President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Narendra Raval as chancellor of Egerton University in 2019, adding to his series of high-profile roles under the administration. Raval, chairman of Devki Group, leads a family-owned conglomerate that includes National Cement and Devki Steel Mills, East Africa's largest building materials manufacturer.
The appointment followed Kenyatta's selection of Raval alongside Prof Joseph Ndung’u as chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Both will serve five-year terms, according to the announcement.
Devki Group's expansion includes a multibillion-shilling plant in Kwale, which Raval announced in 2018. The facility, expected to create 1,000 direct jobs and 9,000 indirect positions, remains under construction.
Raval, known in business circles as Guru, authored the memoir A Long Journey to Success, detailing his decades-long entrepreneurial career. The book was published in 2018, prior to his 2019 chancellorship appointment.