Category: Business Daily

Ask Wairimu Keriri about the fitness routine that has made her have an athletic physique of someone decades younger, and she won’t name just one exercise.

Hockey. Swimming. Marathons. Triathlons. Boxing. Strength training. Calisthenics.

The director of the Nairobi Institute of Technology is a fitness junkie, and it has paid off.

‘I turn 50 in five months,’ she says with a chuckle as she unpacks her gym bag at Hood Gym along Nairobi’s Naivasha Road, an unassuming place that could easily be mistaken for a neighbourhood garage.

It may not be as sleek as many gyms in malls, but inside, the clang of metal plates and weights hitting the floor as fitness enthusiasts lift, push, and pull is a reminder that this is a place built for training, not looks.

It feels like a workshop where bodies are being rebuilt, and it is here that Ms Keriri feels she gets the best out of herself.

‘I like the environment here. It immediately puts you in the mood to exercise. Today I’ll be training my arms and legs,’ she says.

Looking at her toned frame, it is easy to assume she spends most of her week in the gym. She only strength-trains twice a week.

Consistency, she explains, rather than spending endless hours lifting weights, has been her secret.

After more than 20 years of exercising regularly, she has found a routine that works for her body without following the typical four or five strength-training sessions many fitness enthusiasts swear by.

‘I swim three times a week, strength-train twice a week, and do calisthenics twice a week. Staying fit and in shape is not about living in the gym. It is about finding the right balance and sticking to it and being consistent,’ she explains.

But how exactly did she get here?

‘We have to go back to the days of PE (physical education). I have always been an active soul. But it is in the early 2000s that I became more serious with my workout routine.’

During her primary school days and later at Kenya High School, she played hockey, threw the discus, and spent countless hours in the swimming pool.

Like many fitness enthusiasts, when she started being serious about her fitness journey, she joined the popular group classes: Taebo, aerobics, and a bit of spin classes, most of which are cardio and endurance exercises. Then she fell in love with running.

‘There was this one time I was training for a half-marathon. Then I said, ‘I’ve done so many half marathons, let me challenge myself with a full marathon and it became a thing. I have run several marathons,’ she says.

First child at 37

The hours she had spent doing cardio and endurance training paid off when she became pregnant with her first child at 37.

‘After I had my son, [he’s 13 now], I went back to running almost immediately. I would wake up early, run between 10 and 12 kilometres, and come back just before he woke up, attend to him, and then go to work.’

But her second child changed that rhythm.

‘My daughter is nine now. She wasn’t as calm as my son when young. Most nights she didn’t sleep, so I could no longer keep up with the routine of going for morning runs and going to work on time. I turned to swimming and cycling.’

She would then discover Kenya’s triathlon community during the Covid-19 pandemic, an encounter that took her workout routine to a higher level.

‘I have done two triathlons, one in Nairobi and one in Diani, and I absolutely loved them. It is a three-discipline sport where you run, swim, and cycle. It is an endurance training that works the entire body in ways you can’t imagine.’

Restless fitness junkie

For about two years, she combined triathlon training with weightlifting before curiosity pulled her to try boxing, which she quickly fell in love with, but for only a short period.

‘I did boxing for four years before losing motivation, then I went back to swimming, which has always been a constant in my workout programmes.’

Joining a master’s swimming team (people above 40) made her realise she needed strength training designed specifically for swimmers.

‘It gives you the discipline to train. You’re not just swimming for the sake of swimming,’ she says.

Ms Keriri admits she is not one to stick to doing one thing for so long.

‘At this stage, I am in a season of swimming, strength training, and calisthenics. Previously I was in the season of waking up at 4.30am to run 12km. Maybe next year I will be doing something else; I don’t know. And it is okay to keep trying new challenges. The most important thing is to always keep moving.’

She discovered calisthenics in 2024.

‘It kept popping up on my Instagram, and that got me curious,’ she says. ‘Calisthenics isn’t about weight. It is you and your body. If you can’t lift your own body, then there’s a problem. That got me sucked up, and now I do calisthenics twice a week. In calisthenics, many movements focus on mobility and flexibility, which are essential to the body because, as you get older, your body gets stiffer. And you need to remain agile.’

It is one discipline, she says, that deserves far more attention than it receives. She describes it as the natural movements children instinctively perform when playing, such as squats, frog walks, and handstands.

Handstands tone

‘For me, even doing handstands has changed my body. It has helped my shoulders, my strength, and especially my butterfly swimming.’

She also likes that it requires no expensive equipment.

‘It’s something you can do into your 80s and 90s. You can even do it at home.’

Of all her exercises, she ranks strength training as the best for her body.

‘I am in the peri-menopause stage, and strength training is ideal because it helps me to sleep well. Peri-menopause can be a menace with hot flashes and all that, but with strength training, I can cope. As women, we need muscle. It is the organ of longevity, and nothing will help you build muscle if it’s not strength training. There is no shortcut.’

Balancing workout and workloads

Monday is usually for swimming. Tuesday and Thursday are calisthenics. Wednesday may be a recovery day, sometimes with an evening swim, while Friday can include both gym work and swimming.

‘I like doing the hardest exercises in the morning. The energy carries me through the day,’ she says.

However, she says she is at a point in her life where she doesn’t feel so guilty about missing a session. And that’s just how she balances her work, social life, and workouts.

‘My trainer gets really upset when she doesn’t see me for two weeks, but I don’t worry too much. The most important thing is staying consistent, and being consistent doesn’t mean showing up every single day.’

More than anything, exercise has become her way of resetting.

‘If I’m having a bad day, I come to the gym and work out. I like meeting people. I enjoy going to gyms because I meet people who enjoy the same things.’

Many fitness junkies avoid eating wheat products, but not Ms Keriri.

‘I told myself I must eat chapati, but only half. I eat many halves.’

Protein is a priority. Breakfast is usually an egg with toast, accompanied by black coffee or black tea. Lunch is often fish with spinach or kunde (cowpea greens). ‘I try to eat lots of roughage.’

Midday snacks might include almonds or boiled maize, while dinner is often chicken with some rice.

As much as she loves strength training, it is swimming she cannot do without.

‘Swimming is therapeutic. Because of my busy lifestyle, swimming gives me one and a half hours during which nobody can talk to me. It is me and my problems in the water,’ she says, adding, a typical session covers about three kilometres, roughly 120 laps.

Safaricom has secured a deal to supply fibre internet to the government’s Affordable Housing Programme, extending broadband connectivity to thousands of low-cost homes nationwide.

The telco has already connected the first phase of the Mukuru Affordable Housing project in Nairobi, which was launched in May. Safaricom will provide pre-connected internet to all 14,000 housing units in the Mukuru project and others spread across the country.

The contract was disclosed by Safaricom’s South African parent company Vodacom Group.

Safaricom confirmed that the rollout will be replicated across other affordable housing projects under construction nationwide.

‘We will roll out similar services to the other housing projects across the country under the Affordable Housing programme,’ a Safaricom spokesperson told the Business Daily via email.

This marks the latest significant contract for the telco from the public sector, with the company having participated in the multi-billion-shilling digitisation of the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System.

The government has a 20 percent stake in Safaricom in which it retains significant influence.

The affordable housing units will be connected through Wi-Fi Bamba, a tokenised fibre broadband service that Safaricom is using to target lower-income households.

The package costs Sh800 and offers speeds of up to 15 megabits per second (Mbps), allowing connection of up to three devices at a time.

Unlike conventional fibre installations that rely on point-to-multipoint fibre access technology – hence requiring joinery (splicing) at cables’ ends – Wi-Fi Bamba uses a single plug-and-play cable. This reduces deployment time and installation costs.

The package is significantly cheaper than Safaricom’s standard Home Fibre plans, which start at Sh2,999 per month for 40Mbps and rise to Sh20,000 for 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps). It is designed for households with irregular incomes and customers who cannot commit to conventional monthly subscriptions.

The government is implementing affordable housing projects across all 47 counties, targeting the delivery of 500,000 affordable, social, institutional and student housing units by June 2029. To meet that target, it will need to complete about 124,500 houses annually between July 2025 and June 2029.

The housing contract complements Safaricom’s broader push into lower-income broadband customers as it seeks to grow beyond higher-income households and businesses.

The company also plans to roll out tokenised Wi-Fi services this year, offering hourly, daily and weekly access options similar to Kenya’s pay-as-you-go mobile data model. The service is expected to launch in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

Chief executive Peter Ndegwa has said that tiered pricing, targeted deployment in high-demand locations and lower-cost delivery models would help expand broadband adoption and reach millions of households currently priced out of fixed internet.

‘By tiering pricing, we can deliver propositions that expand participation and that will also reduce cost to serve, to allow us to reach the extra three million customers [not served by the broadband market],’ Mr Ndegwa said in a recent video published by the telco on YouTube.

As of March, Safaricom controlled 35.4 percent of Kenya’s fixed internet market with 941,501 subscriptions, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The company estimates that the domestic market has the potential for about four million fixed broadband connections.

Its growth strategy combines fibre expansion, fixed wireless access powered by 5G and more affordable devices, marking a shift from its traditional focus on premium customers to lower-income segments.

Ask Wairimu Keriri about the fitness routine that has made her have an athletic physique of someone decades younger, and she won’t name just one exercise.

Hockey. Swimming. Marathons. Triathlons. Boxing. Strength training. Calisthenics.

The director of the Nairobi Institute of Technology is a fitness junkie, and it has paid off.

‘I turn 50 in five months,’ she says with a chuckle as she unpacks her gym bag at Hood Gym along Nairobi’s Naivasha Road, an unassuming place that could easily be mistaken for a neighbourhood garage.

It may not be as sleek as many gyms in malls, but inside, the clang of metal plates and weights hitting the floor as fitness enthusiasts lift, push, and pull is a reminder that this is a place built for training, not looks.

It feels like a workshop where bodies are being rebuilt, and it is here that Ms Keriri feels she gets the best out of herself.

‘I like the environment here. It immediately puts you in the mood to exercise. Today I’ll be training my arms and legs,’ she says.

Looking at her toned frame, it is easy to assume she spends most of her week in the gym. She only strength-trains twice a week.

Consistency, she explains, rather than spending endless hours lifting weights, has been her secret.

After more than 20 years of exercising regularly, she has found a routine that works for her body without following the typical four or five strength-training sessions many fitness enthusiasts swear by.

‘I swim three times a week, strength-train twice a week, and do calisthenics twice a week. Staying fit and in shape is not about living in the gym. It is about finding the right balance and sticking to it and being consistent,’ she explains.

But how exactly did she get here?

‘We have to go back to the days of PE (physical education). I have always been an active soul. But it is in the early 2000s that I became more serious with my workout routine.’

During her primary school days and later at Kenya High School, she played hockey, threw the discus, and spent countless hours in the swimming pool.

Like many fitness enthusiasts, when she started being serious about her fitness journey, she joined the popular group classes: Taebo, aerobics, and a bit of spin classes, most of which are cardio and endurance exercises. Then she fell in love with running.

‘There was this one time I was training for a half-marathon. Then I said, ‘I’ve done so many half marathons, let me challenge myself with a full marathon and it became a thing. I have run several marathons,’ she says.

First child at 37

The hours she had spent doing cardio and endurance training paid off when she became pregnant with her first child at 37.

‘After I had my son, [he’s 13 now], I went back to running almost immediately. I would wake up early, run between 10 and 12 kilometres, and come back just before he woke up, attend to him, and then go to work.’

But her second child changed that rhythm.

‘My daughter is nine now. She wasn’t as calm as my son when young. Most nights she didn’t sleep, so I could no longer keep up with the routine of going for morning runs and going to work on time. I turned to swimming and cycling.’

She would then discover Kenya’s triathlon community during the Covid-19 pandemic, an encounter that took her workout routine to a higher level.

‘I have done two triathlons, one in Nairobi and one in Diani, and I absolutely loved them. It is a three-discipline sport where you run, swim, and cycle. It is an endurance training that works the entire body in ways you can’t imagine.’

Restless fitness junkie

For about two years, she combined triathlon training with weightlifting before curiosity pulled her to try boxing, which she quickly fell in love with, but for only a short period.

‘I did boxing for four years before losing motivation, then I went back to swimming, which has always been a constant in my workout programmes.’

Joining a master’s swimming team (people above 40) made her realise she needed strength training designed specifically for swimmers.

‘It gives you the discipline to train. You’re not just swimming for the sake of swimming,’ she says.

Ms Keriri admits she is not one to stick to doing one thing for so long.

‘At this stage, I am in a season of swimming, strength training, and calisthenics. Previously I was in the season of waking up at 4.30am to run 12km. Maybe next year I will be doing something else; I don’t know. And it is okay to keep trying new challenges. The most important thing is to always keep moving.’

She discovered calisthenics in 2024.

‘It kept popping up on my Instagram, and that got me curious,’ she says. ‘Calisthenics isn’t about weight. It is you and your body. If you can’t lift your own body, then there’s a problem. That got me sucked up, and now I do calisthenics twice a week. In calisthenics, many movements focus on mobility and flexibility, which are essential to the body because, as you get older, your body gets stiffer. And you need to remain agile.’

It is one discipline, she says, that deserves far more attention than it receives. She describes it as the natural movements children instinctively perform when playing, such as squats, frog walks, and handstands.

Handstands tone

‘For me, even doing handstands has changed my body. It has helped my shoulders, my strength, and especially my butterfly swimming.’

She also likes that it requires no expensive equipment.

‘It’s something you can do into your 80s and 90s. You can even do it at home.’

Of all her exercises, she ranks strength training as the best for her body.

‘I am in the peri-menopause stage, and strength training is ideal because it helps me to sleep well. Peri-menopause can be a menace with hot flashes and all that, but with strength training, I can cope. As women, we need muscle. It is the organ of longevity, and nothing will help you build muscle if it’s not strength training. There is no shortcut.’

Balancing workout and workloads

Monday is usually for swimming. Tuesday and Thursday are calisthenics. Wednesday may be a recovery day, sometimes with an evening swim, while Friday can include both gym work and swimming.

‘I like doing the hardest exercises in the morning. The energy carries me through the day,’ she says.

However, she says she is at a point in her life where she doesn’t feel so guilty about missing a session. And that’s just how she balances her work, social life, and workouts.

‘My trainer gets really upset when she doesn’t see me for two weeks, but I don’t worry too much. The most important thing is staying consistent, and being consistent doesn’t mean showing up every single day.’

More than anything, exercise has become her way of resetting.

‘If I’m having a bad day, I come to the gym and work out. I like meeting people. I enjoy going to gyms because I meet people who enjoy the same things.’

Many fitness junkies avoid eating wheat products, but not Ms Keriri.

‘I told myself I must eat chapati, but only half. I eat many halves.’

Protein is a priority. Breakfast is usually an egg with toast, accompanied by black coffee or black tea. Lunch is often fish with spinach or kunde (cowpea greens). ‘I try to eat lots of roughage.’

Midday snacks might include almonds or boiled maize, while dinner is often chicken with some rice.

As much as she loves strength training, it is swimming she cannot do without.

‘Swimming is therapeutic. Because of my busy lifestyle, swimming gives me one and a half hours during which nobody can talk to me. It is me and my problems in the water,’ she says, adding, a typical session covers about three kilometres, roughly 120 laps.

Safaricom has secured a deal to supply fibre internet to the government’s Affordable Housing Programme, extending broadband connectivity to thousands of low-cost homes nationwide.

The telco has already connected the first phase of the Mukuru Affordable Housing project in Nairobi, which was launched in May. Safaricom will provide pre-connected internet to all 14,000 housing units in the Mukuru project and others spread across the country.

The contract was disclosed by Safaricom’s South African parent company Vodacom Group.

Safaricom confirmed that the rollout will be replicated across other affordable housing projects under construction nationwide.

‘We will roll out similar services to the other housing projects across the country under the Affordable Housing programme,’ a Safaricom spokesperson told the Business Daily via email.

This marks the latest significant contract for the telco from the public sector, with the company having participated in the multi-billion-shilling digitisation of the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System.

The government has a 20 percent stake in Safaricom in which it retains significant influence.

The affordable housing units will be connected through Wi-Fi Bamba, a tokenised fibre broadband service that Safaricom is using to target lower-income households.

The package costs Sh800 and offers speeds of up to 15 megabits per second (Mbps), allowing connection of up to three devices at a time.

Unlike conventional fibre installations that rely on point-to-multipoint fibre access technology – hence requiring joinery (splicing) at cables’ ends – Wi-Fi Bamba uses a single plug-and-play cable. This reduces deployment time and installation costs.

The package is significantly cheaper than Safaricom’s standard Home Fibre plans, which start at Sh2,999 per month for 40Mbps and rise to Sh20,000 for 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps). It is designed for households with irregular incomes and customers who cannot commit to conventional monthly subscriptions.

The government is implementing affordable housing projects across all 47 counties, targeting the delivery of 500,000 affordable, social, institutional and student housing units by June 2029. To meet that target, it will need to complete about 124,500 houses annually between July 2025 and June 2029.

The housing contract complements Safaricom’s broader push into lower-income broadband customers as it seeks to grow beyond higher-income households and businesses.

The company also plans to roll out tokenised Wi-Fi services this year, offering hourly, daily and weekly access options similar to Kenya’s pay-as-you-go mobile data model. The service is expected to launch in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

Chief executive Peter Ndegwa has said that tiered pricing, targeted deployment in high-demand locations and lower-cost delivery models would help expand broadband adoption and reach millions of households currently priced out of fixed internet.

‘By tiering pricing, we can deliver propositions that expand participation and that will also reduce cost to serve, to allow us to reach the extra three million customers [not served by the broadband market],’ Mr Ndegwa said in a recent video published by the telco on YouTube.

As of March, Safaricom controlled 35.4 percent of Kenya’s fixed internet market with 941,501 subscriptions, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The company estimates that the domestic market has the potential for about four million fixed broadband connections.

Its growth strategy combines fibre expansion, fixed wireless access powered by 5G and more affordable devices, marking a shift from its traditional focus on premium customers to lower-income segments.

Ask Wairimu Keriri about the fitness routine that has made her have an athletic physique of someone decades younger, and she won’t name just one exercise.

Hockey. Swimming. Marathons. Triathlons. Boxing. Strength training. Calisthenics.

The director of the Nairobi Institute of Technology is a fitness junkie, and it has paid off.

‘I turn 50 in five months,’ she says with a chuckle as she unpacks her gym bag at Hood Gym along Nairobi’s Naivasha Road, an unassuming place that could easily be mistaken for a neighbourhood garage.

It may not be as sleek as many gyms in malls, but inside, the clang of metal plates and weights hitting the floor as fitness enthusiasts lift, push, and pull is a reminder that this is a place built for training, not looks.

It feels like a workshop where bodies are being rebuilt, and it is here that Ms Keriri feels she gets the best out of herself.

‘I like the environment here. It immediately puts you in the mood to exercise. Today I’ll be training my arms and legs,’ she says.

Looking at her toned frame, it is easy to assume she spends most of her week in the gym. She only strength-trains twice a week.

Consistency, she explains, rather than spending endless hours lifting weights, has been her secret.

After more than 20 years of exercising regularly, she has found a routine that works for her body without following the typical four or five strength-training sessions many fitness enthusiasts swear by.

‘I swim three times a week, strength-train twice a week, and do calisthenics twice a week. Staying fit and in shape is not about living in the gym. It is about finding the right balance and sticking to it and being consistent,’ she explains.

But how exactly did she get here?

‘We have to go back to the days of PE (physical education). I have always been an active soul. But it is in the early 2000s that I became more serious with my workout routine.’

During her primary school days and later at Kenya High School, she played hockey, threw the discus, and spent countless hours in the swimming pool.

Like many fitness enthusiasts, when she started being serious about her fitness journey, she joined the popular group classes: Taebo, aerobics, and a bit of spin classes, most of which are cardio and endurance exercises. Then she fell in love with running.

‘There was this one time I was training for a half-marathon. Then I said, ‘I’ve done so many half marathons, let me challenge myself with a full marathon and it became a thing. I have run several marathons,’ she says.

First child at 37

The hours she had spent doing cardio and endurance training paid off when she became pregnant with her first child at 37.

‘After I had my son, [he’s 13 now], I went back to running almost immediately. I would wake up early, run between 10 and 12 kilometres, and come back just before he woke up, attend to him, and then go to work.’

But her second child changed that rhythm.

‘My daughter is nine now. She wasn’t as calm as my son when young. Most nights she didn’t sleep, so I could no longer keep up with the routine of going for morning runs and going to work on time. I turned to swimming and cycling.’

She would then discover Kenya’s triathlon community during the Covid-19 pandemic, an encounter that took her workout routine to a higher level.

‘I have done two triathlons, one in Nairobi and one in Diani, and I absolutely loved them. It is a three-discipline sport where you run, swim, and cycle. It is an endurance training that works the entire body in ways you can’t imagine.’

Restless fitness junkie

For about two years, she combined triathlon training with weightlifting before curiosity pulled her to try boxing, which she quickly fell in love with, but for only a short period.

‘I did boxing for four years before losing motivation, then I went back to swimming, which has always been a constant in my workout programmes.’

Joining a master’s swimming team (people above 40) made her realise she needed strength training designed specifically for swimmers.

‘It gives you the discipline to train. You’re not just swimming for the sake of swimming,’ she says.

Ms Keriri admits she is not one to stick to doing one thing for so long.

‘At this stage, I am in a season of swimming, strength training, and calisthenics. Previously I was in the season of waking up at 4.30am to run 12km. Maybe next year I will be doing something else; I don’t know. And it is okay to keep trying new challenges. The most important thing is to always keep moving.’

She discovered calisthenics in 2024.

‘It kept popping up on my Instagram, and that got me curious,’ she says. ‘Calisthenics isn’t about weight. It is you and your body. If you can’t lift your own body, then there’s a problem. That got me sucked up, and now I do calisthenics twice a week. In calisthenics, many movements focus on mobility and flexibility, which are essential to the body because, as you get older, your body gets stiffer. And you need to remain agile.’

It is one discipline, she says, that deserves far more attention than it receives. She describes it as the natural movements children instinctively perform when playing, such as squats, frog walks, and handstands.

Handstands tone

‘For me, even doing handstands has changed my body. It has helped my shoulders, my strength, and especially my butterfly swimming.’

She also likes that it requires no expensive equipment.

‘It’s something you can do into your 80s and 90s. You can even do it at home.’

Of all her exercises, she ranks strength training as the best for her body.

‘I am in the peri-menopause stage, and strength training is ideal because it helps me to sleep well. Peri-menopause can be a menace with hot flashes and all that, but with strength training, I can cope. As women, we need muscle. It is the organ of longevity, and nothing will help you build muscle if it’s not strength training. There is no shortcut.’

Balancing workout and workloads

Monday is usually for swimming. Tuesday and Thursday are calisthenics. Wednesday may be a recovery day, sometimes with an evening swim, while Friday can include both gym work and swimming.

‘I like doing the hardest exercises in the morning. The energy carries me through the day,’ she says.

However, she says she is at a point in her life where she doesn’t feel so guilty about missing a session. And that’s just how she balances her work, social life, and workouts.

‘My trainer gets really upset when she doesn’t see me for two weeks, but I don’t worry too much. The most important thing is staying consistent, and being consistent doesn’t mean showing up every single day.’

More than anything, exercise has become her way of resetting.

‘If I’m having a bad day, I come to the gym and work out. I like meeting people. I enjoy going to gyms because I meet people who enjoy the same things.’

Many fitness junkies avoid eating wheat products, but not Ms Keriri.

‘I told myself I must eat chapati, but only half. I eat many halves.’

Protein is a priority. Breakfast is usually an egg with toast, accompanied by black coffee or black tea. Lunch is often fish with spinach or kunde (cowpea greens). ‘I try to eat lots of roughage.’

Midday snacks might include almonds or boiled maize, while dinner is often chicken with some rice.

As much as she loves strength training, it is swimming she cannot do without.

‘Swimming is therapeutic. Because of my busy lifestyle, swimming gives me one and a half hours during which nobody can talk to me. It is me and my problems in the water,’ she says, adding, a typical session covers about three kilometres, roughly 120 laps.

The Supreme Court has upheld the government’s decision to grant tax exemptions to Japanese companies, consultants and workers involved in development projects in Kenya, dismissing a petition that challenged the legality of the move.

The apex court found that petitioner Eliud Karanja Matindi failed to prove that the tax waiver, granted by the National Treasury through a 2021 Legal Notice, was unconstitutional or discriminatory.

The court held that income earned from foreign sources by persons working in Kenya under technical assistance or development services agreements can lawfully be exempted from income tax under the Income Tax Act.

“The Legal Notice did not also create any rule, order or regulation in the manner specified above. Consequently, we find that the impugned Legal Notice was administrative in nature and did not acquire a legislative character to demand the procedure that the appellant has pleaded,” the court said.

Mr Matindi had argued that the tax exemption violated the Constitution because it was introduced via a legal notice rather than legislation enacted by Parliament.

He also argued that the exemption was unlawful because the loan agreements between the governments of Kenya and Japan, which formed the basis of the tax waiver, were negotiated without sufficient transparency.

According to Mr Matindi, the exemption contravened Article 210 (1) of the Constitution, which provides that no tax or licensing fee may be imposed, waived or varied except as authorised by legislation.

He further argued that the National Assembly breached the Constitution, the Statutory Instruments Act and the Income Tax Act by approving the exemption through a Legal Notice instead of legislation.

The government opposed the petition, maintaining that the exemptions were lawful and arose from binding bilateral agreements tied to foreign-funded development projects.

Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor argued that the CS Treasury acted within the powers granted under Section 13(2) of the Income Tax Act and that the Legal Notice had been properly tabled before the National Assembly.

The government also maintained that public participation was not required because the exemptions stemmed from intergovernmental agreements and the Legal Notice did not amount to a statutory instrument.

Further, the income tax exemption was a standard condition imposed by the Japanese government in financing agreements and applied to all countries receiving such funding, not Kenya alone.

The state further argued that Kenya was obliged to honour the agreements to secure foreign financing and maintain its international obligations.

The disputed Legal Notice exempted from income tax the earnings of Japanese companies, consultants and workers engaged in 16 development projects worth about Sh328 billion.

The projects include the improvement of power distribution systems in Nakuru and Mombasa, infrastructure development in the Mombasa Special Economic Zone near Dongo Kundu, the Olkaria I Unit 4 Geothermal Power Project and the Mwea Irrigation Development Project.

In the judgment, the Supreme Court held that the Legal Notice was administrative rather than legislative in nature and therefore did not qualify as a statutory instrument under Section 2 of the Statutory Instruments Act.

The court said the notice merely informed the public of the implementation of financing agreements between the governments of Kenya and Japan and was therefore not subject to the public participation requirements under the Statutory Instruments Act.

The judges also found that the Treasury Cabinet Secretary acted within the authority delegated by Parliament under Section 13 of the Income Tax Act.

“Had such authority not been provided in law, then the position would certainly have been different, noting the express provisions of Article 94 (5) where other persons or bodies may be conferred certain functions having the force of law by the Constitution or by legislation,” the court said.

The African market accounted for more than two out of every five shillings earned from Kenya’s merchandise exports in the first quarter of 2026, highlighting the continent’s growing position as the country’s leading destination as regional demand rebounded after a difficult 2025.

The continent absorbed 41.7 percent of Kenya’s exports in the three months ended March, up from 36.9 percent in the corresponding period last year when shipments to several key regional markets weakened.

The latest share is the second-highest in at least nine years, surpassed only by the 43 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2023, and marks a significant rise from 33.7 percent in 2018.

The stronger regional purchases meant Africa generated nearly nine out of every 10 new export shillings earned by Kenya during the quarter, underscoring its role as the principal driver of the country’s export recovery.

This was after Kenya’s exports to African countries rose by Sh25.68 billion to Sh127.9 billion, accounting for about 85 percent of the Sh30.02 billion increase in the country’s total merchandise exports.

Overall merchandise exports increased 10.8 percent to Sh306.78 billion from Sh276.76 billion in the corresponding quarter last year, while exports to Africa expanded at more than twice that pace, rising 25.1 percent from Sh102.22 billion.

The broad-based rebound followed a difficult 2025, when exports to several of Kenya’s largest African markets declined, dragging the continent’s contribution to Kenya’s export earnings below the levels recorded a year earlier.

The improved performance comes despite longstanding logistical challenges that continue to constrain trade across the continent. African governments estimate underdeveloped transport networks increase the cost of goods and services by as much as 40 percent, reducing the competitiveness of intra-African trade compared with commerce involving Europe and other developed regions.

Investments, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui says reducing transport costs and transit times remains one of the biggest opportunities for accelerating trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“When you look at the entire continent of Africa, you realise that our greatest challenge is logistics. On average, if you want to take a product from Mombasa to say Ghana or any other country, it takes about 45 days. That is very long compared to other destinations,’ Mr Kinyanjui said in June. ‘We believe that in the area of logistics and transshipments, we can do more to encourage free trade in Africa.”

Uganda remained Kenya’s biggest export destination in Africa after purchases climbed 27.9 percent to Sh46.01 billion from Sh33.18 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

The Sh12.83 billion increase in exports to Uganda accounted for almost half of the total growth in Kenya’s exports to Africa, underlining the west-neighbouring country’s position as a market for Kenyan manufactured goods, processed foods, pharmaceuticals and consumer products.

The Democratic Republic of Congo recorded the fastest growth among Kenya’s leading African export destinations, with purchases jumping 73 percent to Sh11.88 billion after falling in the corresponding quarter last year.

Exports to Tanzania rebounded 18.7 percent to Sh17.94 billion after declining in 2025, while shipments to Rwanda increased 15.6 percent to Sh10.70 billion. Exports to Egypt also recovered, rising 39.7 percent to Sh8.98 billion, although they remained below 2024 levels.

The recovery across Kenya’s five largest African markets suggests regional demand strengthened broadly rather than being driven by a single destination, offering traders and manufacturers a more diversified base for export growth.

The stronger exports widened Kenya’s goods trade surplus with Africa to a record Sh56.47 billion in the first quarter from Sh35.31 billion in the same period last year as export growth outpaced imports.

The latest surplus represents a near 60 percent increase from a year earlier and is the largest Kenya has recorded with the continent in at least a decade, highlighting the widening gap between the country’s exports to Africa and what it buys from regional markets.

The trade balance caps a turnaround in Kenya’s trade relationship with Africa over the past nine years. In the first quarter of 2018, Kenya ran a Sh4.33 billion merchandise trade deficit with the continent, importing more goods than it exported.

The balance swung to a modest Sh373 million surplus in 2019 before widening to Sh19.53 billion in 2020. It eased to Sh18.19 billion in 2021 and Sh14.89 billion in 2022 before accelerating to Sh37.33 billion in 2023 and Sh41.92 billion in 2024.

Although the surplus narrowed to Sh35.31 billion in 2025 after exports weakened across several of Kenya’s largest African markets, the latest figures show regional demand has rebounded enough to lift the balance well above previous highs, reinforcing Kenya’s position as one of the continent’s leading manufacturing exporters.

The data shows that Kenya exported Sh127.90 billion worth of goods to Africa while importing Sh71.42 billion, lifting total merchandise trade with the continent to a record Sh199.32 billion, compared with Sh169.13 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The KNBS numbers show Africa remains one of the few regions where Kenya consistently enjoys a sizeable merchandise trade surplus, reflecting the country’s relatively stronger manufacturing base compared with many neighbouring economies.

While exports are becoming increasingly dependent on Africa, the opposite trend is emerging on the import side.

Imports from African countries rose a modest 6.7 percent to Sh71.42 billion from Sh66.91 billion in the first quarter of last year, far below the pace of export growth.

As a result, Africa’s share of Kenya’s import bill fell to 9.6 percent from 10.5 percent a year earlier, the lowest level in the review period in at least a decade.

The decline extends a long-term trend. Africa supplied 13.5 percent of Kenya’s imports in the first quarter of 2018 before its share steadily declined as imports from Asia, the Middle East and other global suppliers expanded faster.

The contrasting trends underline the changing nature of Kenya’s trade relationship with the continent. While Africa has become increasingly important as a destination for Kenyan exports, it has become relatively less significant as a source of imports.

The divergence reflects Kenya’s growing dependence on African markets to absorb manufactured goods, while businesses continue sourcing petroleum products, machinery, electronics, industrial raw materials and other capital goods predominantly from suppliers outside the continent.

Despite accounting for less than one-fifth of Kenya’s total merchandise trade, Africa generated nearly 42 percent of export earnings while contributing less than 10 percent of imports, highlighting the continent’s disproportionate importance to Kenya’s external trade balance.

Africa’s share of Kenya’s total merchandise trade [exports and imports] stood at 18.95 percent during the quarter, largely unchanged from 18.53 percent a year earlier and close to the long-term average of about 19 percent.

That stability masks a significant structural shift. While Africa’s contribution to Kenya’s overall trade has remained largely unchanged, its role in the country’s exports has expanded markedly as its contribution to imports has steadily diminished.

In 2018, for instance, Africa accounted for 33.7 percent of Kenya’s export earnings and 13.5 percent of imports. By the first quarter of 2026, those figures had shifted to 41.7 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

The widening gap suggests Kenya is steadily strengthening its competitive position in African markets even as domestic industries remain reliant on suppliers outside the continent for many industrial inputs and consumer goods.

The latest figures underline the economic gains that could be unlocked if investments in transport corridors, border infrastructure and logistics lower the cost and time of moving goods across the continent.

The number of people seeking refuge and asylum in Kenya’s refugee camps fell by 69.8 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, as displacement, mainly from South Sudan and Sudan, slowed.

Kenya registered 5,837 new arrivals between January and June 2026, down from 19,305 in the same period in 2025, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

This slowdown coincides with a reduction in conflict-driven displacement from South Sudan and Sudan, which the UNHCR identified as the main sources of last year’s surge in arrivals.

The steepest year-on-year declines occurred in February and April. February saw 416 new arrivals, a decrease of 91.1 percent compared to February 2025, which had the highest monthly figure of last year at 4,688. April saw 933 arrivals, down 78.3 percent from 4,305 a year earlier.

Both of these months in 2025 saw significant influxes of people tied to the escalating conflict in South Sudan and Sudan.

Last month, however, new arrivals rose to 2,069, surpassing the 1,826 recorded in June 2025 and marking the highest monthly total so far in 2026.

January and May followed the wider downward trend, with arrivals falling to 154 in January 2025 (down 94.6 percent from 2,853) and to 1,118 in May (down 42.9 percent from 1,957).

Somalia and South Sudan continued to account for the largest share of Kenya’s refugee population, historically contributing the bulk of new arrivals.

Despite the decline in new arrivals, Kenya’s refugee and asylum-seeker population continued to grow, increasing by 2.5 percent over six months, from 835,836 in January to 857,065 in June. Dadaab and Kakuma together hosted 86 percent of that population, with Dadaab alone accounting for nearly half.

An asylum is a form of protection offered to people who have fled their home countries due to persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on factors such as race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

The decline in new arrivals coincides with the implementation of Kenya’s Shirika Plan, which aims to integrate refugees into host communities instead of confining them to the Dadaab and Kakuma camps.

While the government has repeatedly stated its intention to close these camps over the past decade, previous closure orders have been overturned by the High Court.

In 2025, Kenya launched the Shirika Plan to promote the integration of refugees into host communities and attract development financing, marking a move away from the confinement system that has kept many families in Dadaab for nearly 30 years.

Under the policy adopted in 2024, refugees are issued with identity cards, one of six types of refugee identification documents, which will allow them to access public services.

The African market accounted for more than two out of every five shillings earned from Kenya’s merchandise exports in the first quarter of 2026, highlighting the continent’s growing position as the country’s leading destination as regional demand rebounded after a difficult 2025.

The continent absorbed 41.7 percent of Kenya’s exports in the three months ended March, up from 36.9 percent in the corresponding period last year when shipments to several key regional markets weakened.

The latest share is the second-highest in at least nine years, surpassed only by the 43 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2023, and marks a significant rise from 33.7 percent in 2018.

The stronger regional purchases meant Africa generated nearly nine out of every 10 new export shillings earned by Kenya during the quarter, underscoring its role as the principal driver of the country’s export recovery.

This was after Kenya’s exports to African countries rose by Sh25.68 billion to Sh127.9 billion, accounting for about 85 percent of the Sh30.02 billion increase in the country’s total merchandise exports.

Overall merchandise exports increased 10.8 percent to Sh306.78 billion from Sh276.76 billion in the corresponding quarter last year, while exports to Africa expanded at more than twice that pace, rising 25.1 percent from Sh102.22 billion.

The broad-based rebound followed a difficult 2025, when exports to several of Kenya’s largest African markets declined, dragging the continent’s contribution to Kenya’s export earnings below the levels recorded a year earlier.

The improved performance comes despite longstanding logistical challenges that continue to constrain trade across the continent. African governments estimate underdeveloped transport networks increase the cost of goods and services by as much as 40 percent, reducing the competitiveness of intra-African trade compared with commerce involving Europe and other developed regions.

Investments, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui says reducing transport costs and transit times remains one of the biggest opportunities for accelerating trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“When you look at the entire continent of Africa, you realise that our greatest challenge is logistics. On average, if you want to take a product from Mombasa to say Ghana or any other country, it takes about 45 days. That is very long compared to other destinations,’ Mr Kinyanjui said in June. ‘We believe that in the area of logistics and transshipments, we can do more to encourage free trade in Africa.”

Uganda remained Kenya’s biggest export destination in Africa after purchases climbed 27.9 percent to Sh46.01 billion from Sh33.18 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

The Sh12.83 billion increase in exports to Uganda accounted for almost half of the total growth in Kenya’s exports to Africa, underlining the west-neighbouring country’s position as a market for Kenyan manufactured goods, processed foods, pharmaceuticals and consumer products.

The Democratic Republic of Congo recorded the fastest growth among Kenya’s leading African export destinations, with purchases jumping 73 percent to Sh11.88 billion after falling in the corresponding quarter last year.

Exports to Tanzania rebounded 18.7 percent to Sh17.94 billion after declining in 2025, while shipments to Rwanda increased 15.6 percent to Sh10.70 billion. Exports to Egypt also recovered, rising 39.7 percent to Sh8.98 billion, although they remained below 2024 levels.

The recovery across Kenya’s five largest African markets suggests regional demand strengthened broadly rather than being driven by a single destination, offering traders and manufacturers a more diversified base for export growth.

The stronger exports widened Kenya’s goods trade surplus with Africa to a record Sh56.47 billion in the first quarter from Sh35.31 billion in the same period last year as export growth outpaced imports.

The latest surplus represents a near 60 percent increase from a year earlier and is the largest Kenya has recorded with the continent in at least a decade, highlighting the widening gap between the country’s exports to Africa and what it buys from regional markets.

The trade balance caps a turnaround in Kenya’s trade relationship with Africa over the past nine years. In the first quarter of 2018, Kenya ran a Sh4.33 billion merchandise trade deficit with the continent, importing more goods than it exported.

The balance swung to a modest Sh373 million surplus in 2019 before widening to Sh19.53 billion in 2020. It eased to Sh18.19 billion in 2021 and Sh14.89 billion in 2022 before accelerating to Sh37.33 billion in 2023 and Sh41.92 billion in 2024.

Although the surplus narrowed to Sh35.31 billion in 2025 after exports weakened across several of Kenya’s largest African markets, the latest figures show regional demand has rebounded enough to lift the balance well above previous highs, reinforcing Kenya’s position as one of the continent’s leading manufacturing exporters.

The data shows that Kenya exported Sh127.90 billion worth of goods to Africa while importing Sh71.42 billion, lifting total merchandise trade with the continent to a record Sh199.32 billion, compared with Sh169.13 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The KNBS numbers show Africa remains one of the few regions where Kenya consistently enjoys a sizeable merchandise trade surplus, reflecting the country’s relatively stronger manufacturing base compared with many neighbouring economies.

While exports are becoming increasingly dependent on Africa, the opposite trend is emerging on the import side.

Imports from African countries rose a modest 6.7 percent to Sh71.42 billion from Sh66.91 billion in the first quarter of last year, far below the pace of export growth.

As a result, Africa’s share of Kenya’s import bill fell to 9.6 percent from 10.5 percent a year earlier, the lowest level in the review period in at least a decade.

The decline extends a long-term trend. Africa supplied 13.5 percent of Kenya’s imports in the first quarter of 2018 before its share steadily declined as imports from Asia, the Middle East and other global suppliers expanded faster.

The contrasting trends underline the changing nature of Kenya’s trade relationship with the continent. While Africa has become increasingly important as a destination for Kenyan exports, it has become relatively less significant as a source of imports.

The divergence reflects Kenya’s growing dependence on African markets to absorb manufactured goods, while businesses continue sourcing petroleum products, machinery, electronics, industrial raw materials and other capital goods predominantly from suppliers outside the continent.

Despite accounting for less than one-fifth of Kenya’s total merchandise trade, Africa generated nearly 42 percent of export earnings while contributing less than 10 percent of imports, highlighting the continent’s disproportionate importance to Kenya’s external trade balance.

Africa’s share of Kenya’s total merchandise trade [exports and imports] stood at 18.95 percent during the quarter, largely unchanged from 18.53 percent a year earlier and close to the long-term average of about 19 percent.

That stability masks a significant structural shift. While Africa’s contribution to Kenya’s overall trade has remained largely unchanged, its role in the country’s exports has expanded markedly as its contribution to imports has steadily diminished.

In 2018, for instance, Africa accounted for 33.7 percent of Kenya’s export earnings and 13.5 percent of imports. By the first quarter of 2026, those figures had shifted to 41.7 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

The widening gap suggests Kenya is steadily strengthening its competitive position in African markets even as domestic industries remain reliant on suppliers outside the continent for many industrial inputs and consumer goods.

The latest figures underline the economic gains that could be unlocked if investments in transport corridors, border infrastructure and logistics lower the cost and time of moving goods across the continent.

The Supreme Court has upheld the government’s decision to grant tax exemptions to Japanese companies, consultants and workers involved in development projects in Kenya, dismissing a petition that challenged the legality of the move.

The apex court found that petitioner Eliud Karanja Matindi failed to prove that the tax waiver, granted by the National Treasury through a 2021 Legal Notice, was unconstitutional or discriminatory.

The court held that income earned from foreign sources by persons working in Kenya under technical assistance or development services agreements can lawfully be exempted from income tax under the Income Tax Act.

“The Legal Notice did not also create any rule, order or regulation in the manner specified above. Consequently, we find that the impugned Legal Notice was administrative in nature and did not acquire a legislative character to demand the procedure that the appellant has pleaded,” the court said.

Mr Matindi had argued that the tax exemption violated the Constitution because it was introduced via a legal notice rather than legislation enacted by Parliament.

He also argued that the exemption was unlawful because the loan agreements between the governments of Kenya and Japan, which formed the basis of the tax waiver, were negotiated without sufficient transparency.

According to Mr Matindi, the exemption contravened Article 210 (1) of the Constitution, which provides that no tax or licensing fee may be imposed, waived or varied except as authorised by legislation.

He further argued that the National Assembly breached the Constitution, the Statutory Instruments Act and the Income Tax Act by approving the exemption through a Legal Notice instead of legislation.

The government opposed the petition, maintaining that the exemptions were lawful and arose from binding bilateral agreements tied to foreign-funded development projects.

Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor argued that the CS Treasury acted within the powers granted under Section 13(2) of the Income Tax Act and that the Legal Notice had been properly tabled before the National Assembly.

The government also maintained that public participation was not required because the exemptions stemmed from intergovernmental agreements and the Legal Notice did not amount to a statutory instrument.

Further, the income tax exemption was a standard condition imposed by the Japanese government in financing agreements and applied to all countries receiving such funding, not Kenya alone.

The state further argued that Kenya was obliged to honour the agreements to secure foreign financing and maintain its international obligations.

The disputed Legal Notice exempted from income tax the earnings of Japanese companies, consultants and workers engaged in 16 development projects worth about Sh328 billion.

The projects include the improvement of power distribution systems in Nakuru and Mombasa, infrastructure development in the Mombasa Special Economic Zone near Dongo Kundu, the Olkaria I Unit 4 Geothermal Power Project and the Mwea Irrigation Development Project.

In the judgment, the Supreme Court held that the Legal Notice was administrative rather than legislative in nature and therefore did not qualify as a statutory instrument under Section 2 of the Statutory Instruments Act.

The court said the notice merely informed the public of the implementation of financing agreements between the governments of Kenya and Japan and was therefore not subject to the public participation requirements under the Statutory Instruments Act.

The judges also found that the Treasury Cabinet Secretary acted within the authority delegated by Parliament under Section 13 of the Income Tax Act.

“Had such authority not been provided in law, then the position would certainly have been different, noting the express provisions of Article 94 (5) where other persons or bodies may be conferred certain functions having the force of law by the Constitution or by legislation,” the court said.