Category: Business Daily

The court has warned employers that they cannot fire workers based on suspicion alone, ordering I and M Bank to compensate a former employee after finding it dismissed him without proving he had done anything wrong or following the proper disciplinary process. The ruling highlights the need for employers to have evidence and observe fair procedures before dismissing staff accused of misconduct.

Consequently, I and M Bank has been ordered to pay a former staff Sh1.1 million after a court ruled that it dismissed him without proving misconduct or right procedures.

The Employment and Labour Relations Court ruled that I and M Bank unfairly dismissed a credit analyst accused of improperly accessing a joint US dollar account belonging to one of its directors and the director’s spouse.

Justice Ocharo Kebira said the termination of Tom Mongare was unfair, as the bank relied on an incomplete investigation that left critical questions unanswered.

Mr Mongare joined I and M Bank in 2019 as a credit analyst in the personal and business banking division at its Mombasa Nyerere Avenue branch. He earned a gross monthly salary of Sh105,688 before his dismissal on May 20, 2024.

The dispute arose from him accessing a joint US dollar account held by one of the bank’s directors, who also serves as group executive director of Coast Bottlers, and the director’s spouse.

The bank argued that the employee had no legitimate business reason to access the account and alleged the customer’s spouse was later contacted by strangers who appeared to possess confidential banking information.

Mr Mongare denied wrongdoing. He told the court he was conducting preliminary due diligence after the bank’s relationship manager informed him Coast Bottlers was considering acquiring vehicles through financing or leasing arrangements that could involve the bank.

He testified that reviewing links between a corporate borrower and its directors formed part of his work as a credit analyst and insisted he never disclosed any customer information to anyone. He told the court that his work required him to verify account turnover and transactions between the company and its directors.

Justice Kebira found the explanation remained largely unchallenged because the relationship manager, identified only as Zadock, was never interviewed during investigations or called to testify despite the bank’s own human resources manager describing him as ‘a vital witness.’

‘It is a well-established evidentiary principle that where a party fails to call a witness peculiarly placed to speak to a fact material to the dispute, the court may draw an adverse inference,’ the judge said.

The court also found no evidence connecting Mr Mongare to the alleged disclosure of confidential information.

‘There is nothing beyond suspicion connecting the claimant to the disclosure of the customer’s private details to any third party,’ the judgment said.

Justice Kebira noted the bank never identified the alleged callers, produced evidence tracing any communication to Mr Mongare or called the customer to testify.

The court further found there were serious procedural failures during the disciplinary process.

It said the bank did not issue a show-cause letter, withheld the investigation report from the employee, fixed a disciplinary hearing while investigations were supposedly continuing and failed to interview a witness central to the employee’s defence.

‘The sensitivity of an allegation, if anything, calls for more scrupulous observance of an employee’s procedural entitlements, not their suspension,’ the judge said.

Justice Kebira also cited contradictory testimony from the bank’s own witnesses over whether other employees had accessed the same account on the material day.

Mr Mongare was awarded notice pay, accrued leave, seven months’ salary as compensation, interest and legal costs. The court also ordered I and M Bank to issue him with a certificate of service.

Every person who has sought medical care knows that treatment rarely begins with a doctor. It often starts at a registration desk, with an identity check, an eligibility verification, or a pre-authorisation request. These steps may appear administrative, but they often determine how quickly care is received and how confidently providers can deliver it. They remind us that healthcare is shaped as much by the systems behind it as by the care itself.

According to the World Health Organization, sub-Saharan Africa has approximately 0.2 doctors per 1,000 people, one of the lowest physician-to-population ratios in the world. Expanding healthcare workforce remains essential. But even if every country doubled its number of doctors tomorrow, healthcare would still struggle if systems supporting those professionals remained slow, fragmented and disconnected.

Behind every successful consultation is an invisible system. It verifies a patient’s identity, confirms insurance eligibility, authorises treatment, processes claims, reimburses providers and generates the information needed to make better decisions. When these systems work well, patients rarely notice them. When they fail, everyone does.

The importance of these invisible systems is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Across the world, healthcare leaders are recognising that sustainable healthcare depends not only on hospitals, healthcare workers and financing, but also on the digital infrastructure that connects them.

Kenya’s transition from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to the Social Health Authority (SHA) reflects this broader shift. Beyond financing, it signals a growing recognition that connected digital infrastructure is becoming just as important as physical infrastructure. Modern healthcare increasingly depends on systems that enable faster decisions, greater transparency, and more reliable information across the healthcare ecosystem.

The transition has also demonstrated that health financing reform cannot succeed without modern administrative capability. As healthcare becomes more digital, citizens increasingly expect the same speed, transparency and convenience they experience in banking, telecommunications and other services. Healthcare can no longer afford to operate differently.

Digital infrastructure is quietly becoming healthcare’s operating system. When patient identity, eligibility verification, provider management, pre-authorisation and claims processing operate as one connected ecosystem information moves more quickly, decisions become more consistent, and trust grows across the entire healthcare ecosystem.

The next breakthrough in healthcare may not be a new treatment. It may be the ability to connect every stage of care into one trusted system. The real opportunity lies in connecting every administrative touchpoint from patient registration to provider for reimbursement into one intelligent ecosystem.

Artificial intelligence is often portrayed as the future of diagnosis. Its immediate impact may prove to be far less visible, but just as significant. Intelligent claims adjudication, automated pre-authorisation and predictive fraud detection are helping health systems make faster, more consistent and more transparent decisions. The objective is not to replace professional judgment. It is to strengthen it.

This shift also changes how we should evaluate innovation. Success should not be measured by how sophisticated a technology appears, but by whether it removes unnecessary complexity for patients, providers and funders. The most valuable innovations are often the ones people barely notice because they simply make healthcare work better.

Across Africa, there is already compelling evidence that this transformation is underway. Rwanda has integrated telemedicine into its national health system, extending specialist care to underserved communities. In Kenya, digital financing platforms have demonstrated how technology can improve transparency, strengthen financial inclusion and simplify healthcare payments. These innovations address different challenges, yet they all point towards the same destination: healthcare systems that are more connected, more responsive, and more centred on the people they serve.

What is encouraging is that many African countries are building these capabilities without decades of legacy infrastructure. Rather than modernizing outdated systems, they have an opportunity to design connected healthcare ecosystems from the outset. That is an advantage the continent should not underestimate.

One lesson has become increasingly clear through years of working across healthcare technology and administration: healthcare rarely struggles because clinicians lack expertise. More often, it struggles because the systems surrounding clinical care cannot keep pace with the demands placed upon them. We often think of delayed claims, fragmented information, and disconnected workflows as operational issues. In reality, they influence patient confidence, provider sustainability, and ultimately the quality of care itself.

The strongest health systems will not necessarily be those with the newest technologies. They will be those that use technology to remove friction instead of creating it, connect information instead of isolating it and replace uncertainty with trust. Technology, on its own, is never the destination. It is the infrastructure that enables healthcare to become more responsive, more transparent, and ultimately more human.

As governments, healthcare providers, insurers and technology partners continue investing in healthcare transformation, three priorities deserve greater attention. Healthcare systems must be designed to communicate with one another rather than operate in isolation. Investments should simplify patient journeys rather than merely digitize existing processes. And above all, every technological advancement should strengthen trust because healthcare ultimately depends on confidence as much as capability.

Better hospitals will always matter. Better medicine will always matter. Outstanding clinical care will always matter. But the healthcare systems that define the next decade will be distinguished by something less visible: their ability to connect people, information and decisions in ways that make care more accessible, more efficient and more trusted.

The High Court has barred the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) from impounding unregistered imported vehicles held by used-car dealers, handing a major relief to the traders.

The court, however, upheld the legal requirement that imported vehicles be registered before sale. It ordered the NTSA to give a fresh notice of at least 60 days to the dealers before enforcing the 2024 rules. The court found the NTSA’s earlier seven-day compliance deadline was procedurally unfair.

The ruling followed a petition by the Car Importers Association of Kenya (CIAK) challenging NTSA’s December 2024 directive requiring dealers to register imported vehicles before sale or risk impoundment and prosecution.

The association argued that immediate registration reduced resale value because buyers preferred newer registration series.

But Justice Ngaah Jairus backed the NTSA requirement and said that the authority’s decision was legal under the Traffic Act.

However, he found the authority failed to meet constitutional standards of fair administrative action after abruptly enforcing the notice following years of tolerating a different practice.

‘The Petition succeeds in part only,’ the judge said, declaring that the registration requirement was lawful and ‘is not displaced by any legitimate expectation or estoppel.’

The dispute arose after NTSA announced a multi-agency exercise involving Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Financial Reporting Centre, immigration officials and security agencies targeting unregistered vehicles held by car dealers.

The notice warned of impoundment and criminal charges after December 16, 2024.

Ruling on the CIAK’s case, the court restrained NTSA from impounding vehicles or prosecuting association members solely for missing the December 16, 2024 deadline until it first gives reasonable notice and a fresh 60-day compliance period.

CIAK represents used-car importers with showrooms across Kenya. It said members import second-hand vehicles from Japan and Dubai through Mombasa.

Dealers said they have long paid duty, cleared vehicles from customs areas and kept them in showrooms before registering them after finding buyers.

It also claimed franchise dealers of new vehicles could hold stock pending sale while registering later, amounting to discriminatory treatment.

NTSA defended the notice as enforcement of mandatory Traffic Act provisions, not a policy change. It argued no public authority could be prevented from enforcing statutory duties through legitimate expectation or estoppel. The authority also cited security concerns over unregistered vehicles.

The court agreed statutory obligations could not be overridden by administrative practice. ‘No representation could have had the legal effect of permanently exempting the Petitioner’s members from registration requirements,’ the court said.

The court nevertheless found procedural unfairness. It said NTSA gave dealers seven days to comply, spanning a weekend and public holiday.

The association met NTSA officials on December 10, 2024, and requested three months to comply, but received no response before the deadline.

Justice Jairus said Article 47 and the Fair Administrative Action Act required ‘prior and adequate notice’ and ‘a reasonable opportunity to be heard.’

He found regulators should not abruptly terminate a settled commercial practice without allowing sufficient adjustment time.

The court also rejected CIAK’s discrimination claim and accepted NTSA’s argument that used-car dealers and new-vehicle franchise dealers operate under different customs regimes.

Used imports enter the domestic market after duty is paid, while new vehicles may remain under bonded warehousing until sale.

Kenyans living in the US have been asking friends to confirm whether the Rironi-Mau Summit road is indeed being expanded into a dual carriageway. Earlier, news of the Isiolo-Mandera road generated many sceptical memes. Both large-scale projects are ongoing.

On the Rironi-Naivasha segment, construction is continuing day and night. China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has mobilised 38 teams and 1,200 trucks to work on structures, interchanges, and earthworks. About 3,000 people are currently employed on the project. This number will increase to 6,000. The segment is already 25 per cent complete. Tarmac is expected to be laid on various sections by October this year.

While not sceptics by nature, Kenyans are doubtful about government projects. Culturally, we are warm, communal, and optimistic. However, decades of zero-sum politics, unfulfilled promises on jobs and infrastructure, corruption, and economic volatility have cultivated a sharp trust deficit.

Afrobarometer surveys show that we do not trust institutions. We doubt the honesty of elections and the independence of the courts. It is no surprise, then, that we greet announcements of development projects with doubt rather than applause.

We are collectivist, hospitable, and readily cooperate with and support each other. Religious faith plays a central role in our identity. But even here, scepticism is emerging. Rogue, profit-driven preachers have made us increasingly cynical about religious leadership. We are entrepreneurial, resilient, and cheerful. Our scepticism is therefore not permanent pessimism. Rather, it is a vital, street-smart survival strategy.

How can the broken social contract be repaired? The state must prove it is serving the public interest rather than protecting political elites or prioritising creditors. Trust cannot be built while public officials operate above the law. It requires swift, visible legal penalties for abuse of office. We should compel officials implicated in the misappropriation of public funds or wasteful spending to repay those public resources from their personal wealth. The rule of law must apply universally.

At the core of the trust deficit is a subtle yet deep issue. A physical project is not proof of a clean process. The scepticism is not directed at the project itself but rather at how much it costs, who is profiting from it, and whether it will be finished.

Projects often mask deeper institutional issues. Behind-the-scenes dealings lead to significant cost escalations. Project cancellations result in massive breach-of-contract expenses for taxpayers. Cancelled projects are later awarded at significantly higher contract sums. Many projects have been promised for generations. When timelines shift, citizens see this as political campaign machinations.

Kenyans can see the physical tarmac, stadium canopy, or building, but they doubt the “software” part. Contracts, interest rates, and procurement have historically been corrupted, hidden, or manipulated. The scepticism is not a denial of facts; it is an interrogation of the price tag.

Paradoxically, Kenyans follow politicians not because they trust them, but because they view them as vital communal shields and resource gatekeepers in a flawed system. With weak state institutions and scarce resources, political alignment is a matter of community security. Roads, schools, bursaries, and state jobs are not seen as universal rights distributed equally by an objective state. They are seen as part of a pie divided by whoever holds power.

A voter will readily admit that their tribal kingpin is corrupt, but still vote for him or her, believing that a corrupt politician who brings some resources home is better than an honest one from a rival community who might direct everything elsewhere.

Poverty means we live hand-to-mouth. Politicians exploit this, positioning themselves as personal financial saviours rather than policymakers solving problems. Donating towards medical bills, school fees, or the local church builds immediate, transactional loyalty.

Voters may suspect that the politician is using public funds that could have built a working healthcare system in the first place. However, because the system is broken today, voters cannot afford to alienate the person providing immediate financial relief.

When every political option feels compromised, voting on ideology breaks down, resulting in the illusion of choice. Voters have stopped looking for honest leaders. Instead, they cynically choose the politician who is most familiar, predictable, or most likely to defeat a perceived external political threat.

Loyalty to tribal kingpins is entirely transactional, defensive, and pragmatic. Politicians use the public as shields to secure power and immunity. The public uses politicians as battering rams to extract resources from the state. It is a system driven not by blind faith, but by a mutual, hyper-sceptical understanding of how power works on the ground.

Kenya seeks to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) models used in the country or affecting residents, even when the companies that own them do not have local operations.

A new proposal by the ICT Ministry extends the government’s control to overseas tech firms such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Facebook’s parent Meta, whose AI systems are increasingly being adopted by Kenyan businesses, government offices and private users.

It gives the government powers to hold tech firms accountable if their products, services, or data systems are accessed or used in Kenya, regardless of where the company is headquartered.

The regulatory model, technically referred to as extraterritorial jurisdiction, is similar to that adopted by the European Union (EU). The regional bloc routinely fines tech giants whose products infringe on Europeans’ privacy and safety.

‘This policy applies to any entity outside Kenya that provides AI or other emerging technologies systems or services whose outputs are used within Kenya, or which have direct and foreseeable effects on individuals, rights, or public interests in Kenya,’ reads the draft AI policy.

The guidelines cover software vendors, cloud service providers, compute providers, AI model developers, data intermediaries, data annotation providers and public-sector technology suppliers used locally.

‘This policy adopts an effects-based jurisdictional approach, consistent with international best practice in data protection and consumer protection law,’ says the policy.

Such an approach allows a government, regulator, or court to exercise legal authority over companies or individuals located outside its physical borders, as long as their action causes direct consequences within the regulating country’s territory.

This means international AI companies whose products are used in Kenya – including OpenAI’s GPT models, Anthropic’s Claude and Meta’s Llama – could be required to comply with Kenyan AI rules even if they have no physical presence in the country.

Google, which owns the Gemini AI model, and Microsoft, the developer of the MAI series of models, already have Kenyan offices.

Depending on the type of AI system, Kenya will require tech companies to conduct risk assessments of their AI products, ensure transparency for users – including explicit labelling of AI-generated content – implement human oversight measures, and meet cybersecurity standards.

The government says it will classify all AI systems according to the level of risk they pose, maintain a central register of high-risk AI systems requiring oversight, and periodically review risk classifications as technology evolves.

Kenya’s AI policy does not spell out which systems are considered ‘high risk.’ But it borrows from the European AI Act, which classifies systems used in critical infrastructure, education, healthcare, law enforcement, border management or elections as ‘high-risk’.

Such systems face stricter rules.

Kenya’s draft policy also requires AI system vendors to disclose information on data sources, model limitations, cybersecurity measures, human oversight arrangements, auditability and redress mechanisms.

It further seeks to compel international companies bidding for government AI contracts to forge partnerships with local tech firms.

Meanwhile, public institutions would be required to conduct AI impact assessments before deploying high-risk systems in areas such as healthcare, education, taxation, policing, justice, employment and public services.

The government also plans to maintain a public register of AI systems deployed across the public sector, except where national security considerations apply.

The policy further introduces labour protections for AI content moderators and data annotators employed by outsourcing firms serving international tech companies.

It proposes minimum standards for written contracts, access to mental health support, and a fair pay framework benchmarked against international rates.

‘Support the development and integration of fair and transparent pay standards for AI and other emerging technologies value chain workforce,’ reads the draft policy.

This follows years of complaints by Kenyan content moderators working on projects for companies such as OpenAI and Meta over psychological trauma and low pay.

Read: How AI can work for everyone in Kenya

Kenya has not yet specified the regulatory obligations or penalties that will apply to the tech companies.

The EU enforces compliance with its AI and data protection laws by levying huge fines calculated as a percentage of a company’s total worldwide annual turnover, which can reach up to 20 percent.

In some cases, non-EU companies must designate a formal physical or legal representative inside an EU member state to act as a point of contact for regulatory authorities.

Safaricom Ethiopia reached 14.7 million active customers in June this year, boosting its drive towards attaining profitability at the EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) level by March 2027.

The telecoms operator saw its number of three-month active customers rise by one million in the quarter to June 2026, from 13.63 million 90-day active customers as of the end of March this year.

The rise in the number of customers mirrors the underlying momentum of the startup, which is expected to achieve break-even at the EBITDA level in the next eight months.

The number of active customers on the network soared 46.1 percent year-on-year from 10.06 million in June 2025.

The increased number of active customers improves the operator’s ability to generate revenue across its telecoms business, including voice, data, SMS and mobile money services (M-Pesa).

Data customers increased to 11.52 million three-month active customers, while voice closed the period with 12.03 million active customers, registering 37.02 percent year-on-year growth.

M-Pesa continued to show traction, albeit trailing voice and data uptake, and reached 5.69 million three-month active customers during the same period.

Safaricom noted that its mobile money service is still laying the groundwork for a broader digital ecosystem, supporting merchant payments, enterprise solutions and advancing financial inclusion.

‘Overall, the growth across total, voice, data and M-Pesa customers underscores Safaricom Ethiopia’s sustained commercial momentum and its role in advancing digital and financial inclusion,’ Safaricom said in a quarterly update of its Ethiopia business.

The strong momentum for the unit was delivered against the backdrop of a challenging macroeconomic environment defined by a resurgence in inflation and currency weakness, albeit at a slower rate.

Ethiopia’s inflation rose to 13.4 percent in May from 11.7 percent in April, reflecting renewed price pressures as food and transport costs rose due to higher global oil prices following the conflict in the Middle East.

The inflation rate, however, remains benign and is far removed from previous periods of hyperinflation, when changes in consumer prices persistently remained above 20 percent.

The Ethiopian birr (ETB) depreciated 16.8 percent between June 2025 and June 2026 against the US dollar.

Safaricom’s Ethiopian unit more than halved its losses in the year to March 2026 to Sh21.2 billion, supported by an improved macroeconomic environment and tariff reviews on voice and data services implemented in late 2025.

‘The breakeven projected is on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA),’ Dilip Pal, Safaricom Plc Chief Finance Officer, said previously.

‘If you look at the second half of FY26 (October 2025-March 2026), the loss reduction is greater than in the first half, and it shows that we are geared for positive EBITDA breakeven in FY27 (March 2027).’

The unit, known as Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia (STE), posted Sh14.08 billion in service revenues in the year ended March 2026.

Voice revenue was recorded at Sh3.01 billion, rising 156.3 percent year-on-year, while data revenues were up 69 percent to Sh9.56 billion.

Messaging revenues grew by 106.6 percent over the same period to Sh170 million, while the fixed service business posted Sh200 million in revenues. M-Pesa lagged behind all major revenue heads for the unit, posting revenues of Sh100 million, but grew by 15.2 percent during the review period.

The slow uptake of M-Pesa in the market has been attributed to cash dominance, with the telco previously noting that the widespread use of cash, especially for small-value transactions, remained a challenge even as it saw an opportunity to digitise payments.

According to a 2021 report authored by the World Bank, cash in Ethiopia remains an overwhelmingly dominant payment method, a sharp contrast to other markets in the region, including Kenya, where non-cash payments have gained a foothold.

A new electric vehicle start-up has entered Kenya’s fast-growing e-mobility market with a Sh1.8 million compact electric car targeting ride-hailing drivers.

Bingo EV Kenya, which is owned by US-based mobility technology company Bingo Technologies, plans to launch the four-seater Bingo E2 in September.

The first batch of 20 fully built units will arrive from China before the company shifts to local assembly next year to benefit from lower taxation.

‘We target to sell at least 100 units by the end of the year as we plan local assembly from January at the Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA) plant in Mombasa,’ Bingo Technologies co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Christian Scheder-Bieschin told Business Daily.

The car will be competing against Beijing Henrey’s Xiaohu hatchback, which goes for Sh2.5 million and Sh2.8 million, with 200 and 285 kilometre ranges, respectively, and Dongfeng’s ePureCitie, worth Sh4 million and Sh4.5 million, with ranges of 330 and 430 km, respectively.

The car will compete against Beijing Henrey’s Xiaohu hatchback, which goes for Sh2.5 million and Sh2.8 million, with 200-kilometre and 285-kilometre ranges, respectively, and Dongfeng’s ePureCitie, worth Sh4 million and Sh4.5 million, with ranges of 330 kilometres and 430 kilometres, respectively.

The company has secured a vehicle financing partnership with NCBA Bank Kenya and is in talks with Watu Credit, M-Kopa and SBM Bank Kenya to expand financing options.

Drivers will be able to purchase the vehicle outright, access lease-to-own financing or rent it on a short-term basis. Under the lease option, drivers will pay a deposit of up to Sh125,000 and daily charges of about Sh1,800, inclusive of maintenance and insurance, to operate the vehicle as a taxi.

The Bingo E2 is designed to carry three passengers and has a top speed of 90 kilometres per hour. The company says it is the world’s first electric car with a dual-battery system, combining a built-in 31kWh battery with four removable battery modules.

The vehicle has a driving range of 440 kilometres, comprising 310 kilometres from the built-in battery pack and a further 130 kilometres from the four swappable battery units located beneath the rear passenger seat.

Bingo is introducing a battery-swapping model in which the company retains ownership of the removable battery packs to reduce the vehicle’s purchase price, similar to the leasing model electric motorcycle firms have used in Kenya to drive uptake.

‘The company will retain ownership of the removable batteries to keep the car costs down,’ Mr Scheder-Bieschin said.

‘If drivers need extra range, they will swap batteries at stations we plan to establish at Naivas and Quickmart supermarket parking lots.’

Mr Scheder-Bieschin said the model is intended to reduce downtime for ride-hailing drivers while opening up new income opportunities through grocery deliveries.

‘We see it as an added opportunity for these ride-hailing drivers, who can lose up to 10 hours a day to downtime. Our partnership with these supermarkets is such that drivers will also be able to do grocery deliveries for their online shoppers,’ he said.

Bingo is yet to announce battery-swapping charges.

The car supports DC fast charging, allowing the battery to charge from 20 percent to 80 percent in less than an hour, while AC home charging takes about six hours to reach the same level.

It is also compatible with public charging stations and supports vehicle-to-vehicle charging between Bingo E2 cars.

Bingo becomes the latest electric vehicle company to target Kenya’s ride-hailing market as manufacturers increasingly bet on local assembly and tax incentives to make battery-powered cars more competitive against imported used petrol and diesel vehicles.

Standard Chartered Bank Kenya has paid pension claims to 522 out of 629 pensioners following settlement of a long-drawn petition by former workers by the Supreme Court last year.

The settlement of 83 percent of claimants, as of the end of May 2026, from the landmark ruling in September 2025, comes amid emergence of new pension claims by workers outside those covered by the 16-year long lawsuit.

The bank disclosed a Sh7.2 billion cost of settling the pension claim in November 2025 and is not expected to make subsequent provisions relating to payments to the 629 ex-employees.

‘Eighty-three percent of the 629 claimants have already been paid while for the remainder, we are waiting for them to give us the required documentation or are authenticating the documentation,’ said Birju Sanghrajka, the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank Kenya.

‘Within three weeks of receiving the ruling, we were ready to pay, and we have been complying fully with that. We do not expect any further provisions with respect to the 629 claimants.’

The 629 staff successfully petitioned the court that their pension savings were undervalued when the bank’s scheme was converted from a defined contribution to a defined benefit scheme in 1999.

StanChart and its pension fund moved to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge in March last year, which upheld a 2023 ruling by the High Court supporting the payouts to the pensioners.

The bank had sought for a stay of execution on the ruling, but the Supreme Court argued that the matter did not concern the interpretation of the Supreme Court.

StanChart now confronts similar complaints from ex-workers outside the former 629 staff attached to the Supreme Court ruling.

The new claimants cover more than 600 former employees clustered under a group dubbed ‘Non-629 Former Employees’.

The group petitioned the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) in October 2025, presenting a list of 21 claims against the lender in support of its request to be included in the compensation.

The group had earlier written to the bank seeking inclusion in the payout to the 629 group.

In June, the RBA directed the trustees of StanChart’s pension scheme to review the claims submitted by the new group and assess their validity in line with its tribunal’s ruling.

The trustees, however, appealed the decision earlier this month, arguing that conducting the review would expose the scheme to substantial costs while it pursued its appeal against RBA’s decision.

The trustees of the Standard Chartered Kenya Pension Fund subsequently obtained orders freezing the directive by the RBA.

‘We continue to work with our legal counsel and the RBA. We’ve seen submissions and claims filed with the RBA and are going through the process as guided and we will see how that pans out,’ added Mr Sanghrajka.

Before petitioning the RBA in October 2025, the former employees had written to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in September 2025, asking it to compel the lender’s parent company-Standard Chartered Plc-to address their claims.

Investors splashed Sh181.4 billion into three-month Treasury bills over the past 10 weeks, presenting the National Treasury with a cash crunch headache as debt falls due in Mid-August.

The previous 10 auctions held between March and May saw the 91-day paper raise a cumulative Sh67 billion.

The T-bill auctions have been skewed towards the 91-day paper since mid-May, as investors avoid locking in their money for long periods in the hope that interest rates would rise.

By retaining their exposure for a minimum of three months, investors retain the flexibility of reinvesting their funds at higher rates in case rates keep rising.

The huge uptake of Treasury bills has piled pressure on the Treasury to seek the Sh181.4 billion to repay investors from mid-August.

Investors can either take out their money or roll it over into new securities when the debt comes due.

When maturities are large, investors usually demand a higher interest rate in order to do a rollover or delay payments.

Heavy foreign and domestic interest payments strained public coffers, forcing delayed disbursements to local authorities and payments to contractors.

Financial markets have been volatile since February, marked by shocks from the Iran war that has caused higher global inflation.

In response, central banks have paused their monetary easing, while rates on government bonds and Treasury bills have risen as investors seek higher compensation to hedge against erosion of real returns by inflation.

In the Kenyan market, the last 10 T-bill auctions have attracted Sh262.3 billion in bids on the 91-day tenor, against the government’s target of Sh52 billion.

Out of these offers, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has taken up Sh181.42 billion, rejecting nearly a third of the bids on the paper in an effort to keep a lid on rising interest rates.

The 182-day Treasury bill has raised Sh59 billion from investor bids worth Sh63.9 billion in the period, meaning that it has underperformed the government’s target of Sh100 billion.

Similarly, the 364-day paper has underperformed in meeting its target of Sh100 billion, having raised Sh57.8 billion against bids of Sh58.9 billion.

The previous 10 auctions held between March and May saw the 91-day paper raise a cumulative Sh67 billion, lower than the Sh74.6 billion raised through the 182-day paper, and Sh74.03 billion on the one-year T-bill.

This shows that momentum in the market has swung to the shortest of the three papers.

The CBK prefers an even spread in volumes between the three tenors in order to maintain a steady maturity profile of the short-term debt throughout the fiscal year.

Heavy concentration on one tenor means that the apex bank will face a large volume of maturities bunched up in a short period at some point in the year, putting pressure on the exchequer if the market is unwilling to rollover the funds into the other longer-term T-bills or longer-dated Treasury bonds.

The Treasury faced such a crisis in March 2017, when investors were pumping in large volumes of cash into the 182-day T-bill.

The CBK responded by suspending the issuance of the six-month paper for two months to prevent refinancing problems down the road. This had the effect of pushing bids to the other two tenors, spreading future repayments.

The refinancing risk triggered by repayment of short-term debt comes after the withdrawal of a proposal to discontinue the one-year Treasury bill under the medium-term debt strategy.

The Treasury hinged the withdrawal on the quest to lower the debt maturing within one year as a share of GDP, and lengthening the maturity of domestic and external loans.

This proposal was, however, dropped in the final draft of the debt strategy, and was not reintroduced in the 2026 version that was published in January this year.

Over the last five years, the government has made efforts to reduce the refinancing risk on its domestic debt by cutting the share of the debt held in T-bills, whose frequent repayments create a cash crunch for the exchequer.

As of last week, the share of the government’s domestic debt held via T-bills stood at 15.31 percent, equivalent to Sh1.12 trillion. This share has come down from highs of 34 percent in June 2019, reflecting the years of efforts by the CBK to limit the uptake of new debt through the short-term securities.

Bonds accounted for 82.15 percent, or Sh6.02 trillion, with the State’s total domestic debt standing at Sh7.33 trillion.

Nation Media Group (NMG)-Uganda is set to resume full operations exactly one month after it was shut down on June 28, bringing to an end weeks of disruption following a military operation that forced its television and radio stations off air and rendered its newspaper operations inaccessible.

The reopening follows a series of high-level engagements involving President Museveni, first son and Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and NMG majority shareholder Rostam Azizi, the Tanzanian businessman whose investment vehicle, Taifa Group, this year acquired a controlling 54.08 percent stake in NMG, East Africa’s largest independent media conglomerate.

Announcing the planned resumption of operations, Nation Media Group PLC Chairman Joe Muganda said the media house would progressively restore services across its television, print, radio and digital platforms.

“As we return to serving you, our focus remains the delivery of trusted and balanced journalism across all our platforms,” Muganda said in a Tuesday statement.

He added: “We appreciate the patience and understanding shown by our audiences, clients and partners during this period and appreciate your continued trust and confidence in our brands.”

In a separate statement, Taifa Group, welcomed the reopening as it reaffirmed its backing for the company’s editorial mission.

“As the majority shareholder of NMG, we fully support the Group’s commitment to fair, balanced, independent and responsible journalism that informs, educates and contributes positively to public discourse. We share the Group’s core mission of positively influencing society and believe that a strong, professional and responsible media plays an important role in supporting national development, good governance and regional integration,” the company said.

Taifa Group added: “This decision demonstrates the value of dialogue, mutual respect and regional cooperation. Taifa Group will continue investing in opportunities that create jobs, strengthen institutions and advance shared prosperity across East Africa.”

NMG’s operations were disrupted shortly after midnight on June 28 when security personnel raided the Daily Monitor premises in Namuwongo and the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre, home to the NTV and Spark TV broadcast studios.

The operation resulted in a power outage that forced NTV Uganda and Spark TV off air at 5am that Sunday, while also disrupting operations across the media group’s television and newspaper platforms, as well as its radio stations, 93.3 KFM and 90.4 Dembe FM.

The affected NMG premises were rendered inaccessible to hundreds of staff following the crackdown.

The shutdown was instituted on the orders of Gen Muhoozi, citing guidance from President Museveni.

Gen Muhoozi said the action was prompted by what he described as a “sustained blackmail campaign by the media group against the government of Uganda and its leadership, alongside promoting opposition and foreign interests at the expense of Uganda.”

As negotiations gathered pace, NMG on June 30 internally suspended its online presence to create a conducive environment for high-level discussions aimed at resolving the impasse.

On July 1, Azizi met Gen Muhoozi at the Special Forces Command headquarters in Entebbe. The meeting was also attended by Saam Azizi and Ms Georgia Mutagaywa, Chief of Staff of Taarifa Limited, as discussions over the future of the media house continued.

Another breakthrough followed on July 17 when President Museveni hosted Azizi at State House Entebbe.

While the President confirmed the meeting in a post on X, he did not disclose what the two discussed. The meeting nevertheless fuelled speculation that a resolution was imminent.

When this reporter visited the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre on July 15, security remained visibly tight.

About 15 armed infantry personnel were deployed around the premises, with at least two carrying what appeared to be sub-machine guns.

It was not immediately clear when the elite forces that led the June 28 operation handed over responsibility for securing the premises to the infantry personnel.

Neither was it immediately clear when the remaining soldiers would withdraw from the Namuwongo and Serena premises for full resumption of operations.

Throughout the shutdown, access to NMG’s Namuwongo headquarters and Serena offices remained tightly restricted, with journalists and other staff unable to freely access their workplaces.

The closure drew concern from regional media organisations and press freedom advocates, who called for restraint and urged authorities to safeguard media freedom.

NMG Uganda, which has identified itself as “Uganda’s Bold Voice” since the run-up to the 2026 General Election, operates NTV Uganda, the Daily Monitor, The East African, Spark TV, 93.3 KFM, 90.4 Dembe FM, Ennyanda newspaper and the Nation Courier, among other media platforms.

The resumption of operations will mark the end of one of the most significant confrontations between the Ugandan state and the country’s largest independent media organisation in more than a decade, although it remained unclear whether any conditions had been attached to the reopening.