Kawira, the administrator with involvement of the Karume family.
A source who is conversant with the operations at the trust but cannot be named because he is not its official spokesperson says: “Planning has helped keep his investments on track despite his absence and has been critical in keeping succession feuds out of his estate.”
Mary M’Mukindia, the former managing director of State-owned National Oil Corporation of Kenya, is the chairperson of Jacaranda Holdings, the hospitality wing of the late Karume’s investments.
Mrs M’Mukindia said working with the Karumes has not only taught her a lesson in succession planning but also the importance of family unity in building a legacy.
“It has been wonderful working with the Karume family. I bring my management expertise on board to make the legacy more fulfilling,” she said.
