Like many Kenyan entrepreneurs who straddle commerce and politics, Zedekiah Bundotich Kiprop, popularly known as Buzeki, wears two hats: that of a politician and a businessman.
So, it is unsurprising that reports of his business, Buzeki Enterprises, being at risk of going under the auctioneer's hammer are coming at a time the entrepreneur announced that he had decamped to President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA), reaching a détente with a man who had long been the target of his sharp criticism.
The High Court recently backed a bid by I&M Bank to recover Sh864.7 million from Buzeki Enterprises Limited, a logistics company associated with the businessman-cum-politician, piling on his legal predicaments.
The decision allows the lender to recover its money based on a written promise by Buzeki Enterprises to repay the loan, bringing to an end a commercial dispute that began in 2019 over the purchase of heavy trucks and trailers worth more than Sh864 million.
The dispute arose from a deal between Buzeki Enterprises and RT (East Africa) Limited for the supply of over 100 trucks and trailers. To settle the purchase price, Buzeki Enterprises issued promissory notes totalling Sh864,758,278.
In a ruling underscoring the binding nature of signed financial agreements, the court held that the promissory note signed in October 2016 was a valid and unconditional promise to pay and could not be voided on the basis of alleged side agreements or unmet conditions.
Other than the dispute with I&M, Mr Buzeki has also faced off with many other creditors, pointing to dwindling fortunes for an empire he built through sweat, starting with hawking milk along the Coast.
From a milk hawker earning a daily wage of Sh80 to a tycoon with a fleet crisscrossing East Africa and cutting multibillion-shilling deals—such as the sale of his milk business to Brookside—Mr Buzeki’s journey now appears increasingly entangled in protracted legal and financial headwinds.
Court records and media reports show that Mr Buzeki and his firm, Buzeki Enterprises, have repeatedly battled auctioneers, banks and trade creditors over unpaid debts tied largely to the acquisition of trucks and trailers that powered his logistics business.
In one instance, lenders moved to attach dozens of vehicles over a Sh118 million claim, while in another, a separate creditor pursued insolvency proceedings over tens of millions of shillings. There have also been labour disputes, with courts ordering payments to former employees following claims of unfair termination.
Despite these predicaments, Mr Buzeki—who hails from Uasin Gishu County—remained uncharacteristically defiant. Having vied for the governorship in 2022, he has emerged as a vocal critic of President Ruto’s policies, cutting a lone figure in a region where the Head of State enjoys massive support.
“They campaigned as the voice of the despised, the hustlers, the children of ‘nobodies,’ but once in power, they became the architects of their misery,” said Mr Buzeki in a statement sent out on May 31, 2025.
Mr Buzeki noted that the Ruto administration is not refunding Value Added Tax (VAT) claims by businesses. “UDA is obsessed with spending tax money and completely forgets the people and businesses whose tax money was squeezed from them. UDA is not refunding VAT claims, and this is shutting down a lot of SMEs,” he stated.
Less than four months later, Mr Buzeki had dropped his hardline stance and was singing praise songs for UDA.
“I have officially registered today as a UDA member. I have joined in broad daylight because it is a firm decision I have taken after reflecting for long. We do not want to be fence-sitters; we want to be part of the development,” he said in September last year.
Mr Buzeki grew up in Magombo, Nyamira County, before moving to Eldoret at age 15. He went to Molo Academy for his primary school education. For his secondary school studies, he attended Mang’u High School and later Kapngetuny High School.
For his tertiary education, he went to the United Kingdom, where he earned a Higher National Diploma from Lincoln Business School. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management and Marketing from Royal Holloway, University of London, and holds a diploma from the Cambridge International College.
He came back to Kenya in 1998 after completing his O-Levels abroad and starting a career as a milk hawker in Mombasa. Initially earning just Sh80 a day using a bicycle, his sharp sales skills eventually landed him a role as a regional dairy sales manager at Kilifi Plantations, where he grew the "Kilifi Gold" brand. He later pioneered introduction of Tuzo Milk to Coast region.
Building on this success, he founded Buzeki Enterprises Limited in 2004, diversifying into the transport and logistics industry. From the first two letters of his three names—Bundotich Zedekiah Kiprop—he wonderfully knit together the word Buzeki, a name that became the signature for his business and his alias during political campaigns.
In 2013, he sold Buzeki Dairy—the maker of Molo Milk and Kilifi Gold—to Brookside Dairy, owned by the Kenyatta family, at a fee of Sh1.1 billion.
This landmark deal officially propelled him into the billionaire league, allowing him to concentrate on and further expand his vast transport and logistics business under Buzeki Enterprises Limited.
“I want to give full attention to my logistics firm in the coming years. I intend to double the number of trucks that I am operating now; that’s why I bowed out of the milk industry,” said Mr Buzeki.
But his expansion drive seems to have come a cropper, with the industrialist facing a litany of lawsuits, largely owing to the loans he took to buy the trucks.
