Category: Business Daily

Most people would blame the Mombasa heat for skipping workouts. Ordinarily, you will be wiping sweat that formed before the warm-up even begins. However, Morris Ongere has lived in that heat his entire life, and somehow, he has carved out a physique that defies both the weather and the passage of time.

At forty-nine, with his fiftieth birthday looming, he has remained what the young men at Nyali Beach call ‘fit like a dhow sail’- taut, purposeful, and seemingly defying the natural laws of aging.

Mombasa, with its heavy blanket of humidity, is not where one expects to find a man of Morris’ age well-toned with impressive musculature, like someone who trains in crisp morning mountain air. Yet Morris cracked a code-a rhythm of breath, sweat, and smart training-that allowed him not only to survive the heat but to also thrive in it.

‘Training under the heat of Mombasa can be challenging. To maximise your workout in Mombasa or at the Coast, you have to be extra disciplined; there aren’t two ways about it. That means waking up early around 5am before the sun comes out. By the time humidity starts to roll in at 7 am, you’ve already done a significant part of your workout.’

There’s a second option too, though not as forgiving.

‘You can also wait until the sun sets and train in the evening. But that can be challenging, especially if you’re just visiting and not used to the heat. Some nights, the humidity still rules.’

But since he became a fitness trainer after quitting his job as a chef, a profession he’d never truly loved, many of his clients prefer working out in the evening after work. And so he found a way to make it enjoyable, allowing everyone to forget, even for a moment, the punishing Coast humidity.

‘For my evening sessions, I realised I need to make it fun because people are already tired from work, and the humidity can only make it worse. So making the classes engaging and fun eases the day’s dullness. So what do I do? I incorporate a lot of music that people enjoy with easy workouts and dance, which I am very good at choreographing because I used to be a dancer during my younger days. When people are together, laughing and challenging each other, they forget about the heat. They forget they were working out at all and look forward to the next class.’

But for his own personal training, Morris says his approach is rather different from what he does with his clients.

‘Most of my clients want to shed a few kilos, so I have to craft exercises to address that, and that means lots of cardio, bearing in mind the cuisine culture at the Coast is carbohydrate-heavy. But when it comes to me, I do things rather differently,’ Morris explains.

During his younger years, he did a lot of cardio, especially long-distance running-something he can no longer keep up with at 49.

‘For years, I used to do a lot of cardio,’ he recalls. ‘A lot of dancing and long-distance running. It got even worse when I went into full-time fitness because many clients want to lose kilos, so that means constant cardio classes. But a lot of cardio eats up your muscle. And as you age, you need more muscle for longevity and functionality. To ensure I do not lose the muscle I built when I was younger, I focus more on strength training. At this age, I prefer it to any other form of exercise.’

Morris goes further.

‘You are looking for the muscles to make the body move, and that is very crucial as you age. When you do strength training, it gives you more power, more energy to do things.’

But for Morris, even though he needs muscle, he no longer seeks to bulk up-only to maintain.

‘I don’t need extra muscle. I just need to maintain what I built during my young years when I had the power to lift heavy. Now, I can’t lift heavy anymore because I fear injuries, which can be very stressful. So I don’t push myself too hard with weights. But to ensure my muscles are triggered, I do strength training five times a week.’

Morris says he has made peace with time. His body is different now-not worse, just different. He no longer chases the heavy weights he lifted at twenty, when 120 kilogrammes felt like a personal challenge. Now he lifts lighter-80 kilos maximum for chest press and squats. It’s more strategic now.

He has learned that three times a week of strength training is enough. That touching each body part-arms, legs, core-with intention is better than exhausting himself daily. That long-distance cardio, which he loved in his youth, no longer serves him the way targeted strength work does.

It is wisdom earned through decades of listening to his body instead of lecturing it. Sometimes when life happens, he breaks for two or three weeks and starts all over again. No shame, no self-flagellation-just the patient work of rebuilding.

‘When you are adapted to this kind of life, if you miss even a week, your body feels messed up, your mind is messed up, and when you go back you feel weak. But there is no problem with starting again, because there is muscle memory. So you shouldn’t worry when you go back to working out after a break and realise you aren’t as strong as you were before the break. Sometimes the body needs that-to rest and start afresh.’

Sidian Bank will be raising an additional Sh3 billion in capital to match its business growth, which saw its net profit rise more than fivefold in the nine months to September.

The small-tier lender, which has just concluded a Sh3 billion rights issue, is in discussions with its shareholders to inject an additional Sh3 billion to support its business growth.

The bank’s deposit base grew by 30.2 percent in the three months to September, resulting in its core capital to total deposits ratio falling to 8.8 percent, which is 0.8 percentage points above the statutory minimum of eight percent.

Sidian packed the bulk of its deposits in Treasury bills and bonds with interest earned from the government helping it post an after-tax profit of Sh1.4 billion in the nine-month period ended September 2025, up from Sh257 million a year earlier.

‘We finalised the Sh3 billion rights issue with a final amount of Sh580 million already received awaiting allotment. This is shown as other reserves,’ said Sidian Bank’s chief executive Chege Thumbi.

‘We are in discussions with the shareholders on raising more capital in line with business demand. We plan another Sh3 billion in new capital on top of the retained funds,’ he added.

The bank has deep-pocketed shareholders, including listed investment firm Centum, insurance firm Pioneer, and construction company Wizpro Enterprises Limited, who have supported it in previous capital raising rounds as it pushes to become a mid-sized bank by the end of 2028.

Customer savings with the bank rose to Sh78.1 billion in September, up from Sh59.9 billion in June and Sh43.5 billion in September 2024. Despite the deposit growth, the bank’s loan book remained flat at Sh25.1 billion, a situation that management attributed to the sluggish economy.

‘As the economy picks up, in line with our mission to empower the entrepreneurs, we expect the loan book to grow in months ahead,’ said Mr Chege.

The bank’s stock of Treasury bills and bonds rose to Sh48.6 billion as at the end of September, up from Sh19.3 billion a year ago.

This saw the bank’s earnings from government jump 134.7 percent to Sh3 billion, from Sh1.3 billion, helping to offset a 9.2 percent drop in interest income from loans.

Sidian earned Sh2.9 billion from its loan book, a drop from Sh3.2 billion in September last year.

Despite being ranked among the small-sized banks in the country, Sidian has been punching above its weight by booking some large clients especially within government.

Earlier this month, Nairobi County Government appointed Sidian Bank as the principal banker for its health facilities, taking the business from Co-operative Bank of Kenya, the third-largest bank in the country.

The hospital business is bound to boost the bank’s deposit base and earn it transactional income, given the high number of transactions associated with such accounts.

‘Opening, operating and closing of accounts are normal administrative matters provided by law. Accounts are opened and closed periodically,’ said Charles Kerich, the county executive for finance and economic planning, regarding the change of banker.

The county has revenue accounts with Co-op Bank, Equity Bank and Sidian.

Besides Nairobi County, Sidian has also been appointed as one of the receiving agents of the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the housing levy.

This has enabled it to keep its cost of funds low at 3 billion Kenyan shillings, up from 2.2 billion a year earlier, despite the deposit base nearly doubling.

The Treasury is on the spot for failing to use the Sh2.67 trillion borrowed locally between 2018 and 2023 to fund projects, thereby contravening rules that stipulate debt should not be used to for recurrent activities.

The Office of the Auditor-General has said the Treasury has been operating without a framework to ensure that funds generated from domestic loans are used for development projects, at a time when the public debt has exceeded Sh12 trillion.

A performance audit on the management of cash and domestic debt shows that the government borrowed Sh2.97 trillion via bonds between July 2018 and June 2023.

‘Out of this amount, Sh2.67 trillion was transferred to Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) account, of which Sh558.87 billion was utilised to settle maturing domestic debt and the remaining balance of Sh2.1 trillion funded Exchequer releases to MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies),’ says Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.

However, the audit does not explain how the balance of Sh300 billion, which was not deposited into the Consolidated Fund, was used.

Although the public auditor faulted the use of bond sale proceeds to fund maturities, the Treasury defended the action, saying that debt obligations are a first charge to the Consolidated Fund.

The bonds proceeds were, however, mixed with other cash inflows, such as taxes, after being deposited in the Consolidated Fund, making it difficult to tell how they were used, Ms Gathungu notes.

‘Because of fungibility of money, the monies were used to fund priority exchequer requests instead of lying idle in the Treasury bonds accounts and provided that at the end of the financial year the budget was fully funded, then there should be no problem,’ the Auditor-General said.

‘As a result, the audit could not verify what specific projects the Treasury bonds proceeds were expended on,’ she added.

The audit also faults the Treasury for the lack of a mechanism to ring-fence prove projects to be funded with proceeds of infrastructure bonds, saying the government has been floating the papers without specifics of projects to be funded.

Ms Gathungu added that this continued non-adherence to fiscal principles risks weakening investor confidence and the development of markets for government securities.

‘Review of a number of infrastructure bond prospectuses indicates the purpose of these bonds to be very general and not specific to a particular infrastructure project, thereby unable to confirm the utilisation of the treasury bonds proceeds,’ she says.

The PFM Act 2012 requires the Treasury to ensure that government borrowings are only used for financing development. But, short-term borrowings, such as overdrafts are used to manage cash flows.

Kenya’s public debt hit Sh12.05 trillion in September, with domestic debt accounting for 55.3 percent of the total debt.

I’ve just returned from Dreamforce 2025 in San Francisco, where global leaders were imagining what comes next in the ‘agentic era’, a future where AI systems don’t just follow instructions but plan, reason, and act independently to help organisations achieve complex goals. What struck me most was how deeply relevant these conversations are for Africa today.

Across the continent, businesses and governments face a familiar challenge: expectations are rising while budgets and teams remain constrained. We’re being asked to deliver more, to more people, with less.

AI offers a way to bridge that gap, not as a shiny new tool, but as a reliable partner that can take on the heavy lifting, handle repetitive tasks, enhance decision-making, and free our people to focus on work that truly moves us forward.

But to unlock that potential, technology alone is not enough. African organisations need the right internal functions, people, processes, and guardrails, to ensure AI is deployed responsibly, safely, and at scale.

From where I sit, supporting teams across the continent, these five functions are essential for any African business preparing for this new era, and will determine whether Africa prospers in the agentic era:

AI agent management: Turning ideas into action

Every organisation experimenting with AI is asking the same question: Where do we start?

AI agent management provides the answer. This function defines where AI can drive measurable value, from improving service delivery to streamlining operations to enabling financial inclusion. We’re already seeing this in action: Absa, for instance, is using AI to deliver faster, more accessible banking for millions.

AI risk and governance: Building trust from the start

AI can only be transformative if it is trusted, which requires strong safety barriers from the very start.

Yet Africa faces a unique challenge: most global AI models are trained on datasets that overlook African languages, cultural nuances, and local contexts. When systems fail to moderate hate speech or misinterpret African dialects, the consequences are not theoretical.

This makes governance non-negotiable. Strong oversight, from bias testing and transparency reviews to data protection and continuous monitoring, ensures AI remains ethical, safe, and aligned with our values. Governance isn’t red tape; it’s the foundation of trust.

AI operations management: Scaling for dependability

The reality is that most, almost 95 percent of AI pilots fail. Often, it’s because companies try to build everything from scratch, only to run into security risks, bad data or runaway costs.

In Africa, failed pilots are even more painful because budgets are tighter. The AI operations management function prevents this. It handles the day-to-day running of AI systems, by deploying them properly, keeping them stable, monitoring performance and making sure they stay secure.

At the heart of this function is the AI platform engineer, whose job is technical and hands-on: they connect agents, data and applications into a single, reliable workflow. They make sure the system runs smoothly around the clock and can deploy digital labour when demand grows.

AI Workforce Training and Development: Bridging tech and talent

Technology only works when people understand how and when to use it. This is where the training function becomes critical. A significant digital literacy gap exists, with only half of African countries including computer skills in their school curricula.

The AI learning and development function must prioritise structured training, moving from basic AI awareness to role-specific capability development, ensuring employees are prepared for the ‘human-agent collaboration’ that defines the future of work.

Salesforce’s latest Slack Workforce Index shows people using AI are 81 percent more satisfied with their job than those who aren’t, making training a critical function for talent attraction and retention.

AI workforce integration: Augmenting human potential

Ultimately, AI is at its best when it elevates, not replaces, human ingenuity. This function focuses on fostering seamless, productive collaboration between human employees and AI systems. The goal is to augment human capabilities, enabling employees to focus on creative and strategic tasks and reduce friction.

By automating repetitive and time-consuming activities, AI can free employees to focus on high-value work and strategic initiatives.

We’ve seen real-world success, such as Secret Escapes increasing autonomous resolution rates from 10 percent to 30 percent, which allows human employees to focus on higher-value interactions. The AI collaboration strategist defines the essential interaction points and optimises collaboration models to ensure AI enhances our human ingenuity.

Africa’s opportunity in the agentic era

The move toward agentic systems isn’t just another tech upgrade. It changes how work actually gets done. It redefines productivity, service delivery, and even how governments engage with citizens. For Africa, it’s a real opportunity because it has the potential to deliver better public services, faster responses, and the ability to grow without inflating limited budgets.

But real transformation requires structure. These five functions, from governance to workforce integration, give organisations the structure they need to use AI safely and effectively. Without them, AI remains guesswork, but with them, it becomes something that can genuinely support growth.

After witnessing many AI success stories at Dreamforce, one thought kept surfacing: while success and profit are noble causes, Africa has a duty to set the bar higher and use AI as an opportunity to elevate its people and solve real human problems.

Can we, as Africans, afford to miss this opportunity to make meaningful change on a continent that knows too well the price we pay for being left behind? Our AI success starts with each of us taking up the responsibility to participate, develop ourselves, train our people, rethink our workflows, and place skills where they’ll make the biggest difference.

We need AI solutions that reflect our values and serve our people.

From a remastered collection of hits by an icon of Kenyan music, to a new album by a rising star of Afrobeats, and a fresh twist to timeless Christmas songs, here are five albums that have dropped on streaming platforms this month that are well worth adding to your playlists.

The first career retrospective from one of the all-time greats of Kenyan music contains 17 of the best singles of Joseph Kamaru’s illustrious career remastered from the original tapes. The UK label Disciples has released this album, digitally and on vinyl, with the assistance of Kamaru’s grandson KMRU who is himself also a musician.

There is a very interesting mix of musical styles that illustrate the musical versatility of Kamaru, from the soul-funk groove of Kenya Kurungara to the pure benga of Gari La Trela, Karolina and the deeply emotional J.M. Kariuki released in the wake of the politician’s assassination in 1975.

The physical copy of the album comes with detailed liner notes by the Kenyan scholar Maina wa Mutonya who has studied and written extensively on the works of Joseph Kamaru, and Italy-based music journalist Megan Iacobini de Fazio.

Mario

Mood Swings

Mario has come a long way since he burst on the scene as 15-year-old in 2002 with the classic Just a Friend, the track that turned him into an R and B sensation, and the follow up, the Grammy nominated Let Me Love You.

His latest release, an 8-track EP that dropped on November 14, 2025, lives up to the singer-songwriter, actor and entrepreneur’s trademark sleek R and B style.

True to the name of the EP, the songs are a mix of up-tempo dance tunes like the title track and some silky-smooth, romantic numbers like Home, Chosen and Friends featuring a verse by R and B star Ty Dolla $ign.

The outstanding tune on the EP is the silky Nobody but Us, a catchy mid-tempo arrangement where Mario delivers his tried and tested vocal style that has put him in the top league of contemporary male performers.

Afrobeats has become a global movement and the success of heavy hitters like Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, and Ayra Starr has opened the doors for a steady stream of new, hungry Nigerian acts. Among the biggest of the new crop of artistes in the genre is Seyi Vibez (he has already collaborated with both Burna and Ayra).

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter from Lagos State who built his career with hard-hitting street rhythms, combines Yoruba music from the 1960s, with cutting edge Afropop sounds on his new album Fuji Moto.

Fuji music has traditionally been popular in the North West of Nigeria but thanks to stars like Asake, Fireboy DML and now Seyi Vibez, the genre has been acquired a contemporary edge

The standout tracks on the album are How are You, which contains an interpolation of Bobby Caldwell’s soul classic What You Won’t Do for Love, and the infectious Macho featuring American rapper NLE Choppa.

Another big-name US rapper French Montana jumps on a remix of the superb Pressure, while the high energy Fuji Party features Nigerian Afrobeats star Olamide.

If you are looking for a song to lift up your mood then turn on the appropriately named Happy Song whose choral refrain is divine. As Seyi told Apple Music in February 2025, ‘Whether we are good, or we are struggling, we are hungry, or we are in any kind of position we are in as African children, we are always happy.’

The word ‘free’ has become one of the most misused terms in Kenya’s political and social landscape. We are constantly told of free education, free maternal health care, free this and free that.

Yet, anyone who scratches beneath the surface knows there is nothing free about these services. The truth is simple: someone is paying for it, and that someone is the Kenyan taxpayer-you and me.

Politicians are masters at using the word ‘free.’ It is a soothing term, one that wins applause at rallies and earns political mileage. ‘Free’ sounds compassionate, people-centred, and visionary. It is a gift-wrapped word meant to make citizens feel valued and cared for. But in reality, it is a political coinage designed to make you love and trust the politician who utters it.

What is worrying, however, is how this misnomer has seeped deep into the psyche of ordinary Kenyans. Take, for instance, free primary and secondary education. While the government subsidises tuition, schools still grapple with inadequate infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and underpaid teachers.

Parents, especially in rural areas, have been made to believe that the phrase free education absolves them of any responsibility in supporting their children’s learning environment.

Many have washed their hands off school development projects, leaving boards of management and principals stranded when it comes to building classrooms, maintaining facilities, buying essential equipment or even paying wages for persons hired to tend school grounds.

This mindset has eroded the spirit of harambee-the proud national philosophy of pulling together to achieve common good.

Where communities once rallied to build schools, dig boreholes, and support hospitals, today many fold their arms and simply chant: serikali saidia.

Citizens wait for the government to come to their rescue, forgetting that ‘government’ has no money of its own; it spends what taxpayers contribute.

If Kenya is to grow, it must reclaim the spirit of harambee and reject the comfort of the misused word ‘free.’

Citizens must be reminded that their role in building the nation does not end with paying taxes; it extends to supporting schools, hospitals, and community projects.

Politicians, on the other hand, must stop hiding behind the cheap slogan of ‘free’ and start engaging in honest conversations about sustainable development and shared responsibility.

The so-called ‘free maternal health care’ paints a similar picture. Hospitals are underfunded, drugs are often in short supply, and women are still asked to buy basic supplies when they go into labour. The gap between the promise of ‘free’ and the reality of service delivery is glaring.

The tragedy of this misnomer is not just in misleading language but in the slow erosion of personal and communal responsibility. ‘Free’ has turned citizens from active participants in development into passive consumers of political promises.

The nation loses when its people forget that progress is achieved not by handouts but by collective effort.

The truth is that nothing is free. Any medicine dispensed, every classroom built, every nurse’s salary paid, every textbook bought comes from taxes-our taxes. The question, then, is not whether services should be free, but whether the taxes we pay are being put to effective, transparent, and accountable use.

Until then, every time you hear the word free, remember this: you are paying for it. Maybe, just maybe, its time we revisited and embraced terms like affordable and cost-sharing.

Kenyan mobile phone users are raising concerns over a surge in spam or unsolicited promotional SMSs, increasing scrutiny over how telecom operators handle customers’ personal data and whether regulators are doing enough to curb intrusive messaging.

Subscribers say their phones have been inundated with trivia alerts, quizzes, motivational quotes, betting platform notifications and digital lending offers, including messages from services they have never used.

Some of these alerts deduct airtime or mobile money balances without clear consent, while attempts to unsubscribe often lead to dead ends.

Frustrated users have flooded telcos’ customer-care pages on social media with complaints, questioning how unknown companies acquired their numbers and whether the contacts were obtained legitimately or through undisclosed data-sharing arrangements.

‘I’m concerned about my data privacy. I’m getting spam messages about gambling and I didn’t give consent. Can you help me understand how my number was obtained?’ one user wrote on social media X platform last month.

On Tuesday, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) acknowledged the rising anger, calling the matter a priority.

‘We have also noted consumer frustration over spam messages, unsolicited subscriptions, unauthorised use of phone numbers and unauthorised premium services,’ the regulator said in a statement.

‘These concerns are a priority for the Authority, and the improved SIM card registration processes are part of the larger strategy to safeguard consumer interests.’

The regulator was referencing new SIM card registration rules issued by ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo, which require telcos to collect biometric data, including fingerprints, when onboarding customers.

The rules are framed as a tool for combating fraud and strengthening accountability, but they have sparked controversy on their own over sensitivity regarding how subscriber data is being stored and used.

A September report by Kenya’s second-largest telco- Airtel, showed that the country had the highest prevalence of spam SMS among 13 African countries monitored by its AI-powered spam alert tool, with 68 million suspicious messages flagged out of 205 million detected across the markets.

Safaricom, in its data privacy statement, insists that it collects customer information with full knowledge and consent and uses it strictly for defined purposes such as identity verification, billing, credit scoring and sending product updates, unless a customer opts out.

‘We may. contact you with offers or promotions based on how you use our or third-party products and services unless you opt out,’ the company says.

According to data security specialist Raymond Kamau, the assumption that telcos are directly leaking customer phone numbers is not always accurate.

‘There are many places these companies may have gotten people’s phone numbers from; websites where you sign up using your number, online purchases, or even places you leave your data for access control,’ he told the Business Daily in an interview.

‘It does not necessarily mean your mobile carrier gave your data to a third party.’

Mr Kamau adds that tracing the original source of personal data used to send spam or flash messages is often difficult:

‘The telcos cannot stop it unless you alert them,’ he said, noting that customer reports are key to blocking problematic senders.

Such complaints fall within the mandate of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC).

‘If a customer does not know who shared their data without permission, they should raise the issue with the ODPC,’ said a data privacy lawyer.

‘Where possible, one should also contact the sender directly and ask how they obtained the number.’

As per the Data Protection Act, marketers must only send direct marketing messages if they collected the customer’s data legally, notified them that marketing is a purpose of collection and provided a working opt-out mechanism.

‘It is a violation when the SMS marketer does not give an opt-out option in their message, when the option does not work, or when marketing messages continue even after a subscriber opts out,’ said the lawyer.

The law also requires marketers to include clear contact information through which consumers can request that the communications stop, without incurring charges.

Consumers also have the right to ask a data controller not to process their data for all or part of a specific purpose, including direct marketing.

‘A data subject may request a data controller or data processor not to process all or part of their personal data, for a specified purpose or in a specified manner, such as direct marketing purposes,’ the Act states.

An aggrieved mobile subscriber can complain to the ODPC by filling out the complaint form available online and sending it via email.

‘The ODPC then investigates within 90 days,’ said the lawyer. ‘If the investigation reveals who illegally shared the customer’s data, the user can pursue a case against the responsible data processor or controller.’

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has won a long-running intellectual property dispute, with the High Court rejecting claims by a tech firm that the lender stole its real estate payment innovation.

In a judgment on fintech (financial technology) patents, the court upheld an earlier ruling of the Industrial Property Tribunal that Intestyl Technologies Ltd’s registered system was not independently protected because it wholly depended on the bank’s existing infrastructure.

The system was designed to help landlords reconcile mobile payments. ‘The invention was neither standalone nor unique,’ the court stated, citing Section 103(3) of Kenya’s Industrial Property Act.

The court ruled that the innovation’s complete reliance on the Co-op Bank’s systems invalidated the registration.

The dispute originated from Intestyl’s 2020 utility model registration for a ‘Computer Implemented Banking System for Real Estate Management.’ This was a digital platform designed to help landlords reconcile real-time mobile payments.

Intestyl and its director, Alex Muigai, alleged that the bank had integrated their technology into its Open Banking Project after gaining access during collaboration talks, a claim the court found unsupported by evidence.

Although Intestyl accused Co-op Bank of exploiting its disclosure during partnership negotiations, the court found that the firm’s failure to prove standalone functionality was fatal to its case.

Intestyl and its director stated that they had approached the bank to commercialise the invention and had entered into an application programming interface (API) service agreement with the bank.

The court heard that the bank had allowed Intestyl to utilise the APIs for funds transfers, status queries, instant notifications, Pesalink and M-Pesa, and callbacks for the purpose of implementing the invention.

The dispute hinged on allegations that Co-op Bank unlawfully integrated the invention into its Open Banking Project, despite initially collaborating under an API agreement.

The tech firm began product testing, which included the full disclosure the utility-model-protected invention, and the bank gave them full access to the core banking system.

It was alleged that they worked jointly to modify the lender’s banking system to ensure compatibility and integration with Intestyl’s invention, and the systems worked seamlessly.

The tech firm and its director blamed the bank for commissioning the Open Banking Project, alleging that it had appropriated some features from their invention.

They also accused the bank of offering a licence for the invention to third parties in disregard of their rights over the utility model.

Mr Muigai and Intestyl jointly accused the bank, together with Proptech Kenya and Ezen Partners Limited, of manufacturing, commercialising and exploiting their invention for sale without their consent or knowledge.

However, the court found that Intestyl’s system only facilitated M-Pesa payments through the bank’s pre-existing Pesalink and funds transfer interfaces – a function that the tribunal likened to a ‘parasitic’ add-on rather than a standalone innovation.

This is because Intestyl’s innovation required Co-op Bank’s core banking system to operate, meaning it failed to meet the legal threshold for infringement.

It was noted that the nature of Intestyl’s invention required the bank to allow its use on its APIs, which was allegedly already existed and were in use by other fintech companies.

It was concluded that, since the invention required a host to survive, it could not therefore be infringed.

‘The appellants’ utility model could not function without Co-operative Bank’s banking system,’ the judgment stated, adding that Intestyl failed to prove misuse of any protectable expression.

The court emphasised that Kenyan law protects the tangible implementations of ideas, rather than abstract concepts that depend on third-party systems.

It noted that computer-driven business methods fall outside the scope of patents under the Industrial Property Act.

Given the appellants’ utility model relied on the bank’s banking system, it disqualified it from infringement.

‘The Intestyl’s system was to collect M-Pesa payments on behalf of landlords, and to re-route the payments to the collective merchants’ accounts, via EFT and Pesalink API,’ said the court.

‘That made the system dependent on the first respondent’s banking system, to function, and the functioning would have been impossible without the first respondent’s banking system,’ it added.

Co-op Bank had countered that the utility model’s registration was flawed, as it neither described its industrial applicability nor its operational specifics.

The bank denied wrongdoing, arguing that the tech firm’s model was neither novel nor self-sustaining, as it relied entirely on its existing Pesalink and M-Pesa APIs. The bank described the lawsuit as frivolous.

The court agreed, further rejecting Intestyl’s bid for injunctive relief and affirming the tribunal’s finding that the invention lacked uniqueness.

The judgment noted that Intestyl had failed to disclose sufficient technical details of its invention during proceedings to substantiate its claims of infringement.

South Africa’s Vodacom Group is seeking to acquire part of the government’s stake in Safaricom in a deal that could see the Johannesburg-based firm take majority control of the Kenyan tele-coms operator.

Vodacom Group has informed investors that it will bid for an extra Safaricom share as the State seeks to reduce its stake in a privatisation plan.

The government has announced plans to sell a mega stake in Safaricom in efforts to raise billions of shillings from the privatisation of State enter-prises and cut reliance on debt to plug budget deficits.

It retained a 34.9 percent stake in the Nairobi bourse-listed firm worth Sh418 billion after selling a 25 percent stake to investors via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2008. Vodacom Group has a 39.9 percent stake in Safaricom.

The sale promises the largest trans-action in the region as global private equity (PE) firms prowl Africa for tele-coms deals, attracted by their predict-able revenues and steady cash flows, which can then be used to service the debt taken on to buy the company.

Vodacom Group CEO Mohamed Josub said the South African firm expects the Kenyan government to reach out with an offer.

‘In terms of increasing stakes, we look at any market where our partners want to sell, we would consider it,’ Mr Josub told investors during the group’s 2026 second-quarter earnings call.

‘And of course, we’d expect that they would talk to us, as we’ve been partners for a very long time. If there is a want to sell, I’m sure they’ll talk to us.’

Vodacom Group previously increased its stake in Safaricom through an all-share deal with its UK parent, Vodafone Plc, in 2017.

Safaricom’s IPO was oversubscribed by 532 percent after the State sold the 25 percent stake, or 10 billion shares, earning Sh51.75 billion for the Treasury.

Analysts expect a scramble for the additional sale of the government stake in Safaricom. Safaricom’s stake sale could take the form of a secondary IPO or an auction to a high-net-worth investor for a block sale.

A second offer occurs when an investor sells their shares to the public on the secondary market after the first offer, with proceeds going directly to the pockets of the investor.

The sale of 10 percent of the government’s stake in the telco would yield Sh119.6 billion at the prevailing share price of Sh29.90.

Analysts have favoured an off-market transaction if the government is to unlock the maximum possible return from the planned divestiture.

This involves sales to high-net-worth investors like telecoms operators and PE funds that offer a premium to the market price.

Vodacom Group seems to prefer this route, which could see the State offer it preference in the purchase of the shares.

The State has been short of entities deemed ripe for privatization as the bulk of them are struggling after years of loss-making and mismanagement.

Apart from Safaricom, Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is seen as the only other viable firm that can help the State move closer to the Sh149 billion target.

Safaricom remains the region’s most profitable firm, riding on the back of data and M-Pesa, which has seen the operator consistently pay dividends.

Safaricom reported a 52.1 percent rise in its half-year profit to Sh42.7 billion, helped by a smaller loss in Ethiopia and M-Pesa’s double-digit growth.

Its net profit grew from Sh28.11 billion the previous year, and it expects to declare an interim dividend in February. The firm paid a dividend of Sh1.20 a share, representing a windfall of Sh19.2 billion and Sh16.8 billion for Vodacom and the Exchequer.

Safaricom – Kenya’s biggest mobile carrier with close to two-thirds of the country’s subscribers – is valued at Sh1.196 trillion.

The Kenya business continued to be the main profit driver on the back of M-Pesa, the firm’s largest unit and on course to generate half of the telco’s revenues.

Its reported loss in Ethiopia dropped by 59 percent compared to the first half of the previous financial year, which was heavily impacted by a depreciation of the birr currency.

The loss in Ethiopia that is attributed to Safaricom dropped to Sh15.2 billion from Sh19.4 billion in the same period a year earlier, translating to a gain of Sh4.2 billion.

Safaricom launched in Ethiopia in 2022 as the government opened up the tightly controlled economy to foreign competition and is hoping its presence in Africa’s second-most populous country will power future growth.

Its diversification from the saturated voice and SMS business is paying off, with M-Pesa, mobile data and fixed internet emerging as sales drivers.

Safaricom’s revenue rose to Sh199.9 billion in the six months to September, from Sh179.9 billion in the same period a year earlier, reflecting a 11.1 percent growth.

Revenue from mobile financial service M-Pesa rose to Sh88.1 billion from Sh77.2 billion previously, reflecting a growth of 14 percent.

The voice business recorded a 0.5 percent decline in revenues to Sh41 billion, marking a big shift as mobile data for the first time overtook sales from calls.

Revenue from mobile data, where Safaricom has been aggressively fighting for market share, rose 18.2 percent to Sh44.4 billion, while fixed internet to homes and offices rose 10 percent to Sh9.1 billion.

Equity Group Foundation will contribute to a Sh1.3 billion ($10 million) prize for best education technology innovation in Africa in a bid to improve early childhood learning on the continent.

The lender’s charity arm, known for its flagship Wings to Fly education scholarship programme, on Thursday announced its collaboration with XPrize Foundation in the upcoming XPrize Accellerate Learning Competition during the on-going G20 Social Summit in South Africa.

The prize seeks to reward an innovation with the best learning outcomes for the most students and at the lowest cost, yet scalable and can enable young learners to achieve literacy and numeracy within a year.

‘Africa’s demographic promise will only become a dividend if we prepare our children for a future driven by science, technology, entrepreneurship, and governance,’ said Equity Group chief executive officer James Mwangi.

Other than rewarding the best technology in education innovation, the prize is part of a larger effort to equip African youth with requisite job skills for the job market, expanding from just literacy and numeracy to science and technology skills as well.

Currently, it is estimated that about 85 percent of Africa’s 10-year-olds cannot read and understand text, which is one of the challenges the prize is trying to solve.

‘If we want Africa’s children to lead in the jobs of the future, we must begin with early learning. This prize calls on the world’s brightest minds to design solutions that can uplift millions, accelerating Africa’s future,’ said Alexander Nicholas, vice president for learning and society at XPrize.