President William Ruto on Friday re-appointed multi-billionaire businessman Narendra Raval as the Egerton University Chancellor.
In a gazette notice, the Head of State announced the tycoon’s re-appointment to the helm of one of the country’s leading and oldest tertiary institutions.
According to President Ruto, Raval would serve as the institution’s Chancellor for five years with effect September 16 this year.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 38 (1) (a) of the Universities Act, 2012, I, William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, re-appoint Narendra Raval as Chancellor of the Egerton University,” Ruto announced.
Devki Group executive director Narendra Raval inside the Citizen TV studio during an interview on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
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Narendra Raval was first appointed as the Chancellor of Egerton University by former President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2019. he took over from Shem Oyoo Wandiga who was appointed in 2013.
Raval is one of Kenya’s most successful billionaire businessmen and philanthropists. He is the founder of Devki Group, a company with annual revenues of more than Ksh80 billion annually.
The Indian national was born in 1962, he grew up as a priest serving at the temple of the Brahmin Hindu while still in India. As a teenager, he travelled to work as an assistant priest at a temple in Kisumu.
He later, in 1986, quit the priesthood and married a Kenyan woman with whom he began trading in building materials in the Gikomba market in Nairobi.
Raval’s business span into an industrial empire which came to be known as the Devki Group of Companies. The Group went ahead to establish subsidiaries in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The billionaire’s empire in Kenya deals in the manufacturing of steel, aluminium and cement with minimal interests in aviation.
Besides owning a multi-billion company, the businessman is also a philanthropist whose impact has been widely felt in East Africa.
Meanwhile, Raval as a man who grew up in priesthood is also an astologist. He owns a company that manufactures oxygen which he gives to hospitals for free.
Businessman Narendra Raval addressing the audience at Egerton University
