Category: Business Daily

Dickson Matata has always wanted to do something with his life. And from a young age, he sought to contribute to the grand circle of accomplishments, his own version of building the nation.

The founder of Rhythm and Brunch and Millennial Cookout may not see the correlation, but the causation that led him here is evident: ‘I’ve always wanted to be the kind of guy who brings people together,’ he says. ‘In high school, I’d organise events through the journalism and drama club.’

That seed that sprouted in high school fully bloomed during the Covid-19 period, and its fruit was an events company. ‘I used to hate going to clubs. Because the clubs were the same, they played the same music and were rowdy. I could not see the value of clubbing anymore.’

‘I figured I could come up with an event where I could enjoy music from my millennial era, artists like Liquideep, in the park or a garden, a day party, and by midnight everyone is back home.’

That was not the day Rhythm and Brunch was born, but it was the day it was christened, holding its first event in March 2024 at The Location in Kilimani, followed by three editions there each month before moving to Tigoni in August 2024 for large-scale events. Since then, Rhythm and Brunch has been held three times a year. Ditto Millennial Cookout, which kicked off in January 2025.

There is, he agrees, a lot of clamour for the millennial pocket. ‘To be fair,’ he says, ‘We were the first guys to do events for millennials. Now, everyone is doing it.’

‘The difference between our events and the other events is that, for us, we are very intentional. We are doing it as a passion. We try to twist our events and create so much competitive advantage in many ways that even if you try to copy our events, it’s not the same.’

In a universe where events and hangouts are facsimiles of the same original, this game is decided only by who are the more faithful version. That’s where the money is.

‘We sat down and looked for what takes up most of our costs. And the thing that came up top was furniture for events.’

Now, they make their own furniture, with everyone getting a seat, which reduces the cost of running their events. They also do their own bar, which earns them a significant chunk to complement their ticket prices.

‘Brands see what we are doing, and they trust us more, and that leads to long-term partnerships. Which is how we plan for the year and bring in big artistes.’

‘One thing we tried to do from the jump for Rhythm was brand positioning it as a premium event. And I think that has given us so much leverage, because we can attract the right crowd and bring on board the right artists, the people that we work with. And I think the market has seen that.’ In his business, credibility balances the profit-loss ledger.

Behind the Millennial Cookout fire is fuel kindled by millennials’ nostalgia. ‘People were looking for community, and we gave it to them. Nostalgia is the biggest currency when it comes to such events. Meeting your old friends from high school and university, or bopping to the music that raised you.’

But what happens when nostalgia fades out? ‘I think that’s a very big bucket that I don’t think people will ever get rid of. We try to evolve with every event. So if you attend Millennial Cookout in March and you attend the next one in June, it’s a totally different experience.’

‘However, in the next maybe 10 to 15 years, most millennials will be older. Right now, as a company, we’re also trying to venture into other events, especially for Gen-Z.’

It’s been a hard road, no matter how easy he makes it seem. In 2023, he says, they brought WSTRN, a band from the UK, but the ticket pricing strategy was off.

‘We believed the brands would run after us, but we ended up running after them.’ They lost about Sh2 million.

To plan a single event can take up to six months, he says. ‘I must estimate the number of tickets we need to sell, which is usually 3,000. Then we do the estimates for the bar, tickets, and sponsors. Then we see if it is workable.’

On average, his core team of 10 includes his co-founder and two agencies that they work with, one for PR and another for branding. ‘Everyone else is outsourced based on need, including a pool of creatives and production teams.’

Is his biggest competition freshness or sameness? ‘Boredom. One of the key things I talk about in events is the ability to become agile. If you come to an event two months apart, you should get a very different experience.’

‘When we started Rhythm and Brunch, it was a DJ-only event, old school music and all. We were slowly losing touch. So this year for Valentine’s Day, we brought a band from the UK, Sol and the Gang, and they performed three sets in intervals of DJ, band, DJ, band, DJ, band. And that changed the entire dynamic of the event, because now this is live music of your favourite old school R and B music.’

Matata credits word of mouth as his go-to channel of marketing. Success, after all, loves a witness.

Everyone wants to be exclusive but still feel included, hence why everyone gets a seat and VIP treatment. ‘We also try to price our tickets not so low and not so high, to also filter who comes.’

Why do millennials need these kinds of events right now? ‘The main reason is why not?’ he says. ‘People are so busy, and they barely go out anymore. They are looking for a space for a day event, meet friends from the past, meet new people, and by midnight, they are back home.’

This year, Matata will be stepping down from being the totem and brand manager. ‘We will be getting brand managers for both events. That way, they can bring new ideas and freshness.’

Having been in the trenches, he offers a view none can. ‘I think people do events for the wrong reasons. Just because someone else has opened a shop does not mean you should open a shop there too. Because they’re just there for profit, not caring about the customer experience.’

The major challenge he is facing now is liquidity. For instance, to book the American R and B artist Joe required a down payment of Sh12 million, four months before the event.

‘Because the events are very capital-intensive, we normally just break even and make something from the event. But most of the time, most of the money will come way after. It’s because maybe Brand X came on board, and they’re going to pay after 60 days. To run an events company, you need to be liquid.’

If it all works out, what does he see in his crystal ball? ‘A very big cultural event that we can do a festival for three days, but each day headlined by a different legacy artiste. For Rhythm and Brunch, we are looking at destination events and travel, like in Zanzibar.’

Now 35, newly married, and with a seven-month-old baby, Matata is setting up a board of directors for governance. It’s the next logical step up, recognising when the beat has changed and sashaying to the new rhythm. ‘But if someone comes on board and they offer us good money to sell,’ he says, ‘Why not?’

The Danish Government has temporarily suspended processing of some applications for internships in the Scandinavian country’s green sector as well as jobs for herdsmen and farm managers, citing doubts on the authenticity of academic papers from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) said the move affects applications for residence and work permits for internships in cases where applicants are said to have been educated in the three East African nations.

‘This applies, in the first instance, to applications for residence and work permits as an intern, as well as for herdsman and farm manager, where the applicant in their current or previous application has stated that they have an education from Uganda, Tanzania, or Kenya,’ SIRI said.

‘Applications for a residence and work permit as an accompanying family member to the affected applicant group are also included. This applies as well to applications where the applicant is already staying in Denmark and wants to change their internship host, or wants to apply as a herdsman after the end of their internship,’ it added.

The agency under the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration revealed that tightened rules on processing of applications from Uganda for a residence and work permit for an agricultural internship in February 2026 unearthed suspicious academic documents linked to the trio.

‘The stricter case processing has uncovered conditions, including patterns in grade information as well as other aspects of the submitted educational documents, that give cause for severe doubt about the authenticity and the contents of the submitted educational documents from applicants with an educational background from Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, where similar patterns have been observed,’ SIRI said.

As part of the stricter case processing, applicants who were in the process of getting a residence permit were invited for interviews before a decision was made on their requests.

This was targeted at verifying the applicants’ credibility and whether they genuinely fulfilled the conditions in order to get a residence and work permit in Denmark.

Denmark said that applicants affected by the suspension would be informed directly, even as it expected to resume processing applications by June 2026.

Agriculture is an economic mainstay in Denmark, with approximately 60 percent of the landmass in the Scandinavian country under farming. Nearly three-quarters of the Danish land is under cultivation for livestock feed.

Kenya faces a major crisis with thousands of fake academic papers routinely used to secure employment, both in private and public sectors.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) have stepped purges against forged academic certificates with some civil servants being dragged to court and convicted. The EACC estimates that more than 500 public officers in Kenya hold fake academic documents.

Several public and private institutions in Kenya today are forced to verify the authenticity of academic certificates to help deal with the menace.

For instance, a report by the PSC shows than in the 2023/24 financial year, some 449 civil servants in Kenya were shown the door for using forged academic papers to secure employment and promotion. The Postal Corporation of Kenya in 2024 revealed that 29 of its staff were fired over forged academic papers.

For a long time, we were told global trade was about efficiency: Who can produce what cheapest, fastest, and at scale. That narrative worked for a while. But today, trade is no longer just about economics.

It is about who controls access, who manages risks involved, and who quietly gains influence while everyone else is busy counting export figures. It’s about leverage, influence, and positioning. In other words, the polite dinner conversation has quietly turned into a chess match.

Introduction of China’s zero-tariff policy for African countries, set to take effect on 1st of May 2026, sits right at the centre of this shift.

This policy was announced by China’s President Xi Jinping on February 14, granting zero-tariff treatment to 53 African countries, that have established diplomatic relations with the Asian giant.

On the surface, it’s simple: African goods, particularly agricultural products, can enter the Chinese market duty-free, a clear economic opening.

For Kenya, that sounds like a win, and to be fair, it is. It lowers the cost of entry into a vast market and creates immediate opportunities for agricultural exports.

Tea, coffee, avocados and horticulture farmers stand to benefit greatly. Its also allowing Kenya to diversify away from its traditional reliance on Europe and the United States. Kenyan farmers are staring at access to one of the largest consumer markets in the world.

That’s not a small thing. That’s like being invited to the biggest buffet in the global economy and being told, ‘Don’t worry about the entry fee.’

But here’s where international relations steps in and says, ‘Let’s not just look at the plate, let’s look at who owns the restaurant.’ For global relations analysts, it raises a more interesting question: what kind of economic relationship is being built underneath these opportunities?

From a soft power perspective, the zero-tariff policy strengthens China’s narrative considerably. The message from China is clear and consistent: ‘We are partners.’ ‘We respect your sovereignty.’ ‘No political conditions.’

Compared to more conditional frameworks such as African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which comes with eligibility rules and governance expectations, China’s approach feels… lighter. Less paperwork, fewer lectures, more action.

And then there’s the visible part: Roads get built, railways appear and trade expands. Agoa is rules-based, conditional and selective. The Chinese model on the other hand is broad, less conditional and integrated, encapsulating infrastructure, finance and trade.

By lowering tariffs, China is not simply encouraging trade, it is deepening economic ties and positioning itself as a central partner across Africa. No one is being forced into anything. That’s what makes it effective. Influence, in modern trade, does not arrive loudly. It shows up as convenience, consistency, and opportunity.

Best case scenario is that Kenya uses China’s market to grow exports, invest in value addition and diversifies its trade partners. That’s interdependence, a healthy, balanced relationship, which is the accurate description of China-Africa trade today. It is mutual, active, and growing. One side has more capital intensity and market scale. The other has more resource depth.

If there is one sector where the zero-tariff opportunity becomes especially clear, it is coffee.

China is undergoing a quiet but significant shift from a tea-dominant culture to one where coffee is increasingly a part of daily life.

This shift is being driven largely by young people aged 20 to 35 years, who account for roughly 75 percent of coffee consumers. For them, coffee is not just about caffeine. It is about lifestyle, convenience, and a certain modern identity.

The scale of growth is striking. China’s coffee market was projected to exceed 1 trillion RMB (approximately $138 billion in 2025, thanks to the growing coffee culture. There are now more than 67,000 coffee shops across the country, with 12,000 new cafés opened in 2024 alone.

For Kenya, the policy is both an opportunity and a signal. The agricultural sector stands to gain meaningful access to a vast market.

Agricultural exports become more competitive, new sectors can target the 1.4-billion-person market and trade diversification becomes more achievable.

It also reflects a deeper reality: trade today is not just about what you sell. It is about who you align with, how you grow, and how much control you retain over your economic future.

So yes, Kenya has been invited to the table.

The real question is: will it just eat, or will it learn how to run the kitchen?

This is not just a trend. It is a structural shift in consumption. And for Kenya, it presents a timely opportunity to supply a market that is not only large, but still expanding.

However, the opportunity comes with an important note.

While China is consuming more coffee, it is also becoming better at producing it. The Yunnan region has evolved into a significant coffee-growing area, improving both quality and output, particularly in Arabica beans. Chinese coffee is now reaching international markets from Europe to the Middle East.

This changes the competitive landscape. Kenya is entering a market that is also developing its own supply. For Kenyan coffee farmers, this means competing not only with established global exporters, but also with domestic producers who have the advantage of proximity, lower transport costs, and a strong local support.

This does not close the door for Kenya, but it does redefine the strategy. Kenya’s strength has never been volume. It has always been quality. Its coffee is globally recognized for its distinct flavours and premium positioning. As China’s market matures and consumers preferring higher-quality products, that’s where the advantage lies.

But quality alone is not enough. To compete effectively, Kenya must position its coffee deliberately. Building on its brand recognition, and ensuring consistent supply. In a competitive market, differentiation is not optional. It is survival.

While coffee is central to the conversation, it is not the only opportunity. Kenyan tea, for example, is gaining traction in China’s evolving beverage culture, particularly in milk-based tea variations. Similarly, rising middle-class incomes are driving demand for products like avocados and macadamia.

Kenya’s success in China will depend not on a single export, but on a diversified agricultural portfolio that can respond to multiple types of demand.

Important to note also is that the broader trade relationship between Kenya and China highlights a structural imbalance. China exports more to Kenya than it imports, resulting in a trade gap.

This is a reminder that market access does not automatically lead to balanced trade. Without stronger export capacity and diversification, Kenya risks maintaining its role as a supplier of raw materials while continuing to import higher-value manufactured goods. It is a familiar pattern, and one that requires deliberate effort to change.

The greatest constraint may not be demand, but supply.

Meeting the expectations of the Chinese market requires scale, consistency, and efficiency. This means investing in agricultural productivity, improving logistics, and strengthening value chains.

There is also an opportunity for knowledge exchange. Shared experiences between Kenya and China in high agritech advancements can contribute to improved production capabilities. But this requires intentional investment and long-term planning, because access without capacity is simply potential: impressive on paper, but difficult to sustain in practice.

Conclusively, China’s zero-tariff policy is not simply a trade gesture. It is part of a broader shift in how global economic relationships are being structured.

The policy arrives at a time when the global trade environment is increasingly tense, marked by shifting tariff regimes and growing economic uncertainty.

China’s move is in many ways, a refreshing one. It reflects a degree of policy consistency, following through on commitments and contributing to a more positive signal in global trade.

Confidence after all, is not just a by-product of trade; it is one of its foundations. When confidence rises, markets respond, opportunities expand, and value follows.

Seven State departments exhausted their full-year recurrent budget allocations in less than nine months, underscoring mounting pressure on public finances and partly prompting the Treasury to seek an additional Sh206.12 billion to fund day-to-day government operations.

Treasury data show the departments – spanning the presidency, security, social protection and health – had already exceeded their original full-year recurrent allocations by the end of March 2026.

Recurrent spending covers salaries and allowances, operations and maintenance, administrative costs, and transfers such as pensions and social benefits.

During the nine months to March 2026, total recurrent expenditure rose 18.16 percent year-on-year to Sh1.17 trillion, from Sh991.75 billion in a similar period last year and Sh905.78 billion in the same period of the 2023/24 financial year.

As a result, lawmakers revised the recurrent budget for the year ending June to nearly Sh1.68 trillion from the initial Sh1.47 trillion – an increase of Sh206.12 billion.

Early exhaustion

The depletion of annual allocations three months before the financial year-end points to significant in-year adjustments and raises concerns over budget credibility.

This comes as the Treasury maintains that reforms are underway to rein in costs and improve efficiency. In the 2026 Budget Policy Statement, it said the government ‘continues to implement measures to enhance expenditure control and ensure value for money in public spending’.

The measures include austerity steps to curb recurrent spending, rollout of end-to-end e-procurement systems to boost transparency, governance reforms in State corporations, including privatization, and deployment of a Human Resource Management System across national and county governments to better manage the wage bill.

Among the most striking cases is the State Department for Special Programmes, whose full-year recurrent allocation rose sharply from Sh488 million to Sh13.8 billion.

By March, the department had spent Sh6.9 billion, reflecting the cost of responding to climate-related emergencies, including deadly mudslides in Elgeyo Marakwet last November and drought-driven famine in parts of northern Kenya. The scale of the increase highlights how unplanned shocks can rapidly alter spending priorities.

Spending at State House also expanded sharply, with its annual budget more than doubling from Sh7.68 billion to Sh16.25 billion.

Treasury data show Sh12.33 billion had been disbursed to State House by the end of March, representing 60.55 percent or Sh4.65 billion more than the original full-year allocation.

Opaque spending

The single largest increase came under the broad and often opaque ‘other operating expenses’ vote, which was boosted by Sh4 billion through in-year adjustments to Sh5.94 billion, from an initially approved Sh1.94 billion. This renews concerns over transparency in how such funds are utilised.

The Office of the Deputy President similarly saw its allocation rise from Sh2.97 billion to Sh5.06 billion, having spent Sh3.82 billion in less than nine months in recurrent expenses.

Security-related expenditure was also a major driver of in-year cash demands. The State Department for Internal Security and National Administration had gobbled up Sh33.26 billion with more than three months left in the financial year. This prompted a revision of its full-year budget from Sh31.7 billion to Sh48.2 billion, reflecting sustained operational demands but also persistent pressure on recurrent spending.

The State Department for Social Protection and Senior Citizens Affairs spent Sh30.28 billion by March, exceeding its original full-year allocation of Sh29.03 billion.

Similarly, the State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards surpassed its initial full-year budget of Sh17.57 billion, spending Sh20.78 billion in nine months.

The Sports department also posted a notable overrun, with spending reaching Sh4.67 billion against an original allocation of just over Sh1 billion. This reflects the $30 million (Sh3.88 billion) paid to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as hosting rights fee for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). This prompted a revision of its recurrent budget to Sh5.08 billion.

A rise in the price of petrol at the pump and costly fertilisers are just the beginning in the wake of the Iran war.

The loss of some 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies has already been called the ‘greatest global energy security threat in history’ by the International Energy Agency.

The agency has warned that today’s crisis could dwarf the combined effects of the oil shocks of the 1970s – which caused several years of inflation, recessions and fuel rationing.

This will hit Kenyan consumers hard after pump prices skyrocketed this month.

The disruptions have seen local pump prices hit record levels, with a litre of petrol jumping from Sh166.54 to Sh197.60 as the price of diesel rose to Sh196.63 from Sh166.50 for the month to May 14, despite government subsidy and halving of value-added tax to eight percent.

Food production will be damaged by fertiliser shortages, which will lead to further inflation, hurting workers whose pay rises have failed to keep pace with the cost of living measure over the past six years.

A kitty that cushions Kenyans against costly fuel is set to come under pressure in the coming months as suppliers warned the cost of diesel and petrol will go even higher for consignments covering the May-August period.

One supplier under the Government-to-Government arrangement reckons that the US-Iran war has forced it to change the terms of the deal and will deliver its consignment from May at a higher price.

This is a signal that pump prices will surge as the kitty that the State uses to subsidise fuel prices depletes.

Global analysts have warned that oil and gas prices will not go down any time soon even if the Iran war ends, citing pressure on fuel supplies and tight global markets.

Aramco Trading Fujairah (ATF) has written to Kenya, stating that its sourcing of petroleum products from ‘other locations’ has come at higher costs, which it would push to Kenya.

The shocks have piled pressure on inflation, with the Central Bank of Kenya forecasting that the rate could average above 6.2 percent if the Middle East crisis persists for at least three months. Inflation rose to 4.4 percent in March from 4.3 percent in February.

‘With the oil price shock and assuming that the conflict lasts for the next three months, the forecast overall inflation does go above the five percent mid-point, peaking in July 2026 after which it progressively declines,’ said Dr Thugge on April 14.

A mystery individual identified only as D21 appeared in more than 60 land transactions at SIC Investment Co-operative and is at the centre of a fraud scheme that drained hundreds of millions of shillings, a forensic audit shows.

The audit by BDO East Africa says D21, modelled as an agent/director, as the mastermind in the flawed land purchase deals between 2016 and 2020 that cost the society hundreds of millions.

In a presentation to members during a meeting last Saturday, auditors detailed how D21 orchestrated transactions involving overpriced and uninhabitable land, parcels without title deeds and even non-existent plots.

‘The audit found that deals directly or indirectly done by D21 ended up costing members Sh379 million. The co-operative continued engaging him even though the lands he had helped acquire or brokered turned out to be problematic,’ an auditor from BDO East Africa said.

Hidden identity

While the audit does not name the fraudster, the co-operative’s board chairman said the person is a Mr Sankok.

The forensic review cites several SIC projects, including Kanyonyoini, Tinga, Malili 1, Kimuka, Adelaide and Katani, where D21 played a central role in transactions that ultimately resulted in losses.

Auditors flagged multiple irregularities, including different sale agreements for the same parcel, land already sold to third parties, acquisition of public land, and purchases from individuals who were not the legal owners.

‘SIC had sold 18 plots to its members before confirming who owned the land (public land),’ the report states.

In one case, D21 is accused of selling the Tinga project near Kiserian in Kajiado County for Sh65 million despite not being the title holder. The 2016 transaction later forced SIC to refund Sh138 million to customers after it emerged the society had been defrauded.

Member anger

The failure to disclose D21’s identity has sparked anger among members, who commissioned the audit to establish the full extent of losses following earlier governance concerns.

An internal audit last year had already raised red flags over uninhabitable land stocked up by the co-operative’s board and management and had failed to fetch buyers, inflated purchase prices and instances where the board ignored technical advice.

SIC members have also raised concerns over the fate of more than Sh400 million invested in a fixed deposit product, Pepea, which was channelled into underperforming assets, including problematic land deals and the loss-making Miran Housing Project in Ruaka.

‘How do we pay for an investigation and then get piecemeal information? Let this person we are talking about (D21) be named,’ said a member, Mercy, during the Saturday meeting.

Another member, Anthony Kiarie, questioned whether missing documents may have compromised the audit’s integrity. ‘Are we allowed to unmask those who have put us in this position. We are told some documents could not be obtained for the audit, does this not interfere with the audit?’

Cooked books

Tensions have remained high within the 5,000-member co-operative since the Nation exposed how members risk losing about Sh2 billion due to past bad land and property deals.

During the meeting, board and management were put to task to explain the failures.

‘There are many land issues we could have investigated further, but the audit would cost us an arm and a leg,’ said board chairman Vincent Opiyo.

The 400-page forensic audit also found that the co-operative in 2024 manipulated its books, transferring Sh611 million in past costs to land stock to mask its true financial position.

Many members are seeking to exit but remain locked in, unable to sell their shares. Shares issued as early as 2019 remain unsold, according to the board.

The Deputy Commissioner for Co-operatives said authorities will pursue those behind the fraud once the audit is formally reviewed.

‘The consultants may have hidden names, but we shall identify them once the report is fully reviewed. Let us address the wrongs done to members while allowing the co-operative to recover,’ he said.

The owner of Donholm’s Greenspan Mall, ILAM Fahari Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit), will put up residential units within the shopping complex, further entrenching the property into a fully mixed-use development.

Greenspan Mall complex will now host office, retail and residential units, mirroring peers like Two Rivers and Garden City Malls, which feature the three segments.

‘Our immediate priority is the development of the excess land at Greenspan Mall. After evaluating several investment options, we settled on the construction of residential units as the most viable use of the land,’ ILAM Reit Chairman Andrew Ndegwa said.

‘The project is currently at Royal Institute of British Architects Plan of Works (Riba) stage 3, with several consultants appointed and having commenced work. Groundbreaking is expected in 2026, subject to receiving the necessary board, trustees, and regulatory approvals.’

Mixed-use shift

The Reit is also seeking to improve office occupancy at its property known as 67 Gitanga Place in Nairobi’s Lavington area, which remained largely vacant in 2025 following a tenant exit, leaving only 14 percent occupancy during the second half of the year.

The move to introduce residential units at Greenspan represents a pivot for the Reit manager, which has previously focused on acquiring complete projects in retail, office, and industrial segments.

Greenspan Mall was acquired in December 2015 at a price of Sh2.09 billion and sits on 9.5 acres within the middle-income area of Donholm.

The development currently comprises a retail centre with a gross lettable area (GLA) of approximately 14,350 square metres with 1,000 parking spaces. The Reit manager says Greenspan has the potential to improve returns for the scheme through the reconfiguration of the property.

‘The property represents an investment with potential to improve the returns through the development of the excess land and reconfiguration of the mall/tenant mix. Anchored by Naivas and sub-anchored by China Square, it offers fast food restaurants and bars, as well as various service-related tenants such as banks, wellness centres, entertainment centres, cinema, salons, healthcare, and small non-branded fashion and apparel component,’ the Reit manager noted in its annual report.

Occupancy gains

Improved occupancy at Greenspan Mall, which represents 79 percent of the Reit’s property portfolio, helped offset a decline in the scheme’s profitability, which fell 35 percent from Sh377.2 million in 2024 on lower fair value gains on investment portfolio.

The property portfolio recorded a Sh100 million valuation lift on improved performance at Greenspan Mall, where occupancy increased from 86 percent to 93 percent in 2025.

The increased occupancy at the mall led to a nine percent increase in rental and related income for the Reit.

The performance of Fahari Reit’s other property, 67 Gitanga Place, contrasted sharply with that of Greenspan Mall as the Reit manager struggled to find replacement tenants to occupy the vacant space.

The weak performance mirrors the effects of an office oversupply around the Nairobi Metropolitan Area (NMA).

Occupancy at the office property sits far below the 82.3 percent office occupancy average in the city for 2025.

The Reit says it is exploring innovations to boost occupancy at the office property.

‘The office market continues to face oversupply, and management is actively pursuing various leasing and repositioning strategies to improve occupancy levels,’ added Mr Ndegwa.

ILAM Fahari Reit retained the two properties after its disposal of a pair of industrial buildings, Signature Assets Limited and Bay Holdings Limited.

The Reit holds its other investments as cash and cash equivalents, including demand and time commercial bank deposits.

British authorities have issued an arrest warrant for convicted fraudster Pritesh Ashok Shah, believed to be living in Nairobi, after a court in the United Kingdom found he orchestrated a $1.7 million (Sh219.3 million) deception spanning London’s elite finance circles.

Court records show Mr Shah, a former Credit Suisse and Ambata Capital employee, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court in November 2025 on multiple counts of fraud, forgery and perverting the course of justice. He did not attend his trial or sentencing, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

UK prosecutors said he exploited trust networks, fabricated wealth and used forged documents to secure loans he never repaid, in breach of a section of the country’s Fraud Act 2006.

Investigators now believe he may be in Kenya, where bankruptcy filings list a Spring Valley address in Nairobi, raising concerns about cross-border enforcement.

False wealth

The case traces a sophisticated fraud spanning London finance circles and extending to Nairobi, where Mr Shah, 54, is understood to have lived in recent years with his wife and two children.

Prosecutors say Mr Shah built his scheme on reputation, proximity to wealth and carefully constructed lies. He operated within tight-knit business and social circles, leveraging trust among wealthy associates and financiers.

At the centre of the case is a pattern. Documents show that Mr Shah repeatedly portrayed himself as independently wealthy, with imminent access to family trusts, large bonuses or investment returns that would quickly repay loans.

Those claims were false, according to investigators. They say he borrowed heavily from multiple individuals between 2012 and 2015, often at the same time, while telling each lender a different version of his finances.

One victim, a US financier and entrepreneur, loaned Mr Shah $200,000 in 2012 after being told he would soon access substantial family wealth. The financier said he trusted Mr Shah’s apparent connections and lifestyle.

‘I only felt comfortable lending Mr Shah $200,000 despite him asking me for $500,000. I didn’t have a written loan agreement in place with Mr Shah because I trusted that I was dealing with someone with integrity and I was convinced that the money I was lending Mr Shah wasn’t a lot of money for him,’ said the financier, who has bases in Ghana, the US and the UK.

Mr Shah repaid only $70,000, which prosecutors say likely came from funds obtained from another victim. He then stopped responding altogether.

When pressed, Mr Shah sent a fabricated email purporting to confirm a £100,000 payment from a Jersey trust company. It was later proven to be a forgery.

The deception deepened within the Oshwal community, where longstanding family ties and business relationships underpinned financial dealings.

An investment adviser who had worked closely with Mr Shah’s father advanced him $1.2 million through a company, Rossfield Limited, in November 2012.

The loan was based on assurances that Mr Shah would receive a multimillion-dollar bonus from Credit Suisse within weeks. That representation was false.

In reality, evidence showed Mr Shah earned about £70,000 annually, with modest bonuses nowhere near the sums he claimed.

The court heard that Mr Shah stated the reason he borrowed the $1.2 million from Rossfield was to invest in Invictus Africa, and that the failure of that investment meant he could no longer repay it.

Delay tactics

Despite signing a formal loan agreement, Mr Shah never repaid the money.

Instead, he deployed a cycle of delays and deception. He repeatedly claimed funds had been transferred, citing banking errors, incomplete SWIFT details or pending confirmations.

On several occasions, he provided false payment references and fabricated transfer documents to sustain the illusion of imminent repayment.

In a tactic investigators describe as particularly brazen, Mr Shah told creditors that they owed him money, reversing the reality to buy time.

A third victim, a Swiss financier, was drawn into the scheme through professional contacts between April 2015 and September 2016.

Mr Shah secured loans totalling $584,000 using forged documents, including a falsified Vodafone bill to support a prestigious London address and a fake Credit Suisse wealth statement.

He also relied on assurances from his father, who told the lender Mr Shah had millions held in trust. None of the loans were repaid.

Across all transactions, prosecutors estimate the fraud exceeded $1.7 million, with evidence suggesting additional victims who have not come forward.

The illusion of wealth was central to the scheme, as Mr Shah maintained a lifestyle of luxury, including exclusive golf memberships and expensive travel, reinforcing his credibility among targets.

‘He went on expensive holidays, belonged to exclusive golf clubs and appeared to enjoy the trappings of great wealth. It appears that this lifestyle was funded by money defrauded from others without either the means or the intention to pay the money back,’ the court summary reads.

That lifestyle, prosecutors argue, was sustained using funds obtained from the very people he deceived.

The fraud extended into court proceedings. During bankruptcy hearings in 2018, Mr Shah told a High Court judge, Deputy ICC Judge Schaffer, under oath that he had invested the $1.2 million loan in an African venture, Invictus Africa.

He claimed the investment collapsed, explaining his inability to repay.

That statement was found to be false, as evidence showed no such investment existed, and the fund’s founder confirmed Shah had neither invested nor raised money for the venture.

The court found this amounted to an attempt to mislead the judiciary, forming the basis of a separate charge of perverting the course of justice.

Manhunt starts

Mr Shah had earlier been declared bankrupt in 2017 following proceedings initiated by Rossfield after years of missed repayments and repeated assurances.

The conviction in 2025 consolidated years of allegations into a formal finding of criminal conduct.

UK authorities now believe Mr Shah is outside their jurisdiction and have issued an arrest warrant as efforts begin to trace him.

They are seeking his arrest as part of ongoing efforts to recover assets and pursue sentencing, with investigators tracing links to Nairobi as a possible haven where his extended family resides.

It looks like an ordinary plant. Until it moves. One moment, it’s just another leafy addition on a windowsill. The next it snaps shut on a fly in a fraction of a second, sealing it inside like a trapdoor. It’s a quiet, efficient kill.

Across Nairobi, more plant lovers are making room for these unlikely housemates: carnivorous plants.

From the fast-acting Venus flytrap to the slow, deceptive pitcher plant and the dangling ‘monkey cups’, these species are drawing attention not just for their appearance, but for their function, which offer households a natural way to deal with pests.

At Planty Kenya, a Nairobi shop known for stocking unusual plant varieties, demand for carnivorous plants has surged.

‘People are embracing these plants, and the demand is really high. They love them because of their unique features. All three sell out, often within a week of each shipment landing,’ says Esther Gachiri, a plant seller at the shop.

The plants are imported from Europe every two months, as they are not yet available locally. Each goes for Sh4,500.

Where shipments once averaged about 60 plants, they now bring in roughly 150 – and still sell out just as quickly.

Beyond their novelty, their appeal is practical: they feed on common household pests like flies, mosquitoes and ants, drawing nutrients that ordinary soil cannot provide.

Venus flytrap

If there is one plant that truly challenges the idea that plants are passive, it is the Venus flytrap.

Compact and almost alien-looking, it is famous for its ability to move, something most people never expect from a plant. Each ‘mouth’ is made up of two hinged lobes lined with tooth-like edges.

But it doesn’t just snap at anything. A single touch won’t trigger it. The plant waits. Only when its fine internal hairs are disturbed twice within about 20 seconds does it respond, closing instantly. ‘If an insect gets in there, the plant just closes and traps it,’ Esther says.

Once shut, the trap seals and begins digestion. Over several days, the plant breaks down the insect and absorbs nutrients like nitrogen, something it cannot get from its natural, nutrient-poor habitat.

After feeding a few times, the trap eventually dies off and is replaced by a new one.

Venus flytraps thrive in bright light and humid conditions. Indoors, they do well near sunny windows or in terrariums. Despite their dramatic feeding style, they are non-toxic to pets.

Pitcher plant

While the Venus flytrap relies on speed, the pitcher plant works quietly and without any mechanical action. It simply builds a structure that is so precisely designed that anything small enough to enter cannot escape, and then it waits.

The trap is a modified leaf that has been curled and fused into a long, upright tube. This tube rises as the plant climbs and vines. A hinged lid sits at the top, angled just enough above the opening to prevent flooding rain from diluting the fluid inside while keeping the entrance permanently accessible.

The rim of the tube is waxy and often brightly coloured, and is lined with nectar-producing glands that draw insects in with their scent and sweetness.

However, the moment a fly or mosquito steps onto the rim, the surface offers no grip. It slips and falls into a pool of digestive fluid at the base of the tube.

“It has, like, a necktie kind of thing,” Esther explains, describing the entrance structure. “Once it’s in there, it just gets stuck and can’t come out because it’s sticky.”

As the plant matures, it continuously produces new pitchers from side shoots, growing progressively taller over time. Each new pitcher is fully functional from the moment it opens.

Pitcher plants can thrive both indoors and outdoors. Indoors, they thrive in bright, indirect sunlight or in terrariums with high humidity.

Outdoors, they flourish in tropical and subtropical climates, provided they receive filtered sunlight and consistently moist, acidic soil.

While generally hardy, it is advisable for parents to watch out for aphids or fungal infections if the humidity is too high or ventilation is poor.

Monkey cups

They look exactly like something a monkey might drink from: plump and pendant, with a broad, smooth body hanging freely from a tendril extending from the leaf.

“That’s why it’s called a monkey cup, because of its shape. It looks like a jar,” says Esther.

It originates in the same humid tropical forests as the pitcher plant, and its hunting logic is similar. While the pitcher plant grows upright on a climbing vine, the monkey cup sways gently in the breeze, its open mouth always facing upwards.

The cup contains nectar that lures insects in. An insect drawn to the scent descends toward the rim, steps onto its smooth inner surface and immediately realises that there is nowhere to stand.

The interior is coated with wax that is so perfectly smooth that insect legs cannot grip it. The lower half contains a pool of digestive fluid into which the insect falls and dissolves. Above the opening, a hinged lid prevents downpours from flooding the pool while keeping the entrance permanently open.

The trap never closes, snaps or moves. As the plant matures, it produces new pitchers from its sides, each of which grows into another hanging jar. Eventually, it forms a cluster of swaying cups that, from a slight distance, resemble a bunch of ornamental gourds.

Despite their exotic origins, all three species adapt well to Nairobi’s climate. They thrive indoors near a window that receives bright but indirect light, or on a sheltered balcony where air moves freely.

Can they be propagated?

For buyers wondering whether they can grow their own from cuttings, the answer is yes, though it requires patience. For the Venus flytrap, the easiest method is division: when the plant produces offshoots from its central rhizome, these can be carefully separated in early spring or early summer and repotted individually.

Each offshoot must already have its own root system before it is cut away from the mother plant.

A second method involves gently pulling a healthy outer leaf downward so that it detaches with a small section of the white rhizome tissue still attached.

That leaf is then pressed into carnivorous plant soil (carnivorous plant soil is a mix of peat moss or sphagnum and perlite, and is available locally), kept moist, and given plenty of light. New growth can appear within a few months, though it can take one to two years for a division-grown plant to reach maturity, and three to five years when grown from seed.

The pitcher plant propagates readily through stem cuttings. A healthy section of stem is cut and placed in moist carnivorous plant soil or shallow rainwater, kept in a warm spot with indirect light and covered loosely to hold in humidity.

Rhizome division is another option: mature pitcher plants develop side shoots along their underground stems that can be cut into sections and replanted separately.

Monkey cups, being a species of Nepenthes, can also be propagated from stem cuttings in a similar way to the pitcher plant. A node on a healthy stem is cut, placed in sphagnum moss, and kept humid until new roots establish.

Across all three, one rule is non-negotiable: watering must always use distilled water, rainwater, or reverse osmosis water. Tap water carries minerals that these plants, evolved in nutrient-stripped bogs, cannot tolerate.

Not immune to pests

Despite their reputation as insect killers, carnivorous plants are not immune to pests. The irony is that the very creatures they feed on can, in high numbers, turn against them.

The most common offenders are aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and spider mites. Aphids tend to cluster on new growth in early spring, distorting emerging leaves and traps before they fully open.

Mealybugs appear as small white cottony masses at leaf joints. Thrips are tiny and hard to spot, but leave behind dry, crisp foliage and small sticky black specks. Spider mites thrive in hot, dry conditions and can spread quickly if the air around the plants is too stagnant.

The first line of defence is always manual removal-wiping pests off with a damp cloth or cotton swab, or dislodging them with a gentle spray of water. For mealybugs, a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol applied directly to the colony works well before any spray treatment.

When an infestation is more advanced, Esther recommends going the organic route. Neem oil, pressed from the seeds of the neem tree, is the most widely trusted organic option for these plants.

Diluted in water with a small amount of liquid soap to help it emulsify, it is sprayed across the plant’s leaves, stems, and the soil surface. It works by disrupting insect feeding and development rather than acting as an instant kill, so repeat applications every seven to fourteen days are needed until the pest population clears.

‘When treating carnivorous plants, keep sprays away from the trap interiors. The digestive surfaces inside pitchers and the trigger hairs inside Venus flytrap lobes are highly sensitive and absorptive, and direct application of any spray, even organic ones, can cause burning or damage,’ she cautions.

One important care requirement for first-time owners is that these plants cannot be watered from above. Each plant sits on a shallow tray filled with water, drawing moisture upwards through its roots. The tray should be refilled every four days.

“If you water from above, like we do many plants, it will die,” Esther cautions.

President William Ruto has repeatedly framed Kenya’s ambition as “going to Singapore,” noting that Kenya stands where Singapore stood years ago. His vision is a bold commitment to steer the nation toward a first-world, high-income economy.

However, as Prof Rigas Doganis, the legendary aviation economist, observed in his book, Flying off Course, a plane that flies just one degree off course ends up thousands of kilometres from its intended destination.

Kenya’s annual Finance Bill ritual is precisely that plane. One small degree of self-interest here, one quiet defection there, and we wake up with a budget that raises revenue on paper but kills jobs, investment and hope on the ground.

This is the deeper context of a national tragedy that unfolds every year with a predictable script: despite private sector associations, chambers of commerce and civil society submitting position papers, the economy continues to drift off course.

This persistent failure to align-a dynamic so dramatically underscored by the withdrawal of the June 2024 Bill amid nationwide protests-forces us to ask a crucial question: Why is our collective failure so utterly predictable?

The answer lies not in incompetence or malice, but in a cold, hard logic first mapped out by mathematicians and economists: Game Theory, and its most famous illustration, the Prisoner’s Dilemma. To understand the current impasse, we must move beyond the rhetoric and examine the structural paradox at the heart of our policymaking.

Imagine two suspects arrested for the same crime and questioned separately. The police offer each a deal: if both cooperate and stay silent, they both serve a minor one-year sentence. However, if one betrays the other (defects) while the partner stays silent (cooperates), the defector goes free while the silent cooperator receives a ten-year sentence. If both betray each other, they each receive a moderate five-year sentence.

From an individual standpoint, betraying the partner is the “rational” choice, regardless of what the other person does, because it offers the best personal outcome-either freedom or a reduced sentence. Yet, when both follow this selfish logic, they both end up worse off, serving five years instead of the single year they would have received through mutual trust.

This paradox perfectly illustrates how the individual pursuit of self-interest leads to a collective disaster that leaves everyone in a weaker position than when they started.

This same dilemma is acutely prevalent among private-sector associations and chambers of commerce. Despite formally agreeing on collective industry position papers, dominant members often subsequently defect to pursue individually negotiated exemptions or to lobby for higher taxes on their competitors.

Glaring use cases emerged during the 2023/2024, 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 Finance Bill cycles, in which the cement, steel, paper, tiles and ceramics sectors were destabilised by asymmetric wins that eroded the manufacturing ecosystem’s overall competitiveness.

This dynamic extends to the relationship between the private and public sectors. While business requires stability and incentives, the government needs revenue for infrastructure and debt servicing. Ideally, both sides would cooperate for shared growth. Instead, each defect, as private players push for loopholes that shrink the tax base, while public officials respond with blunt, revenue-grabbing measures.

This lack of trust, further supercharged by corruption where bribes for secret exemptions destroy the level playing field, ensures that defection becomes the only rational choice, turning small errors into systemic course deviations.

Resolving the Prisoner’s Dilemma necessitates a fundamental strategic shift. Game theory demonstrates that iterative interactions foster reputation; when participants anticipate future engagements, the long-term cost of defection increases significantly.

To rectify our current trajectory, we must implement radical transparency, such as the real-time publication of every submission and amendment to the Finance Bill. Furthermore, institutional integrity and collective accountability are essential. Industry associations must demand ethical consistency from their members, while the government must prioritise sustainable growth over immediate revenue gains.

Ultimately, the primary responsibility rests with the Executive and Parliament; these institutions bear the duty of care to ensure that transparency serves as a disinfectant, sanitising the legislative process for the public good.

As the 2026/27 Finance Bill cycle begins, the question remains whether we will choose cooperation and long-term collective wins over short-term clever defections.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma does not care about our intentions; it only rewards those brave enough to break the cycle. To continue doing the same things we have done for over 60 years while expecting different outcomes is the very definition of insanity.

It is time to stay the course toward our intended destination and ensure our legislative process serves the public good rather than narrow individual pay-offs.