Category: Business Daily

The Capital Markets Authority has been approving a growing number of special funds and multi-asset investment vehicles, signalling a notable shift in Kenya’s investment landscape.

From infrastructure-focused funds to private market vehicles and alternative asset products, fund managers are increasingly racing to tap into what many describe as the next frontier of wealth creation.

But behind the surge in approvals lies a more pressing question: are alternative investments truly reshaping wealth creation in Kenya, or are they the latest financial products riding a wave of sophistication and optimism?

For Joseph Kahinda, Head of Trading, Global Markets at Standard Investment Bank, the momentum reflects a market that is evolving in both appetite and complexity.

‘There is a lot of acceptance in the market of special funds,’ he says. ‘There is curiosity, and there is hunger for opportunities beyond conventional stocks and bonds.’

That shift, he explains, is driven by investors who are no longer satisfied with traditional buy-and-hold strategies in listed equities. Instead, they are searching for returns that are not only attractive but resilient across different market cycles.

But Kahinda is quick to add a caution: enthusiasm should not replace scrutiny.

‘If I need a portion of my investment, how easily can I access it?’ he asks. That question alone, he says, tells you a lot about the structure of the product.

For Kahinda, the rise of special funds is not a sign that investing has become simple or superior. Rather, it reflects a market becoming more complex, where opportunity and risk are increasingly intertwined.

Separating opportunity from hype

As alternative investment products multiply, a second challenge is emerging: distinguishing genuine opportunity from financial fashion.

Elizabeth Irungu, CEO of Absa Asset Management, says many products are being packaged in ways that make them appear equally attractive, particularly to retail investors who may lack the tools to interrogate them deeply.

‘The first test is simple: where are the returns coming from?’ she says. ‘If you cannot clearly identify what is driving the return, then that is a fad.’

For Elizabeth, the danger lies in narratives that replace fundamentals. Investors, she argues, must move beyond marketing language and focus on verifiable economic drivers.

‘Let us talk real numbers, because numbers never lie,’ she says. ‘You need to strip away the hype and understand what is actually creating value.’

She notes that valuation should always be anchored in something tangible-cash flows, underlying assets, or comparable market benchmarks. Without that anchor, pricing can become speculative rather than fundamental.

A key red flag, she warns, is when value depends primarily on participation rather than production.

The liquidity reality

Beyond valuation, liquidity remains one of the most misunderstood aspects of investing in alternative assets.

Different asset classes behave very differently when it comes to access and exit timelines, Elizabeth notes, and mismatched expectations can create financial strain.

‘If you are investing in a money market fund, liquidity is usually very quick-within a few days,’ she says.

‘But if you buy property, you should not expect to access your money quickly.’

The challenge, she observes, arises when investors treat long-term or illiquid assets as though they are easily convertible to cash. When urgent needs arise, that mismatch can become costly.

Risk is not optional

Elizabeth also points to risk assessment as one of the most overlooked disciplines in investing.

‘How many people actually know how to identify or measure risk in the assets they are buying?’ she asks.

Every legitimate investment, she argues, has identifiable risks that should be understood and accepted up front.

‘A proper asset will always have a risk you can define and say: I can live with this,’ she says.

She uses government bonds as an example. While often perceived as safe, they are still subject to market fluctuations.

‘When interest rates go up, bond prices go down. When rates go down, bond prices go up,’ she explains.

What concerns her most is the marketing of investments as ‘risk-free’.

‘When it is a sure bet, that is the biggest lie you can get from an investment manager,’ she says. ‘The basic question you should always ask is: what can go wrong?’

If that question cannot be answered clearly, she advises caution.

A system shift

As financial products become more sophisticated, the conversation is also shifting at an institutional level.

Ewart Salins, the director of the Kenya Association of Stockbrokers and Investment Banks (KASIB), says investors are increasingly being exposed to instruments such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), index funds, stablecoins and private market products-concepts that were once confined to institutional finance.

But he warns that understanding remains uneven.

Ewart also highlights how narrow many investors’ thinking remains, despite increasing global access.

Using Kenya as an example, he notes that many investors still concentrate heavily on local markets, despite their limited scale in a global context.

‘If you place Kenya globally, it is just a thin line-you can barely see it,’ he says.

That reality, he argues, underscores the importance of diversification and looking beyond familiar investment environments.

At an institutional level, attention is also shifting toward alternatives such as infrastructure investments, particularly through pension funds.

‘We are trying to get more trustees of pension funds to look at alternatives,’ he says. ‘We are ready to play ball and invest in infrastructure.’

However, he stresses that governance remains essential. Without strong oversight, innovation can quickly become risk.

As Kenya’s investment landscape expands, these experts agree that opportunity is growing, but so is complexity. The most valuable investment is not in any single fund, asset class or trend. It is in knowing the difference between opportunity and illusion.

WPP Scangroup founder and former CEO Bharat Thakrar is seeking the support of fellow minority shareholders to oust the firm’s board at the annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled for Monday in a rare show of investor activism.

Mr Thakrar on Monday kicked off a campaign calling on the minority shareholders to register and vote for the removal of the current board members and back a new team of directors at the June 8 AGM.

The minority shareholders, with a combined 13.59 percent stake, including MR Thakrar’s, forced the firm to include the ouster and election of new directors as part of the AGM, citing a string of poor financial performance.

The former CEO is lobbying the other minority shareholders to register and cast their vote against a board backed by WPP, escalating the fight between the founder and the UK firm, which first bought a stake in the firm in 2008 and now has a 56 percent stake.

Globally, activist investors have mounted a record number of attacks on companies as disgruntled shareholders sought to oust directors or force the sales of businesses whose share prices had languished.

Deepening losses

Kenya has witnessed fewer instances of activism, with cases of minority investors pushing publicly for change they believe will shore up profits and share prices being rare.

‘After years of deepening losses and eroding shareholder value, this is the moment for the voice of minority shareholders to be heard…Every vote counts, and the outcome will be decided by those who show up,’ said Mr Thakrar in a statement as he launched a social media campaign on the ouster bid.

‘This AGM is an opportunity to hold the current board accountable for the company’s performance and to support a credible path to recovery. A strong turnout from minority shareholders sends an unmistakable message. Please register, attend and vote. Your vote will matter.’

The AGM has listed the minority shareholders’ push under special business, coming after the ordinary business in which current board members-including Richard Omwela, Patricia Kiwanuka, Kagiso Musi, Nick Douglas and Manuel Segimon-have offered themselves for re-election.

The minority shareholders want the removal of the current board led by chairman Omwela.

Other board members whom the minority owners want out are Beverly Spencer Obatoyinbo, Peter Kimurwa, Patricia Kiwanuka, Patricia Helene Nuytemans, Jonathan Eggar, Shahid Sadiq and Tebogo Skwambane.

New directors

Mr Thakrar’s camp wants to replace the board with new directors, including the former CEO, Carl Ogola, Kunal Kamlesh Bid, Rishab Thakrar and 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.

The minority shareholders say the firm’s share price at the Nairobi bourse has declined 62 percent to Sh2.2 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, with an interest of five percent, arguing that the rate is lower than average deposits and lending rates at 6.86 percent and 16.85 percent, respectively.

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

Kenya has lost 6,715 shares at the African Development Bank (AfDB), valued at Sh11.9 billion, after it failed to complete annual subscription, affecting its ownership in the multilateral lender.

Latest disclosures by the bank show that Kenya’s shares at the end of December stood at 180,161, down from 186,876 at the end of 2024, diluting its shareholding to 1.034 percent from 1.16 percent.

The shares, which are valued at Sh11.9 billion, were taken by other countries in the AfDB, which is owned 8.5 percent by Egypt, Nigeria (7.6 percent) and the United States (5.5 percent).

An AfDB share is valued at Sh1.77 million, but countries are expected to pay only six percent of the going price to keep their shares. The remaining 94 percent is a commitment by the country that it will pay in case the bank goes into financial distress.

The drop came after the National Treasury defaulted on a Sh1.3 billion ($10 million) annual subscription fee meant to keep Kenya’s shareholding at the lender, a director at the ministry said.

According to the source, who requested anonymity, the government failed to pay part of the required Sh1.3 billion in time.

‘Every treasury has competing needs, including subscriptions to different international organisations. Sometimes they miss the payment deadline. At the AfDB, this means loss of shares, but it doesn’t matter that much,’ the source the said.

AfDB gives countries up to 120 days to pay the expected subscription fees for the period, after which they forfeit the shares corresponding to the unpaid capital.

The shares can be bought by another country.

Last year, many of the lost shares by different countries were bought by Egypt, which raised its shares at the bank from 921,766 to 1.48 million, increasing its control from 5.7 to 8.5 percent and toppling Nigeria to become the single largest shareholder.

A higher shareholding at the bank means a bigger say in its lending, programmes and even appointment of leadership positions, including the bank’s president and vice-president.

To get a loan approved under the Group’s non-concessional arm, a country needs at least 67 percent of the votes to favour it, while for the concessional African Development Fund arm, it needs 70 percent.

African countries own a combined 60 percent of the bank, while non-regional members like the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and China own the remaining 40 percent.

Having a bigger say at the lender makes it easier to get projects and loans approved, the source at the National Treasury said, but African countries often vote in unison.

Failure by the National Treasury to complete the annual subscription followed a cash crunch in the country.

‘We have been facing budget challenges. Sometimes we delay even paying salaries as the Kenya Revenue Authority may fail to deliver. That means we must cut expenditure,’ the source said, adding that the reduced shareholding is not an indication of Kenya’s lower support to the bank.

‘Kenya pledged a significant amount during the 17th replenishment of the AfDB Fund, our concessional lending arm, and that must have encouraged several African countries to contribute to the Fund for the first time,’ he said.

He added that Kenya is one of the countries that want to increase their shareholding at the bank.

‘I know we can temporarily lose the shares, but we will get them back, if you look at it in the long term,’ he added.

Kenya’s shareholding at the AfDB jumped dramatically in 2019, more than doubling from 93,610 or 1.447 percent, to 204,481, or 2.068 percent, but started faltering in 2022 at the peak of global macroeconomic disruptions.

The decline comes at a time President William Ruto has expressed commitment to increase Kenya’s shareholding in African multilateral financiers through capital injections. He says that will strengthen their ability to finance African solutions.

When he hosted the AfDB annual meeting in May 2024, President Ruto said the government would inject more capital in AfDB, the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) and the Africa Export-Import Bank.

Last year, Kenya injected an additional $100 million (Sh12.9 billion) in TDB and $50 million (Sh6.5 billion) in Afreximbank, but is yet to put more in the AfDB as promised.

In recent years, Kenya has increased reliance on the multilateral lender for loans, rising to become the bank’s third-largest recipient of debt disbursements in 2025 and displacing Nigeria.

In the region, only Tanzania increased its shares at the institution, while others like Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan saw their shareholding decline. Somalia’s has remained constant.

The first thing you notice when you walk into Njoki Gitahi’s rented apartment in Kasarani is the sense that something alive is filling the room.

There are about 31 plants, arranged with care and knowledge of where each one belongs.

There is a zebra plant climbing towards the window, an echeveria in a terracotta pot with thick, architectural leaves, and a young pothos on the shelf that she bought in March, which is already outgrowing its spot. On the floor stand three snake plants with tall, striped leaves in pale green and gold.

‘This space reflects who I am and what is in my heart,” she says.

However, there is a particular kind of grief that comes with renting, especially in Nairobi, which is rarely spoken about directly. Leases end, landlords sell up, buildings are converted for other uses, and neighbourhoods change.

You move in, you make a home, and then, at some point, you have to leave. After experiencing this enough times, most tenants learn to live lightly and keep the walls plain and the shelves sparse.

Two years ago, Njoki started her indoor gardening, and as a journalist by profession, she thought she had brought the same careful instinct to choosing the plants for her house. At her favourite nursery on Ngong Road, she chose a snake plant, a monstera and a few succulents. Within days, the succulents were gone, and, within weeks, everything else had followed.

“I didn’t give up, and in fact, I went back for more,” she says.

Before making that first purchase, she had been planning to buy artificial plants, but a friend made her change her mind.

‘Why not get living plants, nurture them well, and enjoy the process?’ he told her. At the time, this was an unfamiliar idea to her. I didn’t know anyone who kept houseplants,” she recalls.

This time, she did her research. She followed plant content creators on social media, mostly Americans talking about topics such as indirect light, drainage and soil composition, until the logic became clear. Then she started her second batch with a better understanding of what she was doing.

She now knows that general advice such as ‘water once a week’ and ‘keep in bright light’ is just a starting point, not a rule.

‘My apartment is not like the one in the tutorial. My window faces a different direction, and my soil dries at a different rate,’ she says.

Because of this, she waters her succulents from the bottom by setting the pots in a basin of water and fertiliser, letting them absorb it through the roots.

She also learnt the hard way that direct afternoon sunlight through glass can burn leaves, after finding scorched patches on a plant that had been moved too close to the window. She now checks the soil with her finger before watering. If it still feels damp, she leaves it.

‘You can Google it all you like,” she says. “But you still have to learn for yourself.’

“Keeping plants has taught me patience,” says Njoki. “Growth takes time. You either show up regularly or you don’t, and plants make the consequences of that choice very clear. Learning to appreciate them as they are has made me softer and more thoughtful, not just with plants, but with people too.’

Across town in Utawala, interior designer Dickson Mwangi keeps six plants indoors and a dozen more on his balcony. He travels frequently between Nairobi, Mogadishu and Addis Ababa, so most of his plants are hardy. When he is home, he wakes up at three or four in the morning to water them thoroughly, knowing they must survive until he returns.

‘When a plant dies, you don’t want to be around it. But when they’re thriving, I just don’t want to be anywhere else,’ he says.

Unlike Njoki, Dickson learnt through experience. His connection to plants stems from childhood memories of two rose bushes at home – red at the front and white at the back.

People collected them for Valentine’s Day, and although he didn’t understand why, the roses captured his imagination.

Curiously, he does not know the names of most of his plants. ‘To me, a plant is not its name. It’s their colour, their posture, the way they fill a corner or catch the afternoon light,’ he says.

The only plant he knows by name is the spider plant, valued for its air-purifying qualities.

His most expensive purchase was a Dancing Lady orchid for Sh5,600. His most recent acquisition cost nothing: a cutting that was knocked loose by a landscaping tractor, which he carried through a 12-hour shift wrapped in a wet serviette.

Three days after planting, it had rooted.

Frequent travel means he has to choose drought-resistant varieties and cluster balcony plants together for shade. He also has to inform vendors of his schedule before buying. Nevertheless, he estimates that he has lost seven plants in the past month alone. He even blames his Wi-Fi router: “Every plant I put near it died within three weeks. I then moved the router.’

Dickson believes that plants can sense energy, and that visitors with bad intentions cause them to dry up. He has stopped inviting certain people back.

‘You might read all of this as superstition, but it is at least partly the result of paying very close attention to living things over a long period of time,’ he says.

In Rongai, Aisha Kamau has 11 plants on the shelves around her one-bedroom apartment.

Twice, her two-year-old son Zuri has pulled leaves off the pothos on the kitchen counter. She could not scold him. ‘He’s just curious. He wants to know what everything is.’

Before buying any plant, she made sure that it was safe for children. The pothos sits high on the counter because it is mildly toxic if eaten.

The lower shelves only hold non-toxic varieties. “John, my plant vendor, told me which ones to avoid. I went home and confirmed it online. I wasn’t taking any chances.’

The cat was another matter, though. Her kitten, Ndovu, knocked over pots, chewed through her monstera and pulled her echeveria off the shelf until the pot broke and the plant died. ‘I tried everything. I moved the plants around. I got him toys. Nothing worked. He wasn’t a bad cat. He just didn’t care about the things I cared about.’ She eventually gave Ndovu to her cousin in Kiserian.

After Zuri was born, Aisha began keeping plants, initially to improve air quality. However, she continued for a different reason: ‘When everything is loud, the plants are still. They don’t need anything from me urgently.’ Zuri now points at the plants, waiting for their names.

She tells him the names, and he repeats them, often mispronouncing them. She tells him again anyway.

Rose Losenja has run her nursery opposite Jamhuri Primary School for 25 years. She has watched Nairobi’s indoor plant market grow steadily, with a large proportion of her customers now being apartment dwellers.

‘Bathrooms suit violets and small succulents that can tolerate humidity and low light. Kitchens benefit from golden palms, monstera and herb pots containing rosemary and mint.

Bedrooms are ideal for monstera and spider plants. Hallways with little natural light suit Brazilian green plants and other low-light varieties.

But why do so many apartment plants die?

Rose blames vendors who sell without providing guidance. ‘They just want to make a sale, so the buyer goes home with a plant and no information about how often to water it, how much light it needs, or what kind of soil it requires. When that plant dies, it’s often not the owner’s fault, but the result of poor guidance.’

The most common mistake she sees is overwatering. ‘Water them twice a week at most. Doing it every day can drown the roots.’

She advises asking before buying if you have children or pets. Some plants are toxic: For example, dieffenbachia causes mouth irritation if chewed, philodendron and pothos are harmful if ingested, and peace lilies are toxic to cats and dogs.

Placement is key: keep toxic plants on high shelves rather than avoiding them altogether. ‘A knowledgeable vendor will be able to tell you which plants to avoid. If they cannot answer that question, go somewhere else.’

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.

A parliamentary committee has backed the creation of a Sh5 billion public participation fund to finance projects proposed by citizens during budget hearings, opening a new spending vote even as the government implements austerity measures.

The allocation, included in the National Treasury’s 2026/27 budget estimates, will finance projects and policy interventions raised during parliamentary public participation forums, including stalled development projects, teacher recruitment and medical staffing.

The new spending vote, dubbed Strategic Response to Public Initiatives/Public Participation, has been approved by the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning after its review of the Treasury’s budget estimates.

Treasury officials say the programme is intended to ensure proposals made by citizens during annual budget consultations are not ignored once public hearings conclude.

‘This relates to projects identified through public participation through the parliamentary process. This list is normally approved by Parliament,’ Albert Mwenda, director-general for Budget, Fiscal and Economic Affairs at the National Treasury, told the Business Daily.

Citizen proposals

Each year, Parliament’s Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) compiles recommendations collected during public hearings held across the country while reviewing budget estimates.

The submissions typically include fiscal proposals, policy directives and development priorities raised by citizens, lobby groups, professionals and community organisations.

In previous budget cycles, many of the proposals adopted by Parliament remained unimplemented because of funding constraints despite being incorporated into committee reports.

In its report on the current 2025/26 budget, for instance, the BAC directed the Treasury to conduct a comprehensive audit of stalled and slow-moving projects by March 2026 to determine whether they should be terminated, consolidated or fast-tracked.

The committee also backed funding for the Teachers’ Service Commission to transition intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms to address staffing shortages in junior secondary schools. The proposal was not implemented after the Treasury cited a lack of funds.

Read: Paradox of teacher shortage despite record recruitment

Similarly, the Ministry of Health had been directed to prioritise the deployment and funding of medical interns and confirm more than 8,500 Universal Health Coverage workers employed on contract terms.

Spending scrutiny

‘The committee recommends an allocation of Sh5 billion under Strategic Response to Public Initiatives/Public Participation,’ the Finance and Planning Committee, chaired by Molo MP Kuria Kimani, said in its report.

The proposal now awaits debate and approval by the National Assembly as part of the 2026/27 budget estimates.

If passed, attention will shift to how the Treasury operationalises the fund, including project selection criteria, accountability structures and oversight mechanisms governing expenditure.

The allocation has, however, drawn scrutiny over the Treasury’s spending priorities at a time when ministries and State agencies are facing deep cuts in travel, training, hospitality and office operations as part of efforts to contain expenditure amid below-target tax receipts and rising debt-servicing costs.

The Finance and Planning Committee has consequently reduced the Treasury’s training budget from Sh250 million to Sh9 million, while expenditure on office supplies has been cut from Sh485 million to Sh12 million.

Hospitality spending was similarly reduced from Sh232 million to Sh12 million as lawmakers intensified pressure on ministries to curb recurrent expenditure and redirect resources towards development priorities.

Jagat Shah has a few things to say about money. ‘It is only a commodity.’

‘Money buys experience; experience winds up with the money.’ Money, he says, adds no real happiness to life. He should know. As the driving force behind Mitsumi Distribution, he has made plenty of it. ‘Enough for my children’s children not to run out of,’ he says.

But he hopes his children choose differently. He knew only work. Nearly 200 days a year in the air. Living out of suitcases. Chasing growth across continents.

Has it been worth it? ‘It has,’ he says, yet there are moments when he hears the bell tolling. He cannot stop. But he can spend more time with family.

He still lives with his brother, his right-hand man, Mitesh Shah, since their days back in a living room on Mutithi Road – a stone’s throw from where Mitsumi stands today.

The bill for success, he admits, is often paid at home. ‘My daughters say, ‘Dad, you have not been giving us time.” This, he does not deny. He is not so much a guilty man in torment as an innocent man tormented by guilt.

Jagat, when I pop open the hood, what will I find?

I am an electronics engineer who came to Kenya in 1994 as one of the first Windows engineers in the country. I worked for a company for three years before starting my own repair shop, Mitsumi Computer Garage.

As we built relationships and repaired people’s computers, customers started giving us orders. Slowly, I moved into selling computers.

In 2007, we diversified into distribution. That gave us a chance to expand into East Africa, then West Africa and later the Middle East. We put up a team in Dubai and shifted the headquarters there. I built a strong management team that is now running the business, and that has worked very well for our expansion.

You started in a living room on Mutithi Road. What do you miss about that man now?

Oh, that man was freer. Today I am so tied up. I cannot give time to myself. I came here when I was 25 years old. Of course, life was different. You had less of everything, but there was much more me-time , which is not there anymore.

But I am really happy because we have more than 1,000 employees. Their families are growing. Their children are joining us. I am proud of what we have built.

What were you worried about then?

How I would succeed because there was no capital. I came to work for somebody else. My monthly pay started at about Sh8,000 and I was wondering how I would grow and meet my monthly expenses.

Opportunities came along the way, but I worked very hard and people appreciated the ethical way we did business. That is what brought repeat customers and success.

What are you still worried about now?

[Chuckles] Health. The way we keep travelling and running around without giving ourselves enough time. Health is one of the things I worry about.

How are you keeping healthy?

I am currently healthy, but I have some lifestyle diseases, such as high blood pressure. That comes with age, but it is also part of business. You need to spend time on yourself to maintain yourself.

Speaking of that, how do you spend time on yourself?

There are social moments with friends. I meet them once a week for Koroga.

As far as health is concerned, I do not get enough time. I try to go to the gym once or twice a week. Saturdays and Sundays are family time.

Most of my happy moments are spent with friends.

Do people ever tell you no?

Yeah. Even my team tells me no. We like people who tell you face-to-face and say, ‘No boss, this is wrong’. And then correct us. Because you do not know everything.

What can you tell me about success that only you can?

There is no shortcut to success. You need to work hard. Most importantly, you need to be ethical. As people grow and become bigger, they want to work with ethical companies and ethical people. There is no substitute for ethics.

We see the successes, what do we not see?

The failures. I started call centres, which failed. I started a shoe manufacturing company and a textile business, which failed. I started an internet company, which actually did well and we sold it to Zuku. We succeeded in distribution, but many other businesses failed.

What is your view of a good life?

The reason I left Dubai and came back to Kenya is that life there felt very artificial. It is first-world living. But the closeness I see among people here and the friendships we have built in Kenya are what I value most. That is why Mitesh and I stayed here, despite our management team being based in Dubai. I want to meet people, make friends and spend time with them. Life is not only about business and money.

What is the best thing a friend has done for you?

There are many so many down times a businessman faces, when you are stressed and need somebody to talk to. That is when your friends help, you know. My friends are very close to me. Whenever we are down, I say, ‘Okay, don’t worry.’ Sometimes you need connections. Your friends may know somebody who knows somebody. It is not one thing. Friends do everything.

If I were to read only one chapter of your life, what would it be?

I was born in Uganda. My father was a school teacher. But when I came to Kenya, that is when my life really started – the struggles, the twists and turns of business and the growth that followed. And, of course, many friends helped along the way.

Your father was a teacher. What kind of father are you?

I am a businessman, but I spend a lot of time in the evenings with my children. I really love them. We are now training Mitesh’s son to take over.

What do you wish you had done differently as a father?

Give more time to my children. [Chuckles]

If you did that, you would not be here, right?

That is the balance we need to strike. When children have school activities, you are often stressed and distracted by work. I do not remember a single day when I dropped my children at school. I have never done that. I may have attended one or two school meetings, but it was mostly my wife who handled those responsibilities.

Is that a regret?

Of course.

What do you hope your children remember about you when they are your age?

I have given them a platform. They should balance their lives better than I did. Not like me, rushing and rushing. They should give more time to their own children.

Do you think you can stop?

No, stopping is not an option. Because I, Mitesh, or most businessmen, are not the type who would sit back and do nothing. I want to spend more time giving back to society. We have started many charitable initiatives and CSR programmes. I want to spend more time on those.

If I stripped away all your titles, what remains?

My identity is tied to my work. That is what my life has been about. Outside work, there is very little. In fact, when I am free at home, I still want to do something – whether it is charity, education or community work. So, if you take work away from me, there is very little left.

How has your meaning of life evolved?

What we could not do ourselves is what we want our children to do. Spend more time with people, friends and family. Have a balanced life.

Success is not only measured in business. It can be measured through community, society and giving. There are many ways to define success. When we did not have money, we did not understand that. Now that they do, I hope they understand it.

Were you always an ambitious child?

My father was a primary school teacher. We had a very thin budget. We were expelled from Uganda and left everything behind. The ambition to do something big was always there. Mitesh and I started our first business while we were still in school. He was in Year 10 and I was in Year 12. We bought and sold things. That early, we understood that you needed to earn.

How lonely is success?

My life is not lonely at all. I am always with my work, my family or myself.

When you look back at your 54 years, what feelings come to you?

Well, I am very happy with what I have done. I could not have done better. I have no regrets. In every phase of life, for myself, for society and for my children, I am proud of what I have achieved. The only thing missing is the time that was never given.

What life lessons do you swear by?

Have a balanced life. Give more time to your children. Show them the value of life, not only the value of money and business.

What have your children taught you about life?

It is this one thing: ‘Dad, you have not been giving me time.’ One of my daughters got married a year and a half ago.

How does that make you feel?

You know, every time my daughter leaves, I do not like it. They have been with me all my life. Of course, I want to see them get married and settle down, but I still do not like it [chuckles]. In our Asian community, children do not really leave home. They stay with us.

You run this business with your brother. In most family businesses there is always infighting. How have you managed?

We still live together in one house. It is a big house in Kyuna. We still have one kitchen and one dining room. He has two daughters and a son. I have three daughters and a son. Everybody is one family.

Is this something you decided?

Yes. It comes from childhood. We have always been like that. Mitesh and I never fight. Of course, he respects me a lot. Sometimes we may disagree, but he takes it positively.

Sometimes we do not get time to meet during the day, but every evening, after dinner, we sit together, watch television and discuss work.

How has that been for both your families?

They love each other. They do not like being alone.

What matters less to you now?

Money. I cannot spend what I have in this lifetime. So I am not earning for myself anymore. Of course, I still have more than 1,000 families depending on the business, so I have to continue. But even if I retired, I think the next generation would do well.

What does money mean to you now?

It has become a commodity. It is no longer a need. I have come to understand that money comes and goes. It does not add any real happiness. Once you get it [chuckles], you realise that.

When we were struggling and starting out, money was the only thing that mattered. Today, I know it does not add even a single thing to your happiness.

What is a mistake you made about money, and what did you learn from it?

Well, I made many bad investments. I tried to make money very quickly and got conned. Somebody comes and tells you, ‘I will multiply your money.’ You give it to them and they disappear [chuckles].

I have learned that only hard-earned money grows.

What do you have that money cannot buy?

Friendship, happiness and family time.

When money comes, family time goes. To manage money, you must give it time, and that time is usually taken from your family.

With all this money, how did you know who to trust?

That is a bit of a problem. Take a charity organisation, for example. If you want to donate, you are not always going to the ground to verify everything yourself. You look at the person running it. If you believe they are ethical and trustworthy, then you trust them and move forward.

But what if it is someone who wants to be a friend?

You know what? I think I am losing more and more friends as I become more successful. My circle keeps shrinking.

Why?

That is what success brings. People assume you are busy. They say, ‘Let us not call him.’ So you end up having to look for your friends rather than the other way round.

How is that for you as a man?

My inner circle is made up of four or five very close friends. Those are the people I spend most of my time with now.

Of course, you know many people in the market. But when you are out, it is usually those same four or five faces you see every day.

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

When I was young, my only goal was to be successful. I did not have anything else in mind because I came from very humble beginnings. If you had asked me 15 years ago, I would still have said the same thing: work, work, work. Business, business, business. Money, money, money.

What has success not fixed?

Success does not fix many things.

It brings its own problems, your health, the lack of time and not being able to do what you actually want to do. If I wanted to play golf every day, I could not. I have the money, but I do not have the time.

Why is there no time? I imagine you can delegate.

It is always like that, but my mind keeps asking: ‘What is new? What is next?’

It has become a habit. You cannot just sit and do nothing.

What tips do you have for surviving adulthood?

You need to be very focused on what you want to do.

Life gives you many opportunities, some good and some bad. The choices you make in your 20s define who you become.

I have seen many friends choose different paths. Mitesh and I chose work, work, work. I think that decision created a huge difference between where they are and where we are today.

Decide what you want from life.

What is something most people misunderstand about leadership?

Haha! People often think that if you are sitting at the top, you must be arrogant. They assume all you think about is money and that success automatically makes you arrogant.

What is the most important question someone has asked you?

‘When are you retiring?’

Haha! I do not think I ever will. I love working. I may slow down and focus on different things, but I cannot sit back and do nothing.

What do you think that 24 or 25-year-old boy in that living room on Mutithi Road is telling the man sitting across from me today?

He would probably say that the excessive pressure and running around was not necessary.

Every other day I was on an international flight. For nearly 200 days a year I was out of the country. Looking back, a lot of that was not needed.

Covid slowed us down and taught us that work can still happen without constant travel. These days we have reduced that to about 150 days a year.

And what would you tell that boy?

Organising your life is more important than money. Once you become successful, you understand that.

Jagat, what do you wish people understood about you more?

I am very strict when it comes to management. I have more than 50 companies. If I ask you to do something, it is your responsibility to come back and report on it. It is not my job to chase you for updates.

I am tough on that, and some people are genuinely afraid of that side of me.

Do people ever see you beyond the money?

Yes. I have many friends.