The story behind alleged State House fixers Adil Khawaja and Jayesh Saini

Until last year when their names were controversially thrust into the public limelight over the now revoked Adani-linked contracts, Nairobi lawyer Adil Arshed Khawaja and businessman Jayesh Saini were largely unknown to majority of Kenyans, their outstanding accomplishments in their respective spheres notwithstanding.

Adil is currently serving as the chairman of the Safaricom PLC board of Directors a position he assumed in January 2023. He also serves as the Managing Partner at Dentons Hamilton Harrison & Mathews law firm, which was established in 1902.

Adil is also a director of a company named NMC Fertility Kenya that is part of the complex web of Jayesh Saini’s healthcare companies that are said to be taking over Kenyan healthcare system.

He is also director at Bliss healthcare – the company that is alleged to have conceptualised the controversial Social Health Authority (SHA) and the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).

On the other hand, Jayesh, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Bliss Healthcare, which he started in 2012 and is now the chairman, has won the Lifetime Achievement Award-a prestigious global award from CEO Story for his revolutionary role.

Jayesh is said to have a controlling stake at Nairobi West Hospital and is said to be the person behind the concept of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) that was introduced in Kenya in 2010.

However, their names have been controversially mentioned multiple times in high public interest multi-billion government projects some of which have been revoked having been cited as masterminded heist schemes locally and internationally.

Owing to the gravity of the claims levelled and the nature of public interest the dealings have attracted, our attempts to get responses from both Khawaja and Saini through e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS), and calls made proved futile.

They did not respond or answer the calls to the SMS or questions sent through e-mail.

The latest to link them to alleged corrupt dealings is former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who sensationally recently that the duo have played the role of key executors of shady deals which, the former second in command claimed were crafted at State House, Nairobi, which he termed as the centre of corruption in the country.

So far, neither State House nor any of the mentioned personalities have responded to the grave accusations by Gachagua.

The claims have since elicited fresh public interest in the mega deals amid mixed reactions.

When asked if they have launched probe into Gachagua’s claims, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chairman Bishop David Oginde said the commission has no intention of launching an investigation, stating they not “dogs” to go after everything thrown at it.

Gachagua, a frequent visitor to the House on the Hill before his fallout with Ruto last year culminating in his impeachment in October last year, alleged that Khawaja and Jayesh used to spend hours cutting deals there and that those who wanted to have a word with the president, including himself as the then DP, were kept waiting for up to five hours.

Giving an example of the Affordable Housing Programme, the former DP, who has styled himself as the truthful man, added: “If you look at the Affordable Housing Programme, it is the worst fraud against the people of Kenya and it is good that I tell the country. It has nothing to do with housing. It is business. If you want to build a house, you must go and sign a contract with companies that will sell the cement, steel and iron sheets and people behind those companies are at State House.”

Khawaja and Jayesh’s connections with President Ruto started generating interest following the Gen Z revolt in June/July 2024 that turned the tide against President Ruto’s administration, spotlighting its failings, including in the war against corruption amid revelations of questionable mega deals it had struck since coming to power.

The first was the plan by Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL) to lease the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for a period of 30 years in exchange of a Ksh 290 billion investment of its modernisation.

The Indian conglomerate had also signed a 30-year Ksh 95.7 billion deal with the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO), through Adani Energy Solutions Limited (AESL) to build and operate the four electricity transmission lines and two substations.

Interestingly, lawyer Nick Ruto, President William Ruto’s son who earlier came under storm over his association with Dentons, Hamilton Harrison & Mathews; a law firm that represented Adani Airports Holdings Limited in the case that challenged its bid to take over JKIA.

Both deals, executed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, were shrouded in secrecy and it took a Kenyan student in France, Nelson Amenya, to blow the lid on the JKIA lease.

It is Amenya who revealed the Adani connection in documents sent to Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka, who demanded that the government comes clean on the deal.

And when the government pushed through implementation of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) beginning October 1 last year, system hitches left thousands of patients stranded as hospitals across the country could not register patients or process claims.

Many of those had already on boarded the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and paid up to the end of the year but could not access treatment even for critical ailments as hospitals demanded cash payment.

Revelations by the Social Health Authority that it had by passed a system developed by NHIF and instead initiated a new one, the Integrated Information Technology System For Universal Healthcare kicked up a storm, especially after it emerged that the Sh104 billion cost was higher than what NHIF had procured.

The tender to develop the system was awarded to Safaricom, which then on boarded two other entities to form a consortium.

The telco took up a 22.6 per cent stake, Konvergenz Network Solutions (17.9 per cent) and Apeiro (59.5 per cent).

Focus quickly shifted to Apeiro, a company that had only recently been registered in Kenya, and detailed soon emerged that it was owned by Adani Group.

This is the point where Khawaja’s role started to be questioned given his close ties with Ruto, his position as Safaricom chairman and a Managing Partner at Dentons HHM, the Adani Group’s lawyer in the court cases filed to challenge the JKIA and Ketraco deals.

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Amenya, also claimed Sani was the fixer of shady deals that were being executed by the Ruto administration, including SHA systems one, whose implementation, just like in the case of JKIA and Ketraco, was shrouded in secrecy.

On his part, Onyonka used the dossier sent to him by Amenya to put Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir to task over the manner in which it was being executed, describing it as an Octopus.

Under pressure from the Kisii Senator, the CS admitted that the deal was shrouded with mystery, raising concerns on tendering, due diligence and fraud allegations. He, however, added that it had not been signed and could be set aside if it was not giving Kenyans value for their money.

President Ruto and other top officials, however, defended the deals, saying they saved the country from heavy borrowing to implement capital-intensive infrastructure projects.

It took the indictment of Adani, one of Asia’s richest men, and other senior executives, in the United States, for agreeing make payments to Indian officials to win contracts for his renewable energy company expected to yield more than US$2 billion in profits over 20 years, for President Ruto to cancel the JKIA and Ketraco deals.
Despite this pronouncement, there has been no confirmation that they were cancelled. High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye is set to rule on the matter on April 8, 2025.

For its part, the SHA system deal is still on though the challenges are yet to be resolved. It is thus likely to face fresh parliamentary scrutiny after National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula ordered the Health Committee to look into why the new insurance scheme is not working for Kenyans.

A 61-year-old former nurse Grace Njoki Mulei who alongside a lactating mother who stormed Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa’s office at Afya House to complaint about SHA system failure at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) was recently arrested and detained at Capitol Hill Police Station and later released on a Ksh 50, 000 bond for allegedly causing a public disturbance. KNH confirmed the system failure.

An update by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) indicated she would be charged with causing disturbance.

During an ongoing National Assembly retreat in Naivasha, Members of Parliament forced Medical Services Principal Secretary Hilary Kimtai to withdrew the case against Mulei. MPs further castigated the arrest of Njoki for raising concerns against SHA as uncalled for forcing Kimtai to promise them the ministry will drop the case.

While Khawaja and Jayesh names are likely to continue attracting public attention, the two have, however, previously exonerated themselves from the deals with Jayesh suing Amenya for defamation in both Kenya and France over his X posts.

A judge in Paris, however, dismissed his suit early this month for lack of jurisdiction and instead ordered him to pay Amenya Ksh 667,000 (5000 euros) as costs.

On his part, Khawaja also asserts that the SHA deal with Safaricom was conceived before he became telco’s board chair.

“We gave some preliminary advice to Konvergenz. They are a big technology firm that has done many successful large projects. This project was started by former President Uhuru Kenyatta and it is only now that we are seeing its implementation,” Khawaja told a local daily in September last year.

But critics have pointed out at Dentons HHM, a law firm in which he is a Managing Partner, plays in the deal as Konvergenz and his nearly 30-year ties with President Ruto.

At the same time, Dentons HHM is also Adani Group’s lawyer in the cases filed to challenge the JKIA and Ketraco deals.