Category: Business Daily

Globeleq has delayed linking its 35 megawatt (MW) plant to the national grid, in what looks set to derail efforts to ease supply constraints that have triggered power rationing.

The British clean energy firm targeted to start supplying electricity to Kenya Power on trial basis this month, ahead of full commissioning of the plant next month. But this has since been delayed over undisclosed reasons.

Electricity from the $117 million (Sh15.15 billion) plant in Menengai is key to easing hitches that have forced Kenya Power to ration supplies especially in the evening when demand peaks.

Kenya Power recently revealed that it is forced to ration supply between 1830hours and 2200hours (peak demand period) due to a deficit created by the near zero generation from wind plants and lack of supply from the solar plants.

‘We had expected them to finalise the connection in May but there has been a slight delay due to unexpected challenges,’ Stephen Busieney, acting Managing Director of Geothermal Development Company (GDC) told this publication without explaining the specific issues that have delayed the commencement of the power supply.

GDC is contractually required to supply the steam that Globeleq and two other power producers use to generate electricity at the Menengai geothermal reservoir. Failure to meet this attracts penalties.

Read: GDC targets private firm to build 10MW power plants

Globeleq, OrPower 22 and Sosian Energy, which is owned by the family of the late President Daniel Moi have been contracted to build geothermal plants at Menengai, each with a capacity of 35MW.

OrPower 22 and Sosian Energy have both completed their plants and are currently supplying electricity to Kenya Power. OrPower 22 started supplying electricity in April this year while Sosian started in June 2023.

The plants by Globeleq and OrPower 22, in addition to the 63MW Olkaria 1 which is currently being upgraded are key to increasing geothermal power, which is the baseload in the national grid. Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) is upgrading the Olkaria I plant to increase its capacity by 18MW to 63MW. The plant has been out of service since 2023 when it was shut down ahead of the rehabilitation works.

OrPower 22, Globeleq and Olkaria 1 are expected to inject 133MW of geothermal to the grid, significantly boosting Kenya Power’s efforts to avert widespread rationing amid a fast-rising demand. The Menengai plant is Globeleq’s second in Kenya after the 52 Megawatt peak (MWp) solar plant in Malindi which has been operational since 2021.

The forced rationing has made it critical to boost electricity supply, with Kenya Power banking on three new geothermal plants, among them the one owned by Globeleq, to ease the woes.

Peak demand (the highest point of electricity usage within 24 hours) jumped six times last year alone, signaling the surge in demand which has piled pressure on Kenya Power. The current peak demand of 2,439.06MW was recorded on December 4, 2025 , pointing to the impact of increased connections and usage of electricity.

Kenya Power has not signed any new Power Purchase Agreement since the freeze on these deals was lifted in November last year. This means that the utility faces a wait of at least two years to onboard a new power plant.

Fifteen years ago, ‘Africa Rising’ became the phrase that dominated investor roadshows and development forums. It was compelling and aspirational, but for many Africans, it often felt like a story being told from the outside looking in. The growth numbers were real, but ownership of the narrative was less certain.

What is happening now feels fundamentally different. Across boardrooms, industries, and policy circles, African business leaders are no longer waiting to be invited to the growth conversation. They are driving it. More importantly, they have skin in the game. There is a level of urgency, conviction, and accountability emerging among this generation of leaders that feels less like rhetoric and more like responsibility.

At the annual Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali last week, there was a palpable sense that the continent has moved beyond simply talking about potential. The mood was more grounded. More practical. This is not optimism for headlines. It is optimism backed by execution.

The question is no longer whether Africa will rise. Africa has risen. The real question is what scaling looks like and whether we are prepared to do what scaling demands.

One of the clearest takeaways from the discussions is that fragmentation remains one of Africa’s most expensive holdbacks. Layered approvals, inconsistent regulations, and protectionist instincts continue to undermine the scale the continent urgently requires. Alignment is not the surrender of sovereignty. It is what makes scale possible.

No economy has industrialised meaningfully without roads, ports, energy infrastructure, and digital connectivity. These are not supporting features of growth. They are the foundation on which growth stands. Integration cannot remain a legal framework on paper. Goods, services, capital, and people must be able to move more efficiently across borders if the continent is serious about building a truly interconnected commercial ecosystem. The same logic applies to industrialisation.

Africa holds more than 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves and produces significant volumes of agricultural commodities, yet much of this value still leaves the continent in raw form. Every unprocessed cocoa bean exported is value exported. Every barrel refined elsewhere represents jobs, skills, and industrial capability built in another economy instead of our own.

Recent global supply chain disruptions made one thing clear: resilience is built through productive capacity. Therefore, industrialisation is no longer an aspirational talking point. It is an economic imperative.

The framework for deeper integration exists through the African Continental Free Trade Area. The challenge now is implementation. Fragmented markets limit investment appetite. Integrated markets fundamentally change the proposition. A continent of more than a billion people with a growing middle class is not a marginal story. It is one of the most significant commercial opportunities in the world.

Ultimately, scaling is not the absence of crisis. It is the decision, often in the middle of a crisis, to build systems, industries, and institutions resilient enough to survive beyond a single partnership, a single commodity, or a single political cycle.

Africa has risen. That chapter is written. What comes next will be defined by whether we have the discipline, courage, and coordination required to scale.

That is the work before African leaders now. Not to wait for the conditions for scale to arrive, but to create them deliberately through coordinated capital, aligned policy, infrastructure investment, industrialisation, and meaningful integration.

Few stories capture that reality more clearly than that of Maryanne Musangi and HACO Industries. When she took over the business founded by her father, the late Chris Kirubi, she inherited a company heavily reliant on a single partnership through the manufacturing of Bic pens. For decades, that one line carried the bulk of the company’s revenue. Until it didn’t.

When the partnership ended, the vulnerability of dependence was exposed almost overnight.

What followed is the real lesson. Ms Musangi did not simply mourn the loss. She questioned the structure that allowed one relationship to carry so much weight in the first place. The crisis became an opportunity to rebuild differently. HACO diversified its production lines, expanded supply chain partnerships beyond East Africa, and entered new markets with a clarity that only comes from surviving near collapse.

That story mirrors Africa’s own challenge.

For too long, much of the continent has operated within narrow dependencies. Exporting raw commodities. Relying heavily on external financing. Anchoring growth on singular partnerships and extractive arrangements. The moment one lifeline disappears, the weakness of that model becomes impossible to ignore.

The same spirit of skin in the game is visible in what Aliko Dangote is attempting across the continent. After building Africa’s largest refinery in Nigeria, Mr Dangote is now looking to replicate that scale in East Africa through a proposed multi billion dollar refinery project that could reshape the region’s energy landscape.

Reports indicate that Kenya is emerging as the preferred location because of the scale of the market, the depth of Mombasa port, and the strategic opportunity to reduce East Africa’s dependence on imported refined fuel.

What makes the Dangote story significant is not simply the size of the investment. It is the philosophy behind it. At a time when many conversations about Africa still centre on extraction, short term capital, and imported solutions, Dangote is placing long term industrial bets on the continent itself. Refineries, fertiliser plants, cement factories, logistics infrastructure. These are not symbolic investments. They are infrastructure designed to shift productive capacity back into African economies.

That is what scaling looks like in practice. Not waiting for perfect conditions. Not outsourcing belief in the continent. But deploying capital, taking risk, and building assets that outlast political cycles and market sentiment.

Another recurring theme across conversations in Kigali, was capital and, more specifically, the paradox surrounding it.

Africa does not necessarily suffer from a lack of capital. African pension funds and institutional investors control significant pools of money. The challenge is coordination. Currency volatility, fragmented regulations, short term investment thinking, and weak cross border trust continue to slow the deployment of long term capital into infrastructure and industrial projects.

The issue is not simply supply. It is alignment.

Infrastructure, industrialisation, and regional integration require patience. The returns may not appear in a single quarter, but they fundamentally reshape economies over decades. African institutional investors increasingly need to see strategic deployment of capital not as charity, but as commercial foresight.

The solution to Africa’s financing gap will not come exclusively from outside the continent. Much of it will come from coordinating and unlocking the capital already within it.However, capital without policy coherence is ambition without structure.

One of the clearest takeaways from the discussions, is that fragmentation remains one of Africa’s most expensive hold backs. Layered approvals, inconsistent regulations, and protectionist instincts continue to undermine the scale the continent urgently requires. Alignment is not the surrender of sovereignty. It is what makes scale possible.

No economy has industrialised meaningfully without roads, ports, energy infrastructure, and digital connectivity. These are not supporting features of growth. They are the foundation on which growth stands. Integration cannot remain a legal framework on paper. Goods, services, capital, and people must be able to move more efficiently across borders if the continent is serious about building a truly interconnected commercial ecosystem.The same logic applies to industrialisation.

Africa holds more than 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves and produces significant volumes of agricultural commodities, yet much of this value still leaves the continent in raw form. Every unprocessed cocoa bean exported is value exported. Every barrel refined elsewhere represents jobs, skills, and industrial capability built in another economy instead of our own.

Recent global supply chain disruptions made one thing clear: resilience is built through productive capacity. Therefore, industrialisation is no longer an aspirational talking point. It is an economic imperative.

The framework for deeper integration already exists through African Continental Free Trade Area. The challenge now is implementation. Fragmented markets limit investment appetite. Integrated markets fundamentally change the proposition. A continent of more than a billion people with a growing middle class is not a marginal story. It is one of the most significant commercial opportunities in the world.

Ultimately, scaling is not the absence of crisis. It is the decision, often in the middle of crisis, to build systems, industries, and institutions resilient enough to survive beyond a single partnership, a single commodity, or a single political cycle.

That is the work before African leaders now. Not to wait for the conditions for scale to arrive, but to create them deliberately through coordinated capital, aligned policy, infrastructure investment, industrialisation, and meaningful integration.

Africa has risen. That chapter is already written.What comes next will be defined by whether we have the discipline, courage, and coordination required to scale.

Rubis Energy has failed to overturn a Sh458 million tender for fuel supply awarded to rival firm Stabex International after the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) dismissed its challenge.

Kenya Power Company’s invited bids for the supply of low-sulphur diesel to off-grid power stations.

In its ruling, the board found that Rubis Energy lacked the legal standing to seek a review of the process because it failed to plead that it had suffered, or was likely to suffer, loss or damage as a result of the alleged breach of procurement laws.

‘…the Board finds that the Applicant (Rubis) failed to specifically plead suffering loss and damage in its Request for Review as filed contrary to Section 167(1) of the Act,’ said the board.

Kenya Power invited bids for the tender in January 2026, attracting 12 submissions from firms including Galana Energies, Tarita Petroleum, Stabex International, Blue Sky, Hass Petroleum, Lake Oil, Dalbit Petroleum and Rubis Energy.

Following technical evaluation, only Rubis Energy Kenya, Galana Energies and Stabex International advanced to the financial evaluation stage. Rubis submitted a bid of Sh542 million, while Galana quoted Sh603.7 million. Stabex emerged as the lowest bidder after quoting Sh458.2 million.

Kenya Power subsequently carried out due diligence on Stabex to verify its eligibility, existence and capacity to execute the contract before recommending it for award.

Rubis challenged the outcome, arguing that it had a legitimate expectation that the procurement process would be conducted in accordance with the tender document, procurement laws and the constitution.

Kenya Power, however, defended the award, stating that Stabex won because it submitted the lowest evaluated bid.

‘The upshot of our finding is that the instant Request for Review is for striking out for want of jurisdiction,’ stated the board.

Draught beer is best known for the glass, not the kitchen. But a growing number of chefs are beginning to treat it as a working ingredient, one that can build flavour, texture and depth without the technical demands of wine.

Chef Stephanie Mwende came to it by accident.

‘I don’t really drink like that, but there was beer lying around, and I was seeing recipes online using beer, so I thought why not try it?’ she says.

Her first attempt, a beer-battered fish in 2022, set the tone.

‘It came out crispy, flaky, not too oily. It was just a nice, perfect taste, and so flavourful.’

Since then, beer has become a regular feature in her kitchen, particularly in batters, marinades and sauces where it can quietly reshape a dish without dominating it.

From a kitchen operations standpoint, Mwende argues beer is more forgiving than other alcohol-based ingredients.

‘It’ is more exciting and easier to use. If you don’t know how to use wine, it could make your meal bitter, but beer is a safer option,’ she says.

That accessibility matters, especially in kitchens where consistency and speed are critical. Rather than building a dish around beer, she uses it as a modifier.

‘Flavouring first. You start with the flavour, then you add the beer to adjust,’ she says. ‘If you want it lighter, you can add beer. If you want more depth, add beer.’

In practice, that means beer functions as both a textural and flavour agent. In batters, it creates a lighter, crisp finish. In sauces, it adds body. In marinades, it carries flavour without overwhelming the base ingredients.

For diners, the result is often subtle.

‘They’re usually surprised. They’re like, ‘I didn’t know this had beer,’ but it’s a pleasant surprise,’ she says.

Concerns around alcohol content, she adds, are largely misplaced.

‘The alcohol content evaporates, but it leaves the flavour, so no one will get intoxicated.’

Choice of beer also shapes the outcome. Lighter profiles work better in delicate applications, while stronger ones suit heavier dishes.

‘If you’re using White Cap, I would recommend it for beer batters. If you’re using Tusker, use it for your marinades and your sauces,’ she says.

Despite its versatility, cooking with beer remains underutilised locally. Mwende sees potential, but adoption will depend on how quickly both chefs and home cooks become comfortable using it.

‘It can catch on if people are taught how to and shown how to,’ she says. ‘It could also go the other way and just be a niche thing.’

For now, its most effective use remains in sauces, particularly barbecue.

‘Barbecue sauce really highlights the notes of the beer,’ she says.

There is also a broader opportunity for collaboration between kitchens and producers, particularly as chefs look for ways to differentiate their menus.

‘If we’re given the opportunity, we will take it,’ she says, referring to potential partnerships with brewers.

For Mwende, working with beer has become part of her creative identity in a crowded food space.

‘It makes me creative because I haven’t seen many people doing that locally,’ she says.

Whether it becomes mainstream or remains a niche technique, she sees it as an easy entry point for cooks looking to do more with familiar ingredients.

‘If you’re looking to elevate your dishes, I would 100 percent recommend you try beer. It’s exciting, it’s fun, it elevates the flavour.’

Duncan Onyango did not just grow up near a bank. He grew up inside one. His father was a Citibank man – old Nairobi Citibank, the original branch on Wabera Street, back when the lender was still establishing itself on the continent. Duncan remembers Christmas parties in the banking hall, he and his siblings running between tellers, the decorations, the noise of it.

Later, the parties moved to the CEO’s home in Muthaiga. But the earliest memory is the hall. All that marble and money and quiet institutional power, and a small boy loose inside it, soaking in something he wouldn’t be able to put a finger on for years.

What he absorbed was actually hunger. “There’s this thing within you,” he says, “which is just not satisfied.” He carried that thing to London, where he built a robust career in finance. He was good at it. Promotions came. He asked to take on more responsibilities, getting another in-tray. He travelled more, burnt enough midnight oil to ignite a cargo ship, and all this drifted him further from the people waiting at home.

Naturally, his first marriage crumbled like a pack of cards. “I was more wedded to my job than I was to my wife,” he admits, without self-pity, but without flinching either. Because he has had time to sit with the truth of it.

It is only in later years, he will tell you, that the hunger has calmed enough for him to actually see what is in front of him. Today, he runs Trade Catalyst Africa, the trade infrastructure arm of TradeMark Africa, where the work is continental in ambition – closing a financing gap he puts north of $150 billion a year, not through grants or government goodwill, but by making the economics so compelling that institutional capital comes of its own accord. “We don’t want to go around begging for money,” he tells me. “We want to create an asset class.”

What did your father do, and did you ever want to be like him?

[Chuckles] I’m probably the only one who followed a career closely aligned to my dad’s. He was a banker. A city banker. We basically grew up in Citibank, back then it was on Wabera Street, their very first branch before they moved to that tall tower. They were probably among the first people to really establish Citibank as a business and a brand in Africa.

I remember Christmas time vividly. We would have parties right there in the banking hall, running around, enjoying the decorations. Later the parties moved to the CEO’s home in Muthaiga. That’s what my dad did until he retired. Then he passed away almost 26 years ago, a couple of days after the millennium.

Pole, was he unwell?

I’m led to believe he was. He had retired to the village. But I also think when he moved there it must have been lonely, because we had lived in Nairobi almost all our lives.

At some point Nairobi becomes your village – that’s where your friends are, your connections, your networks. He settled into village life and, yeah, he didn’t live very long after that.

Are you connected to the village in any way?

I am, to a certain extent. But what I’ve done is shift my village. Where my parents come from, we are literally strangers. We only visited occasionally and I never felt at home. So I bought land not too far away and I’m doing a bit of farming. I’ve created my own village near people I went to school with. The people are familiar, so I feel more welcome.

London still remains home in many ways because my family and children all live there. I moved around 1986. I have three children, all in London. Two have flown out of the nest. My daughter got married a year ago and blessed me with a grandson.

After so many years in London, what finally pulled you back home?

When you’ve been away a long time, there comes a point when you think very deeply about returning. Usually it’s circumstances that determine whether you actually do. In my case, my wife and I separated. That made me ask myself a lot of questions. We had simply grown apart, and we grew apart because of my career.

I was more wedded to my job than I was to my wife. I was traveling constantly and, as you become more upwardly mobile, your life takes a very different trajectory from your spouse’s. You’re away more, meeting new people, exposed to different worlds, and eventually you become strangers.

After that I took voluntary redundancy and started freelancing. Then, the way life works, one consultancy opportunity brought me back to Kenya. Being back brought me closer to my siblings and my mother. That’s really how it began, around 2006 or 2007.

Knowing what you know now, would you still give your career so much and save the marriage?

You know, I’ve asked myself that question several times. [Pause] I’ve asked myself that many times. Later I remarried. She’s Kenyan and we have a son together now in school in the UK.

After everything that happened, I told myself there were things I would do differently. I remember when things got serious with the woman who was then my girlfriend, I sat her down and said: “I know myself. I get deeply wedded to my work. This is who I am. I will spend a lot of time working, but that doesn’t mean work is replacing my relationship with you.”

I didn’t do that in my first marriage because we were young. You meet, fall in love, and move through life without really knowing what you don’t know. The second time I committed to being more open and to communicate, especially as things changed. Those are the things I failed at before.

You mentioned that you were away from your children’s lives for a while, how did you eventually reconcile that?

Again, with this one I was lucky because my next career allowed me to travel more and spend more time in London. Even if I was only stopping over for a few hours in transit, I would make time to see the children – a restaurant, a meal, reconnecting. The children would also come to Nairobi during the summer holidays.

If you saw us together, you probably wouldn’t think ours was a broken family. One of the dangers when long relationships break down is that parents use children against each other.

That didn’t happen with us because our separation wasn’t caused by betrayal, we had simply grown apart. We made very intentional decisions about access. We wanted the children to know they still had both a father and a mother. And because of that, when I became more present again, reconnecting was much easier.

It sounds like a blended family is working for you…

It kind of worked out. I introduced my girlfriend to their lives early. Whenever the children came to visit, they met her, and I was always open about the new relationship. Later, when we married and had our son, I brought the families together, so the children grew up knowing each other as siblings.

Looking back, it all seems coherent, almost planned. But honestly, I don’t think it was. Circumstances simply forced us to do things a certain way, and fortunately it worked.

What have you ever struggled with so much?

That’s a difficult question. [Pause] I think the best way to answer that is through ambition. Not because I struggled with ambition, but because I was very ambitious. I was always chasing the next thing.

Early in my career I quickly realised that to progress, you need not just ability but also influence and visibility. So I was always eager to take on the next project, sometimes more than I probably should have. It propelled my career because people noticed. But it also meant I was constantly exhausted.

Success is tiring…

[Laughs] Yeah, it was. You’re always on show, always wanting to prove yourself, and burnout is never far away. There was always this hunger in me, this feeling of never quite being satisfied. You keep trying to fill it through promotions, bigger responsibilities, recognition. You just keep chasing.

It’s only as I’ve grown older that I’ve learned to manage that and become more content with what’s in front of me. But it took a long time. As you grow older you also grow wiser. You accumulate perspective and foresight, and eventually you become more relaxed in how you approach life.

How did that form your view on wealth and money and everything related to that?

I don’t know whether growing up in a bank shaped me, because we were very young then. But when you grow up around banking and successful people, it leaves an impression. As I grew older, I found myself exposed to wealth – seeing peers doing very well. You start wondering how people get there.

So I learned early about the importance of money and the comfort it can bring. But I also learned, sometimes painfully, that you can make expensive mistakes trying to keep up appearances.

I remember wanting to be like the Joneses – taking children to expensive schools then struggling to pay fees. Those experiences taught me you have to cut your coat according to your cloth. Manage money in a way that creates wealth instead of living an opulent life you can’t afford.

What does your wife find really annoying about you?

[Laughs] I think there must be a lot. [Chuckles] I have moments when I just want to withdraw from people and be alone. Sometimes I can sit quietly in the garden doing absolutely nothing and enjoy it completely.

I’m actually very social and engaged when I need to be. I draw energy from people, but I also have this other side where I retreat into myself. And when I’m in that mood, I become very quiet.

That can be difficult because my wife is extremely social. She might invite a house full of people over at the exact moment I want silence and solitude, and I’m left wondering why the house is suddenly full. But we navigate our way through it. It takes effort, but eventually it works.

In what environments do you find yourself to be vulnerable?

As a CEO, the environment where vulnerability shows up most is probably the boardroom. Preparing for board meetings can be intense. You’re dealing with people who understand the issues deeply and can challenge you from angles you may not have considered. Over time I’ve learned the best way to navigate that is not to resist vulnerability but to accept it.

Vulnerability can be a strength. It allows people to trust you because they know you’re not pretending to have all answers. Once you stop fearing what you don’t know, those environments become much easier to handle.

Motorists will have the option of declining to pay instant traffic fines and instead challenge the penalties in court under revised guidelines issued by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), marking a major shift in the rollout of the controversial automated traffic enforcement system.

The revised framework follows criticism from civil society groups, lawyers and motorists who argued that the digital penalties regime violated constitutional protections on fair hearing, criminal justice and data privacy.

Under the new framework, motorists accused of minor traffic offences will no longer be compelled to immediately settle penalties generated by the automated system. Instead, they may either admit liability and pay the prescribed fine or dispute the offence before a court of law.

The changes were announced by NTSA Director-General Nashon Kondiwa, who said the transport regulator had reviewed the implementation framework with stakeholders including the police, the Judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and other enforcement agencies.

Camera clamp

The instant fines system relies heavily on smart traffic cameras and digital monitoring infrastructure to automatically detect traffic violations such as speeding, failure to wear seat belts and disobeying police instructions.

Once an offence is detected, the system generates a notification to motorists through SMS, email or digital traffic enforcement platforms. The notice contains details of the offence, including the date, time and location, the prescribed penalty and payment timelines.

‘Upon receiving a notice, motorists have two options: they may admit liability and pay the prescribed fine within the stipulated period, or they may dispute the allegation in court,’ said Mr Kondiwa.

He added that motorists who opt to settle the fine would avoid appearing in court, although courts would retain powers to reduce or refund penalties depending on mitigating circumstances.

The regulator also warned that motorists who fail to respond, pay fines or appear in court when required could face harsher penalties imposed through the judicial process.

Court battle

The revised framework follows a temporary suspension of the system by the High Court after a petition filed by civil society organisation Sheria Mtaani and advocate Shadrack Wambui.

The petitioners argued that the automated penalties scheme fundamentally alters how traffic offences are detected, prosecuted and punished in Kenya.

‘The impugned notice purports to introduce a nationwide enforcement regime that fundamentally alters the manner in which criminal liability for traffic offences is determined, enforced and penalised in Kenya,’ the petition states.

The court barred NTSA and other state agencies from issuing or enforcing instant penalties generated through algorithmic or automated decision-making systems pending the hearing of the case.

Another Nairobi motorist, Kennedy Maingi Mutwiri, also moved to court seeking to stop the implementation of the system, arguing that it punishes motorists without giving them an opportunity to defend themselves before a court of law.

Revenue drive

The automated fines regime forms part of a broader Sh42 billion smart driving licence and traffic management project being implemented through a public-private partnership (PPP).

The project is backed by KCB Group and Pesa Print, a local technology firm partly owned by businessman David Njane together with politically connected investors Jabir Abdul Nassir Abdalla Al-Kindy and Faryd Abdulrazak Sheikh.

The consortium plans to recoup its investment over a 21-year concession period through revenues generated from instant traffic fines, smart driving licence fees and other user charges.

NTSA documents show that motorists will pay Sh3,000 for the new smart driving licences, while traffic offenders will face penalties ranging from Sh500 for failure to wear seat belts to Sh10,000 for offences such as speeding and driving vehicles without valid inspection certificates.

The project also includes the installation of more than 1,000 smart traffic cameras across major highways and accident-prone roads.

About 700 fixed cameras will be mounted along strategic highways and urban centres, while 300 mobile units will target speeding hotspots and high-risk corridors.

The government argues that the system will improve road safety and help reduce accidents caused by speeding and reckless driving.

Kenya has increasingly turned to PPP arrangements to finance major infrastructure projects amid mounting fiscal pressure and shrinking public revenues.

Treasury data shows the government collected an average of Sh1.7 billion annually from traffic fines between July 2020 and June 2024. However, officials expect collections to rise sharply once the automated fines system is fully implemented.

The smart licence project was initially launched in 2017 under a Sh2.03 billion contract awarded to a consortium led by the then National Bank of Kenya. The arrangement was later converted into a PPP model after the government accumulated pending bills owed to Pesa Print.

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has previously flagged delays in the implementation of the project, noting that it is several years behind schedule.

Absa Bank Kenya reported a 13.8 percent decline in net profit in the first quarter ended March as falling interest rates and reduced lending to customers resulted in reduced interest income.

The bank’s net income in the review period stood at Sh5.3 billion, down from Sh6.1 billion the year before.

Total interest income fell 10.1 percent to Sh13.5 billion. The lender also slashed interest paid on deposits by 17 percent to Sh3.1 billion, helping to mitigate the impact of lower interest income on its lending margins.

‘While market conditions remained dynamic, we delivered a profit after tax of Sh5.3 billion and a return on equity of 20.3 percent,’ Absa said in a statement.

‘Revenue [Total operating income] closed at Sh14.7 billion, reflecting the impact of the lower-rate environment, partly offset by improved cost-of-funds management.’

Absa becomes the second major listed lender to report lower earnings after Standard Chartered Bank Kenya’s net income declined 26.3 percent in the same period to Sh3.5 billion on lower interest income.

StanChart’s net interest income fell by 24.4 percent to Sh6.2 billion as revenues from lending fell faster than interest expenses, cutting its lending margins.

Read: StanChart bucks trend with 26pc profit fall in first quarter

Other rival banks including Equity Group, NCBA Group and Co-operative Bank of Kenya have recorded higher earnings on a mix of deeper cuts in interest expenses and higher income from lending and transactions.

Absa’s non-interest income shrank by Sh233.9 million to Sh4.2 billion while operating expenses increased by Sh169.8 million to Sh7.1 billion, contributing to the weaker earnings. The bank paid out Sh717 million to 82 of its employees who took voluntary early retirement in January this year, pushing up its staff costs for the first quarter.

The lender cut its loan loss provision by only Sh8 million to Sh1.4 billion despite the stock of bad loans falling by Sh5.9 billion to Sh38.1 billion, indicating increased cautionary outlook on credit performance in the near future.

Absa cut its loan book by Sh4.5 billion to Sh303.8 billion and increased its investments in the safer government debt securities by Sh22.5 billion to Sh128.4 billion.

‘Looking ahead, the bard remains confident in Absa Bank Kenya’s ability to navigate the evolving market dynamics

while continuing to deliver sustainable value,’ the lender said.

‘Our focus remains on disciplined execution, customer-centric innovation, prudent risk management, and long-term shareholder returns.’

The US and Israel war on Iran has resulted in a sharp jump in the price of commodities led by oil, leading to rising inflation that is set to reduce households’ disposable incomes and hurt profitability of businesses.

The fallout from a surge in inflation will be larger if the war persists for longer. Most sectors of the economy have been impacted by the commodities price rally including agriculture, transport, manufacturing, trade and energy.

The Kenyan government’s intention to comply with its international climate commitments, including the Global Methane Pledge, has inevitably put the pastoralists in the spotlight.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the Global South are a very small contribution to human-made climate change. Yet emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that represents 25 percent of total global warming, are attributed a much higher weight in low-income countries, precisely because of the relative economic importance of grazing livestock. Pastoralism is hence targeted as a primary objective for emission reductions-but is such attribution fair?

Pastoralism in Kenya exists primarily within arid and semi-arid lands, which make up nearly 80 percent of Kenya. Within these landscapes, communities such as the Maasai, Samburu, Turkana, Borana, Rendille, and others have practised mobile livestock production for generations.

These systems are built on seasonal movement, communal rangeland governance, indigenous ecological knowledge, and livestock breeds adapted to harsh and variable environments. In radical contrast with industrialised livestock systems, they operate with minimal external inputs and depend largely on natural grazing systems.

The naturalness of such practices is the key to their success: livestock integrates into savanna ecosystems the same way as wild migratory herbivores do, following green pastures across seasons.

Such integration into natural ecosystems is, unfortunately, one of the reasons for pastoralism being attributed a high climate burden. In the Global North, where industrial agriculture facilitates the provision of grain and concentrates, methane emissions per animal are much lower.

But attributing a Samburu cow with high emissions is not fair. That cow spent its life on natural pastures where all kinds of antelopes had grazed for thousands and millions of years, migrating in search of greener pasture as the wild herbivores used to do.

The methane that cows emit is no different from that emitted by wild migrating herbivores, as recent research shows. The problem humanity has with changing the climate is due to the amount of gases that we are artificially adding.

But there is a natural amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that protects life, warming the planet by 33°C. Our Samburu cow feeding on natural rangelands is not putting any single additional methane molecule into the system.

In many other African countries, livestock also has a very important social role as a reserve of capital, but unfortunately this is the other reason for the large climatic blame to Kenyan pastoralism. The global scientific community measures emission intensity on a per product base.

Imagine the case of a Samburu father who, to pay for his daughter’s school fees, sells his 8-year-old cow. Every kilogram of meat is attributed with all the gas that the cow produced while grazing natural rangelands during all that time. Yet a calf from the industrial facility mentioned above in the Global North will be slaughtered in few months, every kilogram of meat being attributed with methane emissions during a much more reduced timespan.

But attributing the Samburu cow with such high emissions is not fair. That cow spent its life on natural pastures where all kinds of antelopes had grazed for thousands and millions of years, migrating on the search for greener pasture as the wild herbivores used to do.

The methane that cow emitted is not different from the one wild migrating herbivores emit, as recent research shows. The problem humanity has with changing the climate is due to the amount of gases that we are artificially adding. But there is a natural amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that protects life, by warming the planet by 33°C.

Our Samburu cow feeding on natural rangelands is not putting any single additional methane molecule to the system. Ironically, the industrial livestock systems of the Global North that are being showcased as a paradigm of climate efficiency rely on the production of grain, concentrates and fertilized fodder which needs fossil fuel energy.

The use of oil and natural gas to move tractors and produce mineral fertilizer means that industrial food production systems are adding net greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Thereby they dope local rangelands with way more animals than what is natural, just like a runner on steroids, increasing methane emissions well above natural levels. Just as any other fossil-fuel-based activity, they contribute to the very dangerous 2°C artificial warming above natural greenhouse effect levels that humanity is fearing.

The Kenyan Government and society can make an opportunity out of this challenge. Instead of assuming a narrative that ignores local realities, it can organize African countries with large pastoralist herds to make the case in the international climate negotiations.

Abandoning pastoralism will not only be ineffective, due to wild animals or wildfires taking over the same emissions. It will be counterproductive, because of the need to compensate with increased industrial production for the food and services no longer delivered by pastoralism.

In term of climate adaptation, mobile pastoralism has repeatedly proven to be a very effective livelihood, with a cultural and social structure designed to make the best of climate variability.

The cultural significance for Kenyans is patent in the country’s flag and coat of arms, in spite of the deterioration that fragmentation, scarcity of services and other problems have brought. We have to revert it. We cannot miss this chance, for the best time to act was yesterday, but the second best is now.

Lawmakers have recommended an additional Sh388.16 million allocation to Kenya’s anti-money laundering agency for the fiscal year starting July to rescue Kenya from the global dirty money ‘grey list’ and avert deeper scrutiny of its financial system.

The National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning said the funding is intended to strengthen operations at the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) and help Kenya close compliance gaps identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global anti-money laundering watchdog.

Kenya was placed on the FATF grey list on February 23, 2024, after the global watchdog flagged weaknesses in the country’s systems for combating money laundering, terrorism financing and illicit financial flows.

The watchdog cited failures in prosecuting money laundering cases, weak oversight of virtual assets and cryptocurrencies, and inadequate monitoring of non-profit organisations and beneficial ownership structures in Kenya.

Grey-listing does not trigger sanctions, but signals weaknesses in safeguards against illicit finance, prompting foreign investors and international financial institutions to subject transactions from affected countries such as Kenya to enhanced checks.

Failure to satisfy FATF requirements could expose Kenya to heightened international scrutiny, slower cross-border transactions and increased compliance costs for banks and businesses.

The parliamentary committee, in its report on the 2026-27 budget estimates to the House, recommended the extra allocation ‘to support the FRC to enhance operations and close the FATF implementation gap and remove Kenya from the grey list’.

The move comes after the FRC warned lawmakers earlier this month that its current budget is insufficient to sustain basic operations, threatening Kenya’s campaign to exit the FATF watchlist.

Treasury PS Chris Kiptoo has since pledged that Kenya will intensify reforms and work to exit the grey list by this May, warning there may be little room for extension.

‘We really need to work hard. I am not sure we can have the opportunity to extend the greylisting period,’ said Dr Kiptoo in February.

The proposed allocation by MPs follows disclosures by FRC Director-General Naphtaly Rono, who told the parliamentary committee that the agency’s current allocation in the budget estimates effectively left the agency paralysed.

The FRC had initially requested Sh2.49 billion for the financial year beginning July, but was allocated a budgetary ceiling of Sh765.5 million, leaving a funding gap of Sh1.73 billion.

Mr Rono said the anti-money laundering authority had revised its requirements downward and needed at least an additional Sh564.9 million to attain a minimum operational threshold of Sh1.33 billion.

He told the lawmakers that the allocation in the Budget estimates before the National Assembly would be fully consumed by salaries and fixed administrative expenses, leaving no money for investigations, inspections or intelligence analysis.

Personnel costs require Sh479.3 million, while office rent, utilities, insurance and staff medical cover account for another Sh286.2 million, Mr Rono said.

‘Our operational funds remaining stand at zero,’ Mr Rono had told the committee. ‘We cannot exit the grey list without a well-funded exit plan.’

The disclosures have exposed the widening gap between Kenya’s anti-money laundering commitments and the shrinking resources available to the agency spearheading the effort.

The FRC’s budget has steadily declined over the past three financial years, falling from Sh1.70 billion in 2022/23 to Sh1.29 billion in 2023/24 before dropping further to Sh570 million in 2024/25 fiscal year.

The shrinking budget has constrained inspections, delayed registration of reporting entities and reduced public outreach programmes, raising concerns over enforcement gaps in Kenya’s financial system.

Kenya’s anti-money laundering framework requires banks, financial institutions and designated reporting entities such as law firms, real estate agencies, NGOs, casinos and betting firms, to flag suspicious financial activity to the FRC.

Cash transactions worth $15,000 (about Sh1.94 million) and above, as well as cross-border transfers exceeding $10,000 (Sh1.3 million), must be reported.

Institutions are also required to report suspicious transactions regardless of the amount involved.

However, the FRC says it currently lacks the resources to process the more than 10,000 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) it receives annually.

The figure marks a dramatic increase from the 34 reports handled when the agency was established in 2012, reflecting the rapid expansion and complexity of Kenya’s financial system.

The FATF grey listing has intensified pressure on Kenyan authorities to tighten oversight of financial flows amid growing concern over illicit cash movements, terrorism financing and abuse of emerging digital payment systems.

Kenyan banks and financial institutions already enforces stricter customer due diligence requirements, including verification of beneficial ownership and enhanced monitoring of high-risk transactions.

Authorities have also adopted an inter-agency enforcement strategy involving the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Attorney-General’s office, the Asset Recovery Agency and the Business Registration Service.

The additional Sh388.16 million proposed by MPs is expected to partially restore operational capacity at the FRC, although it still falls short of the amount the agency says it requires to function effectively.

The parliamentary committee’s recommendation sets the stage for a wider budget battle as lawmakers weigh competing spending priorities against growing international pressure to strengthen Kenya’s financial crime enforcement regime.

Anna Wanjiru did not start her bakery to make money. It was her way of dealing with her child’s medical condition.

“My daughter was diagnosed with severe eczema in 2018, when she was about two years old. One of the things the doctor recommended was removing gluten from her diet,” says the 38-year-old mother of three.

‘When I did some research, I found out that this would mean cutting out treats such as chapati, biscuits, toast and cake. I kept wondering: what would I do on her birthdays?’

It was this question that set Anna on a path of exploring and experimenting with gluten-free options.

‘I wasn’t going to let my daughter miss out on life,’ she says. ‘So I joined an online school and took a course in culinary nutrition.’

The course also helped her pursue a personal goal of embracing healthier eating without feeling like her options were limited.

“I gained a lot of knowledge on how to work with different ingredients and create healthy, appealing and delicious food,” she says. ‘After I was certified, I started experimenting with different flour combinations, searching for one that behaved like wheat.’

She explains that gluten acts as the natural glue that holds dough together, giving wheat its stretch and structure. However, replicating that quality proved challenging. Anna kept searching because most combinations required the addition of xanthan gum, a binding agent, but this can cause stomach irritation in some people. It took her about three years of trial and error to come up with the right mixture.

‘I discovered that Indians often fast from gluten, yet they still make foods like naan and roti,’ she says. ‘I was curious about how they managed that, and that’s how I found the perfect mixture.’

She says that a blended combination of amaranth, tapioca, and water chestnut closely mimics the behaviour of wheat. The breakthrough made her so excited that she didn’t hesitate to open a bakery straight away.

“I had tried it at home, and we were eating everything from chapati to cinnamon buns and cake,” she says. ‘I quickly wanted to share these options with others who had the same dietary restrictions.’

However, she didn’t anticipate the level of demand.

“We started getting orders from outside Nairobi. But, as you can imagine, when you ship doughnuts or chapati all the way to Kisumu, they’re not in the best condition by the time they arrive,” she says.

Anna shut down all operations and went back to the drawing board when she saw that the model was not immediately scalable. This was in 2021. With a broader customer base in mind, she decided to focus on one core product: gluten-free all-purpose flour.

‘I concentrated on perfecting the flour’s consistency and getting the right suppliers, as well as its packaging,’ she says. ‘It is particularly sensitive to moisture in the air, so if you leave it out, it can start to clump together.’

Today, Homechef’s gluten-free flour is packaged in waterproof 500-gramme packs designed to preserve freshness for about two years and easy to transport. Each pack retails at Sh395.

However, flour is not the only product that Homechef offers. In 2024, Anna returned to the bakery business, initially operating from home before securing a dedicated space in July 2025. Despite having never sold it before, she also introduced gluten-free bread to her menu.

‘The demand shocked us again,’ she says. “People started asking for variety, so we introduced different types of bread, cakes, and muffins.”

As the range of products expanded, the space quickly became too small. After only six months, the business relocated to its current premises in Gigiri. What started with just two employees has grown into a bakery and café with 10 staff, offering more than 40 gluten-free products, as well as vegan and sugar-free options.

The majority of their ingredients are locally sourced and natural, except for the water chestnut used in the flour blend, which is imported from Asia because it is not grown locally.

Customers include families with one or more members who have dietary restrictions, young health-conscious consumers, and businesses such as health stores, restaurants and a regional airline caterer.

“Mothers are our biggest customers because they tend to have a similar story to mine, and they feel understood,” says Anna, adding that their best-selling product is the sandwich bread, which retails at Sh650. ‘Businesses mostly buy the flour from us so they can offer healthier options to their clients, although some also purchase the bread.’

Homechef sells about four to five tonnes of gluten-free flour per month for its core product. This figure is a combination of sales from their online platform, the bakery and stockists spread across the country, as well as a few in Uganda and Tanzania. However, while the revenue is enough to cover overheads, Anna is cautious about describing the business as profitable.

“I have invested around Sh4 million into it so far, and I keep reinvesting more,” she says. “Setting up and maintaining the standards for a fully gluten-free commercial kitchen is quite costly. But as a category leader, you’re also constantly investing in ways to improve and expand.”

However, behind Homechef’s growth story lies a set of challenges.

‘Initially, it was education,’ says Anna. ‘A lot of people just knew that when they ate certain foods, they would feel unwell. They didn’t know that they needed to avoid gluten altogether. They certainly didn’t know about alternative options. So we had to start by educating the market.’

The business used social media to address this issue, sharing information and raising awareness. Anna says that this approach also helped them to secure their first clients and has been a key driver of sales so far.

Another major challenge has been securing capital for expansion.

‘Many customers, including foreigners from around Africa and beyond, tell us that what we offer either does not exist in their countries or is simply not of the same standard,’ says Anna. “It’s not easy to get bread that tastes like wheat yet is not wheat, but we have that expertise. However, we still haven’t been able to meet demand, even here in Kenya, fully.’

She says the main reason for this is the difficulty in finding the right partners. These are people who are committed to producing real food without additives and maintaining the required standards.

“We don’t have to be the only company in this field, and it would be great if we could receive support to serve customers who really need this product,” she says. “Since relocating to our current location, for example, we have seen demand grow by about 30 per cent every month.”

The constant rise in taxation has also presented a hurdle for Homechef, particularly with regard to pricing.

‘Most of our customers do not buy these products out of luxury, but necessity,’ she says. “So, while I consider all the work that goes into our products, I also consider how expensive it can be to cater to the needs of someone who requires specialised care when setting prices. That is why we didn’t change the price of our flour for such a long time. It’s only recently that we have adjusted it slightly due to the cost of fuel.’

Throughout her journey, Anna says she has learned the importance of reading the small print, asking questions and not making any decisions in haste.

‘I have signed one or two agreements, including verbal ones, that have really set me back in business,’ she says. ‘I’ve also realised that whenever I rush into something, I end up getting burned, so I’ve become more patient.’

In the near future, Homechef plans to introduce a five kilogramme pack of flour for businesses. Looking further ahead, Anna’s goal is not only to grow the customer base, but also to make Homechef more accessible.

‘Even here in Gigiri, there are still so many people who don’t know about us,’ she explains. “At the same time, there are people who drive all the way from Lang’ata or place orders and pay high delivery fees, so we are looking to open a second bakery.”

She also plans to partner with a hospital and certain communities, such as those supporting children on the autism spectrum.

While Anna enjoys having the café because it allows people to sample products before buying them, she also appreciates the opportunity to interact with her community. Ultimately, however, her dream is to set up a large production-only kitchen.