Category: Business Daily

In every company’s market cycle, a critical inflection point arrives where the numbers still look respectable, but the momentum has subtly shifted.

The product engine that once pulled the organisation forward begins to level out. Growth slows just enough to alert investors, while market share suffers a quiet erosion.

By the time an organisation reaches meaningful scale, the rules of engagement change. The battle is no longer for existence; it is for relevance. And relevance, fundamentally, is a product problem, not a sales problem.

When a product line plateaus, it is a signal that the market has evolved faster than the offering. Competitors are likely running new playbooks while the incumbent optimises old ones.

Simultaneously, organisational sloth sets in. What was once a nimble, execution-first culture struggles to ship meaningful updates, and leadership inadvertently shifts into protection mode, where guarding existing revenue streams overrides the risk-taking required to find new ones.

This is where the typical corporate response of leaning harder on the sales function fails. To demand more output from a revenue team when the underlying offering has lost its edge is an admission that the strategy has fallen short. To win at the expansion stage, the posture must shift from extracting value to creating it..

The most effective leaders recognise that they cannot outbuild the entire market. Instead of keeping everything proprietary, they pivot toward ecosystem partnerships, positioning their product inside broader networks that amplify value.

They understand that partnerships are not merely about referrals; they are about gaining instant access to distribution channels and data layers that cannot be generated internally.

Furthermore, they recognise that internal development is often too slow for the current rate of market change. This is where M and A becomes a tool for time, not just size. Strategic acquisition allows leadership to collapse time by buying innovation, talent and IP in a single move to unlock adjacencies and shore up advantages before competitors recognise the gap.

Ultimately, sustainable growth comes from the discipline of category creation. The mandate for the C-suite is to identify new demand and new behaviours. Companies that fight for margin merely survive; companies that set the terms of a new category thrive.

Shareholders are not betting on how aggressively a company can sell the product it has today. They are betting on how boldly it can build the market it does not yet own.

Operational excellence keeps the lights on, but only structural innovation keeps the business ahead.

The question is not whether the company can grow; it is whether it can reinvent itself fast enough to continue to matter.

The world’s largest trade bloc in terms of participating countries, is on the move. Years of over-reliance on exporting raw materials and importing finished goods have taught the continent a powerful lesson: to build wealth, Africa must start at home.

Today, under the AfCFTA, ‘Made in Africa’ tags are emerging on fashion in Johannesburg, coffee in Ethiopia and linen in Ghana.

Africa is awakening to the agreement’s potential to boost the continent’s GDP by 10 percent and lift over 32 million from extreme poverty by 2043.

Money sent home by Kenyans in the diaspora rose by Sh22.6 billion in the year to November, as a new one percent tax on US remittances taking effect in January 2026 casts uncertainty over future inflows from Kenya’s biggest source of foreign transfers.

Kenyans abroad sent $5,047 million (Sh650.2 billion), a 3.6 percent increase from $4,872 million (Sh627.6 billion) sent in the 12 months to November 2024, according to new data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

The UN has committed up to $790,000 (Sh101.8 million) to two firms to cut sewage pollution and reduce destructive fishing, signalling a shift toward financing environmental protection through commercial businesses.

The funding to the Kenyan firms was approved by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) through the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR), and targets wastewater treatment and fisheries along Kenya’s coral reef-dependent coastline.

Before we get into the review, go watch this movie. It is currently streaming on Rafutv and Madfun. It’s affordable and accessible, so no excuses.

I love the premise of this film, it’s so interesting that the creators decided to go back to the 90s. Based on the content I come across on social media, sometimes I think Gen Zs don’t understand the 90s! They think the 90s were the Stone Age.

I assume they think we had no phones, like we were using smoke signals to communicate and the only form of commerce was barter trade. I highly doubt that they even think we even had clothes back then; they probably think we were out here wearing leaves! I love that this era is the backdrop for Cards on the Table, which also happens to be a Kenyan Christmas movie. Basic

Directed by Victor Gatonye and produced by Shirleen Wangari through Blackwell Films, Cards on the Table is a 2025 heist-dramedy that takes us back to Nairobi on Christmas Eve, 1992.

It stars Wangari as Beth and Nyakundi Isaboke as Jackso, two former lovers who decide to reconnect by robbing the gate collections of a major holiday event.

Let’s start from the top, the title card and the end credits.

The typography and placement of the title card perfectly captured the movie’s tone.

The end credits were equally well-handled, featuring behind-the-scenes, random clips and black-and-white photos of the actors having fun. It’s a small thing, but I haven’t seen it done that way locally.

The Look

Visually, the film looks glossy. It’s sharp and high resolution, the lighting is colourful with vibrant hues, which is exactly what you want for a Christmas movie. However, I found this worked both for and against the film.

On one hand, it’s beautiful to look at. On the other, the ‘clean’ digital look occasionally pulls you out of the 1992 setting. In my mind, the 90s should feel a bit more desaturated and muted colour-wise. But if the director’s and cinematographers’ visual language was focused on a polished aesthetic for a period story, they definitely achieved it.

The cinematographer and director did a good job with the framing of some scenes to avoid the familiar modern touches in a lot of the locations.

The production design team also did a decent job. You can tell there was a real effort to recreate the era through costumes and props. Beth’s outfit in the police station is classy, but there are other moments where you see pieces that look like they were pulled straight from a 1990s wardrobe with the Inspector and Jackso.

The props, the old-school TVs, the stereo system, physical maps on the walls, the chairs, all feel authentic. I specifically looked for the portrait of former President Daniel arap Moi in the background, and when it finally popped up in the second act, I knew they had done their homework.

Structure

One of the strongest elements of the film is its structure, particularly in the first and third acts. It avoids a standard linear, A-to-Z format, which kept me engaged from the jump.

There’s a decision in the third act where the movie essentially turns into a music video. A specific song comes on, I thought it was laid back yet bold to close out a movie like that.

Gripes

The core of this movie isn’t really the crime; it’s a ‘situationship’ story. Beth and Jackso have too much unresolved romantic baggage and a total lack of communication.

While the chemistry between Shirleen Wangari and Nyakundi Isaboke and the writing is great, the film struggles with its pacing in the second act.

Once the story shifts to the Inspector’s (played by Ken Mufasa Kibet) office, the momentum slows down significantly.

With scenes that rely heavily on exposition to explain the characters’ backgrounds, unlike the first act when we would cut back and see what was going on, I thought a tighter edit would have helped that second act. Quicker cuts and less ‘telling’ would have helped keep the energy of the first act alive.

I also felt the Inspector’s character was a missed opportunity. The resolution of why whatever happens in the end happens felt a bit underwhelming for two people who are supposed to be ‘smart’ criminals.

I kept waiting for the Inspector to have a more personal arc. There’s a mention of his wife; I kept thinking a breakup scenario would have made him a much more complex character, or just a ‘Christmas Grinch’ who arrested them simply because he was having a miserable holiday.

Then maybe the couple could have used their own relationship experience to help ‘mend’ the Inspector’s marriage, and his decision to do whatever he does would have felt more earned.

The sound and the script

Technically, the sound design could have used more ‘dirt’. The dialogue is very clean, but in the scenes where they are locked in a room, it feels too sterile.

There’s a lack of ambiance or ‘room tone’, the buzzing of a fan, muffled voices from outside, or even distant music would have gone a long way in making the world feel lived-in. Without that background noise, you can sometimes hear the ‘post-production’ nature of the audio.

The script is decent, but the heist itself could have been way more fleshed out.

While the ‘why’ of the robbery is clear, the ‘how’ and the ‘who’ they were robbing felt a bit vague. I thought the target could have been intentionally framed, marked, singled out to make it easier for the audience to follow along. Or just a quick planning session to get the audience involved.

I also wished the script would have done something with the language, like classic sheng’ the one mastered by Kenyan Gen X and older millennials.

Finally, the dialogue, while it works really well, could have benefited from a ‘punch-up’.

There are some funny moments, like the Inspector and Beth moment, but there were many missed opportunities for smarter, sharper comedic beats, like some reveal involving the Waiyaki way. I wish the production had brought in a stand-up comedian during the table reads to just add one or two comedic punches.

Despite my critiques, Cards on the Table is an easy and enjoyable watch. It’s a character study on how silence can destroy a relationship, wrapped in a glossy old school holiday setting. It’s a film that focuses on the heart and soul of its characters rather than just the mechanics of a crime.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has urged the Treasury to review its tax and expenditure plans, citing ambitious tax projections as the reason for the persistent shortfall in government revenue.

The PBO has noted that overtaxing Kenyans encourages evasion and avoidance, thereby undermining revenue targets.

SIC Investment Co-operative CEO Churchill Winstones has exited the organisation amid months of delays in settling claims from customers who invested millions of shillings in the society’s fixed deposit product.

The exit of Mr Winstones late last week marks the latest reorganisation in an entity that, in June this year, parted ways with the entire board and replaced it with a new one on an interim basis. The new board was confirmed in September.

Facebook is quietly testing a system that limits how many links some users can share each month, signalling a significant shift in how content is distributed on the global platform, including by Kenyans.

Facebook parent firm Meta says the trial affects users in ‘Professional Mode’ and Pages, allowing only two external links per month for those without a paid Meta Verified subscription.

The High Court has frozen the payment of Sh10 billion to a collapsed Spanish firm amid claims that the firm is being compensated for building a non-existent high-voltage transmission line and substations.

The judge ordered Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) on Monday not to pay Inabensa Enerji AS or any firm related to the insolvent Spanish company.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has heightened tax administrative measures to enhance compliance and broaden the tax base. The move primarily focuses on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, commonly referred to as MSMEs.

The informal sector, which largely comprises MSMEs, is the largest contributor of employment opportunities in Kenya, according to the Economic Survey, 2025. They also make a sizeable contribution to the GDP.

There has, however, been concern that, despite MSMEs being key drivers of the economy, their direct contribution to the tax kitty has fallen below expectations. This has been attributed to, among other factors, low awareness and the complexity of tax laws. The KRA has rolled out various programmes to enhance taxpayer education and awareness. This is in addition to substantial investment in technology to simplify and reduce the cost of compliance, which is expected to promote voluntary compliance.

It is also notable that KRA has heightened the level of compliance audits or reviews on MSMEs. This is enabled by the use of data analytics and other advanced methods that help in identifying compliance gaps.

The automation of tax return filing and payment has greatly reduced manual review and analysis of taxpayers’ financial records, which has enhanced efficiency, freeing up capacity that was hitherto consumed in manual review of documents.

Another high-impact administrative measure rolled out by KRA is eTIMS, which ensures taxpayers digitally capture their transactions and in a real-time basis, relay the data to the KRA.

The enactment of a legal requirement that all invoices must be issued through eTIMS or a TIMS-compliant device has provided KRA visibility of taxpayers’ transactions. The initial implementation stages faced challenges as taxpayers adjusted their operations and updated their systems.

Effective 1 January 2026, the KRA has issued a public notice indicating that all income and expenses declared in tax returns will be digitally validated against eTIMS and customs data.

This is likely to face challenges, particularly for late adopters of eTIMS requirements.

There has been a notable increase in tax compliance audits on MSMEs based on the number of tax appeals filed at the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT). A worrying trend has, however, been the number of appeals that taxpayers have lost due to failure to meet the requirements of lodging an appeal at the TAT.

A substantial number of appeals have also been lost by taxpayers due to the late filing of appeals, among other legal and procedural technicalities.

Unfortunately, defects in tax appeals leave the Tribunal with no option but to make a judgment focused on administrative aspects as opposed to a review of the technical merits of the appeal.

These gaps are contributed by a myriad of reasons, including limited knowledge on tax disputes requirements by the affected taxpayers or representation by persons who do not possess the requisite knowledge and experience in handling tax matters. As such, effective dispute resolution remains core in ensuring fairness in taxation.

The Tax Appeals Tribunal Act defines a tax agent as a person who acts on behalf of another person on matters relating to tax and is registered as such by KRA. The Act further states that for hearing of proceedings before the Tribunal, the appellant may appear in person or be represented by a tax agent or by an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.

Failure to have a Tax Agents Committee that vets and approves tax agents has been a setback in ensuring only licensed tax agents represent taxpayers. This has had an adverse impact, more so for MSMEs who at times rely on persons who are not qualified to handle tax matters when objecting at the TAT.

The Tax Procedures Act (TPA) provides that a person, other than a tax agent, shall not represent another person as that other person’s tax agent or offer assistance to another person for a reward in respect of that other person’s rights or obligations under a tax law. The restriction, however, excludes legal practitioners acting in the ordinary course of their profession.

The TPA provides that the functions of a tax agent include, but are not limited to, preparing and submitting tax returns on behalf of a taxpayer; liaising with the KRA on behalf of a taxpayer on matters relating to tax; or advising and representing a taxpayer in tax matters before the Tribunal.

An advocate of the High Court acting in the ordinary course of the advocate’s profession is not required to register as a tax agent to perform the highlighted functions.

It is the responsibility of the Treasury CS, by notice in the Gazette, to appoint a Tax Agents’ Committee. It is important that the committee is put in place as soon as possible to close this gap. Having qualified and licensed tax agents will ensure all taxpayers have a fair chance of submitting valid and timely objections and appeals to the KRA and the TAT respectively in case of a tax dispute.