(NAIROBI, KENYA) – A single shareholder now controls a 17.48 percent stake in Middle East Bank Kenya, regulatory filings show, placing the investor at the centre of strategic decisions at the Nairobi based lender. The holding makes the individual the largest investor in a bank originally founded by a Dubai conglomerate before its ownership was moved to local hands in the early 1990s.
The bank’s records name Esther Koimett as the holder of the dominant share. She joined the board on 26 February 2024. The stake puts her at the heart of governance at a time when Kenya’s midsized banks are drawing buyout interest from larger African lenders seeking a foothold in the East African market.
Middle East Bank Kenya was set up in August 1981 by Al Futtaim Group, the UAE based owner of the Carrefour supermarket franchise in the region. The conglomerate sold out by April 1991 in what was described at the time as a move to transfer ownership to Kenyans. It is not clear when Koimett acquired her 17.48 percent holding.
Efforts to reach Koimett for comment by telephone and text message were not successful.
Earlier reports had linked her late father, Nicholas Biwott, to a shareholding in the bank following Al Futtaim’s departure. Biwott was a powerful cabinet minister during the presidency of Daniel arap Moi. He died from kidney failure on 11 July 2017, aged 77. Biwott entered politics in 1974, roughly a decade after Kenya gained independence from Britain, and later served as personal assistant to Moi when he was vice president. Moi died in 2002.
Biwott built substantial wealth across several industries during his time in government. That wealth has recently passed to his heirs. He left an equal one fourteenth share of his estate to each of his children from his four wives, a group that includes Koimett.
The ownership structure of Middle East Bank Kenya shows a largely local investor base. Regulatory disclosures indicate that local shareholders hold 90.22 percent of the bank, while foreign investors account for 9.78 percent. Twenty individuals together own 20.31 percent, and 21 corporate shareholders control the remaining 79.69 percent. Koimett’s 17.48 percent means the other 19 individual owners hold a combined 2.83 percent.
Other notable corporate holders include MEB Holdings with 11.58 percent, Mustang Limited with 10.47 percent, and Baumann Management Services Limited and Good Fortune Limited, each with 6.6 percent.
The bank reported a net profit of Sh264.37 million ($2.04 million / £1.63 million) for the year ending December 2025, a 22.2 percent increase from Sh216.34 million ($1.67 million / £1.33 million) a year earlier. In the first quarter ending March this year, net earnings rose 16.9 percent to Sh35.29 million ($272,470 / £217,920).
Koimett’s investment places her more firmly in Kenya’s private sector after nearly three decades in public service. She served as a permanent secretary in the ministries of tourism and information, as investment secretary at the Treasury, and as chief executive of Kenya Post Office Savings Bank. Her career earned her a reputation as a determined figure in public administration. In the corporate world, she chairs M Pesa Holdings Company and AAR Insurance Kenya, and sits on the boards of Kenya Airways, Car and General, and the African Trade and Investment Development Insurance.
Her stake at Middle East Bank also arrives as Kenyan lenders face pressure to consolidate. The Central Bank of Kenya raised the minimum core capital requirement to Sh3 billion ($23.17 million / £18.52 million) by December last year, up from Sh1 billion. Middle East Bank was one of 10 lenders that raced to meet the deadline. Its core capital stood at Sh3.07 billion ($23.71 million / £18.96 million) at the end of December 2025, up from Sh2.11 billion ($16.29 million / £13.03 million) the previous September.
The regulator proposes to lift the minimum further to Sh10 billion ($77.23 million / £61.75 million) by 2032, a move expected to spur additional dealmaking. Kenya appeals to regional banks as a hub for travel and headquarters operations, with relatively solid financial regulation, easy repatriation of dividends, and a freely traded shilling.
African lenders have been active in Kenya, partly as global banks such as Standard Chartered and Societe Generale exit smaller markets to focus on core territories. The need to invest in technology has also encouraged scale building.
Nigeria’s Access Bank completed the purchase of National Bank of Kenya from KCB Group midway through last year. South Africa’s slow growth and mature banking sector are pushing its largest lenders abroad. Nedbank agreed earlier this year to buy a majority stake in NCBA, beating rival Standard Bank, which operates in Kenya as Stanbic, to the deal. Absa Group is also raising its stake in its Kenyan unit from 68.5 percent to 85 percent in a Sh31 billion ($239.35 million / £191.36 million) transaction.
Kenya’s biggest banks hold market shares in the low to mid teens, while second tier lenders typically sit in the high single digits. A long tail of smaller banks, including Middle East Bank Kenya, rounds out the sector.