Biwott son-in-law resigns from KenolKobil board

A Kobil station. Per Nils Vilhelm Jacobsson has resigned from KenolKobil board. FILE 

By VICTOR JUMA,

In Summary

• Per Nils Vilhelm Jacobsson tendered his resignation last month, ending his tenure at KenolKobil where he had been a non-executive director since August 2007.

A son-in-law of former powerful Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott has resigned from KenolKobil, deepening boardroom changes at the oil marketer where the politician is a significant shareholder.

Per Nils Vilhelm Jacobsson tendered his resignation last month, ending his tenure at KenolKobil where he had been a non-executive director since August 2007.

He runs a 75-year old European family business and has been married to a daughter of Mr Biwott for years.

“Mr Jacobsson has formally written to communicate his resignation from KenolKobil as a director,” a person familiar with the matter told the Business Daily.

It was not immediately clear why Mr Jacobsson stepped down from the oil marketer’s board. 

The oil marketer said in a brief that Mr Jacobsson has been the managing director of a property and investment company with operations in Stockholm, Sweden. The business was founded by his grandfather in 1938.

He has experience in Africa’s downstream oil business where KenolKobil has emerged as a major player with operations spanning 12 countries in the region.

He was among individuals tapped by Mr Biwott to the board of KenolKobil, one of the most secretive firms on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

The company does not publish profiles of its directors in annual reports and little is known about the individuals that control over 70 per cent of its shares through several nominees accounts, some of them registered in foreign countries.

Sources however told the Business Daily that Mr Biwott is a significant shareholder in the oil marketer where he has had his nominees appointed to the board in the past.

The major owners of the company have expended a lot of effort in keeping their identities away from public scrutiny. They hold shares through companies, nominee accounts, and lawyers, with some even going to the extent of filing their names with a US custodian bank, State Street Bank.

A number of current and former directors of the company have said they don’t know its owners in response to our queries.

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA), which is charged with protecting minority shareholders’ interests and promoting market transparency, says it has no powers to order for disclosure of individuals behind shell companies and secret nominee accounts.

Records of shareholders behind the companies that own KenolKobil, however, provide strong pointers of its ownership.

Desterio Oyatsi, a prominent Nairobi-based advocate who has represented Mr Biwott in many court battles, is listed as a shareholder in at least three of the companies including Petroholdings with a 17.34 per cent stake and Highfield with a 12.46 per cent stake in the oil marketing firm.