Category: Business Daily

The Sh1,000 note is entrenching itself at the heart of Kenya’s cash economy as notes in circulation surged to Sh388.4 billion after the new currency printing tender.

Latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows the notes in circulation have grown from Sh278.64 billion in August 2024, coinciding with the award of a currency printing tender to a German firm, Giesecke+Devrient Currency Technologies GmbH.

The rise in the notes also emerged as cash circulating in consumers’ pockets or outside banks rose 10.4 percent to Sh323.2 billion in December from Sh292.8 billion in a similar period in 2024 on the back of increased economic activity.

The Sh1, 000 note accounted for about 86.3 percent of the total value of banknotes in circulation in December, squeezing the share of smaller denominations, including Sh50, Sh100, Sh200 and Sh500-all of which saw their shares drop compared to December 2024.

The 86.3 percent for Sh1,000 notes is the highest in over 10 years, climbing from 85.6 percent in the previous year, according to Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data.

The Sh388.41 billion bank notes in circulation at the end of the year were an increase from Sh360.46 billion in a similar period last year.

The value of notes was in addition to Sh11.52 billion coins, bringing the currency in circulation to Sh399.93 billion at the end of the year.

Currency in circulation refers to all physical paper notes and coins issued by CBK that are available for use in an economy. This differs from cash outside banks, which is the active cash that is actually floating around in the hands of people, businesses, and shops.

‘When growth in currency in circulation is being driven by Sh1,000 notes, it indicates that the value of these notes in circulation has increased faster than that of other denominations,’ said Dominic Murage, acting CEO at Consolidated Bank of Kenya.

Dr Murage, a finance scholar and a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, explained that an increase in cash in circulation driven by Sh1,000 notes could point to the issuance of more high-value notes by the CBK.

‘It could mean more Sh1,000 notes have been issued into circulation or the public is holding a larger share of cash in Sh1,000 notes rather than in Sh500, Sh200, Sh100, etc,’ said Dr Murage.

The trend signals a sustained preference for large-denomination notes among businesses and households, amid rising transaction values in an inflationary environment and the need for convenience in handling bulk payments.

The Sh388.41 billion banknotes in circulation at the end of the year were an increase from Sh360.46 billion in a similar period last year.

The value of notes was in addition to Sh11.52 billion coins, bringing the currency in circulation to Sh399.93 billion at the end of the year.

Lower denomination notes continued to account for a small slice of the cash mix. Notes such as Sh50, Sh100 and Sh200 collectively make up less than 10 percent of the total value, highlighting their limited role in large-value transactions.

In absolute terms, the value of Sh1,000 notes in circulation grew by Sh26.66 billion between December last year and a similar period in 2024, compared with Sh51 million for Sh500 notes and Sh568 million for Sh200 notes. The value of notes of Sh100 and Sh50 in circulation increased by Sh427 million and Sh209 million, respectively.

The Sh500 note, once accounting for over 10 percent share in the value of notes in circulation, has also seen its relative importance wane, with its share dropping to 4.1 percent at the end of December, coming third after the Sh100 note at 4.43 percent.

Kenya’s economy has experienced price increases over time, pushing up the value of everyday transactions and reducing the practicality of smaller notes. Besides inflation, the informal sector, which is still heavily reliant on cash, tends to favour high-denomination notes for convenience, particularly in wholesale trade, transport and real estate-related payments. The high-value notes minimise the physical volume of cash handled in transactions.

The value of Sh1,000 notes in circulation closed last year was 21 times higher than that of the Sh500 notes, compared with 2010 when the gap was 7.1 times. This defies the popular view that lower-denomination notes are in high demand for meeting daily transactions.

There has been a rapid growth in mobile money transactions in the country, with deals of up to Sh100 being free in most of the platforms. This has encouraged low-value deals to be settled through digital platforms such as M-Pesa.

The value of cash handled by mobile money agents, including those linked to banks and telecommunications firms, closed last year at Sh8.236 trillion compared with Sh8.697 trillion in the previous year.

Last year’s value of mobile money deals was nearly three times the Sh2.816 trillion a decade earlier.

However, in many economies, continued expansion of high-value notes usually poses policy considerations for the central bank, particularly around currency management, anti-money laundering oversight and the cost of printing and distributing cash.

Multiple countries, including India, Singapore, Nigeria, and Ghana, have at one point withdrawn high-value banknotes in efforts to flush out illicit wealth, curb corruption and tackle money laundering and currency counterfeiting.

India withdrew its highest value banknotes-500, 1,000 and 2,000-rupee notes- as part of a clampdown on ‘black money’. In 2014, Singapore stopped printing the mammoth $10,000 banknote (equivalent to about Sh1.29 million), one of the world’s largest value banknotes.

Kenya undertook a major currency overhaul in 2019, including the withdrawal of the old Sh1,000 note, in part to curb illicit financial flows and enhance transparency in the financial system.

The CBK’s demonetisation exercise, conducted between June 1 and September 30, 2019, saw 209.66 million of the 217.05 million Sh1,000 notes in circulation returned, rendering 7.39 million pieces worth Sh7.39 billion worthless.

During the demonetisation period, the share of Sh1,000 notes in circulation fell below 80 percent, averaging between 76.36 percent and 79.56 percent, before rebounding above the threshold in December of the same year.

Since then, the new series of the high-value banknotes has gradually entrenched itself, with the Sh1,000 denomination emerging as the backbone of cash circulation.

Incidents of corruption linked to high-value notes have been reported before in the country. For instance, the Sh500 note was once on the spot in Kenya’s 1992 election. The crispy note, which was introduced in 1994, was allegedly circulated by politicians to sway votes their way.

The recent move by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to introduce an instant fines management system is a commendable step toward restoring order on Kenya’s roads.

For many years, reckless driving, disregard for traffic rules, and corruption in traffic enforcement have contributed significantly to road accidents.

The adoption of instant fines represents a modern, technology-driven solution that could transform road safety and accountability.

Under the system, motorists who violate traffic regulations are issued penalties immediately through a digital platform rather than being subjected to lengthy court processes. This approach ensures swift enforcement of the law while reducing opportunities for negotiation or bribery between motorists and traffic officers.

When penalties are clear, immediate, and digitally recorded, compliance naturally improves.

Several countries have successfully implemented similar systems, demonstrating that instant penalties can significantly improve road discipline. In the UK, Fixed Penalty Notices allow traffic officers to issue immediate fines for offences such as speeding, illegal parking, or using a mobile phone while driving. The system has streamlined enforcement and reduced the burden on courts.

Closer to home, South Africa has also introduced the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences system. It combines instant fines with a points-based penalty framework that penalises repeat offenders. This model promotes long-term behavioural change among drivers by linking violations with escalating consequences.

Kenya’s adoption of a similar approach is, therefore, not an experiment but the adoption of a proven global best practice. By digitising traffic enforcement, the NTSA is aligning the country with international standards while addressing long-standing local challenges.

One of the most significant benefits of instant fines is the potential to reduce corruption.

Traditional enforcement systems often relied heavily on discretion at the roadside, creating opportunities for bribery. A digital platform that records violations, generates fines automatically, and integrates with national payment systems minimises such interactions. Transparency increases, and accountability improves.

For Kenya, this reform may well represent the beginning of a new culture of responsibility behind the wheel.

Furthermore, instant penalties encourage behavioral change among drivers. When motorists know that violations will attract immediate and unavoidable consequences, they are more likely to obey traffic rules.

Over time, this translates into safer roads, fewer accidents, and reduced loss of life.

According to data from the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries remain among the leading causes of death globally, particularly in developing countries. Kenya has not been spared from this challenge. Measures that strengthen enforcement and promote responsible driving are therefore essential.

Ultimately, the success of this initiative will depend on consistent implementation, technological reliability, and transparency. If properly executed, the NTSA’s instant fines system could mark a decisive shift toward safer roads, disciplined drivers, and a fairer enforcement environment.

There is a particular kind of validation that arrives not through applause, but through an invitation.

When the international geothermal community decided that the 2029 World Geothermal Congress, the most prestigious gathering in the global geothermal calendar, held once every five years, would convene in Kenya, it was not simply a scheduling decision. It was a verdict.

The world looked at what this country has built beneath the surface of the Great Rift Valley and said, “You have earned the right to lead this conversation”.

Kenya should sit with that for a moment before rushing to logistics.

The World Geothermal Congress brings together thousands of scientists, engineers, policymakers, investors, and energy professionals from more than 100 countries.

It is the forum where the direction of geothermal energy is debated and decided, where breakthroughs are announced, partnerships forged, and investment flows redirected. Previous hosts include Reykjavik, Bali, Melbourne, and Melbourne again. In 2029, they come to Nairobi. That sentence alone rewrites something fundamental about how Africa is perceived in the global clean energy order.

Kenya ranks seventh in installed geothermal capacity worldwide.

More significantly, it stands first in Africa, not by a narrow margin, but by a wide and growing one. This achievement has been built over decades of deliberate, technically demanding work at Olkaria, in the heart of Hell’s Gate, where steam has been converted into electricity since the early 1980s.

The Kenya Electricity Generating Company has been the engine of that transformation, drilling wells, building plants, training engineers, and steadily expanding its geothermal fleet, which today powers millions of Kenyan homes and businesses.

Olkaria has become something of a geothermal pilgrimage site, a place that government delegations, development finance institutions, regional energy ministries, and international researchers visit not out of curiosity, but out of the desire to replicate what works.

Ethiopia, Djibouti, Tanzania, Rwanda, and others across the Rift Valley have looked eastward to Kenya for a model.

That positioning gives Kenya a profound responsibility as 2029 approaches, one that goes beyond organising a successful conference.

The Congress is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to convert technical credibility into geopolitical influence.

For policymakers and energy regulators across East and Central Africa, it offers a chance to compress years of learning into a single week of high-density exchange with the world’s foremost practitioners.

The Rift Valley system that runs through Kenya extends into Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia, a subterranean endowment that could, if properly developed, dramatically alter the energy security calculus of an entire region.

Kenya’s experience navigating everything from geothermal exploration risk to steam field management to community relations around geothermal sites could form the foundation of a regional knowledge-sharing architecture. The 2029 Congress is the ideal moment to plant that institutional seed.

For investors and development finance institutions, the Congress will shine a spotlight on the African geothermal frontier with an intensity that no bilateral meeting or project prospectus can replicate.

The challenge for Kenya and its neighbours has never been a lack of geothermal resource; the Rift is extraordinarily well-endowed, but rather the perception of risk that attaches to early-stage exploration drilling. Hosting WGC 2029 gives Kenya the platform to make the case, with four decades of operational data behind it, that African geothermal is a proven, investable, and scalable asset class.

The conversations that begin in Nairobi’s conference rooms could translate into exploration commitments across the region within years.

For the Kenyan government, the implications extend further still. Energy transition commitments under the Paris Agreement and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 both demand a dramatic scaling of clean baseload power. Geothermal, unlike solar and wind, produces electricity around the clock regardless of weather, a characteristic that makes it foundational, not supplementary, to any serious decarbonisation strategy.

Kenya’s WGC hosting rights arrive at precisely the moment when the global conversation about energy transition is shifting from aspiration to implementation, from nationally determined contributions to nationally delivered outcomes.

The Congress offers Kenya’s leadership a moment to articulate a national geothermal vision that is not merely reactive to international pressure, but genuinely ahead of it.

None of this happens automatically. The period between now and 2029 is not a waiting room; it is a preparation ground.

Kenya must use these years to deepen the scientific and policy thinking it will present to the world, to expand its geothermal capacity so that the story told in Nairobi is one of forward momentum rather than past achievement, and to build the regional convening infrastructure that makes the Congress a catalyst rather than a celebration.

The steam rising from Olkaria has long told a quiet story about what African ingenuity, patience, and technical rigour can produce. In 2029, that story will be told loudly, in one of the world’s most consequential energy forums, to an audience that will carry it home to every geothermal frontier on earth.

Kenya did not stumble into this moment. It was built, well by well, megawatt by megawatt. The task now is to be worthy of it.

Kenya’s monthly domestic exports to the US jumped to a record Sh10.5 billion in March after President Donald Trump renewed the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), restoring duty-free access and reversing the threat of new tariffs on Kenyan goods.

The rebound followed months of uncertainty after Trump announced tariffs on imports from 180 countries, including a 10 percent duty on Kenyan products that was set to take effect when Agoa expired at the end of September last year.

Latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows exports to the US rose sharply from Sh6.7 billion in February, making March’s value the highest monthly earning ever recorded.

The surge offers fresh relief to exporters after months of uncertainty following the expiry of the Agoa arrangement last September before its renewal in February 2026.

According to Ken Gichinga, chief economist at Mentoria Economics, the March spike largely reflected a release of export orders and shipments that had accumulated during the months when Kenyan firms faced uncertainty over continued duty-free market access.

‘The retroactive Agoa extension removed the uncertainty overhang for many exporters, especially textile and apparel. Exporters could now confidently fulfill larger orders knowing duty-free treatment was back,’ says Mr Gichinga.

‘Also, exporters are likely front-loading shipments ahead of any future policy risks. Agoa’s short extension to December 2026 means uncertainty returns soon.’

Agoa grants eligible African countries duty-free access to the US market for thousands of products, with Kenya remaining among the programme’s biggest beneficiaries, especially in textiles and apparel exports.

The latest renewal has eased fears among exporters and manufacturers who had warned that expiry of the programme would trigger factory closures, job losses and cancelled export contracts across Kenya’s export processing zones.

Kenya’s textile and apparel sector remains the single largest beneficiary of Agoa, supplying American retailers with garments, jeans, uniforms and fashion products manufactured in local export processing zones.

The sector supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, with factories concentrated mainly in Nairobi, Athi River, Mombasa and other export processing zones.

In the months to the September expiry, government officials had intensified lobbying efforts in Washington amid concerns that prolonged uncertainty around the agreement would weaken Kenya’s competitiveness against Asian textile manufacturing countries.

Besides garments, Kenya exports farm produce including coffee, tea, macadamia, fruits, vegetables, cut flowers and processed agricultural products to the US market under the Agoa arrangement.

The US remains one of Kenya’s most important export destinations outside Africa, providing critical foreign exchange earnings at a time the country continues battling a widening trade imbalance.

Trade between Nairobi and Washington has also increasingly become strategically important as Kenya pushes to diversify export markets beyond traditional destinations such as Uganda, Pakistan and the European Union.

The renewed agreement has revived optimism among manufacturers that Kenya could attract fresh investment from global firms seeking lower-cost export bases targeting the American consumer market.

The fresh export momentum comes as Kenya continues separate negotiations with Washington for a broader bilateral trade agreement that officials hope could eventually replace Agoa.

Kenya’s export processing zones have, over the years, become heavily dependent on the US market, making the textile sector particularly vulnerable to changes in Washington’s trade policy direction.

Kenya has been pushing for expanded market access covering additional sectors including agriculture, mining, fisheries and value-added manufacturing as part of efforts to deepen commercial ties with the US.

The discussions had initially started during Trump’s earlier administration before slowing under subsequent policy changes and uncertainty around Washington’s broader trade approach toward African economies.

Electric motorcycle company Spiro has raised $215 million (Sh27.8 billion) in fresh funding to expand its battery-swapping network, local manufacturing and enter new African markets.

The equity funding round, where a firm raises capital by selling ownership shares, was led by Impact Fund Denmark, Denmark’s development finance institution, alongside Spiro’s Dubai-based parent company, Equitane.

Spiro said it would expand its battery-swapping infrastructure, strengthen its industrial and assembly footprint, accelerate technology development and support expansion into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia.

It comes just days after the company announced the acquisition of UK engineering and design firm Coexlion, as it seeks to boost its motorbike development and localise design for African markets.

The raise is also one of the largest recent capital injections into the region’s e-mobility sector as venture capitalists scramble to invest in companies working to reduce fuel import dependence and cut transport emissions.

‘Supported by our global pool of investors, we are entering our next growth chapter to deliver clean, cost-effective energy and transport alternatives to millions of riders across the continent,’ Gagan Gupta, Spiro’s founder and chairman of Equitane, said in a statement shared with the Business Daily.

Founded in 2022, Spiro is a subsidiary of Equitane, an investment vehicle, and has its operational headquarters in Nairobi. The company operates in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Cameroon, where the majority of its electric motorcycles are used by commercial motorcycle taxi operators, popularly known as boda bodas.

Spiro assembles its motorcycles in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda from knockdown kits imported from China, with some components sourced from India.

Its Nairobi assembly plant has an annual production capacity of up to 50,000 motorcycles. The firm also has a battery recycling facility in Nigeria.

With the new funding, Spiro plans to expand local production capabilities across vehicle manufacturing, battery-swapping infrastructure, maintenance services and technology development.

Last week, Spiro announced the acquisition of Coexlion as part of plans to establish its first African research and development (RandD) centre in Nairobi.

RandD centres are innovation hubs where engineers, scientists and researchers develop new technologies, build prototypes and improve software and hardware products for commercial use.

Spiro said the acquisition boosts its ability to design, develop and manufacture electric motorcycles tailored to African road conditions and customer requirements, while helping it build its technology, engineering and manufacturing capabilities in-house.

The company says it has deployed more than 100,000 electric motorcycles across Africa and operates over 2,500 battery-swapping stations, making it the continent’s largest e-motorbike firm.

‘We see potential for significant commercial growth in Spiro and electric mobility across Africa, as well as measurable climate impact,’ said Lars Bo Bertram, Chief Executive of Impact Fund Denmark.

The latest fundraising adds to Spiro’s string of major capital raises over the past year.

In February, the firm secured $50 million (Sh6.5 billion) in debt financing from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), climate-focused financier Nithio and the Africa Go Green Fund.

Last October, the company also announced a $100 million (Sh12.9 billion) venture funding round led by the Fund for Export Development in Africa, the impact investment arm of Afreximbank.

The latest investment round brings to $502 million (Sh65 billion) the total funding the company has received to date, according to data from the global business portal Crunchbase.

There has been increased investor appetite for electric mobility ventures like Spiro, Arc Ride, Roam and BasiGo in recent months.

These firms seek to reduce fuel import dependence, cut transport emissions and develop local manufacturing industries around emerging clean energy technologies.

Investors are drawn to Kenya’s high motorcycle density, a power grid largely supplied by renewables and a policy environment that has signalled support for electric mobility.

There is a proverb often shared across our continent: ‘However long the night, the dawn will break.’

But there is a quieter truth beneath it-those who prepare for the night weather it better than those who simply wait for dawn. Today, Africa finds itself in another long night.

The ongoing Iran crisis and disruption through the Strait of Hormuz-one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints-has triggered one of the largest energy supply shocks in modern history.

The strait normally carries roughly 20 percent of global oil supply and nearly 25 percent of global seaborne oil trade. Around 80 percent of these flows are destined for Asian markets, with China, India, Japan and South Korea among the largest importers.

In recent weeks, oil prices have surged past $110 per barrel, with peaks reaching as high as $126 during the height of the disruption. For Africa, this is not just a geopolitical event. It is a direct economic shock.

Across the continent, rising oil prices are feeding into transport costs, food inflation, and currency pressures.

In Kenya, the Central Bank projects inflation could rise to 6.2 percent in the coming months-above its 5 percent midpoint target-driven largely by higher fuel prices.

We are already seeing second-order effects. Transport operators are adjusting fares upward, supply chains are tightening and households are absorbing the cost of a crisis they did not create. This is not new. It is a pattern. And that is precisely the point.

What Africa has always needed is patient capital-and this is much clearer today than ever before. Because the challenge before us is not just volatility. It is structural exposure. Over 40 African countries are net oil importers, meaning external shocks translate almost immediately into domestic instability.

When capital is short-term, risk-averse, and priced for quick returns, it retreats at precisely the moment it is most needed. Businesses stall. Investments pause. Growth becomes fragile.

Patient capital does the opposite, it stays. It absorbs shocks, provides continuity, enables businesses to continue investing even when input costs rise and it allows governments and institutions to think beyond the immediate crisis and invest in long-term resilience.

We have seen this model work-decisively-elsewhere. Singapore offers one of the clearest examples. Through Temasek Holdings, which manages over $300 billion in assets, the country has consistently deployed long-term, state-backed capital into strategic sectors-from energy to logistics to technology. During global shocks, these institutions do not withdraw; they stabilize.

Similarly, Canada’s pension funds, including CPP Investments, deploy over $500 billion globally with investment horizons measured in decades. They invest heavily in infrastructure and energy systems, often taking counter-cyclical positions when markets are under stress.

These are not just funds. They are shock absorbers. Closer to home, Kenya’s newly established National Infrastructure Fund (NIF) signals a shift toward this same philosophy.

At its core, the NIF represents an opportunity to move from reactive policy to proactive resilience. Because if oil prices can spike above $110 per barrel due to disruptions thousands of kilometres away, then the real question is not how we respond-but how we reduce our exposure. This is where the NIF becomes critical.

Strategically deployed, it can channel long-term capital into renewable energy, reducing dependence on imported fuel. And if we get this right-if we align institutions like the NIF with a broader ecosystem of long-term, resilient capital-then moments like this will no longer define us.

For the NIF to succeed, it must embody these same principles. Across Africa, the infrastructure financing gap exceeds $100 billion annually.

At the same time, the cost of capital remains among the highest globally. Bridging this gap will require more than traditional financing models. It will require capital that is willing to wait, capital that is comfortable with complexity and one that measures success not just in quarterly returns, but in long-term transformation.

The Iran crisis is a reminder-perhaps a costly one-that Africa cannot afford to build its future on short-term foundations. We cannot control global oil prices. We cannot control geopolitical tensions.

As the proverb reminds us, dawn will come. The question is whether we will have built enough through the night to meet it.

But we can control how we prepare. Patient capital is not a luxury. It is a necessity. And we will be ready.

Long before President William Ruto arrived with an apology and a bag of goodies for the people of northern Kenya to mark the 63rd Madaraka Day on Monday, Wajir had already made history.

Residents began arriving at the new 10,000-capacity stadium as early as 4.30am, many from far-flung parts of the county, to witness the first national celebrations held in the north.

By 6.30am, all the seats had been occupied and thousands more stood on the terraces as the sweltering heat intensified.

Hawkers, children, elders and local leaders mingled in an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, aware they were witnessing a moment that would be etched into the region’s history.

In one of the most striking displays, the children assembled themselves into the shape of the map of Kenya before seamlessly transforming into the word ‘WAJIR’ and later ‘ELIMU’ – the Kiswahili word for ‘education’.

The formations drew applause from the crowd and reinforced the central message of the day that education would be the foundation of Kenya’s development.

When he stood to speak, the President repeatedly returned to the themes of inclusion and equal opportunity as he confronted the legacy of policies that consigned northern Kenya to the margins of national development.

He singled out Sessional Paper 10 of 1965, which prioritised investment in perceived high-potential areas while leaving swathes of northern Kenya underdeveloped.

‘Communities were pushed to the fringes of their own republic. Their patriotism was questioned, their citizenship doubted and their aspirations undermined,’ he said.

He then offered an apology: ‘On behalf of the people and the Republic of Kenya, I offer sincere apology for the marginalisation you have endured over the years. Poleni sana ndugu zetu (We are very sorry our brothers). It was never meant to be this way.’ The crowd was euphoric.

The Kenya Air Force conducted an elaborate fly-past and the performance concluded with a helicopter flying over the stadium with a giant ‘Happy Madaraka 2026’ banner.

Diageo expects to complete the sale of its 65 percent stake in East African Breweries Limited (EABL) to Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings in the second half of this year, ending a 26-year ownership stint during which the value of its holding grew more than tenfold to Sh305 billion.

In a call with investors, the British drinks giant said the transaction is expected to close between July and December.

Diageo, which acquired majority control of EABL in 2000 when the brewer was valued at about Sh30 billion, announced plans on December 17, 2025, to sell its entire stake and its 53.68 percent shareholding in Kenyan spirits maker UDV Kenya (UDVK) to Asahi Group Holdings.

The disposal forms part of The London Stock Exchange-listed brewer’s broader ‘asset-light’ strategy, which has seen it divest businesses in several markets.

‘USL (United Spirits Limited) announced the sale of its RCB (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) business on 24 March 2026 and the disposal of our shareholding in EABL is expected to complete in calendar H2,’ Diageo said in its third-quarter trading update for fiscal year 2026.

‘These transactions will support reducing leverage and increasing financial flexibility.’

Diageo will receive $2.354 billion (Sh305 billion) for its EABL stake and $646 million (Sh83.6 billion) for its shares in UDVK, bringing the total gross proceeds to $3 billion (Sh388.4 billion).

New brew

The transaction ushers in a new chapter for East Africa’s largest brewer, whose portfolio includes Tusker, Guinness, WhiteCap and Pilsner.

Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Asahi Group Holdings produces alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as well as food products. The company operates across Japan, East Asia, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, generating annual revenue of about $19 billion (Sh2.45 trillion).

Following completion of the acquisition, Asahi is expected to introduce some of its flagship brands, including Asahi Super Dry, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Pilsner Urquell, to the Kenyan and wider East African markets.

Diageo’s exit will also be accompanied by a long-term licensing and distribution agreement that will allow EABL to continue producing selected Diageo brands, including Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Smirnoff Ice, Orijin and Guinness.

Capital markets regulators in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have already granted Asahi an exemption from making a mandatory takeover offer to minority shareholders.

Under East African capital markets regulations, an investor that acquires control of a listed company is ordinarily required to make an offer for the remaining shares, although regulators may waive the requirement in exceptional circumstances.

Asahi has indicated that EABL will remain listed on the securities exchanges of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania after completion of the transaction.

Strategic shift

Diageo was formed in 1997 through the merger of Guinness Plc and Grand Metropolitan and acquired majority control of EABL three years later, cementing its influence over the region’s largest brewer.

Before the acquisition, Guinness East Africa, incorporated in Kenya in 1965, operated primarily as a regional marketing and distribution arm for Guinness brands, working closely with EABL through licensing, brewing and distribution arrangements.

Diageo has since resolved to exit EABL and other African investments as part of its cost-cutting programme and asset disposal strategy. The asset-light model is designed to reduce earnings volatility in Africa and improve returns.

The brewer has in recent years grappled with slowing alcohol consumption among Gen Z consumers, weaker demand in key markets such as the United States and China, and growing investor concerns about the long-term growth prospects of the global spirits industry.

Those pressures forced the maker of Johnnie Walker and Guinness to cut its sales and profit forecasts despite reporting organic sales growth of 1.7 percent in 2025.

Behind the spectacle of 48 teams and 104 matches lies a bold experiment in how a global event can reshape industries, cities, and capital markets. The tournament will operate less as entertainment and more as a multi-billion-dollar prototype for the digital and infrastructure economies of the future.

Projected to generate over $10.9 billion in revenue-nearly double Qatar’s in 2022-the 2026 World Cup has already redefined scale. Yet its deeper significance lies in how it fuses sport with industrial innovation, artificial intelligence, and sustainability. Every major corporate partner, from technology providers to logistics firms, is treating it as a live laboratory of real-time experimentation.

The event’s distinctive character lies in its integration of advanced digital systems across every operational layer. For the first time, FIFA is managing a competition built around digital ecosystems powered by AI, cloud computing, and next-gen connectivity.

Lenovo, the tournament’s technology partner, views its contribution less as hardware deployment than as the creation of an intelligence framework. Through digital twins- virtual replicas of stadiums and surrounding environments-organisers will anticipate crowd flows, energy loads, and environmental performance in real time.

This effectively transforms the tournament into the world’s first ‘smart World Cup,’ capable of monitoring, learning, and adapting as matches unfold.

The economic logic that underpins this vision is expansive. By enlarging the format to 48 teams, FIFA has expanded the number of matches by one-third, creating about 30 percent more advertising inventory and streaming hours.

For networks, streamers, and advertisers, this signals an inflexion point-an opportunity to redefine the economics of sports consumption in the world’s largest media market.

The 1994 World Cup introduced Americans to global football; 2026 will anchor it inside their digital economy. Analysts already call it soccer’s ‘iPhone moment,’ a transformation that will permanently elevate the sport’s commercial trajectory.

Technology is the heartbeat of that transformation. AI will steer nearly every aspect of operations, from ticketing and transport to match analytics. Thousands of sensors will monitor crowd sentiment, player performance, and environmental conditions with sub-second precision.

Motion-tracking tools capturing 29 points on each athlete’s body a hundred times per second will revolutionise performance data and betting systems, spawning new demand for live 3D re-creations and predictive analytics. The intersection between sport, entertainment, and financial modelling has never been closer.

The World Cup’s lasting contribution, however, may be urban rather than athletic. Host cities across North America are reimagining stadium precincts as ‘smart districts’- dynamic ecosystems designed for long-term economic output. In Kansas City, Miami, Dallas, and Vancouver, investments in transport, connectivity, and mixed-use development are transforming stadium zones into engines of tourism, retail, and innovation.

These precincts are being planned not as temporary infrastructure but as self-sustaining economic clusters that extend far beyond the four-week duration of the games. For Africa’s fast-urbanising capitals, this model offers a glimpse of how large-scale sporting infrastructure can double as a platform for technological and urban renewal.

This shift is also transforming how the tournament reaches audiences.

Broadcasting in 2026 will transcend traditional television, with content delivered simultaneously across streaming platforms, interactive applications, and virtual reality environments.

AI will curate individual highlight packages and multilingual commentary, tailoring the experience to each viewer. Advertising, too, will move from blanket exposure to precision segmentation, enabling sponsors to reach fans in Nairobi, Barcelona, or New York with region-specific campaigns.

The result will be a global event that feels locally personalised-a milestone in the business of digital sports media.

Equally significant is the World Cup’s approach to inclusivity. Many host cities are introducing Local Impact Supplier Programmes to ensure small and medium-sized enterprises participate in procurement for logistics, catering, and technology support.

This model treats local integration not as charity but as sound economics, aligning large-scale projects with community growth. It also offers a potential development blueprint for emerging economies: use digital procurement systems to quantify local value creation and ensure infrastructure spending stimulates domestic enterprise.

When the trophy is lifted in New York or Mexico City in July 2026, the real triumph will lie not only in the winning team but in the systems, technologies, and ideas that remain. Smart grids, intelligent transport, empowered local businesses, and a global redefinition of soccer’s cultural value will form the tournament’s true legacy.

The world’s most popular sport will once again prove itself more than a game-it will stand as a case study in twenty-first-century industrial strategy, executed on the grandest stage imaginable.

Sustainability will anchor the event’s production philosophy. Organisers project that new technologies-edge computing, AI-controlled lighting, electrified transit fleets, and smart HVAC systems-will reduce energy use by up to 30 percent compared to 2022 benchmarks.

The design principle is shifting from mere offsetting to efficiency: building sustainable systems by design rather than compensating for their absence.

Edge intelligence will allow stadiums to self-regulate by adjusting energy consumption to match attendance levels in real time. It is an evolution from ‘green policy’ to ‘green engineering,’ showing that sustainability can enhance profitability through smart resource optimization.

Beyond technology and the men’s competition lies another major growth frontier- women’s sport. Corporate investment in female leagues has surged in recent years, with sponsorship in the National Women’s Soccer League more than doubling since 2023.

The 2026 tournament will accelerate that momentum. As global brands seek balanced exposure, women’s football will attract new partnerships, broadcasting deals, and academy investments.

African women’s teams, increasingly visible on the global stage, stand to benefit through technical exchanges, regional partnerships, and targeted development funding. The post-tournament ecosystem could establish women’s football as a lucrative and sustainable industry in its own right.

Marketing, too, is evolving alongside this transformation. In an era of creator economies and digital wallets, sponsorship no longer ends with logos on billboards. Fans will participate directly in brand experiences through digital check-ins, gamified engagement, and augmented-reality activations.

Collaborations between multinational sponsors and digital creators such as YouTubers or regional influencers will make fan interaction measurable and monetizable. For small companies and startups, including those from Africa’s growing tech scene, this participatory marketing structure breaks down entry barriers to global visibility.

Looking beyond the tournament itself, the 2026 World Cup owe us a masterclass in how mega-events can operate as industrial policy. It demonstrates how coordinated investment in infrastructure, technology, and green innovation can cultivate multi-sector ecosystems with lasting value.

Long after the final whistle, the same digital networks, sustainable energy systems, and analytics frameworks that power the games will continue to support North American cities. The legacy will not be measured in stadium attendance or TV audiences but in the skills, data, and technologies transferred to future civic and commercial use.

For emerging economies across Africa, this integrated approach carries clear lessons. It proves that large-scale events can be designed not as financial burdens but as catalysts for innovation clusters.

Kenya, Rwanda, and Nigeria-already advancing public-private partnerships in infrastructure and technology-could replicate aspects of the North American model to create long-term, investment-ready ecosystems. By aligning sport, policy, and entrepreneurship, they can convert spectacle into sustained industrial growth.

Ultimately, World Cup 2026 signals a turning point in how societies view the economics of attention. Sports have evolved from entertainment into strategic infrastructure for the digital age-a vehicle for industrial modernization, innovation, and soft power. By merging

AI, sustainability, and inclusive enterprise into one commercial platform, FIFA and its North American hosts are positioning this World Cup as a blueprint for future economies of scale.

The Utumishi Girls’ Academy fire did not happen in isolation. It happened in a pattern. Kenya has been burying children in dormitory fires for 25 years, and the same structural failures keep signing the death certificates.

At approximately 1 am on Thursday, May 28, 2026, a fire broke out in the Meline Waithera Block dormitory at Utumishi Girls’ Academy in Gilgil, Nakuru County. The block housed more than 200 students.

The Kenya Red Cross recorded the fire report at 3:30 am, two and a half hours after ignition.

By the time Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba addressed the country, 16 students were dead and 79 injured, 74 of them hospitalised. Survivors told reporters that students on the upper floor had jumped to escape the blaze because one of the dormitory doors was locked. This detail is not incidental. It is the story.

Kenya has been here before, and the coordinates barely change. In 2001, 67 students died in the Kyanguli Secondary School dormitory fire in Machakos. In 2012, eight girls died at Asumbi Girls Primary School in Homa Bay: the dormitory had grilled windows, no emergency exit, and a door locked from outside. In 2017, 10 students died at Moi Girls High School in Nairobi.

In September 2024, 21 boys burned to death at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri, prompting President William Ruto to declare three days of national mourning and order a safety audit of all schools. Months later, Utumishi. The audit, wherever it went, did not reach Gilgil in time.

What the Kenya National Building Code 2024, in force since March 2025, requires of buildings like the Utumishi dormitory is unambiguous. Section 396 mandates provision of escape routes. Section 397 governs exit doors, which must open outward in the direction of escape and must never be locked against occupants while the building is in use.

Section 407 requires emergency lighting along every escape route. Section 408 mandates a fire detection and alarm system. Section 420 requires division of large buildings into fire compartments to prevent a single ignition point from consuming an entire structure.

At Utumishi, survivors say one door was locked. That single failure compressed a fire safety problem into a death trap. The 2024 code also requires sprinkler systems under Section 413 and smoke control provisions under Section 419. For dormitories housing more than 200 students in a multi-storey block, these are not optional enhancements.

They are the difference between a fire that alerts occupants and causes evacuations and a fire that kills 16 children before dawn.

A functioning smoke detector activates within 60 to 90 seconds of ignition. Even a cheap smoke detector priced at Sh400 would have made a significant difference. The two-and-a-half-hour gap between when the Utumishi fire started and when it was officially reported suggests no automatic detection system activated. Girls woke to fire, not to alarms.

Section 420 requires division of large buildings into fire compartments: fire-resistant walls and floors designed to contain a blaze for 30 to 60 minutes, long enough for full evacuation. A 200-plus bed dormitory functioning as a single compartment means a fire anywhere in the block can reach every occupant before evacuation completes. The DCI has sealed the Utumishi dormitory for investigation.

But the pattern across Asumbi 2012, Endarasha 2024, and now Utumishi 2026 is consistent: rapid spread, compromised exits, occupants with nowhere to go.

The enforcement failure is structural. The National Construction Authority issues compliance certificates. County governments issue development permits. The Ministry of Education runs school safety audits.

Three agencies, each with a slice of the mandate, and still a dormitory housing more than 200 girls operated in 2026 with what appears to be a locked exit and no automatic alarm system. The country now has the right law. It does not yet have the machinery to enforce it before the fire starts.

Sixteen families in Kenya woke on Thursday morning to news that their daughters were dead. Seventy-nine more families learned their children were in hospital.

The investigation will run. A report will be issued. The cause, whether electrical fault, arson, or negligence, will eventually be named. What should not wait for that report is the mandatory retrofitting of fire detection systems, outward-opening emergency exits, and compartmentation works in every multi-storey school dormitory in Kenya.

The Building Code 2024 already requires all of this. The only question is whether the country will enforce it before the next roll call comes up short.