Ndindi Nyoro, a Kiharu Member of Parliament, has cleared the air on allegations that he is the largest individual shareholder in Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).
On Sunday, one of the local blogs claimed that the Kiharu legislator had tripled his shares in East Africa’s largest power firm, making him the largest individual shareholder in terms of share portfolio.
However, Nyoro admitted in a Facebook post on Monday that he is the largest individual shareholder in KPLC because he does not ‘conceal names’ like other investors.
“Any Kenyan can buy shares. You just need to open a CDS account from a stockbroking firm. Many banks also offer those services,” read Nyooro’s post in part.
Nyoro also claimed to be the largest individual shareholder because he began buying KPLC shares as a first-year student at Kenyatta University.
“The investment has been accumulated over time. Several years back. We started off in stockbroking in 1st year at the campus (KU). Thereafter running a firm in the sector. And later a Private Equity (PE) firm. This specific counter is probably for the last 3 or 4 years,” he said.
The MP bought CIC insurance shares before listing on the Nairobi Security Exchange (NSE). This gave him investment profits of up to 500% within one year after the company was listed.
“Our investment strategy is guided by Warren Buffett’s Mantra. “Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy”,” he added.
The lawmaker explained that Kenya Power shares are cheap with the current market standing of KSh 2 per share.
Nyoro disputed the fact that he is among KPLC’s individual shareholders after posting 27,291,400 shares.
He argued that the majority of the largest shareholders hide their identity in the nominee accounts.
“Some shareholders prefer to use their actual names while investing, others use “nominee accounts” to hide identities. We are in the earlier category since we don’t see the need to use the latter one,” he said.
