In the heart of Kenya’s power corridors, where wealth whispers and influence roars, one man casts a shadow so vast it threatens to eclipse the nation’s future: Jayesh Saini. A billionaire tycoon with an iron grip on healthcare, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and now digital espionage, Saini is no mere businessman—he is, according to critics, an architect of systemic corruption, a puppet master pulling strings from State House to hospital morgues.
From a collapsed Sh289 million spyware deal to chilling allegations of organ trafficking, money laundering, and monopolistic state capture, Jayesh Saini’s name has become a lightning rod for scandal. To his defenders, he is simply a shrewd entrepreneur riding Kenya’s liberalized markets. To his detractors, he is an oligarch whose polite table manners conceal a voracious appetite for public wealth.
This is an investigative account, drawn from court filings, parliamentary debates, whistleblower testimonies, leaked procurement documents, social media posts, and speculative whispers, piecing together the anatomy of Saini’s empire — and exposing how his unchecked power, bolstered by President William Ruto’s patronage, endangers Kenya’s very soul.
The Government Spyware Deal: Eating Into Kenya’s Digital Nerves
At the epicenter of Saini’s alleged machinations lies a sinister bid to control Kenya’s digital narrative — a Sh289 million spyware deal that collapsed in betrayal, intimidation, and financial ruin.
Court filings by Mary Wachuka, a Kenyan-Canadian data scientist and CEO of Jipe Inc., detail how a project designed to salvage President Ruto’s crumbling public image was hijacked by Saini.
The project code named “Narrative Control” — was approved in late 2023 after Ruto’s communications team admitted their messaging was a disaster, routinely outflanked by Raila Odinga’s Azimio coalition. Senior aide Eric Ng’eno, Ruto’s speechwriter, told Wachuka that Dennis Itumbi, Ruto’s longtime digital strategist, had hijacked State House messaging and was embarrassing the presidency.
Enter Jayesh Saini, whom Ng’eno described as the regime’s financier and oligarch. Despite having no formal campaign role, Saini allegedly leveraged his financial contributions to muscle into State House’s communications strategy. His involvement, according to WhatsApp messages filed in court, was disastrous. Ng’eno accused him of arrogance, incompetence, and running a charade of a troll farm managed by his aide Nishant Mishra.
The spyware itself, developed by Wachuka’s Jipe Inc., was no ordinary tool. It had 10 core functions:
- hijacking social media accounts of opposition and dissenters
- deleting negative comments in real time
- manufacturing hashtags and fake trends
- profiling journalists and critics
- gathering opposition intelligence
- psychometric profiling of voters by ethnicity
It was, in effect, a digital weapon to bend public opinion.
But at a fateful meeting on November 22, 2023, Saini allegedly made a chilling reference to two Indian nationals — Mohamed Zaid Sami and Zulfikaq Ahmed Khan — who were abducted and murdered in 2022 while running a similar digital project. “They were eliminated,” Saini remarked casually, according to Wachuka’s affidavit.
By mid-2024, Wachuka had poured Sh38 million of her own money into subcontractors after Treasury funds failed to materialize. Anonymous death threats soon followed. State House stonewalled her claims. She eventually sued Saini, Ng’eno, Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, Treasury PS Chris Kiptoo, and Attorney General Justin Muturi for Sh289 million in damages.
Speculation exploded online: Was Saini’s true goal to access Kenya’s state data? Was he a proxy for foreign interests, particularly his UAE-Indian backers? Was the spyware deal part of a broader plan to digitally colonize Kenya while lining private pockets?
Whatever the truth, the spyware saga cemented Saini’s reputation as a dangerous operator with political impunity.
The Healthcare Cartel: A Billion-Shilling Buffet
If the spyware scandal was dessert, healthcare is Saini’s main course. His empire — spanning Nairobi West Hospital, Bliss Medical, Medical Administrators Kenya Limited (MAKL), Dinlas Pharma, Kitengela West, and Lifecare Hospitals — dominates Kenya’s medical sector like a monopoly.
In March 2024, Parliament heard a petition accusing Minet Kenya, where Saini is a key shareholder, of exploiting its position as the sole provider of teachers’ medical cover. Over nine years, Minet pocketed Sh161 billion in premiums, yet teachers were routinely turned away by hospitals due to unpaid bills.
The contract’s design ensured zero competition. Eligibility thresholds — requiring experience with one million lives and Sh5 billion cash reserves — were tailored for Minet alone. A confidential Teachers Service Commission (TSC) memo proposing to lower thresholds was quietly quashed by “external interference.”
Meanwhile, hospitals owed billions threatened service withdrawal. In November 2023, Nairobi West Hospital nearly shut down care for police and prison officers over Sh576.8 million in arrears, despite government payments flowing to Minet.
Bliss Healthcare and MAKL, both tied to Saini, acted as administrators, funneling funds back into his own hospitals. An EACC audit in 2024 flagged two consortium partners as shell entities with no staff or track record, yet the tender proceeded.
To critics, it was a money laundering machine dressed up as healthcare reform.
SHA: Same Tricks, Bigger Table
The Social Health Authority (SHA), created to replace NHIF, was meant to end these abuses. Instead, it became a supersized feeding trough.
In August 2025, SHA suspended 40 health facilities for ghost patients, doctored records, and billing scams. Among them: LifeCare Bungoma, a flagship Saini hospital.
More damning was the Sh104.8 billion Integrated Healthcare Technology System awarded to a Safaricom–Apeiro–Konvergenz consortium. Apeiro, which controls 60% of the deal, is linked directly to Saini through associates Rufus Marundu Maina and Madni Ali Asif Ansari.
In short, while Kenyans fume about ghost clinics in Mandera, Saini’s proxies control Sh62 billion of SHA’s digital backbone.
The ownership trail leads offshore, to Sirius International Holding in Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of International Holding Company, which has ties to India’s Adani Group. Offshore layering makes accountability impossible.
Once again, Ruto’s lawyer Adil Khawaja appears as the legal fixer, shaping the deal and shielding it from scrutiny.
The KPLC Contract: Diversifying the Feast
Healthcare isn’t Saini’s only dish. In 2024, he popped up in an unexpected arena: Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).
His firm, Kreative Concrete Products, co-owned with Ruto ally Faryd Abdulrazak Sheikh, secured a Sh113 million contract to supply equipment to KPLC. Sheikh’s closeness to the regime was underscored by then-Defence CS Aden Duale attending his son’s wedding.
Critics questioned how a healthcare mogul with zero expertise in power infrastructure could bag such a contract. Investigations revealed that the procurement was part of a pattern of favoritism at KPLC, where politically connected firms — including Rai Cement, owned by the Rai family (longtime Ruto allies) — won repeated tenders.
The result: power bills rising, outages persisting, and Kenyans footing the cost of elite feasts.
Organ Trafficking Allegations: The Darkest Course
Beyond money, darker allegations stalk Saini’s empire. In November 2023, a university student died during an egg donation procedure at Fertility Point Clinic, linked to Saini.
Whistleblower Nelson Amenya alleged a cover-up: bribed DCI officers, forged death reports, and intimidation of the victim’s father. The clinic’s equipment, he claimed, was deliberately dysfunctional.
On X, speculation erupted that the death was tied to an organ trafficking cartel. Posts alleged Saini’s hospitals, alongside Indian-linked networks, were involved in harvesting organs under the guise of fertility or surgical procedures. The closure of Bliss Medical Centres, coinciding with organ-trafficking probes, fueled these fears.
Though unproven, the claims have stuck, painting Saini’s empire as a house of horrors where profit trumps human life.
The Proxies and the Data Leak
In 2025, a Business Registration Service (BRS) leak revealed over 30 shell companies linked to Saini, often registered under proxies like Nishant Mishra, Rufus Maina, and Angeline Akello Otieno.
The leak connected these firms to major state contracts, including pharmaceuticals, airport concessions, and IT systems. Alarmingly, some overlapped with the controversial Adani-JKIA Sh258 billion lease deal, again implicating Saini and Khawaja as key brokers.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua openly accused Saini and Khawaja of being “cartels controlling State House.”
The Untouchable Oligarch
Why hasn’t Saini faced prosecution despite a decade of scandals? The answer, critics say, is simple: Ruto’s shield.
From the Clinix scam to SHA billions, from spyware deals to KPLC contracts, Saini has consistently landed on his feet, while lower-level officials take the fall. His ties to Ruto’s lawyer Khawaja, his partnerships with Sheikh and the Rai family, and his offshore connections render him virtually untouchable.
One X user put it bluntly:
“Saini doesn’t just eat — he owns the table, the cutlery, and the chef. We’re just paying the bill.”
The Cost of Silence
For Kenyans, the cost of Saini’s empire is not abstract. It is:
- Teachers denied treatment despite billions in premiums.
- Police officers left stranded in hospitals over unpaid bills.
- Citizens paying higher electricity tariffs while insiders feast.
- A young student dying in silence at a fertility clinic.
- Billions diverted offshore while public hospitals collapse.
It is a portrait of a nation captured by one man’s empire, his table manners disguising the scale of his feast.
Conclusion: Kenya at a Crossroads
The story of Jayesh Saini is not just about one businessman. It is about a system where political power and private greed intertwine, where oligarchs dine lavishly while the public eats crumbs.
Unless Kenya confronts this cartel — unless Parliament, Judiciary, and civil society push past fear — Saini’s banquet will continue. And the longer he eats, the less will remain for the people.
The question is not whether Jayesh Saini is feasting. The question is: who will dare take away his plate?
KenyanHour 