Category: Business Daily

The Tax Appeal Tribunal has endorsed tax liability assessments based on dividend payouts by corporates. This decision would embolden the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to pursue corporates that distribute earnings to shareholders while paying little or no corporate income tax.

In a ruling involving Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), the tribunal upheld a Sh2.36 billion compensating tax assessment after finding that the power producer failed to demonstrate that dividends paid to shareholders, including the government, originated from profits already subject to tax.

The decision arose from a dispute over KRA’s review of KenGen’s tax affairs for the period between 2019 and 2024.

According to the tribunal, that finding was sufficient to require KenGen to explain the source of the dividends.

“KRA identified a gap that the appellant was required to explain,” the tribunal said. “Against that background, the burden shifted to the appellant to demonstrate, with sufficient evidence, that the dividends were sourced from gains or profits on which tax had already been paid.”

KRA had initially issued an assessment on December 4, 2024, demanding Sh2.95 billion comprising compensating tax of Sh2.36 billion and withholding tax of Sh586.2 million. However, following alternative dispute resolution proceedings, the withholding tax component was dropped, leaving only the compensating tax assessment for determination.

KRA argued that although KenGen paid taxes on rental income, interest income and other miscellaneous income, it paid no tax on its principal business income because of substantial capital allowance claims.

The tribunal noted that KRA had demonstrated that taxed non-business income amounted to about Sh3.3 billion, which was less than half the Sh6.92 billion distributed as dividends during the review period. KRA therefore maintained that the company was liable to compensating tax under Section 7A of the Income Tax Act.

This section governs the taxation on dividends distributed out of untaxed gains or profits. It requires companies that distribute dividends from profits that have not been subjected to corporate tax to pay tax on those specific distributed amounts.

KenGen challenged the assessment, insisting that it had not distributed dividends from untaxed profits. The company argued that its operations generated tax losses and therefore no taxable gains capable of attracting compensating tax.

It relied on tax computations showing business losses of Sh37.5 billion in 2018/2019, Sh34.16 billion in 2019/2020, Sh19.76 billion in 2020/2021 and Sh32.89 billion in 2021/2022.

The company further argued that it had fully paid taxes on rental, interest and miscellaneous income and therefore had no untaxed gains or profits.

KenGen also pointed to its accumulated retained earnings, saying the dividends were funded from reserves built over many years.

It told the tribunal that retained earnings stood at Sh86.6 billion in 2019 and had increased to Sh113.19 billion by 2023, comfortably exceeding the Sh6.9 billion distributed to shareholders during the period under review.

But the tribunal found that explanation insufficient. It observed that KenGen is a capital-intensive utility whose balance sheet is dominated by property, plant and equipment accumulated over decades through equity and debt financing.

“The appellant did not present a cash flow analysis identifying the specific sources of the cash used to pay the dividends, nor did it link those cash flows to taxed reserves. The appellant provided no explanation for this gap.”

The tribunal noted that KRA had specifically requested audited accounts showing the source of funds used to pay dividends as well as a breakdown of taxed and untaxed income streams that contributed to the distributions. However, KenGen failed to provide an analysis showing the composition of retained earnings or identifying which reserves funded the dividend payments.

“The Tribunal finds that the appellant did not discharge its burden under Section 56(1) of the TPA. The evidence presented was insufficient to establish, by a cogent and sufficiently particularised analysis, that the dividends distributed were sourced from gains or profits on which tax had already been paid,” the tribunal ruled.

The tribunal further rejected KenGen’s contention that its tax-loss position automatically shielded it from compensating tax.

It observed that although the company reported tax losses, it continued to generate substantial revenues from electricity sales that exceeded operating costs. The gains, the tribunal said, were effectively shielded from corporation tax through capital allowance deductions.

“In the Tribunal’s considered view, a company that is in a tax loss position solely by reason of capital allowance claims, while generating real economic revenues that substantially exceed its operating costs, cannot automatically, and without more, be said to have no gains or profits for Section 7A purposes,” the tribunal stated.

The ruling also upheld KRA’s use of a reconstruction methodology, including a gross-up formula, to determine the gains from which the dividends were paid.

Although the approach is not expressly provided for under current tax law, the tribunal found that KRA was entitled to adopt the method after KenGen failed to provide records that would have enabled a more precise calculation.

The decision is likely to strengthen KRA’s position in pursuing compensating tax assessments where companies distribute dividends despite having little or no corporation tax liability, particularly where taxpayers cannot clearly demonstrate that the distributions originated from profits that had already been taxed.

CV after CV after CV. You apply and apply. Following an exhaustive labourious job search, you finally land an interview at one of your target firms.

Then, once the initial enthusiasm subsides, you get to work and spend hours preparing for the interview. You read about the company, go through their social media accounts, investigate public disclosures about them, and finally check through your networks to ask pre-interview questions about the firm to your connections.

Then the big day comes. You try to calm your nerves as you patiently wait to be called into the conference room for the job panel. The human resources manager kicks off the interview with the typical question asking you to tell them a bit about yourself and why you want the position. Everything seems normal and progressing as expected.

They insult their own team members who are not even in the room. They neglect to even ask you a question about yourself. Stunned, you just sit and listen to their performance and wonder what is actually going on.

Well, congratulations. You just got hit with a show from a potential supervisor with dark personality traits. Whether you are a new graduate straight from university or you are a seasoned long-serving professional, it stands as crucially important to screen your would-be manager while seeking a new position for the dreaded dark traits.

We often hear about the five dimensions of personality utilised by psychologists and managers around the world to enhance self-knowledge, teamwork, and life satisfaction. But there also exist a dark triad of negative personality traits that are so dismal that they often get left out of classrooms and boardrooms alike as they capture manipulative and exploitative tendencies.

Social scientists Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams developed the concepts of the dark personality traits over two decades ago and therapists globally lookout for these in their patients.

However, executives, human resources managers, and business school professors often overlook these salient negative sides of personalities.

The dark three

The dark three negative personality traits include narcissism where someone has a sense of superiority, entitlement, and feeling uncommonly grand. Next, Machiavellianism involves manipulative behaviours focused on their own self-interest and personal gain.

Finally, psychopathy entails impulsivity, complete lack of empathy for others or remorse for their own actions or events in the news that you can see through general callousness. These traits are often noticed plainly in certain global political leaders.

Position seekers should use the interview as a time to screen their prospective supervisors and managers for these dark traits. These negative aspects in one’s possible boss do not disappear during a job interview. So, stay alert.

First, see if they dominate the conversation and rarely ask about you or your qualifications. Second, do all their stories position them as the smartest person in the room? Third, do they talk about their teams with contempt or blame? Fourth, watch how they treat others before, during, or after the interview. Fifth, listen to how they talk about people who are not even in the room. Sixth, does your interview even end up being about you at all?

Do not get fooled if they seem charming. Charm can feel real. But you must see through it and look for the above red flags. If you notice any three of the above red flags, then run for the hills. Things will go badly in your job working for that manager.

Utilise looking out for the six red flags not only in job interviews. Also incorporate them if in your work there has been a change of ownership or change of one of your bosses and someone new comes in.

Again, if you notice three or more of those red flags, your work life will not improve and you need to leave as quickly as possible. Start your job search all over again while you still have your sanity. Go. Find the door.

Worried that you might possess one or more of the dark triad personality traits yourself? Then go online and take a quick two-minute self-assessment at openpsychometrics.org/tests/SD3/ and see if you have any of the negative three personality traits.

I and M Group has overtaken NCBA Group in total assets, signalling a shift in Kenya’s banking pecking order driven by the former’s aggressive push into retail banking.

Latest disclosures show I and M’s balance sheet stood at Sh742.5 billion as at March 2026, marginally edging out NCBA’s Sh741.1 billion to become the fourth-largest lender by asset base after KCB Group (Sh2.254 trillion), Equity Group (Sh2.036 trillion) and Co-operative Bank of Kenya (Sh884.57 billion).

The crossover marks a milestone for I and M, which has historically trailed larger tier-one lenders but has in recent years ramped up its expansion in Kenya’s mass market segment. The lender has grown its assets mainly through expansion of its loan book, steadily narrowing the gap with the industry’s top players.

NCBA, which was formed through the merger of Commercial Bank Africa and NIC Bank in September 2019, had expanded its asset lead over I and M to Sh183.06 billion by the end of December 2022.

However, I and M started narrowing the gap the following year, reducing it to below Sh100 billion by December 2024 before eventually overtaking NCBA in the quarter ended March 2026.

I and M’s growth has been supported by a strategy to diversify away from its traditional corporate banking base and aggressively target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and retail customers through branch expansion and digital channels.

‘In addition to the group’s established presence in the corporate and institutional banking segment, it has now developed a respected standing in serving small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which have experienced significant growth alongside the group,’ said the lender.

I and M has also been narrowing the profitability gap with NCBA, reducing it from Sh8.1 billion in 2023 to Sh5.92 billion in 2024 and Sh3.55 billion last year. In 2025, I and M’s net profit grew 24.4 percent to Sh19.83 billion, while NCBA’s rose 6.9 percent to Sh23.39 billion.

Valuation edge

NCBA, however, continues to trade at a higher premium, with a market capitalisation of Sh144.9 billion compared with I and M’s Sh93 billion.

NCBA’s larger valuation is linked to its relatively stronger efficiency metrics, including return on equity, as well as the recent rally in its stock following Nedbank’s offer to acquire a 66 percent stake in the bank at a premium of up to Sh105 per share.

I and M’s pivot to retail banking, supported by its three-year strategy dubbed iMara 3.0, which runs until the end of this year, has driven steady growth in customer deposits and loan uptake, boosting its overall asset base.

In contrast, NCBA has maintained a strong footing in corporate and digital lending, including its flagship mobile loan products. However, its asset growth has been relatively slower in recent quarters, allowing I and M to close the gap and eventually surpass it.

Data shows that while NCBA still held a slightly larger loan book of Sh324.4 billion compared with I and M’s Sh322.9 billion as at March 31, 2026, the balance has tilted in favour of I and M in total assets, reflecting growth in other balance sheet components such as investments.

I and M has also been closing the gap in its loan book, with the difference narrowing from Sh40.33 billion in December 2022 as lending expanded.

The lender’s loan book overtook NCBA’s between the first and third quarters of 2025 before NCBA regained the lead, holding a marginal Sh1.47 billion advantage by the end of March this year.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed bank has continued to aggressively expand its retail banking business through new branches and additional staff.

I and M added 12 new branches last year, bringing its network to 119 outlets and strengthening its footprint across regional markets. Ten of the new branches were opened in Kenya, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the group’s assets.

Scale race

The development highlights rising competition among Kenya’s top lenders as mid-tier banks increasingly challenge incumbents through niche strategies and innovation.

I and M’s rise mirrors a broader industry trend in which banks are recalibrating their business models to capture retail and SME segments that offer higher margins and diversification benefits.

Across the sector, lenders have been expanding digital offerings and agency banking networks to deepen customer reach.

The race for scale is expected to intensify further as banks prepare for higher minimum capital requirements in the coming years, a move that could trigger mergers, acquisitions or fresh capital injections.

Banks are required to raise minimum core capital to Sh5 billion by the end of this year, increase it to Sh6 billion by the end of next year, reach Sh8 billion in 2028 and further raise it to Sh10 billion by the end of 2029.

Larger balance sheets are viewed as critical for absorbing shocks, funding big-ticket loans and remaining competitive.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision by security firm Wells Fargo Limited to dismiss a group of cash management officers for abandoning ATM services for contracted banks over alleged welfare grievances.

The court, however, faulted the security services company for conducting a rushed disciplinary process and ordered compensation equivalent to two months’ salary for each worker.

The appellate court overturned a key finding by the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which had ruled that the dismissals were unfair and awarded each employee compensation equivalent to 12 months’ salary.

The dispute dates back to December 2013 when the employees, who were responsible for loading ATMs and handling sensitive access combinations, stopped work while demanding a meeting with senior management over their working conditions.

The workers complained of long hours, late-night shifts and a lack of transport home after working late. They told the court they had repeatedly raised the concerns with management without success.

Court records show that on December 5, 2013, the officers reported to work at 6am but declined to continue with their duties until their grievances were addressed.

The employees later claimed they were detained by police, issued with show-cause letters and dismissed the following day.

Wells Fargo defended the dismissals, arguing that the officers had engaged in an unlawful work stoppage that threatened to cripple ATM operations and expose the company and its banking clients to significant risks.

The company said the workers held sensitive ATM access combinations and refused to hand them over despite requests from management.

The Court of Appeal agreed with the employer’s position, ruling that the company had reasonable grounds to conclude that the officers’ conduct amounted to gross misconduct.

Valid grounds

‘It is not in dispute that the respondents admitted that on the material day they collectively declined to continue working until their grievances were addressed,’ the judges said.

The court added that the officers were entrusted with ATM operations and sensitive access codes and that their refusal to work had ‘immediate operational implications’.

The appellate court found that Wells Fargo had established a valid and fair reason for terminating the employees’ contracts.

However, the judges found that the disciplinary process fell short of the requirements of the Employment Act.

The court noted that although show-cause letters were issued, disciplinary hearings were convened and concluded within a day before dismissal letters were issued.

Wells Fargo moved from issuing show-cause letters on December 5 to hearing the employees and dismissing them by December 6, a timeline the judges said denied the workers a meaningful opportunity to prepare their defence.

‘The compressed timeline between the show-cause letters and the hearing did not afford the respondents a meaningful opportunity to prepare their defence,’ the court said.

The judges stressed that disciplinary proceedings must give employees a realistic opportunity to understand the allegations against them, consult representatives, gather documents and prepare a defence.

‘If an employee receives notice and is heard on the same day or the following morning, especially in misconduct cases involving dismissal, fraud, strike allegations, or multiple employees, such a notice ought to be found to be inadequate unless urgency is clearly justified,’ the court said.

The appellate judges also criticised the trial court for failing to adequately consider the employees’ role in the breakdown of the employment relationship.

‘The evidence demonstrates that they collectively engaged in a work stoppage affecting essential banking operations, which substantially contributed to the breakdown of the employment relationship,’ the court said.

The judges concluded that the award of 12 months’ salary was excessive and substituted it with compensation equivalent to two months’ gross salary for each employee.

Fixed-income investors are scrambling for Treasury bills and cutting their appetite for Treasury bonds, hoping returns on government paper will increase and force the state to rely on short-term borrowing.

Three of the last four Treasury bill auctions have been oversubscribed. In contrast, bond auctions in May and June underperformed, reflecting the switch to shorter government paper as investors bet on the rates increasing.

Investors often avoid locking funds in long-dated papers such as bonds if they expect interest rates to rise, favouring the 91-day Treasury bill instead.

The shift comes ahead of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) policy meeting on Tuesday, which is expected to signal the general trend of interest rates in the coming months through the benchmark rate – which was frozen for the first time in April since June 2024.

‘As much as an investor has liquidity, one wants to restrict their tenure to the short end when there are expectations that yields will go up,’ said Christine Gatakaa, the Head of Fixed Income Trading at Capital A Investment Bank.

‘You don’t want to be underwater in a few weeks or months.’

Treasury bills were two times oversubscribed last week as investor bids topped Sh54.5 billion against a target of Sh24 billion.

The 91-day Treasury bill, the shortest tenure paper, marked the highest investor bids at Sh32.8 billion against a target of Sh4 billion.

T-bill subscriptions recovered from Sh16.6 billion in the previous week, affirming adequate liquidity in money markets even as investors wait for more signals on the interest rates direction.

‘The sharp recovery in demand suggests ample market liquidity and renewed investor appetite for government securities, as investors seek to lock in attractive yields amid rising inflation expectations and uncertainty surrounding the near-term interest rate outlook,’ analysts at AIB-AXYs Africa, an investment bank, said.

Returns on the shortest-dated government securities have risen since the start of April, mirroring the reversal in interest rates.

The 91-day T-bill return jumped from 7.4261 percent at the end of March to 8.5588 percent at present while interest rates on the longer-dated 364-day Treasury bill have grown to 8.7629 percent from 8.2815 percent over the same period.

Subscriptions on longer-dated Treasury bonds have underperformed in the past month, underlining falling demand for the high tenured securities as investors look to short-dated instruments.

The 15 and 25-year reopened bonds that sold this month, for instance, registered an 85.97 percent performance rate on Sh34.3 billion bids against a target of Sh40 billion.

Previously, two re-opened bonds – a 15 and 20-year paper – marked a subscription rate of 94.32 percent on Sh471.1 billion bids, against a target of Sh50 billion.

A 20-year Treasury switch bond issue also missed the mark, posting a performance rate of 76.14 percent on Sh7.6 billion bids received, but against Sh10 billion on offer.

The CBK, which serves as the National Treasury’s fiscal agent, faces the hard task of meeting the government’s domestic borrowing target while keeping interest payouts in check.

The bank is expected to ditch longer-dated securities for short-term issuances to ensure the government can meet its target even as payments to investors rise.

CBK has in the past indicated that it would rather pay high interest rates on short-term papers than offer premium payouts for longer durations.

‘CBK will have to yield to investor demands for higher rates if it is to hit borrowing targets. I expect to see switch bond auctions from longer-dated instruments to shorter-tenured papers. We have seen a lot more traction on bonds with tenures of less than five years in the secondary market, which informs where investor appetites are,’ Ms Gatakaa said.

Net domestic financing for the financial year starting July 1 is already expected to top Sh995.7 billion as Treasury bets on local credit markets to plug a Sh1.1 trillion budget deficit.

The US-Israel war on Iran is expected to have an impact on economic growth and revenue mobilisation.

CFAO Mobility Kenya has taken a controlling stake of 99.4 percent in Thika-based Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers (KVM) after investing Sh2.4 billion in the assembler.

The injection of new capital by CFAO resulted in a major dilution of its partners, CMC Holdings and the National Treasury, which now hold 0.3 percent each in KVM.

For decades, the assembler’s largest shareholder was the National Treasury with a 35 percent stake, followed by CMC Holdings (32.5 percent) and DT Dobie (32.5 percent).

DT Dobie and Toyota Kenya merged in April 2023 to create CFAO, which inherited the KVM stake and in 2024 took the first step to raise its ownership by investing Sh882 million in the assembler.

Driving control

‘We own a 99.4 percent stake in KVM. The government and CMC own 0.3 percent each,’ Arvinder Reel, the chief executive of CFAO, told Business Daily.

‘Our initial investment in KVM was Sh882 million. We then added Sh1.6 billion.’

CMC Holdings, which used to assemble some of its models at KVM, announced in January 2025 that it was shutting down operations after steadily shedding motor vehicle franchises to focus on agricultural equipment. Manufacturers whose products it distributed have since had to seek new distributors in the Kenyan market.

The dilution of the Treasury’s ownership in KVM indicates that the government intends to let the private sector take a leading role in the industry, which it is supporting through incentives and the anticipated National Automotive Policy.

CFAO plans to make additional investments in KVM to make it the centre of its assembly operations, reducing its reliance on Mombasa-based Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA), which is owned by rival Simba Corp.

CFAO produces multiple models at AVA, including the Toyota Hiace and Toyota Fortuner. On Friday, the dealer commissioned a new Toyota Hiace assembly line at KVM, marking a second production site for the van after AVA, which started rolling out the model in December 2021.

‘KVM … officially commissioned a new Toyota Hiace assembly line at its Thika manufacturing facility, marking a significant milestone in Kenya’s automotive industrialisation journey and reinforcing the country’s position as a leading vehicle manufacturing hub in East Africa,’ CFAO said in a statement on Friday.

‘The new assembly line forms part of a broader modernisation and expansion programme supported by a Sh2.4 billion investment by CFAO Mobility Kenya in KVM. The project underscores a long-term commitment to local manufacturing, technology transfer, skills development and job creation while supporting Kenya’s industrial growth agenda.’

The new assembly line signals growing demand for the van, which is popular among public service transport operators. The vehicle is also used by traders to transport light cargo and by tourism operators to ferry visitors.

CFAO sold 1,176 units of the van in the year ended December 2025, a 65.1 percent increase from 712 units a year earlier, according to data from the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI), which represents new motor vehicle dealers.

The Toyota Hiace is among several models assembled locally by the dealer. Others include Hino trucks, Toyota Hilux pick-ups and the Toyota Fortuner sport utility vehicle (SUV).

Market growth

CFAO’s increased investment in KVM is expected to boost output in the medium term. The plant’s capacity utilisation had declined to a low of two percent in 2017, according to data from the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Isuzu East Africa operates one of the busiest assembly plants at its Nairobi headquarters, where it exclusively produces models from its Yokohama-based parent company, Isuzu Motors Limited.

However, all assemblers are still operating at capacity utilisation rates of less than 30 percent, with most vehicles imported fully built, including used cars from markets such as Japan.

Local vehicle assembly has been supported through government incentives, most notably exemptions from import duty (35 percent) and excise duty (25 percent to 35 percent) levied on fully built imports.

Assemblers import completely knocked down (CKD) kits, which they assemble locally, while also sourcing some components such as batteries, suspension parts and upholstery from domestic suppliers.

These incentives have spurred new investments in vehicle assembly and parts distribution by both established and new players.

Besides Kenya, assemblers have increasingly sold their vehicles to neighbouring markets such as Uganda and Tanzania.

Kenya is the largest new vehicle market in East Africa, with KMI data showing that sales by formal dealers reached 13,295 units last year.

Sales in Tanzania are about half of Kenya’s, according to statistics from the Tanzania Motor Traders Association (TMTA).

Uganda ranked third with sales of 3,284 units, according to data from the Uganda Motor Industry Association (UMIA).

Total new vehicle sales in each of the three markets are slightly higher than industry statistics indicate because some dealers are not members of the respective associations.

Kenya Power will close its payment counters by June 2027 as the utility embraces the increased usage of digital channels by customers.

The counters in Nyeri, Thika and Kisii will be shut by the end of this month, followed by those in Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu towards the end of the year.

Closure of physical counters -which facilitate payment of bills and other services – is part of company’s efforts to match the surge in the use of its digital channels by most of its 10 million customers.

The closure of the counters puts at risk the jobs of more than 1,500 customer-facing employees. The utility has, however, downplayed the fears.

Kenya Power says it records an average of five million customer interactions on the digital platforms every month, underscoring the urgency to fully shift to online systems.

‘Since the introduction of these digital skills, we have witnessed a 70 percent reduction in customer traffic in our banking halls. This is an indication that customers are ready and willing to transition to digital service channels,’ Kenya Power said.

Payment counters at Electricity House and Stima Plaza in Nairobi and the one in Mombasa will be the last to shut, by June 31, 2027.

Kenya Power had 10.216 million customers at the end of December 2025, with most relying on digital platforms for services such as settling bills, reporting outages and getting receipts.

Doing away with the counters is part of Kenya Power’s bigger goal of enhancing efficiency by riding on technology, to cut costs and boost revenue.

Kenya Power is also deploying smart meters to enhance billing accuracy and seal revenue leakages.

In its latest annual report, Kenya Power says it remains exposed to the risk of digital and technological disruptions, particularly from the accelerated adoption of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Kenya Power is at the moment enjoying a good run, marked by growth in customer numbers, electricity sales and profits.

The net-profit of the monopoly for the half-year ended December 31, 2026 rose 4.34 percent to Sh10.4 billion from Sh9.9 billion the previous year as electricity sales jumped 10.5 percent to 6,086 Gigwatt-hours (GWh) on December 2025, pushing its total base to 10.2 million.

The number is expected to increase further before the financial year ends on June 31.

Old Mutual Holdings is seeking to restructure its balance sheet with the goal of clearing accumulated losses, a decision that will allow it to pay dividends.

The regional insurer plans to use its share premium of Sh4.66 billion to clear part of the accumulated losses, which stood at Sh7.06 billion by the end of 2025.

Share premium represents the amount investors pay above the assigned share value.

The Company Act bars an institution from paying dividends if it has accumulated losses.

If the transaction is approved, it will see Old Mutual’s accumulated losses drop to Sh2.39 billion, with the company saying it will take additional actions to clear the balance.

‘The board approved the commencement of a phased balance sheet restructuring designed to eliminate the accumulated negative earnings of Sh7,064,040,000 as at December 31, 2025,’ the insurer said a press statement.

‘In the first phase, the company will seek a court-approved reduction of its share premium account of Sh4,664,801,000 in its entirety.”

The share premium reduction has to be approved by shareholders in an annual general meeting scheduled for end of this month and regulators, including the Capital Markets Authority and a High Court order.

The insurer said the action would have no cash or shareholding impact.

The company, a subsidiary of South Africa’s Old Mutual Limited, has minority shareholders who trade on the over-the-counter market.

The South African financial services giant acquired UAP Holdings in 2020 and later merged the business with its existing insurance operations in Kenya.

The combined business, trading as Old Mutual Holdings Limited, posted losses from 2020 before turning a profit in 2025, resulting in accumulated losses growing to Sh7.06 billion last year.

The company did not disclose what the second phase of the restructuring will involve.

“The proposal supports our ongoing efforts to optimise the balance sheet, enhance financial flexibility and position the business for sustainable long-term growth and value creation for our shareholders,’ Old Mutual Group Chief Executive Officer Arthur Oginga said.

Old Mutual becomes the second insurer this year to use share premium to clear its accumulated losses.

Britam Holdings is in the process of a similar balance sheet restructuring, having received shareholders’ approval to use share premium to clear accumulated losses last month.

Britam had an accumulated loss of Sh5.8 billion in the year ended December 2025.

The insurer sought to clear the amount using the share premium, which stood at Sh13.2 billion. The share premium account is to be reduced to Sh7.3 billion.

Britam has lowered the accumulated loss in the last five years to Sh5.8 billion using dividend payouts from its subsidiaries.

The insurer has been relying on dividends from its subsidiaries to cut back the accumulated losses as it is not an operating entity.

If Margarita Nyambura could speak to her 12-year-old self, the girl who used to stop by a prison fence each morning to pick orange and yellow flowers, she would tell her to keep going.

Growing up in Embu, where her father was the auditor in charge of Eastern Province, Margarita lived a relatively privileged life. The family compound was tended by gardeners who maintained tidy, traditional plantings. The grass was always neatly trimmed, and her mother planted flowers, too-the common types that filled most homes those days.

What intrigued her even more were the improvised gardens created by police officers nearby. Old bathtubs had been transformed into planters, teaching her an early lesson that would stay with her for life: Almost anything could become a garden.

Without money to buy plants, she scavenged for cuttings from fences, rescued seedlings from roadsides and collected whatever neighbours were willing to share. Gardening was not yet a hobby.

It was play, discovery and a growing fascination with colour.

When her family moved to Wangige in Kiambu in 1997, she brought along just one money plant. From this, everything else grew. At first, some plants died due to incorrect lighting and insufficient or excessive watering.

Mapping the garden

‘To sustain a plant, you need to buy compost, containers and planters,’ she says.

Prayer plants, for example, are delicate and sensitive, and many people find them difficult to keep alive. She moved hers around the garden, testing different levels of light and humidity, until she found the right spot.

She learnt how to make her own compost, when to use goat manure versus chicken manure, and how to irrigate using inverted bottles so that the plants could survive during her working week. She invested in a water storage facility large enough to sustain the garden throughout the dry season.

Her profession took her across the world. She spent two years in Accra, Ghana, three in Lagos (Nigeria), then moved on to Sudan, Switzerland, Barcelona (Spain), Australia, Prague (Czech Republic), and New Zealand. From every country, she returned with a plant – a phormium from New Zealand, cuttings from Mexico and Paraguay, and bromeliads wherever she could find the right humidity.

‘I’ll show you the castle cactus I planted in 1998-it’s still there. Still tiny.’

Her favourite plant is the foxtail fern, which hangs from elevated planters. It is dense and green and thrives on neglect.

Starting again after an accident

‘It’s so lush. You don’t have to worry about it flowering excessively because it is a perennial plant,’ she says.

In 2021, her gardening story was interrupted. She broke her leg in a road accident, and while she was recovering, almost all of her plants died. Species sourced from four continents, plants grown since the 1990s, and varieties she would never find again withered away despite her best efforts.

When she could finally walk again, only a handful of plants had survived. These included the Monstera, which remained in its original 1997 pot; the castle cactus from 1998, which had barely moved but endured; and two snake plants-one green and one variegated.

‘What you’re seeing right now is a fresh collection,’ she says.

Margarita believes that plants are sensitive to the people around them and register presence and absence.

By 2022, she had started again. By 2025, she had amassed a collection of over 2,000 plants, including bromeliads, foxtail ferns, prayer plants, castle cacti and a pickle plant that had been growing since 2012.

Now aged 53, Margarita has never employed or sought the help of a florist.

‘That’s my therapy. I just do it.’

Enter the garden ‘rooms’

Unlike many homes with flat lawns, Margarita has divided her garden into ‘rooms’, and each section is assigned a day of the week.

‘You can’t do everything. I’ve had to divide it up.”

There is a bromeliad section beneath a wide tree where the canopy keeps things cool; a propagation workstation built around a repurposed stump; a butterfly corridor replanted with Eugenia hedging; a tropical section near the blue rainwater drums, and a Halloween corner where hollowed pots filled with succulents await October and candlelight.

The lawn is covered in Pemba grass, a drought-resistant variety that requires minimal water and thrives in hot conditions. She opted for it after trying Kikuyu grass, which requires moderate to high rainfall, and Arabic grass, which struggles in dry conditions and needs frequent watering-neither of which was suited to the water-efficient compound she had designed.

The 1996 cottage sits quietly within it all. She chose it for its low roof and compact size, allowing the garden to occupy most of the land.

‘I needed more garden than house.’ Having watched people her age build five-bedroom homes and live in just two rooms, she saw no need for a big house.

Plants dedicated savings account

Margarita knows exactly where every plant is, when each one arrived, and where the sun hits at 8am and where the shade falls by 4pm. She has mapped the light across the entire compound and positioned everything accordingly. She also has a dedicated savings account for her plants, covering pots, planters, fertiliser, tools and water storage.

‘You know how you register for a gold membership? I do the same for my plants,’ she says.

Her children, who used to complain that the garden received more attention than they did, now walk through the grounds and say, ‘We’ve created a home.’

Every evening, after watering and weeding, Margarita sits down with a glass of wine. ‘It is a heavenly feeling. I always give thanks.’

Lessons from the 40-year journey

Forty years of growing things have also shaped her attitude towards money.

‘I’ve learnt to be patient with money, just like I have to wait for the plants to grow and the seeds to flower,” she says.

‘Whenever a deal comes along, you must either take it immediately or miss it,’ she says.

The third is spreading her investments. She does not grow just one type of plant, and she does not put all her money in one place.

Margarita recognises a bad investment because she has made them in her own garden. The Duranta hedge has beautiful golden-edged leaves, but it spreads beyond its boundaries and attracts green snakes. She plans to remove it and replace it with Eugenia, which grows more slowly but has golden new growth that can be trimmed cleanly.

“Sometimes you plant something and realise you don’t like it, and you have to accept the loss,” she says.

More than six years after Covid-19 triggered the world’s largest work-from-home experiment, many Kenyan organisations are still struggling to function optimally.

Some jobs can easily be done from home, while others grind to a halt if the employee cannot get to the office.

Last month’s fuel strike exposed more than the country’s transport vulnerabilities. It revealed how unprepared many employers remain for disruption.

No framework, protocol or company guidance

Elsie Owino is a retail representative. Her job involves movement – going out into the city, finding customers, building relationships and hitting targets. The office is merely a starting point. It is in the field that her work actually takes place.

‘I have to go out and look for customers,’ she explains. ‘The two-day fuel strike, for instance, affected me greatly because I wasn’t able to achieve my target while working from home.’

The strike was abrupt and her employer didn’t offer any framework, protocol or company guidance on how to get work done. Her employer offered her no assistance during those two days. She turned to phone calls-only to find her airtime costs rising. At home, she also struggled to secure a suitable workspace.

‘My biggest challenge was the constant distraction from the children,’ she says. ‘If I work from home I have to lock myself in a room to work.’

The organisational gap

James Acholla, a human resource consultant, says that what played out across offices was not a surprise, but the result of preparation gaps that companies have repeatedly chosen not to close.

“The lesson from the strike is that most organisations still treat remote working as a crisis response rather than a legitimate way of working,” he says.

When employees are left without clear guidance or the right tools, the burden falls entirely on the individual. Output suffers, morale dips, and trust in leadership erodes quietly.

Supporting employees through periods like this, he argues, requires more than sending a message telling staff to work from home. It means ensuring people can access the documents and systems they need from outside the office, that managers are equipped to lead remotely, and that communication channels are clear from the start.

“A worker who cannot access what they need to do their job is not working from home. They are waiting at home, and that distinction matters.”

Managing remote teams during sudden disruptions also exposes how under-prepared most managers are. Without proper systems, they default to either micromanagement or complete disengagement, both of which damage morale and output.

“There is a middle ground, and it requires trust, clear expectations and regular check-ins. Most organisations have not invested in building that culture, and it shows the moment a disruption hits.”

Closing the gap

He recommends that every organisation should have a remote working policy that does not need to be written from scratch each time a crisis arises. Employees in roles that can be performed remotely should have the necessary tools and system access set up well in advance. Managers should be trained in remote team management as a standard competency, not an afterthought.

Communication protocols-who reports to whom, how and how often during a disruption-should be agreed upon and tested before they are needed.

“You cannot demand full output from someone sitting at a kitchen table with two children, no proper desk and an unreliable internet connection,” says Mr Acholla. “What you can do is set realistic expectations, check in regularly and make sure people feel seen rather than simply monitored.”

While Elsie found solutions in the form of more calls and an improvised work space, the structural limits of Emmanuel Adika’s role left him with little room to manoeuvre.

‘It ended up being a very sudden transition, and I had to adjust to it as it unfolded.’

Pleasant discoveries

In jobs where work is portable,employees find it easier to switch to emote work. Brian Mwangi discovered its advantages. Brian is a journalist with 11 years of experience. He continued to do what he does every day: write, report, edit and send articles to the newsrooms.

‘My entire job travels with me,’ he says. “All I need is a laptop and a phone. That is genuinely all I need. The story is never in the office.’

In 2020, so many sectors like newsrooms, law firms, financial institutions and tech companies operated remotely for 18 months, proving that a huge proportion of knowledge work can happen anywhere there is a laptop and an internet connection. But the moment the pandemic was over and restrictions were lifted, some returned to the old ways.

The psychological toll

Mwangi notes that the money not spent on commuting, lunches cooked at home and work clothes maintained to a certain standard goes a long way. For many workers on modest salaries, those savings cover rent and school fees.

‘Nobody talks about that seriously enough,’ he says. ‘The cost of the commute is treated as the worker’s private problem, but it is actually a structural tax on employment. Remote work, even partial remote work, partially lifts that tax.’

Annabell Gichure, a counselling psychologist says the psychological impact of sudden disruption is often the part that goes unaddressed.

“Sudden work disruptions trigger loss of control, and that is one of the biggest psychological stressors a person can face,” she explains.

Workers find themselves anxious about job security, mentally drained from constantly rethinking their plans, and frustrated by circumstances entirely outside their hands. Productivity drops not because people stop trying, but because so much energy is going toward managing the disruption itself.

Routine, she says, plays a bigger role in mental stability than most people realise.

“Routines are psychologically stabilising. When they disappear abruptly, people can feel unsettled in ways they struggle to explain. The morning commute, the walk to a desk, the rhythm of a structured day-these are not just habits. They are anchors. When they are removed suddenly, even capable and experienced workers can find themselves disoriented.”

However, not everyone loves working from home. Annabell notes that it can go either way. Some people find the quieter environment a relief.

Others find the home brings its own difficulties-loneliness, particularly for those used to busy, social workplaces; a loss of motivation in spaces not designed for work; guilt about not doing enough professionally while also feeling the pull of responsibilities at home; and the exhaustion that comes when work and rest occupy the same space with no clear separation between them.