Category: Business Daily

Uasin Gishu, Machakos, and Nairobi counties are the most conducive to doing business for small traders due to the cost of licences and the availability of funding and infrastructure with Nyandarua, Kakamega, and Kisii ranked last, a new index shows.

The index, developed by the African Institute of MSME Policy and Research and consultancy firm Viffa Consult, reckons that unification and cost of licences and business support services like funding and incubation hubs are game changers.

The world’s largest cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has experienced a major outage that has impacted thousands of organisations, including banks, financial software platforms such as Xero, and social media platforms such as Snapchat.

The outage began at roughly 6pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEDT) on Monday. It was caused by a malfunction at one of AWS’ data centres located in Northern Virginia in the US. AWS says it has fixed the underlying issue but some internet users are still reporting service disruptions.

This incident highlights the vulnerabilities of relying so much on cloud computing – or ‘the cloud’ as it’s often called. But there are ways to mitigate some of the risks.

Renting IT infrastructure

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of diverse IT resources such as computing power, database storage, and applications over the internet. In simple terms, it’s renting (not owning) your own IT infrastructure.

Cloud computing came into prevalence with the dot com boom in the late 1990s, wherein digital tech companies started to deliver software over the internet.

As companies such as Amazon matured in their own ability to offer what’s known as ‘software as a service’ over the web, they started to offer others the ability to rent their virtual servers for a cost as well.

This was a lucrative value proposition. Cloud computing enables a pay-as-you-go model similar to a utility bill, rather than the huge upfront investment required to purchase, operate and manage your own data centre.

As a result, the latest statistics suggest more than 94 percent of all enterprises use cloud-based services in some form.

A market dominated by three companies

The global cloud market is dominated by three companies. AWS holds the largest share (roughly 30 percent). It’s followed by Microsoft Azure (about 20 percent) and Google Cloud Platform (about 13 percent).

All three service providers have had recent outages, significantly impacting digital service platforms. For example, in 2024, an issue with third-party software severely impacted Microsoft Azure, causing extensive operational failures for businesses globally.

Google Cloud Platform also experienced a major outage this year due to an internal misconfiguration.

Profound risks

The heavy reliance of the global internet on just a few major providers – AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud – creates profound risks for both businesses and everyday users.

First, this concentration forms a single point of failure. As seen in the latest AWS event, a simple configuration error in one central system can trigger a domino effect that instantly paralyses vast segments of the internet. Second, these providers often impose vendor lock-in. Companies find it prohibitively difficult and expensive to switch platforms due to complex data architectures and excessively high fees charged for moving large volumes of data out of the cloud (data egress costs). This effectively traps customers, leaving them hostage to a single vendor’s terms.

Finally, the dominance of US-based cloud service providers introduces geopolitical and regulatory risks. Data stored in these massive systems is subject to US laws and government demands, which can complicate compliance with international data sovereignty regulations such as Australia’s Privacy Act.

Furthermore, these companies hold the power to censor or restrict access to services, giving them control over how firms operate.

The current best practice to mitigate these risks is to adopt a multi-cloud approach that enables you to decentralise. This involves running critical applications across multiple vendors to eliminate the single point of failure.

This approach can be complemented by what’s known as ‘edge computing’, wherein data storage and processing is moved away from large, central data centres, toward smaller, distributed nodes (such as local servers) that firms can control directly.

The combination of edge computing and a multi-cloud approach enhances resilience, improves speed, and helps companies meet strict data regulatory requirements while avoiding dependence on any single entity.

As the old saying goes, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

How does that management cliché go? ‘Managers do things right, but leaders do the right things.’

Do business leaders have distinct characteristics, or are they all over the map? Is there a magical recipe one can follow to become a leader? Or is it a myth, that to be a leader, one has to exhibit quality A, B and C?

‘Legacy is not what you leave behind-it’s what keeps growing when you’re gone.’ – African Proverb

Last week, I wrote about the emotional cost of building to last-the sleepless nights, the hidden weight and the quiet ache that comes when purpose turns into responsibility. Some readers asked: But what is legacy, really?

A surge in consumption of electricity in homes has for the first time cut the share of power used by top industries to below the 50 percent.

Kenya Power data shows the share of electricity consumed by homes rose to 32 percent or 3.64 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in the year that ended June 2025 from 30.6 percent the previous year.

We all chase high returns, but what about the costs? Investment fees, commissions, and charges can quietly erode your gains. What’s a reasonable cost of investing-and when do the charges start to hurt your portfolio?

Lydia Muriuki, Senior Relationship Manager at Standard Investment Bank (SIB), joins us to pull back the curtain on these costs. She unpacks the different types of investment fees, how they impact your returns, and how to keep them in check.

Make Money, a podcast series, hosted by Kepha Muiruri, from Business Daily Africa unravels ways to be financially savvy. Get practical tips and advice on how to increase your income, build wealth, and achieve financial freedom in Kenya. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned investor, we’ve got something for everyone.

The family of the late Senator Mutula Kilonzo has lost its bid to stop the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) from repossessing a parcel of land it claims in Machakos County, paving the way for the case to proceed.

The EACC has sued to recover the land from Wandavuu Limited, a company linked to the late Senator.

Wanjiru runs a small fintech in Kilimani and is excited as she prepares for her first round of investor meetings. She tells her staff that how one presents themselves means a great deal to investors and turns up in a stiff new suit that does not really feel like her style. Her investor pitch goes well enough, but everyone around the table gives only a lukewarm reception.

Later that week, she repeats the same pitch in jeans and a simple t-shirt to a different investor group because she had to rush from a client visit and did not have time to change.

Kenyans investing or trading in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin may soon be able to buy insurance cover for hacking losses and employee theft.

The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has published draft regulations that introduce virtual assets insurance as a new class of business.

‘HR carries the emotional load of the company.’ Wise words from a People Leader today that capture a truth many in the profession rarely say out loud.

Since March of 2020, when the world went into lockdown, HR has been on the frontline of every major workplace crisis – from pandemic response to layoffs, from hybrid debates to mental health breakdowns.

The collective fatigue in the function today is not by accident. It is the accumulation of carrying the weight of everyone else’s pain, confusion, and survival. Think back to those first months of Covid-19. While leadership teams were debating financial forecasts, HR was fielding calls from employees in panic about job security, isolation, or family illness.

The profession became both emergency responders and therapists overnight, holding the company’s hand through uncertainty. That role has not stopped.

As the world reopened, HR was tasked with rebuilding culture, managing resistance to hybrid models, addressing burnout, and handling waves of restructuring as businesses reset their priorities.

But who holds HR? Who listens when the very people tasked with ‘being there’ for others are drained? Many in the profession will quietly admit to compassion fatigue. They have mediated too many conflicts, delivered too many exit letters, and comforted too many struggling employees without enough space to process their own struggles.

Unlike other teams, HR rarely gets to detach. Every decision they make is deeply human, whether it is approving leave for a grieving parent or explaining to a new hire why their role has suddenly been frozen.

This invisible weight has long-term consequences. It explains the exodus of HR talent we have seen globally over the last three years, and why many in the profession are rethinking their career paths. Being the ’emotional spine’ of the workplace is noble, but unsustainable without care for the caregivers.

Read: Job pressure leaves workers at risk of chronic illnesses

The irony is that companies know the importance of employee well-being, but often forget to extend the same to HR. Workload redistribution, access to counseling, peer support networks, and stronger recognition of the unique demands HR faces are no longer optional. If organisations want strong cultures, they must invest in those carrying its emotional weight.

Because HR is not just pushing policies. They are absorbing the frustrations of underpaid staff, the anxiety of leaders under pressure, and the aspirations of new graduates entering uncertain markets. They are the bridge between strategy and humanity, and that role carries a cost.

The pandemic made that cost clear. What remains unclear is whether organisations will acknowledge it. If HR has carried the emotional load of the company for this long, then perhaps it is time companies carry HR too.

As Brené Brown once said, ‘You don’t have to do it all alone. We were never meant to.