Category: Business Daily

WPP-Scangroup Plc minority shareholders, including former CEO Bharat Thakrar, are seeking the ouster of the entire board of the marketing and communications firm, citing a string of poor financial performance reports.

The minority shareholders, with a combined 13.59 percent stake, have written to the chairman of the firm, demanding a special general meeting to remove the current board and CEO.

The shareholders, in the letter dated May 8, 2026, are raising ‘serious concern at the continued deterioration’ in the company’s financial, commercial and strategic position since the ouster of Mr Thakrar on February 18, 2021.

They say the company has issued four consecutive profit warnings, accumulated billions of shillings in losses, halted dividend payouts, lost key clients, including banks and Airtel Africa and cut its regional footprint and eroded shareholder value over the past five years.

The market value of the firm has more than halved since 2021, when its share stood at Sh5.60 a piece compared to the current Sh2.10.

The shareholders are demanding a special general meeting within 28 days or before June 8 to remove the current board led by lawyer Richard Omwela.

They have proposed new board members, including Andrew White, who was the executive creative director of Scangroup Africa until 2013.

Mr White is known for ad slogans like ‘Mimi ni Member for Equity Bank, ‘Let’s talk about Trust’ for Trust condoms, ‘Milele’ for Tusker and ‘Smooth all the way’ for Embassy cigarettes.

‘It is our considered view that the matters set out raise serious questions as to WPP Plc’s continuing strategic, financial and operational commitment to the long-term sustainability of WPP Scangroup, and the interests of minority shareholders as well as confidence in the Kenyan capital market, require ur-gent action by shareholders,’ says the letter.

Mr Thakrar and his wife, Sadhana Thakrar, hold a 10.48 percent stake in Scangroup. Mr Thakrar was the founder and CEO of Scangroup until his removal in 2021 over alleged and unspecified gross miscon-duct, triggering a court fight.

He exited the firm in 2021 following a fallout and has sued the firm and its parent company, WPP Group, for $£24 million (Sh4.22 billion), citing irregular removal.

The minority shareholders are relying on article 44.4 of the company’s Articles of Association, which requires the board to convene a general meeting on requisition in writing by shareholders with at least a 10 percent stake. Articles of Association refer to a company’s internal rulebook that outlines how the business will be run, managed, and governed.

‘Should the board fail to convene the requisitioned general meeting in accordance with the Companies Act, 2015 and the Articles of Association, we reserve the right, without further notice, to convene the meeting in accordance with section 279 of the Companies Act, 2015 and Article 44.5 of the Articles of Association, at the company’s expense,’ says the letter.

The minority shareholders say the firm’s share price at the Nairobi bourse has declined 62 percent to Sh2.24 as of May 6, 2026 from Sh5.94 when Mr Thakrar was removed, resulting in material erosion of shareholders’ value, alongside loss of major clients and decline in profitability.

In the letter, the minority shareholders say the Scangroup has incurred aggregate trading losses of about Sh3.3 billion between 2021 and 2025 when the net loss widened by 41 percent to Sh713.7 million from a Sh506.7 million loss booked in the previous year. Its revenues have dipped to Sh2 billion from Sh7 billion in 2021.

They are also questioning the terms of the Sh1.2 billion that Scangroup has lent to its parent firm, WPP.

The shareholders say the five-year period has seen the company lose major clients, including KCB, Eq-uity, NCBA and Airtel Africa.

Scangroup announced in May last year that it had parted ways with Aritel, which the shareholders al-lege, accounted for nearly a quarter (24 percent) of its annual revenues and will ‘materially impair’ the performance this year.

The shareholders also cite Scangroup’s divestiture of the South African public relations (PR) business and closure of the PR and advertising operations in Nigeria and Tanzania-moves that have weakened the firm’s pan-African positioning.

Other directors targeted for ouster, besides the chairman and CEO, are Beverly Spencer Obatoyinbo, Peter Kimurwa, Patricia Kiwanuka, Patricia Helene Nuytemans, Jonathan Eggar, Shahid Sadiq and Tebogo Skwambane.

The minority shareholders have proposed the appointment of Mr Thakrar, Mr White, Carl Adam Ogola, Kunal Kamlesh Bid and Rishab Bharat Thakrar as the new directors.

‘The proposed resolutions are intended to restore effective oversight, rebuild the business and pro-tect shareholder value. The newly constituted board is requested, as its first order of business, to con-sider the appropriate board and executive leadership appointments,’ say the shareholders.

Delays in the sale of the government’s 15 percent stake in Safaricom to South Africa’s Vodacom in the wake of a suit are on course to gift the Treasury Sh16.1 billion in dividends.

The government, through the Treasury, is expected to maintain its stake in the telecoms operator at 35 percent or 14 billion shares as a court process drags out the stake’s sale process.

This will earn the State dividends of Sh16.1 billion from the 15 percent stake, which initially would have gone to Vodacom.

Parties to the transaction had expected the Sh244.5 billion Vodacom deal to be concluded by March 31, locking out the government from earning the final dividend of Sh1.15 that Safaricom declared on Thursday for the 15 percent stake.

The sale of the stake could be delayed beyond August 4, 2026, when Safaricom closes its books for the payment of a final Sh1.15 dividend per share payout covering its financial performance in the year through to March 31.

The State is set to raise Sh244.5 billion for the exchequer, including Sh204.3 billion for 6.0 billion shares sold for Sh34 per share, and an advanced dividend of Sh40.2 billion.

The transaction was frozen when petitioners, Tony Gachoka and Fredrick Ogola, sued several State agencies, Safaricom Plc and Vodacom Group over the legality of the government’s plan to reduce its stake in the telecoms giant.

Two other petitions were filed by Paul Maina and one only identified as Mr Samuel.

The High Court referred the petition to Chief Justice Martha Koome at the end of March to appoint a multi-judge bench, after the judge handling the case stepped aside due to time constraints.

The planned sale to South Africa’s Vodacom has sharply dividing opinion in Kenya.

Analysts and politicians are divided on the merits of the sale, which requires legislative and regulatory approval.

Some reckon the deal is good for Kenya, while others are sceptical about the value for the country, arguing that Vodacom remains the winner after getting full control of a cash-generative subsidiary.

A joint parliamentary committee approved the sale, paving the way for the conclusion of the deal.

The board of Safaricom has lauded its shareholders for remaining calm amid the roller-coaster of deliberations and intrigues.

‘There is an ongoing process. We commend the shareholders for the constructive and professional manner in which the discussions have been conducted so far,’ said Adil Khawaja, the Safaricom Plc board chairman.

‘Once concluded, the transaction will position Safaricom to leverage greater scale, deeper expertise and enhanced regional capability as we continue to expand.’

The National Assembly’s committees on National Planning and Finance and Public Debt and Privatisation reckoned that Safaricom’s share sale agreement with Vodafone is silent on the Treasury receiving dividends from a 35 percent shareholding.

The report from the joint committee said the sale agreement and Sessional Paper or Treasury document on the deal presented to Parliament was unclear whether the Treasury would receive dividends from the 15 percent stake should the deal close after Safaricom’s financial year in March.

‘The joint committee observed that the Sessional Paper does not clearly specify entitlement to dividends declared for the 2025 financial year, particularly if the divestiture is approved and completed before Safaricom’s financial year-end on March 31, 2026,’ said the two committees in their report.

‘The transaction must also clearly specify whether it is on an ex-dividend (buyer does not receive the dividend) or cum-dividend (buyer receives the dividend) basis.’

Safaricom has already declared an interim dividend of Sh0.85 per share for the current year, which was paid on March 31 to shareholders who were on its books on February 25.

Facing high public debt, limited room to raise taxes, and annual debt repayments that absorb 40 percent of government revenues, President William Ruto’s administration is turning to asset sales to bolster its finances.

The government’s stake in Safaricom will drop from 35 percent to 20 percent.

Concurrently with the purchase of the 15 percent stake from the government, Vodacom is also buying a five percent stake in Safaricom that is held by parent firm, Vodafone Group, at the same price of Sh34 per share.

Once the twin deals are sealed, Vodacom will raise its ownership in the telecoms operator to 55 percent, attaining majority control.

Other investors hold a 25 percent stake, equivalent to 10 billion shares, which were offloaded in a March 2008 initial public offering (IPO) of the company, raising Sh51.75 billion.

The government received Sh11.9 billion in interim dividends from Safaricom after it raised its initial payout by 54.5 percent to Sh0.85 from Sh0.55 previously.

Last week, Safaricom raised its final dividend to Sh1.15 per share from Sh0.65 previously as its net profit rose 36.9 percent to Sh95.6 billion for its financial year ending on March 31.

The cumulative Sh46 billion dividend will be approved at Safaricom’s annual general meeting (AGM) on July 31, and will be paid by September 4 to shareholders on the company’s register by August 4.

Safaricom’s total dividend for the year translates to Sh80.13 billion or Sh2 per share and aligns with the company’s dividend policy of paying out 80 percent of its earnings to shareholders.

The share of the government’s dividends from the pool is Sh28.04 billion.

What can you tell me about yourself that is not on your LinkedIn?

I am married to one wife, and have children. I’m a family man. And my hobbies too, how I spend my free time. I’m a big lover of Rhumba music, especially Rhumba Bakulutu. I dance quite a bit, haha! I enjoy life.

How did you get into Rhumba?

It’s one of those things that you acquire. I was born and raised in Mombasa. And as a small child, my dad loved me. I would be the guy he calls to go with him to meet friends on weekends, in Rhumba joints. At home, I was the house DJ, and when he had visitors, I did the selection [chuckles].

Then I developed a taste for reggae music, because in Mombasa, people loved reggae. When I joined university politics, I started listening to rap music – Ice Cube, RedMan, Ice-T, and NWA, the rebellious rap.

In my first three jobs, I went into modern music, soul and the like. I hung out a lot at Choices and Bubbles nightclubs. After that, I went back to Rhumba, and I was back home [chuckles].

What is the one thing you want most people to understand about you?

People tend to get my personality mixed up. They think I am an extrovert, but I am not [chuckles].

I’m actually an introvert. I get more peace when I recoil. Crowds suck my energy. That’s how I do my me-time: I recoil especially to water sounds. I’m a water person. I have a lot of energy, and when I withdraw, it sometimes makes me look like a snob, haha!

What kind of loneliness do you carry?

Leadership is lonely. But I guess that is for most people. Because of your leadership role, there are spaces you can’t enter with others. You need to be vulnerable with your staff, but as a leader, there is a level you can’t go.

From a family front, we were brought up as eight children, and then we all scattered, and I miss that.

Are you the firstborn?

No, I’m the third born. But I act like the firstborn. I’ve had the responsibility since I was in high school. Taking care of the family. Taking care of myself.

What did that cost you personally?

I did adult roles as a child. A lot of guys I know were still children in high school. Sometimes I look at the risk propensity – when I was starting work, I would see where my peers were investing. I could not do that. I had to take care of my siblings back home.

I could not take a risk like going abroad like some of my friends, because what happens to your people then? Even the choice of woman you have, you look at many factors that other people may not.

What did you learn too early?

I learned that relatives can be plastic; I should not have learned that. It created a wall between me and some of my relatives. When my father retired, and he used to take care of other people, they didn’t give back even though they could.

It shattered my innocence. I was not mature enough to learn that human beings can be vile and uncaring. Even as an adult, there are people I have struggled to warm up to.

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

Yes, as a child, I thought I wanted to be a leader. I have. I wanted a beautiful wife, which was a non-negotiable. I have a beautiful wife. A good job and a beautiful wife. I am living that.

I wanted to do better than my father; I decided that in Class Six, because when I was going out with him, I noticed there were people saluting him, and there were people whom he saluted. I wanted to be the guy everyone salutes [chuckles].

What does success mean to you beyond money?

Being happy. We really underestimate the value of just sitting and not having to think about things. It’s a very powerful feeling that, at this age, starts hitting you. Success is what I feel inside, being able to do the thing that makes me happy, the way it makes me happy, at the time it makes me happy. The right person brings fulfilment, sometimes I just sit and smile, looking at my family.

What habit has best served you in your life?

Hard work. I learned early that your life is in your hands. Nobody is coming to save you. When I’m focused on something, I work hard on it. I consider myself disciplined, and I can be very adaptable and resilient. Sometimes my wife thinks I’m too cold. I tell her there are things you can control, others you can’t.

And what unhealthy habits have you had to unlearn?

Sometimes, the issue of loving life too much gives me the wrong priorities. Sometimes I say, ‘If you die, you die’. But at the expense of something that probably could be better.

At the end of your life, what will you consider a memorable life?

If I can pick one, two, or three differences to planet Earth that I would have contributed to, I’d be happy. Why I have to do better than my parents is so that I can propagate standards in society. It should also be the same in these leadership roles, to make a difference, as God has been gracious to me.

In my clan, I have pushed the bar, despite the odds – the schools I went to and the jobs I have worked. In my retirement home, I have put up a Wall of Fame to remind my grandchildren of my contribution to Earth because of the work I’ve done.

Congratulations. What’s on your bucket list?

I really want to go to Antarctica. The place I’ve never been, there’s this resort I see on YouTube where you land on ice, you live in the middle of ice, Antarctica. I think it’s an 18-hour journey [chuckles]. They fly there once a year, and it is very expensive.

What are you looking forward to doing this weekend?

I’m a big fan of Formula 1. F1 returns after the problems we had in the Middle East. My team, Red Bull, is not doing very well, but I’m hoping in this break, they’ve sorted out the problems they have.

I’m a big fan of Manchester United in the EPL, and I can’t wait to win more games. I have a friend who is celebrating his 50th birthday, so we’ll be heading to Maanzoni with my wife for that.

Give us some good advice.

Enjoy your life. This is something I learned much later. Sometimes, we are too hard on ourselves. We don’t celebrate on the journey. If there is something you can do now, don’t wait; do it.

We miss small opportunities to celebrate, and then when it’s time to celebrate, we are too exhausted to celebrate. I used to have a colourful life, but I was always looking for that big day [chuckles]. Enjoy the journey.

About 84,000 small investors bought shares on the Nairobi bourse through the M-Pesa stock-trading platform, Ziidi Trader, between February and March this year, underlining the impact of mobile financial platforms in revitalising retail market participation.

New disclosures from telecoms operator Safaricom show that 84,000 Ziidi Trader accounts participated in share purchases within two months of the platform’s launch.

About 511,000 investors signed up for Ziidi Trader, which allows M-Pesa users to directly buy shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange without opening a traditional brokerage account. This indicates that while many small investors showed interest in the platform, only a fraction actively traded.

The number of traders on the M-Pesa platform also trails the total number of individual investor accounts with CDS accounts, which stood at 1.28 million as of the end of March, according to data from the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation.

Additional data from the NSE covering February 10 to May 6 shows that Ziidi Trader facilitated trades valued at Sh772.2 million, represented by 268,840 transactions. The platform’s share of overall market trades has fluctuated between one and two per cent, averaging 1.67 per cent over the period.

Peak market share was recorded on March 30, 2026, at 4.27 percent, while the highest number of trades occurred on February 11, the day after launch, when 9,320 deals were executed. The highest daily turnover was recorded on February 16 at Sh28.98 million.

The average Ziidi trade size over the period to May 6 was Sh2,872.60, compared with the overall market average deal size of Sh63,950.

This highlights the dominance of institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals in traditional market activity.

The Ziidi Trader has been credited with boosting retail participation by removing the requirement for a Central Depository System (CDS) account.

‘This confirms that ordinary citizens are now actively participating in Kenya’s capital markets,’ said Eric Ruenji, founder and chairman of Theo Capital Holdings.

The Ziidi Trader is a mobile-based share trading platform jointly offered by Safaricom, NSE and Kestrel Capital. It enables customers to buy and sell NSE-listed shares and corporate bonds directly from their mobile phones, monitor portfolios and access market insights digitally.

Safaricom has credited the platform with expanding access to capital markets. ‘The launch of Ziidi Trader marked an important milestone, broadening access to capital markets and demonstrating early traction as a new driver of financial deepening and inclusion,’ the company said.

The platform played a key role in the recently concluded Kenya Pipeline Company IPO. Of the 73,000 individual investors who participated, 36,000 placed orders through the M-Pesa platform.

At the close of the IPO, President William Ruto and National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi praised the platform for enabling citizens to directly participate in ownership of national assets.

Ziidi Trader’s most notable impact on the NSE has been increasing the number of share orders rather than overall traded value. Daily orders have risen above 10,000 from a previous average of below 7,000 before its introduction. More than half of NSE share orders on launch day came through the platform.

The system relies on existing M-Pesa know-your-customer credentials and PIN authentication, eliminating the need for new account creation.

Stocks purchased are held in a single omnibus account managed by Kestrel Capital, which executes trades on behalf of users.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange is betting on the platform to grow retail participation to as many as nine million investors by the end of December 2029.

Africa has the world’s vibrant youngest population, vast arable lands, large water resources, and a growing base of agricultural technology and innovation.

Yet paradoxically, she still spends lots of its resources importing food while millions of its people remain food insecure. With a collective will to transform her agrifood systems sustainably, inclusively, and at scale the continent can easily become a global breadbasket.

Across Africa, climate change is no longer a future threat; it is a daily reality.

Droughts, floods, pests, and livestock and crop diseases are occurring with greater frequency and intensity, disproportionately affecting smallholder farmers who remain highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

In East Africa alone, repeated droughts have pushed millions of people into food assistance, while conflict and insecurity continue to displace farming households across the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and parts of Central Africa.

These shocks expose a central weakness in our agrifood systems – low resilience. When production systems collapse under pressure, countries are forced to rely on imports and food aid, placing further strain on already limited public resources.

This is why nations need to place strong emphasis on anticipatory action, early warning systems, and resilience-building investments-so that farmers are protected before crises escalate into humanitarian disasters.

Africa has great agricultural policies. Through Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP,) AU member states committed to allocating at least 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture and to achieving percent annual agricultural growth.

The Malabo Declaration further raised ambition by committing countries to ending hunger, halving poverty, boosting intra-African trade, and enhancing resilience to climate variability by 2025.

What is now required is accelerated implementation. Countries that have invested consistently in agriculture-backed by good governance, data, and private sector participation-are already seeing results.

From rice self-sufficiency and surplus exports in parts of East and Southern Africa, to productivity gains driven by mechanisation, innovations and digital agriculture, progress is possible when policy commitments translate into action on the ground.

Africa missed the first Green Revolution-but it must not miss the digital and climate-smart revolution.

Mechanisation, irrigation, precision agriculture, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence are no longer optional; they are essential for competitiveness and resilience agriculture.

Across the continent, we are seeing promising innovations-from drone-based crop surveillance and digital extension services to climate information systems that help farmers adapt planting decisions to changing weather patterns.

Equally important is youth engagement. Agriculture will not transform if it continues to be perceived as a sector of last resort. Youths in Africa must see agrifood systems as modern, profitable, innovative and appealing.

Supporting youth-led agribusinesses, mechanisation service providers, and agri-tech enterprises is not just a social investment-it is an economic necessity for food security and employment creation.

Kenya’s Vision 2030, like many national development strategies across Africa, recognises agriculture as a key driver of economic growth, industrialisation, and food security. Similar priorities are embedded in Ethiopia’s long-term development plans, Morocco’s Green Generation Programme, Egypt’s investments in precision agriculture, and Rwanda’s digital transformation agenda.

These national blueprints reflect a growing consensus: food security is national security and a priority.

By fostering better governance, stronger institutions, and inclusive value chains, we can ensure that agricultural growth translates into improved nutrition, decent rural livelihoods, and environmental sustainability.

Sixty years ago, Africa fought for political independence.

Today, the challenge before us is food independence. Ending hunger and reducing food imports is not only about feeding people-it is about dignity, stability, and sovereignty. The resources exist.

The policy frameworks exist. The technologies and innovations exist.

What is required is to translate these great visions into realities through bold leadership, sustained investment, and coordinated action across governments, the private sector, development partners, and the millions of energetic youths of Africa. If we act decisively, Africa can not only feed itself but become a global breadbasket.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has backpedalled from an earlier promise to include income tax cuts for salaried workers earning below Sh50,000 in the Finance Bill, dealing a blow to more than one million employees who anticipated cushions from the rising cost of living.

Instead, the Treasury has increased tax on rent, mobile phones, beer, cigars and betting in the race to raise Sh120 billion from the Finance Bill, 2026, up from Sh30 billion it targeted via the Finance Act 2025.

It also targeting another Sh81 billion from its crackdown on tax cheats, with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) expected to collect Sh2.985 trillion for the year starting in July, up from Sh2.784 trillion.

But workers expecting income tax to lift their disposable income, which have been eroded by inflation in the past five years, will be disappointed.

Mr Mbadi promised that salaried workers earning Sh50,000 and below would enjoy income tax cuts of between Sh731 and Sh2,127 under proposed changes to Pay-As -You- Earn (PAYE) tax brackets aimed at cushioning low-income earners from inflation.

The Treasury shelved a special Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026 that would have facilitated the tax cuts and signalled the reliefs would be included in the Finance Bill 2026.

The Bill, which has been tabled in Parliament and set to be passed by the end of June, does not have the cuts.

‘We, however, had to set this aside because we just have a few weeks to Finance Bill 2026, and so bringing some tax law adjustments at this time would be too close to the Finance Bill,’ Mr Mbadi told the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee on March 31.

‘We would rather review all this and consolidate and bring them together as opposed to having two separate Bills.’

This U-turn by the government means that salaried workers earning below Sh50,000 will now wait longer for adjustment of PAYE bands to boost their disposable incomes, even as the country’s inflation jumped 5.6 percent in April from 4.4 percent a month earlier on costly fuel following the Iran war.

Treasury is proposing to increase tax on gross rent from 7.5 percent to 10 percent in what could trigger landlords to increase leasing.

It has imposed a 5 percent tax on second hand shoes and clothes and 16 percent VAT on locally assembled phones.

Excise duty on mobile phones will increase to 25 percent from the current 10 percent, making the gadgets costly as imported pass on the additional costs to consumers.

President Mwai Kibaki’s administration significantly reduced taxes on mobile phones in the mid-2000s as part of a broader strategy to expand mobile penetration and digital connectivity in Kenya.

Tax amendments on excise duty largely target alcohol and tobacco products, as well as a myriad of items imported duty-free from countries in the East African Community (EAC).

Excise duty on ethanol has been reduced from Sh500 per litre to Sh88 per litre, even as the government moves to expand the pool of taxpayers beyond licensed spirits manufacturers.

This will hit manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, sanitizers, cosmetics and industrial chemicals, meaning hospitals, drug manufacturers, cosmetics firms and chemical processors.

The excise duty, popularly known as a ‘sin tax’ because it traditionally targets alcohol, cigarettes and betting products.

Small independent brewers producing alcohol content of less than six percent who had been spared from paying the full rate of excise duty at Sh22.50 per centilitre of pure alcohol might now have to shoulder the full cost of the tax.

This is after the Finance Bill proposed abolishing the provision that exempted them from the full duty, under which they instead paid Sh10 per centiliter.

Kenya has also proposed introducing excise duty on several items, including paper, furniture and glass imported from EAC countries, in a move likely to ruffle partner states within the seven-member regional bloc, which aims to eliminate all forms of non-tariff barriers under the Common Market framework.

The Finance Bill has also proposed fresh changes targeting tobacco products, including higher excise duty rates on cigarettes and other nicotine products as the government seeks to shore up revenues from sin taxes amid declining alcohol collections and growing public health concerns over tobacco consumption.

The higher revenue projection will be put to test by a deterioration of the economic outlook on effects of the US-Israel war against Iran.

Kenya like many ?other African countries is heavily reliant on energy imports.

The Iran conflict has left it scrambling to ?stave off shortages of essential commodities like fuel, and the war’s ripple effects are ?expected to spur inflationary pressures that could dampen Kenya’s growth prospects.

The National Treasury has revised its growth projection for 2026 from 5.3 percent to five percent and expects output to be much lower if the conflict persists.

Mr Mbadi in February said that his ministry had prepared a Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill that would raise the threshold of untaxed income from Sh24,000 to Sh30,000, while income falling between Sh30,000 and Sh50,000 would be taxed at 25 percent.

Under the promised changes, workers earning Sh30,000 would have seen a Sh731.25 increase in their monthly net pay to Sh26,925-after statutory and PAYE deductions.

Those earning Sh35,000 per month would see a Sh1,500 jump in net pay to Sh31,059.38, with their PAYE falling to Sh353.13 from Sh1,853.13.

According to the now delayed plans by the Treasury, the net pay for those on a gross salary of Sh50,000 would have risen by Sh2,127.10 to Sh41,156.25 per month.

The government has in recent months come under intense pressure to review the recent statutory deductions, specifically the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), and the Affordable Housing Levy (AHL).

The Kenya Bankers Association proposed a uniform 5.0 percent reduction in PAYE rates across all existing tax bands.

Last year, real wages, which have been adjusted for inflation, rose marginally to Sh56,566 from Sh55,450 in 2024. The earnings are, however, still lower than in 2020, when they stood at Sh62,256.

When the Capital Markets Tribunal was reconstituted in June 2023 after years of inactivity, the moment passed with little public attention.

Yet within a few years, the tribunal has built a body of decisions that are quietly redefining governance expectations within Kenya’s capital markets.

Before the reconstitution of the tribunal in 2023, disputes arising from regulatory action in the capital markets were largely taken to the courts. These cases were framed as judicial review or constitutional matters, focusing on whether due process had been followed in the course of taking regulatory action.

This kind of oversight, although important, left deeper issues around corporate governance failures, board responsibility and market conduct unexplored.

Unlike the courts exercising judicial review jurisdiction, the tribunal has the mandate to engage with the merits of the disputes. These are the substantive governance issues at the heart of conflicts between regulators and market participants. Its decisions offer emerging guidance on how responsibility is assigned within regulated institutions.

One of the most striking developments is its firm stance on the role of directors in regulated entities. In several cases, directors sought to distance themselves from decisions that attracted regulatory action, arguing that they were not involved in day-to-day operations or had delegated the responsibilities to third parties and management.

The tribunal has consistently rejected this defence and determined that directors of issuers of securities are expected to interrogate management decisions, exercise independent judgment and ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks.

The tribunal has effectively dismantled the notion of the ‘sleeping director’, making it clear that board membership comes with real and accountable responsibility. This thinking extends to senior management.

Additionally, the tribunal has looked beyond job titles and examined the actual influence executives wield within institutions. It recognises that leadership is not defined by formal descriptions alone.

Those who shape decisions, control processes and influence outcomes must also bear responsibility when things go wrong. This focus on substance over form is particularly important in a sector where accountability can easily be diffused. The message is simple but powerful: authority comes with responsibility.

Investor protection has also emerged as a central theme, especially in cases involving collective investment schemes.

Today, over two million investors participate in these schemes, with assets under management growing from about Sh56.6 billion in 2018 to approximately Sh756 billion by the end of 2025. There are now dozens of licensed schemes offering a wide range of investment options. This growth reflects increasing financial inclusion, as more Kenyans turn to professionally managed funds.

The tribunal has underscored fairness, transparency and meaningful investor participation, intervening where investors are excluded or inadequately informed and reinforcing safeguards such as investment limits to curb excessive risk-taking.

These interventions matter. Without strong governance, the scale that makes these schemes attractive can also expose investors to harm.

The tribunal continues to test regulatory actions against standards of fairness by law. This balance between substance and process is critical, ensuring regulators act lawfully and responsibly.

The tribunal demonstrates the value of specialised forums in complex areas like capital markets, where disputes often involve technical, financial and legal issues, complementing the courts by offering focused expertise without diminishing their role.

The continued impact of the tribunal depends on consistency. Specialised bodies work best when consistent. Periods of inactivity, from institutional or administrative issues, can stall governance development, especially during market peaks, as seen in recent large transactions, restructurings, and listings. At such moments, a functioning tribunal is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

Disruptions can push disputes back to the courts, where past cases show procedural issues often dominate, slowing specialised governance decisions. Therefore, sustaining this momentum by ensuring the tribunal’s work continues uninterrupted is critical: strong capital markets rely on trust, built on clear, enforced and widely understood governance.

As artificial intelligence (AI) shifts from a productivity tool into a co-worker capable of handling complex workflows, a new class of companies, built around deep integration of the technology into everyday operations, is emerging globally.

Technology firms and analysts are calling them ‘frontier firms’; businesses that are redesigning their operating models around AI agents, automation, and machine intelligence, rather than merely layering chatbots onto existing processes.

An AI agent is a software programme that acts autonomously to achieve specific goals by perceiving its environment, reasoning, planning and using integrated tools.

Unlike regular chatbots like ChatGPT, agents can execute tasks like booking flights or managing emails with minimal human supervision.

The rise of ‘frontier firms’ is gaining traction in sectors ranging from finance and software development to customer service, manufacturing and healthcare, as organisations deploy AI across internal systems and customer-facing products.

A recent report by US tech giant Microsoft found that companies worldwide are increasingly using AI not only for repetitive administrative tasks but also for higher-value cognitive work such as analysis, problem-solving, and strategic decision-making.

Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index Report, which analysed trillions of anonymised Microsoft 365 productivity signals and surveyed 20,000 workers, showed that 49 per cent of AI interactions now support complex cognitive work, including evaluating information, generating insights, and creative thinking.

‘Employees at every level now have a partner that helps them analyse, synthesise, and deepen their own expertise, while also building expertise in other areas. AI is not just helping us do things faster. It’s expanding who can do high-value work,’ Microsoft said.

Another report by the American firm behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, OpenAI, found that frontier firms – defined as organisations in the top 5 percent of AI usage intensity – now use 3.5 times more AI ‘intelligence’ per worker than typical firms, up from two times a year ago.

The findings suggest AI adoption is moving beyond experimental chatbots and research using established tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, into core business infrastructure.

The shift is especially significant for emerging digital economies such as Kenya, where businesses are increasingly embedding AI into agriculture, climate technology, financial services, and healthcare.

Kenyan firms are already using AI tools for crop monitoring, weather prediction, fraud detection, credit scoring and virtual healthcare support, while software developers are integrating AI assistants into coding, customer support and payment systems.

Instead of using AI merely for quick tasks such as rewriting emails or summarising meetings, ‘frontier firms’ are deploying AI agents capable of handling delegated, multi-step assignments.

In the travel insurance industry, for example, an AI claims assistant built using OpenAI tools now guides customers through filing claims, answers policy questions, and directly creates claims inside company systems. The OpenAI analysis shows that AI use is broadest in writing and communication, but is increasingly becoming specialised by department.

Software development and data science teams are using AI heavily for coding tasks, while finance departments are deploying it for calculations, modelling and analysis. IT and security teams are using AI for procedural guidance and systems management.

Microsoft found that 66 percent of AI users say the technology allows them to spend more time on high-value work, while 58 percent reported producing work they could not have achieved a year ago. Among advanced users, which Microsoft terms ‘frontier professionals,’ the figure rises to 80 percent.

‘The number of active agents in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem has grown 15x year over year, rising to 18x in large enterprises,’ said the report.

Manufacturing, software and technology, banking and retail are currently leading adoption.

OpenAI says the most advanced firms are building what it terms ‘owned intelligence’; institutional knowledge and AI-enabled operational systems that are unique to the organisation and difficult for competitors to replicate.

The emergence of frontier firms is shifting employees toward oversight, judgment and quality control roles, where workers increasingly act as reviewers and decision-makers rather than purely content generators.

Quality assurance and critical thinking were identified as the most important human skills in AI-enabled workplaces, with 50 percent of respondents citing the need to verify AI-generated outputs and 46 percent pointing to analytical judgment.

Analysts say the next phase of competition may depend less on whether firms adopt AI and more on how deeply they embed it into their operations.

Listed agricultural firm Kakuzi is planning a major commercial expansion of blueberry farming that will see acreage rise more than eightfold to 82 hectares by 2029 as the company deepens diversification away from traditional crops such as avocados.

Fresh disclosures by the firm’s UK-based parent Camellia Plc show Kakuzi will scale blueberry production from the current 10 hectares to 22 hectares by the end of this year before embarking on further expansion over the following three years.

The planned growth signals Kakuzi’s increasing focus on blueberries as one of its next major export products amid rising pressure on earnings from avocados and other traditional agricultural segments.

‘In late 2025 the board supported two new growth projects: the development of 400 hectares of citrus at the Maruque farm in Brazil, and the decision by Kakuzi in Kenya to transition its blueberry trial to a commercial operation,’ Camellia said in its latest annual report.

Camellia added that the projects would require about £15 million (Sh2.64 billion) in capital expenditure over the next six years as part of efforts to extract greater value from existing assets and expertise.

The latest disclosures significantly raise the scale of Kakuzi’s earlier blueberry ambitions after the company had previously indicated plans to add 15 hectares to the existing 10-hectare pilot operation during 2026.

Kakuzi’s confidence in the crop has strengthened following the blueberry unit’s first profitable year since the pilot project was launched in 2019. Disclosures in the company’s latest annual report show the blueberry business generated a Sh5 million profit in 2025 after recording a Sh19 million loss the previous year.

The turnaround was supported by stronger production volumes and improved export prices. Output rose to 90 tonnes from 53 tonnes while average selling prices increased to $12.40 (about Sh1,600) per kilogramme from $11.54 previously.

Despite logistical disruptions along the Red Sea shipping route affecting exports, Kakuzi’s avocado profits nearly doubled to Sh709 million in 2025. The group’s overall net profit recovered to Sh387.6 million from a Sh131.7 million loss in 2024 as revenues climbed 12.1 per cent to Sh5.37 billion.

Investors below the age of 30 now control Sh9 billion in Standard Chartered Bank Kenya’s SC Shilingi Fund, signalling the rapid rise of younger savers in sophisticated investment products traditionally dominated by older and wealthier clients.

The bank said the digital money market fund has grown to Sh30 billion in assets under management barely four years after launch, highlighting a strong appetite for low-entry, tech-driven savings and investment products.

The latest figures show younger clients are increasingly embracing formal investment structures much earlier than previous generations amid rising financial awareness and mobile-driven investing, as well as growing interest in wealth accumulation outside traditional savings accounts.

‘The product is now Sh30 billion, and when you look at the profile of clients there, 30 percent of assets, which comes to around Sh9 billion, is held by clients below the age of 30,’ said Paul Njoki, StanChart’s head of affluent banking and wealth management for Kenya and East Africa.

Mr Njoki further revealed that clients below the age of 40 account for more than 70 percent of investors within the fund, underlining the unusually young demographic profile emerging around the digital investment product.

Young money

This is in line with global trends.

Nearly a third of Generation Z have started investing by the time they reach early adulthood, more than any other generation at the same age, according to a new survey by the World Economic Forum.

Thirty percent of Gen Z – those aged between 18 and 27 – began investing in capital markets at university age compared with 15 percent of millennials and five percent of baby boomers, according to the poll, which surveyed 13,000 people across 13 countries.

Experts say investing has become increasingly popular among young people, driven by the emergence of mobile apps that charge little to no commission and the abundance of financial content available online.

Young people are much more likely than older generations to deploy artificial intelligence tools to help them invest.

Rapid growth

The Sh30 billion under the SC Shilingi Fund marks a sharp acceleration from three years ago when the fund stood at Sh1.25 billion, slightly less than a year after its rollout.

The latest disclosures now show the product has expanded 24 times from the portfolio reported in early 2023, reflecting explosive growth within the country’s increasingly competitive digital investment market.

StanChart launched the SC Shilingi Fund in February 2022, positioning it as a low-entry digital money market product accessible through the lender’s SC Mobile application.

The bank initially allowed customers to begin investing with as little as Sh1,000 before later lowering the minimum entry threshold further as competition intensified among digital savings and investment products.

The fund was developed in partnership with Sanlam Investments East Africa and global digital wealth technology provider Bambu as part of StanChart’s broader push into wealth management.

Digital shift

Money market funds mainly invest in short-term instruments such as government securities and fixed deposits, allowing investors relatively stable returns alongside easier access to cash compared with longer-term investments.

The strong uptake reflects a wider shift in Kenya’s financial sector where banks, insurers and fintech firms are increasingly targeting younger customers through mobile-first investment platforms with lower minimum contribution requirements.

Asset managers and insurers have, in recent years, accelerated the rollout of digital investment products, allowing customers to invest amounts as low as Sh100 in money market and unit trust products via smartphones.

Regulatory data shows that as at the close of last December, assets under management by money market funds dominated the Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) market, accounting for 56 percent at Sh423.66 billion.

The competition has intensified amid growing demand from younger professionals and salaried workers seeking alternatives to ordinary bank savings accounts that historically offered lower returns.

Kenya’s financial sector has in recent years witnessed rising convergence between banks, fintech firms, insurers and fund managers as institutions compete for digitally savvy customers seeking integrated investment and savings products.

The growth highlights how technology is lowering barriers to formal investment products previously associated with older clients and physically intensive onboarding processes.