Wicknell Chivayo: Photos of controversial Zimbabwean billionaire enjoying cosy moments with President Ruto

There was something almost effortless about the way Wicknell Chivayo moved through the corridors of power.

Wherever he touched down in Kenya, President William Ruto seemed to be waiting, and the meetings that followed rarely stayed behind closed doors for long.

Photo after photo surfaced online, each one capturing the kind of access most people spend a lifetime trying to get near.

It wasn't just Kenya, either. Cross the border into Tanzania, and there was Chivayo again, this time posing with President Samia Suluhu Hassan inside State House, as comfortable there as he seemed everywhere else.

Perhaps the most striking glimpse into just how close he'd gotten to the centre of power came in a video Chivayo himself shared, one showing Ruto personally driving him around during a visit to the president.

It wasn't the kind of moment typically afforded to a foreign businessman, however wealthy.

His presence at Charlene Ruto's traditional wedding in Trans Mara only reinforced the sense that Chivayo wasn't simply a visitor passing through Kenyan political circles. He was, by every appearance, embedded in them.

And it didn't stop with presidents. Chivayo's camera roll read like a directory of the continent's most influential and famous faces, heads of state, celebrities, religious leaders, all captured alongside a man who never seemed to tire of being photographed.

That comfort with the spotlight extended naturally into how he lived.

Chivayo wore his wealth the way other people wear a favourite jacket, constantly, unapologetically, and always in full view.

Top-of-the-range vehicles. Watches and jewellery that didn't need explaining. Shoes that cost more than most people's monthly salaries. A mansion big enough to swallow entire neighbourhoods.

He posed beside Rolls-Royce and private jets as easily as other people pose for passport photos.

He handed out expensive cars to musicians, pastors and footballers, often documenting the handovers himself, and spoke openly, almost casually, about business deals running into the millions.

Then, without warning, it all ended in the sky above Marondera.

Chivayo, his wife and others died when their helicopter went down, a tragedy that stunned those who had only days earlier watched him living as loudly as ever online.

What has since sent a chill through social media, though, isn't the crash itself. It's a post that came long before it.

Back on May 8, 2025, a woman identified only as Susan wrote something on X that read, at the time, like nothing more than an odd, unsettling claim.

"He's actually going to die in a plane crash. Save this post. He knows it's the truth, and the truth hurts. Wicknell will die in a plane crash very soon. Save this post."

That post has now resurfaced, circulating widely in the hours since Chivayo's death was confirmed, an eerie footnote to a story that already felt larger than life.

To understand why his death has rippled so widely, you have to understand who Chivayo actually was, and how he got there.

By his own account, he left school young, not long after his father died, and started out as a wages clerk at a bus company at around 15 years old.

Zimbabwean reporting has also traced a period where he worked as an illegal foreign-currency dealer, long before Intratrek Zimbabwe, the company that would eventually make him a household name, ever existed.

Intratrek's signature project, the 100MW Gwanda Solar Project, awarded through the Zimbabwe Power Company, was meant to be his defining achievement. Instead, it became a years-long saga of delays, financing disputes, and courtroom battles, with the project initially valued at roughly US$172 million.

Chivayo and Intratrek were eventually acquitted in 2023 over a US$5.6 million fraud case tied to the project, a legal cloud that had followed him for years.

Strangely, Gwanda found its way back into headlines just weeks before his death. On September 10, 2026, Zimbabwe's government issued Intratrek a fresh Notice to Proceed, giving the company 24 months to finally complete the solar plant under a restated contract.

If business contracts built his fortune, it was social media that turned Chivayo into a household name far beyond Zimbabwe's borders.

His gift-giving became something of a national spectacle. Luxury cars and cash didn't just go to friends or family, they went to entertainers, churches, athletes and politically connected figures, usually announced by Chivayo himself, often with theatrical flair.

In 2025, The Herald reported one birthday giveaway alone totalling around US$5.3 million in vehicles and cash donations spread across political, religious and community organisations.

Football fandom fit neatly into that same generosity. He sponsored clubs including Highlanders and Scottland, with Highlanders reportedly receiving a US$1 million sponsorship deal for the 2026 season, plus a brand-new luxury team bus.

His closeness to political power was never subtle, either. In Zimbabwe, he was a regular fixture beside President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other senior officials.

In Kenya, that same closeness to Ruto sparked plenty of public attention throughout 2026, from the State House visit to that now widely shared video of Ruto driving him to a helipad at the president's private residence in Kilgoris.

Not everyone in government was comfortable with how that relationship was being portrayed, though.

Kenya's Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir later pushed back on reports of a specific arrangement involving Chivayo, insisting that tenders were still under evaluation, a reminder of just how contested the details around his business dealings often were.

His past wasn't without blemish either. A 2004 theft conviction sits alongside later acquittals, including the Gwanda fraud case, a career that swung repeatedly between controversy and vindication.

Through it all, his wealth, his government ties, and his very public spending never stopped drawing scrutiny.

At the time of his death, Chivayo's business interests had stretched well into Kenya. Reports in June linked his company, IMC Construction Kenya, to a proposed Sh375 billion expansion of JKIA, developed alongside Chinese partners.

He leaves behind a life that touched energy projects, football, philanthropy, and political access, in equal, dazzling measure, a life lived unusually loud until he died tragically.