Category: Business Daily

The government is racing to bridge skills shortages in the hospitality and travel industry as it bids to position Kenya as a top destination in Africa for high-value segments such as meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE).

Tourism officials reckon that human capital gaps in culinary arts, cruise services, hospitality and events management are undermining service quality and forcing some hotels to import basic products such as bread.

About Sh300 million in government loans has been wired to tourism students in various universities and colleges in the first year of operationalising Tourism Training Revolving Fund (TTRF), a sector-specific loan facility, administered by the Tourism Fund (TF).

The tourism student loan scheme is being positioned as a critical pillar in supporting the target of growing annual tourist arrivals from the current 2.5 million to five million, largely via the MICE segment.

TF Board of Trustees chairperson Samson Some said the country cannot achieve its tourism ambitions without a deliberate, data-driven approach to skills development.

‘The idea here is when the destination will be receiving five million visitors, we need our systems here- our hotels, tour operators and airlines – to be ready to serve and give a premium experience,’ Mr Some said in an interview. ‘We cannot fix these gaps organically but through scientific processes where we plan, train and finance skills scientifically.’

The revolving fund was operationalised late 2024, more than a decade since it was provided for in the Tourism Act, 2011 and facilitative regulations of 2015.

TF says more than 3,800 students have tapped loans from the fund which operates on a model similar to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).

Students apply online through the Tourism Fund portal after securing admission to approved institutions, with funds disbursed using HELB’s existing infrastructure. Repayment begins once beneficiaries secure employment.

Mr Some said the fund’s sustainability rests on the tourism sector’s capacity to absorb labour.

‘The biggest challenge with loan recovery in this country has been unemployment,’ he said. ‘Once people are working, repayment is not a problem.’

The State-backed funding for tourism training comes amid a reported shortage in some critical skills such as pastry and bakery production, weakening productivity and service quality as tourism rebounds.

TF reckons that lack of adequate certified pastry professionals has contributed to the importation of bread by major establishments.

‘We are importing bread into this country because we don’t have enough certified pastry experts,’ Mr Some said. ‘That should worry all of us.’

Cruise services certification processes, he adds, have lagged international standards, while events management has operated without a nationally recognised framework.

Besides the student loan scheme, TF says it has also expanded Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), a certification programme guided by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) that formally recognises skills acquired through work experience.

More than 7,000 tourism workers have been certified through RPL since 2023, improving their productivity, employability and earning potential. Some have secured jobs abroad, particularly in the Middle East.

‘Certification has opened doors for many who were already working but lacked papers,’ Mr Some said, adding that Kenya is engaging countries such as Germany on structured labour export arrangements for certified tourism workers.

Across boardrooms and executive meetings, digital transformation (DT) remains one of the most discussed-and most misunderstood-strategic priorities.

Organisations continue to invest heavily in new systems, platforms, and automation tools, yet many transformations stall, underdeliver, or quietly fail. More often than not, the missing link is not technology. It is people.

Global management consulting firm McKinsey estimates that nearly 70 percent of DT efforts do not meet their objectives, despite significant investment in technology, systems, and consultants. The pattern is familiar: organisations prioritise tools and platforms while underestimating the human side of change.

Failure often begins when transformation is not designed for meaning.

Employees are left asking a simple but critical question: What’s in it for me? In many organisations, digital transformation is experienced as something done to employees, not with them.

Without rethinking how work is experienced, decisions are made, and behaviours are reinforced, technology merely automates existing inefficiencies rather than transforming them. This is the key difference between digitisation and true digital transformation.

Human-centred design is increasingly emerging as the differentiator between transformation that looks impressive on paper and transformation that genuinely changes how work gets done. At its core, this approach focuses on designing systems, processes, and experiences around the people who use them-not around the technology itself.

In practice, many digital transformation journeys begin with procurement. A new HR system, ERP, or collaboration tool is selected based on features, benchmarks, or competitor behaviour.

Only later do leaders consider how employees will experience the change. By that point, resistance has already taken root, and adoption becomes a compliance exercise rather than a meaningful shift in behaviour.

Human-centred design reverses this sequence. It starts with people-seeking to understand the real problems employees are trying to solve, the frustrations embedded in daily work, and the behaviours the organisation wants to enable.

Drawing from design thinking, it emphasises empathy, curiosity, and experimentation before solutions are defined. Assumptions are tested rather than treated as facts, and learning happens through iteration rather than rigid rollouts.

This mindset allows organisations to adapt quickly and refine solutions based on real human behaviour, not idealised process maps. Technology becomes an enabler of better experiences and outcomes, rather than the end goal.

Leadership plays a central role in this shift. Human-centred digital transformation requires leaders to see change not as a rollout but as a behavioural journey.

Employees take cues from how leaders engage with new tools, whether they model curiosity or defensiveness, and whether feedback is genuinely welcomed or quietly dismissed.

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is assuming resistance to change is a people problem. In reality, resistance is often a design problem. When systems add complexity, remove autonomy, or ignore how work actually happens, resistance becomes a rational response. Human-centred design treats resistance as valuable data, not an obstacle.

The benefits extend beyond smoother implementation. Organisations that embed human-centred design into their digital transformation efforts tend to experience stronger engagement, faster adoption, and better decision-making. Employees feel considered rather than imposed upon, trust grows, and the organisation builds the capacity to adapt continuously.

As digital transformation accelerates-driven by AI, automation, and analytics-the risk of widening the gap between systems and people will only increase. Technology does not transform organisations. People do.

Human-centred design is not a ‘soft’ alternative to digital ambition. It is a strategic discipline that anchors transformation in reality. For leaders serious about building future-ready organisations, the real question is not whether to invest in digital transformation-but whether they are willing to design it around the humans expected to bring it to life.

Kenya’s urban growth is increasingly taking on a decentralised character. Satellite towns along major transport corridors, particularly lower Mombasa Road, Athi River, Mlolongo, and Syokimau, are evolving rapidly, shedding their former identity as commuter settlements to become self-sustaining urban centres.

This transformation is being propelled by a combination of improved infrastructure, affordable housing, and shifting lifestyle preferences, creating new opportunities for residents and investors alike.

Insights from the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2025 indicate growing confidence in domestic, income-generating real estate, especially assets anchored in population growth and everyday demand.

Among surveyed wealth managers, a majority reported that their clients typically own multiple homes, 39 percent have three, 33 percent own two, 17 percent hold four, while only six percent possess a single property. These holdings reflect more than wealth accumulation; they are carefully curated to align with lifestyle needs.

Affluent Kenyans maintain a primary residence in Nairobi or other urban centres, a second home in rural or coastal areas for leisure, and additional investment properties that generate rental income or appreciate over time.

The upshot for investors is clear: there is a shift toward deliberate, demand-driven real estate. Properties are now evaluated on how people actually live rather than speculative potential.

In addition, the report adds that Kenya remains a key focus for commercial property investment. Urbanisation, ongoing infrastructure improvements, economic growth, and local familiarity all contribute to the country’s continued attractiveness.

Rapid expansion in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and emerging urban centres continues to create demand for commercial spaces, while upgraded road networks, transport systems, and utilities improve accessibility and enhance property value.

Reduced commute times and enhanced connectivity have made satellite towns viable long-term choices for middle-income households.

As residential density increases, demand follows naturally for commercial amenities that support everyday life.

Investors also have a growing preference for stable, predictable returns, with retail, healthcare, and service-oriented real estate emerging as primary beneficiaries. Unlike speculative or discretionary assets, these sectors are closely tied to population fundamentals, making them especially relevant in rapidly expanding suburban areas.

Population growth, in turn, reshapes consumption patterns. Residents in emerging urban nodes prioritise convenience and proximity, seeking access to essential services close to home rather than travelling into city centres.

This behavioural shift places neighbourhood retail at the heart of suburban development. Here, community malls function less as aspirational destinations and more as critical urban infrastructure. Their success is measured by the frequency and consistency of use, rather than occasional visits.

Across markets, thriving neighbourhood malls share common characteristics. Large-format value retailers and hypermarkets anchor foot traffic by providing household essentials. Supermarkets and healthcare facilities serve daily needs, while essential merchandise retailers-such as uniform suppliers-cater to family-oriented catchments.

Food and casual dining outlets enhance convenience and social interaction. This mix ensures that malls become embedded in everyday routines, while defensive assets such as healthcare and essential retail maintain footfall even during economic fluctuations.

Knight Frank’s observations confirm that neighbourhood centres anchored by non-discretionary services consistently outperform discretionary-led retail formats, particularly in suburban and peri-urban locations.

As urban growth continues outward, neighbourhood malls that align with demographic realities will remain essential to creating liveable functional cities.

For residents, this translates to access to services that enable them to live and thrive within their communities. For investors, it highlights the enduring value of assets grounded in long-term, consistent demand rather than fleeting market trends.

Failure often begins when transformation is not designed for meaning.

Employees are left asking a simple but critical question: What’s in it for me? In many organisations, digital transformation is experienced as something done to employees, not with them.

Without rethinking how work is experienced, decisions are made, and behaviours are reinforced, technology merely automates existing inefficiencies rather than transforming them. This is the key difference between digitisation and true digital transformation.

Human-centred design is increasingly emerging as the differentiator between transformation that looks impressive on paper and transformation that genuinely changes how work gets done. At its core, this approach focuses on designing systems, processes, and experiences around the people who use them-not around the technology itself.

In practice, many digital transformation journeys begin with procurement. A new HR system, ERP, or collaboration tool is selected based on features, benchmarks, or competitor behaviour.

Only later do leaders consider how employees will experience the change. By that point, resistance has already taken root, and adoption becomes a compliance exercise rather than a meaningful shift in behaviour.

Human-centred design reverses this sequence. It starts with people-seeking to understand the real problems employees are trying to solve, the frustrations embedded in daily work, and the behaviours the organisation wants to enable.

Drawing from design thinking, it emphasises empathy, curiosity, and experimentation before solutions are defined. Assumptions are tested rather than treated as facts, and learning happens through iteration rather than rigid rollouts.

This mindset allows organisations to adapt quickly and refine solutions based on real human behaviour, not idealised process maps. Technology becomes an enabler of better experiences and outcomes, rather than the end goal.

Leadership plays a central role in this shift. Human-centred digital transformation requires leaders to see change not as a rollout but as a behavioural journey.

Employees take cues from how leaders engage with new tools, whether they model curiosity or defensiveness, and whether feedback is genuinely welcomed or quietly dismissed.

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is assuming resistance to change is a people problem. In reality, resistance is often a design problem. When systems add complexity, remove autonomy, or ignore how work actually happens, resistance becomes a rational response. Human-centred design treats resistance as valuable data, not an obstacle.

The benefits extend beyond smoother implementation. Organisations that embed human-centred design into their digital transformation efforts tend to experience stronger engagement, faster adoption, and better decision-making. Employees feel considered rather than imposed upon, trust grows, and the organisation builds the capacity to adapt continuously.

As digital transformation accelerates-driven by AI, automation, and analytics-the risk of widening the gap between systems and people will only increase. Technology does not transform organisations. People do.

Human-centred design is not a ‘soft’ alternative to digital ambition. It is a strategic discipline that anchors transformation in reality. For leaders serious about building future-ready organisations, the real question is not whether to invest in digital transformation-but whether they are willing to design it around the humans expected to bring it to life.

Organisations in Kenya began 2026 with a deceptive sense of cybersecurity comfort after reported cyberattacks declined 81.6 percent year-on-year during the quarter to September 2025, even as a quieter but potentially deeper risk expands through workplace use of generative AI tools.

Employees are increasingly using public generative AI platforms to draft emails, analyse data, write code and prepare reports, embedding AI into daily workflows faster than governance structures can adapt.

The rapid adoption is creating new data exposure risks that do not resemble traditional cyber threats, as sensitive information is often shared voluntarily.

Generative AI tools are, by design, data processors, meaning every prompt or uploaded document potentially transfers information beyond an organisation’s direct control and outside established security and compliance frameworks.

A global cybersecurity survey by research firm Check Point last month shows that one in every 27 GenAI prompts submitted from enterprise networks posed a high risk of sensitive data leakage, while 91 percent of organisations using GenAI tools were affected by high-risk prompt activity.

‘Sensitive corporate data is increasingly being uploaded to third-party generative AI services without adequate controls, sanitisation or oversight, often outside established security governance,’ notes Check Point.

‘With employees using an average of 11 GenAI tools, organisations need the ability to monitor and restrict what data is shared with every platform.’

Mr Anthony Muiyuro, East Africa Regional Director at Syntura, terms local firms as ‘highly vulnerable’, adding that AI adoption has outpaced internal rules, oversight and employee awareness.

According to Mr Muiyuro, many workers assume AI platforms function as private workspaces, unaware that prompts, chat histories and uploaded data may be stored, reviewed or used for model improvement.

This misunderstanding is widespread since generative AI is largely viewed as a productivity tool, rather than a system that changes how corporate and customer data is shared.

As a result, many organisations still rely on perimeter security controls and non-disclosure agreements that were designed for predictable internal data flows.

‘Most Kenyan enterprises are not adequately prepared. While a few large banks, telcos and multinationals are beginning to define AI usage policies, many firms have no clear guidance on what workers can or cannot share with AI tools,’ he says.

‘Governance is often reactive. There are limited controls around data classification, no clear auditability of AI usage and minimal staff training on AI-related data risks. Well-intentioned workers can unknowingly expose confidential information.’

The risk is particularly acute in financial services, government, logistics, healthcare and education, where sensitive personal, operational and strategic data is routinely handled by employees.

In many of these places, there is no visibility into which AI tools employees are using, what information is being shared or whether sensitive data is leaving the organisation.

Mr Muiyuro says criminals are positioning themselves to exploit the shift by targeting systems and leveraging data unintentionally exposed.

According to the expert, attackers are likely to harvest leaked credentials, internal files or customer information that employees feed into public AI tools.

‘Criminals are also using generative AI to scale and localise attacks, including phishing messages written in culturally familiar language or impersonating trusted institutions,’ he says.

The combination of leaked internal data and AI-assisted social engineering increases the effectiveness of scams, particularly against SMEs and digitally expanding firms.

GenAI further lowers the barrier for attackers, allowing small groups or individuals to launch personalised, convincing attacks at scale without the resources previously required for such campaigns.

Experts advise local companies to begin by defining clear, practical rules on what types of data may be used in AI tools and what information is off-limits.

These rules must be embedded into daily workflows and communicated in plain language, rather than buried in lengthy policy documents.

‘Beyond controls, organisations must enable and encourage responsible AI use, not suppress it. Employees should feel confident using AI tools within clearly defined guardrails that protect data, customers and the organisation’s reputation,’ Mr Muiyuro says.

‘This starts with clear practical guidance on what AI tools are approved, what data can be used and what is off-limits – communicated in plain language rather than legal policy documents. Organisations should provide secure, enterprise-grade AI platforms, reducing the temptation for workers to use unsanctioned public tools.’

Kenya’s debt servicing costs jumped 44.1 percent in the first half of the current financial year, increasing pressure on public finances as repayments consumed more than 80 percent of all taxes collected over the period, new National Treasury data shows.

The government spent Sh941.6 billion servicing public debt in the six months ended December 2025, up from Sh653.5 billion over a similar period the previous year, marking a Sh288.1 billion increase.

The rise pushed debt service costs to 81.1 percent of total tax revenues, following a Sh1.161 trillion collection by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) during the period. This compares with a debt service ratio of 60.8 percent a year earlier, when Sh653.5 billion was spent against tax receipts of Sh1.074 trillion.

The growth in debt service costs leaves the exchequer with limited room to fund development spending and other essential public services.

The pressure is further compounded by weak revenue performance, with data showing that the KRA missed its half-year tax collection target by Sh152.2 billion. Against a Sh1.314 trillion target, it managed to collect Sh1.161 trillion.

The elevated half-year debt repayment costs comprise a record Sh509.6 billion paid out to service public debt during the first quarter of the fiscal year, which marked the highest ever recorded in a similar three-month period.

The repayment pressure comes against the backdrop of an expanding debt burden, with the public debt stock standing at Sh12.3 trillion as of November last year.

Kenya has, in recent years, relied heavily on borrowing to plug persistent budget deficits, driven by ambitious infrastructure programmes and recurrent expenditure pressures.

Read: Kenya has failed to tame recurrent spending, World Bank says

The growing debt service burden continues to crowd out project funding, with a development expenditure of Sh145.04 billion in the six months to December, accounting for just 15.4 percent of total debt servicing costs during the period.

The difficulty in expanding revenue collection has also constrained the government’s ability to scale up spending on priority areas such as health and education, even as demand for public services continues to rise due to population growth.

Public debt payments are among the first charges on the Consolidated Fund, meaning they must be settled before other categories of expenditure are financed.

The government is betting on the sale of several State-owned enterprises to raise funds for infrastructure and general budgetary spending.

The Treasury has opened the sale of a 65 percent stake in Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) to the public in a bid to raise Sh106.3 billion.

The Treasury has also signed an agreement to sell a 15 percent stake in Safaricom to Vodacom Group for Sh204.3 billion. It will, in addition, receive a separate Sh40.2 billion representing an upfront payment of dividends that will accrue on its residual 20 percent stake in Safaricom.

Investors who held a 10-year bond maturing in August 2026 agreed to roll over Sh26.49 billion of their paper into a 15-year bond in the current fiscal year’s first switch bond issuance.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) said that it accepted rollovers of Sh25.17 billion against its target of Sh20 billion. The 15-year paper, which is known as a destination bond, was issued in April 2022, giving it a period to maturity of 11.3 years.

Following the auction, the 10-year bond that has a coupon of fixed interest rate of 15.04 percent will see its outstanding amount fall from Sh103.4 billion to Sh78.2 billion, while the outstanding amount on the 15-year bond whose coupon is 13.94 percent rises to Sh154.37 billion from Sh129.2 billion.

A fellow columnist recently argued that the main requirement for a Singapore-type economic transformation is a national mindset change.

A shared mental model of success is needed, he said. While we may not be there yet, the discourse continues. In the last two weeks, two governors – Kisumu’s Anyang Nyong’o and Muranga’s Irungu Kang’ata, have weighed in – the first with a formal concept note to the Head of State, and the second in his weekly column.

It seems reasonable to ask what role counties can play in the desired transformation. Is devolution the platform and drivers of the rapid economic change? To answer this question, let us examine lessons from the small population (micro) states that have made the transition to high income status in recent times?

Five high-income states come to mind – Seychelles, Mauritius, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica – All have population sizes comparable to our counties.

Seychelles has 107,000 people comparable to Lamu’s 170,000. Mauritius has 1.27 million, comparable to Mombasa’s 1.3 million. Antigua and Barbuda have 94,000. Trinidad and Tobago has 1.5 million, similar to Kilifi.

Cost Rica has 5.2 million, similar to Nairobi County.

Good governance, strong institutions and significant investment in education are common to all. The Kenya’s long-term (since 1971) average expenditure on education is 5.36 percent of GDP, comparable to Costa Rica’s 5.2 percent.

Costa Rica’s become high income through transition from an agrarian society to a diverse, export-led economy, driven by high-tech manufacturing and services.

The key foundational pillars included political stability, a shift from import substitution to export-led growth, and economic diversification. Once dependent on bananas and coffee, it excels in high-value exports such as medical devices, electronics, and IT services.

Its special economic zones that offer tax incentives to multinationals such as Intel, Amazon, and IBM, which contributed roughly 14 percent of GDP in 2023.

By protecting 25 percent of its land as national parks, the country is a global leader in sustainable tourism, which earns more foreign exchange than agriculture.

Over 98 percent of the country’s electricity is generated from renewable sources (hydro, geothermal, wind), reducing vulnerability to volatile fossil fuel markets. They have worked hard at fiscal responsibility, with specific limits on government spending.

Mauritius transformed to high-income status through economic diversification, going from a one crop, sugar economy in the 1970s, to a diversified services hub by the 2020s. Favourable EU sugar export quotas generated rents, which were used to fund Export Processing Zones (EPZs), which made textiles and apparel.

In the 1990s, Mauritius expanded into tourism and established a taxation framework attractive to offshore banking and financial services. Recently it has branched into ICT/BPO, seafood processing, high-end real estate, medical tourism and a “knowledge hub” for regional education. Progressive social policies have helped maintain social cohesion in a highly diverse multi-ethnic society.

At $ 21,630 per capita, Seychelles is currently the richest country in Africa. It transitioned from a plantation-based economy to a service-led one, based on high-end tourism and industrial fisheries.

In 2008, it defaulted on its international debt. This led to a structural adjustment programme to transform the economy:- The government liberalised the exchange rate, allowing the Seychellois rupee to trade freely. They implemented a 15 percent reduction in public sector employment and abolished universal price subsidies, replacing them with a targeted social safety net.

The reforms allowed the country to successfully restructure its external debt, nearly halving its public debt-to-GDP ratio within five years.

The country has now diversified into financial services, developing a robust offshore financial services sector.

Trinidad and Tobago achieved high-income status through the strategic exploitation of its oil and natural gas reserves, together with significant investments in downstream petrochemical industries.

Since the 1990s, the government has focused on adding value to raw natural gas by developing a world-class petrochemical hub at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, which produces fertilisers and industrial chemicals for global markets.

With forward looking governors in Kenya, is devolution the country’s platform for transformation?

One of the world’s largest satellite internet providers, Starlink, recently signed a deal with Airtel Africa to introduce the American firm’s direct-to-cell (D2C) satellite technology to all of Airtel’s 14 African markets, including Kenya, in 2026.

This marks a major step in the continent’s telecommunications sector, where satellite technology has previously mainly been used to power internet providers’ cellular backhaul through traditional ground-based towers.

D2C satellite technology enables standard smartphones to connect directly to satellites orbiting in space. The term is often used interchangeably with direct-to-device (D2D) technology, which makes smartphones and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, such as smart speakers and asset trackers, able to connect directly to satellites.

Both technologies aim to bypass terrestrial cell towers, but D2C focuses on cellular compatibility for phones while D2D covers a broad range of gadgets.

This technology comes in handy as a solution to so-called dead zones – areas without reliable internet connectivity due to geographical barriers, dense construction, infrastructure gaps, and government restrictions.

These include places such as remote locations, flights, and the sea, where other connectivity technologies like fibre optic and cellular do not reach.

How does D2C work?

Satellite internet companies use low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites around 550 kilometres up in space to beam high-speed, low-latency internet to a user’s dish.

The satellites act as cell towers to provide internet coverage without terrestrial infrastructure, using existing cellular protocols like LTE and 5G.

The dishes, also called user terminals, communicate with nearby satellites and terrestrial ground stations connected to the internet.

With D2C, however, mobile phones and smart devices can directly connect to internet satellites in space, bypassing the traditional land-based cell towers.

Starlink, for example, says it operates over 8,000 LEO satellites, 650 of which are dedicated to D2C services. It is the world’s largest D2C constellation that can deliver data, voice, video, and messaging to mobile dead zones across five continents.

How does satellite technology integrate with traditional network carriers?

Satellite can be used to power cellular backhaul for traditional towers by serving as a high-speed, low-latency link to provide connectivity in remote areas or locations hard to reach with a terrestrial fibre network.

Traditional cell towers are equipped with a satellite terminal, which transmits data directly to the LEO constellation. The constellation then routes it to the core network.

Safaricom’s parent company, Vodacom, in November 2025, signed an Africa-wide deal with Starlink’s parent SpaceX, which will see Kenya’s largest telco integrate such satellite backhaul.

With D2C, satellites equipped with cell tower technology called ‘eNodeB’ act as space-based cell towers, connecting directly to standard phones using existing 4G/LTE protocols. Ground stations link the satellite network to the traditional internet backbone, and phones recognise the satellite as another mobile network, similar to roaming.

Starlink’s deal with Airtel, announced in December 2025, will begin by delivering data that enables voice, video, and messaging, before advancing to high-speed broadband.

Read: How Musk made peace with Safaricom and Airtel in internet war

Are there specific hardware components needed to access D2C satellite internet?

No. One does not need special hardware, firmware, or mobile apps; the technology works on existing LTE-enabled phones to enable services like texting, calling, and data, even where no cell towers exist.

What are D2C’s main features and benefits?

Direct-to-cell satellite internet’s main advantage is its accessibility in remote, rural, or disaster-stricken areas that lack traditional network infrastructure. Remote workers or adventure-goers maintain communication without worrying about signal drop-offs.

For telcos such as Safaricom and Airtel, it enables them cover rural locations, the sea, or mountainous regions where the cost of building new traditional cell towers or laying fibre infrastructure is high.

What limitations does D2C technology have?

Despite their ability to bypass local terrestrial infrastructure, D2C internet services are still subject to local regulatory constraints within the countries they operate, and governments can force shutdowns, as seen with Starlink in Uganda during the just-concluded general elections.

Governments may also use specialised equipment to jam satellite signals, as reported in Iran amid the ongoing internet shutdown since January 8.

The service is also affected by environmental factors such as heavy rain or snow, which can weaken signals, reduce speeds, or cause intermittent, short-term service outages. Satellite internet’s ‘line-of-sight requirement’ also means it requires a direct, unobstructed view of the sky and might not work reliably indoors or underground.

How are telcos globally adopting satellite technology?

The US telco T-Mobile has partnered with SpaceX to launch a D2C service using Starlink’s satellites to provide text, voice, and data in dead zones.

Another major US carrier, AT and T, is collaborating with the American satellite firm AST SpaceMobile to develop and deploy a space-based, D2C cellular broadband network.

Tech giant Apple has also invested $1.5 billion (about Sh193.5 billion) in another satellite firm, Globalstar, to boost its iPhones’ satellite capabilities beyond basic emergency SOS services.

Capital A Investment Bank dominated trading in bonds -the largest asset class- on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) last year according to market data.

The institution oversaw the trading of bonds worth Sh1.06 trillion in 2025, giving it a market share of 19.68 percent as the sale of government securities, especially tax-free infrastructure bonds took root on falling interest rates.

Last year saw records in both equities and bond trading supported largely by a broad share price appreciation and increased prices for listed government bonds as interest rates in the primary market fell.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is deploying a technology that locks electronic tax invoices to specific locations to curb fraud estimated at up to Sh30 billion annually.

The taxman has piloted georeferencing policy whereby the electronic invoices generated on electronic tax invoice management system (eTIMS) are assigned precise geographic coordinates to the locations associated with them, such as a service location or a seller’s address.

The KRA said that georeferencing would help it deal with a surge in fictitious invoices, even as taxpayers rushed to comply with income and expense validation for 2025.