Category: Business Daily

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has begun reviewing an application to register Mounjaro, a booming once-weekly injectable diabetes drug, for use in Kenya.

The application was submitted by Aspen Pharmacare, a South African pharmaceutical company that has an agreement with Eli Lilly, the US manufacturer of Mounjaro, to distribute and promote the drug across sub-Saharan Africa.

PPB Chief Executive Ahmed Mohamed confirmed that the application was submitted and is currently at the screening stage, the first step in the regulatory review process.

‘Yes, the PPB received an application to register Mounjaro in Kenya on May 7, 2026, and it’s at the screening level,’ he told the Business Daily.

The regulator’s review will determine whether the product meets Kenya’s requirements for quality, safety and efficacy before any approval is granted.

Until the registration process is completed, the PPB said the application does not amount to an approval for routine marketing of Mounjaro in Kenya.

Mounjaro contains tirzepatide, a prescription injectable medication used to manage Type 2 diabetes and promote chronic weight loss. If approved in Kenya, it will be prescribed alongside a healthy diet and regular exercise to treat adults, adolescents, and children aged 10 years and above, with poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Tirzepatide works on two hormone pathways, GIP and GLP-1, which help regulate blood sugar and appetite. This dual action has helped make tirzepatide one of the newer treatments attracting attention in the diabetes and obesity medicine market.

The Kenyan market has seen growing demand for newer diabetes treatments, particularly GLP-1 medicines that can reduce appetite and body weight.

The country already has a range of approved semaglutide medicines, including Ozempic and Wegovy and newer semaglutide products approved by the PPB. Separately, Getz Pharma has introduced Zepad, a tirzepatide-based medicine that contains the same active ingredient as Mounjaro.

The growing interest in these medicines has also increased attention on access, affordability and the need to ensure that patients obtain genuine products through regulated supply chains.

Dr Ahmed said that the growing number of applications for newer diabetes and obesity medicines reflects the expansion of treatment options but also presents additional challenges for regulators.

‘The increasing number of applications means expanding therapeutic options and building confidence in the regulatory authority,’ he said.

He added that this trend also brings additional regulatory demands, including the need for more inspections due to concerns over counterfeit medicines and illegal imports, as well as the risks associated with off-label use.

The Kenyan application forms part of Aspen’s broader plan to expand Mounjaro across sub-Saharan Africa, alongside Nigeria, which are among the first target markets outside South Africa.

‘We have submitted applications in Kenya and Nigeria,’ Aspen CEO Stephen Saad told investors, adding that the two markets have the potential to contribute to the company’s earnings in the financial year ending June 2027.

The company expects Mounjaro sales in Africa to exceed $124 million (Sh15.9 billion) in the financial year ending June 2027, buoyed by surging demand in South Africa and planned launches in Nigeria and Kenya.

Launched late in 2024, the drug increased its market share to a dominant 53 percent from 15 percent a year earlier.

For wealthy couples, divorce isn’t just about who gets the house, the car or the bank account. Some property might be in a trust, and other assets could be sitting outside Kenya altogether. So, by the time a marriage ends, figuring out who’s actually entitled to what can take a lot more digging than just checking whose name is on the title deed.

Under Kenya’s Matrimonial Property Act, 2014, courts ask whether an asset, or the benefit of it, was acquired during the marriage, and whether it was meant for the family’s use.

“They also consider the financial and non-financial contributions made by either spouse towards acquiring, maintaining or improving the property,” says Leah Ng’ang’a, a family law advocate and managing partner at Ng’ang’a and Associates.

“The court may also look beyond the company’s name to establish who actually owns or controls the property,” she says. “Where there is evidence that a company structure has been used to keep matrimonial property out of reach, the court can, in appropriate circumstances, lift the corporate veil.”

That matters most in the big-money divorces, where wealth is scattered across several entities instead of sitting directly with the couple.

“Trust property belongs to the trust or its beneficiaries, not the person who created the trust. Courts therefore do not simply treat trust property as belonging to the person who settled it,” Ng’ang’a says.

But there’s a catch: whoever sets up the trust has to actually own the asset first. And if that person is married, they need their spouse’s consent to move it into the trust, which protects whatever claim the other spouse might have.

“If a spouse transfers assets into a trust or offshore company shortly before or during divorce proceedings, the other spouse can challenge the transaction if they believe it was intended to defeat their claim to matrimonial property,” she says. “The court can examine why the transfer was made, when it happened, who benefited from it, and whether it was done in good faith.”

A transaction that guts the marital estate, or looks like it was designed to hide wealth, is going to draw a closer look.

“There is nothing inherently improper about estate planning or protecting assets through legitimate structures,” she adds. It comes down to timing, intention and the circumstances around the arrangement.

Read: How mortgages complicate divorce. Who takes the house and who pays?

A genuine estate-planning move is usually transparent and done in good faith, often years before any marital trouble starts. “A transfer made shortly before or during divorce, particularly where it appears designed to remove substantial wealth from the marital estate, is likely to receive much closer attention.”

A Kenyan court’s reach mainly stops at assets within Kenya, though it can make orders touching on foreign assets if they’re part of the matrimonial estate. The real trouble starts when someone has to actually enforce that order abroad. A Kenyan order doesn’t carry automatic weight in another country.

“Depending on the country involved and the applicable laws or reciprocal arrangements, the spouse seeking enforcement may have to begin separate proceedings there to have the Kenyan order recognised and enforced.”

This means that disputes over overseas property and investments can get complicated, and expensive, fast.

For wealthy couples, Ng’ang’a points out, splitting things up isn’t as easy as selling everything off and dividing the cash.

“A luxury property, family business or investment portfolio may require professional valuation. Real estate appraisers, business valuers and financial analysts may be involved where spouses cannot agree on what an asset is worth.”

The court looks at what the asset is, how it’s been used, what each spouse put into it and the circumstances of the marriage, bringing in outside experts to value things when needed.

One thing people sometimes miss is that couples who are still married can’t just ask a court to divide their property because they disagree over it.

“They can seek declarations on the shares to which each spouse is entitled, but the actual division of the matrimonial property follows divorce.”

They can, though, sort it out themselves through a settlement deed, whether married or already divorced.

Financial and non-financial contributions

The law counts both financial and non-financial contributions, which matters a lot in marriages where one spouse earns the income while the other runs the household, raises the children, or holds up the family business.

“The spouse who spends years managing the home and raising children may not have made direct payments towards the acquisition of a property, but that contribution can still be considered,” Ng’ang’a says. “The reasoning is that such work can enable the other spouse to concentrate on employment, business or other wealth-generating activities.”

Financial contributions are easy enough to prove: receipts, bank transfers, deposits. Non-financial ones are trickier, and there’s no fixed formula or percentage in the law for weighing them.

“Its assessment is therefore left to the discretion of the judicial officer, depending in part on how effectively that contribution is presented in court.”

As Kenyan families get wealthier and more globally connected, this side of matrimonial disputes is only getting harder.

“Trusts, holding companies, and offshore structures can make it harder to trace where wealth sits, establish who controls it and determine what should properly form part of a matrimonial estate,” Ng’ang’a says. The law, she adds, still struggles to keep up when assets are buried across several structures.

Even so, Kenyan courts can look past the paperwork if there’s evidence a spouse used a company structure to hide property from the other.

I have spent enough time in marketing to have sat on both sides of the table as an agency partner developing ideas, and as a client evaluating, defending and funding them. That experience has taught me that neither side has a monopoly on good ideas, or on bad decisions.

At a recent marketing forum convened by Cannes Lions jurors, an old argument resurfaced. Agencies say clients kill creativity by demanding endless revisions and denying ideas the time they need to mature. Clients counter that agencies too often misread the brief, arriving with exciting concepts that fail to solve the business problem.

Both sides have a point. But the problem usually begins earlier than either admits. Many briefs are overloaded; a single campaign expected to build awareness, generate leads, increase sales, improve reputation and trend online, all at once. Agencies then compound the problem by presenting three creative directions, even when only one has been properly interrogated.

Three routes look like choice. In practice, they dilute the agency’s thinking. Instead of investing deeply in the strongest response, teams produce three half-built ideas and hand the job of creative judgment back to the client.

Call it conviction over choice: the agencies that win consistently are not the ones offering the most options, but the ones with the nerve to back a single idea supported by customer insight, strategic reasoning and a clear line to commercial objectives.

It is tempting to romanticise an earlier era of Kenyan advertising. Niko na Safaricom, Equity Bank’s Mimi ni Member, Blue Band’s ‘Energy to Grow,’ Tusker’s ‘Baada ya Kazi,’ and the still-talked-about Mpango wa Kando public-awareness campaign all became part of popular culture.

Those campaigns had the benefit of strong insight, memorable storytelling, sustained media investment and time to build recognition.

Marketers today are trying to recreate that cultural impact in a much harder environment: tighter budgets, fragmented audiences, and customers drowning in information. The same idea is expected to work on television, radio, print, outdoor and a six-inch phone screen and every campaign is expected to ‘go viral,’ as though virality were a strategy rather than the unpredictable outcome of a good one.

Digital media did not kill creativity. It changed the conditions creativity has to work under. A modern campaign cannot simply be resized across channels. It needs one organising idea, expressed differently depending on how people actually behave on each platform. What stops traffic on a billboard will not necessarily work as a social video, a search ad or a newspaper execution. Integration should mean consistency of thought not duplication of format.

AI raises a version of the same challenge. It can accelerate research, generate alternatives and compress production timelines. What it cannot do is substitute for human insight, cultural fluency or strategic judgment. Used without those foundations, it produces work that is polished but forgettable content that looks right and says almost nothing.

The marketer’s job has also expanded well beyond campaigns. Marketing departments are now held accountable for growth, acquisition, retention and revenue, and the question from the CFO is no longer whether the campaign was liked, but what it delivered.

That makes return on ad spend a legitimate measure but a dangerous one if it becomes the only measure.

Les Binet and Peter Field’s long-running IPA research is instructive here: brands that lean too heavily on short-term activation tend to win the quarter and lose the market, while those that hold a disciplined balance between brand-building and activation compound advantage over years, not weeks.

Performance marketing captures demand that already exists; brand building creates the demand that will exist. Marketers who can only do one are only doing half the job.

The future will not belong to the most creative agency or the most commercially aggressive client. It will belong to the teams that combine customer insight, creative courage, channel fluency and financial discipline in the same room, at the same time.

Clients can help by writing clearer briefs, protecting promising ideas from death by committee, and being honest with agencies about commercial context. Agencies can help by understanding the business behind the campaign and defending fewer, better ideas instead of hedging with three. And AI should be treated as an amplifier of thinking, never a replacement for it.

Creativity in Kenyan marketing is not dead. It is simply being asked to work harder and marketers on both sides of the table need to get better at leading it.

Uber says it sees ‘strong potential’ in Kenya despite high operating and rising fuel costs in its only remaining East African market after exiting Uganda and Tanzania.

The American ride-hailing giant says Kenya remains a key market as it reviews its operations across Africa. Uber pulled out of Nigeria and Uganda last week after exiting Tanzania in January 2026.

‘Kenya remains an important market for Uber, and we continue to see strong potential for the business here,’ Uber told the Business Daily via email.

Uber entered Kenya in 2015 and is one of the leading ride-hailing platforms in the country, competing with Estonian firm Bolt, Russia’s inDrive, Rwanda’s Yego and local players Little and Faras.

But the company has faced pressure from drivers who have gone on strike and staged protests in recent years over rising operating costs, low fares and high commissions – fees Uber deducts from drivers’ earnings for every completed trip.

In 2014, the company raised its minimum fares by 10 percent in Kenya following driver strikes and protests over unsustainable earnings amid high fuel and vehicle maintenance costs.

‘We recognise that (Kenyan) drivers are facing pressures from rising fuel, maintenance, insurance and other operating costs,’ Uber said.

‘Our focus is on supporting sustainable earning opportunities and helping drivers manage their costs, while ensuring that mobility remains affordable and demand remains strong.’

Drivers in Nigeria and Uganda also raised similar concerns. In Tanzania, Uber was involved in a long-running dispute with the transport regulator, LATRA, over commission caps.

In 2022, LATRA introduced fixed guide fares per kilometre and per minute, set a minimum fare and lowered the commission ceiling from 33 percent to 15 percent.

Uber halted operations that April, terming the model unsustainable. It resumed in early 2023 after the regulator allowed commissions of up to 25 percent and restored a booking fee.

Commenting publicly for the first time on the Tanzania exit, Uber’s general manager for East Africa, Imran Manji, said regulating fares and commissions had become an ‘obstacle’ to the firm’s expansion.

‘Unfortunately, sometimes in this region we tend to put in place obstacles… if you, as a regulator, put in place price floors and price caps on the private sector, you’re killing innovation,’ Mr Manji told a forum in Nairobi.

‘Around the world, Uber is live in 10,000 cities, and only three countries cap commissions: Portugal at 25 percent, Tanzania at 25 percent and Kenya at 18 percent. We are an outlier in the wrong direction.’

He said Tanzania’s restrictions prevented the company from introducing premium ride tiers such as Comfort or Safari, which are available in markets such as Kenya.

‘You cannot even launch electric bikes because you cannot price lower, even though they are cheaper to run than petrol bikes … ultimately, it led us to exit Tanzania,’ said Mr Manji.

Kenya, however, also faces regulatory uncertainty over commissions and minimum fares. Last week, the High Court blocked enforcement of the 18 percent commission cap that Uber and its competitors charge drivers and vehicle owners.

The move marked a win for operators, who have long opposed the limit. The State introduced the cap in 2022 as part of efforts to protect drivers from high fees, down from previous rates of up to 30 percent.

The National Transport and Safety Authority currently caps ride-hailing platform commissions at 18 percent per trip, including digital service tax.

The High Court, however, found the restriction unconstitutional, saying the State had not demonstrated its necessity or proportionality through the required regulatory process. It also said the price-setting provisions lacked statutory foundation and economic justification and constituted ‘an unconstitutional deprivation of property and contractual autonomy’.

‘We will continue to engage constructively with the relevant authorities and stakeholders,’ Uber said in response to the ruling.

Centum Investment Company exited Sidian Bank after 25 years of ownership with cumulative proceeds from the sale of its stake falling Sh301 million short of the investment firm’s original cost of Sh4.77 billion.

The firm sold its final 14.63 percent stake in Sidian in March and has now disclosed that this deal was valued at Sh1.2 billion, bringing the total proceeds from a series of disposals since 2024 to Sh4.469 billion.

This means that, measured against the historical cost of the investment, Centum recovered about 93.7 percent of the money it originally put into the lender, before taking into account any dividends it may have received during the period.

The investment firm received limited dividends from Sidian over the years, with the bank having to retain capital to support its operations and undertake several rights issues to strengthen its balance sheet.

Sidian was also among the few Centum investments whose historical cost was higher than its market value. The bank was hit hard by lending rate control and the Covid-19 pandemic but its profitability has surged after Centum’s exit.

The exit comes after several changes in Sidian’s ownership structure and capital base, including rights issues aimed at strengthening the lender.

The proceeds from the final Sidian disposal helped Centum declare a special dividend of Sh0.36 per share, totalling Sh240 million, in addition to an ordinary dividend of Sh0.42 per share worth Sh281 million.

Centum has in recent years accelerated the disposal of mature investments to unlock capital for new opportunities. Other strategic exits include Nabo Capital, Almasi Beverages and Nairobi Bottlers, while the firm has increased its exposure to real estate through subsidiary Centum Re.

The firm first invested in Sidian in 2001, when the lender was operating as K-Rep Bank. In November 2014, Centum acquired 66 percent shareholding in the bank, lifting its stake to 67.54 percent. This was followed by other transactions that took its stake to 83.43 percent.

The firm initially signed an agreement with Access Bank but the deal fell through, with the investment firm resorting to piecemeal selling of shares to multiple investors.

Buyers of Centum shares, which were mostly held through an investment vehicle called Bakki Holdco Limited, include Pioneer General Insurance Limited, Wizpro Enterprises Limited and Afram Limited.

The ownership structure of the bank has changed on multiple occasions over the past two years due to the exit of Centum and several rights issues aimed at strengthening the lender’s capital base.

The Sh1.2 billion transaction saw Centum sell its 14.63 percent stake in Bakki to an undisclosed buyer. The latest shareholding structure of Bakki as per the Business Registration Services is yet to reflect this transaction. It still lists Centum as one of the shareholders in Bakki, alongside Kenbe Investments.

Bakki holds 27.27 percent stake in Sidian, followed by Wizpro Enterprises Limited (24.95 percent), Afram Limited (24.36 percent), Pioneer General Insurance (16.89 percent), Telesec Africa Limited (3.47 percent) and Pioneer Life Investments (3.06 percent).

Centum’s other strategic exits in the recent past include Nabo Capital, Almasi Beverages and Nairobi Bottlers, increasing exposure in real estate through its subsidiary, Centum Re.

The firm is entering a new leadership phase following the exit of James Mworia, who had served as the CEO for nearly 18 years. Mr Mworia departed this week and took up the role of founding CEO of National Infrastructure Fund (NIF).

Centum board credited Mr Mworia for growing the firm’s assets from Sh4 billion in December 2008, when the company was operating on a Sh200 million overdraft, to an asset base of about Sh46 billion currently.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving into children’s schoolwork faster than many education systems can adapt, shifting the challenge from access to information toward judging whether machine-generated answers can be trusted.

Students now use generative AI to explain difficult concepts, develop essay ideas, check drafts, solve problems and prepare presentations, making chatbots another potential layer of everyday learning.

The arising challenge, according to pundits, is that the same systems can produce convincing but false information, fabricate sources and generate manipulated images, leaving children to distinguish useful assistance from answers that only sound correct.

Kaspersky’s observations show that children’s interest in AI tools continues to grow ‘as these technologies become more accessible and integrated into everyday learning.’

‘In fact, AI is likely to become as commonly part of their studies as search engines, online dictionaries and educational videos.’

The company’s guide comes as international education agencies shift their focus from whether children should encounter AI to how schools, parents and students should manage its use.

Unesco’s AI Competency Framework for Students recommends teaching children to develop human-centred attitudes, understand AI ethics, acquire technical knowledge and eventually participate in designing AI systems.

The framework places these competencies across three stages-understand, apply and create-reflecting a move toward preparing students to work with AI rather than treating the technology solely as a threat to academic integrity.

This reflects the modern-day reality that the availability of generative AI changes what it means to complete an assignment independently, particularly where a student can obtain a polished response without demonstrating how they reached it.

A child asking a chatbot to write an essay may receive a coherent answer within seconds, but the speed of producing the response can remove the research, reasoning, and writing practice that the assignment was designed to develop.

According to Kaspersky, learners need to start treating AI as an assistant that can, among other things, explain concepts, suggest arguments, identify weaknesses in a draft, or generate practice questions rather than completing schoolwork for the student.

A student using AI to solve a mathematics problem, for example, should be able to explain the method independently and reproduce the solution rather than simply transferring the chatbot’s response into an exercise book.

The same principle applies to research since a fluent AI response does not establish that its underlying information is accurate, current, or drawn from a genuine source.

‘When a child can generate an essay or receive a finished answer to a math problem in seconds, it may be tempting to submit the result without understanding it. This can save time in the moment, but it prevents the child from developing the very skills the assignment is intended to practice,’ it says.

‘Parents can agree with their children that AI may help explain a concept, suggest a structure, provide examples or ask practice questions, but it should not complete the entire task on their behalf.’

Unesco has warned that generative AI can create fabricated information and that education systems need safeguards because the technology is advancing faster than many regulatory and institutional responses.

A global Unesco survey of more than 450 schools and universities found in 2023 that fewer than 10 percent had formal guidance covering generative AI, highlighting how quickly the technology had entered education ahead of institutional rules.

In Kenya, the issue gathers particular relevance as the government’s National AI Strategy 2025-2030 identifies education among sectors where AI and digital skills are being integrated into the country’s broader technology agenda.

The strategy’s implementation roadmap also identifies limited access to devices, gaps in teacher training, and weaknesses in data privacy and security as challenges that could constrain digital education.

This means AI literacy cannot be reduced to teaching children how to write better prompts because they also need to understand the limits of the systems producing the responses.

Generative AI does not independently establish truth before producing an answer, meaning an apparently authoritative explanation can contain a wrong date, invented quotation, non-existent study or flawed reasoning.

Unicef says children are increasingly turning to AI chatbots for information, learning and creativity, while evidence on the effects of the technology on their cognitive, social and emotional development remains limited.

The privacy question becomes even more complicated when children begin using AI conversationally, as a homework prompt can easily contain private details about the student, such as their school, classmates or family.

A child asking for help with an assignment might paste an entire school document, upload a photograph of a worksheet, or include names and personal circumstances without considering the information as sensitive.

Kenya’s Data Protection Act requires parental or guardian consent before personal data relating to a child is processed and requires processing to protect and advance the child’s rights and best interests.

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has separately told the education sector that minors cannot provide valid consent on their own and that schools must ensure appropriate safeguards when processing children’s information.

For schools adopting AI tools, this puts data governance alongside academic considerations, requiring institutions to understand what information platforms collect, why it is processed and how long it is retained.

Unesco’s guidance, similarly, calls for privacy protection and age-appropriate approaches to the use of generative AI in education, while urging institutions to assess whether particular tools are ethically suitable.

The court ordered Zingo to hand over its premises, management, books, records, keys and other assets to the bank-appointed receiver and manager, Kolluri Venkata Subbaraya Kamasastry.

In the ruling, the court also authorised police assistance to enforce the takeover after rejecting Zingo’s bid to halt enforcement pending an appeal.

‘An order is hereby issued restraining the Plaintiff’s directors, employees, agents, and any other person acting under its authority from interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the second defendant (receiver) in the lawful discharge of his duties as Receiver and Manager of the Plaintiff’s business and assets,’ the court ordered in the ruling dated September 1, 2026.

The ruling followed failed mediation and two applications after the court dismissed Zingo’s earlier bid to stop NBK and its receiver from taking over and operating its business.

NBK said Zingo had defaulted since a 2017 consent acknowledging $5.6 million (Sh733 million), while the company argued enforcement would cause loss.

The dispute began after NBK advanced facilities to Zingo to establish a leather factory on property registered as LR No. 9363/98 and provide working capital.

The facilities were secured by charges of $882,354 over LR No. 209/8628 and $2.2 million over LR No. 9363/98, a floating debenture of $794,000 and directors’ guarantees totalling $3.47 million.

The bank’s representative, Paul Chelang’a, told the court that the company has been in default since the December 20, 2017 consent, which acknowledged an outstanding debt of $5,666,000, and has repeatedly made applications to hinder the lender’s recovery efforts.

He also stated that recent valuations set the forced-sale values of the two properties at Sh661 million, which he said was not enough to cover the outstanding debt. He asserts that the Bank has properly issued the required demand and statutory notices.

Furthermore, he argued that this was the company’s sixth attempt to prevent the statutory power of sale, claiming the application was an abuse of court process, the plaintiff remains in default, and there was no sufficient basis for the orders requested.

An earlier judgment says that a 2017 consent consolidated the debt at $5.66 million and provided a further $1.1 million working-capital facility.

In March 2024, the High Court rejected Zingo’s claim against NBK, holding that the company had acknowledged the debt but disputed how funds were handled.

The court said interest and penalty disputes did not justify withholding the principal. In January 2025, the Court of Appeal declined to stop NBK from exercising its remedies.

The latest dispute concerns receivership and emerged after NBK appointed Kamasastry as receiver and manager in August 2025. He took control of the business on September 1 before an interim injunction issued the following day stopped him. That injunction remained in force until Zingo’s application was dismissed on April 30, 2026.

Zingo filed an appeal and sought another injunction, arguing that the appeal could be rendered useless if NBK proceeded with enforcement. It also asked the court to send the dispute to mediation and allow it to amend its plaint.

The court rejected those requests. It said the April dismissal was a ‘negative judgment’ because it did not require either defendant to perform an executable act.

‘There is nothing arising from the dismissal order capable of being stayed,’ said the judge.

In relation to mediation, the court noted that the dispute had already gone through court-annexed mediation, but a report filed showed that the receiver had declined to participate.

‘Mediation is inherently a voluntary process that relies on the parties’ good faith participation. Given the circumstances, referring the case to mediation again would be pointless and only cause delays in resolving the pending applications,’ the court said.

Mr Kamasastry sought orders allowing him access to Zingo’s premises and control of its business, assets and affairs. He said employees and director Robert Njoka had prevented him from returning after the April ruling. He also alleged resistance despite police presence and a threat involving a firearm.

Zingo denied obstructing or threatening the receiver. It argued that the April ruling merely dismissed its injunction application and did not authorise a forcible takeover. The company said it remained a going concern and that taking control would cause substantial loss.

The court rejected that position and allowed Mr Kamasastry’s application in full. It said the receiver’s appointment had already been upheld and that the September 2025 injunction lapsed when Zingo’s application was dismissed.

‘The Plaintiff’s continued obstruction of the receiver is unlawful and cannot be tolerated,’ the court said. It added that the alleged threat to the receiver’s team was ‘a matter of grave concern’ and could lead to contempt proceedings if substantiated.

The court’s final orders require Zingo and its personnel to give Kamasastry unrestricted access to the properties -LR No. 9363/98 and LR No. 209/8628. They are also required to hand over management, assets, books, records, documents and keys, and must not interfere with his duties.

The Officer Commanding Mwiki Police Station, Infinity Police Post or the Officer Commanding any police station in proximity to the Plaintiff’s premises were authorised to assist if necessary.

Kenya’s refugee and asylum-seeker population hit a record 857,065, with Eritreans and Burundians recording some of the fastest growth over the past decade as the country increasingly becomes a destination for people fleeing conflict, political instability and economic hardship.

The number of refugees and asylum seekers reached 857,065 in June 2026, up 73.2 percent from 494,863 in 2016, according to data compiled from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The growth has been particularly pronounced among some of the smaller refugee communities.

Eritreans led with the fastest growth, rising from 1,590 in 2016 to 7,880, representing a 395.6 percent.

Burundian’s had the second-fastest growth. Their number increased from 8,461 in 2016 to 35,048, a 314.2 percent increase over the decade.

The increase in the Burundian population comes at a particularly sensitive time for the community, with hundreds of Burundians seeking to leave Kenya following a government crackdown on foreigners operating small-scale businesses.

Hundreds of Burundians gathered outside their embassy in Nairobi this week, seeking travel documents to return home after President William Ruto ordered a crackdown on foreigners operating businesses.

Some Burundians arrived at the embassy carrying suitcases and other possessions, with some saying they had received threats and feared they were no longer safe in Kenya.

The reports came after the President directed authorities to shut down small businesses operated by foreign traders, although the government later clarified that the enforcement was aimed at foreigners operating without the required permits.

The episode highlights a difficult economic balancing act for Kenya.

Foreign traders form part of the country’s wider informal and small-business economy, providing goods and services to consumers while also competing with Kenyan traders for customers and market space.

The government’s position is that foreigners should not use visitor or other immigration status to enter Kenya and then compete with citizens in small-scale businesses.

But the sudden uncertainty also illustrates how closely migration and livelihoods have become intertwined.

For businesses, the immediate issue is therefore bigger than the departure of individual traders. It raises questions about how Kenya manages the intersection of immigration enforcement, refugee protection, informal employment and regional trade.

Kenya’s refugee population has not simply grown in numbers; its composition has also changed significantly.

Somalis remain by far the largest group, rising from 326,562 in 2016 to 472,470 in June 2026. They accounted for 55.1 percent of the country’s refugees and asylum seekers.

South Sudanese increased from 88,391 to 208,978 over the same period, while refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo rose from 29,317 to 66,654.

Kenya’s prime office developers have seen their rental yields stagnate at 8.5 percent for the last three years despite rising occupancy levels, as an oversupply of lower-grade offices has kept rental prices flat.

Real estate firm Knight Frank says in its Africa Office Market Review for the first half of 2026 that the average rental price of a Grade A office in Nairobi stood at $13 (Sh1,684) per square metre in June, having remained unchanged since June 2022.

Rental yields have at the same time remained at 8.5 percent since June 2023, even though occupancy levels have steadily risen to 84.8 percent from the post-Covid-19 pandemic low of 71.5 percent three years ago.

Nairobi’s status as a regional commercial and financial hub saw a steady increase in prime office space in the previous decade, as developers sought to satisfy demand from international investors, governments, diplomatic missions and multinational corporations.

Developers primarily targeted Upper Hill and Westlands for new developments, complementing the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), where accessibility and availability of Grade A offices were limited.

Some of these properties that were put up during the period have now been surpassed in quality by newer developments, reducing their competitiveness in a market where demand growth has slowed down.

The market also shifted significantly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which upended the commercial property market as many firms adopted remote working arrangements, with the subsequent economic shocks further eating into demand for space.

Other firms also moved to smaller, fitted-out office spaces as flexible working patterns became the new normal. This saw landlords grant concessions on lease renewals, which included lowering or freezing asking rental prices.

As a result of the stagnant rental prices and yields, Nairobi has now become one of the cheapest major African cities in the office market.

The Knight Frank analysis shows that Lagos and Cairo have the highest rental prices at $55 (Sh7,119) and $28 (Sh3,624) per square metre, respectively, with their annual rental yields standing at 10 percent.

Johannesburg has an average rental price of $19 (Sh2,459) per square metre and a yield of 9.5 percent, followed by Lusaka at a price of $18 (Sh2,329) and a yield of 11 percent.

In the East Africa region, the Kampala and Dar es Salaam office markets offer developers yields of nine per cent each, drawn from rental prices of $17 (Sh2,200) and $15 (Sh1,941) per square metre, respectively.

On the other hand, Harare offers the lowest yield among the surveyed cities at just six per cent, with its rental asking price also the lowest at $7 (Sh906) per square metre, as occupancy levels within the city’s central business district stand at 50 percent.

Gaborone in Botswana also lags Nairobi in yield at eight per cent and rent at $10 (Sh1,294) per square metre.

Similar to Nairobi, the other African cities have seen a clear demarcation in demand and prices between top-tier developments and older, lower-grade offices.

Across several markets, occupiers are shifting from congested CBDs to mixed-use and suburban nodes that offer accessibility, parking and integrated amenities.

‘Across most markets that we track, occupiers continue to prioritise high-quality, ESG-conscious and operationally resilient office buildings, reinforcing the continent-wide ‘flight to quality’ trend,’ said Knight Frank.

The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) plans to mop up idle financial assets held by lawyers on behalf of their clients, a move likely to stir a standoff over the estimated billions of shillings in unclaimed cash.

Proposals by the UFAA, seen by the Business Daily, seek to declare any assets held by lawyers on behalf of their clients for more than five years as unclaimed and surrender them to the State.

Lawyers act as custodians of deposits made in commercial transactions, sums involved in ongoing litigation, settlement payments and, in some instances, money held on behalf of clients in escrow accounts awaiting instructions.

‘Assets held by advocates in the advocate’s client account which belong to a client and remain unclaimed by a client for five years are presumed abandoned,’ the UFAA proposals, which are set to undergo public participation, state in part.

UFAA is banking on working with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) to implement the regulation if it becomes law, given the number and spread of lawyers across the country.

‘We will implement it in conjunction with the LSK, requiring advocate firms to have a disclosure in their books of accounts on client accounts that qualify as unclaimed. In addition, we will carry out a compliance audit,’ UFAA said in response to queries sent by the Business Daily.

The LSK, however, said it had not been involved in drafting the regulation and would therefore not be willing to support it, arguing that it would interfere with the relationship advocates have with their clients.

‘I don’t understand what those unclaimed financial assets mean because lawyers have their ways of engaging clients and following up when they are holding client funds. We don’t need the assistance of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority,’ LSK President Charles Kanjama said.

‘You cannot have a third party intervening in the advocate-client relationship, which is what would happen if the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority starts asking us for disclosures of that kind,’ he said.

UFAA disclosed that it had no estimates of how much money lawyers could be holding in unclaimed assets.

Read: Audit, law firms targeted in ownership transparency drive

The judicial system is estimated to have Sh6.3 billion in unclaimed cash bail and bonds.

Besides lawyers, UFAA is also looking to have payment service providers licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya, including Pesapal, Flutterwave, Direct Pay Online (DPO) Pay, iPay Africa and Cellulant, surrender unclaimed money to it.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa, which is also a payment service provider, already remits funds unclaimed for more than five years under its other role as a savings/deposit product.

UFAA is also looking to have deposits for goods included among unclaimed assets. Currently, the Act covers deposits made for utility services such as water and electricity.

‘Section 9 is proposed to be deleted and replaced with a section clearly including deposits for goods over and above deposits for utility services as unclaimed assets qualifying after two years of presumed abandonment,’ reads the proposed Bill.

UFAA has lined up a raft of policy changes, including easing penalties and extending the dormancy period, in a bid to mop up idle resources in the country.

A survey conducted last year showed there were unclaimed assets valued at Sh394.9 billion yet to be remitted to UFAA, which has already received Sh126 billion in shares and cash.

Commercial banks are said to hold the largest share of unremitted assets, at Sh133.8 billion. The manufacturing sector holds Sh24.2 billion in unpaid wages, according to the survey, while universities have Sh8.3 billion associated with caution money deposited with the institutions by first-year students.