HARARE — Wicknell Chivayo’s company IMC Construction Kenya has won a stake in a $2.9 billion tender to expand Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, ZimLive has established, in a deal that sheds light on the Zimbabwean businessman’s frequent visits to Nairobi and his close ties to President William Ruto.
State-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), which recorded revenues of $136.7 billion in 2023, brought in its subsidiary China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and IMC Construction Kenya as joint venture partners on the project, according to two people familiar with the deal.
IMC Construction Kenya is wholly owned by Chivayo, 45, who has cultivated an unusually close relationship with Ruto and has become a fixture at Kenya’s State House.
Kenya will contribute $1.3 billion to the project, with the remainder financed through local and Chinese banks. To eliminate the capital constraints that previously stalled the project, Kenya established the National Infrastructure Fund, capitalised using revenues from the privatisation of the Kenya Pipeline Company.
The expansion will add capacity for 15 million passengers annually through the construction of a new terminal, according to specifications released in February by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
A new runway, planned for completion by 2029, will lift airfield capacity from 14 to 63 aircraft movements per hour. JKIA currently handles nearly 8.8 million passengers a year, already above its design capacity of eight million.
The tender was originally awarded to India’s Adani Group in 2024 for an estimated $1.85 billion but was cancelled after Kenyan labour unions objected to contractual terms they said were unfavourable to the national interest, and following a United States corruption probe into the company. It was re-advertised early this year and awarded to the CCCC consortium last week after competitive bidding.
For Chivayo, the deal marks a significant expansion of his regional footprint. His companies in Zimbabwe have won contracts worth nearly $1 billion, among them $173 million for a solar power plant in Gwanda, $163 million to revamp Munyati Power Station and $131 million for the 30MW Gairezi hydro power station.
IMC Construction is also building two five-star hotels in Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ngorongoro regions for a reported $200 million.
A close ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Chivayo has used his political connections to build access across the continent, and has been pictured with the presidents of Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa, among others.
At home, Chivayo — a deeply polarising figure — has cultivated a reputation as a philanthropist, donating vehicles and large sums of money across a wide range of causes, from politicians and churches to football clubs, celebrities and everyday heroes. A diver who retrieved three drowning victims from a Harare sewer pond using rudimentary equipment was recently given a car and $20,000 in cash.
Some reports estimate Chivayo gave away more than $200 million in 2025 alone.
Kenya faces stiff competition in the region as neighbours race to expand their own aviation capacity. Rwanda is building the new Bugesera International Airport, targeting 14 million passengers annually, with a seven-million-passenger first phase due to open in 2027.
Tanzania has increased capacity at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam to eight million passengers, while Ethiopia broke ground in January on a new airport at Bishoftu designed to handle 110 million travellers a year.
