Category: Business Daily

A Portuguese construction company battling creditors in its home country has been conditionally selected to develop the long-delayed Thuci Dam in Embu under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), raising fresh questions over the financial strength of firms seeking major State infrastructure projects.

A report by the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Directorate shows that the State Department for Irrigation approved an unsolicited proposal by Elevolution Engenharia, SA to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the multi-purpose dam. The proposal received conditional approval in January 2026, pending the fulfilment of several requirements.

Elevolution Engenharia is the main construction arm of Portugal’s Elevo Group, which has spent years restructuring after accumulating about pound 350 million (Sh53 billion) in debt owed to banks, suppliers, tax authorities and other creditors.

Portuguese court records and media reports indicate the group’s financial troubles triggered insolvency proceedings, restructuring efforts and enforcement action by lenders.

More recently, Banco Comercial Português (BCP), Portugal’s largest private bank, moved to auction shares and bonds linked to the group in a bid to recover part of its outstanding loans.

Despite these challenges, the State Department for Irrigation says the company has not yet received final approval to proceed.

Principal Secretary Ephantus Kimotho said the PPP Committee’s approval was conditional and required the firm to demonstrate stronger financial capacity before moving to the next stage.

“The condition is to submit audited financial statements prepared by a reputable independent audit firm in accordance with internationally accepted accounting standards in place of the management accounts initially submitted,” Mr Kimotho said.

The company must also provide documentary evidence of its financial capacity and the equity or capital it intends to invest in the project.

The final cost of the dam has not been determined, although earlier estimates placed it at about Sh705 million ($5.45 million).

The Thuci Dam project is expected to provide irrigation water to about 27,500 acres in Runyenjes and Chuka Igambang’ombe constituencies, supply treated domestic water to surrounding communities and generate renewable hydropower. It also includes plans for agro-processing, tourism development, biomass energy production and carbon credit initiatives.

The project has remained on the drawing board for years, becoming a recurring campaign issue in Embu.

Initially, the government planned to deliver it through an engineering, procurement, construction and finance (EPC-F) model but later abandoned the approach because of limited public financing.

Instead, the ministry opted for a PPP model under which a private investor would finance, build, operate and maintain the dam before recovering its investment through water charges over an agreed concession period.

The proposed deal comes amid growing scrutiny of Kenya’s Privately Initiated Proposal (PiP) framework, which has attracted financially distressed firms pursuing multibillion-shilling projects.

The model came under intense public scrutiny in 2024 after India’s Adani Group proposed to redevelop Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and build electricity transmission lines. President William Ruto later cancelled both projects following the indictment of Adani Group founder Gautam Adani and other executives by US prosecutors over an alleged bribery scheme in India. The Adani Group has denied the allegations.

The Thuci Dam proposal is therefore likely to face close scrutiny as the government weighs whether Elevolution can demonstrate the financial muscle needed to deliver one of the region’s most anticipated water projects.

A network of shell companies, international remittance services, intermediary bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets has landed two Kenyans in the crosshairs of investigators, who have frozen Sh115 million linked to them after tracing what they believe was a sophisticated money-laundering operation involving more than Sh300 million.

The frozen cash includes stablecoins in Binance wallets; $751,853.70 USDT (Sh97.2 million) linked to Glory Kithure and $896 USDT (Sh115,852) linked to Michael Machimbo.

It also comprises Sh17.6 million in cash, spread across nine accounts in Equity Bank, Stanbic, NCBA, KCB, and Absa.

Court documents obtained by the Business Daily detail how Michael and Glory allegedly received millions of shillings through a multi-layered network of intermediaries, shell companies, and crypto exchanges.

In an affidavit filed by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), investigators detail how the scheme operated through two parallel channels. The first involved six people and two companies, who carried out money transfers into Kenya via international remittance services.

Two people, Justice Gaturu and Richard Mwangi, and two companies, DigitalMall Global Ltd and Bitflux Fintech Ltd, were the source of funds. Money from the duo was wired through two other individuals identified as Patrick Mwendwa and Purity Michael, before eventually ending up in Michael and Glory’s bank accounts.

Money from the two companies was wired directly to their accounts.

Between October 2022 and January 2024, for instance, Michael is said to have received Sh80.7 million to his Equity Bank accounts from Purity and another intermediary identified as Kevin Kipngeno.

Some Sh17 million was also wired to his Stanbic Bank account from Bitflux Fintech Ltd during the same period.

Between July 2022 and May 2025, Glory received Sh53.6 million, where investigators pieced together 57 bank transfers, all between Sh10,000 and Sh550,000, well below the reporting threshold.

In Kenya, cash transactions of $15,000 (Sh1.9 million) or more must be reported to the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC). Cross-border transfers of $10,000 (Sh1.3 million) or more also require reporting.

This is to assist the State agency in identifying the proceeds of crime and combating money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.

‘The repeated use of amounts just below the reporting threshold is consistent with the structuring of transactions to avoid regulatory reporting requirements,’ the ARA says in the court filings.

‘When considered together with the subsequent movement of the funds through additional intermediary accounts before reaching the respondents, it constitutes a recognised indicator of the layering stage of money laundering.’

In one example, Justice received two payments of Sh454,769 and Sh454,259 from the US payments platform Chime Inc. into his Equity Bank account on November 3 and 6, 2023.

He then transferred Sh1.1 million in three instalments to Patrick’s Equity Bank account between November 4 and 7.

Patrick subsequently forwarded the money to Purity in three transactions of Sh300,000, Sh300,000 and Sh400,000 between November 6 and 8. Purity then transferred Sh500,000 each on November 6 and 7 to Glory’s Equity Bank account.

According to investigators, Glory withdrew Sh100,000 to M-Pesa and used the remaining funds for purchases, spending and transfers to other bank accounts, including Michael’s.

Court documents further show that Glory later transferred Sh5.25 million to Aristocars Ltd on December 2, 2023, in what investigators believe was the purchase of a motor vehicle.

Detectives cite the transaction as part of a pattern in which funds were allegedly moved through several accounts before being spent or invested in assets.

In a separate illustration, Justice received Sh453,029 from the international money transfer app Sendwave and Sh890,000 from one Cosmas Gatuyu before transferring Sh1.4 million to Patrick, who in turn sent Sh900,000 to Purity.

Purity then transferred Sh950,000 to the first respondent’s Equity Bank account, which investigators say later accumulated sufficient funds to pay Sh9.38 million to Ace Prestige Auto Ltd on July 18, 2024, ostensibly to purchase another motor vehicle.

‘Investigations are underway to obtain documents and records of transactions traced to international remittance services, including a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request to the United States of America dispatched in May 2026,’ reads court papers.

An MLA request is a formal, government-to-government process used to gather evidence or legal documents from one country to aid in a criminal investigation or prosecution in another country.

The second money-laundering channel relied on USD Tether (USDT), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. The digital currency was moved through multiple accounts on the Binance crypto exchange platform to distance the funds from their origin.

The crypto scheme involved Michael, Glory, Kevin and three others identified as Samuel Simiyu, Wanza Mutuku and Eliud Korir.

Investigators say the stablecoins were transferred from an account on the crypto app NoOnes, operated and controlled by Samuel and registered through Wanza’s identification details, to a Binance wallet Michael and Glory controlled.

The two then transferred most of the stablecoins to a Binance wallet Kevin controlled, and he converted the cryptocurrency into Kenyan shillings through Binance transactions before remitting the cash to the duo’s bank accounts.

Between June 2024 and September 2024, court papers show that Michael’s Binance wallet address received a total of USDT 220,508, equivalent to Sh28.5 million at current exchange rates, in 10 transactions.

From February 2023 to November 2025, meanwhile, the account withdrew or transferred a cumulative sum of USDT 899,130 (Sh116.3 million) through 107 transactions.

Glory’s Binance wallet was found to have received USDT 930,597 (Sh120.5 million) in 62 transactions between January 2023 and November 2025 and withdrawn or transferred USDT 178,491 (Sh23.1 million) between February 2023 and January 2026.

Investigators said they interviewed Samuel in May 2026, where he said he was a cryptocurrency trader. He admitted owning and controlling a NoOnes crypto exchange account registered using his wife Wanza’s identification details and email address, according to the affidavit.

Samuel told investigators that he also owned and operated a crypto wallet on the global exchange platform OKX registered in his name. He admitted to owning an account on Paxful, a peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto marketplace that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly with each other.

Both accounts were linked to the same email address.

“He averred that Michael approached him with a deal to use his OKX, NoOnes and Paxful accounts to transfer crypto to [Michael and Glory]’s Binance wallets. However, he claimed that he did not know the sources of the crypto that [Michael] was laundering through his crypto accounts or wallets,” the ARA says.

Wanza said while she had allowed her husband to use her email address to trade cryptocurrency on the Paxful and NoOnes platforms, she did not know the origin of the cryptocurrency that passed through those accounts.

‘The evidence discloses a deliberate, multi-layered scheme through which large sums of money, whose origin the respondents have refused to explain, were received, moved through a chain of intermediary accounts designed to obscure their source, and ultimately deposited into the respondents’ Binance exchange accounts and bank accounts,’ the affidavit says.

Neither Michael nor Glory offered any explanation for the transactions when interviewed. ‘Both exercised their right to remain silent, declining to offer any explanation, innocent or otherwise, for the funds they received,’ the agency says.

While only Sh115 million has been frozen so far, the assets recovery body estimates that the combined value of property traceable to the two exceeds Sh300 million.

The court on July 3 granted a 90-day preservation order on the funds while investigations continue.

‘In addition, the respondents are being investigated for tax evasion, having transacted cumulative sums of more than Sh300 million but have consistently filed nil returns in their tax records at the Kenya Revenue Authority,’ said the ARA.

On Sunday evening, in a stadium in New Jersey, a substitute named Ferran Torres struck the only goal of the 2026 World Cup final. Spain 1, Argentina 0. The 106th minute.

The defending champions, dethroned. The score tells you almost nothing. The details tell you everything.

Argentina did not manage a single shot on goal in 90 minutes. Their goalkeeper, Emiliano Martínez, made 11 saves, a record for a World Cup final; another way of saying his teammates abandoned him to the storm.

They played it rough, lost Enzo Fernández to a second yellow, and still they lost. But the final was only the last chapter. The muttering had followed Argentina through the whole tournament. Egypt in the Round of 16, where the beaten side left calling the officiating unfair.

Switzerland in the quarter-final. The England semi-final, where the internet noticed that Messi had never lost a match handled by the appointed referee.

Fans on three continents arrived at the same conclusion: the champions were being carried. Let me be careful here. There is no evidence that anyone paid anyone. None. Referees have ordinary afternoons. Statistics produce coincidences. Argentina won its matches and then lost the one that mattered, and that is the entire factual record.

What interests me is the speed of the suspicion. Days later, a clip found its way to me. Schoolchildren, dissecting the match with their teacher.

One child delivered the verdict without hesitation: Argentina had the referee. Argentina had everybody. And they still lost. Children say the quiet part first. Offered a defeat to explain, the young mind did not reach for tactics or fatigue. It reached for the pocket. The fix.

Call it the captured win: the belief, sometimes true, sometimes merely assumed, that victory is secured not by playing better but by owning the conditions. The referee. The committee. The gatekeeper.

The illusion does its damage even where the deed never happened.

Where superstars gather, rooms assume the whistle bends for them. Its quieter sibling is the clean win: victory that survives scrutiny because it needed nobody’s pocket, victory the watching world can believe. Now bring this home, because this was never a column about football.

Every founder building in this market knows the child’s arithmetic intimately. Somewhere between the proposal and the payment sits a hand. The tender that is technically open and practically decided. We rarely name it in daylight, but we budget for it in the dark. I have watched this story enough times to write its script.

A founder raises capital on impressive revenue. The numbers are real; the money did arrive. What the deck does not disclose is how. Then institutional investors arrive with what institutions bring: governance, audits, anti-bribery clauses. The machine stalls, not because the founder forgot how to build, but because the company’s ethos was the handout ecosystem.

Greased revenue is a captured win wearing the costume of a clean one. It survives only in the dark, and capital brings light. This is the rock and the hard place. If I pay, I am complicit. If I do not pay, I am not paid.

A founder in that position is not fully a founder. He is working for the gate. We call ourselves owners while the ecosystem quietly owns us.

This is not a public-sector illness the private sector watches from a safe distance. The same game runs left, right and centre. It has become culture, the most dangerous infrastructure, because nobody remembers building it and everybody maintains it.

Here is the harder question, and I will not pretend it resolves cleanly. When capture becomes the default explanation for every outcome, a lost tender, a won election, a football final watched from a classroom desk, the illusion has stopped being commentary and become bedrock. Which came first? Is our politics the parent of this instinct, and the founder’s daily arithmetic its child?

Or is the public stage a mirror of what we have already normalised on the ground?

Bedrock rarely reveals which layer was laid first; each hardens the other. Once it sets, even change becomes suspect. The clean player pays that tax too. I will not flatten the paradox. The clean win is slower. Sometimes it costs you the contract this quarter.

Spain’s discipline did not guarantee the trophy; one inspired goalkeeper nearly stole it anyway. But the captured win, wherever it truly exists, must be purchased again every season. New referee, new price. It cannot survive an audit or a transition. The captured win is rented. The clean win compounds.

Spain’s advantage was a system any 11 could inherit. A system explains itself. Favour, real or imagined, never does. One more mirror.

Spain won without a Messi. Sometimes the superstar the whole system bends around is us, and the founder as messiah invites the same rumours.

Reinvention means letting the golden generation go, even when the golden generation is you. The exit from this choke is built the way the bedrock was built, one transaction at a time. The children watching that final have already inherited the assumption that winners own the referee.

Sunday complicated their education. Somebody in New Jersey showed them another way to win, and another way to be believed. You cannot always know who captured the referee. You can always know who captured the game.

New vehicle sales in Kenya climbed nearly a fifth in the first half of the year as businesses ramped up investment in trucks, pick-ups and other commercial vehicles, helped by cheaper credit, a stable shilling and increased activity in the construction sector.

Data from the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) shows dealers sold 7,466 new vehicles between January and June, up 19.4 percent from 6,254 units in the corresponding period last year.

The increase extended the market’s recovery after sales rebounded by 25.5 percent in 2025, signalling renewed confidence among businesses after high borrowing costs and exchange-rate volatility between 2022 and 2024 forced many firms to postpone fleet replacement and expansion plans.

A more supportive macroeconomic environment encouraged firms to invest in showroom vehicles.

The shilling remained stable against the US dollar, averaging Sh129.29 in the first half, largely unchanged from Sh129.34 a year earlier, reducing exchange rate risks for importers and fleet buyers.

Financing conditions also improved as commercial banks’ average lending rate fell to 14.5 percent in May from 15.4 percent a year earlier and below the peak of more than 17 percent in late 2024.

The decline followed successive reductions in the Central Bank Rate, which now stands at 8.75 percent from a recent peak of 13 percent in 2024, lowering the cost of asset financing for businesses.

Industry players said demand was further boosted by increased activity in construction, including the Affordable Housing Programme, road maintenance works and preparations for the planned extension of the Standard Gauge Railway to Malaba, all of which increased demand for trucks, pickups and other commercial vehicles.

‘This growth was driven by a resilient economic environment characterised by stable exchange rates, easing interest rates (CBR dropped to 8.75 percent), and lower fuel prices,’ Isuzu East Africa, the leading new vehicle dealer and a member of KMI, commented on the half year sales performance.

“Sales were further bolstered by increased economic activity in construction (Affordable Housing, SGR extension to Malaba), road maintenance, and favourable weather conditions for agriculture.’

The construction sector particularly benefited from the resumption of road projects that had stalled after contractors accumulated an estimated Sh650 billion in pending bills. About 585 projects had been suspended in 2024 because of the payment delays.

The government began unlocking the projects from 2025 through a return-to-work programme that included payment of Sh123 billion as part settlement of verified claims accumulated between 2005 and December 2024.

The settlement restored cash flows to contractors, revived demand for bank financing and encouraged purchases of construction equipment and commercial vehicles needed to execute the projects.

Fuel costs also supported purchasing decisions during much of the review period.

Although prices spiked sharply from April after the US-Israel conflict with Iran disrupted global oil markets, businesses had already benefited from relatively lower pump prices during the first quarter before the geopolitical shock filtered through to local fuel costs.

Diesel, the main fuel for commercial transport and heavy machinery, averaged Sh192.65 per litre in the first half, compared with Sh185.83 in the same period of 2024.

Isuzu East Africa remained the dominant player, increasing sales by 24.1 percent in the first half of 2026 to 3,688 units from 2,971 a year earlier. The company accounted for 49.4 percent of all new vehicles sold, up from 47.5 percent last year.

The company sells a range of pickups, trucks, buses and sport utility vehicles, making it a major beneficiary of stronger demand from transporters, contractors, government agencies and businesses renewing commercial fleets.

CFAO Mobility Kenya, the dealer for Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Hino, sold 2,381 vehicles, up 18 percent from 2,017 units, retaining its position as the country’s second-largest dealer.

Simba Corporation, franchise holder for Mitsubishi, Proton, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra, increased sales to 614 vehicles from 547, while Tata Africa Holdings posted the fastest growth among the leading dealers.

Tata’s sales jumped 78.5 percent to 391 units from 219, lifting its market share to 5.2 percent from 3.5 percent a year earlier.

Together, Isuzu and CFAO controlled more than 81 percent of Kenya’s formal new vehicle market.

The stronger sales came despite Kenya maintaining one of the region’s highest tax burdens on imported vehicles. In July 2023, the Kenya Revenue Authority raised import duty on fully built vehicles to 35 percent from 25 percent after securing approval from East African Community ministers.

The higher rate is above the 10 percent Common External Tariff applied across the seven-member East African Community, increasing the cost of importing new vehicles into Kenya.

Imported vehicles also attract excise duty of between 25 percent and 35 percent, depending on engine capacity, in addition to the standard 16 percent Value Added Tax.

Excise duty is calculated on the combined value of a vehicle’s landed cost and import duty, while VAT is charged on the cumulative value after import duty and excise tax, raising the final retail price.

Vehicle sales are widely viewed as a leading indicator of private sector investment because commercial vehicles are predominantly purchased by firms in construction, logistics, manufacturing and agriculture.

‘The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks,’ said Christopher Hitchens.

Is ‘thinking about how you think’ useful? Is there a Da Vinci code like way to solve business problems and invent? Just imagine you could create an entirely new profitable product category.

But what thinking process is required to create that breakthrough? What can we learn from the curious Renaissance genius, Leonardo da Vinci, engineer, architect, inventor and artist? Are there really 6 levels of thinking?

Benjamin Bloom, a psychologist, in 1956 developed a six level structure originally applied in education. Today, it’s a practical framework for managers decision making. In Kenya, competitive advantage depends on learning and adapting faster than competitors. Bloom’s six levels serves as a roadmap for critical thinking, problem solving and creating what’s next.

Level 1 – Remember – build organisational knowledge

At the ground floor level 1, businesses gather and organise essential information such as financial results, customer feedback, market intelligence, and competitor activities.

This knowledge forms the foundation for effective management but, by itself, does not improve performance. Here managers are asking what do we know? Prime example of level one is a hotel recording, occupancy, guest reviews, operating costs and competitor pricing.

Level 2 – Understand – make sense of information

At the understand level, managers interpret this information to identify patterns, explain trends, and develop a shared understanding of what is happening within the business and its environment.

They move beyond asking “What happened?” to asking “Why did it happen?” and “What does it mean for us?” Understand thinking focuses on interpreting information, data to develop a fact-based view of the company’s current situation, identifying trends, performance gaps and the leverage point strategic issues that matter most.

Level 3 – Apply – Turn knowledge into action

Apply perspective involves converting understanding into action by implementing proven management practices, analytical frameworks, benchmarks, and industry expertise to address the problems using approaches that have been successfully implemented elsewhere.

Here the stress is on using established methods to improve performance.

Level 4 – Analysis – think in systems

Taking on a systems thinking perspective, at the analysis level, managers examine the relationships between different parts of the organisation, identify root causes of problems, evaluate market forces, and understand the systemic drivers of success or failure.

Central to strategic thinking, at this level opportunities and constraints are revealed that are not immediately obvious from surface-level data.

Using general systems way of seeing, the aim here is to examine root causes, uncover hidden relationships and identify underlying structural factors driving performance.

Level 5 – Evaluate – make strategic decisions

A few floors up at level 5, managers exercise judgment by comparing strategic alternatives, weighing risks and rewards, allocating resources, and making informed decisions about investments, partnerships, products, and markets. Evaluation requires balancing evidence with experience to determine the most effective course of action in an uncertain, often constantly shifting ‘wicked’ environment.

Level 6 – Create – design the future

In the top floor penthouse suite called ‘create’, companies move beyond improving existing practices to designing entirely new products, services, business models, customer experiences, and strategies. What does not yet exist? This is the domain of innovation, entrepreneurship and genuine organisational transformation – with a focus on redefining markets, creating new sources of value, rather than mere competition.

Think across disciplines

Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452 was a polymath who was able to playfully think across disciplines. Integrating knowledge with imagination and practical application, one can see how Leonardo operated across Bloom’s six levels of thinking.

At the remembering level, Leonardo accumulated an extraordinary body of knowledge in anatomy, engineering, mathematics, botany, optics, and art through relentless observation and note-taking.

At the understanding level, he sought to explain how natural systems worked, connecting ideas across disciplines rather than memorising isolated facts. At the applying level, he translated scientific understanding into practical innovations.

At the analysing level, he dissected human bodies, studied the mechanics of flight, and broke complex phenomena into their component parts to understand underlying principles.

At the evaluating level, Leonardo constantly tested, questioned, and refined his own ideas, comparing evidence with theory.

Finally, at the creating level 6 — he combined knowledge from diverse fields to produce original masterpieces.

Leonardo moved among all six levels, demonstrating that true innovation emerges from mastering foundational knowledge, while synthesising ideas into new possibilities. Is it time for your next move?

SBM Bank Kenya posted an 88.1 percent increase in net profit to Sh380.1 million in the half-year ended June 2026, helped by lower deposit costs and higher income from transactions.

The lender had posted a net profit of Sh202 million in the corresponding period last year. SBM’s non-interest income, including transaction fees, increased by Sh426.4 million to Sh1.4 billion.

The bank also paid Sh3.2 billion in interest expenses to depositors during the review period, down from Sh3.5 billion a year earlier.

This boosted its net interest income-the difference between interest earned on loans and interest paid to depositors-by Sh340.2 million to Sh2.17 billion.

“Income growth was broad-based. Net interest income increased to Sh2.2 billion, while non-funded income grew … driven by higher customer activity and transaction volumes,” SBM said in a statement.

“The bank has focused on improving earnings quality, strengthening its balance sheet and risk profile, enhancing customer experience and investing in the capabilities required for sustainable growth.”

SBM said the growth in transactions was supported by the expansion of technology-driven services.

These include enhanced Mastercard functionality, continued development of the Busara Kids Banking App, expansion of the SBM Loyalty Programme and free PesaLink transfers of up to Sh1 million through the Mfukoni mobile and online banking platforms.

“These investments reflect the bank’s belief that technology is not simply an operational necessity, but a strategic enabler of better customer outcomes, greater resilience and sustainable long-term growth,” the lender said.

Income from loans declined marginally to Sh3 billion from Sh3.05 billion, despite increased lending, reflecting the impact of lower interest rates during the review period.

The Central Bank Rate (CBR), which influences the cost of credit, has fallen from 10.75 per cent in February 2025 to the current 8.75 per cent.

Twice every week at one of the country’s largest flower farms in Naivasha, crop scouts walk through greenhouse rows of flower seedlings, pausing every few metres to key data into tablets as they inspect each bed for signs of pests and diseases.

The software powering the exercise is called Bluleaf, an integrated pest management system built by Kenyan technology firm Data Science Limited. The company is the brainchild of computer scientist Linet Kwamboka Nyang’au.

In the flower industry, the software is helping growers reduce pesticide use, improve yields and meet some of the world’s toughest export standards. Crop scouts carry android smartphones and tablets loaded with the app as they move through flower beds looking for the earliest signs of aphids, blackflies, mites, moths and other pests or diseases.

They count the exact number of pests spotted in a particular bed, records the severity of infestation in every section and captures the information in the application. The entire exercise takes about three minutes before a scout moves on to the next section.

All the information is uploaded to a central dashboard where the farm generates weekly analytical reports. The software is supplied under a licensing agreement costing $40 (Sh5,200) per month for a single user account.

Beyond simply recording field observations, the platform maps the scale of infestation across the farm, allowing growers to target interventions instead of spraying pesticides across entire greenhouses, which is both costly and environmentally damaging.

“With this data on different flower species going back to different seasons all these years, it is also a good asset for our research operations. It helps when we are testing new pest control mechanisms,” Catherine Marufu, a crop scout at the farm, told BDLife.

The historical database also captures how sensitive different flower varieties are to particular pests, helping growers decide which species are best suited for different conditions.

What began as a digital data collection tool has gradually evolved into an artificial intelligence-powered system.

Using more than 10 years of accumulated field data, Bluleaf can assess the health of a flower, identify the pest affecting it, determine the stage of infestation and recommend the most appropriate pesticide.

The AI model also predicts pest patterns based on historical outbreaks, enabling farmers to prepare before infestations spread.

One of the earliest adopters of the technology was Florensis, a multinational flower propagation company that has been using Bluleaf since 2015 at its Naivasha farm.

The 27-year-old company specialises in producing flower cuttings for propagation rather than harvested flowers. It has production and breeding locations in Kenya, Ethiopia, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal, with Bluleaf deployed across these subsidiaries.

For a business of that scale, timely pest intelligence is critical. Florensis grows more than 480 flower species, and on a typical harvesting day, the farm produces about 900,000 flower cuttings. Peak periods such as January can see production rise to six million cuttings daily, according to scouts at the farm.

The company’s main clientele is in the European Union (EU), where compliance with pesticide regulations is among the strictest globally.

Kenya is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of cut flowers and the leading supplier to the EU, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the lucrative bloc’s flower imports. The industry remains one of the country’s leading foreign exchange earners.

But to access the EU market, exporters must comply with strict pesticide maximum residue limits (MRLs), plant health regulations and detailed traceability requirements covering every chemical application.

The bloc also tightly regulates pests such as False Codling Moth and thrips, while rose exporters are required to comply with the Rose Systems Approach, which prescribes pest reduction and chemical management protocols.

Every pesticide application must be documented, including what chemical was used, when it was applied, where it was applied and the dosage.

As such, Bluleaf’s detailed records help simplify that compliance process while reducing the need for chemical spraying.

“We can go up to a month without using sprays. By the time we consider a chemical spray, we have already tried cleaner options such as bioextracts, light insecticide sprays like natural pyrethrin and predatory mites that naturally consume common plant pests,” said Monicah Ingaji, an agronomy assistant at Florensis.

She adds that the platform has made the twice-weekly health scouting exercise faster than the manual data collection methods previously used, which were tedious and offered little value for decision-making.

The financial impact of such data-led decision-making is substantial for these large commercial flower farms.

Industry estimates suggest that reducing pesticide use by about 80 per cent, for instance, could save a large grower roughly Sh3 million every month.

But for Ms Nyang’au, the technology’s biggest impact extends beyond operational savings.

“I look at our impact beyond the monetary costs the flower firms are cutting by using the tool,” she told BDLife.

“There is the human impact with the workers and neighbouring communities, health-wise. Heavy chemical use affects the air quality, waterways and water systems, and ends up in our food systems as well,” she says.

Unlike many technology start-ups chasing venture capital, Data Science has been bootstrapped since its founding.

“It was a choice I made,’ Ms Nyang’au says of funding the company with her personal savings. ‘Of course, when you look around, and your peers are raising millions of dollars to fund their businesses, it looks very lucrative. But when you are funded, even by grants or venture capital, especially at the beginning, that would have denied me what I wanted to do.”

The University of Nairobi alumnus says she wanted to build a sustainable company while balancing family life.

“I also wanted to start a family and have children. So there was that balance. If I’m reporting to someone else and I have financial targets, that changes things,’ she says.

‘I just kept a small team working towards profitability. For me, it has always been clients before chasing funders. Thankfully, it worked out. We are fully customer dependent.”

That approach, she says, proved valuable during the Covid-19 pandemic when many start-ups struggled of folded up.

‘We lost a lot of business as some of our clients closed down and others stopped on-boarding new businesses. But as directors, we were able to sustain the company and maintain our team. At no point has anyone gone unpaid, and the only salary delay we have ever had was 10 days.”

“I like keeping it lean and allowing ourselves to grow organically. We might not be making millions every month, but we also don’t owe anyone anything. It’s a healthy, sustainable operation.”

Ms Nyang’au says her advice to entrepreneurs is to have a separate income for the family, especially at the early stages when their companies are not generating much revenue yet.

‘You still have to pay your people, and it is why I keep my consultancy work,” she says. She has consulted for the World Bank, the United Nations and international development organisations.

She also believes founders need to remain adaptable. “Structures are great, but sometimes structures are also limiting. If I didn’t occasionally mix my money and the company’s money, that would limit me. I’ve learned to be very dynamic and agile.”

The third cohort of commissioners at the National Land Commission (NLC) assumed office in March. Having settled into their roles, they must now tackle the many unresolved public land issues facing the country – and, crucially, be seen to be doing so.

The NLC carries significant historical baggage. It is one of the institutions that powerful political interests resisted from the outset.

It was removed from the final draft of the Constitution before parliamentary debate, only to be reinstated after sustained pressure from stakeholders.

Later, after the first commissioners had been vetted and approved, their appointment was delayed until a High Court petition compelled the President to gazette them.

Kenyans therefore fought hard and spent considerable public resources to secure the Commission’s place in the country’s governance architecture. They expected it to safeguard public land, stop illegal allocations and address historical injustices.

That history should guide the current commissioners. Their constitutional independence and security of tenure were designed to enable them to act without fear or favour.

While the Commission has continued with routine responsibilities – including processing allotment letters, valuing land acquired for public projects, developing technical guidelines and conducting research – the public expects much more.

It must make tangible progress in reviewing illegally or irregularly allocated public land and resolving historical land injustices, whose timelines Parliament has already extended.

Equally important, the Commission must become a visible voice in national debates involving public land. Its silence on several high-profile disputes has been striking. During the controversy over the excision of land belonging to Kenyatta University for reallocation, the Commission was largely absent. Similar silence accompanied disputes over proposed developments in Karura and Ngong forests.

Today, public concern over developments in Imenti Forest continues to grow, while the eviction of settlers from KMC and Portland Cement land in Athi River also passed without a strong intervention from the Commission.

Such absences weaken public confidence in the institution charged with protecting public land.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has recently recovered public land belonging to KBC, Posta and other state institutions from powerful individuals. Such victories would carry greater weight if they were accompanied by visible leadership from the National Land Commission.

Most urgently, the Commission must address the recent court ruling on the Ruaraka land saga, in which it approved Sh1.5 billion in compensation for land later found to be public.

A clear explanation is essential. Without one, public perception may shift from viewing the Commission as a guardian of public land to questioning whether it was complicit in its loss.

The National Treasury recorded a wider Sh90.1 billion revenue miss in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, despite undertaking major cuts to its resources target for the period.

Fresh data from the exchequer shows total revenue reached Sh3.168 trillion for the fiscal year, falling shy of the Sh3.2590 trillion target for both ordinary revenue and ministerial appropriations.

Ordinary revenue or taxes recorded the widest shortfall at Sh53.5 billion. Ordinary revenue collections totaled Sh2.587 trillion, which was below the target of Sh2.64 trillion.

Appropriations in aid, which represent collections by ministries, State departments and agencies, were off the mark by Sh36.6 billion at Sh581.7 billion against a Sh618.3 billion target.

In contrast, the prior revenue underperformance was Sh62 billion as taxes missed the mark by Sh76 billion but appropriations over performed by Sh14 billion in the fiscal year to June 2025.

The revenue underperformance for the period to June 2026 underlines difficulties in domestic revenue mobilization, which includes the setting of overambitious targets.

The underperformance in domestic revenues usually resulted in a wider fiscal deficit, which was funded mainly through borrowing from local credit markets.

‘Total revenues amounted to Sh3.168 trillion, resulting in an underperformance of Sh90.1 billion mainly on account of shortfall registered in ordinary revenue of Sh53.5 billion,’ the National Treasury said.

‘Ministerial appropriation in aid collection at Sh581.7 billion was below target by Sh36.6 billion.’

Most tax revenue receipts, including import duty, pay as you earn (Paye) and value added tax (VAT), met the revised target, with excise duty being the only outlier, having recorded a Sh1.5 billion shortfall.

The bulk of the underperformance in ordinary revenues was recorded under non-tax resources, which cover penalties and levies applied and collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Receipts from non-tax revenues were posted at Sh125.3 billion against a target of Sh183.2 billion.

The underperformance in domestic revenue mobilisation from taxes and appropriations in aid resulted in increased local borrowing to plug a wider deficit, which was recorded at 7.1 percent of GDP.

‘From the financing side, total financing for the fiscal year 2025/26 amounted to Sh1.34 trillion or 7.1 percent of GDP. The deficit was financed by net domestic financing of Sh1.135 trillion or six percent of GDP and net foreign financing of Sh205.5 billion.

Net domestic borrowing overshot the target by Sh161.7 billion.

Ordinary revenue is projected at Sh2.985 trillion for the financial year that commenced on July 1, 2026.

Total revenue for the period is estimated at Sh3.629 trillion, including Sh644 billion in ministerial appropriations-in-aid (A-i-A).

Despite the higher revenue target for the new cycle, domestic resource mobilisation will be impacted by new macroeconomic shocks, including the emergence of the US-Israel war on Iran, which has sent local pump prices higher.

The government has offered concessions to help contain consumer pain, including halving VAT on petroleum products to eight percent from 16 percent over the next six months, resulting in an estimated revenue hole of Sh32 billion.

The National Treasury has further mulled a revision of Paye bands in September 2026, to help increase consumer disposable incomes/spending.

The exchequer has trimmed its economic growth forecast for 2026 from an initial 5.3 percent to five percent.

Kenya’s policy disruptions have intensified as President William Ruto’s government attempts to pacify citizens amid mounting economic pressure, partly fueled by global tensions stemming from the US-Israel war with Iran.

Rising pressures have triggered shifts in policy responses, including fuel tax cuts, suspension of power tariff adjustments and proposed reinstatement of universal higher education funding by the State.

Analysts said the policy disruptions signal attempts by the State to appease households squeezed by sustained inflation pressure ahead of the 2027 re-election campaigns.

‘It’s expected, every five years, what we normally see is that the economic policy of Kenya is more or less hijacked, conveniently to favour the government in power, more or less engaging Kenyans so that they can be reconsidered for the election,’ Karaya Mokaya, member of Public Finance and Tax Committee at the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) told Business Daily.

‘So it’s a deliberate move by the government just to woo and to pursue Kenyans with what you could call very attractive economic policies that are not necessarily anchored within the structure of the economic policy to persuade Kenyans to reconsider the government in power for the election. So the risk we run is that of borrowing more because of increased expenditure,’ he said.

In the latest shift, President Ruto revealed plans for full government funding for all students who qualify for university education-a move that would mark an about-turn from a controversial model he introduced in 2023 as concerns, especially from poor households mounted.

‘Now we have in Parliament the final version of how we’re going to make higher education universal. It will not matter the background of any child in Kenya; it will matter how good they are. Going into the future, we’ve been trying to grapple with how we fund our higher education,’ he said on Tuesday at State House, Nairobi, during presentation of a proposal on developing a new vision for Kenya from a team of experts.

Students and guardians have complained about the funding model introduced in 2023, saying it has made them unable to pursue courses of their choice.

‘We tried the Differentiated Unit Cost [model], it didn’t work because it made most of our universities almost close down; because while we promised 80 percent funding, we went down to 40 percent and most universities suffered,’ President Ruto said.

‘We’ve worked on what we thought was equity where we said parents will contribute a small portion and then [government] will give a small portion of loan, a small portion of scholarship; that creates equity, but it’s not good enough. Now we’re moving to universal under the amendments we’ve taken to Parliament,’ said the President.

This comes a fortnight after the government extended a reduction in Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum products for another three months to mid-October 2026 to cushion households and businesses from price volatility.

The State in April cut VAT on petroleum products from 16 percent to eight percent for three months, after crude oil prices surged because of the Middle East war. Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi said the government would deploy a subsidy to the tune of Sh945 million to sustain current price levels in the July-August fuel pricing cycle.

In another disruption, the Energy ministry on June 3, 2026, also suspended the proposed review of retail electricity tariffs from July 1, 2026, maintaining the current rates to protect consumers from higher costs. The suspended application by Kenya Power sought to raise base tariffs by up to 31.8 percent to generate extra revenues for network upgrades and other state utility projects.

“Following consultations within government and key stakeholders in the sector, the retail electricity tariff review application submitted in March this year by KPLC has been withdrawn,” Mr Wandayi said.

Mr Mokaya, however, noted that the concessions are not financially sustainable in the long term. ‘So, more borrowing then could mean that we could expect a supplementary budget soon to try and close any gaps in the current budget,’ he said.

Kenya’s annual inflation remained sticky at 6.4 percent in June 2026, a marginal drop from 6.7percent in May. The slight slowdown was primarily driven by a drop in the cost of transport and food items , though year-on-year price changes remained heavily impacted by earlier global energy cost increases.