Wicknell Chivayo Empire in the Spotlight: Wealth Audit Puts Late Tycoon's Kenyan Business Links Under Scrutiny

The business empire of Wicknell Chivayo, the flamboyant Zimbabwean tycoon whose extravagant spending made him a household name across southern Africa, has come under fresh examination following his death, with his commercial links in Kenya now under scrutiny as his family begins an audit of his fortune.

Kenya's Daily Nation reported that the audit opens a new chapter in the affairs of the Harare-based businessman, whose wealth was built largely on government tenders in Zimbabwe but whose interests stretched well beyond the country's borders, reaching into Kenya. Until his death, Chivayo was a fixture of Zimbabwe's tender economy and one of the most recognisable figures in regional business circles.

In a separate development, the newspaper also reported that Chivayo's ex-wife and his sister have struck a deal to jointly manage the late tycoon's estate, an arrangement that clears the way for the administration of assets left behind by one of the region's most controversial businessmen.

The wealth audit, now under way, is expected to take stock of the full range of the businessman's holdings. It begins at a moment when his business dealings in Kenya have come under scrutiny, a combination that has put the late tycoon's affairs firmly back in the headlines.

Chivayo cultivated a reputation as one of Africa's flashiest rich men. He flaunted fleets of luxury cars, designer outfits and wads of cash on social media, and he drew both admiration and outrage with a habit of handing out expensive vehicles as gifts to musicians, sportspeople and church leaders. During a widely publicised giveaway spree, he announced the gifts on his social media pages, presenting them as celebrations of what he described as blessings on his life.

His path to that fortune was an unusual one. In the early 2000s, as a young man, he was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. After his release he reinvented himself as a businessman, and in later years he spoke openly about his time behind bars, presenting it as a chapter he had long left behind.

Much of his money came from state contracts in Zimbabwe. His company, Intratrek Zimbabwe, signed a deal with the state power utility, Zimbabwe Power Company, to build a large solar power plant in Gwanda, in Matabeleland South province. Millions of dollars were paid out in advance, but the project never took off, and the collapse of the deal became one of the country's best-known tender scandals. Chivayo was later arrested and charged over the payment, and the case dragged through the courts for years. He denied any wrongdoing.

Companies linked to him were also reported to have won tenders to supply materials for Zimbabwe's 2023 general elections, drawing protests from opposition parties. He was never shy about his political sympathies, publicly aligning himself with the ruling party, and that closeness fed a running public debate about the sources of his money. He dismissed the debate, insisting that his wealth came from legitimate business.

Through it all, he kept spending. The giveaways continued, the car collection grew, and each new display reignited questions about how a man with his history had access to such sums. He answered his critics with mockery and repeated declarations that his money was his own.

The scrutiny of his Kenyan business links now widens the lens beyond Zimbabwe. The Daily Nation report on those links emerged as the family's audit was getting under way, and it followed the agreement between his ex-wife and his sister on the running of the estate.

Under that arrangement, the two will administer the estate together while the audit proceeds into the full breadth of the tycoon's assets, among the first coordinated efforts to establish what the Chivayo empire was actually worth and where its interests lay.