Category: Business Daily

Luxury Indian motorcycle firm Royal Enfield has entered the Kenyan market, targeting wealthy and middle-class clients in a move that brings new competition for established players like Inchcape Kenya, which sells BMW bikes.

Royal Enfield has appointed Ganatra Plant and Equipment (GPE) as its official distributor for the region, with the first store in Kenya recently opened at Nairobi’s Rosslyn Riviera Mall.

The past few weeks have marked a new chapter in the career of Kenyan singer-songwriter rapper/producer, Nyashinski, with the release of his second solo album Yariasu, and a partnership deal with global music industry giant, SONY Music Africa.

‘It is a relief obviously, when you finalise a project, any project, and put it out to the world,’ Nyashinski (Nyamari Ongegu), told the BDLife in an exclusive interview a few days after an exclusive black-tie album listening party hosted with his brand partner Johnny Walker Black Label. ‘It is exciting when you release it (the album) for the world to hear it. It is exciting to present it and show what East Africa has to offer.’

The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has dismissed concerns that Tanzanian tycoon Edhah Abdallah Munif’s acquisition of an extra 29.2 percent stake in East Africa Portland Cement (EAPC) will give him control over the company’s board and a dominant position in the cement sector.

CAK Director General David Kemei told the National Assembly’s Committee on Trade, Industry and Co-operatives that the proposed deal will not hand the businessman control or veto powers in the EAPC board.

The High Court has issued temporary orders restraining Turkish clothing retailer LC Waikiki Retail Ke Ltd from terminating a sublease agreement between itself and Nova Holdings Ltd before the stipulated period has lapsed.

Justice Wendy Micheni, sitting in Mombasa, also restrained the multinational clothing retailer from vacating the leased premises on the first floor of Likoni Mall in Mombasa, which belongs to Nova Holdings Ltd.

Members of Parliament have criticised the State’s plan to delay access to funds raised from the privatisation of government entities, saying that it would defeat the logic of selling off these firms.

The National Assembly Committee on Debt and Privatisation and that on Finance and National Planning have jointly proposed removal of the clause that allows privatisation cash to first be kept in a special interest-bearing account and then transferred to the Consolidated Fund (CF) within 90 days.

It’s just struck 1pm, and John Fox has ordered a Prosecco. Which makes perfect sense – when you’ve written a newspaper column for 34 years, you’ve earned the right to drink bubbles before lunch. We are with his friend M, who has a head of bouncy hair from a TV commercial.

We’ve been talking for an hour, mostly about my new book, which really means we’ve been talking about life. Because all books – even the bad ones – are about lives.

We sit under an umbrella as music thuds lazily from a speaker. The sun presses gently on our shoulders. I last saw Fox 15 years ago. He hasn’t changed much, though time has rearranged things around us with its long, meddlesome hands. It’s two days before my birthday, so it feels perfectly proper to start early. Never mind that in a few hours I’ll be picking my son up from school and he’ll say, ‘Papa, you smell funny.’ And I’ll tell him, ‘That’s the smell of birthdays.’

I’ve passed Kalamata countless times but never gone in. So, this feels like a small celebration – or at least a justified detour. It’s an outdoorsy sort of place, the kind people dress up for even if they pretend they didn’t. A lady in a blue dress walks in and claims her spot in the sun. She knows she looks good.

We order fish – something buttery with vegetables. It comes a little soggy, but that’s fine. The ambience wins. The chatter around us hums with energy, and the Prosecco sparkles in Fox’s glass like it’s auditioning for joy.

He tells me stories – about writing, about travel, about staying curious. The kind of wisdom that sounds light but sits heavy later.

When we finally leave, I feel older – not because of the birthday coming, but because time suddenly feels visible. Still, it’s been a good afternoon: prosecco, talk, sunlight, and the sense that growing older is a treasure, if Fox is anything to go by.

At least 35 counties have snubbed the electronic public procurement portal (e-GP), even as the National Treasury insisted that the government would only deal with suppliers through the platform.

The Treasury says, while all State departments have uploaded their procurement plans and some started procuring through the e-GP, only 12 county executives have uploaded the documents, leaving out 35 of the devolved units.

The Judiciary has raised concerns about the increased use of forged documents to try to procure favourable decisions in the wake of a fake court order in a case involving betting firm SportPesa.

It issued a public notice on Wednesday over the rising cases of fake rulings, court orders, warrants of attachments and sale of property, as well as notices to show cause.

The value of payments made through cards fell to Sh521.3 billion in the 12 months to June 2025, compared to Sh594.2 billion in a similar period last year, cementing a trend of slumps attributed to an increase in mobile banking.

The use of bank cards for purchasing goods and services has declined over the last six years, with consumers increasingly opting for alternative payment methods such as cash and mobile money wallets.

The ownership and control of Directline Assurance has been reset once again, following a new legal decision that has altered the stakes held by various investors, including media mogul SK Macharia.

This follows the Insurance Appeals Tribunal quashing a directive from the industry regulator that sought to nullify past shareholding changes in the firm.