Category: Business Daily

Kenya’s hospitality story is built on warmth, resilience, and world-class talent. But here’s a question for all of us: will the next generation of global hotel brands carry Kenyan names, or will we forever host under someone else’s flag?

For decades, local hotel owners and investors have carried the spirit of Karibu Kenya, welcoming the world with unmatched professionalism.

Our hotels, lodges, and camps have been the heartbeat of tourism, shaping experiences that bring millions to our country. Yet as more international hotel chains set up in Kenya, we must ask: are we building our industry’s future on borrowed names, or nurturing our own to become tomorrow’s global leaders?

International chains undoubtedly bring value-global visibility, expertise, and jobs. But the profits flow abroad, decisions are made elsewhere, and our pioneers risk being overshadowed in their own home market.

Kenyan hotel brands deserve the same incentives, financing, and global exposure offered to foreign players. With a disciplined, highly skilled workforce already sought after worldwide, why shouldn’t Kenyan brands dominate regionally and globally?

In fact, Kenyan hospitality professionals have long been our greatest export. From Dubai to Doha, from Mauritius to southern Africa, our chefs, managers, and staff are in high demand and are well-trained, polished, and trusted to deliver excellence.

Even in Europe, Kenyan graduates are finding opportunities, valued for their professionalism and service culture. If our people can power the success of other countries’ hotel industries, why can’t our own brands be given the tools to succeed at home and abroad?

Other countries have shown us what is possible. In South Africa, Protea Hotels grew from a modest local chain in the 1980s to more than 100 properties across Africa, proving that African hospitality brands can achieve continental scale.

Yet its eventual acquisition by Marriott in 2014 is a double-edged lesson: without strong national and regional support, even successful African brands risk being absorbed by global giants rather than standing as independent players.

In contrast, India’s Taj Hotels began with a single property in Mumbai in 1903 and, with deliberate government and private sector backing, evolved into one of the most respected hospitality names worldwide.

Kenya requires approximately Sh30.4 billion ($235 million) to equip around 3,800 health facilities across the country that currently lack electricity, and to stabilise backup power for existing connections.

An analysis by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) reveals that of this total amount needed-inclusive of Sh17.2 billion ($133 million) for private facilities and Sh13.1 billion ($102 million) for public facilities-only about Sh1.3 billion ($10 million) has been provided by donors, resulting in a funding gap of Sh29.1 billion ($225 million).

The Ministry of Energy has been lobbying the National Assembly to lift the seven-year ban on new power purchase deals. While there was an indication of the ban being lifted in June of this year, this is yet to be realised.

For years, Kenya Power, the country’s main electricity offtaker, has been tied into contracts with independent power producers (IPP). These agreements were signed quietly, away from public scrutiny, and were meant to secure additional electricity for the grid.

On the surface, they seemed like a way to expand supply and meet rising demand. But in reality, many of these contracts tilted heavily in favour of the private producers and left the public carrying the cost.

In the year ending June 2024, Kenya Power bought 59 percent of its electricity from KenGen, the State generator. Yet KenGen only received 40 percent of the total payments, about Sh49.4 billion.

By contrast, IPPs supplied just 41 percent of the electricity but collected 60 percent of the money. Put simply, KenGen supplied most of the power, while IPPs took most of the cash.

The latest half-year results up to December 2024 show that this imbalance is still weighing on the company. Kenya Power spent Sh71.4 billion on buying electricity in just six months.

The stronger shilling reduced some costs, and renewable energy purchases rose to 6,603 gigawatt hours (GWh) from 6,199 GWh a year earlier, but the basic problem remains. The share of money paid out is still far higher than the share of electricity delivered by IPPs.

A unit from a private producer averaged Sh21, while KenGen charged less than half that, at about Sh10. Even in geothermal power, which is considered one of the cheapest and most reliable renewable sources, IPPs were charging more than double what KenGen billed.

The pattern continued in thermal generation, whese producers charged almost Sh44 per unit against KenGen’s Sh29. Unfortunately, the contracts include what is known as a take or pay clause, which means Kenya Power is required to pay, even when the electricity is not consumed. These are rigid contracts that load risk onto the public.

For ordinary citizens, all this translates into one simple outcome: high electricity bills. But the story is bigger than bills. It is a story about governance.

When power purchase contracts are signed behind closed doors and when governments lack the technical expertise or bargaining strength to negotiate on equal footing with private companies, the outcome is almost always the same: the public carries the burden.

Kenya’s electricity story shows just how costly weak governance can be. When we talk about Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) principles, the spotlight almost always falls on the environment or social concerns. We speak about climate change, carbon emissions, job creation, and diversity. Governance is usually mentioned last, like a supporting act.

Yet governance is the foundation stone that holds everything together. Without it, environmental promises and social pledges are a weak foundation. Governance is about trust, fairness, accountability, and the ability of institutions to deliver in the public interest. Without good governance, everything else begins to crack.

Governance is not about paperwork or ticking compliance boxes. It is about the ability to safeguard the public interest. It is about ensuring that contracts, policies, and decisions are fair, transparent, and accountable. Kenya’s electricity contracts demonstrate what happens when governance is treated as an afterthought.

This is not a uniquely Kenyan problem. Across Africa, governments often find themselves at the negotiating table with multinational corporations that bring entire teams of lawyers, financial analysts, and consultants.

Governments, by contrast, are sometimes represented by overstretched officials with little specialist support. The imbalance is obvious, and the results are predictable: contracts that lock countries into expensive obligations, expose them to hidden risks, and leave them with little flexibility when circumstances change.

The good news is that African governments are not without options. There are institutions created precisely to help them navigate these complex negotiations. One of the strongest is the Africa Legal Support Facility, hosted by the African Development Bank.

The Facility provides governments with access to world-class legal and financial experts, helps them identify risks in contracts, and builds their capacity to negotiate better deals in the future. It is not the only option available. Governments can also draw on regional development banks, international partnerships, or even strengthen their use of local legal and technical expertise.

The problem is that many governments do not use these resources as much as they should. Deals are rushed through in the name of urgency or expediency, and the result is decades-long obligations that weigh down public finances and burden citizens. Kenya’s experience with its power purchase agreements shows why this approach is unsustainable.

As the country prepares to lift the freeze and negotiate new power deals, there is a chance to reset. This is the moment to insist on transparency, to involve stakeholders, to publish the terms, and to use every tool available to strengthen the hand of the state. Governance cannot be an afterthought tucked at the end of ESG.

Citizens pay the price when governance is weak, but they also reap the rewards when governance is strong. Africa has the tools to make sure contracts are fairer and better balanced. The challenge is simple: use them.

For many organisations today, a significant portion of their value resides outside the balance sheet.

This off-balance sheet value is usually attributed to intangible assets, which represent an expectation that there will be future economic benefits flowing to an organisation from these assets. It is no coincidence that financial reporting takes them into account during mergers and acquisitions (M and A).

It is well established that the value of a business is a combination of the net assets reflected on the balance sheet plus any identifiable intangible assets that meet the contractual/legal or separability criterion.

Therefore, anyone acquiring a business would consider these intangible assets in the pricing negotiations. Some common intangible assets include brand value, customer relationships and contracts, patented technology, and employment contracts.

These intangible assets have a close relationship to some of the material sustainability risks and opportunities that organisations identify during the materiality process required for sustainability reporting. For example, patented technology could be related to a digitisation topic, while an employee contract could relate to a talent topic.

The relationship between an organisation’s sustainability material topic and its intangible assets presents a compelling business case for organisations to embrace sustainability.

The ability to manage and capitalise on opportunities within sustainability can help organisations increase the value of their intangible assets. It implies that how well an organisation performs in achieving its sustainability targets will have an impact on an organisation’s financial fortunes and long-term viability.

Organisations will often find that their material sustainability topics are matters that affect their long-term competitiveness and enable their business growth strategy.

Therefore, the value of intangibles is not just in the present. Still, in the long-term implications they have on an organisation, which is why they are valued and included during M and A transactions.

Sustainability enables organisations to place equal focus on both the short-term and long-term priorities of an organisation when defining time horizons for managing sustainability risks and opportunities. It also requires organisations to understand the financial effects of sustainability on the organisation.

Therefore, organisations should view sustainability as a catalyst for growing the value of the business while ensuring that long-term priorities and performance are not compromised in favour of short-term gains and focus only.

The writer a is a Partner at PwC Kenya. He is an author who writes and speaks widely on corporate reporting topics

Some 175,760 companies dropped off the compliance radar of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in the year to June 2025, reflecting tax cheating and opportunistic business registration for one-off ventures such as government supply contracts.

Data obtained from the KRA shows 442,441 of 618,201 firms in the taxman’s register filed annual corporate income tax (CIT) returns, leaving more than a quarter (28.43 percent) of firms in the tax net as non-filers.

A house construction firm has received court approval to recover Sh29.7 million from a plumbing company as compensation for flood-linked damages to a house in Nairobi’s Muthaiga area.

In the judgment delivered by Justice Janet Mulwa on Friday, Devshibhai and Sons Limited was awarded the amount for damage caused by the negligence of Allied Plumbers Limited agents in March 2015 at a residential house.

At his Nairobi clinic, Dr Daniel Nduiga sees between 100 and 150 patients with heart conditions each month, with at least two of those being newly diagnosed cases of atrial fibrillation (AFib).

AFib is a condition characterised by fast, irregular, and uncoordinated heartbeats.

A decade ago, such cases were rare and primarily seen in elderly patients. Today, however, AFib is appearing more frequently in younger and middle-aged patients, a trend that Dr Nduiga attributes to lifestyle changes.

By 2030, artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to unlock 230 million digital jobs across Africa – a transformation comparable to South Korea’s post-war rise or India’s IT boom in the 1990s. Realising this potential requires bold investment in digital skills across every corner of the economy.

Despite widespread ambition, with governments, donors, and private sector leaders prioritising digital skills, progress remains uneven. The challenge is not only scale, but also coordination. Fragmented efforts and a lack of unified strategy continue to slow momentum and dilute impact.

To fully realise AI’s potential for job creation, Africa must build a coordinated, inclusive skilling ecosystem, where government, education, industry, and civil society work together to shape the AI economy. This means moving beyond isolated programmes to scalable frameworks that prepare diverse audiences, from policymakers and educators to entrepreneurs and job seekers. It also requires infrastructure and tools, including large language models (LLMs) tailored to Africa’s linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts.

There is much to learn from the ongoing rollout of Kenya’s AI Skilling Initiative (AINSI), which presents a promising approach to progress. Its framework offers valuable insights to inform similar efforts elsewhere.

Strong government leadership is essential for building national AI capacity. Governments are uniquely positioned to set strategic priorities, regulate responsibly, and provide access to critical infrastructure and data.

Kenya’s Regional Centre of Competence for Digital and AI Skilling is a compelling model for countries seeking to institutionalise AI training.

Beyond training around 1,500 public servants in AI and cybersecurity, the Centre’s structured approach, combining bootcamps and online programmes, demonstrates how targeted, scalable interventions can build capacity across government, with almost 6,500 public sector officials across the country registered.

Growing interest from countries like Uganda and Nigeria highlights its potential as a replicable model for inclusive and innovative AI ecosystems.

However, much work remains. To ensure skilling efforts lead to meaningful employment, harmonising credentials and recognised qualifications across regions is vital. This validates skillsets and helps employers identify talent with confidence. Governments play a central role in setting these standards and aligning them with industry needs.

For AI to drive national progress, it must be embedded across all industries, formal and informal. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which account for over 44 million businesses across sub-Saharan Africa, are critical to this effort. Imagine how vast the impact would be if each MSME could use AI to hire just one more person?

AINSI’s cross-sector partnerships are helping build momentum. Collaboration with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) demonstrates how industry-led initiatives can accelerate AI skilling.

Kepsa’s training of over 70,000 organizational leaders, professionals and SMEs in AI and cybersecurity is helping drive progress from the top down. Yet, there is more to learn about reaching underserved sectors and sustaining long-term impact.

Innovation in the informal economy is essential. MESH, the first professional network designed for micro entrepreneurs, reaches over one million Kenyan entrepreneurs monthly with bite-sized learning, peer-to-peer trading, and community support.

Its AI-focused content puts the voices of micro entrepreneurs at the center, also uncovering persistent challenges around the sector’s AI adoption, including affordability, data access, and connectivity.

To truly empower the informal sector, skilling initiatives must be tailored to local realities.

Education is central to Kenya’s AI transformation efforts, with strategic partnerships integrating AI into higher education, technical training, and basic education.

In higher education, faculty skilling programs have supported curriculum reviews at 10 universities and delivered hybrid AI and software development training to computer science lecturers.

Over 78,000 individuals in TVET institutions have gained AI fluency through bootcamps and online modules, helping to build foundational capacity.

At the basic education level, national initiatives are equipping K-12 teachers and leaders with AI skills, supported by master trainer programmes and curriculum modernization. These efforts help bridge the digital divide and prepare learners for a tech-driven future.

As the State unveils a scheme to bankroll social media influencers to showcase flagship projects, a thorny dilemma takes shape: should creators grab the cheque and risk alienating their audiences, or guard their credibility and watch the money slip away?

With less than two years to the General Elections, the timing has only deepened suspicions that the move is less about civic education and more about political survival for an increasingly unpopular regime.

The programme, announced last week by President William Ruto’s Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects, Dennis Itumbi, seeks to tap into the extensive reach of digital creators whose content shapes conversations among millions of Kenyans daily. While proponents see the plan as a modern way of delivering government messages where citizens already are, suspicion is rife that the absence of strict disclosure rules or independent oversight could blur the line between transparent public communication and subtle propaganda.

Externally, global precedents already offer a warning.

In the US, for instance, the Federal Trade Commission compels influencers to flag any ‘material connection’ with sponsors, while the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority insists that paid content must be ‘obviously identifiable, from the first glance.

Platform’s such as TikTok have gone further by embedding ‘paid partnership’ labels into their systems.

Kenya, by contrast, has no clear framework, leaving creators torn between short-term payouts and the long-term loyalty of their followers.

While announcing the initiative last week, Mr Itumbi termed the plan a dual-purpose initiative that supports content creators while amplifying government priorities.

“The government is willing to put money specifically for a few things that government is doing, and you can benefit directly. If you do content around housing, health, job creation and agriculture, we are willing to put money into it for you,” he said during a forum with creators.

Mr Itumbi further argued that the model would formalise partnerships with digital creators, some of whom he said are already promoting government programmes on their own platforms without pay.

“There are creators who are already explaining the Affordable Housing programme, or Hustler Fund, because they believe in it. This is about recognising that effort and supporting it,” he said.

While no official guidelines have been published on how the initiative will run, the absence of regulatory guardrails has sparked debate on what transparency will look like in practice.

The Advertising Standards Body of Kenya (ASBK), a self-regulatory initiative set up by players in the marketing industry, has spelt out general provisions to ensure ethical and responsible advertising but does not have influencer-specific disclosure rules.

In advanced economies, regulators have insisted that the success of such campaigns depends on clarity.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has previously penalised influencers who failed to disclose paid endorsements, while Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority maintains a public list of influencers previously found in breach of disclosure requirements.

For local creators, the dilemma is not just regulatory. Accepting government contracts could alienate audiences who see them as independent voices, particularly at a politically sensitive moment.

Turning them down, on the other hand, means passing up rare formal earnings in an industry that’s still struggling for sustainable monetisation. As a profession, influencing has gained ground in Kenya in recent years, transforming from a side hustle to a full-time career for many young people.

According to online research tool Salary Explorer, local influencer marketers earn between Sh82,800 and Sh286,000 a month, with the average being Sh180,000.

High-profile creators can charge up to Sh100,000 for a single sponsored post, while others rely on smaller but more frequent deals.

Global data platform Statista projects that ad spending in Kenya’s influencer market will reach $2.1 million (Sh271.3 million) by the close of this year, translating to an annual growth rate of 8.8 percent.

Yet, despite these figures, industry earnings remain uneven as only a fraction of creators secure consistent contracts, leaving the vast majority struggling for sustainability. As such, the government’s promise of guaranteed pay for content on flagship programmes could prove attractive.

The political undertones of such arrangements, however, complicate the picture.

With Kenya’s general election due in under two years and the ruling administration facing growing discontent over economic hardship and contested policies, critics argue the State-funded influencer campaigns risk becoming an indirect tool of political messaging disguised as civic education.

While the tension between money and credibility is not new in inflencer culture, stakes are even higher when government is the sponsor. Unlike commercial brands selling products, the State carries political political baggage.

orsing housing, health or agriculture projects might look like neutral civic messaging on the face of it, but in an election cycle, the same content could be interpreted as campaign propaganda.

Kenya is exploring ways to tap into corporate Social responsibility (CSR) funds raised by large companies to support startups and innovators, borrowing from models in India.

Tonny Omwansa, Chief Executive at Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA), said the agency has begun drafting a proposal for the government to establish a framework that would channel a small percentage of CSR budgets into a national innovation fund.