Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the powerful chairman and CEO of Dubai’s DP World, has stepped down with immediate effect after the release of over 3.5 million pages of files exposed his close relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and raised uncomfortable questions about how the logistics giant secured lucrative East African port deals.
The resignation on Friday comes weeks after US Department of Justice documents revealed Sulayem boasted to Epstein about his access to African presidents, including Kenya’s former President Uhuru Kenyatta, just months before DP World began its aggressive expansion across the continent.
DP World announced that Essa Kazim, previously Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, would take over as chairman while Yuvraj Narayan, the company’s deputy CEO and CFO since 2005, becomes Group Chief Executive Officer.
The company made no mention of the Epstein scandal in its terse statement, saying only that the appointments “support its strategy for sustainable growth and reinforce its role in strengthening global supply chains.”
However, the timing of Sulayem’s departure leaves little doubt about the pressure that mounted after major international partners threatened to freeze billions in investments unless DP World took action.
Canada’s second-largest pension fund, La Caisse, which has invested more than $5 billion alongside DP World over the past decade, announced this week it would pause “additional capital deployment” with the company. British International Investment, which partners with DP World on four African ports, followed suit.
The Epstein files paint a disturbing portrait of Sulayem’s decade-long friendship with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Between 2007 and 2018, the two exchanged what investigators describe as hundreds of emails covering business matters, sexual encounters, escort services and pornography. Photographs released by House Democrats show Epstein cooking with Sulayem, suggesting an intimacy that went beyond professional acquaintance.
In one particularly troubling 2017 exchange, Sulayem helped arrange for a Russian “masseuse” from Epstein’s “private spa” to train at a Turkish hotel. During Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2022 trial, multiple witnesses testified that Epstein used massages as a cover to sexually exploit young girls.
The files also reveal Sulayem repeatedly asked to visit Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, where victims testified they were trafficked and abused. In December 2014, years after Epstein’s first conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, Sulayem wrote asking for updates on spending Christmas at the island.
But it is the Africa connection that has sent shockwaves through diplomatic and business circles in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
In April 2013, Sulayem emailed Epstein to inform him he was attending President Kenyatta’s inauguration, writing: “I am in Nairobi for the inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta as president of Kenya, whom I know very well.”
Just over a year later, in October 2014, Sulayem updated Epstein about a three-hour meeting with Kenyatta in Mombasa to discuss building a massive logistics hub to serve Kenya and its landlocked neighbours.
Within months, DP World began its East African expansion. In March 2022, Kenya’s Finance Ministry entered into a controversial concession giving DP World rights to operate berths at Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu ports.
The deal, which emerged after Kenyatta’s February 2022 visit to the UAE, sparked fierce political backlash. Kenya Kwanza Coalition leaders accused Kenyatta of secretly auctioning national assets. The letter requesting DP World’s proposal was addressed directly to Sulayem.
Although the Kenya deal ultimately collapsed amid election-year politics, DP World’s appetite for East African ports did not wane.
In October 2023, the company signed a 30-year concession to operate four berths at Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam Port, committing an initial $250 million that could grow to $1 billion. The deal, which took effect in April 2024, grants DP World control over one of the continent’s busiest maritime gateways.
There is no evidence that President Kenyatta or other African leaders had any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes. Being mentioned in correspondence does not imply criminal wrongdoing.
Sulayem himself has not been charged with any crime. However, the revelations have permanently damaged his reputation and raised troubling questions about the due diligence conducted by East African governments before handing control of strategic national assets to a company led by a man who maintained such close ties to a convicted sex offender.
The Epstein files also reference Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Senegal in darker contexts. Documents describe coastal towns like Malindi as areas frequented by individuals involved in paedophile activity, with Tanzania identified as a transit point in alleged trafficking operations.
Newly released emails detail planning for 2009 trips to Kenya involving young women, with Epstein pledging $13,000 per girl for “safari and internship.” In May 2011, American publicist Peggy Siegal emailed Epstein that a girl “is finally turning legal.”
Children from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia were reportedly trafficked through Mombasa, the very port where DP World sought control and where Sulayem met Kenyatta to discuss regional logistics infrastructure.
DP World now controls ports and logistics centres across nine African countries, including Algeria, Angola, Djibouti, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa, as well as Somaliland.
The company’s expansion has been marked by long-term concessions spanning 20 to 30 years, granting extraordinary control over critical trade infrastructure. In Senegal, DP World is constructing a $1.1 billion deepwater port at Ndayane under a 25-year concession. In Angola, it secured a 20-year concession for Luanda port’s multipurpose terminal.
Critics have long warned that such deals threaten national sovereignty. In Djibouti, the government nationalised the Doraleh Container Terminal in 2018, terminating DP World’s 30-year concession amid accusations of unfair contract terms.
In Tanzania, activist Maria Tsehai told The Africa Report in 2023 that the DP World agreement contained “clauses that were blatantly one-sided in favour of the Dubai government.”
As Kenya contemplates relaunching its port concessions and Tanzania deepens its partnership with DP World, the shadow of Jeffrey Epstein now looms over every contract.
The question facing East African governments is whether they conducted adequate background checks before handing control of strategic assets to a company led by a man so deeply enmeshed with a convicted paedophile.
Sulayem’s departure may close one chapter, but it opens another: will African nations demand better scrutiny of those who seek control over their critical infrastructure, or will the pursuit of foreign investment continue to trump considerations of character and judgment?
