Category: Business Daily

The horrific fire at Utumishi girls school in Nakuru left the nation traumatised. This was followed by a series of identical fires across many boarding secondary schools leading to temporary closures. While investigations into circumstances that led to the tragedy at Utumishi are ongoing, several leaders have proposed reintroduction of corporal punishment. I disagree.

Corporal punishment was banned in Kenyan schools in 2001 and was later outlawed in all settings and for all persons in the Constitution 2010. The reason justification was due to widespread cases of serious student injuries including fatalities.

Outright abuses were inherent in the caning model. These abuses included collective punishment, excessive caning, punishment out of malice and for minor offenses.

The most inhumane reason for corporal punishment was connected to poor exam performance. In the latter there were cases when students would be caned for every question failed. This often led to an atmosphere of terror where some learners could even succumb to enuresis out of fear.

The modern world guided by scientific evidence has moved on from corporal punishment. The World Health Organization opposes this based on the harm caused. While the physical dangers are obvious, the psychological harm is often hidden but long lasting.

Physical abuse in the name of corporal punishment can hamper brain development, cause post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and school refusal. The child’s ability to learn is impaired and the scars may follow them into adulthood. Children who are physically abused through caning are conditioned to use violence as adults.

The Kenya Psychiatric Association (KPA) in a 2022 paper, takes a position against any form of punishment related to academic performance. KPA says intellectual capacity of students varies based on many factors including genetic, psychological and environmental. A student with a learning disability in Mathematics or reading will not improve through physical torture.

The association proposes use of rewards to motivate students to perform better. KPA disapproves corporal punishment in its entirety.

Psychiatrists propose use of alternatives to corporal punishment that should be proportionate to mistakes committed. The association further recommends mental health assessment for students who show repeated cases of indiscipline.

Many factors may be responsible for unrest in our schools. These factors include poor living conditions, inadequate food and overcrowding.

The number of students in our high schools has doubled and, in some cases, tripled in the last 20 years. Even in the best-case scenario where teacher to student ratio is favourable and all other conditions are addressed; these overpopulated schools are unmanageable.

The strategy to avert future cases of indiscipline should include the building of new schools to ease the pressure on management. The standards articulated in our educational policies need to be upheld. It is also important to equip teachers with skills to address social psychological challenges among students. Scrapping boarding schools in one fell swoop is simplistic, impractical and escapist.

The phenomenon of group think needs special attention. When a human being finds themselves in a group – as often happens among high school students – they lose their personal identity, are forced to conform and the outcome may be violence directed towards a group identified as the enemy.

In a landmark experiment, Solomon Asch demonstrated that 75 percent of adult humans would make an incorrect decision when faced with the pressure to conform to a group. The results of this experiment partly explain the reasons behind the holocaust, terrorism, shakahola massacre and school fires.

Teens, grappling with questions of identity face an even higher risk of social influence which may be propagated through the media when coverage may unwittingly confer heroic status on culprits.

As the country reflects on the recent anarchy in our schools, the temptation to embrace solutions straight from the gut must be avoided. Scientific evidence should form the foundation for interventions.

The current evidence condemns corporal punishment in favour of school mental health programmes as they will equip our young people with requisite skills needed to grow into happy and responsible citizens.

The cost of a healthy plate of food in Kenya has risen by 75.79 percent over the past eight years, new data from a group of United Nations agencies shows, pushing nutritious meals further out of reach for over 43 million Kenyans even as the country’s food insecurity crisis persists.

The data shows that the cost of a healthy diet in Kenya climbed from $2.56 (about Sh114.68 at current purchasing power parity rates) per person per day in 2017 to $4.50 (about Sh201.6) in 2025. The IMF has set Kenya’s current purchasing power parity (PPP)-the rate primarily used to compare living standards and economic productivity across nations-at 44.8 against the international dollar.

The data is from a survey conducted by UN agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

According to the FAO, a healthy diet is adequate, diverse, balanced, and moderate, ensuring that people receive the necessary nutrients while avoiding harmful excesses.

The cost estimates are based on what the FAO calls a ‘healthy diet basket’, which is a combination of the cheapest locally available foods across six food groups: starchy staples, animal-source foods, legumes, nuts and seeds, oils and fats, fruits, and vegetables, standardised to provide 2,330 kilocalories per day. It is designed as a cost floor, not a record of what people actually eat, and does not capture the cost of preparing food or how it is shared within a household.

In 2017, a healthy diet in Kenya was cheaper than the Eastern African sub-regional average ($2.56 versus $2.84). By 2025, the two had nearly closed the gap, with Kenya at $ 4.50 and Eastern Africa as a whole at $4.34. Kenya’s 2025 cost also sits close to the average for lower-middle-income countries globally, $4.36, the income group that Kenya belongs to.

Rising diet costs across Africa are attributed to climate shocks affecting harvests, elevated fuel and transport costs, reliance on food imports, post-harvest losses, and volatility in global markets-particularly for nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and lean proteins, which make up the most expensive part of a healthy diet. In the region, animal-source foods, fruits and vegetables together account for close to 70 per cent of the total cost of a healthy diet, despite contributing less than half of its calories.

‘Inflation continued to raise food prices in 2025…The percentage of people who cannot afford a healthy diet (PUA) remains highest in Africa, where it is estimated to have reached 66.6 percent in 2025, more than double the levels currently estimated for Asia (28.9 percent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (25.7 percent),’ reads the report.

That 75.8 percent increase outpaced the global average, which rose from $2.94 to $4.28 over the same period, and pushed Kenya’s diet cost above the world average for the first time in the series, even though the country remains a lower-middle-income economy with far lower average incomes than many high-income countries with cheaper healthy diets.

Meanwhile, 76.3 percent of Kenyans, or about 43.9 million people, could not afford a healthy diet in 2025, up from 69.8 percent (34.3 million people) in 2017. The situation worsened in 2021, when 78.0 percent of the population was priced out of a healthy diet, at the height of pandemic-era disruption and the food and fuel price shocks that followed.

That means Kenya added roughly 9.6 million people to the ranks of those unable to afford proper nutrition in eight years.

‘When healthy food becomes unaffordable, households typically shift toward cheaper, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor foods, a pattern linked to childhood stunting and a rising burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension,’ said the report.

Kenya’s food unaffordability rate is now higher than both the Sub-Saharan Africa average (73.5 percent) and the Africa-wide average (66.6 percent), and more than double the global average of 32.7 percent. It is also marginally higher than the Eastern Africa subregional average of 76.5 percent, a group that includes Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Somalia, among others.

The number of banks cutting Pesalink fees has nearly doubled to 19, as lenders roll out free transfers of up to Sh1,000 and a flat charge of Sh20 on larger transactions to attract retail payment flows.

The move, which represents a discount from the charges of up to Sh250 that customers have been paying for Pesalink transfers, aims at capturing a bigger share of person-to-person payments. The discounted price applies to any transaction from a participating financial institution to another.

The number of banks and microfinance banks who have agreed to the discounted tariff has risen from 10 in under two months and now includes five of the top 10 lenders in Kenya.

Absa Bank Kenya and Stanbic Bank Kenya have become the latest major banks to enrol, joining KCB Bank Kenya, Diamond Trust Bank and Prime Bank who had lowered the rates by mid May this year.

Other new entrants are HFCB, Victoria Commercial Bank, Access Bank Kenya, Citibank N.A Kenya, Commercial International Bank and Faulu Microfinance Bank.

Under the new model, transfers of up to Sh1,000 are free, while any amount above that up to Sh999,999 attracts a flat Sh20 fee regardless of value. The new tariff is a shift from tiered pricing that has traditionally characterised bank transfers.

The initiative, dubbed ‘Tuma Direct na Mbao,’ signals a co-ordinated effort by lenders to make bank-based transfers more attractive at a time when mobile money platforms such as M-Pesa continue to dominate everyday payments.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa, which dominates person-to-person mobile money transfers, charges tiered fees based on transaction value.

M-Pesa transfers of up to Sh100 are free, while those between Sh101 and Sh500 attract a fee of Sh7. Transactions ranging from Sh501 to Sh1,000 cost Sh33, with charges increasing progressively to Sh108 for the maximum permitted transfer of Sh250,000.

In comparison, Pesalink’s new pricing presents a cheaper option for low- to mid-value transactions within banks’ wallets, presenting competition in the retail transactions space. Banks have also been innovating in the payment space through pay bill numbers as opposed to the traditional card-based deals.

Completing the list of 19 players offering the reduced charges on Pesalink are GT Bank, SBM Bank, Paramount Bank, Credit Bank, Ecobank Kenya, Bank of Baroda, Choice Bank and Caritas Microfinance Bank.

Pesalink CEO Gituku Kirika said in May this year talks are ongoing to onboard more banks in a development that promises to boost person-to-person deals through banks. Among large banks, Equity Bank Kenya, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, NCBA Bank Kenya and I and M Bank are yet to join.

Mr Kirika said the pricing overhaul is part of a broader strategy to make digital payments affordable, predictable and easier for consumers.

‘We have been championing for a long time the reduction of the cost of payments and also the standardisation of it so that it is easier for consumers to understand what they are paying. We are talking to more players so that it becomes an industry-wide price that can ride on volumes,’ he said.

Banks are seeking to claw back transaction volumes from mobile money services, particularly in the person-to-person segment where convenience and cost have historically tilted the market in favour of telcos.

Pesalink, operated by Integrated Payment Services Limited under the Kenya Bankers Association, has evolved into an instant payment switch connecting more than 195 financial institutions, including banks, saccos and fintech wallets. The platform is also expanding its reach to telcos as part of a broader push towards interoperability.

Currently, the system processes over one million transactions monthly, with the value of daily transactions being between Sh5 billion and Sh6 billion.

Pesalink is also working to simplify transactions, particularly in addressing the complexity associated with bank transfers that require detailed account information.

The sector plans to switch to simpler identifiers such as mobile phone numbers or identity card numbers instead of bank account details that are cumbersome to master.

Earlier this year, thousands of Kenyans received an unusual text message from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). Although they had filed nil tax returns, KRA’s records showed they had earned income and informed them that a pre-populated return was ready for filing.

No auditor had visited. No inquiry had been made. The system had simply compared what taxpayers declared with information already held from other sources.

That message captured a profound shift in Kenya’s tax administration.

The law still rests on self-assessment, with taxpayers declaring their income and the Commissioner retaining the power to verify it. In practice, however, compliance is increasingly determined not by what taxpayers report but by whether their declarations match the growing web of third-party data available to KRA.

At the centre of this transformation is the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS), which gives KRA near real-time visibility of business transactions.

Sales, purchases and VAT invoices are captured electronically, while expenses lacking valid electronic invoices are increasingly disallowed for tax purposes.

Returns filed through iTax are now cross-checked against this data, making tax filing less of a declaration and more of a confirmation exercise.

The information pool extends far beyond invoices. Customs records reveal imports, withholding VAT agents independently report taxable transactions, employers submit monthly PAYE returns, while company registry records link directors to businesses.

Amendments introduced through the Finance Act 2026 further empower KRA to generate assessments using existing data and issue pre-populated returns, reducing reliance on voluntary disclosures.

Kenya is not alone. Around the world, tax authorities are embracing data-driven administration to improve compliance and target evasion more efficiently. Honest taxpayers should welcome systems that reduce arbitrary audits and level the playing field.

Yet data is not infallible. Duplicate invoices, incorrect PINs, timing differences and supplier errors can all produce inaccurate assessments. Although taxpayers retain the right to object, the burden of proving the data wrong still falls largely on them.

As enforcement becomes increasingly automated, robust mechanisms for correcting erroneous records become just as important as stronger assessment powers.

The timing is also revealing. KRA is simultaneously offering a tax amnesty through December 2026 while expanding data-driven enforcement. The message is unmistakable: voluntary compliance is being encouraged before technology assumes the lead role.

Compliance is no longer an annual exercise completed at filing season.

It has become a continuous process of ensuring that invoices, customs declarations, payroll records and supplier information tell the same story.

The tax return is no longer the beginning of the conversation. It is the final reconciliation of information that KRA has, in large part, already assembled.

Not long ago, I met Yusuf, a young online delivery rider. Unable to join university because of financial constraints, he refused to let circumstance define his future.

After acquiring a smartphone, he shifted from relying on boda boda passengers to accepting delivery jobs through digital platforms. Today, he completes up to 30 deliveries a day, far more than he managed before. Technology did not simply change how he earned a living; it expanded his opportunities.

Yusuf’s story captures this year’s World Youth Skills Day theme, Skills for a Shared Future. It reminds us that when young people have access to digital tools, connectivity and relevant skills, they can create opportunities for themselves. The challenge is that too many remain excluded, not because they lack ambition, but because they lack access.

Kenya has one of the world’s youngest populations, with nearly three-quarters of citizens under 35. This presents enormous potential, but only if young people, wherever they live, can participate in the digital economy.

Without affordable devices, reliable internet and future-ready skills, today’s connectivity gap becomes tomorrow’s opportunity gap.

Preparing young people for the future requires more than digital literacy. They need technical, entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills that match the demands of a rapidly changing economy.

It also requires partnerships between government, educators and the private sector to ensure learning keeps pace with industry needs.

At Safaricom, we believe connectivity creates value only when it creates opportunity.

Through initiatives such as the Safaricom Digital Skills Hub, developed with AWS and Microsoft, young people can access free training in artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

Programmes such as Safaricom Hook and Citizens of the Future are also helping expand digital learning, practical skills and educational opportunities across the country.

No single organisation can close the digital skills gap alone. But together, we can ensure that stories like Yusuf’s become commonplace.

Kenya’s future competitiveness will depend not simply on technology, but on whether every young person has the skills, connectivity and opportunity to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Africa’s young population is often described as a demographic dividend: a potential economic advantage if young people can gain the skills and jobs needed to contribute productively. But for many young people, that promise is slipping away. They leave school or training and enter labour markets where formal jobs are scarce and public programmes too often miss the people who need them most.

Too many programmes are underfunded, weakly targeted and disconnected from employers.

Drawing on more than three decades of applied economics and policy research, with particular expertise in labour markets, public finance, policy evaluation and youth employment initiatives in Africa, I recently co-edited a book called Youth Employment Programmes in Africa.

The book uses evidence from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda to show that these programmes cannot succeed as stand-alone projects. They also need to be: linked to real labour demand, backed by adequate public resources, implemented through capable institutions; and protected from political capture.

Labour market and youth employment spending averages about 0.35 percent of GDP across the nine countries, compared with about 0.95 percent in OECD/developed countries. Private employment incentives average about 0.04 percent of GDP, compared with about 0.64 percent. (Computations are based on data for the OECD/developed countries and for the nine African countries.)

The main lesson is clear: youth employment programmes will not create decent jobs unless they are designed around real labour demand, capable institutions and the young people who face the highest barriers to work.

Why youth employment programmes matte

Many African countries are trying to turn large youth populations into productive workers just as public budgets are tight and labour markets are failing to create enough secure jobs. Africa’s median age is about 19 years, far below Asia’s roughly 33 years, North America’s 39 years and Europe’s 43 years. This underscores the scale of youth employment challenge.

Job programmes are often treated as a technical fix: train young people, support start-ups and hope that jobs follow. The evidence points to a wider problem. These programmes need: capable public institutions, employers willing to hire young workers, good design; social inclusion, political support and public accountability.

Key findings

The study rests on an unusually wide evidence base: nine African country studies conducted between 2022 and 2024. It combines policy, legal, programme and academic reviews with interviews involving young women and men, including vulnerable groups, key informants and policymakers.

With more than 500 interviews and 1,500 focus group participants, the study shows how youth employment plans actually perform.

Three findings stand out.

First, youth employment programmes are now common in policy documents, but many are too small, poorly funded and weakly implemented to match the scale of the challenge.

Second, most projects focus on improving young people’s skills or supporting entrepreneurship, while doing much less to encourage employers to create jobs.

Third, targeting is weak. Poorer, rural, less educated and digitally excluded young people are least able to access support. These problems are made worse by fragmented coordination, weak data systems, limited monitoring and perceptions that political connections influence programme access.

Variations

The nine countries face different labour-market problems. Based on World Bank/International Labour Organization estimates, South Africa has the highest youth unemployment rate of the nine – about 59.4 percent, and around 60.9 percent in recent estimates. This points to a severe shortage of formal entry-level work.

The African Union defines youth as people aged 15-35, but this does not always match the age ranges used by national governments to determine eligibility for youth employment programmes. For example, South Africa officially defines youth as people aged 15-34.

In most of the other countries, the bigger problem is informality: young people are working, but often in low-productivity, insecure and poorly protected activities.

High rates of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa show another layer of exclusion. Rates are 36.3 percent in Nigeria, 34.2 percent in Senegal and 32.9 percent in South Africa.

These indicators measure different parts of the youth labour-market problem. The informal employment rate refers only to young people who are already working: in Senegal, 98.6 percent of employed youth are in informal jobs, meaning that work is overwhelmingly insecure, low-paid or weakly protected.

NEET rate measures a different group: 34.2 percent of young people are not working, studying or in training at all. Taken together, the figures show a dual challenge: many young people are excluded from work and education altogether, while most of those who do work are concentrated in informal employment. Youth employment policy, therefore, has to address both access to jobs and the quality of the jobs available.

This means youth employment projects cannot simply be copied from one country to another. They have to fit local labour-market realities.

A similar mismatch appears when labour-market pressures are compared with programme spending and targeting. Countries facing the deepest youth employment pressures do not always have the strongest programme coverage or the most effective support for job creation. This helps explain why policy commitment has not always translated into measurable labour-market change.

Private employment incentives are especially limited. These could include targeted wage subsidies, first-job tax credits, apprenticeship grants and support for firms that retain young workers after training.

Coverage is modest, and the poorest young people are reached least. The groups most in need of support are least likely to benefit.

What governments should do

The evidence points to a practical but politically difficult reform agenda. Governments need to invest more seriously in youth employment programmes. But funding alone will not be enough.

Programmes also need stronger implementation, better coordination across ministries and agencies, transparent data, credible monitoring and evaluation, and eligibility rules that deliberately reach vulnerable young people.

Good intentions will not be enough. Youth employment programmes need to be built around real jobs, capable institutions and the young people they are meant to serve.

Citibank N.A. Kenya has petitioned the High Court to stop criminal investigations against its CEO, Martin Mugambi, over a disputed Sh261 million loan advanced to a Murang’a-based tea factory managed by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).

In its court filings, the bank says the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) is unlawfully criminalising a commercial lending decision in investigating Mr Mugambi over the approval and disbursement of the loan to Kiru Tea Factory Company Ltd.

DCI wants to establish whether forged board documents were used in the application of the $2.02 million (Sh261.1 million) loan, how the cash was disbursed, and the beneficiaries of the millions of shillings amid claims of diversions.

The complaint asked investigators to establish whether any assets were acquired and trace the ultimate beneficiaries of the money.

Citibank disputes the investigation’s legal basis.

It argues that investigators have failed to identify any recognised criminal offence arising from the loan approval.

The bank says the allegations concern a commercial lending decision made through normal banking processes and should not expose its officials to criminal sanctions.

‘The petitioner therefore believes that the alleged offence is not genuine but is instead a pretextual invocation of the criminal justice system aimed at advancing an improper purpose in respect of a purely commercial transaction,’ says its advocate.

In its petition, the bank has asked the court to declare that the investigations have violated constitutional guarantees, including the rights to equality, property, access to information and fair administrative action.

It also seeks declarations that the alleged breaches have caused damage to both the bank and Mr Mugambi.

‘The respondents, either by themselves, their servants and agents, be restrained from investigating, summoning or arresting the interested party,’ the petition states, pending determination of the constitutional case.

The court papers underscore the wider governance dispute surrounding Kiru Tea Factory. The complainant accuses rival officials of approving unauthorised withdrawals, paying directors’ allowances and legal fees without approval, and mismanaging factory resources.

The High Court will hear the application on September 17.

Friends are usually surprised by my distaste for political banter. True, I have been an MP and a governor, but I prefer ideas that can transform society, to political gossip.

This frustrates a group of young leaders with whom I interact. My insistence that good politics must have standards, and that the end does not always justify the means, seems lofty to them. My conviction that politics must go beyond name-calling, solve problems and improve living standards seems unattainable.

They quote Machiavelli, who argued that a politician cannot be judged with the same morality as a commoner. I’m a leader not a politician, I protest, as they point to a growing trend.

Using outlandish and controversial topics, Kenyan politicians push the public and media to debate the shock factor, rather than focusing on key issues such as unemployment and the cost of living.

This tactic is called the dead cat strategy.

Popularised by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby, the dead cat strategy is a political communications manoeuvre that introduces a sensational, controversial topic to divert public attention away from a more critical or damaging issue.

If you are losing an argument, or the facts are against you, throw a dead cat onto the dining table mate, Crosby famously advised Johnson. Everyone will immediately recoil, and start talking about the cat, instantly making them forget about the previous, uncomfortable conversation.

The point is distraction. The injected topic must be outrageous or highly emotional, to guarantee immediate media coverage and public outrage. The goal is to flood the news cycle with the new, controllable controversy so that the original issue-such as a policy failure or ethical lapse-slips by, unnoticed.

Coming into prominent view in the early 2010s, the concept is not new. Sample this: From the 19th century practice of using smelly smoked fish to throw hunting hounds off a scent trail, the ‘red herring’ became the definitive literary and political term for introducing an irrelevant topic, to divert attention from the real issue. The trick and word, are now in common usage.

‘Wag the Dog’, made popular by a 1997 movie of the same title, is a political term for creating a diversion such as an international military crisis, or foreign policy spectacle, to shift domestic media attention away from a severe political scandal at home. This is common in US and European politics.

Politicians know that public attention span is limited, and thus have, since Roman emperors, provided everything from free food to entertainment, to distract the populace from vexing political issues. They manufacture consent, Noam Chomsky argued in 1989, by staging unmissable spectacles that quietly push unfavorable policies off-stage.

Kenya’s politics is similar. It is structured around ethnic mobilisation rather than ideological or policy differences. Instead of competing on economic, healthcare, or education platforms, politicians build tribal coalitions to win elections. Ethnicity is a dead cat.

In a game of chameleon politics, parties change names and alliances every election cycle, based on tribal math, not shared ideology or policy goals. As voters, we prioritise representation over pressing issues, supporting co-ethnics out of fear of exclusion from government programs. This ‘our turn to eat’ thinking is common political speak.

There are, however, signs of a transition to issue-based politics. Kenya’s urbanised, tech-savvy youth are moving away from traditional ethnic patterns, using social media to organise around governance issues.

The 2024 youth-led revolt, and shifting economic pressures, demonstrate a growing public demand for accountability over tribal loyalty. Voters are beginning to unite around economic issues rather than tribal identity.

As late president Mwai Kibaki says in a viral clip, economic hardships like stagnant real incomes, unemployment, and high cost of living, have no tribal dimension.

Further, county-level debates are forcing gubernatorial and county legislative politicians to address specific local issues including jobs, healthcare, agriculture, and water access. Citizens are making comparisons.

While ‘dog bites man’ is a poor headline, the media should aide the transition by shifting coverage from sensational political elite melodramas, to rigorous, data-driven debates analysing the feasibility of candidate promises.

And buyer beware. As the 2027 elections beckon, dead cats are everywhere. Goonism and calls for a tourism and investment boycott are but two examples!

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has raised its weekly borrowing target from the short-dated Treasury bills to Sh28 billion after a spike in domestic borrowing requirements for the 2026/27 fiscal cycle.

The apex bank has raised the weekly auctions target from Sh24 billion, raising its haul from the short-term securities as net domestic borrowing for the period to June 30, 2027, rises to Sh1.03 trillion from Sh994.8 billion previously.

Sources within financial markets and close to the CBK reckon the enhanced T-bills cash goal has stemmed from the higher domestic borrowing target for the current fiscal year.

CBK has targeted Sh28 billion in each of its last two weekly T-bill auctions, with a higher quantum placed on the shortest dated 91-day paper at Sh8 billion from Sh4 billion previously.

The CBK could, however, stagger the higher cash target from T-bills across tenures to include enhancing targets for the 182-day and 364-day Treasury bills according to the sources.

The higher target placed on the weekly Treasury bills sold has raised the pool of cash possible from the short-dated papers by up to Sh208 billion a year.

The decision to enhance the target is believed to be guided by the apex bank in coordination with the National Treasury’s Public Debt Management Office (PDMO).

‘The raised target likely speaks to the increased domestic borrowing target for the 2026/27 financial year,’ said Churchill Ogutu, the Head of Research at Capital A Investment Bank.

CBK primarily deploys T-bill auctions as a tool to manage liquidity in the financial system, controlling the amount of money circulating in the economy.

T-bills are, however, tapped to also cover immediate, short-term budget deficits and manage cash flow needs before long-term tax revenues are collected.

The National Treasury has largely avoided raising domestic debt from T-bills to avoid short-term refinancing risks and has instead prioritized the issuance of long dated bonds to prolong maturities.

Data from CBK placed the share of Treasury bills as a percentage of total domestic securities at 15.71 percent on July 10, 2026, or Sh1.12 trillion.

Treasury bonds were 84.29 percent of the securities or Sh6.02 trillion in the same period.

The share of T-bills to total securities is expected to fluctuate between 15 and 20 percent as the National Treasury is widely projected to hold its bias for bonds over T-bills even as it adjusts its cash target from the discount securities.

‘The share of T-bills as a percentage of total domestic debt securities usually oscillates depending on upcoming maturities. The Treasury would still be looking at lengthening the maturity profile for domestic debt,’ added Mr Ogutu.

CBK’s last two T-bill auctions have both raised the quantum of the 91-day paper from Sh4 billion to Sh8 billion.

Both auctions were oversubscribed with investors marking the largest interest under the shortest maturing paper as they hold a wait and see stance on the direction of domestic interest rates as the inflation trend remains uncertain.

Last week’s T-bill auction saw bids of Sh44 billion against the revised Sh28 billion target, where the 91-day paper recorded bids of Sh24.3 billion.

CBK accepted Sh30.6 billion from the auction.

The apex bank has also doubled down on Treasury bond issuances at the start of the 2026/27 fiscal year.

CBK has staged three auctions in a rare showing, raising Sh70.5 billion so far from three re-opened term bonds, a 10-, 20-and 30-year paper, after receiving bids of Sh144.4 billion against a target of Sh70 billion.

The apex bank, however, undershot its switch-bond target as it transferred maturities of Sh7.95 billion from a five-year paper set to mature in November 2026, to a 20-year paper maturing in November 2032.

The switch bond slightly underperformed its target of transferring maturities of Sh10 billion.

CBK’s third bond auction in July, whose sale ends on Wednesday, targets Sh40 billion from the reopening of a 20-year and 25-year paper which have 12.8 and 21.4 years to maturity.

The rapid bond sales at the start of the fiscal year are seen as an attempt at frontloading the domestic borrowing ambitions for the fiscal year as revenue mobilisation starts on a slower note.

‘This is potentially to make up for the lack of significant revenues at the beginning of the fiscal year,’ said Churchill Ogutu.

Domestic borrowing is expected to account for the lion’s share of deficit financing for the 2026/27 cycle at Sh1.03 trillion.

The target for net foreign financing over the same period sits at a modest Sh116.2 billion.

The higher target for net domestic financing mirrors difficulties in mobilizing funding from external sources including cost jitters and protracted discussions with concessional sources like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Performance excellence is what separates good organisations from truly outstanding ones. It is an organisation’s proven ability to deliver consistent, superior results through clear goals, disciplined execution, skilled and motivated people, streamlined operations and an unwavering commitment to continuous improvement.

At its core, it turns ambitious visions into real, measurable outcomes, reliable achievement of objectives, exceptional service that delights stakeholders, higher productivity with smarter use of resources, decisions grounded in solid evidence and constant enhancement of systems, capabilities, and workflows.

Old performance management approaches no longer fit today’s fast-changing digital world.

Technology is evolving rapidly, customer expectations are rising and uncertainty is constant, forcing leaders to rethink how organisations operate and define success.

Digital transformation is also about aligning strategy, people, processes, and technology into one coherent system. Speed, data-driven decisions, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) are now essential for staying relevant and competitive.

According to McKinsey’s State of AI 2025 report, released in November 2025 following a major global survey, the use of AI in at least one business function jumped dramatically, from 55 percent in 2023 to 78 percent in 2024 and 88 percent in 2025.

At the same time, the number of people connected to the internet has grown from about 4.9 billion in 2020 to over 6 billion today, reaching roughly 74 percent of the world’s population.

These shifts are reshaping daily realities for organisations everywhere and creating an urgent need for better data practices, deeper skills, stronger automation, and more enlightened leadership.

The old performance playbooks are simply no longer enough. As leaders, we must now build performance excellence that is fit for this digital age by intentionally aligning our core organisational pillars.

Strategy gives us the north star as it defines where we are going, what matters most, and how we will measure progress while staying flexible enough to seize emerging opportunities.

People are the heart and soul of everything; no matter how brilliant the plan, it is their expertise, leadership, teamwork, creativity and ability to adapt that ultimately determine whether we succeed.

In the digital era, this means we must continuously invest in building data literacy, comfort with AI, and the resilience to embrace change.

Processes are the pathways that make work flow smoothly – well-designed ones cut out waste, reduce mistakes, and allow us to scale with agility.

Technology, when used wisely, becomes a powerful partner that brings speed, real-time visibility, predictive insights, and automation to support and amplify human effort rather than replace it.

When these four elements are in congruence, it becomes easier for organisations to achieve higher efficiency, stronger accountability, quicker and better decisions, outstanding customer experiences, and results that last even when the environment gets tough.

Look at Toyota for example, where a deep culture of continuous improvement, empowered people, disciplined processes and smart technology has created decades of excellence.

Or Netflix, which successfully transformed from a DVD rental business into a global streaming giant by aligning visionary talent, flexible ways of working, and powerful cloud technology.

Of course, the journey is rarely smooth. Many organisations struggle with unclear priorities that scatter energy, weak accountability that slows progress, and an over-reliance on technology without properly preparing their people and processes, a trap often called the digital fallacy.

Additionally, cultural resistance, patchy data quality, and stubborn silos between departments continue to hold many back. These are human challenges that demand human solutions rooted in wise, courageous leadership.

This is why the role of today’s manager is both challenging and deeply meaningful.

We must act as orchestrators, translating big strategy into everyday action, nurturing teams that are adaptable and ready for the future, guiding change with empathy and clarity, keeping performance on track with meaningful metrics and smart tools, constantly improving how work gets done, and building a culture where accountability and excellence feel natural.

When we do this, consistently measuring ourselves against proven standards, alignment stops being a nice idea and becomes the way we actually work.