From Earning Sh80 Daily to Being a Billionaire: How Buzeki Built his Empire

Zedekiah Kiprop Bundotich alias Buzeki is widely known in the country owing to his businesses, philanthropy, and political activities.

He is considered one of the wealthiest people in the Rift Valley region. In this article, we outline how he built his multi-billion business empire: 

Buzeki First Job

He started his career in Kilifi county where he served as a hawker for a milk factory and earned Sh80 per day.

Impressed by his work as a hawker, he was promoted to the role of a salesperson. Despite not receiving any training regarding the role, he executed it perfectly and was elevated to sales manager. 

Being a sales manager was his last position as an employee and he later decided to quit employment and try his luck in entrepreneurship.

File image of Buzeki. [Photo:Courtesy]

Buzeki First Business

Having been in the milk industry as a hawker, off loader, and salesperson, Buzeki set up a milk distribution company in Mombasa. He started small, but his experience in the industry saw him grow to become one of the biggest milk distributors in the Coastal region.

After 8 years in the business, Buzeki went back and bought the company that had hired him in Kilifi and made it up of his business portfolio.

"After distributing milk for eight years, I went back and actually bought the factory of my former boss, Kilifi Plantations," he said during a past interview. 

After purchasing the Kilifi Plantations, he went ahead and acquired factories in Limuru and Molo, further expanding his dairy business empire.

Buzeki Diversifying Investments

After making a name for himself as one of the renowned dairy business gurus in the country, Buzeki decided to explore other investment opportunities and ventured into logistics.

He set up a transport company and acquired trucks that transport goods across the East African region.

File image of Buzeki Logistics' trucks. [Photo: Courtesy]

According to Buzeki, most people knew him after coming across his trucks which are branded with his name, but he notes that the dairy business is what made him.

In 2013, his Kilifi and Molo companies were acquired by Brookside dairies in a deal estimated to have been worth Sh1.1 billion.

Buzeki the Politician

He made his political debut in 2017 when he contested the Uasin Gishu County gubernatorial seat as an independent candidate but lost to then-incumbent Governor Jackson Mandago.

In 2019, he teamed up with former Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto under Chama Cha Mashinani, but he parted ways with the party ahead of the 2022 general election.

In 2022 general election, he again contested the Uasin Gishu gubernatorial seat as an independent candidate but lost to Jonathan Bii alias Koti Moja of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.

Buzeki the Philanthropist

As a way of giving back to the community, he established the Buzeki foundation that supports and conducts empowerment initiatives for farmers.

The foundation conducts training where farmers are educated on modern farming techniques and provided with indigenous seeds to diversify the types of plants they farm.