Category: Business Daily

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.

Stanbic Bank Kenya has appointed a Safaricom executive, Michael Mutiga, as its chief executive, handing leadership of the lender to a banker credited with driving corporate strategy across banking, telecommunications and digital financial services.

Mr Mutiga will assume office on August 1, subject to regulatory approvals, ending a transition that has seen Abraham Ongenge serve as acting chief executive since March.

The appointment returns Mr Mutiga to mainstream banking after four years at Safaricom, where he has led business development and strategy since mid-2022 as the telecommunications giant accelerated its expansion into financial services.

Before joining Safaricom, he had spent 15 years at Citibank, rising through senior local and regional roles before becoming managing director and head of corporate finance for sub-Saharan Africa in 2019.

Stanbic said Mr Mutiga’s experience in strategy execution, corporate finance, business growth, stakeholder engagement and transformation would support the bank’s next phase of growth.

‘The board is confident that Mr Mutiga’s proven track record in the banking sector, strategy execution and transformation will position Stanbic Bank for its next phase of growth,’ the bank said in a notice on Thursday.

He takes charge at a time when Kenyan banks are intensifying investments in digital banking, expanding non-interest income and competing aggressively for corporate and retail customers as technology reshapes financial services.

Mr Ongenge took interim charge on March 1, 2026, following changes at the bank’s top management that saw Joshua Oigara promoted to regional chief executive for East Africa within the Standard Bank Group.

He will return to his substantive position as Head of Private and Personal Banking, where he will continue supporting the tier-one bank’s growth and transformation agenda.

Safaricom had recruited Mr Mutiga in May 2022 as it sought to deepen its presence in financial services and capture a larger share of earnings from the fast-growing M-Pesa platform.

He was tasked with leading Safaricom’s business development and transformation agenda, including strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, funding strategy and asset optimisation.

The telco had hired Mr Mutiga at a time it sought regulatory approval to venture into savings and unit trust investment products, broadening M-Pesa into a full-service financial platform.

He holds a Master of Laws degree from Temple University and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi.

The bank also highlighted his industry recognition, saying he has won the Corporate Banker of the Year award five times during his career.

Airtel lodged a complaint with the competition watchdog over Safaricom charging voice calls for as low as 10 cents a minute, underlining the rivalry between Kenya’s top two telecoms operators.

The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) revealed that Airtel accused Safaricom of running a promotion with voice charges that were below the mobile termination rate (MTR), which is the rate mobile phone operators charge each other for calls made across networks.

Airtel reckons that Safaricom charged between Sh0.1 per minute and Sh0.3 per minute, arguing that it was below the MTR of Sh0.41 and termed the action predatory pricing, which hurts small operators.

Betting firms will be subject to a double-layer approval of gambling advertisements under new rules aimed at promoting responsible gaming and protecting minors.

New regulations demand that gambling advertisements be approved by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya and the Kenya Film and Classification Board before publication or airing on media outlets.

‘They also mandate responsible gambling messaging and prohibit advertisements targeting minors, portraying gambling as a means of financial success, or featuring celebrities, influencers, former winners or persons holding positions of public trust. Restrictions also apply to the timing and placement of advertisements,’ law firm Bowmans points out in a note on the new regulations.

The rules also prohibit use of celebrities, influencers, and content creators in the promotion of betting activities.

Data shows that spending on advertising within the betting and gaming sector rose by 42.7 percent to Sh187million in the three months ended December 2025, marking a recovery for the industry, which is still reeling from the shocks of stricter rules by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).

The spending between October and December 2025 marked a significant rebound compared to the previous quarter when it dipped by 89percent to Sh131 million, compared to Sh1.2 billion recorded in the preceding quarter-hit by stricter regulations from the BCLB earlier in June 2025 aimed at promoting responsible gambling and protecting minors.

Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows television continued to dominate betting advertisements, accounting for Sh137 million of the total spend, followed by radio at Sh49 million, while print media attracted just Sh1 million.

The government has over the years raised alarm over betting, saying that the craze has pushed gamblers into debt all in the quest to fund betting, besides jeopardising the financial health of their dependants.

Kenya is currently home to the highest number of youthful gamblers in Africa, ahead of bigger economies like Nigeria and South Africa, underscoring the extent of the betting craze in Kenya.

A survey by research firm GeoPoll shows that 64 percent of Kenyans interviewed in the survey placed a bet in the past 12 months, ahead of 60 percent of respondents in Ghana and 58 percent in South Africa.

A Central Bank of Kenya survey in 2024 revealed that Kenyans spent an average of Sh1,825 a month on betting, in the pursuit of quick cash. However, only a few punters win, giving the betting firms a windfall in betting revenues.

Kenya’s Gulf Energy will pay Tullow Oil $9 million (Sh1.16 billion) for the British firm to give up rights to future royalties of $0.5 (Sh65) per barrel and repurchase of shares in the Turkana oil project.

Tullow states in new filings at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that it has agreed to an additional payment of Sh1.16 billion in exchange for the rights that would have enabled it to bank future millions in royalties once the Kenyan crude oil project reaches full production.

After selling its Kenyan assets to Gulf for at least $120 million (Sh15.6 billion) in three staggered payments, the British firm was entitled to royalty payments and had the right to a 30 percent participation in potential future development phases at no additional cost.

Ceding these rights means that the company will make a clean break from the Turkana project, where it first discovered oil in 2012.

‘This transaction is another important step in our strategy to deliver value from our portfolio and strengthen the balance sheet. By accelerating the receipt of $9 million from the sale of the shares in Tullow Kenya B.V., we are securing near-term cash proceeds and simplifying our portfolio,’ said Ian Perks, the chief executive officer of Tullow.

The Kenyan oilfields have not been brought into full production, as any export route would require building hundreds of miles of a heated pipeline to the coast.

The British firm has already received the first two tranches of the staggered payment. The first payment was made on September 25, 2025, and the second one on March 9, 2026.

The second tranche was due either upon the approval of a field development plan (FDP) for the project. The FDP was approved in February after it was ratified by the Ministry of Energy and Parliament.

An FDP outlines how an oil company intends to develop a petroleum field and manage the impact on the environment and society. It also gives forecasts for production and costs.

The third and final $40 million tranche will be paid in quarterly instalments of $2 million (Sh258.7 million) starting in September 2028, provided that the price of Brent crude oil averaged $65 per barrel in the preceding quarter.

Should the aggregate amount of the tranche not have been cleared by June 2033, the balance will be settled in a bullet payment regardless of the prevailing price of oil.

Securing the upfront payment in exchange for future royalties removes uncertainty over cash flows for Tullow, given that the project has faced long delays and is subject to the volatility of the oil market.

Tullow discovered commercially viable oil in the Lokichar basin in 2012 and had aimed to start commercial production in 2020. The target would later be revised as the company struggled to find a deep-pocketed strategic investor to derisk the project, before the eventual sale to Gulf.

It also failed to get approval for its field development plans for the project, partly due to the difficulty in securing a strategic investor after the exit of its joint venture partners TotalEnergies and Africa Oil in 2023.

The pair, who held a 25 percent stake each in the project, said that they left the project due to ‘differing internal strategic reasons’, leaving Tullow as the sole owner.

Before selling its stake to Gulf, Tullow had cumulatively written off more than Sh140 billion in recoverable assets from the Kenyan project, underlining the delays in moving into commercial production and securing a strategic investment.

After securing the stake, Gulf is now hoping to commence commercial oil production by the end of this year on Turkana oil blocks T6 and T7.

The company’s FDP shows that 600,000 barrels of oil will be extracted and exported per month-or 20,000 barrels per day- in the first phase of the project running from 2026 to 2032. The second phase, from 2032, will see production increase to 50,000 barrels a day or 1.5 million per month.

Gulf has already secured an onshore oil rig for $15 million (Sh1.9 billion) from Great Wall Drilling Company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a long-term lease for the Turkana project.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that logistics services for exports qualify for zero-rated Value Added Tax (VAT), dealing a blow to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), which sought to impose a levy on the utilities.

The court said that taxation of export services should be done where the end product is consumed and not where the logistics are physically performed.

The July 10, 2026 decision by the court arose from a dispute between Airflo Ltd, formerly Panalpina Airflo Limited, and the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes over VAT refunds amounting to Sh46 million.

Zero-rated Value Added Tax (VAT) applies a zero percent tax rate to goods and services. Under the arrangement, customers are not charged any VAT, but businesses can reclaim the VAT paid on the raw materials and production costs.

At the centre of the dispute were two key questions: whether logistical services such as cold room storage, vacuum cooling, X-ray screening, palletisation and customs documentation are consumed in Kenya or abroad, and whether services physically performed in Kenya can qualify as exported services under the VAT Act.

Airflo Ltd, a Kenyan company, provides handling services to its Dutch parent company, Airflo BV, which transports cut flowers and other horticultural produce from Kenya via the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to destinations around the world, mainly on behalf of customers in the Netherlands who have already purchased the flowers from Kenyan growers.

Under the service agreement, the Dutch customers own the flowers before Airflo Ltd’s services are engaged. The company receives instructions from the overseas market on how the flowers should be packed, screened and consigned before shipment.

The Court of Appeal found that the services were intended to benefit foreign customers rather than Kenyan farmers or the local export process.

“The ultimate economic benefit and consumption of the respondent’s logistical services accrued to the Dutch entities that required their flowers delivered in pristine condition in Europe. The physical location of the performance of the services at JKIA does not alter this commercial reality,” the court said.

The appellate court agreed with the High Court that the decisive test for zero-rating under the VAT Act is the place where the service is used or consumed.

“We therefore find no error in the High Court’s conclusion that the determining factor for zero-rating was the place of use or consumption, which in this case was the Netherlands,” the court ruled.

The court further held that the services could not be classified as exempt horticultural services merely because they involved flowers.

It described cold room storage, vacuum cooling, X-ray screening, palletisation and customs documentation as logistical support services ancillary to international freight transport rather than horticultural production.

“The mere fact that the subject matter of the logistics is horticultural produce does not transform the nature of the service itself. To hold otherwise would expand the exemption beyond its ordinary meaning, effectively converting a sector-based commercial relationship into a statutory exemption without textual foundation,” the judges said.

The KRA had argued that because Airflo Ltd is based in Kenya and the services were supplied within Kenya, they should be subject to the standard 16 per cent VAT rate under Section 8 of the VAT Act.

It also maintained that the services were consumed locally because they enabled the flowers to meet export and phytosanitary requirements before leaving the country.

The court disagreed, saying that to hold, as the KRA urges, that a supply made in Kenya under Section 8(1) cannot simultaneously be a service exported out of Kenya under Section 2 would render the zero-rating provision in the Second Schedule meaningless in respect of services performed by Kenyan residents.

‘Parliament could not have intended such an absurdity,” the court held.

It added that the two provisions work together, with Section 8 establishing Kenya’s taxing jurisdiction while the Second Schedule provides for zero-rating where the services are ultimately used or consumed outside Kenya.

“The two provisions operate harmoniously. Section 8(1) brings the transaction within Kenya’s taxing jurisdiction; Section 2 and the Second Schedule provide for zero-rating where the service, though supplied from Kenya, is for use or consumption abroad. There is no superfluity,” the judges said.

The court also dismissed KRA’s attempt to classify the services as exempt horticultural services.

“The Appellant’s position amounts to an impermissible attempt to re-characterize the services as exempt merely to avoid processing a refund lawfully due, without any proper statutory basis,” it said.

Airflo Ltd had charged VAT at the zero rate on services rendered to Airflo BV and subsequently sought refunds of excess input VAT amounting to Sh36 million for January to September 2019 and Sh10 million for June to October 2020.

KRA rejected the claims in January and February 2021, prompting the company to appeal to the Tax Appeals Tribunal.

The tribunal ruled in Airflo’s favour in April 2022, finding that the services were exported and therefore zero-rated. The High Court upheld that decision in May 2023.

The Court of Appeal further directed KRA to process the VAT refund claims within 90 days of the judgment.

The sweetness of your favourite ‘pure honey’ may not be entirely the result of bees painstakingly converting flower nectar into the natural sweetener.

Instead, it could also be the work of crafty manufacturers concocting substances that give it the sweetness of natural honey.

A nationwide investigation into the honey industry by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) found that four out of every five sampled brands contained additives despite being labelled and marketed as “100 percent pure and natural honey”, opening a probe into yet another case of false and misleading advertising and consumer deception.

The findings, contained in the CAK’s annual report for the financial year ended June 2025, followed laboratory tests on honey brands collected from manufacturers and importers across the country. CAK said the tests were done by an accredited laboratory.

More than 80 percent of the sampled products were found to be non-compliant because they contained additives above the permissible limits.

The CAK said that following the results, it launched a formal investigation into the implicated manufacturers and importers.

“Notably, the affected honey products were marketed and labelled as ‘100 percent Pure and Natural Honey,’ which was found to be misleading and contrary to Clause 4.1 of KS EAS 36:2020,” the authority said.

“The clause stipulates that pure honey must not contain any added substances,” added the watchdog, whose mandate includes protecting consumers from unfair trade practices.

The authority said marketing adulterated honey as “100 percent pure and natural honey” amounts to misleading consumers by making false claims about the quality and composition of the product.

It also found that the affected brands failed to meet the prescribed consumer product standards for honey, making their sale an offence under the Competition Act.

“The labelling and sale of adulterated honey were deemed to violate Sections 55(a)(i) and 60(1) of the Act, which prohibit the supply of consumer goods that fail to meet prescribed product information standards,” said the CAK.

The parties involved were required to implement corrective measures on product packaging, storage and handling to ensure compliance with the applicable laws and standards.

“The entities further committed to periodic compliance monitoring by the Authority to safeguard consumer welfare.”

According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food standards body established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), honey must not contain any added food ingredients or additives, including sugars and sweeteners.

“Honey sold as such shall not have added to it any food ingredient, nor shall any other additions be made other than honey. Honey shall not have any objectionable matter, flavour, aroma, or taint absorbed from foreign matter during its processing and storage,” says Codex.

Honey has become increasingly popular as more health-conscious consumers switch from refined sugar to what is perceived as a healthier natural sweetener.

Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that honey production rose by 19.3 percent to 20,602.5 tonnes in the five years to 2025, reflecting growing demand for the product.

The 2019 Population and Housing Census showed that 201,406 households engaged in beekeeping as a source of livelihood, a figure that is likely to have increased as demand for honey has grown.

In 2020, juice maker Del Monte Kenya was fined Sh776,025 by the competition watchdog for misrepresenting the quality of one of its products.

The anti-competition watchdog later entered into a settlement agreement with the firm after finding that it had contravened Section 55(a)(i) of the Competition Act.

A person commits an offence under the law if they “falsely represent that goods are of a particular standard, quality, value, grade, composition, style or model or have had a particular history or particular previous use.”

Del Monte said CAK investigations related to missing wording on the packaging of one of its products.

Azam juice maker Bakhresa Food Products was also fined Sh47,711 for a similar infringement involving the composition of its juice products.

The CAK’s previous crackdown on misleading representations has also targeted the financial services sector, with firms such as Faulu Microfinance Bank and Harambee Sacco being sanctioned for similar violations.

A company linked to the estate of the late billionaire businessman and former Starehe MP Gerishon Kamau Kirima, Kirima and Sons Limited, is embroiled in a Sh52.8 million rental income tax dispute with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

The Tax Appeals Tribunal has set aside KRA’s objection decision and ordered a fresh review of the tax after directing the company to submit documents supporting disputed repairs, maintenance and security expenses.

Kirima, who died in 2010, was one of the wealthiest property magnates, leaving behind an estate valued at nearly Sh2 billion, including prime commercial and residential properties, extensive landholdings, company shareholdings, and investments that have been the subject of prolonged succession litigation.

He served as Starehe MP and Assistant Minister for Public Works during the late President Daniel Moi’s administration. He was also a Nairobi City Councillor before building one of the country’s largest private property empires.

The taxation dispute stems from additional income tax assessments covering the 2019 to 2023 tax years.

The tribunal, chaired by Robert Mutuma, ordered the company to produce original or certified supporting records within 30 days and directed KRA to issue a fresh objection decision within 60 days after receiving the documents.

‘The just course, and the one that best serves the object of tax dispute resolution as envisioned in the Tax Procedures Act of ensuring assessments are made on complete information, is to remit the matter to the respondent for an informed objection decision to be made after its sight of the outstanding records,’ said the tribunal.

The tax dispute arose after KRA reviewed the company’s income tax declarations and disallowed deductions claimed for repairs, maintenance and security costs incurred on rental properties.

The authority subsequently confirmed additional income tax assessments amounting to Sh52.8 million after concluding the company had failed to provide documents supporting the claimed expenses.

Kirima and Sons challenged the assessment, arguing that the disputed costs were genuine business expenses incurred to maintain ageing residential properties and provide security for tenants.

It maintained that the records could not be accessed because prolonged succession disputes following Kirima’s death disrupted the company’s governance and custody of its documents.

“The properties are of age and required major repairs to continue to make them habitable and competitive,” the company told the tribunal. It added that “it is the responsibility of the landlord to provide security to the tenants through hiring of security guards for day and night.”

The company said that newly appointed administrators of Kirima’s estate had written to previous administrators seeking bank statements, expense schedules, invoices, receipts, contracts and property records covering 2019 to 2024 to support the disputed deductions.

KRA opposed the appeal, arguing that the company repeatedly failed to comply with statutory requirements despite being given several opportunities to do so during the verification and objection process.

The tax authority said the objection lodged through the iTax system lacked both supporting grounds and documentary evidence.

“It is now evident that the appellant is attempting to cure its non-compliance at the appeal stage by submitting new factual allegations and attaching documents that were not part of the objection process,” KRA argued.

The Commissioner further maintained that “the burden of proof lies with the taxpayer, and in this case, the appellant has failed to discharge this legal burden both factually and procedurally.”

The tribunal agreed that taxpayers must keep adequate business records and observed that Kirima and Sons had not produced documents proving the disputed expenditure either before KRA or during the appeal.

“It is common ground, and admitted by the appellant, that no documents substantiating the disallowed repair and maintenance, and security expenses were furnished to the respondent at any stage,” the tribunal said.

However, it found that the company’s explanation for failing to access the records was supported by court documents appointing new estate administrators and correspondence requesting the missing records from previous administrators.

“The tribunal finds the appellant’s explanation for its inability to produce the outstanding records plausible,” the tribunal ruled.

It said the explanation was “corroborated by a court-issued grant of letters of administration and by contemporaneous correspondence.”

The tribunal held that KRA was entitled to issue a best-judgment assessment based on the information available at the time.

It nevertheless concluded that the objection decision should be reconsidered after the company produces the outstanding records, allowing the Commissioner to make a fresh determination on a complete evidentiary record.

Nairobi County posting Sh15 billion in own-source revenue is no small achievement. Put in perspective, it is nearly equivalent to its equitable share of national revenue, which stands at Sh22 billion.

The milestone is hardly surprising. Nairobi is Kenya’s commercial hub, the seat of government and the country’s largest economic engine. Some analysts argue that Sh15 billion still falls below the city’s true revenue potential, and they may be right. Even so, Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration deserves credit for reversing years of underperformance.

Not long ago, Nairobi’s own-source revenue fluctuated between Sh3 billion and Sh7 billion a year. Huge leakages, weak enforcement and manual systems denied the county billions in collections.

Digitising revenue streams, mapping revenue sources and simplifying payment systems have significantly improved compliance and reduced opportunities for corruption.

Residents are also beginning to see the results. Roads are being recarpeted, public spaces upgraded and parts of the city given a facelift.

That matters because Nairobi is Kenya’s gateway to the world. The impression visitors form of the country often begins with the capital, making investment in urban infrastructure more than cosmetic; it is part of the nation’s image.

Yet higher revenues alone will not solve Nairobi’s problems. The county serves nearly seven million people during the day and about five million at night, placing immense pressure on roads, housing, sanitation and other public services. Every additional shilling must therefore be matched by disciplined planning, prudent spending and clear priorities.

The city still bears the scars of decades of poor governance, corruption and failed planning. Informal settlements, inadequate infrastructure and overstretched services are reminders of opportunities lost over many administrations.

Sustaining improved revenue collection is important, but using those resources effectively will be the real measure of success.

The challenge now is to ensure that every shilling collected delivers visible improvements in the lives of Nairobi residents and strengthens the city’s position as Kenya’s economic heartbeat.

In that sea of an office that is the vice-chancellor’s floor at the University of Nairobi (UoN), docked on the 18th floor of the UoN Towers, Prof Ayub Gitau revels in numbers.

He is a good dancer, we hear, but what comes out in this fast-paced morning is his better-known attribute; that of being a numbers man. He has 30 minutes before he goes to meet the university’s senate, and well under 24 hours before his big day starts.

Come the following morning from 8am, underneath white tents being set up in the university’s grounds, he will be installed officially as the ninth vice-chancellor of the institution.

Among the numbers bothering him is one from recent university rankings that placed UoN at position 17 in Africa.

‘That’s not where we belong,’ he says. ‘We belong to the top five and, in the worst case scenario, the top 10 universities in Africa.’

He is also not proud when he reveals that the past decade has been somehow ‘lost’ at UoN due to squabbles of different shapes.

‘From 2015, we have been up and down, and we have been there for about 10 years,’ he says. ‘I would like a situation whereby, first of all, we make the University of Nairobi great again.’

But there are other numbers he is happy to mention, like a recent Sh530 million grant from the World Bank. He also takes pride in the fact that the UoN has more than 300,00 alumni, including President William Ruto, as he lays out plans to involve them more in the institution’s turnaround.

As far as dates are concerned, Prof Gitau got his Bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering in 1990 from Egerton University. By the end of 1994, he had his Master’s from the UoN, while his PhD came in 2004. It wasn’t until 2023 that he became a full professor.

Dressed in a brown suit and carrying a down-to-earth aura, Prof Gitau is the type that scribbles down your question on his notebook as his mind calculates a response in real-time.

Congratulations on your installation. Did you ever dream of being here?

It has been a journey. I’ve been in management for over 15 years. I started in 2010 as the chairman of the Department of Environmental and Biosystems Engineering.

Then I became the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for another five and a half years, from 2019. And for close to two years, I’ve been

acting as the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. So, the journey tells you I was moving and hoping that one day, I would be the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi. It could have happened earlier, or later, but that dream has been there.

Which people, family or others would you not want to miss in your installation?

I have my wife, Veronica, our two daughters and my siblings. I also have a good number of friends. Some are businesspersons and others are in the corporate world. Ultimately, I would like the professors of the university to be there and all the staff of the university.

For how long have you been married to Veronica?

For many years. We are talking about over 35 years. My lastborn is turning 28 in a month.

Some have said that being in academia is a sacrifice. Have you ever lived a situation where you see your peers rising through the ranks while you feel like you are stagnated?

[Laughs]. We call it [academia] CSR. Even in this office, there is an element of sacrifice to it. If you were to monetise it, nobody can pay you. It’s a sacrifice. It’s just like religion; it is corporate social responsibility as it were. And specifically once you go to the management, it is a service. I normally say: service to mankind. And it has worked well.

You serve mankind, automatically you also get your reward from God. I’ve seen it happen. But as you have put it, I remember after undergraduate, most of our [peers] were getting very good jobs. You hear somebody is getting a Sh20,000 job.

Those days, the government salary was Sh3,000. Then after that, we went to the postgraduate studies. The [peers] were just marrying. So, you won’t marry because you have got another level. By the time you are done with your PhD, you are over 40 years yet those guys are growing in the corporate world.

But I’ve realised it is a matter of patience. Once you get what is yours, rightfully yours, you overtake them and within two years you are doing better by far.

You turn 60 on October 20. Is this lined up to be your best birthday yet?

It should be one of my most exciting birthdays. The beauty behind it is it always happens on a holiday [Mashujaa Day].

But it’s more exciting now when you’re in this role…

True, true, you’re right.

What are your immediate plans for UoN?

From 2015, we have been up and down, and we have been there for about 10 years. It shows there is a lot of reflection and teamwork that is required. Currently, the University of Nairobi is heavily divided. That’s a fact. So, the first thing is to bring the staff together, noting that we have the best faculty in the region: highly experienced, highly trained.

And if you think about our mandate of teaching and learning, research, innovation and enterprise, consultancy, community outreach, across the board, the faculty is well-endowed.

You’ll realise even our non-teaching staff are involved in most of these activities, be it community service outreach, even consultancy, and some also in research. So, the whole idea is to bring the team together, and then after that we can look at the various facilities.

Our dream is to have students whose well-being is taken care of, staff who are enabled and who are also motivated. Then we have to think about our alumni. We are very rich in our alumni; over 300,000. They include the President and the who-is-who in the country. That is another area that we can tap.

What would you want to be remembered for in your role as VC?

I would like a situation whereby, first, we could make the University of Nairobi great again; where we are not comparing ourselves with other universities. I want us to form a brand, our original brand where we come up with futuristic leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs so that the CEOs, the VCs, the presidents of the future are well mentored and brought up at the University of Nairobi.

I know within one year, we shall have brought all the staff together and at that point, when the staff are motivated, they give their best.

Then the productivity will be seen. I’m very sure even within this year, our ranking nationally, not just for Kenya, will start [rising]. I foresee a futuristic university, nurturing talent, bringing in innovation and entrepreneurship.