Category: Business Daily

This month, Bhavana Rao is heading to California to take up a job as head pastry chef at a newly built restaurant. It is a big step in a journey she nearly did not take, having initially been steered toward the seemingly more stable world of business.

There is also some irony in the destination. When she was in culinary school, pastry was the one area where the 28-year-old Kenyan chef struggled. Her cooking and knife skills were exceptional, and she excelled at savoury dishes, but baking and sugar work often fell short.

Today, after four years as pastry sous chef at two-Michelin-starred Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, she is preparing to take charge of a pastry kitchen in California.

‘I have always had a fascination with food, not just as a product that you create, but also with the ingredients,’ she says. ‘I’ve always wanted to know where they’re coming from, how long they take to grow, and why they are grown the way that they are.’

That curiosity would eventually take her from Cape Town to New York, Singapore, Marseille and now California.

The road not taken

Bhavana’s interest in food began early. In high school, she chose food and nutrition as an elective and later hoped to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Europe. The cost, however, made that difficult, while her parents were unsure that culinary school was the right first move.

Instead, she enrolled in a business programme in Cape Town.

A part-time job as a hostess at a fine-dining restaurant soon changed her plans. Watching the kitchen and interacting with chefs deepened her curiosity about food until she decided she wanted to cook professionally.

She found a culinary school offering a three-year programme, but was told she would have to wait until the following year to apply. Then her work at the restaurant provided an unexpected opening.

Its chef, Luke Dale Roberts, a prominent figure in South Africa’s culinary scene, wrote her a recommendation letter, helping her secure admission.

‘I chose the three-year programme and only told my parents about it after admission,’ she says.

Paying for the course meant saving the money she earned from her part-time job while covering her living expenses in South Africa.

How pastry found her

That transformation began in 2020 when Bhavana started an apprenticeship at Salsify at the Roundhouse in Cape Town under chef Ryan Cole.

She initially worked on savoury dishes. Then one day, when the person responsible for pastry was unavailable, Cole asked her to take over.

‘I basically got thrown into the deep end,’ she says.

The experience forced her to confront the area she had struggled with at culinary school. With guidance from Cole and chef Nina, she began to understand the foundations, concepts and techniques behind pastry rather than simply following recipes.

Her work also brought her into contact with unfamiliar varieties of fruits and vegetables from a farm supplying the restaurant. Seeing produce she had never encountered before deepened her interest in farming and where food comes from.

A farmer noticed her curiosity and recommended a book by chef Dan Barber, whose thinking about food, farming and sustainability broadened her understanding of the relationship between the kitchen and the farm.

Meanwhile, the demands of professional kitchens were becoming clear. Bhavana was working up to 90 hours a week when Cole offered her a leadership opportunity at a new project, Cabo Beach Club.

She became its pastry sous chef, leading a team and gaining experience in weddings, banquets and other large-scale events.

After three years away from Kenya, however, she wanted to return home. She resigned and came back intending to explore private cooking and farming. Instead, an unexpected email changed the direction of her career.

The Blue Hill breakthrough

The message came from the head chef at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the New York restaurant founded around chef Dan Barber’s farm-to-table philosophy.

The timing stunned her. She had recently read Barber’s book, which had transformed how she thought about food, and had updated her LinkedIn profile and circulated her CV.

‘This opportunity would have me working with Chef Dan Barber,’ she says. ‘I’d just read his book and it had transformed my thinking.’

After an online interview and a visa process, Bhavana moved to New York. In July 2022, she joined Blue Hill as pastry sous chef. The restaurant sits on about 80 acres of a non-profit farm, giving her the opportunity to work directly with farmers and ingredients.

‘I wasn’t just cooking in the kitchen, I was also picking ingredients on the farm and talking to the farmers,’ she says.

Chef Bhavana Rao, who worked closely with farmers to develop dishes, holds up seasonal produce from the farm at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Pool

Four years at Blue Hill also gave her opportunities to develop her creativity. One of her most memorable assignments was a wedding for a bride with Indian roots who wanted her heritage reflected in the desserts. Bhavana turned to her own family for inspiration, calling her mother for recipes from her grandmother.

‘I was calling my mum, asking her to pull out my grandmother’s recipe for desserts we would make when I was seven years old,’ she recalls.

The result was a carrot halwa doughnut, one of the creations she is most proud of.

After four years at Blue Hill, she wanted something simpler and more personal. In early 2026, she and her partner moved to Marseille, France where they worked at Tuba Club, a seaside restaurant supplied by fishermen bringing their catch directly from the Mediterranean.

She also used the trip to explore restaurants and pastries she had bookmarked since culinary school.

Now back in Kenya, she spends her weeks exploring restaurants, talking to chefs and bakers, developing recipes.

What the journey has cost

The achievement has come with sacrifices, including years spent away from family.

‘Cooking is not a job, it’s a lifestyle,’ she says. ‘I’ve had to give up every Christmas in the last seven years, all the festivals, holidays, and birthdays. I even missed my niece’s birth.’

The demands of professional kitchens have also taken a physical toll. After several episodes of burnout and developing stomach ulcers, she has learnt that longevity in the industry requires looking after herself.

‘A professional kitchen is a high-stress environment, but to keep doing what you love, it’s important to protect your body first,’ she says. ‘And sometimes, it’s as simple as taking a deep breath and drinking some water.’

For Bhavana, California is another step rather than the destination. Her long-term ambition is to keep learning, collaborate with people who share her passion and eventually bring that knowledge back to Kenya.

‘Kenya is not lacking in any means,’ she says. ‘We have everything we truly need, including the golden hands of our farmers. The bigger mission is to provide answers to the problems we have through my knowledge and skills.’

The lessons she has picked up along the way now shape the advice she gives.

‘Take up space, don’t accept any disrespect, speak up for yourself and ask for more,’ she says. ‘And don’t be shy about taking credit for something you’ve done or created.’

‘We mainly focus on the export of livestock to the GCC [the Gulf Cooperation Council] countries. We have the capacity to handle one million goats and lambs in a year,’ Willy Laboso told BDLife in an interview during the Kenya Meat Expo 2026 held at KICC in Nairobi.

The company operates a meat processing facility at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Athi River, Machakos County, and sources livestock from pastoralists and aggregators, particularly in the arid and semi-arid land areas, before slaughtering, processing and supplying the animals to local and overseas markets.

The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a region that has emerged as an important destination for Kenyan livestock and meat products.

The growth in export-oriented meat processing comes as Kenya seeks to increase the value generated from its livestock sector.

Sh397 billion market

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Department of Livestock Development, Kenya produced approximately 613,627 tonnes of meat in 2024, with an estimated market value of Sh397 billion.

‘This represented a 10.2 percent increase in production volume and a 30.5 percent rise in value compared with 2023, highlighting the growing economic importance of the meat industry,’ said Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe during the opening of the expo, the annual event organised by Nation Media Group.

Beef remained the largest contributor, accounting for about 260,000 tonnes valued at approximately Sh160 billion in 2024. However, Mr Kagwe said the country needs to diversify the meat industry by investing in goat meat, mutton, poultry, camel meat, pork and emerging value chains such as rabbit meat, an opportunity for investors.

Ken Meat’s success model has been on value addition, as the company handles slaughtering, processing, packaging and cold storage. Its facility can slaughter up to 6,000 goats and sheep a day and 350 cattle daily, according to Mr Laboso.

How export market works

One of the key challenges faced by meat entrepreneurs is securing a sufficient and consistent supply to meet export demand.

Mr Laboso said the meat export business starts much earlier than the slaughterhouse. It depends on an extensive network of pastoralists and livestock aggregators who supply animals from different parts of the country.

Ken Meat works with suppliers in Garissa, Wajir, Kajiado and Machakos, among other areas.

Over the years, the company has worked with about 500 pastoralists and aggregators, although the number varies as some livestock keepers are not tied to particular aggregators. ‘We work with aggregators and pastoralists, purchasing the lamb and goat for local and export purposes,’ he says.

The model has enabled the processor to connect livestock keepers in dryland areas with both domestic and international markets, while allowing the company to aggregate sufficient numbers of animals for its processing and export operations.

Spotting an opportunity

For meat exporters, other challenges include identifying market opportunities and scaling the business without compromising supply, quality or delivery.

Ken Meat started out as an aggregator before shifting toward processing and working with other aggregators. Mr Laboso says the transition was largely driven by the need to make the business more efficient.

‘We were looking for markets outside. We found it more profitable working with people who already have markets, so that we just offer the logistics services,’ he said.

Under the model, a customer with an overseas order can contract Ken Meat to handle the processing and delivery. The company slaughters the animals, packages the meat and facilitates delivery to the customer’s destination.

The shift has also enabled the company to concentrate on processing while relying on aggregators to consolidate livestock from different pastoralists.

Weighing opportunities

Entrepreneurs are constantly weighing opportunities, deciding which are worth pursuing and which are better left on the table.

Mr Laboso said the company does not currently operate a livestock fattening facility and instead focuses on export of carcasses, but also serves the domestic market, particularly with beef and value-added meat products.

While small ruminants dominate its export business, cattle are mainly processed for local consumers. Ken Meat can process about 300 to 400 cattle a month, depending on the season, according to Mr Laboso.

It also focuses on prime cuts are rump steak, topside, strip loin, T-bone, silverside steak and Ossobuco.

Mr Laboso said value addition allows processors to utilise more parts of an animal rather than leaving trimmings and other portions as waste.

‘You cannot deal in cuts without having value addition because when it comes to value addition, there are specific weights that are needed by consumers and that comes along with trimmings,’ he said. ‘If not value-added, then it will be considered as waste. Value addition ensures that at the end of the day there is no by-product in the value chain. Every part has its margin.’

Export challenges

Securing access to a reliable, export-compliant slaughterhouse is another challenge facing meat exporters.

The government seeks to improve the infrastructure supporting the meat industry. Mr Kagwe said Kenya has about 2,000 slaughter facilities, including approximately 49 large slaughterhouses and 322 medium slaughterhouses, alongside slaughter slabs.

However, he cautioned that the country should focus not only on the number of slaughter facilities but also on their quality, capacity utilisation, hygiene, refrigeration, inspection, waste management, environmental management, logistics and market connectivity.

The export business has also made compliance and traceability increasingly important. Mr Laboso said traceability is one of the areas the company is working to strengthen as Kenya seeks access to larger and more lucrative markets.

He said the company is keen to work with more pastoralists and aggregators who can meet traceability requirements.

‘Traceability will lead us to better markets out there and not just be fully dependent on one region of the world,’ he said.

The Government’s Animal Identification, Registration, Traceability and Tracking system (ANITRAC), a digital livestock identification and traceability platform, could help address some of these challenges. The system is intended to enable animals to be tracked through the value chain, providing information that can support disease control, food safety and access to export markets.

On challenges in getting adequate supply, Mr Laboso compared the situation to crop farming, where farmers depend on rain.

Changes in weather conditions can affect the availability and quality of animals supplied to processors. ‘We need more aggregators in the field because pastoralists usually depend on nature. It is like the farmer who fully depends on rain. So, when the variations of nature change, so does the availability of raw material,’ Mr Laboso said.

The company is consequently looking for stronger relationships with aggregators and pastoralists to improve access to livestock throughout the year. For the wider meat industry, Mr Laboso said increasing the supply of quality animals would help Kenya take advantage of the demand for meat both locally and internationally.

He said the high price of beef in the domestic market is an indication of the demand that exists, while Kenya’s livestock products continue to attract buyers abroad.

‘The demand that is there for beef in the country is purely evident also in the pricing of beef right now. If you go to the supermarket and see how much beef costs compared to other domesticated animals that we eat, you will see that beef is quite expensive, and it is because of its demand,’ he said.

Ken Meat currently employs about 200 people, up from 150 when it started, according to Mr Laboso. The growth in employment shows the expansion of its processing operations and the need for labour across slaughtering, processing, packaging and other functions.

Flexibility, Mr Laboso said, has been one of the key lessons that has enabled the company to grow, particularly as it transitioned from an aggregator to a processor and logistics provider.

‘One aspect that any entrepreneur needs is to not be rigid but to be flexible and to change with the times,’ he said, adding that the decision to work with aggregators while providing processing and logistics services demonstrates the company’s ability to adapt its business model to changing market conditions.

Multiple insiders familiar with the airline’s turnaround plans revealed behind-the-scenes intrigues that saw a strategic investment offer scuttled in January 2026 after interest groups demanded that the ‘field be opened to more players’.

At least four firms had expressed interest in KQ, as the airline is popularly known, with proposals including cash injections or providing airplanes in exchange for a strategic equity stake in the airline. ‘There was an investment offer around January that was about to be sealed, but some interest groups emerged and started pushing for opening doors for more parties,’ a source told Business Daily.

Sources said this tussle prompted the airline to revert to a tender system to recruit a strategic investor, further delaying the turnaround plans.

Consultancy firm KPMG was picked to prepare an investment memorandum to guide the tender, with the KQ board approving the document.

The international tender for a strategic investor is, however, yet to be floated nearly seven months after the earlier investment offer was scuttled.

KQ board chairman Kiprono Kitonny said the tender plans remain on course and denied claims of fallouts over the strategic investment following Mr Kamal’s abrupt exit.

‘We are all on the same page. We have the investor memorandum that has been done by KPMG, and now we’re in the process of appointing a transaction advisor,’ Mr Kittony told the Business Daily, adding that the open tendering process is the ideal situation since KQ is a publicly listed company.

KQ has been searching for a strategic investor for years, with the latest push coming as the airline grapples with mounting financial pressures and negative equity. The carrier posted a Sh17.2 billion net loss in 2025, reversing a Sh5.4 billion profit a year earlier, while its first-half loss widened further to Sh16.1 billion in 2026.

The plan has also evolved from a search for a single cash investor into a broader exercise that could involve different forms of capital and strategic support.

President William Ruto’s government had previously sought a strategic investor for its 48.9 percent stake in KQ. In December 2022, Dr Ruto met executives of Delta Air Lines in Washington, amid efforts to attract the US carrier as a potential strategic investor. The discussions crumbled as the carrier explored a merger with South African Airways, which also failed to materialise.

Former CEO Allan Kilavuka subsequently continued the search. In August 2024, he said KQ was close to concluding negotiations with a potential investor, although the talks did not result in an investment.

The latest capital target has grown from an initial $500 million (Sh65 billion) to roughly $1.2 billion (Sh155 billion), reflecting the scale of the airline’s balance sheet and fleet requirements. The Treasury has said the strategic investor is expected to provide capital and help strengthen the airline as the government seeks to reduce the burden of supporting the carrier.

Mr Kamal disclosed in March that KQ was already talking to at least four potential strategic investors and was open to bringing in more than one investor rather than relying on a single partner.

In an interview with NTV last week, he said interest had increased after an initial investor emerged in January.

‘Up to March, we had only one investor, and we thought that was a single source, but after that investors started to come one after the other,’ he said.

This followed the reconstitution of KQ’s board, which saw Mr Kittony appointed chairman and the addition of David Ndii, Chris Diaz and Winnie Nyamute as directors.

Mr Kamal told Business Daily that one of the investors had offered the airline airplanes in exchange for equity, while another was offering cash, and another debt that is convertible to equity. He said the airline was open to all of them.

His abrupt departure now leaves the board to oversee the next stage of a process that KQ says remains on course.

Read: Kamal pushed out of KQ after 8 months

Mr Kamal denied that his resignation was linked to the investor search.

He told the Business Daily that he was leaving because of a personal matter that required him to take a leave of absence and return home.

Its 8 a.m. on a Monday. You have barely settled at your desk when requests start pouring in. The CEO wants revised projections after a customer delays an order, the bank needs an updated cashflow forecast, and the board pack is due before lunch.

Not long ago, that meant hours rebuilding Excel models and rewriting reports. Today, an AI assistant can produce a solid first draft in minutes.

The bigger question is not productivity. It is this: if AI can perform much of the technical work, where does the real value of a finance professional lie?

The answer is higher up the value chain. For years, finance careers began with collecting data, reconciling accounts, updating spreadsheets and producing routine reports before progressing to interpretation, commercial judgment and strategic decision-making.

AI is rapidly compressing those lower-level tasks, freeing professionals to spend less time producing information and more time interpreting what it means for the business.

That shift makes human judgment more valuable, not less. AI can generate convincing answers that are inaccurate, based on flawed assumptions or unsupported conclusions. In finance, a wrong figure can influence lending, investment or board decisions. AI should accelerate analysis, but accountability must remain with people.

There is also a paradox to using AI effectively. It requires context. Professionals must explain the business, define assumptions and clarify objectives before the technology produces useful results.

That initial effort pays dividends as future analyses become faster and more relevant. This is particularly significant for Africa, where many finance teams operate with limited staff. Rather than reducing headcount, AI offers lean teams greater capacity.

Time saved on reporting and documentation can be redirected to scenario planning, working-capital management and providing better insights to leadership.

The profession will also need to rethink how young finance professionals are trained. Routine modelling and reporting have traditionally been part of learning the fundamentals. Those skills remain essential because professionals must understand the mechanics well enough to question AI-generated output.

The finance leaders of 2030 will not be valued for building spreadsheets faster.

They will be valued for asking better questions, challenging assumptions and turning numbers into sound business decisions. AI changes the tools, but judgment, context and accountability remain the profession’s greatest assets.

The State restricted commission payouts on earnings per trip in 2022 as part of a strategy to protect drivers from high fees, down from previous rates that often reached 25 percent.

At the same time, the court stopped the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) from enforcing a requirement that digital taxi platforms retain detailed passenger and driver data and hand it over to the authority.

The court found the three-year data retention and disclosure requirement unconstitutional and disproportionate, saying it amounted to continuous surveillance of customers and drivers.

She declared key parts of the NTSA (Transport Network Companies, Owners, Drivers and Passengers) Regulations, 2022, unconstitutional, but suspended the declaration for 12 calendar months to allow the government to undertake fresh public participation.

The government was ordered to conduct a formal regulatory impact assessment and align the regulations with the Constitution and enabling legislation.

The court found that the regulations were gazetted while Parliament was in recess, without waiting for them to be tabled before Parliament for scrutiny and approval.

It said enforcement began before Parliament had scrutinised and approved the regulations, denying stakeholders the constitutional safeguard of legislative oversight.

The court made the declaration while ruling on a petition filed by Bolt Operations OU in 2025 challenging the constitutionality and legality of the regulations, including the 18 percent commission cap, mandatory data retention and disclosure requirements, the regulator’s powers and alleged discrimination against digital platforms.

The commission dispute concerned how fares collected from passengers are shared between digital platforms, drivers and vehicle owners across Kenya’s digital taxi market.

Under Regulation 9, a transport network agreement must provide for a commission payable to the platform that does not exceed 18 percent of total trip earnings. It also bars terms intended to push the commission above that ceiling.

The court barred enforcement of that ceiling against the petitioner and digital transport operators during the 12-month suspension.

The 2022 rules also covered licensing, driver and vehicle standards and passenger safeguards.

The commission ceiling followed complaints from drivers about charges imposed by ride-hailing companies. The drivers protested commission rates of 25 to 30 percent and demanded an 18 percent ceiling.

Read: Uber, Bolt drivers to get powers for setting fares

The High Court found the commission restrictions unconstitutional because the Government had not demonstrated their necessity or proportionality through the required regulatory process.

‘The absence of a regulatory impact statement assessing the economic consequences of such price control, through a regulation which the Court has already found lacked the necessary constitutional safeguards, compounds the arbitrariness of the measure,’ the court said.

It found that the price-setting provisions lacked statutory foundation and economic justification, and that they ‘constitute an unconstitutional deprivation of property and contractual autonomy’.

‘There was no empirical evidence of necessity or proportionality and, therefore, the restrictions cannot be justified or considered reasonable limitations under Article 24 of the Constitution.’

In regard to privacy, the dispute concerned Regulation 17, which required ride-hailing platforms to retain detailed trip and payment information for three years and surrender it to NTSA on demand.

The records include driver and passenger identifiers, pickup and drop-off locations and times, payment methods and pricing details.

The court characterised the requirement as creating a form of continuous surveillance and found the provision unconstitutional and disproportionate.

The court said the requirement created ‘a regime of continuous surveillance.’ Regulation 17 imposed obligations on digital taxi platforms by compelling them to act as custodians of surveillance data.

‘Regulation 17 infringes the right to privacy under Article 31 of the Constitution and contravenes the principles of the Data Protection Act 2019,’ she said.

Article 31 of the Constitution guarantees every person the right to privacy, including the right not to have information relating to their family or private affairs unnecessarily required or revealed.

The Data Protection Act, 2019, gives effect to this constitutional guarantee by embedding principles of data minimisation, proportionality and consent, including informed consent.

The court said that allowing compulsory disclosure of private information on demand, in the absence of adequate safeguards and a regulatory impact statement, compounded the arbitrariness of the measure. The court declined to strike down the regulations immediately, saying doing so would remove safety standards, driver verification checks and other operational rules in the digital ride-hailing sector.

‘An immediate nullification and ceasing to operate would destabilise the transport sector,’ Justice Aburili said. ‘The appropriate remedy would be to suspend the declaration of invalidity,’ she added.

The judge said the contested provisions would cease to be enforceable after the 12 months if compliance was not achieved.

The court also considered whether the regulations encroached on transport functions assigned to county governments under the Constitution.

It found that counties retain responsibility for local transport services, including taxis and parking, while the national government oversees transport safety standards and policies that cross county boundaries.

Justice Aburili held that NTSA could license digital platforms operating across counties without taking away counties’ powers over individual vehicles, drivers, parking and local transport operations.

More than 15 computer monitors sit empty at Lillian’s cyber café on Nairobi’s Tom Mboya Street, a reminder of how technology changed a business that was once at the heart of Kenya’s digital revolution.

On a recent afternoon, only one customer is browsing at the partitioned café. Lillian, who has run the business for 20 years, is seated at an empty cubicle watching TikTok videos, while her sole assistant watches YouTube videos at the reception desk.

It is a far cry from the years when customers streamed into cyber cafes to print documents, send emails, apply for jobs, and catch up with their friends on Facebook and the now-defunct Google+.

Internet shops in Kenya boomed in the late 2000s and early 2010s in the cities and larger towns. But now, widespread use of smartphones and cheaper, faster mobile data has largely replaced the need for traditional internet browsing at these cafés.

Lillian says business has declined by about 90 percent due to the reduced need for physical computer access.

The decline has forced her to cut her staff from four to one, as power and other operating costs rise. Browsing charges, meanwhile, have remained at Sh1 per minute for years.

‘This business needs to bring in around Sh5,000 to be able to sustain itself – rent, power, internet bill, staff costs,’ she says, pointing across the empty chairs and the black network rack mounted on the wall.

‘Now, getting Sh1,000 will be a challenge at the end of the day.’

Even a day-long browsing offer of Sh300 has done little to bring customers back, she says.

The decline has also hit printing, once a major source of income for cyber cafes. With smartphones and laptops allowing users to create, store and share documents digitally, customers are increasingly questioning whether they need physical copies.

‘Printing costs are relatively high, so people are really weighing options before they have to print anything,’ she says. ‘If they can use it in softcopy format, why bother printing it at a higher cost?’

The rising cost of living has compounded the problem, making both customers and the business more cautious about spending.

‘I have to pay staff more, yet the business is not doing as well, so I am forced to lay them off and remain with just one, who I am still struggling to pay,’ says the businesswoman.

‘Furnishing this café was about Sh250,000 then. Now all these desks are here collecting dust.’

Kenya’s smartphone connections rose to 50.2 million in the three months to March, up from 48.7 million in December, marking the first time the country has crossed the 50 million smartphone threshold.

The handsets have become the primary gateway to the internet for the majority of Kenyans, with Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) data showing that 98.2 percent of Kenyan internet users between January and March 2026 accessed the net through a smartphone.

In contrast, the use of other devices such as desktop computers, laptops, and feature phones continues to decline.

On the walls of Lillian’s internet café, there are notices advertising ‘Zoom calls’ and ‘Teams meetings’. A larger enclosed cubicle at the corner has been turned into a private working space for customers who need somewhere quiet.

It is, she says, her attempt to adapt to the evolving technology. ‘That is for people who might have important calls when in town, and they want to take a work call or job interview at a quiet place within a public café.’

But even these additions have not been enough to reverse the decline. Her plans now point to an exit from the traditional cyber café model.

She plans to close the business within a year, sell the remaining monitors to second-hand goods buyers and retain only a few computers in a smaller shop offering essential services such as document printing, KRA returns, job and visa applications.

‘Farming has also come in handy; that is where my focus is now,’ she says.

For other cyber café operators, survival has meant changing the business almost entirely. In uptown Nairobi, along Muindi Mbingu Street, Fred Omondi’s shop is a glimpse into what the internet café business has evolved into.

The business still has computers, but browsing is no longer at the centre of its operations. Instead, Fred now describes it as a computer services provider, offering typesetting, basic graphic design, corporate branding materials, banner and window-sticker printing, adhesive decorations, photocopying and document printing.

Customers can also get help with tax filing, CV and cover letter formatting, job and visa applications and government services such as applying for driving licences and certificates of good conduct.

Every few minutes, a customer walks in for photocopying, another brings photos on his smartphone for colour grading and printing, while a motorcycle rider seeks adhesive decorations for his bike.

Mr Omondi employs two other people and has reduced the traditional cyber café footprint to just three computers. The rest of the shop is occupied by specialised equipment, including a photo printer, heavy-duty document printer and banner vinyl printing machine.

‘We still get customers seeking the cyber café style of browsing once in a while, but most of them are now in need of services that they cannot do at their homes from their smartphones or laptops,’ he says.

Mr Omondi says customers are also increasingly seeking technical assistance with tasks such as managing email and calendars, applying for government tenders, submitting documents and applying for jobs online.

The decline of traditional computer package training, which also boomed in the 2010s, has also left shops like his filling part of the computer literacy gap.

The introduction of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in 2017 has provided another source of business.

‘With parents now more involved in their children’s schoolwork, demand for printed research material and assignments has increased. That was previously mostly a reserve of the schools,’ he says.

The shop has also found a niche among small businesses in the city centre, which outsource bulk printing rather than invest in their own equipment.

The pivot has required a significant investment; Mr Omondi estimates that his equipment alone is worth almost Sh3 million, making the operation far more capital-intensive than a conventional cyber café.

However, the investment is paying off, he says. Online services and applications start at Sh500, while typing and editing cost from Sh350. Binding ranges between Sh50 and Sh150, while printing costs between Sh650 and Sh1,500 depending on the paper and size.

Logo design costs Sh7,000, while letterhead designs, business cards, and company profile design and printing cost about Sh15,000.

He says some businesses have spent as much as Sh50,000 on bulk branding materials at his shop.

The cyber café may be disappearing as a place to access the internet, says Mr Omondi, but for those willing to invest in equipment and turn their shops into service centres, the digital transformation has created new opportunities.

‘They can be reinvented as places where customers come to get things done,’ he says, ‘since there will always be tasks they cannot handle at home because of equipment needs and varying computer literacy levels.’

Nairobi’s commercial streets went quiet on August 28, 2026. Along Moi Avenue, Kenyatta Avenue and Tom Mboya Street, traders pulled down their shutters and marched to Times Tower, protesting a Customs change they say could bury small importers.

The dispute is over a single number: Sh3.2 million, the new minimum benchmark for a 40-foot container carrying consolidated goods, up from Sh2.5 million.

KRA says the Sh3.2 million benchmark is provided for under the East African Community Customs Management Act’s customs valuation framework and is not a new tax or a law passed by Parliament.

That figure had remained unchanged since the 2022/23 financial year. Since then, the shilling has weakened, freight costs have shifted and import volumes have grown. KRA argues those changes justified revisiting a three-year-old benchmark rather than leaving it untouched indefinitely.

The revised figure was due to take effect on July 1, but after pushback from traders and freight agents, implementation was delayed to August 20 to allow negotiations. It came into force regardless.

Consolidation exists to help small traders.

Several importers share one container and split shipping costs instead of paying for half-empty containers. KRA’s complaint is that the same arrangement has also become a loophole. By pooling goods into one container and clearing it under a single reference value, some importers, particularly of high-value electronics and smartphones, have underdeclared cargo, misclassified goods or concealed items to reduce duty.

Crucially, KRA insists Sh3.2 million is not a flat tax slapped on every container. It describes the minimum yield as a risk-management filter, not the actual tax liability. Containers below the benchmark qualify for simplified clearance, while traders who dispute the valuation can request individual assessment based on the actual value of their goods.

The authority also says traders are not locked into the consolidated system. They may opt out of the simplified arrangement and have containers verified on actual value, or de-consolidate cargo into individual consignments so each importer pays duty on their own goods.

None of this makes traders’ anxiety irrational. A 28 percent jump, or an extra Sh700,000 per container, hits hardest for thin-margin retailers whose business models were built around the previous threshold. De-consolidation also brings more paperwork, inspections and clearance costs.

The Small Traders Association has vowed weekly protests until KRA returns to the negotiating table. But the legal architecture is not entirely KRA’s to bargain away.

The authority may adjust the threshold, extend the grace period or refine implementation, but it maintains that containers benefiting from undervaluation cannot remain outside the customs net indefinitely.

Countries are not short of priority sectors. Across national development plans, governments routinely identify manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, digital services, pharmaceuticals and other industries as potential drivers of jobs, investment, exports and economic transformation.

Yet why do some priority sectors become engines of growth while others remain priorities on paper? The answer lies in what happens after prioritisation: whether firms can invest, produce efficiently, reach markets and grow.

The obstacles to sector growth are often similar. Tourism businesses struggle with connectivity, skills, finance and approvals.

Manufacturers point to energy, logistics, standards and access to capital. Agribusinesses confront storage, transport, certification and markets. Digital firms face skills shortages, financing gaps, connectivity constraints and uncertain regulation.

This pattern matters. Sector development is about creating the conditions and capabilities that allow firms to invest, become more productive and compete. It requires both removing the constraints that hold firms back and building what the sector needs to grow. While the precise interventions will differ by industry, successful sector transformations tend to follow a practical sequence.

First, fix the constraints that cut across sectors. Energy, transport, finance, skills, digital infrastructure, standards, trade facilitation and regulatory predictability form the common platform on which productive sectors are built. These are horizontal constraints because weaknesses in any one of them can hold back several industries at the same time.

Where the same constraint repeatedly appears across priority sectors, it should be treated as a competitiveness problem rather than addressed through separate incentives or special arrangements. If tourism, manufacturing and agribusiness are all constrained by infrastructure, skills or finance, fixing those conditions can unlock investment across several sectors at once.

Second, address sector-specific challenges. Some constraints are vertical, making it important to understand the economics and particular requirements of each sector.

Tourism illustrates this well. Natural or cultural assets do not automatically create a competitive tourism sector. Growth also depends on air connectivity, transport infrastructure, accommodation, destination development and the quality of the visitor experience alongside effective promotion.

Other sectors require different capabilities. Pharmaceuticals depend on specialised regulation, laboratories, technical skills and quality assurance.

Agribusiness may require irrigation, aggregation, cold chains and links between producers and processors. Understanding these sector economics allows governments to target the constraints that actually determine competitiveness.

Third, build an ecosystem rather than pursue isolated projects. Morocco’s automotive sector illustrates this. Its development went beyond attracting vehicle manufacturers. Industrial infrastructure, logistics, training, export access and supplier development were built around anchor investors. Over time, the ecosystem deepened and one investment helped create the conditions for another.

This is the distinction between attracting a project and building a sector. A major investment should create demand for suppliers, deepen skills, raise standards and attract complementary businesses. Without those linkages, a country may secure a factory, hotel or technology company without developing the wider industry.

Digital economies follow the same logic. Estonia’s digital success was not built on connectivity alone.

Digital identity, interoperable public systems, skills, enabling regulation and widespread adoption created an environment in which digital services and businesses could scale. The lesson is that no single intervention builds a sector. Growth comes from the way different parts of the ecosystem reinforce one another.

Fourth, diagnose the value chain before designing interventions. Broad sector labels can hide the real constraints. Manufacturing consists of very different industries. Agriculture contains distinct value chains.

Sector development requires understanding where value is created, where costs accumulate, which capabilities are missing and what prevents firms from moving into more productive activities. Policy can then address bottlenecks rather than produce another list of generic programmes.

Fifth, coordinate delivery across government. Firms experience the economy horizontally while governments tend to manage it vertically. A tourism investor may depend on transport, immigration, environment, land and investment authorities.

A manufacturer may rely on energy, customs, taxation, standards and skills institutions. Yet no single ministry controls the investor journey.

Coordination is therefore part of competitiveness. Constraints need owners, decisions need timelines and progress needs to be tracked.

Public-private dialogue matters when it produces solutions. Its value should be measured by constraints removed, not meetings held.

Sixth, measure outcomes rather than activity. Launching a strategy is an activity. Hosting an investment conference, signing memoranda and announcing incentives are activities. They may be useful, but none proves that a sector is becoming more competitive.

The outcomes that matter are whether firms are investing, productivity is improving, exports are growing, local suppliers are entering value chains, technology adoption is increasing and more productive jobs are being created.

The private sector has responsibilities too. Government can create conditions for growth. Firms ultimately build the industry. Industry associations should identify shared constraints with evidence and work with government on solutions.

Anchor firms can strengthen local value chains by developing suppliers, skills and standards. Businesses must also invest in technology, capability and productivity rather than wait for policy to do the work.

Countries should continue identifying sectors capable of driving economic transformation. But prioritisation is only the beginning. The real test of a priority sector is not that it appears in a national plan, but that firms within it can invest, become more productive and compete.

Korean food has found an audience in Kenya, if attendance at a recent kimchi-making workshop is anything to go by. But the reception was not always warm.

When Evalyne Akinyi Odhiambo first proposed to teach people how to make kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish, the idea was met with scepticism. Who would pay to spend an afternoon learning how to salt and ferment cabbage?

Ms Akinyi, however, is not a stranger to venturing where few others are willing to go, so she did not shy away from taking the gamble.

Korean food has found an audience in Kenya, if attendance at a recent kimchi-making workshop is anything to go by. But the reception was not always warm.

When Evalyne Akinyi Odhiambo first proposed to teach people how to make kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish, the idea was met with scepticism. Who would pay to spend an afternoon learning how to salt and ferment cabbage?

Ms Akinyi, however, is not a stranger to venturing where few others are willing to go, so she did not shy away from taking the gamble.

Standard Bank Group aims to firm its business grip in East Africa, taking on its South African rivals including Absa Group and Nedbank Group.

Standard Bank Chief Executive Officer, Sim Tshabalala, said that the bank aims to grow in the region by increasing internal business rather than through mergers and acquisitions.

‘Traditionally the way we have grown as a bank is that we enter markets by starting with corporate and investment banking and then developing our capabilities in business and commercial banking for the middle market and then for retail,’ he said in an interview during a visit to Nairobi.

‘In 10 years, we want to have a universal bank in East Africa, and we are going to do that whether organically or inorganically, but organic is certainly the best way to do it,’ Mr Tshabalala said.

The CEO said the regional market has growth opportunities that Standard Bank targets to exploit.

‘There is great interest in Kenya and in East Africa. As you know, our competitors, both South African and international, are here often, and that speaks to something special happening in Kenya and East Africa,’ Tshabalala said.

‘This is an economy that has been growing at about 5 percent since the early 2000s as a consequence of the fact that the economy is diversifying; it is a great logistics hub and entry point into the region, and third is that it forms part of an interesting crescent of that trade route in between Egypt, the Gulf States and the Indian Ocean’.

Mr Tshabalala’s visit to Nairobi last week was the second in 2026 and comes in the wake of two major deals by Standard Bank Group’s South African rivals, Absa Group and Nedbank Group, that have totalled Sh122.8 billion.

Absa Group is set to upsize its stake in Absa Bank Kenya from 68.5 percent to 72.0 percent in a Sh6.53 billion deal, following receipt of bids amounting to 189.4 million shares from 2,045 shareholders in its tender offer priced at Sh34.50 per share, which runs from June 30, 2026 through August 11, 2026.

Meanwhile, Nedbank secured Central Bank of Kenya approval for its Sh116.3 billion acquisition of a 66 percent stake in NCBA Group on August 28, 2026.

Amid the acquisition rush by South African banks in the Kenyan market, Mr Tshabalala maintains that Standard Group is prioritizing organic growth in the region, implying that an acquisition is not on the near-term horizon for the bank.