Kenyan lawmakers have opposed the proposed sale of a 29.2% stake in East African Portland Cement (EAPC) to Tanzanian businessman Edhah Abdallah Munif, arguing the deal undervalues the company and could hand control of a strategic asset to a foreign investor, Tuko News and other local media reported.

The shares, held by Holcim – one of the world’s largest building materials and cement groups, headquartered in Switzerland – were to be transferred to Munif’s Kalahari Cement at KES27.30 each, valuing the transaction at about KES718.7mn ($5.6mn).

Kenyan MPs said the price was less than half the prevailing market level, with EAPC stock trading at around KES58.50 on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) after a 385% y/y rally. As of September 17, neither Holcim nor Kalahari Cement had commented on the objections to the proposed stake sale, according to Tuko News.

The National Assembly’s Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives recommended that EAPC consider a buyback instead. Committee chair Samuel Parashina said during hearings that the firm had sufficient resources to reacquire the stake. “Why should we dispose of national assets cheaply when the company has the capacity to buy them back?,” he said, as quoted by Eastleigh Voice.

EAPC managing director Mohammed Osman told lawmakers the company would be able to finance a repurchase if directed to do so. According to figures cited in parliamentary debates and reported by Kenya Insights, the cement maker has net assets of about KES20.4bn, with total assets of KES35.19bn against liabilities of KES14.79bn, much of it linked to land holdings.

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) said it lacked powers to set the price of the transaction, though it would review the deal for compliance with regulatory requirements, The Kenya Times reported. MPs nonetheless pressed regulators to explain how the transaction was allowed to proceed at what they described as a steep discount.

Kenyan lawmakers also raised broader concerns about transparency and foreign ownership, warning that valuable industrial and land assets could be stripped if the EAPC stake sale went ahead.

Holcim’s gradual retreat from Africa to concentrating on higher-return markets has gathered pace over the past four years. The Swiss group sold its controlling stake in Bamburi Cement in Kenya to Tanzania’s Amsons Group in December 2024, and in August 2025 finalised the $1bn sale of its 83.8% holding in Lafarge Africa Plc to China’s Huaxin Cement. Earlier, it divested Lafarge Zambia in 2021.