Category: Business Daily

The National Land Commission (NLC) has been ordered to pay a Nairobi landowner Sh909 million within 90 days, ending a 12-year compensation battle over a property compulsorily acquired for the construction of the Southern Bypass road.

The Environment and Land Court ruled that government agencies, including NLC and the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA), cannot evade constitutional obligations to promptly compensate landowners by shifting blame among themselves.

The court warned that the NLC chairman and chief executive could face contempt proceedings if the commission fails to comply with the payment order. The ruling capped a protracted legal fight that began after the State compulsorily acquired part of Five Star Agencies Limited’s land in Lang’ata for the construction of the Southern Bypass aimed to ease traffic gridlock in Nairobi city.

The prime parcel along Lang’ata Road measured approximately 20 acres, but the NLC compulsorily acquired about 0.4281 hectares of the land for the road project. The NLC had offered to compensate Five Star Agencies Sh87 million for the parcel, but the company challenged the award and secured a judgment in November 2014 for Sh413 million, with interest accruing until payment in full.

However, the company said it had been unable to recover the money despite years of litigation and repeated demands to government agencies.

In the latest application filed in March 2025, the firm sought orders compelling the NLC chairman and the CEO to settle the outstanding amount, which had risen to Sh909 million by December 2024 due to accumulated interest.

The company argued it had extracted and served a certificate of order against the government after appeals arising from the dispute had been exhausted, but no payment had been made.

NLC opposed the application, insisting that it merely facilitated compulsory acquisitions and that the responsibility for availing compensation funds lay with the KeNHA, which acquired the land for the road project.

The commission, through its CEO Kabale Tache Arero, told the court that KeNHA had not deposited the money required for disbursement despite follow-ups, making it unfair to punish its chief executive for non-payment.

But the court rejected the argument, saying the commission was raising issues that should have been addressed during the substantive hearing.

“I find that these are issues the court ought to have been canvassed at the hearing of the suit and as such are being raised too late after judgment had been rendered,” the judge said.

“The judgment of the court has not been vacated and still remains unexecuted,” he added.

The court noted that the NLC is a constitutional commission and a state organ whose execution process is governed by the Government Proceedings Act.

It found that the commission’s secretary, who is also its chief executive officer and accounting officer, bears responsibility for settling liabilities arising from court decrees.

“It would be in the interest of justice to allow the application to allow the applicant to enjoy the fruits of their long-awaited judgment having been outstanding for close to 12 years now,” the court said.

It directed the NLC chief executive officer to pay the decretal sum within 90 days and ordered the matter mentioned on September 30, 2026, to confirm compliance.

The court further warned that if payment is not made, summons would be issued to the NLC chairman and chief executive to show cause why they should not be cited and punished for contempt of court.

Uber Kenya is seeking a permit to allow it send parcels and other goods in a diversification move that puts it in direct competition with State-backed Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta).

The American ride-hailing technology firm has applied to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) for a National Courier Operator licence, which will allow it to collect and deliver packages across the country.

Uber’s entry into the courier business is set to pile fresh pressure on Posta, which has in recent years struggled to remain afloat as declining letter volumes, mounting losses and rising competition reshape Kenya’s delivery market.

The State-owned corporation has increasingly shifted focus to parcels, logistics and e-commerce deliveries as traditional mail services continue to shrink amid growing use of digital communication platforms.

Official data shows that postal services continued to contract in 2025, with the number of post offices decreasing from 623 to 457 and domestic letters declining by 5.7 percent.

During the year, the value of output for postal and courier services dropped to Sh25.99 billion down from the Sh26.64 billion recorded in 2024.

‘The number of licensed courier operators rose slightly from 348 in 2024 to 351 in 2025. The number of outlets operated by the licensed courier operators rose by 2.5 per cent from 1,130 in 2024 to 1,158 in 2025,’ wrote the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in its latest Economic Survey.

The permit sought by Uber allows an operator to provide courier services throughout Kenya, including collection, sorting, transportation and delivery of parcels and documents.

Last September, the CA sought to introduce a new licence for courier-hailing firms that would see them pay Sh100,000 for permits as government hunted revenues from the fast-growing market for home and office deliveries.

If granted, the licence would formally extend Uber’s operations into a sector benefiting from growing demand for e-commerce deliveries, business logistics and same-day parcel distribution services.

The application comes at a time when courier services have become increasingly important to online merchants and small businesses seeking faster and more reliable delivery channels. Growth in e-commerce has fueled demand for parcel movement services as more transactions shift from physical stores to online platforms.

For Uber, the licence would allow it to leverage an existing network of drivers, routing technology and payment systems to compete in the delivery market without building an entirely new transport infrastructure.

The company already operates ride-hailing and food delivery services in Kenya, giving it access to a large customer base and a ready distribution network.

The courier business is also set to provide an additional revenue stream as competition intensifies in the ride-hailing sector.

Digital taxi operators have in recent years faced growing pressure from disputes over fares, commissions and driver earnings, prompting firms to explore adjacent business opportunities.

Internationally, Uber has expanded parcel delivery operations in several markets, allowing customers to send packages through the same application used for transport and food orders.

Kenya’s courier market has become increasingly competitive as operators seek to capitalise on rising demand for same-day and next-day delivery services.

Delivery services have become critical for sectors such as retail, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing, where rapid movement of goods and documents is increasingly important.

Unlike conventional courier firms that rely on dedicated delivery fleets, Uber could potentially utilise drivers already active on its platform to fulfil parcel deliveries, with the potential to lower operating costs and improve efficiency.

Greater competition is set to give rise to more delivery options and faster fulfilment times for consumers.

Kenya’s 2010 Constitution firmly anchored matters environment in the fifth chapter. This elevated them above policy and law, and should inform the management of riparian reserves countrywide. Ongoing efforts by the Nairobi City County Government to inspect and clean up rivers, and others around the country, should be accordingly guided.

Unfortunately, the laws and regulations on the measurement and management of riparian reserves have remained divergent. It’s reason why the current government initiative to harmonise them is commendable.

Through the Ministry of Lands led initiative, the government invited written and oral comments through a public notice issued in April. The submissions closed in late May. It’s expected that the public, experts and key stakeholders seized the opportunity to provide inputs to help resolve the existing gaps and inconsistencies.

Soon after the public notice, the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK), a key stakeholder in land administration and management, weighed in. ISK issued a comprehensive statement on the matter in early May, whose contents speak to law and practice.

It underscored the importance of protecting water bodies and the restoration of riparian ecosystems to mitigate flooding, and support sustainable management. ISK highlighted the challenges posed by the multiplicity of statutes and the different interpretations attached to the definition and measurement of riparian reserves, which undermine their protection.

The ISK statement helped to enrich discussion on this elusive matter. Its contents should help stakeholders and the government to improve the management of the reserves.

The statement highlighted that some of the affected properties were legitimately allocated and registered before independence, when the categorisation of riparian reserves was non-existent.

Indeed, quite a number of properties in Nairobi and other parts of the country had their boundaries surveyed and defined to be the centre lines of the bounding rivers.

At the time, the current legal regulatory regime did not exist. This reality therefore informed the development of such properties at the time.

Ongoing efforts to inspect developments along rivers should therefore beware the existence and legitimacy of such developments.

How then should they be handled? ISK advises that such property rights should remain respected, and where there is a good case for demolition of permanent developments in the interest of conservation and water flow, the process of compulsory acquisition and compensation as enshrined under the Constitution should kick-in.

The process ought to proceed as happens where public roads, railways or dams have to be constructed on private land, with each case treated on its merit.

Moreover, ISK reminds that the categorisation of private land to riparian reserve should be understood in the context of access, land use and development control, and not the conversion of such land to public.

Riparian reserves on private land therefore remain under private ownership, but with restrictions imposed on the use and development of such land. This ensures consistency with our Constitution as provided under article 66.

Stakeholders and policy drivers in government ought to take interest in the contents of the ISK statement. It will help to temper the approach to the enforcement of regulations on riparian reserves, and to converge the existing legal framework.

The Ministry of Agriculture projects to collect Sh1.38 billion from the newly tea export levy annually, raising the total taxes from the beverage to more than Sh1.4 billion.

The government expects to collect Sh40 million in tea import levy, raising the total revenue from tea taxes to Sh1.42 billion a year.

The Tea Levy Regulations, 2026 reintroduces a levy, payable only by tea exporters at 0.8 percent of the auction value or customs value for direct sales, and by tea importers at 100 percent of the import value per consignment of made tea.

The collection of Sh1.42 billion is based on 2023 export data, where 522.92 million kilos of tea was exported, generating Sh180.57 billion.

‘Based on 2023 export data, the levy is projected to generate approximately Sh1.38 billion from export levy and Sh40 million from import levy, totaling Sh1.42 billion per annum,’ the Ministry said in a report.

‘Under the regulation, the funds would be invested into the tea sector. Sh710 million will go to the Farmer Price Stabilisation Fund, Sh284 million to research, Sh213 million to Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) operations and Sh213 million to county governments for infrastructure.’

The Tea Levy Regulations, 2026 reintroduced a statutory levy of 0.8 percent on exports and imports under the authority of Section 53 of the Tea Act, 2020.

The levy was previously in place as an ad valorem until 2016, when it was scrapped. Its abolition left the TBK and the Tea Research Institute without sustainable funding, causing a sharp decline in research, quality surveillance and market promotion.

‘The levy is being restored to build a sustainable, industry-funded mechanism to invest in research, marketing, infrastructure and farmer price protection,” the ministry said.

‘It is imposed on exporters and importers of tea, not farmers or factories. The 100 percent import levy is a protective mechanism, not a general revenue measure.’

The Ministry says the purpose of the 100 percent import levy is to shield Kenyan tea producers from the influx of cheap, low-quality imported tea from neighbouring countries.

‘The fund framework ensures farmers are not wholly exposed to the volatility of the international commodity market, a protection they have lacked since the levy was abolished in 2026,’ the ministry report said.

‘The Price Stabilisation Fund (receiving 50 percent of levy revenue) is designed to act as a cushion when global tea auction prices drop below sustainable levels, provide supplementary payments to smallholder farmers to bridge the gap between market prices and target earnings and respond to climate events such as floods and drought that damage crop output and reduce farmer income.’

Under regulation 5 of the Tea Levy Regulations, 2026, some teas are exempted, including value-added tea packed in containers of 10kg or less, tea extracts and tea aroma products, and Kenyan teas processed for value addition in an Export Processing Zone.

President William Ruto’s ambition to make Kenya the ‘Singapore of Africa’ has dominated development discourse, but history suggests that replicating Singapore’s model is far harder than policymakers assume.

Dr Christie Agawa’s research shows the rapid rise of Germany, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan cannot be separated from Cold War geopolitics. Their transformation was not just superior policy or governance. It was also strategic backing from Western powers who needed capitalist success stories against Soviet influence.

West Germany received massive grants and debt relief in the 1950s. South Korea industrialised through state-backed chaebols (large, family-owned industrial conglomerates ) that became global export engines.

Singapore’s rise follows the same logic. Located at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, it controls one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints. Lee Kuan Yew became a staunch anti-communist ally when containing communism in Asia was a core Western objective.

That stance secured US security guarantees, preferential access to Western markets, and disproportionate foreign direct investments (FDI) inflows for a country its size.

Singapore did not industrialise in a neutral global environment. It was a strategic asset in a bipolar world. Taiwan and South Korea reinforce the point: State-led development was deeply intertwined with patronage.

Planning was centralised, credit was directed by the State, and infant industries were shielded. But success depended on tight coordination between political elites and connected business groups. Access to finance, licences, and export quotas was politically managed. Crony capitalism was not a deviation from their takeoff. It was embedded in the model.

Contrast that with Africa’s structural reality. The Democratic Republic of Congo holds some of the world’s richest cobalt, copper, gold, and uranium deposits, yet remains trapped in poverty, weak infrastructure, and recurring conflict.

In Ghana, rural women harvest shea nuts for the global cosmetics industry, but European firms capture the bulk of the value through processing, branding, and retail. The core trap is structural.

In global value chains, power sits with firms that control technology, branding, and market access. Raw material exporters like Kenya compete on price and volume. Singapore escaped because Cold War geopolitics let it host, not just supply, the high-value nodes: finance, logistics, and manufacturing for Western multinationals.

Dr Agawa asserts that Western policy in Africa is fundamentally about control of resources, not growth. Liberalisation, austerity, and open markets keep African States as suppliers of cheap inputs while foreclosing the State-led upgrading that Asia used.

Colonial history sharpens the contradiction. Early European industrialisation drew heavily on colonial extraction. France’s industrial expansion was supported by African raw materials, captive markets, and forced trade systems. The scale remains debated, but the link between colonial extraction and European capital formation is well documented.

The pattern is clear: countries that industrialised often did so under strategic protection, external subsidies, colonial extraction, or tightly managed state capitalism. Yet late-developing countries are now required by the IMF, World Bank, and donor consensus to industrialise through liberalisation, austerity, fiscal compression, and fully open markets.

This raises an uncomfortable question: were the Asian miracles purely good governance, or also beneficiaries of geopolitical favoritism that no longer exists? South Korea and Taiwan expanded rapidly while embedded in patronage networks and politically connected business systems. Corruption existed, but it coexisted with industrial deepening.

History also shows few nations industrialised under mature democracy. Britain’s industrial revolution restricted political participation to a property-owning elite. The US built early economic power while slavery remained a central institution. East Asian states explicitly prioritised economic transformation over liberal democratic ideals during takeoff.

None of this celebrates corruption, authoritarianism, or exclusion. It means development is shaped by historical timing, geopolitics, State capacity, and access to patient capital. Importing policy templates while ignoring those conditions produces fantasy, not strategy.

Kenya is not Singapore, and the differences are structural, not cultural. Singapore is 728 sq km with 5.9 million people, a single tier of government, and a deep-water port on the busiest shipping lane on earth. Nairobi County alone is 694 sq km.

Kenya covers 580,000 sq km with 55 million people, 44 ethnic groups, and a devolved system of 47 counties with distinct political economies. The scale, diversity, and institutional complexity are incomparable.

Singapore also industrialised in a unique Cold War moment with US security guarantees and capital inflows tied to its anti-communist stance. Kenya faces a multipolar world, no security patron, and a debt-driven global financial system that penalises State-led industrial policy. The lesson is not to become Singapore.

The lesson is to study the structural conditions that made Singapore possible, then design a strategy rooted in Kenya’s own realities: leverage agriculture and agro-processing where Kenya has comparative advantage, deepen regional trade under AfCFTA to build economies of scale, and rebuild state capacity to direct credit toward productive sectors instead of consumption. Chasing Singapore is a distraction.

Building Kenya is the task.

The growing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) in legal work is increasingly dividing opinion between skeptics and believers. Skeptics warn of inaccuracy, ethical compromise and declining service quality. Believers, on the other hand, maintain that AI is not only inevitable but indispensable to modern legal practice.

The truth, however, lies somewhere in between. AI is neither a panacea nor a threat to be resisted. It presents a shift in how legal services are being delivered to businesses.

What distinguishes the current wave of AI from earlier legal technologies is the rise of generative AI and large language models. These systems are capable of understanding and producing human language with remarkable fluency.

This efficiency dividend is already visible in dispute resolution. AI tools are now routinely used to sift through vast volumes of documents, extract relevant facts and organise evidence in a manner that allows lawyers to focus on strategy rather than process.

More advanced applications go further, using predictive analytics to assess likely outcomes based on historical data.

At the far end of this spectrum lies automated dispute resolution, where entire claims can be processed through online platforms that guide parties from filing to resolution with minimal human intervention.

For businesses, this evolution presents a compelling proposition. Disputes can be resolved more quickly, at lower cost and without the procedural complexity that has at times defined traditional modes such as litigation and arbitration. Indeed, global platforms already resolve low-value disputes through automated systems, with human oversight reserved for more complex matters.

Yet it is precisely at this point that the skeptics’ concerns become more persuasive. Dispute resolution is not simply a mechanical exercise in applying legal rules to data. It involves context, judgment and, often, an appreciation of human behaviour and motive.

AI, for all its capabilities, operates on patterns and probabilities. It does not understand nuance in the way a human decision-maker does.

This limitation becomes significant in complex commercial disputes, where outcomes often turn on qualitative factors that cannot easily be reduced to data. These concerns also bring to the fore issues surrounding the unauthorised practice of law, particularly where AI tools are used to generate court documents which, should only be prepared by qualified Advocates.

Recent decisions from Kenyan courts illustrate this tension. In one instance, court documents were struck out on the basis that they were generated using AI and failed to meet substantive and procedural requirements for court documents. In another case, the use of AI was viewed as conferring an undue advantage on one party.

Similarly, in the US, courts have increasingly sanctioned and fined lawyers for using AI to prepare court documents containing fabricated case citations and quotations.

These decisions, though still emerging, signal a judicial unease with how AI is being deployed indiscriminately without regard to substantive safeguards. Together, they reflect a system grappling with a new technology increasingly being deployed without sufficient restraint.

AI systems are known to produce inaccurate outputs, sometimes referred to as hallucinations, where responses are plausible but incorrect. There are also concerns around bias in training data, confidentiality of client information and the question of liability when AI-generated content proves erroneous.

In a profession built on precision, confidentiality and accountability, these concerns go to the heart of legal practice, with direct implications on the businesses they advise and represent.

However, these risks are not without mitigation. Techniques such as requiring AI systems to cite sources, grounding outputs in verified data and maintaining strict human oversight can significantly reduce error. Nevertheless, the responsibility for the final product remains with the lawyer.

Perhaps the skeptics are correct in stating that AI use needs to be minimised and disputes resolved by human beings, however, the believers are not wrong in stating that the increased use of AI is inevitable.

Administrative and preparatory functions such as document review, legal research and case organisation are increasingly accepted and pose minimal threat to the integrity of proceedings. But tasks such as drafting legal documents or analysing evidence should not be substituted by AI use.

The future of dispute resolution therefore lies not in replacing lawyers or judges with AI, but in redefining its role. AI will handle the repetitive administrative tasks allowing practitioners to focus on strategy, advocacy and judgment. In this sense, the most effective model is not substitution but collaboration in a system where human expertise and machine efficiency complement each other.

This shift is already influencing client expectations. Businesses are no longer asking whether AI can be used, but how it can be used to enhance efficiency and reduce cost without compromising quality.

Law firms that fail to respond to this expectation risk falling behind, not because AI will replace them, but because others will use it more effectively.

At the same time, regulation is beginning to take shape globally, with jurisdictions adopting risk-based approaches to ensure that AI systems are used responsibly. Kenya’s AI legislation should follow a similar path.

The challenge for policymakers will be to strike a balance between encouraging innovation and safeguarding the fundamental principles of fairness, transparency and accountability.

Ultimately, the debate on AI in legal practice is not a binary one.

The skeptics are right to caution against its unrestricted adoption. The believers are equally right to recognise that AI is here to stay. The important question is how to integrate it in a manner that enhances, rather than undermines, the administration of justice.

Stanbic Bank says it is ready and able to make a start-up operation in Ethiopia as it explores ways of circumventing a rule that caps foreign ownership at 49 percent when a lender enters that market through an acquisition.

This makes Stanbic Bank the first major African bank to consider the possibility of venturing into the Horn of African market without going through the acquisition route, which has been touted by many interested banks as optimal.

Stanbic, a subsidiary of Standard Bank – the continent’s largest bank by asset base – says gaining entry into Ethiopia by building from the ground is a card on the table, given its vast experience across 20 African countries, including Kenya.

In March last year, Ethiopia’s Central Bank – the National Bank of Ethiopia – issued Business Proclamation 136 ushering in the liberalisation of the country’s banking sector through allowing foreign institutional and foreign national investments into Ethiopia.

The liberalisation, however, comes with a rule that requires local investors to retain a minimum controlling interest of 51 percent, leaving the foreign buyer with a maximum minority stake.

‘We generally go to new markets as a large and significant owner, and so a minority position is always going to be a difficult point to start with,” Stanbic Bank Regional Chief Executive Joshua Oigara told the Business Daily in Johannesburg on the sidelines of President William Ruto’s state visit.

“It is also important to note that Ethiopia does not stop financial institutions from setting up from scratch if you want to own 100 percent of the entity. We have seen Kenyan enterprises setting up green field Ethiopia and we are confident.”

Whereas many banks, including KCB Group and Equity Group, have signalled intent to venture into the Ethiopian market, the prospect of being a minority shareholder has been widely cited as a matter most find to be challenging.

Stanbic Bank says Safaricom Plc’s experience in entering Ethiopia through greenfield operations is a testament that whereas this route may be fraught with challenges, it is likely to yield dividends when perceived through a long-term horizon.

‘One of our greatest clients is the telco business that went into Ethiopia a few years ago. It was an absolutely difficult environment, I agree. Does it tick the right boxes now? May be not yet. Are we seeing progress so far? Absolutely,” Mr Oigara said.

“Sometimes we take a short-term view and look at things from a one-year, two-year or three-year lens, yet when you look at things from a 10-year perspective, you are likely to end up wishing you had even done more investment.’

In the just concluded financial year, Safaricom Ethiopia trimmed its loss position to Sh21.2 billion compared to a loss of Sh36 billion reported in the previous year, with the subsidiary’s service revenue having grown 58.3 percent to Sh14.1 billion.

Standard Bank has had a representative office in Ethiopia since 2015 and will be looking to build on this with the market entry that is under consideration.

A Chinese contractor has abandoned the site of the Sh20 billion Soin-Koru Multipurpose Dam Water Project, which straddles Kisumu and Kericho counties, raising fresh concerns over the fate of one of President William Ruto’s flagship water infrastructure projects.

An audit report has revealed that China Jiangxi International Kenya Limited, the contractor behind the project, was not on site when officials from the Office of the Auditor-General conducted an inspection, casting doubt on whether the dam will be completed within the scheduled timelines.

The National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority awarded the contract for Lot One of the Soin-Koru Multipurpose Dam Water Project, covering the dam component, to China Jiangxi under a joint venture arrangement on May 11, 2022, at a contract sum of Sh19.99 billion.

The project is being undertaken through a joint venture between China Jiangxi and its parent company, China Jiangxi International Economic and Cooperation Company Ltd.

The project commenced on August 27, 2022, and is scheduled for completion on August 27, 2027.

However, a physical inspection by auditors revealed that little progress had been made despite the project having consumed nearly three years of its implementation period.

‘The contractor is not on site,’ Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu noted in the audit report for the National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority for the financial year ended June 2025.

It is unclear whether the contractor has since returned to the site.

Efforts to obtain a response from China Jiangxi were unsuccessful. A company representative contacted by the Business Daily had not responded to questions sent via text message by the time of publication.

The Auditor-General’s report further revealed that several critical components of the dam had either not commenced or were significantly behind schedule.

Among the works yet to begin are the construction of a 54-metre-high zoned earth rock-fill dam, diversion culverts, coffer dams, seepage control works, grouting, diaphragm walls, relief wells and laboratory testing facilities.

The contractor had also not started construction of Intake Tower B, river diversion works, road pavements, drainage structures, access roads, water abstraction facilities, hydropower infrastructure and security installations.

Only the side-channel spillway, comprising a concrete-lined chute and plunge pool, had commenced, with auditors estimating progress at about 15 percent.

The Auditor-General also observed that the resident engineer’s offices, laboratory and staff houses remained incomplete.

Project stakes

The latest setback threatens to derail a project that the government has repeatedly described as critical to improving water security, flood control, irrigation and industrial development in western Kenya.

The multipurpose dam, which will sit on approximately 2,170 acres along the Kisumu-Kericho border, is expected to store 93.7 million cubic metres of water.

The project is designed to supply 72,000 cubic metres of water daily for domestic and institutional use, irrigate about 2,570 hectares of land and generate 2.5 megawatts of hydropower.

Areas expected to benefit from the project include Kisumu City, Ahero, Chemelil, Miwani, Awasi, Muhoroni, Koitaburot, Koru and Rabuor.

The dam is also expected to help contain perennial flooding in the Nyando basin while supporting agricultural production in surrounding areas.

The project has been earmarked as a key off-site infrastructure investment supporting the planned 1,000-acre Kisumu Special Economic Zone in Miwani and is listed among the flagship projects under Kenya’s Vision 2030 development blueprint.

Construction activities began in 2023 following compensation of affected landowners. The project displaced an estimated 1,200 residents.

The findings come at a time when China Jiangxi is facing scrutiny over other public projects.

The company was previously questioned by Parliament over the troubled Hazina Trade Centre project owned by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Legislators raised concerns over the reduction of the building from 36 floors to 15 floors without a corresponding reduction in contract costs and amid questions over documentation supporting the variation.

Separately, the Auditor-General has raised concerns over delays in the Sh1.96 billion Umaa Dam Water Supply and Irrigation Project in Kitui County, which is being implemented by a joint venture involving China Jiangxi International Economic and Technical Cooperation Company Ltd and Vanqo Roads and Engineering Ltd.

Most men his age wake up slowly. They take morning leisurely walks, switch on the television, or sit back and let the day unfold at an easier pace.

Professor Charles Orero does none of that. At 73, he wakes up, sits at his desk, takes a fresh notebook, and begins to write, be it on a weekday or weekend.

Day after day, Orero pours his thoughts on a paper, only stopping at lunchtime, after which he comes back and writes some more until late in the evening. This has been part of his life since he retired in 2016.

Some are blue. Others black. A few red. All are carefully arranged, labelled, and preserved like artefacts. Each one , Orero says, represents roughly a month of work. Each one is completely drained of ink.

They are evidence of his purpose after retirement, his intellectual productivity, and the legacy he is building.

It is also how he has stayed off the perilous path that sees many men slowly wither away after stepping away from active work.

‘If you retire and just sit there, you will die,’ he says matter-of-factly.

He is still engaged in academia, teaching online at the Kenya School of Revenue Administration. The pace is, however, lighter than his decades-long career at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), where he rose to Assistant Commissioner over 37 years of service.

But the real work, he insists, is elsewhere.

The discipline of paper and ink

At 73, Orero’s mornings are still defined by writing. He sits at his desk, opens a fresh notebook, uncaps a biro pen, and writes until lunchtime. After lunch, he returns and continues.

The rhythm has defined his life since he retired from full-time public service in 2016.

Most men his age, he acknowledges, slow down. He did not.

A second life in book

Since retiring, Orero has written eight books. Four have been published, one is awaiting release, and three are still in progress. Most run to 400 pages or more.

Every one of them begins the same way: by hand. Not typed. Not dictated. Written, page after page, through repeated drafts of the same sections.

‘Page one, page two, page one, page two,’ he explains. ‘Then I take it and start typing.’

It is slow, deliberate work in a fast, digital world. But that is precisely the point. Writing by hand, he says, keeps his mind engaged. It forces thought to keep pace with ink.

‘It slows me down just enough to think clearly and deeply about what I’m putting on the page.’

And the pens are witnesses to that process. One after another, they are exhausted, replaced, and quietly added to the cabinet.

The man behind the routine

Before retirement, Orero spent 37 years at KRA, rising through the ranks in revenue administration. That long institutional life, he says, shaped his discipline and his refusal to stop working altogether.

It also left him with a warning he never forgot. ‘If you retire and just sit there, you will die,’ he repeats the phrase that has become both philosophy and instruction to anyone who seek his wisdom.

For him retirement was a transition, rather than termination. His days now, he says, are structured with precision: writing in the morning, revising in the afternoon, reading in the evening. Even weekends are quiet extensions of the same intellectual routine.

‘My life is readership,’ he says. ‘I cannot avoid reading every day.’

The pen, for him, is an extension of that daily conversation he has with ideas. And the results speak for themselves. He is 73 years old, sharp, energetic, and producing work that younger people have not attempted. ‘I have not changed much,’ he says, sitting straight, eyes clear and steady.

The quiet archive of pens

The cabinet of 180 pens was not planned. ‘I was just putting them there,’ he says.

‘I thought maybe 50,’ he says. ‘When I counted, they were far more than 50.’

The final tally was 180. Each pen lasts about a month. He buys them in bulk from the University of Nairobi bookshop, paying between Sh20 and Sh30 apiece. He does not track expenditure.

‘I’m not interested in the price,’ he says. What matters is what they produce.

Why he writes

The books themselves reflect concerns that have followed him through his career. They cover ground that he feels strongly about, areas where he noticed that very little had been written before and where he believed he had something real to offer.

His first book is on pride in knowledge. Growing up, he watched people be dismissed and looked down upon for not attending the most prestigious schools.

‘They would ask, ‘We didn’t see you,’ meaning you did not go to Alliance, you did not go to Nairobi University,” he recalls.

That quiet cruelty stayed with him. He wrote the book to push back against it, to tell Kenyans that education belongs to them too, no matter where they started. He says several people have gone back to school after reading it.

His second and third books, two volumes on charity and economic empowerment, came from his fascination with how great philanthropists like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and the Rockefellers gave generously while building lasting wealth at the same time.

‘When you do charity, you are also doing economic empowerment. It is not just charity alone,” he says.

The volumes carry a foreword from Manu Chandaria, one of the most respected business figures in East Africa.

He has also written on personality virtues, making the argument that good character and good habits are the real foundation of any successful life.

‘If you have good ones (virtues), you will be successful. If you don’t, you are not successful,” he says plainly.

He is currently working on books on wealth and devolution, and another that simplifies the world of taxes for ordinary people, drawing on his long career in revenue.

‘I’m not copying anybody,” he adds. ‘They are very original.”

Recognition and legacy

Now, Orero wants recognition for what he has built. The idea of a Guinness World Record emerged only after he counted his pens and reflected on the scale of his work.

‘What I want is just recognition,’ he says. ‘Not the material bit of it.’

He says he is not chasing money or celebrity. He is seeking acknowledgment that a retired man can, through consistency alone, produce eight substantial books written entirely by hand and measured, almost inadvertently, through the consumption of 180 pens.

He also hopes his story carries a wider message. Young people, he says, often want outcomes without process.

‘Start something small,’ he advises. ‘After starting, the others will follow.’

The philosophy of endurance

There is no sense of urgency in the way Orero speaks, only certainty. He sits upright, composed, deliberate in his phrasing.

He sees no contradiction between his pens, his books, and his ambitions. They are all part of the same continuum: repetition, discipline, accumulation.

‘Nobody has done it and nobody will do it,’ he says, not as boast, but as conclusion.

Outside his study, retirement often looks like slowing down, withdrawal, silence. Inside his, his faithful companions,

a desk, a notebook, and a pen uncapped await at the start of every morning.

And, somewhere behind him, a cabinet slowly filling with the quiet record of a life that refused to stop writing.

The nametag may read Vincent Odhiambo, Regional Director of Ashoka, but that would be false advertising. What he really is, is a contemporary yogi. His mind is whizzing: here, he is thinking about his family and friends and ‘people who come into your life for a reason’.

There, his thoughts drift to systems and consciousness. He ruminates a lot on whether he could have been taller, but by the time he got to that water, his brothers had drunk most of it.

In many ways, he is a construction of his thoughts, spending vast amounts of time chained behind his brain cells. Or hanging out with much older people, getting good advice, a nutrient-rich broth made from boiling down the bones of life.

‘Don’t forget that life is all about relationships,’ he says.

That has always been his north star. His intentionality in relationships. Understanding how to take advantage of your advantage.

‘I am a fireball,’ he says, ‘but also a wallflower.’

Not so much an overthinker, then, as he is a deep thinker. The wisdom plucked from the tendrils along the journey. Maybe that’s the real gift of success, not the money or the fame, but the wisdom and the life lessons.

What do you know about yourself that not many people do?

I am fascinated by why systemic change is so hard to achieve.

We often blame funding, policy or a lack of coordination, but I still struggle to understand why, despite the efforts of many well-intentioned people and organisations, we often fall short. I’m constantly thinking about the gap between our ambitions and the results we actually deliver.

Are you living the life you thought you would be at this age?

My journey sort of prepared me for this moment. I grew up with a very high consciousness of social and political issues, and was primarily thinking about inadequacies, imbalances and injustices around me. That set me on a path that I think is basically what I am living now.

I said to myself, ‘Why is it that there are people who thrive within these systems and there are people who are not able to?’ And that led me on a journey from social work to community organising to leadership entrepreneurship, and now systems thinking, where I can be part of the solution in terms of removing barriers for people.

What is the least fun thing about you?

[Chuckles] I tend to oscillate more towards complex, insightful conversations. Things that are philosophical and require thinking outside the box. I like exploring that which is not being explored.

That is annoying sometimes, especially for people who don’t get it. It kind of comes out as, ‘Why are you always being the devil’s advocate?’ Or as being obstinate and argumentative.

I see a ring on your finger. Of the two roles, which one has demanded more from you – this job or that ring?

There is a way they fit into each other. Leadership is all about relationships. It is about systems, processes, culture, and balancing those two is not easy because on both sides there are demands and things that need to be delivered.

The difference is that I have someone who has known me, who has seen me through all the different faces, and experienced the different versions of me: waking up full of energy, and another quieter version of me coming back at the end of the day, a wallflower.

That is grounding because that is the one person who provides all the inspiration and motivation. Don’t forget that life is all about relationships.

How has your spouse influenced the way you lead?

Good question. You see this pattern [on the wall]. Accountability, transparency, trust, innovation, respect and excellence [ATTIRE]. These are our values at Ashoka. But interestingly, accountability, trust and transparency are things we speak a lot about at home. These were basically my wife’s pillars, and finding grounding in these values, both at home and at work, has really shaped how I show up.

Are you a better husband or a better father?

Haha! If you ask her, she’ll say I’m a better father. If you ask the boys, they’ll say I’m a better husband. If you ask me, I’d say I try to strike a balance. But I always find that these are two different variables.

You can’t really measure what it is about being a husband that you can bring to being a father, and I deploy myself to each as appropriately as possible. Most people would point strongly in the direction of me being a better father due to my resolve to remove barriers for other people and help young people find a superpower they can contribute to changing the world.

What’s an underrated joy of fatherhood?

Fatherhood itself. Knowing there are people in this world who owe their being in this world to you. That in itself is joy. And you have a clean slate to mould them, train them and teach them.

What kind of father are you being to your children that you missed out on in your childhood?

A present father. Present meaning engaged and involved. My dad was present but not engaged. I think people know me with my sons more than they know me alone. A guard recently stopped me in a mall and asked how they were. I never experienced that level of involvement. I always want to know what they are thinking or planning, and whether they want us to go for a walk or cycling.

Which part of fatherhood has forced you to grow?

Making sure I don’t compare my sons, and avoiding those one-off statements like, ‘Oh, you should have…’ Initially, it was not easy, but over time, I’ve mastered it. And learning how to balance work, the time I spend with them, and the time I want to spend with my wife too. I know how they feel when I am not around.

Do you have a family tradition that glues you together?

Yes. We do dinner together every evening. We have moments where we read together and moments where we play together, sing and dance. But dinner is our tradition, and afterwards, prayers.

We also have movie nights, and every birthday has to be celebrated and planned for. We also enjoy cooking together. I enjoy cooking with them more because if I blunder, they won’t know [chuckles].

I am a hands-on person, which helps with my mental space as I am always reflecting or processing something, and you never get to rest your brain by just resting it. I need some activities to reset.

What’s your signature meal?

I don’t think there is one, haha! Every dish requires some level of creativity. If they come home and see the meal is set, they will know it is me who has done it because they have never tried that combination before [chuckles]. Almost like sandwiching everything, haha!

Which decade of your life demanded the most from you?

If I look at my life journey, I see the curious mind; the wanting to think through individual challenges and societal challenges, and trying to marry those. How is it that some people thrive and some people don’t?

As a child, I often asked myself, why is this teacher caning me for nothing? And that sparked questions about the imbalance of power. That consciousness was already a burden; understanding that human potential is not necessarily matched with opportunity.

What do you wish you’d learnt sooner in life?

That change does not come easy. And also the different levels of impact, from direct impact to indirect impact. Initially, I lent a lot of my energy to things that had direct impact, only to realise later that it was not sustainable or bringing about the kind of change that we want to see.

And as Vincent?

The complexities around what I call the interconnectivity of issues. When I approach something, it is from an understanding of how different aspects of it are interconnected, and understanding that relationships are not always just what you think.

People don’t turn out this way or that way by choice; there are so many things around that. If I had learnt that earlier, I would not have judged people so much.

Speaking of, what piece of advice do you wish you had not listened to?

[Chuckles] Actually, the one thing that I say contributed much to my worldview, and the person that I became, was that I hung out a lot with people who were older than me. I loved conversations that questioned things and required big, bold thinking, and I would only get this from people who were older than me.

I remember they told me, in Dholuo, that a ship capsizes when it is about to dock. You can interpret that in so many different scenarios, and it teaches you how to stay grounded.

But if I must know?

If you must know, someone once told me that hanging out with my sons was too much. That was pretty terrible advice.

Did hanging out with older people make you cautious?

Wiser, at a very early age. Being able to think through things a lot, and that meant oscillating more towards caution [chuckles].

Have you kept the promises you made to yourself as a young man?

I’d say the promises are evolving. Finding ways to address imbalances and inequalities is a constant theme for me. And I’d say with the roles that I have played, and the positions that I have been in, being part of teams that are keen on moving the needle is bringing me some level of satisfaction; and in that way, I am keeping the promise.

What bad habit have you failed to kick?

Haha! My waking-up time. It’s an unhealthy habit, but I am used to waking up early since back in the day, when my dad was going to work or coming home at dawn, I’d be up waiting for him.

That doesn’t sound like a bad habit.

It doesn’t? [chuckles]

Tell me then, what’s a small change you made in your life that has made a big difference?

Let me think [long pause]. Moving out to set up my own home. It remains the most transformative step I’ve ever taken.

When was that?

Just after high school, before joining campus. My parents were opposed to it, but I had made my decision. I never turned back, and that’s where I practised all my lessons as a scout [chuckles].

Is there anything you believed about success that has since changed?

Success was getting it right. Getting everything right. But there was also a lot of monetary value attached to that. Over time, you get to realise you cannot get everything right. It’s not a destination, it’s a journey.

But when you’re looking at success from a mission and passion perspective, then everything changes. For me, success will be achieved when everyone has their space, a support system, and a network to live up to their potential.

Do you have a mantra that governs how you live your life?

People come into your life for a reason or a season. The more I reflect on my journey, the more I realise how true that is.

Many of the most important moments in my life happened because someone showed up, offered guidance, made an introduction or created an opportunity. It reminds me that life is ultimately about people and the relationships we build along the way.

What does the perfect weekend look like for you?

I have people who are special in my life, people that I’ve journeyed with. Family, friends, and even colleagues, you know, people in this space. My perfect weekend involves having one of those around.

And, of course, the meaningful conversations with family, friends I’ve made over time, and very specific colleagues as well. I also like to read because I reflect a lot on what has happened. And moving about outdoors with my sons.

It’s a weekend where I get to experience all that. A bit of the wallflower part of me gets to be watered, and then the fireball part of me as well.

Do you have an insecurity that you can share with us?

[Chuckles] I don’t know how to convince myself of this, but I tend to believe that I could have been taller. Most of the time, when I’m meeting people for the first time, they expect somebody way taller than me.

Are you the shortest in your family?

My elder brother is taller than me. The one who follows me is also taller than me. Our youngest was really tall.

What advice do you feel compelled to share?

You don’tget to choose your family. Your friends could end up being circumstantial. But the one person that you deliberately choose – between a stimulus and a reaction, there’s a space to think through, and you’ve exhausted that space, and you’ve decided, this is the person – when you’ve made that choice, this person is part and parcel of your life.

What do you mean?

Meaning is in the intentionality of relationships. I don’t want to narrow it down just to marriage, but intentionality. You have identified someone, and you’re building, you’re together. That intentionality stems from the fact that you have made a choice.

So, every single day, that intentionality must always be there. It must be seen. It must be felt. It must be witnessed.

Did you choose well, based on your advice?

[Chuckles] So, it is because of the beauty that I see with that daily. The two-way intentionality in all this. And that leads me to the conclusion that we got each other. We got the right person for the right person.