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Vipingo Development PLC, owned by property developer Centum Real Estate Ltd, got a reprieve after a court declared that it holds valid titles to three parcels of land in the Vipingo area, Kilifi County.

The parcels of land have been claimed by five individuals and a community-based organisation (CBO).

While most people stand before their mirrors in the morning as a matter of grooming, Nixon Nyadiero Sekoh does more than just spruce himself up. He fixes his gaze at his reflection and talks to himself.

‘I look at myself and say, ‘Sekoh, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Sekoh, you have the image of God. Sekoh, God died for you. Sekoh, you can do all things – not some; all things – through Christ who strengthens you,” he tells the BDLife.

Three borrowers have brought a class action lawsuit against microlender Mogo Auto Ltd, claiming that its lending model and debt recovery practices are predatory, unfair and unconscionable commercial conduct, contrary to equitable principles and public policy.

The borrowers claim that the firm, which finances the acquisition of cars and motorcycles, imposes exorbitant compound interest rates that allegedly exceed prevailing market and statutory limits.

Households and businesses could soon pay more for insurance cover as the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) moves to raise annual fees for insurers, brokers, agents and other intermediaries for the first time in 30 years.

Under the IRA proposed insurance regulations and guidelines, the license fees and annual operating fees for insurance and reinsurance companies will rise 3.3 times and three times respectively. The draft is also proposing to increase the annual fees for intermediaries such as agents, brokers and risk assessors by up to 10 times.

Kenyan farmers and small exporters shipping coffee, tea and other agricultural commodities to Europe have been handed a reprieve after the European Commission extended the compliance timeline for smaller firms under the new anti-deforestation law by one year.

Exporters of agricultural products in Kenya, who heavily rely on the European market, have been under pressure to comply with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which was initially set to take effect by the end of this year.

The owner of Makini Schools is set to establish a university in Kenya as part of its expansion in the education sector, a move that will see it enter the country’s tertiary learning segment for the first time.

South African multinational ADvTECH, which bought Makini Schools in 2018, also owns Crawford International and the recently acquired Regis Runda Academy that is being rebranded to Makini.

The Nairobi Expressway operator reported a wider net loss of Sh1.84 billion in the six months to December, as revenues from the 67,298 vehicles that use the road daily failed to cover its debt and operational costs.

Treasury disclosures show motorists paid Sh7.16 billion in toll fees during the period against Sh9 billion in costs, including loan repayment, operations and maintenance expenses.

Kenya has overtaken the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in peak electricity demand, making it the top consumer in the East African Community (EAC), where it is the regional economic powerhouse.

Data from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) shows that peak demand for electricity in Kenya jumped by 139 Megawatts (MW) to 2,316MW in the year ended June, at a time that of the DRC remained stagnant at 2174.17MW.

Uasin Gishu, Machakos, and Nairobi counties are the most conducive to doing business for small traders due to the cost of licences and the availability of funding and infrastructure with Nyandarua, Kakamega, and Kisii ranked last, a new index shows.

The index, developed by the African Institute of MSME Policy and Research and consultancy firm Viffa Consult, reckons that unification and cost of licences and business support services like funding and incubation hubs are game changers.

The world’s largest cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has experienced a major outage that has impacted thousands of organisations, including banks, financial software platforms such as Xero, and social media platforms such as Snapchat.

The outage began at roughly 6pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEDT) on Monday. It was caused by a malfunction at one of AWS’ data centres located in Northern Virginia in the US. AWS says it has fixed the underlying issue but some internet users are still reporting service disruptions.

This incident highlights the vulnerabilities of relying so much on cloud computing – or ‘the cloud’ as it’s often called. But there are ways to mitigate some of the risks.

Renting IT infrastructure

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of diverse IT resources such as computing power, database storage, and applications over the internet. In simple terms, it’s renting (not owning) your own IT infrastructure.

Cloud computing came into prevalence with the dot com boom in the late 1990s, wherein digital tech companies started to deliver software over the internet.

As companies such as Amazon matured in their own ability to offer what’s known as ‘software as a service’ over the web, they started to offer others the ability to rent their virtual servers for a cost as well.

This was a lucrative value proposition. Cloud computing enables a pay-as-you-go model similar to a utility bill, rather than the huge upfront investment required to purchase, operate and manage your own data centre.

As a result, the latest statistics suggest more than 94 percent of all enterprises use cloud-based services in some form.

A market dominated by three companies

The global cloud market is dominated by three companies. AWS holds the largest share (roughly 30 percent). It’s followed by Microsoft Azure (about 20 percent) and Google Cloud Platform (about 13 percent).

All three service providers have had recent outages, significantly impacting digital service platforms. For example, in 2024, an issue with third-party software severely impacted Microsoft Azure, causing extensive operational failures for businesses globally.

Google Cloud Platform also experienced a major outage this year due to an internal misconfiguration.

Profound risks

The heavy reliance of the global internet on just a few major providers – AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud – creates profound risks for both businesses and everyday users.

First, this concentration forms a single point of failure. As seen in the latest AWS event, a simple configuration error in one central system can trigger a domino effect that instantly paralyses vast segments of the internet. Second, these providers often impose vendor lock-in. Companies find it prohibitively difficult and expensive to switch platforms due to complex data architectures and excessively high fees charged for moving large volumes of data out of the cloud (data egress costs). This effectively traps customers, leaving them hostage to a single vendor’s terms.

Finally, the dominance of US-based cloud service providers introduces geopolitical and regulatory risks. Data stored in these massive systems is subject to US laws and government demands, which can complicate compliance with international data sovereignty regulations such as Australia’s Privacy Act.

Furthermore, these companies hold the power to censor or restrict access to services, giving them control over how firms operate.

The current best practice to mitigate these risks is to adopt a multi-cloud approach that enables you to decentralise. This involves running critical applications across multiple vendors to eliminate the single point of failure.

This approach can be complemented by what’s known as ‘edge computing’, wherein data storage and processing is moved away from large, central data centres, toward smaller, distributed nodes (such as local servers) that firms can control directly.

The combination of edge computing and a multi-cloud approach enhances resilience, improves speed, and helps companies meet strict data regulatory requirements while avoiding dependence on any single entity.

As the old saying goes, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.