Jaswant Singh Rai, the billionaire whose abduction and subsequent release remains a mystery, belongs to the Rai family— one of the wealthiest families in the country controlling major stakes in the manufacturing and processing industries.
Whether one wants to delve into the fortunes or misfortunes of Kenya’s ailing sugar industry, for instance, it is just difficult (read impossible) to miss the Rai family somewhere in between the lines.
The family also has interests in cement production (Rai Cement), edible oils and soaps (Menengai Oil refineries), sawmilling (Timsales, Raiply and Webuye Panpaper), wheat farming, horticulture and real estate (Tulip Properties).
Under the watch of Jaswant Singh Rai, the family has extended its stake in the sugar sector by accounting to nearly half of the entire production of the sweetener.
In 2021, the group bid for state-owned Mumias Sugar Company through its Ugandan subsidiary, Sarrai Group.
Photo credit: Nation Media Group
With the opening of a new milling factory in Naitiri, Bungoma County, data from the Sugar Directorate indicate, the four firms owned by the business mogul account for over 45 per cent of the total sugar sales in Kenya.
To fill the space of the once best-performing State-owned mills, the Rai Group, which also runs West Kenya, Olepito and Sukari Industries, has straddled the turbulent industry like a colossus to establish itself in Western and South Nyanza sugar belts.
The bid to privatise Mumias Sugar Company which used to be the country’s leading sugar producer, however, introduced Kenyans to another Rai sibling who is a towering operator in the neighbouring Uganda.
The chairman of West Kenya Sugar Jaswant Singh Rai (2nd left) and managing director Tevjeer Singh Rai (left) when they appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Trade and Agriculture on June 28, 2018, on a contraband sugar probe.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
This is after Sarrai Group, led by Kenyan businessman Sarbi Singh Rai, won a 20-year lease to manage assets of the fallen giant that used to process up to 8,000 tonnes of cane per day during its peak time before it sunk due to poor management.
Jaswant, whose father died on December 28, 2010 in Mumbai, India, is the son of tycoon Tarlochan Singh Rai while Sarbi’s father was Tarcholan’s brother.
The father of Sarbi emigrated from his native India to Kenya and was joined by Jaswant’s father who also opened his own chain of businesses.
After the death of their fathers, the two sons expanded and separately diversified their businesses before Sarbi moved to Uganda to set up Sarrai Group. It also has operations in Malawi.
In Uganda, Sarrai operates Hoima, Kinyara and Kiryandongo sugar factories which have more than 20,000 hectares of nucleus estates, and a total installed capacity of 19,000 tonnes of cane per day.
Sarrai Group also owns a number of companies whose interests span from plywood to wheat, soap, edible oils and mattresses.
The bagging of Mumias Sugar Company contract by Sarrai, however, set up the cousins for a major business showdown after West Kenya Sugar, chaired by Jaswant Rai, missed out on the bid to secure the ailing miller that was placed in receivership by KCB Group in September 2019.
