Category: Business Daily

Kenya has one doctor for more than 5,000 people, far below the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of one doctor for every 1,000 people. The shortage continues to widen as trained clinicians migrate abroad while the country’s population keeps growing.

Yet millions of Kenyans access healthcare not through hospitals or specialist clinics, but through neighbourhood pharmacies.

This reflects how healthcare already functions in practice. Across urban, peri-urban and rural communities, pharmacies are often the most accessible, affordable and immediate point of care. They operate without appointments, lengthy queues or referral letters, making them the first stop for many seeking treatment.

Not every illness requires a hospital visit. Many common, self-limiting conditions can be managed safely with the support of qualified pharmacists, allowing doctors to focus on patients with more complex needs.

Recognising this reality, Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board issued Good Pharmacy Practice guidelines in May 2024. The framework expanded pharmacists’ role beyond dispensing medicines to include patient counselling, disease management support and broader clinical care, laying the foundation for the Pharmacy First model.

The principle is simple. Community pharmacists are often a patient’s first contact with the healthcare system. Minor illnesses, medicine-related concerns and chronic disease support can frequently be handled at this level before referral to a doctor or hospital becomes necessary.

In effect, pharmacies become frontline triage centres. Pharmacists can identify patients who require specialist attention while offering treatment advice, reassurance or monitoring for less serious conditions. Early intervention helps prevent complications, shortens waiting times and improves access to timely care.

The economic benefits are equally important.

Kenya’s healthcare system faces rising demand, overstretched public facilities and increasing treatment costs. Medical insurers are also grappling with escalating claims. Enabling pharmacists to manage appropriate primary healthcare cases can reduce unnecessary hospital visits, ease congestion and lower costs for households, insurers and government.

A stronger Pharmacy First culture would improve access to affordable care while allowing hospitals to concentrate resources on more serious cases. It would also reduce avoidable insurance claims and improve efficiency across the health system.

This approach does not diminish the role of doctors. Instead, it creates a more integrated health system where every professional works at the top of their expertise.

Countries such as the UK have already demonstrated the value of Pharmacy First. Kenya now has an opportunity to adapt the model to strengthen primary healthcare and make better use of its limited medical workforce.

Seven months ago, Asahi Group Holdings agreed to buy Diageo’s controlling stake in East African Breweries – a $ 2.3 billion transaction, one of the largest cross-border deals the local market has seen in years, and one from which the Exchequer stood to gain roughly Sh40 billion in capital gains tax alone. Seven months on, the deal remains stuck.

The latest development is that the competition authority has escalated the matter to the Attorney-General – an implicit admission that the regulator itself is unsure of its own footing.

This is not a story about a regulator rigorously following the law. It is about a regulator that appears unable to make a decision.

Consider the record. The Competition Authority of Kenya first proposed a two-year timeline for settling a pecuniary penalty, then revised it to seven days.

It required that payments due to government be parked in an escrow account – a demand that sits uneasily with the Public Finance Management framework the state itself is bound by.

It tried to compress an agreed 40-day settlement window with complainants down to seven days, despite not being party to those settlement agreements in the first place.

Late in the process, it floated raising the penalty by as much as sevenfold, after months of negotiation had already taken place.

And it introduced, seemingly from nowhere, a demand to retain 10 percent of the entire transaction value in escrow – a condition that exists in no statute.

Each of these might be defensible in isolation. Together, they describe a pattern: an administration of competition law improvising in real time, on a transaction of national significance, months after the parties believed they had reached an understanding with the regulator.

Compounding the chaos is the fact that the Competition Appeals Tribunal – the body where parties can challenge decisions of the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) – has been virtually inactive since mid-2025, because the terms of its chairperson and key members expired several months ago. The board currently has only one member instead of seven.

Meanwhile, the Capital Markets Authority granted a mandatory takeover offer exemption, only for its implementation to be suspended by a court order sought by a third party. Litigation has multiplied across court stations, prompting the Judiciary itself to intervene and consolidate the files in Nairobi to stop what increasingly looked like forum shopping.

A coordinated campaign by fund managers has sought to reopen the commercial logic of a privately negotiated shareholder transfer altogether, months after signing.

Here is the question every serious investor is now entitled to ask before committing capital to Kenya: if I sign a merger agreement today, is there any credible basis for expecting it to close within six months? On the evidence of this transaction, the honest answer is no – not because of the underlying commercial logic, but because the process for approving it has no fixed floor.

The rules can be renegotiated by the regulator after the fact, unilaterally, and the goalposts can move again the moment the parties think they have reached them.

This is the real cost of the Asahi-Diageo saga, and it is far larger than the Sh40 billion in tax revenue at stake.

Clearly; the single greatest deterrent to foreign direct investment in Kenya is not tax policy, not infrastructure, not even the cost of capital.

It is the insensate instability of our competition regulation, and the absence of honour and good faith on the part of regulators who are supposed to be the guarantors of a predictable process.

Investors do not require regulators to say yes.

They require regulators to mean what they say when they say anything at all. A regulator that agrees to a 40-day settlement window and then unilaterally shortens it to seven; that agrees to a two-year penalty schedule and then demands payment within a week; that negotiates a penalty figure and then proposes multiplying it sevenfold without new facts to justify it – that regulator has broken the one thing capital actually prices: certainty.

The Asahi-Diageo transaction was supposed to be the easy case – two willing multinational parties, a company with no pending disputes with the competition authority, and a deal structure that preserved local listing, local jobs, and local management.

If even this deal cannot move predictably through Kenya’s regulatory architecture, no foreign board of directors evaluating an African market entry will conclude that theirs will fare better.

Regulators must be bound by the timelines and conditions they themselves set, not free to revise them under pressure from whichever constituency shouts loudest that month.

When war escalated across the Middle East, threatening passage through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes, and placing the Persian Gulf’s 21 million barrels per day of export infrastructure under genuine military threat, every energy economist reached for the 1973 and 1979 playbooks. Forecasts were grim: recession, rationing and stagflation.

For Kenya, the stakes were immediate. We import every litre of petrol, diesel and jet fuel we consume, most of it transiting the very corridors under fire.

A sustained supply shortfall exceeding three million barrels per day should have translated into pump-price shocks severe enough to destabilise transport, food prices and the shilling.

The catastrophe never arrived. Pump prices spiked, freight costs ballooned and tanker insurance premiums went parabolic but the cascading economic collapse the models predicted was, at the aggregate level, contained. The reason sits, largely unacknowledged in Western financial commentary, in Beijing.

China has spent two decades quietly building what analysts now estimate is the world’s largest strategic petroleum reserve, a government-controlled stockpile of crude oil held for emergencies.

Total strategic and commercial inventory capacity is believed to exceed 1.2 billion barrels. Beijing does not publish official volumes, but estimates from the International Energy Agency, S and P Global Commodity Insights and satellite-tracking firm Kpler triangulate around 900 to 980 million barrels at peak.

When Middle East supply risk crystallised, China did what it has done historically in moments of external price pressure: it drew down its reserve, and aggressively.

Satellite imagery of floating storage, monitored tanker movements and refinery run-rate data all pointed to Beijing substituting domestic reserve releases for spot-market purchases – buying on the open international market – at precisely the moment that market was most vulnerable to a demand surge.

By feeding its refineries from its own stockpile rather than competing for cargoes, China removed the single largest marginal buyer from a supply-constrained market. The market’s biggest customer quietly left the auction room, and everyone else – Kenya included – got to bid at lower prices than the models predicted.

The reserve drawdown alone does not explain the full buffer. The second, arguably more consequential factor is structural and permanent: Chinese oil demand has decoupled from Chinese economic growth in a way that Opec, Western majors and most emerging-market governments have been dangerously slow to internalise.

China sold more than 11 million new-energy vehicles in 2024, roughly 40 percent of all passenger cars sold locally, and by mid-2026 that share of monthly sales has held above 50 percent.

Every electric vehicle displacing a petrol car removes roughly 1.5 litres of daily fuel demand from the market. China’s high-speed rail network, at over 45,000 kilometres, exceeds the rest of the world combined and has structurally collapsed jet fuel and diesel demand on intercity corridors.

Provincial energy-intensity targets, enforced through party accountability systems, have pushed industrial users to cut consumption faster than external forecasters keep predicting. And China redirected purchasing toward discounted, sanctioned Russian crude – barrels that were never competing for the Persian Gulf molecules the rest of the world needed.

The International Energy Agency’s projection that Chinese oil demand peaks before 2030 is no longer a fringe view. It is increasingly the central case.

It matters to be honest about one thing: China did not draw down its reserve to help the global economy. It acted in service of its own price stability, industrial continuity and consumer affordability during a period of fragile domestic confidence.

That a self-interested decision made in Zhongnanhai determined whether a small business owner in Nairobi, a logistics operator in Lagos or a farming cooperative in Lusaka survived a fuel-cost spike is a remarkable illustration of how interconnected energy systems have become – and how little control import-dependent economies currently exercise over their own exposure.

Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia all heavily dependent on imported refined products got a lucky reprieve.

The word to underline is lucky. Beijing will eventually need to replenish its reserve, and when it returns to the market as an aggressive buyer, the price impact will land hardest on nations that lack either indigenous reserves or foreign-currency buffers.

Several implications follow for leaders in oil-dependent economies. The first is that the buffer cannot be assumed next time. China’s drawdown was a one-time shock absorber, not a standing guarantee, and the next supply disruption may land very differently.

The second is the case for investing in demand-side intelligence now. The countries and companies best positioned in the next crisis will be those with real-time visibility into consumption patterns, fleet behaviour and fuel flows – through fuel management technology, fleet efficiency programmes and consumption data. Data is the new strategic reserve.

Third, the energy transition should be accelerated, at each economy’s own pace, but accelerated. The structural demand destruction China has engineered through electrification and rail is a preview of what every major economy will eventually experience. Getting ahead of that curve is a competitive advantage; being caught behind it is an existential risk.

Finally, supply chain geography needs rethinking. The Red Sea disruptions exposed the fragility of single-corridor crude and refined product flows. Diversifying supply routes, storage locations and supplier relationships is not bureaucratic prudence. It is balance-sheet protection.

The world did not suffer the oil crisis the Middle East conflict threatened to deliver. We should be honest about why and more honest still about the fact that the conditions that prevented it are changing fast.

The leaders who understand that dynamic and build their institutions accordingly, will be the ones still standing when the next crisis tests the system.

Rebound in the bond and equities market has triggered talent wars among stockbrokers seeking to grow their market share and take a larger slice of revenues from trading of the securities.

The wars, mainly targeting traders and research analysts, have been earnest in the last six months as the bourse sustained improved performance that has lured new listings and investors.

It has seen nearly a dozen seasoned traders and market analysts change employers together with an increase in internal promotions to retain talent.

Capital A Investment Bank, which maintained its leadership in Kenya’s bond market with a 22 percent market share at the end of June, has strengthened its research capability while investing in internal talent development as competition for experienced professionals intensifies.

“When markets are performing well, there is always a tendency for firms to re-equip their dealing desks,” said Linus Kang’ara, chief executive officer of Capital A Investment Bank.

“Rather than looking externally, we chose to strengthen and retain our existing talent by giving them greater visibility across both local and international markets, while backing them with a robust research capability. As part of that strategy, we appointed seasoned economist Churchill Ogutu to lead our Research Department,” he said.

Mr Ogutu joined Capital A in April from IC Group, an investment bank with regional operations, following the exit of Ronnie Chokaa as a senior research analyst. Mr Chokaa joined Sterling Capital Limited as a fixed income trader.

Kestrel Capital, which is under new leadership following a management buyout last year, has strengthened its equities desk with new hires. Gerry Ndung’u was poached from Pergamon Investment Bank while Anne Musyoka was brought in from Dry Associates. The stock brokerage also hired Caleb Nyangao and Kenneth Mutuura from the Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC).

Kestrel Capital traded shares worth Sh19.5 billion in the six months to June which was more than thrice the Sh5.9 billion traded in the same period last year. Its market share however shrunk due to the Sh204.3 billion bulk trade of Safaricom shares from the government to Vodacom executed by KCB Investment Bank and SBG Securities.

This trade lifted the two to be the top ranking in terms of market share with SBG Securities moving from second to first position with a 34.9 percent market share.

The trade propelled KCB Investment Bank from position 18 to second with a market share of 32.07 percent up from 0.78 percent. Kweli Capital which recently acquired Old Mutual Securities is seeking talent for its research desk as it seeks to revamp its trading capabilities.

Conventional banks have also moved into investment banking and fund management in a bid to keep money from corporate savers in their vaults. Customers are no longer just looking for a safe place to keep their money but also a return.

This has further fueled the talent wars with most commercial teams looking for players who are ready to go to market and grab the moment and not greenhorns. CIC Group, Ecobank Kenya and KCB Group are currently in the market for portfolio managers.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange -as measured by market capitalisation- was up 27.8 percent, or Sh817.2 billion in six months to reach a record high of Sh3.76 trillion as at June 30.

This was boosted by the listing of Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) on March 11, which was the first Initial Public Offering in 18 years, and Family Bank Limited on June 23.

This has resulted in increased participation by investors, with the value of equities traded in the six months to June growing more than five-fold to Sh644.5 billion up from Sh112 billion same time last year.

The value of bonds traded over the six months to June rose by 22.4 percent to 3.4 trillion compared to Sh2.78 trillion traded over a similar period last year.

The High Court has declined to freeze the government’s Sh5 trillion National Infrastructure Fund (NIF), saying a blanket suspension would interfere with executive functions and ongoing public interest projects.

Justice Patricia Nyaundi, however, ordered the Treasury to disclose certified accounts and regularly report all deposits, withdrawals and allocations pending the determination of a constitutional petition challenging NIF’s legality.

The court found the petition raises arguable constitutional questions over the fund’s legal framework but held that a blanket suspension would not strike the proper balance between constitutional oversight and ongoing public functions.

It directed the Treasury to file accounts certified by the Auditor-General within 30 days or August 24, showing money received since the start of the fund, the dates when deposits were made into Central Bank of Kenya or commercial bank accounts operated as well as every transaction, expenditure and allocation.

The government will continue filing transaction reports in court every three months from November 30 until the petition is determined, says the ruling.

About Sh20 billion from an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) and another Sh244 billion from Safaricom stake sale were earmarked as seed capital for the fund.

The fund is supposed to invest in roads, irrigation projects, energy-generation plants and the country’s main airport, without increasing public debt.

The creation of the fund, which was established under the National Infrastructure Fund Act, 2026, has been challenged for lack of public participation and lack of proof on how Parliament will oversee it.

The petitioners argue that it could receive proceeds from the sale of strategic public assets outside ordinary budgetary controls.

“The issues raised touching on the constitutionality of the statutory framework, the scope of legislative authority and the alleged derogation from constitutional safeguards are neither frivolous nor insubstantial,” she said.

“They present bona fide questions that properly fall within the court’s mandate to interrogate the constitutionality of legislation.”

The petition was filed by four Kenyans led by a Nakuru-based consultant surgeon, Dr Magare Gikenyi Benjamin.

“A national public fund cannot be established under any other statutory regime, including as a limited liability company under the Companies Act,” say the petitioners in their court filings.

They further contend that “Parliament must approve the establishment of a national public fund as well as ongoing oversight of the operations of such a fund.”

The petition also questioned whether the fund complied with constitutional provisions on the distribution of functions between national and county governments, management of public finances, the Controller of Budget’s oversight role and Parliament’s constitutional responsibilities.

The government opposed the application to suspend the fund, arguing that the Act is constitutionally safe and that it has already started work.

The law provides for the fund to be managed by an independent board and a competitively recruited chief executive, with the board responsible for overseeing investments and operations.

Recently, the Treasury advertised the position of the chief executive after Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi appointed six members to the board for three-year terms effective July 8.

The government said the proceeds from the sale of the government’s 65 percent stake in KPC had already been deposited in the fund and that proceeds from the sale of the State’s 15 percent ownership in Safaricom are set to be received.

It argued that interim orders could not reverse actions already taken.

Justice Nyaundi agreed that the court was not required to determine the merits of the constitutional challenge at the early stage of the litigation.

However, she found that continued implementation of the statutory framework without interim safeguards could undermine the effectiveness of any eventual judgment.

“The statutory scheme at issue contemplates ongoing and substantial financial transactions, some of which have already occurred and others that are imminent,” said the court.

“If those processes continue unchecked while constitutional questions remain unresolved, the petitioners’ challenge may be overtaken by events,” it added.

Even so, the court declined to halt the law’s operation.

“The balance of convenience does not favour a blanket prohibition. Rather, it favours ensuring that any ongoing activities of the fund are conducted transparently within public view and subject to constitutional safeguards,” the court said.

The court directed parties to prepare the petition for hearing after the respondents file outstanding responses and any supplementary affidavits.

China social media company TikTok removed 48,739 accounts suspected to belong to users under the age of 13 in the quarter to March 2026, marking a 47.98 percent drop compared to the preceding quarter’s 93,704-signalling the gains of previous purges on child users.

Children aged 13 and over are allowed to use the TikTok platform, which is highly popular with teenagers.

‘TikTok removed 48,739 accounts suspected to belong to users under the age of 13, a violation of its Community Guidelines, highlighting the platform’s commitment to protecting younger users online,’ the platform said.

The social media company disclosed that overall, it removed 884,591 videos in Kenya for violating its community guidelines.

This is a jump from the previous quarter to December, when 820,552 videos from the country were taken down, pointing to an increasing generation of content from Kenya that does not meet its safety rules and a heavy reliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) moderation tools to police content.

TikTok’s Community Guidelines ban content that promotes violence, criminal activity, hate speech, harassment, or abuse. Users are not allowed to post material that encourages violence.

‘In the first quarter of 2026, TikTok removed 884,591 videos for violating its Community Guidelines in Kenya. 99.7 percent of these videos were proactively removed before anyone reported them, while 96.3 percent were taken down within 24 hours of posting,’ said TikTok.

‘These figures underscore TikTok’s continued investment in advanced detection systems and rapid response mechanisms designed to limit the spread of harmful content.’

Social media companies, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, are turning to AI-powered content moderation to detect, flag, and remove harmful content, such as graphic violence and hate speech.

These systems utilise machine learning and natural language processing to handle vast volumes of data, reducing the burden on human teams. While AI accelerates the process, human moderators are mostly still used for final, nuanced, or borderline decisions.

‘Automated removals, including those by AI, now make up more than 96 percent of total removals,’ the social media platform said.

In Kenya, TikTok interrupted 103,847 LIVE rooms for violation of guidelines in the quarter to March 2026.

The platform recorded a proactive removal rate of 99.7 percent in Kenya in the three months to March 2026. Proactive removal means identifying and removing a video before it’s reported, which was significantly high, aided by the use of AI.

TikTok removed 96.3 percent of the harmful videos within 24 hours of posting on the platform.

‘In Quarter 1 of 2026, TikTok removed 14,261 videos under our policy for edited media and AI-generated content (AIGC),’ the firm added.

TikTok requires creators to label realistic AIGC. The site forbids content related to human trafficking, sexual exploitation, or abuse of adults or children.

While TikTok welcomes political conversations, remarks that create or pose a substantial danger of harm are removed.

Harassment, bullying, and doxing are also prohibited.

To safeguard users’ mental health, content that depicts suicide, self-harm, risky stunts, or eating disorders is prohibited.

Additionally, TikTok prohibits graphic violence, animal abuse, and explicit sexual content. It also eliminates false information, especially about elections, public health, and civic processes, and mandates that AI-generated or significantly modified media be disclosed.

The problem is that when you come from certain families, it becomes impossible to introduce yourself without people asking, ‘Oh, you’re so-and-so’s daughter?” The trouble, at least for Arjaa Shah, is that her name is an easy stick people use to beat her with.

She is part of the family behind the Kingsway Group of Companies, which owns Village Market Group, Tribe Hotel and Trademark Hotel. She currently serves as (acting) General Manager for Trademark Hotel and Village Market, and Deputy Corporate General Manager for Tribe Collection.

A graduate of Cornell University and Les Roches International School for Hotel Management, Arjaa does not deny her privilege; she just doesn’t want to be defined by it.

She started at the bottom-first as a housekeeper in London cleaning 16 rooms a day, waiting tables in Italy, which she had to quit because she was just not as good at it, and a stint at the front desk and concierge in the US.

‘I knew I had to start from the bottom because if I don’t understand the bottom, how will I ever be great at the top?’ she says. ‘Everyone thought I was nuts. I got paid 300 euros (Sh44,300) as a waitress in Italy. That’s not even enough to get rent.’

She speaks about stepping into her father’s shoes and challenging stereotypes about daughters taking over the family business. ‘My father will never look at me any differently as a daughter,’ she says. “But today he’s forced to look at me as a professional who’s running one of his businesses.’

Growing up, did you always know hospitality would become your life, or were there times when you wanted something entirely different?

I knew from the age of 13. My father had many issues in his life, but at the age of 13, we had to move to India for about six weeks, and we were staying in a hotel. Now, given the nature of what happened to my dad, I was basically left in this hotel as a child by myself, and the front desk was like, ‘Okay, let’s teach you how to check in someone.’

Or the chef would show me how to cook. That was my first education in hospitality. It was quite fun because they adopted me; and for six weeks with my parents not around, I couldn’t leave the hotel. Something clicked in me that everyone thinks hospitality is just service, but it can actually change your life.

Your father was away at an age I presume girls get much closer to their fathers. What was that like growing up in a hotel?

It was difficult. My father’s the oldest in our family, the patriarch. He became the patriarch at a very young age, 19, because his father got sick and passed away.

So he dropped out of university and had to look after the 25 people in our family. At that age, I never really understood it, because he was never around; it was his responsibility to make sure there was food on the table, which wasn’t always the case.

We weren’t born with this; we built it. Well, he built it [chuckles]. But as you grow older, you understand the importance of it, and the importance of family and community. It’s a joke when everyone says that children are not brought up by parents; they’re brought up by community. But in our life, that was true. I have seven moms, seven dads, and they all played a role in looking after me.

Family businesses often struggle with the question of merit versus bloodline. How do you ensure people see Arjaa the executive before they see Arjaa the family member?

That’s actually quite a tricky question. I am a director, and even to some of our staff who don’t engage with me on a day-to-day basis, they see me as a person who was placed instead of earned. I’ve worked internationally, and I made sure I worked professionally for a very long period of time, so if I ever wanted to come back, I came back with a standing of experience and not placement.

I work extremely hard, but you will never fully get over whether you got a job through blood or through credit. I worked twice as hard to prove myself that I am working based on credit, experience, and value that I’m giving, and if I no longer bring value to anything I do, family or otherwise, it’s just not worth being there.

It’s a testy subject, but do you think the proving yourself will ever end?

With age comes wisdom. When I was here at 26, I felt I had to prove myself a 100 times over. I know my worth and what I bring to the table, so I no longer try to prove myself.

If I work for a Tribe Hotel Group, or JW (Marriott), or Hyatt, or Hilton, I know my worth. My family gave me the leg up with the best education in Hotel Management; I got put in the right circles, and I don’t discount that that didn’t help me get to where I am. I count myself very grateful for everything my family has managed to give me, because even when we didn’t have a lot of money, my parents somehow figured it out to get me the education and exposure that I had.

But what I did after university, that was a lot of effort and grit. I used to work 100-hour weeks in the US. I started from the ground up; I’ve been a housekeeper in London, cleaning 16 rooms a day, a waitress in Italy, which I was horrible at and quit after six months. [chuckles].

The truth is I never cleaned my bed when I was growing up, and when you come from privilege, sometimes you just want to go into a position. I knew I had to start from the bottom because if I don’t understand the bottom, how will I ever be great at the top?

It’s easy to deny your privilege and coat it in grass-to-grace stories that discount the impact of luck and background. Why was it important for you to own that?

It would be wrong of me to say I came from the grassroots.

I didn’t, but my dad did. He went to a local school, but he got me into British schools to give me a leg up. I don’t see myself as Indian, but as Kenyan, and to pretend that I’ve gone through what most Kenyans have gone through would be wrong.

What expectations come with carrying a family name that has already been built?

Expectations. Lots of people want handouts, especially when they know who you are. Most people don’t know I am part of the Kingsway family, because I wanted to make a professional name for myself.

I own the fact that I am part of my family, but I shouldn’t be seen as a family member in this organisation, but as an employed professional who reports to an external CEO.

But I think there is a lot of expectation that because of who I am, or where I come from, people want a lot, and sometimes we’re unable to give it.

I’ll only do what I can within my own capacity. It’s a very tough question, isn’t it? I’m a very nice person, so I just kind of do everything I can, to be honest. I think we’re all born with different advantages in life, and I was given a lot, so I try and do as much as I can for people who weren’t given a lot.

Does your name weigh you down?

I can only empathise, because there are a lot of young people in Kenya today who want to make a difference and do something, but their names are tying them to a lot of expectations.

People expect me to be the visionary that my father is. I’m not even close. My father was a visionary. He knew that China and Korea would come in, so he brought them in first. I’m an executor. You give me something, I will make it work; I know how to make things work.

Have you always been this sure of yourself?

Our family has one motto: the only thing in life that will never change is you educating yourself. You don’t have to do a Master’s degree; that’s not how you educate yourself, but you have to be aware, you have to read, you have to grow.

Covid-19 was a time when everyone was firing everyone, and as an organisation, we didn’t, but we gave everyone small stipends to pay for food. But when you look inwards, you have to start realising you have value that you can give and you have value that you can’t give. It wasn’t about me doing it all, but knowing what I’m good at and then pulling other people’s resources to make it work. And that’s where I learned who I was.

How do you negotiate for your worth financially in a family business?

I earn a family business salary. So in my family, you have to give a portion of your salary back to the business; therefore, I don’t earn market rates. I know that sounds stupid because it’s usually the other way around: you get market rates and then you get a stipend for being in the business. Money is not my end goal, but it is important because it helps you survive. I come to work. After all, I like being here because I have 800+ staff who make me smile in the morning. I have enough that I can pay my rent and buy myself food and drink once in a while. I’ve always thought money would come as long as I do a good job.

Did you have money conversations at the dinner table growing up?

Yes. From the age of 14, we were given an allowance, and the only way to come back and get next month’s allowance is to submit receipts. I’ve been doing that for a very long time.

How has that influenced the way you relate to money now?

I’m very conscious about how I spend cash. Say you earn Sh20,000. What most people do is say spend Sh10,000 on rent, Sh5,000 on food, Sh2,000 on children. What we do in our family is as a percentage.

If you earn Sh20,000, you have to give 10 percent of your time or your money to the community; that’s charity or funds. I do 5 percent in kind, and 5 percent of funds in a pot to make a difference. Then I allocate 10 percent of my salary to travel and 10 percent to shopping. Always 20 percent goes into savings.

It seems that it’s important for you to be seen first as a professional before any other metric. When you look back over your career, which investment in your professional career was a smart move?

The investment of not chasing the position. The university I went to, I got three job offers to be an assistant manager straight out of college. But I chose to be a housekeeper, a waitress, a reservations agent-living hand to mouth in London with no money. I could eat out maybe once a month because you don’t earn that much, but that to me was an investment in myself to be who I am today.

What career move would you say has brought you the biggest-be it monetary or professional-growth?

I worked in a hotel called Penn Gardens. I was a reservations agent and a meeting and event agent. I was earning revenue on the side, but I was never given an official role. I needed change. So I went within the group first, and I said, which jobs are out there? I got three offers. I got an assistant meeting and events manager at a five-star property. I got an assistant GM at a small property, 52 bedrooms. And I got an events assistant position with 560 bedrooms.

So I went to my GM, who was a good mentor. I wanted the assistant manager position at 23 years old.

He said no. And he’s like, ‘I have watched you in my organisation, and you have moved three times in a year because you just crave more. You will be so bored in a small property. I know the position looks good. Take the meeting and events assistant role, because that’s the role that’s going to challenge your mind.’ He was right.

How are you demanding more from yourself now?

Nobody is perfect. If you think you’re at 100 percent, then you need to take a serious look at yourself. I’ve never thought I’ve done any better than 80 percent ever in my life. It’s a good mentality to have because you’re always pushing for more, always asking, ‘Where’s that 20 percent and how am I getting there?’ I want to be the best, and there’s no way I’m ever going to be the best because there are so many great people around me.

What’s a significant loss that has shaped who you are today?

My two grandmothers. They taught me the values that we have in our lives today. We are a vegetarian family; we don’t drink, but I drink and eat meat. I’m not a typical Indian girl, but to have two matriarchs who are so strong and who tell you, ‘Forget what your parents think. Go drink.

Go eat meat. We don’t hate you for it.’ My grandma told me at the age of 16, you will never marry an Indian. To have people who are that open in your life allowed me to find this journey in being who I am today.

What conversation did you have with yourself to turn your back, metaphorically, on the family way and be your own person?

I value my family. If you saw me when I moved here 10 years ago, I was the perfect daughter. It wasn’t a conversation with myself; it was a conversation with all seven of my parents. I am always going to strive to be the perfect daughter for this family, the best version of myself for my business, but for me to do that, I have to be the best version of me.

And the best version of me drinks, eats meat, and wants to live on my own as a single person. It’s unheard of in Indian families for girls to live on their own, unmarried. But I do it. What I chose to do was hide it for a period of time because I wanted to be who they wanted me to be.

The first time I said it, my father was like, ‘No. It’s not our way.’ But they sent us around the world, and for them to think that they could give us so much exposure and we would be the same coming back was never going to be possible [chuckles].

What has that cost you?

Nothing. Do you know why? If you don’t want to be who you are because you’re scared of losing your friends and family, those friends and family were never yours to begin with. Because the people who love you the most will love you regardless of who you choose to be. The cost of authenticity is nothing, but your option to be authentic is based on fear. And it’s fear of loss. When you realise that you lose nothing that was of value, then you always choose to be yourself.

What has success made harder?

Every time you grow in your role, you get more responsibility. And then you get into leadership, and balance becomes hard. You have to balance your personal life, your family, your friends, and your work. I’m not good at balance. I give anything a 100 or zero, but there’s no such thing as balance, because balance means you give everything equal amounts of time. Impossible. You can have an integrated lifestyle, however. You don’t have to make cupcakes for your daughter at home, but you can promise her homemade cupcakes, and ask someone else to make them at home. I will never have balance, but I can have an integrated lifestyle.

Do you think you’ve made the most of your life?

Yeah. Everyone judges your life on pillars. You graduate from high school, then university, get a job, be a manager, get engaged, get married, have a child. Nobody talks about the ones who don’t want every pillar.

Everyone looks at me and says, ‘Arjaa, you spend so much time at work. What about a husband and a child?’ It’s not that I don’t want those things, but the life I’m living right now fulfils me. Through my work, I travel, meet people, and I set and surpass boundaries. My priority today is not husband and child, and that doesn’t make me any less fulfilled.

Is that something that comes up a lot?

Oh, all the time. I’m 35, single, which is unheard of in the Indian community for people to be unmarried at this age. Usually, I ask people if they’re happy because they’re married [chuckles]. There is no linearity in life. One day, I’ll wake up, and I’ll be like, I have no husband and no child. And that day, I will go and find one. But until the day comes, it’s not necessary.

What’s a family business lesson that has remained true over the years?

You will never be over-educated, and you should always strive to educate yourself further. And education doesn’t mean learning finance more. It could be learning how to meditate, or how to do your inner child work or even a new skill like knitting.

What is one thing you would splurge on?

My car. I may work in a fancy hotel, but my favourite thing to do is camp. So next, we need to add in a shower extension and a little cooking unit at the back of my car. This will be easier than cooking on campfires. I already have a snorkel, a front bumper, and a back bumper; it’s already raised. Slowly by slowly, I keep adding to it. You should have time for anything important to you.

Advise your future self.

You often take life too seriously and don’t. Life is supposed to be enjoyed. Otherwise there’s no point in living.

Now that you are here and work in hospitality, what is the right percentage to tip?

Tipping has come from American culture, and American waiters earn nothing, so their entire livelihood comes from tipping. I’m not saying don’t tip. I’m saying, whatever you feel comfortable with, and whatever you can afford. We’re an aspirational brand. So we’ll see young Kenyans save up Sh5,000 to come eat with us. And then forget they need Sh500 more. But anywhere you go where people enjoy their jobs. Sh100, Sh200, Sh500, Sh5,000 anything makes the difference. But don’t do it outside of what you can afford.

The Geothermal Development Company (GDC) is on the spot after an audit flagged Sh15.93 billion drilling rigs that are either idle or non-functional, adding to a list of underutilised assets at the government-owned firm.

In the latest report for the year ended June 2025, the Auditor-General has questioned the value for money of the seven drilling rigs acquired several years ago, noting that three have remained out of operation for the past five years with no clear repair plan, while GDC also lacks staff capacity to operate all the rigs.

‘Review of documents provided by management in respect to the operating condition of the rigs revealed that three rigs were not in good working condition,’ the report states.

‘s failure to insure the multi-billion-shilling equipment, exposing it to significant financial risk. However, in response, GDC said it was undertaking a risk survey before procuring insurance.

‘The company is in the process of undertaking a risk survey on its assets for insurance purposes. The company will also benchmark with the sector counterparts for best practices,’ said GDC in response to audit queries.

The audit findings on the drilling rigs form part of underutilised or idle assets at the State-owned firm tasked with exploring and drilling for geothermal steam in the country.

The report further revealed inefficiencies in supporting the drilling equipment, including bulk cementing trucks used in drilling operations.

Of the 12 trucks acquired in 2016 at a cost of Sh138.9 million, eight were found to be non-functional and had not been used since purchase.

Concerns were also raised over a stalled drilling monitoring software project initially contracted in 2014 at a cost of Sh344.5 million. The system was meant to provide real-time monitoring of drilling operations, including fleet management and CCTV integration across rigs.

However, audit verification in September last year revealed that the software had not been installed despite an advance payment of Sh137.8 million.

‘Although management indicated that milestone one on fleet management had been achieved, no evidence was provided in support of the claim,’ the auditor-general said.

GDC told auditors that the matter is under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), but noted that efforts to obtain progress updates have not yielded feedback.

‘In the circumstances, value for money incurred drilling monitoring software totaling to Sh137.8 million could not be ascertained,’ the report adds.

The year ended June 2025 saw GDC’s pre-tax loss widen to Sh1.46 billion from a loss of Sh528.2 million in the previous financial year.

However, a tax credit of Sh1.82 billion saw it post a net profit of Sh352.02 million compared to a net profit of Sh1.72 billion in the previous financial year when it enjoyed a Sh2.25 billion tax credit.

GDC was formed in 2008 as a special purpose vehicle following the enactment of the Energy Act 2006, that allowed the dividing of the country’s energy sector into five sub-sectors namely generation, transmission, distribution, regulation and policy.

The firm develops steam fields and sells geothermal steam for electricity generation to Kenya Electricity Generating Company and private investors.

Bilal Auma Washikumba, a Kenyan chef, has made his way from the coastal kitchens of Mombasa to the fine-dining rooms of Nairobi and now to Kigali, where he is shaping menus, mentoring young cooks and proving that the life of a chef sometimes calls for a delicate balancing act.

At The Hemingways Retreat Kigali, where he is the executive chef, Bilal says his role is about more than putting plates before guests. It is about consistency, profit, guest satisfaction and, increasingly, training the next crop of chefs in a market he says is still growing.

He has worked in some of Kenya’s leading hotels, gaining skills in seafood, fine dining, kitchen management and hotel operations.

He was in kitchens at Leisure Lodge Hotel in Mombasa, Jacaranda Indian Ocean Beach Club, the Norfolk Hotel’s Pango fine dining restaurant, Fairview Hotel, Sopa Lodges in the Maasai Mara and Naivasha, and Temple Point Resort in Watamu before relocating to Kigali, Rwanda, in May 2022.

‘I worked with the most experienced chefs, Italian chefs, so that’s where I got my experience. I loved doing lobster, tamido and prawns piri piri.’

In 2009, he stepped away for two and a half years to study at Kenya Utalii College, a move he says gave him the management grounding that hands-on hotel training had not fully provided.

‘I really wanted to have insights into the kitchen because when you do normal in-house training, there are things that you miss out on in terms of kitchen management,’ he says.

Then called the Retreat, before Hemingways acquired it officially in mid-2025, Bilal found not just a kitchen to lead, but a team to build.

‘When I joined, we started creating menus with the junior chefs, the local Rwandese chefs,’ he says. ‘I built up a team. Many have left, and they are chefs now in other hotels.’

For him, that movement is not a loss but proof that the training is working.

‘Rwanda is a small market and the culinary world is still [fledgling]. You cannot compare it to Kenya,’ he says. ‘But I like it when people come, train, leave, and they go succeed.’

The Kenyan chef is now grooming another group.

‘Currently, we have a new team we’ve been training. I’ve had to ensure I work closely with them because most of them have not gone to culinary school.’

He plans to take some of the kitchen staff to Kenya for a hands-on experience ‘to have that experience and broaden their knowledge in culinary skills.’

On the menu, he has been blending local Rwandan produce with international ideas.

‘We have the ribeye on bone that is served with the local plantain (mizuzu),’ he says.

Another fixture is tilapia from Lake Kivu. ‘Tilapia never used to be [on the menu],’ he says. ‘So, currently I’m doing tilapia that goes with the local spinach.’

For Bilal, the rules of the kitchen are clear. ‘One, you have to be strict with your recipe. Then you must have passion for cooking. You have to control your costs so that the company can also realise profits,’ he says.

He is a Muslim, but he does not let these beliefs get in the way of his job. He tastes everything when needed to, and that may include beef, whether halal or not, and pork.

‘Yes, I taste pork,’ he says. ‘It’s part of my job…Let’s say it’s Ramadhan, then you come in the kitchen, and you are telling people you cannot taste food because you are fasting. When a guest complains, you can’t tell [unless you taste]. So, some boundaries I just leave it out then I say I’m coming to do my job. And I do it right.’

Do chefs cook at home too?

‘My kids love to see me cooking, so they challenge me,’ says the 42-year-old. ‘I do a lot of cooking when I take my off and my leave.’

He is also clear that the title chef must be earned.

‘If you want to be a good chef, you must start from the cleaning part, the stewarding part, then you grow from there,’ he says.

‘Cooking comes from the heart,’ he says. ‘You must enjoy your job.’

Funders such as multilateral lenders, donors and bilateral partners are increasingly demanding that businesses demonstrate returns beyond financial performance on investments supported by their capital.

The owners of capital are pushing local startups and other businesses to begin tracking their social impact, including metrics such as job creation, poverty reduction, access to credit, and affordable healthcare and clean water.

Financiers and philanthropists backing multilateral lenders such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and donors like the Gates Foundation are increasingly insisting that investments generate more than profits.

Social impact reporting is emerging as a key disclosure for businesses seeking to attract funding, particularly from external sources such as development finance institutions.

“Impact reporting is quite important for visibility to both global and regional investors, and it goes beyond the assessment of financial metrics,” said Isis Madison, an independent non-executive director at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), who also advises global investors and philanthropic institutions on entrepreneurship and the digital economy.

“From an investor’s perspective, it is important that the capital you are deploying not only delivers financial returns but also has a wider impact on the communities where the enterprises operate.”

Acumen, the global impact investment firm, says wealthy donors and social impact investors are increasingly demanding data that measures both the financial return and the human impact of their investments.

The organisation has identified key gaps, including inadequate funding for data collection and the absence of a standard framework for measuring social impact.

Its State of Social Impact Reporting in East Africa report found that reporting is largely driven by the need to satisfy external funders rather than to improve business performance or social outcomes.

Among the 40 organisations assessed, all had a history of impact reporting, but few were using the findings to strengthen investment decisions or maximise social impact.

“SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) indicators dominate framework adoption for social impact definitions and explanations, but qualitative evidence reveals this is largely communicative rather than operational. SDGs are cited in reports, not used to drive documentation and measurement design,” the report states.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals comprise 17 global objectives aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and promoting prosperity.

Social impact experts argue that businesses can no longer separate social impact from financial sustainability, even though profitability remains the primary performance measure for most enterprises.

Wealthy donors and philanthropists have also been challenged to provide both funding and technical expertise to help businesses measure and manage their impact on communities.

Poverty alleviation remains the leading social impact indicator in Kenya and across Africa.

“Most of the impact we have seen is income improvement because unemployment and poverty remain major challenges in Kenya and across Africa,” said Chris Maranga, Acumen’s Regional Director for Africa.

The 40 organisations covered in the report operated across six sectors, including financial services, agriculture, education, healthcare and retail.

Most of the firms said their funding came from multilateral institutions, development partners, bilateral donors and private investors.