Reclusive Ex-MP Behind Multi-Billion Sarova Group of Hotels

The Sarova group of hotels is one of the most awarded and recognized hotel chains in Africa and in the country, having won a number of coveted international awards.

The group of hotels have largely been associated with the late Gurcharan Singh Vohra, popularly identified as G.S. Vohra, and his family.

Unbeknown to many, however, is that the Vohra family partnered with a Kenyan politician and business magnate, John Ngata Kariuki.

The highly reclusive John Ngata Kariuki (in glasses) leaves the court on August 26, 2011, after the high court nullified his election as Kirinyaga MP.

Reports from Business Daily in 2014 indicated that the hotel is owned by the family of the late Vohra in partnership with Ngata, a former Kirinyaga Central MP, and brother to a former spymaster, the late James Kanyotu.

According to the publication, Ngata first ventured into the hotel industry in partnership with G.S Vohra in 1974, after which they solicited for funds from different sources, including a bank, to make the acquisition which led to the birth of Sarova Group.

It took them another two years of business before they acquired the 22-acre Sarova Whitesands, then the Sarova Stanely followed in 1978 using another loan.

Reports at the time indicated that they spent millions renovating the two hotels before they ventured further into the Mara, then Sarova Lion Hill in 1986, and Shaba in Tsavo in 1989.

Ngata Kariuki ventured into politics and was elected Kirinyaga MP in the 2007 election, a win that was nullified in 2011 following petitions by his fierce competitor, Daniel Karaba of NARC Kenya.

Apart from politics, however, Ngata has served as a director and chair in several companies including Kenya Airways, The Automobile Association of Kenya, The Kenya Post and Telecommunications Corporation (Telkom Kenya) and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Bank of India.

He took over the chairmanship of the hotel chains after Vohra passed on in October 2014, and has been at the helm ever since.

Sarova Whitesands in Mombasa

At the moment, the restaurant has two chains at Tsavo, as well as one in Samburu, another in Masai Mara and two chains in Nakuru, most notably being Sarova Woodlands.

The hotel also boasts several branches in Nairobi, most prominent being the Sarova Stanely, Sarova Panafric, and Sarova Whitesands in Mombasa.

The hotels have hosted amongst many, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, Milton Obote of Uganda and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

Sarova Woodlands in Nakuru