How One MBA Grad Blew the Whistle on a $2 Billion Deal
Nelson Amenya hoped to help establish better business practices in his native Kenya. But after calling out a lucrative government project, he might not have the option to return home.
Nelson Amenya in France on Feb. 13.
Photographer: Evgeniy Rein for Bloomberg BusinessweekWhen Nelson Amenya decided to enroll in HEC Paris business school in the fall of 2023, he thought the MBA program would provide a good education in how businesses are run and how the corporate world works. “It would give me an opportunity to move from midlevel management to the C-suite,” Amenya says. After more than four years working in retail in his native Kenya, where he felt he’d taken the job as far as he could, he was ready for a bigger challenge.
Amenya also planned to take what he’s learned in school back to his homeland, citing what he sees as a need for establishing good governance as Kenya’s economy develops. “I want to see my country move away from tribal and kingpin politics,” he says. But once he receives his MBA in June, Amenya will have to be a force for good from afar. Last July he blew the whistle on a proposed $2 billion airport construction project in Nairobi involving Adani Group, triggering a chain of events that subsequently led to the deal’s cancellation. (An Adani Group representative declined to comment.) As a result, Amenya says he has received threats that will keep him out of Kenya for the foreseeable future.