Category: Business Daily

Kenya’s national health information systems face potential disruption following the withdrawal of external funding that supports critical digital infrastructure.

An analysis by the University of Nairobi’s Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA) shows that the Sh513 million allocated by the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) for the 2024-25 financial year to maintain these platforms is ending, with no domestic budget in place to replace it.

Health information systems are digital platforms that collect, store, manage, and transmit medical data across healthcare facilities.

They enable tracking of patient records, disease surveillance, immunisation coverage, and service delivery.

The systems include Electronic Medical Records (EMR) used in facilities nationwide, Kenya Health Information System (KHIS2), Chanjo KE for immunisation tracking, Damu KE for blood services management, and HIV data platforms.

They depend on donor funding for maintenance, upgrades, staff training, and cybersecurity support.

‘External funding is used to pay for installation and maintenance of information systems and generally strengthens health system building blocks (governance, financing, and service delivery),’ read the analysis.

According to CEMA, most donor support for these systems operates off-budget, giving the State limited visibility into actual operational costs.

‘Health information systems, including EMRs, KHIS2, Chanjo KE, Damu KE, and HIV data platforms, also depend heavily on external funding, with PEPFAR allocation of around Sh513 million for maintenance and support in the financial year 2024-25,’ CEMA said.

The EMR requires constant maintenance to function. Without paid technical support, server problems could prevent clinics from accessing patient histories, blocking doctors from retrieving viral load results for HIV patients and pharmacists from verifying medication histories.

Similarly, KHIS2, which aggregates health data from thousands of facilities daily, could face operational challenges when database management and backup system contracts expire, a situation that would force health facilities to rely on paper reporting while compromising the digital infrastructure that converts reports into national surveillance data needed for disease outbreak detection.

In addition, Chanjo KE provides real-time data, allowing health officials to identify children missing vaccinations. It coordinates blood supply between donation centres and hospitals, enabling facilities to locate available blood supplies and blood banks to track inventory and expiration dates.

Meanwhile, HIV programme monitoring, which tracks hundreds of thousands of people on antiretroviral treatment, also faces significant disruption. It is through this programme that specialists monitor treatment adherence, appointment attendance, viral load testing, and treatment failure risk across the country’s HIV care network.

However, the government cannot immediately allocate replacement funds without detailed cost assessments required to determine exact transition costs, a process that has not yet been done.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the privatisation of big national companies-a subject so consequential for our nation’s economic trajectory, especially its role in strengthening Kenya’s competitiveness and unlocking value in our State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

At the heart of this discussion is the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), in some quarters considered the ‘family silver’ given its strategic positioning in Kenya’s economic landscape. Currently, KPC is undergoing a legally mandated process toward partial public ownership and listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

Global experience over the past three decades indicates that privatisation has increasingly shifted from full divestments toward more structured mixed-ownership approaches.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) notes that such approaches often involve partial listings, phased divestments, and the retention by the state of significant minority or majority stakes where there is a continued public-interest rationale.

While concerns have been raised about potential loss of national control or distributional outcomes, others view privatisation as a mechanism to address operational inefficiencies. In this context, there is a need for clear public information on the nature of privatisation, its implementation, and its implications for Kenya’s economy and consumers.

Privatisation should not be understood as a wholesale divestment of public assets, nor as a remedy for all structural challenges.

It generally involves the selective transfer of ownership or management rights in commercial public enterprises to private or public markets, conducted within defined legal and regulatory frameworks.

In Kenya, this process is governed by the Privatisation Act 2025, which establishes requirements relating to transparency, valuation, oversight, and investor protection. The framework is intended to ensure that privatisation processes are structured, accountable, and guided by economic considerations and public-interest objectives.

Evidence from OECD and emerging economies suggests that, when supported by strong institutions, effective regulation, transparency, and sound corporate governance, such approaches can be associated with improvements in efficiency, competition, and consumer outcomes.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play an important role in Kenya’s economy. However, as is the case with many large public institutions globally, they may face structural constraints related to bureaucratic processes and limited access to capital.

Policy initiatives such as partial public listings are intended to introduce market-based discipline, support operational efficiency, and expand access to managerial and technical expertise.

Kenya has prior experience with this approach, with companies including Safaricom, KCB Group, and KenGen having undergone public listings and subsequently operated as publicly traded entities.

Listing public enterprises on the NSE also provides a mechanism for wider participation in the ownership of national assets. Public offerings allow individual investors, pension funds, and domestic institutional investors to acquire shareholdings in strategic enterprises.

This broadening of ownership can contribute to financial inclusion and the development of domestic capital markets, which are relevant to long-term economic growth and financial stability.

From a fiscal standpoint, structured privatisation may reduce pressure on public finances by enabling the reallocation of resources toward priority areas such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure. When appropriately designed, such approaches aim to balance efficiency in the use of public resources with continued oversight of strategically important national assets.

The Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is a central component of the petroleum logistics network, operating storage and pipeline infrastructure linking Mombasa to inland markets and generating substantial revenues.

While KPC remains profitable under State ownership, various assessments and stakeholder inputs have identified areas of potential improvement, including the need for system upgrades, capacity expansion and diversification.

The proposed KPC initial public offering and retention of a government shareholding seek to provide access to additional capital and expertise to support these objectives, rather than transfer control over strategic national infrastructure. The stated aim is to strengthen operational performance, service reliability, and its overall contribution to the economy.

Privatisation should be considered a tool of public economic management rather than a partisan issue.

When implemented within a clear legal and regulatory framework, it can support competitiveness, unlock value, and expand opportunities for broader economic participation.

Privatisation provides a mechanism for citizens to acquire stakes in State-owned enterprises, strengthening these companies, deepening domestic capital markets, and contributing to the effective management of public resources.

Over time, KenGen has operated under a mixed-ownership structure, with the government retaining a majority stake alongside minority participation by private investors.

As a result, the firm has expanded renewable energy capacity and accessed a range of development financing options. This experience is often cited as an example of how mixed-ownership models, when combined with established governance and accountability frameworks, can support operational expansion and investment in ways that may be more challenging under fully public ownership structures.

Addressing concerns and ensuring accountability

Critics of privatisation often raise important questions regarding beneficiaries, asset valuation, and protections for workers and consumers. Such concerns are central to effective policymaking.

Kenya’s privatisation framework addresses these issues through established valuation standards, public disclosure requirements, multi-layered oversight, and mechanisms for stakeholder participation.

In the case of KPC, certain aspects of the process have been legally challenged and are subject to judicial review, reflecting the country’s constitutional commitment to due process and transparency.

When marriages end, disputes over assets often centre on visible wealth, such as the marital home, land, cars or businesses. Rarely does the fight turn to pensions, and when it does, the outcomes aren’t quite what you would expect.

In an Eldoret High Court ruling made last year, RCK vs DKK Matrimonial cause 004 2022, the court denied prayers by the applicant to lay claim to the respondent’s pension upon dissolution of the marriage.

‘Regarding the Pension provided to the Respondent through his former employer’s Provident Fund, I agree with the Respondent’s Counsel that the Applicant cannot claim to be a beneficiary thereof. Counsel urged that the Applicant is herself a teacher by profession with a Master’s Degree and is equally pensionable. Counsel therefore, understandably wondered what will happen to her own pension when she retires.

There is merit in this submission. Counsel also raised the further credible argument that the Respondent is already retired with no other source of income, hence it would be unjust for his retirement benefits to be made part of matrimonial property. I agree. In any event, what contribution, within the meaning in Section 6 of the Matrimonial Property Act, could the Applicant have made to the Pension?’

Although Kenya’s Constitution and the Matrimonial Property Act frame how assets are divided at the end of a marriage, pension savings occupy a distinct legal space governed by the Retirement Benefits Act (RBA). This separate statutory regime is central to why pension benefits are rarely divisible in divorce, even though they were accumulated during the marriage.

The Constitution states that spouses have equal rights during marriage and at its dissolution. However, according to constitutional lawyers, equality does not mean sharing all your assets.

This is implemented through legislation such as the Matrimonial Property Act, which emphasises ownership and contribution rather than entitlement.

According to the Matrimonial Property Act, matrimonial property includes the marital home, household goods and other movable or immovable property jointly owned and acquired during the marriage.

Although pensions fall within the broad category of movable property, they are treated differently due to how they are created and protected under pension law. Legal experts argue that pension contributions are personal, even if they are made during marriage.

Victor Olao, a constitutional lawyer, says pension deductions are individual by design.

“Pensions are personal savings. Whether it’s a private scheme, the NSSF scheme, or any other scheme, whatever arrangement you have for your pension is a personal and individual contribution; it’s a personal savings.” Being married does not mean that you stop being you,’ he says.

He argues that marriage does not dissolve personal identity or convert individual financial arrangements into communal property.

He cautions that classifying pensions as marital property would blur important legal boundaries.

“That would be like saying what’s in your bank account is matrimonial property,” says Mr Olao.

The lawyer adds that pension contributions come directly from personal earnings or individual financial resources, not communal funds.

“Remember, the source of your contribution is your earnings from work or other financial resources. It is not communal or joint unless you have a corporate plan for you and your family.”

The RBA, which governs all registered pension schemes in Kenya, reinforces this. According to the Act, pension benefits are funds held in trust for the exclusive benefit of an identified member. Once contributions are remitted to a pension scheme, the law considers those funds to belong to the member immediately, subjecting them to the scheme’s rules.

The benefits are not treated as general property capable of assignment, attachment, or division while the identified member is alive.

According to Mr Olao, the law recognises the specificity of pension ownership from the moment of enrollment.

“Your partner cannot claim your bank account, which is why the member number, contributor, and pensioner are all specific,” he says. “You need your identity card and PIN. During enrollment, it goes directly to your individual details. So, unless it is specifically a joint scheme, pensions cannot form part of matrimonial property.”

Confusion often arises during divorce proceedings when spouses seek to trace contributions made during the marriage.

“When you say ‘me and so-and-so bought this home,’ you demonstrate your cash trail. My money came from here; this is the lump sum that I took, so I have a share of this land or house. That completes its purpose. Now, whatever is on the table is the house, not the pension,’ says Mr Olao.

At that point, the court focuses on the property acquired, not the origin of the funds.

He adds that, once funds are invested in a joint asset, their source becomes legally irrelevant. “Where you got it from is no longer an issue, whether it was a pension or if you robbed someone. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s just proof of contribution,” he says.

The same principle applies when one spouse takes out a loan to fund a joint investment. The liability for the loan remains personal, but the contribution is recognised. For example, if pension withdrawals are used to buy a marital home, the pension ceases to be subject to division.

Consequently, the RBA does not recognise divorce as a trigger event for the payment or division of an individual’s pension benefits. Pension trustees are only permitted to release benefits in the case of retirement, withdrawal under prescribed conditions, exit from employment, or the member’s death.

In the event of death, for example, benefits may be paid to the nominated beneficiaries or dependents. While the member is alive, payments are restricted to that individual.

The Act also stipulates that pension benefits are not part of a member’s estate for succession purposes until they are payable. This statutory protection is why pension administrators cannot act on divorce decrees as they do on probate or succession orders.

Even when courts recognise spousal contributions, pension trustees are legally bound by the RBA and cannot redirect benefits to a former spouse.

Ken Monyoncho, director at Enwealth Financial Services, says the distinction between matrimonial and pension law is intentional.

“Pension fund contributions are personal contributions. It cannot be given to someone who has not contributed,’ he says. “We don’t pay third parties. We can only pay a third party in the event of death, not divorce.’

According to the RBA, pension benefits are also non-assignable. They cannot be charged, attached, or used as security for obligations outside of the exceptions set out by law. Divorce-related claims fall outside of these exceptions and shield pension savings from division during marital dissolution.

“The moment money enters the pension scheme, it belongs to the member,” says Mr Monyoncho.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a new operational phase as companies begin testing systems designed not just to respond to prompts but to plan tasks, make decisions and execute actions continuously within business environments.

While most organisations have so far adopted AI as a productivity layer, the model is now shifting as agentic AI systems are developed to pursue defined goals over time and coordinate multiple actions rather than stop after completing single tasks.

Alongside this shift, research into artificial general intelligence (AGI) is expanding beyond narrow task optimisation toward systems capable of transferring knowledge across domains, a trajectory that could fundamentally alter how digital work is organised.

Global market intelligence firm The Business Research Company notes that one of the main factors propelling the AGI market is the rising investment in advanced AI research.

‘These investments focus on developing AI systems that perform complex tasks, learn from varied data, and exhibit reasoning and problem-solving on par with human cognition,’ notes the firm in a report.

‘Governments, private companies and academic institutions are investing heavily to build AI that can operate autonomously, improve decision-making, and foster innovation across multiple industries.’

Tech analysts observe that the transition is being driven by practical pressures, as businesses seek faster decision cycles, lower operational costs, and automation that extends beyond execution into planning and coordination.

According to Anthony Muiyuro, East Africa’s regional director at Syntura, the defining change is not intelligence itself but continuity of action within structured environments.

‘Today’s AI tools are largely reactive. They respond to prompts, execute narrow tasks and stop. Agentic systems, on the other hand, represent a shift toward proactive, goal-driven AI systems that can plan, make decisions, use tools, learn from outcomes, and act continuously with limited human intervention,’ says Mr Muiyuro.

The techie observes that the shift has become commercially viable due to a combination of stronger models, lower computing costs, and rising demand from firms seeking automation that delivers measurable efficiency gains.

Capabilities that signal movement toward autonomous reasoning include multi-step planning, goal prioritisation where systems decide what matters most under constraints, self-correction without retraining, as well as the ability to select and use software tools independently.

US-based Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has previously predicted that AGI will surpass total human intelligence by 2030, describing AI and robotics as a “supersonic tsunami” leading to a “technological singularity,” where AI iterates beyond human comprehension.

“Humans are currently in the ‘biological bootloader’ phase of digital superintelligence. This supersonic tsunami-like change no longer allows us to press the pause button,” said Mr Musk in a past interview.

Today, early versions of these capabilities already exist, but deployment remains limited as organisations test reliability and attempt to manage risks associated with autonomy at scale.

Industry specialists note that the constraint is less about technical performance and more about predictability, governance, and accountability when systems are allowed to act without continuous human oversight.

‘Expect narrow autonomous agents at scale within two to three years, with broader reasoning systems following more cautiously,’ predicts Mr Muiyuro.

As a result, early adoption is currently concentrated in roles that are knowledge-heavy, repeatable, and fully digital, where outcomes can be clearly defined and measured.

These include customer support operations, software maintenance, IT infrastructure management, compliance checks, and structured financial reporting functions, among others.

Such roles provide controlled environments in which objectives are explicit, data flows are logged, and errors can be detected before cascading through wider systems.

In contrast, roles that rely heavily on judgment, trust, or social context remain more insulated from near-term automation.

Services such as healthcare delivery, caregiving, diplomacy, and governance continue to require human discretion that is difficult to encode into autonomous systems. Rather than eliminating jobs, Nr Muiyuro says, agentic AI is expected to recompose roles by shifting routine execution to machines while concentrating human effort on oversight, exception handling, and strategic judgment.

While this restructuring creates productivity gains, it also introduces operational risks that differ from those associated with earlier automation technologies. One foreseeable risk is goal misalignment, where systems optimise defined objectives that do not fully reflect organisational intent or ethical boundaries.

Others include opacity, as autonomous decision paths can become difficult to audit or explain, with error amplification presenting further concerns, as small mistakes could propagate rapidly when systems operate continuously across interconnected processes.

Over-delegation and enhanced security exposure have also been cited as emerging risks, with humans potentially losing situational awareness as responsibility shifts incrementally toward autonomous systems.

Agentic systems often require access to sensitive data, credentials, and internal tools to function effectively, which, if compromised, could provide attackers with deeper access than traditional software applications.

Mr Muiyuro says governance frameworks have not kept pace with technological capability, particularly in emerging markets where regulatory capacity remains uneven.

‘While technical safeguards are improving, governance frameworks are lagging – especially in emerging markets. Regulation, board oversight, and accountability models are still catching up to the reality of autonomous systems operating inside businesses,’ he says.

‘The key challenge is not whether agentic AI will arrive, but whether organisations adopt it deliberately, responsibly, and with human control firmly in the loop.’

Globally, firms deploying agentic AI are doing so cautiously, often limiting decision authority and requiring human approval at critical stages.

Most deployments begin with narrow use cases, parallel human supervision, and extensive logging to evaluate performance and risk exposure.

The public procurement watchdog is seeking the Senate’s intervention to rein in six counties that have ignored calls to address procurement malpractices in contracts valued at billions of shillings.

The regulator has written to Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, complaining that the counties have failed to follow procurement laws and could have lost cash, failed to pay suppliers, and are hiding procurement documents to escape accountability.

Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Director-General Patrick Wanjuki wrote to Mr Kingi last month requesting the Senate’s intervention. He listed Nairobi, Marsabit, Migori, Wajir, Mandera and Isiolo, among the worst offenders.

‘The authority has made repeated attempts to obtain the requisite information and documentation through formal engagement letters and reminder letters. Regrettably, the County Government of Nairobi has failed to submit the required procurement records/information to the authority, therefore, denying it access to records/information,’ Mr Wanjuki said in a January 22, 2026, letter.

Similar letters to the other five counties were sent to Mr Kingi, flagging several tenders issued between 2024 and last year, where the counties messed up procurement processes.

The PPRA blames the counties for refusing to upload documents on the Public Procurement Information Portal (PPIP) as required, including tender advertisements and documents, and contract awards.

The law mandates PPRA to assess contracts awarded by all public entities to confirm their compliance with legal requirements and ensure they do not lead to loss of public money.

‘This has hindered execution of the authority’s mandate as stipulated under Section 9 of the Act of monitoring the public procurement system; report on its overall functioning, and recommend areas of improvement,’ Mr Wanjuki said.

He said the lack of access to counties’ procurement information has hindered the PPRAS from preparing reports for submission to the National Treasury, Cabinet Secretary and Parliament, to inform them whether their procurement activities comply with the law.

Sources familiar with the PPRA investigations into the counties said the regulator is pursuing details on possible loss of public money in flawed contracts, while probing further queries raised in audits.

The watchdog now says it is naming the six counties in its ‘list of shame’ and is asking the Senate to recommend ‘administrative measures to address persistent non-compliance to strengthen governance and accountability’.

‘The Authority therefore seeks the intervention of the Senate pursuant to Section 9(1) (n) of the Act to take necessary measures as may be necessary to ensure that (the counties) comply fully with their legal obligations and cooperate with regulatory processes,’ Mr Wanjuki said.

The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 empowers the PPRA to monitor procurement systems across the public service and investigate complaints received on procurements, or where it suspects there have been breaches.

The law also empowers the PPRA Director-General to terminate procurement proceedings or transfer procuring responsibilities of a non-compliant procuring entity to another, where there have been legal breaches.

Among tenders the PPRA previously flagged in Nairobi County was one on the provision of comprehensive medical cover to county workers in July 2024, faulting a number of skewed clauses in the tendering process that unfairly affected some of the bidders.

The Authority had written to Nairobi County’s acting County Secretary and Head of Public Service Patrick Analo on July 18, 2024, flagging issues including a requirement that bidders provide a list of five medical clients they had dealt with, with premiums of at least Sh100 million.

‘The requirement of Sh100 Million annual premiums per each of the five medical clients is unnecessarily high and should be reviewed to an average of Sh100 million for a maximum of three medical clients to promote competition amongst the industry players,’ Mr Wanjuki said in the letter.

In a June 18, 2025 letter to Migori’s County Executive Committee (CEC) Member for Finance, Maurice Otunga, the regulator also flagged three tenders valued Sh60 million, while faulting the county for failing to upload procurement documents on the public portal.

The flagged tenders were on the construction of a medical surgical complex, a health products warehouse and a physiotherapy unit at the Migori County Referral Hospital.

The county is accused of failing to upload documents relating to the three tenders on the public portal, unfairly disqualifying one of the companies that bid, and a lack of quorum in the committee that opened bids.

‘The Authority will not hesitate to request other investigative agencies to further investigate you as the Accounting Officer, the HOP (head of procurement), and other senior officials of your entity pursuant to Section 45 (2) (b) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act (ACECA) on willful failure to adhere to procurement laws should you continue to disregard the directives of the Authority,’ Mr Wanjuki warned.

The procurement watchdog further flagged Wajir County for delayed payments to suppliers, writing to the County Secretary in September last year.

I’ve always viewed film as an architectural blueprint for the human psyche. Movies give shape to our vague desires and provide a safe sandbox to explore versions of ourselves that reality doesn’t allow.

They satisfy a deep-seated need for meaning by imposing narrative logic, creating a world where every struggle has a purpose and every action leads to a resolution.

Through the psychological mechanism of identification, characters’ lives become monumental, fulfilling our fantasies of power and heroism without the actual risk.

Beyond simple escapism, film serves as emotional rehearsal, confronting our darkest fears in a controlled environment, providing a release that helps us navigate the complexity of our real lives. When we sit in the dark, we walk, walk, walk, feel and live with the characters.

Now, with that profound introduction out of the way, let’s look at a more grounded reality, the workplace, the office. Think of that terrible boss who looks down on everyone, the one who mistakes seniority for superiority.

Then, think of the overworked, underestimated employee who is actually the most competent person in the room, the one keeping the gears turning while the “leadership” takes the credit. Now, imagine those two stuck on an island after a plane crash.

Suddenly, the corporate structure is gone and survival is core.

The HR handbooks and the LinkedIn platitudes are burnt to ash. The employee has the survival skills, the grit and the practical knowledge.

The boss is injured and his life heavily depends on the employee. The power dynamic flips entirely. That is the premise of Sam Raimi’s latest movie, Send Help.

Starring Rachel McAdams as Linda and Dylan O’Brien as Bradley, the film wastes little time setting the stage. Linda is the overlooked corporate strategist, the person who does the math while being treated like furniture.

Bradley is the annoying person at the top, a man born in privilege. After their plane goes down in the Gulf of Thailand, the hierarchy is physically dismantled. Bradley is left with a mangled leg, a literal and metaphorical handicap that makes him entirely dependent on Linda’s survivalist expertise. The executive becomes the excess baggage, and the employee becomes the ruler.

As mentioned before, this is from Sam Raimi, the man who directed one of the best Spider-Man trilogies and, of course, Evil Dead. His signature is all over this. You see it in the frantic editing, the gory, practical-feeling effects, and an intentionally over-the-top tone.

By the way, I should mention, like Evil Dead, there is an element of dark comedy with this. Raimi has always had a fascination with how humans break under pressure, and he uses the island as a pressure cooker.

At times, the CGI is obvious, but in a way that feels endearing, reminiscent of his earlier work where the look was part of the charm. Other times, the digital work is just plain bad, looking rushed or out of place against the natural beauty of the setting. But when the movie leans into its campy horror roots and lets the blood spray, it all comes together.

The performances are the anchors here. McAdams is fantastic,, showing a range from a meek “office robot” to a hardened survival expert. That transition feels natural because of her performance, but the script is not strong.

Dylan O’Brien follows up his great work in Caddo Lake with a restrained, artful performance as a man losing his grip on authority. It would have been easy to play Bradley as a cartoon, but O’Brien finds the pathetic core of the character and brings out the annoying and abrasive nature of that personality.

In the quieter moments, these two manage to find a depth I didn’t expect from what I think is a generic genre film.

In fact, after the plane crash, I started to feel like I had seen this scenario before. Everything, while competently directed, reminded me of Triangle of Sadness.

Different setups, sure, but the themes are identical, the social underdog becomes the leader through sheer necessity, and the “elite” is reduced to a whimpering child.

If you enjoyed Triangle of Sadness, then Send Help will not feel fresh. It’s a familiar blueprint.

I found myself guessing the twists and reveals because the path had already been laid out by other films that explored the class-flip survival trope.

We live in an era of sequels and reboots. I understand there’s no such thing as a truly original idea anymore; we are all just remixing same human anxieties. But when the thematic beats are this similar, it becomes hard to stay surprised.

While the performances are great and Sam Raimi’s direction gives the story a punch that provides its own unique feel, I kept thinking this would have been better on streaming. It feels like a high-quality Movie of the Week rather than a cinematic event that demands a theatrical experience.

I was also surprised to learn that Danny Elfman handled the score.

Usually, an Elfman/Raimi collaboration is a match made in heaven, but here, the music lacks the distinct drama and personality you expect from him. It’s functional but forgettable. Visually, the movie looks great, but to be honest, I was lost in the direction and the pacing to notice anything special with the cinematography. It didn’t have those “wow” frames that linger in the mind after the credits roll.

That said, the movie does get interesting when it plays with the concept of the moral dilemma. Initially, Bradley is the pure villain and Linda is the moral lead. We want to see her win. But as the story unfolds, the film throws out information that complicates things. It isn’t a simple good vs. evil story. Both Linda and Bradley do questionable things throughout the movie.

The film is consistently testing your outlook on both characters, asking the audience how much cruelty they would tolerate if it meant staying alive.

There is a quiet moment that felt like the movie’s strongest point, a scene anchored entirely on performance that gives you a look into who these people really are behind their titles. It’s a glimpse of their past, clean and sometimes dirty.

But I thought the film could have done more with these moments. There are places where the film could have gone further into the darkness. Linda’s story about her past, for example, doesn’t fully explore her guilt or lack thereof. It feels like a missed opportunity to truly dissect her psyche.

The structural pacing also falters. The reveal of some things I thought came in too early, robbing those beats of the slow-burn tension they deserved. And while the ending, Linda’s transformation into what she decides to be (no spoilers), is fascinating on paper, it doesn’t land with the weight it could.

Or rather, it didn’t work for me. The ending is where the movie totally lost me. I thought it was the weakest point of the story, a bit of low-hanging fruit that felt beneath the creators. It was lazy, which for a Sam Raimi movie was a genuine surprise.

I kept wishing the film would push me emotionally, to make me hate Bradley enough to cheer his suffering, or sympathise with him enough to feel conflicted when Linda turns. But, I found myself just observing.

The film told me what was happening, but didn’t always make me feel it. The sandbox felt a little too controlled, the emotional rehearsal a little too scripted.

Send Help is a generic script that only works because of the direction. It sits in that awkward middle ground between something meant for the prestige of cinema and something designed for the casual consumption of streaming. Even if the writing feels a bit under-baked in spots, the performances make it a journey worth taking once, even if you’ve seen the map before.

Bali, Indonesia, often referred to as “the island of the gods”, is gaining popularity among Kenyan travellers, putting pressure on traditional destinations like Dubai, Zanzibar and Turkey.

According to travel experts, inquiries and bookings to Bali have increased in recent years, largely due to easier visa access, high-value luxury offerings at affordable rates and a growing appetite for experiential travel among Kenyans.

Urbanus Mbili Ngao, founder and director of Urbann Vacations, a Nairobi-based tours and travel company that has been organising trips to Bali since 2019, says: “There is a definite increase in Kenyans travelling to Bali. This trend started around three years ago, and we now handle up to 10 bookings every month, up from one to two groups per month.”

The majority of these bookings are made up of couples and groups of women with four or more members, primarily aged between 30 and 45.

“In the past year, we’ve also booked a lot of couples travelling to Bali for an anniversary or honeymoon.”

While Dubai and Zanzibar remain popular – Dubai for its shopping and business offerings, and Zanzibar for its proximity, clean beaches and exotic resorts – Mr Ngao says Bali occupies a slightly different niche.

The Indonesian island is often compared to Malaysia and Singapore, both of which are renowned for their incredible cultural diversity, varied dining options and a blend of tropical landscapes and modern, accessible infrastructure.

A key driver of Bali’s rising popularity is Indonesia’s visa-upon-arrival policy for Kenyan passport holders, negating the need for lengthy pre-travel visa applications.

“Kenyans can acquire an Indonesian visa from the Indonesian Immigration department at their point of entry for around $50 (Sh6,450),” says Mr Ngao. “The process is very easy and straightforward, and it allows you to not only travel to Bali, but also to other places within Indonesia, such as Jakarta.”

Winnie Mwikali, a tour consultant from TrippyGO Tours and Travel, says they began facilitating trips to Bali in mid-2024. However, it wasn’t until 2025 that they started seeing increased interest. Since then, they have seen a 41 percent increase in Bali-bound travellers.

“Bali became particularly popular among women’s groups in 2025. From around May, we began to experience a surge in inquiries and confirmed bookings,” says Ms Mwikali. “Also, due to visa restrictions in Dubai, many clients shifted their focus to Asian countries with visa-free or visa-on-arrival options.”

Ms Mwikali reveals that most of their clients are solo female travellers or groups of women, who are drawn to locations like Kintamani and Ubud, which offer exceptional backgrounds for social media content.

“Some popular destinations and experiences that attract our clients to Bali include the picturesque Bali Swing near Ubud, the Kintamani Volcano and the Ubud rice terraces.”

According to Kui Kimani, the CEO of Travel et Vogue, a destination management company, these experiences are why Kenyans keep going back to Bali.

‘I’ve been to Bali three times, and I’d go back another three times without hesitation,’ she says. “Bali offers the rare champagne lifestyle on a beer budget. It’s luxury at a pocket-friendly price.’

Gushing about Bali’s dreamy sunsets, Ms Kimani points to the experiences that continuously draw Kenyan travellers. These include private villas with pools and floating breakfasts, lush tropical settings, and rich cultural rituals such as fire dancing and cleansing ceremonies.

Visitors can also enjoy waterfall visits, rafting, quad biking, island hopping in Nusa Penida and treks through Ubud’s monkey forest.

“The Instagram-worthy swings and hidden waterfalls entice people to come, but it’s the variety that keeps them there,” shares Ms Kimani.

Travel experts note that the average tourist spends four to eight nights in Bali, often splitting their time between different locations, but they also combine these trips with tours of neighbouring countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Costs tend to differ based on activities, booking season and level of luxury. On average, Kenyan tourists spend between $1,550 (Sh200,000) and $8,000 (Sh1,032,036) on an all-inclusive package to Bali.

Flights to Bali commonly route through Doha or Dubai, with lay-overs averaging two to three hours.

“For easy entry, Kenyans can apply for their visa through the official immigration website. They will also need to fill out a digital arrival declaration form at least 72 hours before arrival,” advises Ms Mwikali. Other requirements include a valid passport, a return air ticket and hotel vouchers. Sometimes, they will be asked to show their bank statements.

Industry players say the rise of the Indonesian destination simply reflects the love Kenyans have for travelling to nice and safe destinations that offer value for money. While interest in other destinations, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and South Korea, is growing in Kenya, the experts are confident that Bali will continue to be a popular destination.

We will be the last generation to work with all-human workforces. This is not a provocative soundbite but a statement of fact, one that signals a fundamental shift in how organisations operate and what leadership now demands.

The challenge facing today’s leaders is not simply adopting new technology but architecting an entirely new operating model where humans and autonomous AI agents work in concert.

According to Salesforce 2025 CEO research, 99 percent of CEOs say they are prepared to integrate digital labour into their business, yet only 51 percent feel fully prepared to do so.

This gap between awareness and readiness reveals the central tension of this moment: we recognise the transformation ahead but lack established frameworks for navigating it. The question is… whether leaders can develop the new capabilities required to direct this dual workforce effectively.

The scale of change is already visible in the data. According to the latest CIO trends, AI implementation has surged 282 percent year over year, jumping from 11 percent to 42 percent of organisations deploying AI at scale.

With the majority of CEOs acknowledging that digital labour will transform their company structure entirely, and that implementing agents is critical for competing in today’s economic climate, the reality is that transformation is not coming, it’s already here.

Traditional management models, built on hierarchies of human workers executing tasks under supervision, were designed for a different era. What is needed now might be called the Director of the dual workforce, a leader whose mandate is not to execute every task but to oversee effective collaboration between human teams and autonomous digital labour.

This role is governed by five core principles that define how AI agents should be structured, deployed and optimised within organisations.

Structure forms the foundation. Just as organisational charts define human roles and reporting lines, leaders must design clear frameworks for AI agents, defining their scope, establishing mandates and setting boundaries for their operation.

Without proper structure, agents risk operating in silos or creating new inefficiencies rather than resolving existing ones. Oversight translates structure into accountability. Leaders must establish clear performance metrics and conduct regular reviews of their digital workforce, applying the same rigour they bring to managing human teams.

To ensure agents learn from trusted data and behave as intended before deployment, training and testing is required. Leaders bear responsibility for curating the knowledge base agents access and rigorously testing their behaviour before release.

Additionally, strategy determines where and how to deploy agent resources for competitive advantage.

This requires identifying high-value, repetitive or complex processes where AI augmentation drives meaningful impact. Early adoption patterns reveal clear trends: According to the Salesforce Agentic Enterprise Index tracking the first half of 2025, organisations saw a 119 percent increase in agents created.

The fifth principle, to observe and track, has emerged as perhaps the most critical enabler for scaling AI deployments safely. This requires real-time visibility into agent behaviour and performance, creating transparency that builds trust and enables rapid optimisation.

The current generation of leaders are the crucial architects who must design and lead this transition.

The role of director of the dual workforce is not aspirational but necessary, grounded in principles that govern effective agent deployment. Success requires moving beyond viewing AI as a technical initiative to understanding it as an organisational transformation that touches every aspect of operations, from workflow design to performance management to strategic planning.

Given the surge in AI implementation, leaders need unified views of their AI operations to scale securely.

Success hinges on seamless integration into core systems rather than isolated projects, and agentic AI demands new skills, with the top three in demand being leadership, storytelling and change management.

The ability to observe and track agent performance is what makes this integration possible, allowing leaders to identify issues quickly, demonstrate accountability and make informed decisions about scaling.

The shift towards dual workforce management is already reshaping executive priorities and relationships. CIOs now partner more closely with CEOs than any other C-suite peer, reflecting their changing and central role in technology-driven strategy.

Meanwhile, recent CHRO research found that 80 percent of Chief Human Resources Officers believe that within five years, most workforces will combine humans and AI agents, with expected productivity gains of 30 percent and labour cost reductions of 19 percent.

The financial perspective has also clearly shifted dramatically, with CFOs moving away from cautious experimentation toward actively integrating AI agents into how they assess value, measure return on investment, and define broader business outcomes.

Leading the transition

This transformation also demands new capabilities from leaders themselves.

The skills that defined effective management in all-human workforces remain important but are no longer sufficient.

Leaders must develop fluency in understanding agent capabilities and limitations, learn to design workflows that optimally divide labor between humans and machines, and cultivate the ability to measure and optimise performance across both types of workers.

They must also navigate the human dimensions of this transition, helping employees understand how their roles evolve, ensuring that the benefits of productivity gains are distributed fairly, and maintaining organisational cultures that value human judgement and creativity even as routine tasks migrate to digital labor.

The responsibility to direct what comes next, to architect systems where human creativity, judgement and relationship-building combine with the scalability, consistency and analytical power of AI agents, rests with today’s leaders.

The organisations that thrive will be those whose directors embrace this mandate, developing the structures, oversight mechanisms, training protocols, strategic frameworks and observability systems that allow dual workforces to deliver on their considerable promise.

Nedbank Group of South Africa has promised to keep all NCBA Group employees in place once it completes its proposed takeover of the bank, with the commitment being a key consideration of the Kenyan lender’s board when it recommended the transaction to shareholders.

In a notice of additional information on the offer, NCBA said that the South African bank expects the human resource of the local unit to play a key role in the wider group, effectively spearheading its East African expansion strategy.

When it announced its tender offer for a 66 percent stake in Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed NCBA on January 21, Nedbank did not address the expected impact of the transaction on employees.

In a subsequent interview however, NCBA Chief Executive John Gachora indicated that minimal disruption to the lender’s brand, staff and business were key deciding factors in its recommendation of the Nedbank offer to shareholders.

Latest filings by NCBA show that it had 3,712 staff on its books at the end of December 2024, having gone up from 3,462 in December 2023.

‘The offeror (Nedbank) has confirmed… that following the completion of the proposed transaction, the existing contractual and statutory employment rights of the existing NCBA management and employees will remain in full force in accordance with applicable laws,’ said NCBA in its notice published on Monday.

‘The NCBA management and employees will play an important role in the future development of the enlarged group.’

Previous banking sector mergers or acquisitions of this scale have often resulted in painful integration processes that include job losses, and branch closures and consolidation of systems that disrupt customer experience.

The proposed Nedbank investment has also been made easier on NCBA by the fact that it does not have an operating banking presence in Kenya, where it only runs a representative office.

Speaking last month to the Business Daily, Mr Gachora said that the NCBA board prioritised a transaction that would preserve the bank’s identity, structure and brand.

Under the proposed transaction, NCBA will retain its existing board structure, with Nedbank nominating at least two directors to its board, while the current NCBA shareholders will appoint one representative to sit on Nedbank’s board. The Nedbank offer was one of several that had been forwarded by foreign lenders.

There was market speculation that Standard Bank of South Africa was interested in a buyout of NCBA, through its Kenyan subsidiary Stanbic Holdings.

Nedbank is bidding for a 66 percent stake in NCBA, proposing to pay for 80 percent of the offered shares through a share swap and the remaining 20 percent in cash at a rate of Sh2,100 for each 100 shares. The Nedbank shares are priced at 250 rands (Sh1,928.50) in the transaction.

The swap component will see the Kenyan bank’s shareholders receive 4.02994 Nedbank shares for every 100 NCBA they hold, although those whose holdings are not large enough to secure them at least 200 Nedbank shares will be paid fully in cash.

The Nedbank offer is worth 13.9 billion rand (Sh109.9 billion), with all NCBA shareholders eligible to tender to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed lender 66 percent of their shares on a prorated basis.

NCBA had 11,912 shareholders with holdings of between one and 500 shares as of December 2025, according to regulatory filings.

Another 13,389 investors had portfolios ranging from 501 and 5,000 shares. The filings show that 1,853 of the bank’s shareholders held between 5,001 and 10,000 shares.

The major owners of the lender include the Jomo Kenyatta family, the Philip Ndegwa family and the Simeon Nyachae family.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will unveil a special tax compliance certificate for businesses that fully adopt the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS).

Unlike the current Tax Compliance Certificate, which primarily tracks return filing and payments, the new Merchant Tax Compliance Certificate will integrate eTIMS compliance.

By making this a requirement, the taxman aims to nudge businesses toward ensuring that all their expenses are backed by valid electronic tax invoices.

Businesses need a tax compliance certificate for various reasons, including when bidding for government tenders, customs clearance, and when obtaining or renewing various licences, such as liquor licences or clearing and forwarding agent licences.

Individuals will need tax compliance certificates when applying for government jobs, and for foreign nationals when applying for or renewing work permits.

KRA Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga said the issue of the merchant tax compliance certificate will level the playing field by ensuring all corporate transactions are electronically captured and validated for enhanced transparency.

‘A level playing field can only be achieved when all businesses comply with tax obligations and statutory levies,’ he said while speaking at the 2026 AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce) Outlook Forum.

‘It is for this reason that KRA is rolling out initiatives such as the Merchant Tax Compliance Certificate to promote consistent and strong compliance across the business community,’ said Mr Wattanga.

He also said the KRA is implementing initiatives to ensure that all individuals earning more than Sh24,000 per month pay their fair share of taxes.

‘This has informed the introduction of income and expense validation, for both individual and non-individual income tax returns, using data from eTIMS, withholding tax records and import information from customs systems,’ he said.

The e-TIMS is a digital platform that requires businesses to issue electronic tax invoices for taxable supplies, allowing the KRA to track sales in real time for value-added tax (VAT) compliance.

Effective January 1, the KRA started to automatically validate declared income and expenses against real-time eTIMS data, withholding tax records, and customs imports.

KRA detectives have identified 392,162 firms and wealthy individuals owing Sh759.7 billion, setting the stage for travel bans, asset freeze and deactivation of Personal Identification Numbers.

The taxman unearthed the alleged tax cheats and dodgers in the wake of an audit of the withholding tax registry, which revealed that the self-declared income was substantially lower than the amounts reported by third parties paying for the taxpayers’ services.

In some instances, the taxpayers declared nil returns despite the firms they did business with declaring payments to them.

Earlier, the KRA disclosed that monthly domestic VAT collections have risen to between Sh28 billion and Sh30 billion, up from Sh20 billion, lifted by a requirement that all supply transactions be accompanied by eTIMS-generated tax invoices.

The government plans to increase tax collection and cut debt after years of ramped-up borrowing to build infrastructure.

With opposition to new and higher taxes, the KRA is racing to bring more people into the tax bracket and curb cheats and dodgers in the quest to meet revenue targets.