Category: Business Daily

Mountaineering is a divine passion to him. A return home to where he belongs. To everyone else, he is James Kagambi. To those who know the sound of crampons biting into ice, he is KG. His life has balanced the security of convention with the risk of passion.

The 65-year-old is a Kaimosi Teachers Training College alumnus, which should mean that, like many of his classmates, he would now be enjoying retirement after decades in the classroom. James, however, taught for only about five years before devoting himself to the mountains.

The passion later became a career spanning more than four decades, including summits of five of the seven highest peaks in the world.

His family, like many in the 1960s, believed in the safe path. Success was becoming a teacher or civil servant, a respectable job with a pension and the stability to raise a family. Mountains were for tourists. Hiking was for wazungu. For sons of peasant farmers, mountains were scenery, not a life’s work.

On the morning of May 12, 2022, KG placed the Kenyan flag on the roof of the world at 8,849 metres, becoming the first native East African citizen to summit Everest. It was a succinct moment of prayer and thanksgiving, disbelief and gratitude, carrying the flag of his country and representing the dreams of countless climbers.

‘People imagine you scream when you get there,’ he says. ‘But the truth is, you are too tired to scream. You are just grateful that you are alive. For me, it was a prayer of thanks, a moment of history, but also a moment of silence.’

In the 1980s, KG was a primary school teacher in Nyeri, posted to a small ‘forest school’ near the edge of Mount Kenya National Park. He taught five days a week, but his weekends were given to the outdoors.

‘I’d be in the forest every chance I got,’ he says. ‘Sometimes I’d see elephants, sometimes nothing at all. Being outdoors gave me a sense of freedom I couldn’t find anywhere else.’

His daily walks cut through fields and wooded areas. A deep connection with nature shaped his choices. ‘I loved the outdoors from the beginning,’ he says. ‘I could spend a whole day walking, just to see what was behind the next hill. When I later met mountains, it was like meeting a friend I had always been waiting for.’

As a teacher, his love of physical activity stood out in the teams he coached. He took pupils to district tournaments and trained athletes for provincial meets. ‘I put my all into teaching but I could feel my calling was somewhere else.’

He says he began ‘by accident,’ yet that accident took him to the roof of Africa more than 300 times. Yes, KG has summited Mount Kilimanjaro more than 300 times. To match his record, you would have to summit daily for almost a year. He has also spent 15 years in Chile’s remote ice fields, training generations of rangers and rescue teams. Sighting of snow

The transformation from rural schoolteacher to the first Kenyan on Everest is the story of a man who said yes to opportunity, kept moving when others stopped, and measured success not only by summits achieved, but by how many returned alive.

His first sighting of snow on Mount Kenya changed everything. ‘The first time I saw snow,’ he says, ‘I thought, ‘How can ice just sit on top of a mountain like that?’ I touched it, and I knew – this is where I belong.’ He returned often, learning the terrain and tagging along with visiting climbers. At first, he was an oddity: a Kenyan teacher wanting to climb with foreigners.

It is Laozi, the ancient Chinese sage who once said, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.’ During a school holiday, he joined friends on a climb. At Point Lenana, touching snow made him come alive. ‘On my way down, I knew there was something there for me. I didn’t know what yet, but I knew.’

A year later, he enrolled in a rock-climbing course run by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). ‘I’d never been on a real rock face before. But once I started, it felt natural,’ he says. At the end, the instructors offered him a job. He declined, wanting to coach his school sports teams at nationals. ‘But in my heart, I knew I’d be back.’

His decision to resign from teaching in 1987 shocked his family. ‘My dad was a teacher. Most of my brothers and sisters were teachers or married to teachers,’ KG says. ‘When I told people I was serious about mountaineering, they laughed.’

”Hiyo si kazi ya mtu amesoma.’ (That’s not work for an educated person.) They thought I had lost direction.’ The ridicule only strengthened his resolve. He used his modest teacher’s salary to buy basic gear and train relentlessly.

On weekends and holidays, he climbed. He endured blisters, thin air, and failure – but also tasted freedom he had never known in classrooms.

He started as an assistant instructor, earning far less than he did teaching. His learning was fast: glacier travel, rope systems, avalanche safety, leadership under pressure. On free days he would travel to Naivasha to he climbed rock faces at Hell’s Gate National Park, building a reputation for skill.

He wanted to prove that a Kenyan could lead, not just carry loads. ‘People doubted me. They looked at me and wondered what an African was doing in such spaces. The mountain doesn’t care about your passport. It only cares about how well you prepare.’

His new lifestyle also shaped his family life. He married later than his peers and missed much of his children’s early years. ‘I didn’t have much time with my children when they were young. My wife did most of the parenting.’ Only Covid-19 slowed him down. Before the pandemic, the longest he stayed continuously in Kenya was two weeks. ‘I’d be here for a short break, then off to another mountain somewhere in the world.’

The mountain decides

Over the years, KG became one of NOLS’ most trusted instructors. He taught across North and South America, including the Rockies, the Cascades, Alaska, and the Himalayas. Chile became his second home. From 1999 to 2016, he spent up to six months a year in Patagonia, teaching mountaineering and leadership.

The Patagonia region is characterised by jagged peaks, roaring winds and glaciers stretching beyond the horizon. There are few places on Earth that are as rugged or demanding. It was here that KG honed his skills, teaching young climbers and future guides how to survive and thrive in the wilderness.

‘Patagonia taught me patience. The weather changes five times in a day. You prepare, but the mountain decides.’

He typically taught about thirty students per expedition, travelling by foot, ferry, or small plane into remote wilderness. Many peaks had never been climbed. ‘The mountains aren’t tall like the Himalayas, but they’re wild. You can spend days just getting to the base of a climb.’

The environment was a teacher as much as he was. Storms trapped teams for days. Glaciers shifted underfoot. ‘I learned to adapt to situations. It stretched my patience. Patience is not something I was known for.’

Some locals had never seen a Black person. ‘Children would try to rub my skin off,’ he laughs. He received generosity rather than hostility. ‘Sometimes they’d slaughter a cow in my honour, feed us for days.’ He eventually trained more than a thousand climbers in glacier travel, ice techniques, rescue, and outdoor leadership.

One student told him, ‘You’ve changed how I see Africa. I didn’t know there were climbers like you.’ He understood that every climb was representation. ‘I wasn’t just James. I was Kenya. I was Africa.’ His years in Chile strained family ties. ‘Sometimes I would come back after months, and I could see in my family’s eyes that they wondered if I belonged to them or to the mountains.’ The work nonetheless gave him purpose. ‘I may not be rich,’ he says, ‘but I am wealthy in experience. I have lived on mountains that most people only dream of.’

KG had carved his name as one of the most respected African instructors in global mountaineering circles.

Back home, he helped improve safety on the region’s highest peaks. He helped form the first Mount Kenya Rescue Team, trained guides in the Rwenzori, and developed ranger programmes on Kilimanjaro. Mount Kenya gave him his first snow. Patagonia taught patience. Kilimanjaro stole his heart.

‘People ask me, ‘Don’t you get bored going up the same mountain?’ Every climb is different. The people are different. The weather is different. Even I am different.’ Kilimanjaro became his classroom. Guiding required vigilance.

As a guide, he has led groups of tourists from all over the world. CEOs, students, retirees, thrill-seekers up Africa’s highest peak. Each expedition brought its own challenges: altitude sickness, fatigue, fear.

‘Guiding is not about getting to the top yourself. It is about getting other people there safely. You have to watch them closely, read their bodies, listen to their breathing. A good guide knows when to push and when to say stop.’

His guiding philosophy is unwavering: ‘Summiting is optional, coming back alive is mandatory.’ That philosophy has saved lives. He always insists they turn back, sometimes against their will. ‘Some get angry at me for denying them the summit,’ he says. ‘But later, when they recover, they thank me. Because what use is a summit if you don’t come back?’

Beyond guiding, Kilimanjaro gave him a platform to mentor young Kenyan and Tanzanian guides, teaching skill, integrity, leadership, and humility. ‘A young porter once told me, ‘Baba, you are the reason I want to be a guide.’ That, to me, is bigger than any summit.’

Summiting Everest

For years, Everest lived in KG’s imagination as both a dream and a challenge. In 2022, he joined the Full Circle Everest Expedition, the first all-Black team to attempt the world’s highest mountain. ‘Here we were, Africans, African-Americans, Black climbers from different countries saying, ‘we belong here too.’ I knew if I made it, it would not be just my summit. It would be Kenya’s summit. It would be Africa’s summit.’ At sixty-two, he was older than most teammates. Everest tested every breath. ‘There were nights I thought, maybe I am too old for this,’ he says. ‘My body was tired. My lungs felt like they were on fire. But I remembered all the ridicule I had faced, all the sacrifices, all the years. I told myself: I am here now. I must finish. I felt Kenya on my shoulders; I carried my village, my country, and the whole of Africa. It was not just me standing there. It was all of us.’ The historic images travelled the world. In mountaineering history, it was a milestone.

Asked if he will retire, he responds: ‘Climbing is life. Even when I am old, I will still climb something, maybe not Everest, but a hill near home. Because mountains are where I meet myself.’

Hilton Hotels is expanding its presence in East Africa’s hospitality sector with a fresh addition to its portfolio, in response to the region’s growing appetite for lifestyle and experience-driven travel.

Set to open in Nairobi’s Lavington, Ava Hotel Nairobi, Tapestry Collection by Hilton will mark the brand’s debut in Kenya. Tapestry Collection by Hilton is a group of independent hotels operating under the name of the American hospitality giant. Hilton has scores of other brands licensed to hospitality investors around the world.

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is lining up its first project in Kenya, just over a year after Nairobi became a fully paid-up member in efforts to the country’s bridge a Sh16.14 trillion infrastructure funding gap.

The Beijing-based AIIB has invited bids for a consultant to conduct a pre-feasibility study on upgrading the 243-kilometre Mau Summit-Malaba Highway into an access-controlled, tolled, four-lane road-marking its maiden activity in Kenya’s projects scene.

The answer is an emphatic Yes! Humans have tried to motorise almost everything from staircases to little old ladies, from shaving razors to food blenders, and numerous vehicles that move things about in warehouses.

But I suspect you mean those push-along wheeled baskets designed to telescope together in supermarket trolley parks – the ones invented by a store owner in the US in 1937.in hopes of wooing more customers (who mostly were not weightlifters) to buy more goods. The result was so successful that now every supermarket in the world uses them.

And in some places, they are not only motorised (for obvious reasons with electric motors, not petrol or diesel engines) – some are computerised to help guide the shopper to a selected aisle and lead the way to check-out.

There are even autonomous computerised ‘follow-me’ versions, and mobility-assistance scooters with a panier rack.

Industry uses electric pallet trucks and automated roll cages and order pickers, which are essentially motorised trolleys used in stock and delivery logistics.

And there are, of course, many hobbyists unable to resist the challenge of turning shopping trolleys into a motorsport, using anything from e-bike hub motors to motorcycle engines (perhaps in the interval between ride-on lawnmower grands prix).

So the ‘driving’ forces range from porterage to mobility/accessibility, to convenience, and DIY fun.adding the challenges for stability, braking, and steering. Battery weight, assured control, and attachment methods are important.

The results are numerous enough and fast enough to require traffic and safety laws in some places.and specific rules in supermarkets.

While on the subject, if you have ever wondered why some shopping trolleys are so difficult to steer, it is usually a problem with the ‘castor angle’ of their wheels. They need to be set at a specific angle to hold a straight line and be obedient to turns. The same applies to cars.

The cost of running public offices under the national government surged 31 percent in the first quarter of the current 2025/26 financial year, exposing the government’s struggles to honour its austerity pledges.

Fresh disclosures by the National Treasury show that State ministries, departments, and agencies spent Sh366.5 billion in the quarter to September 2025 on recurrent votes such as on salaries and wages, administration, operation and maintenance of offices, compared to Sh280.09 billion in a similar period a year earlier.

This means that recurrent spending by the public offices under the national government increased by Sh86.41 billion or 30.9 percent over the three months, even though the President William Ruto-led regime insists that it is tightening fiscal discipline to plug a widening budget deficit.

The increase came just a year after President Ruto had pledged to improve efficiency in public expenditure following deadly protests that forced the government to drop a plan for new and higher taxes in June 2024.

The austerities were largely supposed to target non-essential expenditure such as printing, advertising, travel, hospitality, refurbishment, furniture, training, research, as well as communication supplies and services, among others.

During the quarter under review, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) remained the largest consumer of recurrent resources, drawing Sh88.5 billion, an increase of 8.1 percent from Sh81.88 billion spent in a corresponding period last year.

Read: Kindiki office spends nearly half annual recurrent budget in 3 months

Recurrent allocations for the National Police Service climbed 12.5 percent to Sh30.6 billion, while those for the State Department for Defence rose by 17.9 percent to Sh42.8 billion, driven by higher and logistical costs linked to regional deployments.

The spending spike comes against a backdrop of slowed revenue growth, with tax receipts underperforming against targets in the first quarter, to stand at Sh553.7 billion, well below the annual goal of Sh2.6 trillion, amid subdued imports and weak corporate earnings.

In budget documents tabled in Parliament earlier in May this year, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi indicated that he would be proposing to trim the recurrent budget to Sh1.72 trillion from the Sh1.73 trillion spent in the fiscal year ending June 2025.

Parliament, however, approved a Sh1.47 trillion spending plan for recurrent expenses for the current financial year.

The mismatch between revenue and expenditure could further stretch borrowing needs, complicating the Treasury’s plan to stabilise the deficit at about 4.7 percent of GDP this fiscal year.

This also suggests that Dr Ruto, who pledged to rein in rising recurrent costs and expenses when he took power in September 2022, has struggled to control spending, despite making a relatively good start in his first year in office.

Coffee has overtaken key cotton clothes like men’s suits and shorts to become the country’s leading export to the United States, even as the textile sector reels from the expiry of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

Coffee exports to the world’s largest economy surged by 83.50 percent in the first half of 2025 to Sh5.71 billion, latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows, up from Sh3.1 billion in the same period last year.

If you have enough cash, is it actually cheaper to buy and run new cars and replace them before they need major repairs and parts and still have a strong resale value, instead of buying used cars that run less efficiently, need more attention, give more trouble, and depreciate in value? MSD

In a word? No. Across the full range of all motoring costs from purchase to resale, new cars are (almost always) more expensive. Often much more – not just by a percentage, but by a multiple!

Yet nothing is ever that simple in motoring, because it has such a huge range of makes, models, drivers, uses, road conditions, mileages, time spans, owner resources.and other variables. If you want a brand-new car and can well afford it, then go ahead. Enjoy.

No one buys a new car to save money. People do so because they want to and they can – for pleasure and/or prestige, socially or professionally, and in expectation of greater reliability and the most advanced technology. That’s a fair expectation, but it is not a guarantee.

Yes, a new car will have a potentially longer lifespan, but for how much of that will the new car buyer remain the owner? It would take decades to gain any overall economic advantage. And for most of that time, you would not be driving a ‘new’ car. It ceases to be ‘brand new’ as soon as it drives out of the showroom!

But if covering the initial price is difficult or the overall economy is crucial, a used car could save you a lot.without any major heartache, headache, or loss of utility or reliability. Choice is a balance between essentials and indulgences.

The economic advantage of buying used cars is especially true in Kenya, where new car prices are among the highest in the world (because our volumes are low in business-margin scales and our taxes are high) and we have access to one of the biggest and best used car lots in the world (Japan), where their national economic policies make used vehicles roadworthy and especially cheap: their 80 million vehicles are almost all made in Japan and pay no import duty when new, they are expected to be maintained in nigh perfect condition, and when they reach eight years old they face such stringent and expensive licensing conditions that local resale values plunge and it is indeed cheaper to buy new.

The result is very, very good for their domestic car manufacturing industry (a pillar of their economy), is good for their motoring reliability, safety, and emissions standards, and generates a large number of eight-year-olds in excellent condition.for export (!) at unbeatably competitive prices.

We buy them. That’s where nearly 90 percent of our imports come from.

What this does for our national economy is open to debate. What it does for the individual motorist is clear. Used cars are effective and widely affordable. New ones are – in practical terms – an expensive indulgence.

To simplify the calculation, set aside the motoring costs that are relatively similar, irrespective of age. Things like fuel consumption, oil changes, tyre wear, brake wear, general routine service, and short-life parts like filters.

These can vary a lot from car to car and driver to driver usage but remain similar (per kilometre of use) between cars that are nearly new and those of a similar class that are quite old.

Excluding those items, the really big cost differences are in purchase price, insurance premium, and rate/scale of depreciation.

Even in the ‘middle range’ of a good quality family car, the new option will cost about three times the price and therefore lose resale value at more than twice the sum of a used import, and cost two or three times as much to insure.

That alone is a difference of millions over an ownership period of several years – far, far more than the older car is likely to cost to restore and or maintain over the same period.

Worldwide, the difference is even more extreme at the large/prestige/luxury end of the market.

As a widespread rule, new cars – from the moment they leave the showroom – depreciate by about 20 percent of their much higher price in the first year and 10 percent per year thereafter until their resale value is about 80 percent less than the new price, at which point they become ‘runners’ and their market value depends primarily on condition, not age.

A used car continues to depreciate at the same percentage (of a far lower figure) until the ‘runner’ stage, but if it starts its extended life in good condition, is well maintained and sympathetically used, it makes no significant difference to any of its ‘values’ (price or utility) whether it goes on for another 10, 20 or 30 years.

I bought a 20-year-old Prado about a decade ago. It has done well over 300,000 kms (including extensive use in expeditionary conditions, and it is not parked on a silk cushion), and is still worth about the same as I paid for it. Depreciation zero. If I bought a car of the same class today, it would cost more than ten times what I paid for mine, and it would cost ten times as much to insure. The money I am not spending on a new one is earning interest in a bank. In terms of utility, my old car will do exactly the same things as a new one. Other than routine service items (which are the same as for a new car), in ten years and 150,000 kms, I have spent less than shs 20k on replacement parts. There are some blips in the dashboard electrics, but no indications of any incipient failure of the engine, gearbox, drive train, steering, suspension, or bodywork. Its oil and water etc, never need topping up between services. I do exactly what I would do in a new one with less anxiety and at incomparably lower cost.

I more recently added a 30-year-old Land-Cruiser safari wagon, for 10 percent of the price of a new one. So far, its story is much the same at +300,000 kms.

As these testimonies add up to a sort of ‘recommendation’ of old cars, I would emphasise that both these vehicles had good provenance and were absolutely sound when I got them; they are well serviced with strict regularity, any minor defect is attended to before it becomes more serious, and the vehicles are used fully (often robustly) but sympathetically. All parts, service, or replacement are OE, not bandit junk.

In sum, a new car is probably more tolerant of neglect and abuse…for a while. The moral for getting optimum cost-saving value from an old one is to research previous ownership and use, fully fix it before you start, and maintain it diligently and thoroughly as the miles and years go on.and on.

As I write this, I wonder whether there might be a ‘sweet spot’ in the evolution of car design – between the simple but crude distant past, and the highly sophisticated but technically complex present.

We’ll see where the global battle for production volumes and margins takes us next. After all, the ultimate ‘driving’ force of design, manufacture, and marketing is profit, not perfection.

A consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has won a Sh170 billion deal to build the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit highway after quoting a lower base toll rate than the French contractors initially awarded the contract.

The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) announced on Thursday that China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC, in partnership with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), has been selected to undertake the construction of the highway.

What does it take to trade effectively? Many would point to experience, knowledge, or intuition. But even the most skilled market participants cannot perform without the right conditions. Execution quality, transparency, and stability may not be as visible as a chart or an indicator, yet they allow traders to approach the markets with clarity, consistency, and control.

When execution falters, even the best strategies can unravel. Trades may open or close at prices far from expectations, stop losses may slip beyond their limits, and spreads may widen just as volatility peaks.

This is why traders place so much weight on the reliability of their broker and they turn to Exness, a broker known for providing the kind of reliable and frictionless trading experience that supports traders when it matters most.

What do traders need?

In calm markets or during volatility, traders depend on five key ingredients:

Fast execution: Orders must be placed instantly, especially when prices move in milliseconds.

Precision: Trades should be executed as close as possible to the intended price, so that tools like stop losses work as planned.

Reliability: Platforms must perform under pressure. Downtime or delays can mean missed opportunities or unnecessary risk.

Transparency: Spreads and fees should be clear and consistent, not hidden in fine print or subject to sudden changes.

Control: Traders need the ability to manage exposure, keeping their positions and funds under their control.

Let’s examine how these ingredients work in practice and why they matter most during periods of volatility.

Gaps become clear only when platforms fail

The unfortunate reality is that some of these conditions are only ‘visible’ when you start experiencing them, and painfully obvious only when they fail.

Slow execution becomes obvious only when it results in slippage and missed opportunities. Negative Balance Protection becomes relevant when extreme volatility pushes an account into negative territory.

Platform reliability may go unnoticed for months until downtime interrupts a crucial trade. This is why choosing a broker with proven consistency matters. Exness has built its reputation by making these elements visible upfront-communicating conditions clearly and proving them at scale through data and research.

Technology that makes a difference

A trader might find it challenging to find the right ‘recipe’ of conditions to ensure they have the best possible advantage on the market.

Some brokers may offer one or two of the five ingredients, but very few deliver all of them in unison. And since these features are interconnected, missing one can undermine the rest. Precision, for example, is almost impossible without fast execution.

Exness backs up its conditions with real-world performance data. Thanks to its proprietary liquidity engine, clients experience three times less slippage than the industry standard.1 This feature ensures that execution remains precise and conditions remain stable, even under volatility.

Spread stability and lower costs

Spreads are another area where conditions can make or break a strategy. During high-impact news, many brokers widen spreads dramatically, raising costs at the worst possible time. Exness, by contrast, offers some of the market’s lowest and most stable spreads.

Spreads on gold (XAUUSD) have been reduced by 20 percent, helping traders manage one of the most in-demand safe-haven assets.

Spreads on USOIL have been reduced by 69.4 percent, a major advantage given oil’s sensitivity to OPEC+ decisions and supply disruptions.

Spreads on US indices are down by as much as 82 percent, cutting costs in one of the most widely traded markets.

These reductions aren’t just numbers-they give traders confidence that conditions will hold even when volatility spikes.

What if you don’t have the five advantages?

The consequences of missing any of these conditions are clear in real-world scenarios.

Traders facing slow execution saw slippage magnify losses or diminish returns. Those trading with brokers that widened spreads significantly may have managed to profit, but much of it would have been consumed by higher costs.

Without these five key ingredients-fast execution, precision, reliability, transparency, and control-strategies are left exposed.

With them, traders gain the consistency needed to withstand volatility and continue trading on their terms.

So, choose your broker wisely and ensure that the conditions you need to succeed are the conditions they are committed to offering.

3x less slippage claims refer to average slippage rates on pending orders based on data collected between September 2024 and July 2025 for XAUUSD, USOIL, and BTC CFDs on the Exness Standard account vs similar accounts offered by four other brokers. Delays and slippage may occur. No guarantee of execution speed or precision is provided.

Stable spread claims refer to maximum spreads on XAUUSD, USDJPY, EURUSD, and GBPUSD for the first two seconds following high-impact news. This comparison is made between the Exness Pro account and commission-free accounts of several other brokers, all excluding agent commission, from 1 January to 23 August 2024.

Spread reduction refers to spreads on Pro accounts, sampled over the first full trading week of July 2024 compared to the last full trading week of August 2025.

PZ Cussons East Africa is investing Sh150 million to introduce products targeting the younger generation, even as it allays fears of exiting the Kenyan market.

The firm, which produces brands such as Imperial Leather and Carex, said it was working on introducing new fragrances, distribution channels and package sizes in a bid to grow its sales among those aged below 35 years.

The company, which enjoys a 25 percent share in Kenya’s beauty and personal care market, had triggered concerns of exiting the market after its divestiture in Nigeria’s PZ Wilmar edible oils and remarks by its top management that it was reviewing its African operations. ‘Our research shows that consumers in this region under 35 years are adventurous with fragrance and personal care, consistently stretching their imagination and experimentation with new formats, favouring bold, differentiated scents and buying across online and modern retail channels,’ said PZ Cussons EA Managing Director Sekar Ramamoorthy.

‘PZ Cussons intends to grow here and has no plans to divest from the local market,’ he added.

Mr Rammoorthy said those below 35 years constitute between 35-45 percent of what is spent on personal care.

‘The category we play in is increasingly becoming more nuanced, with differentiation leaning towards niche markets. We are opting to go for broader sections of the population, having recognised that they have more in common,’ said Mr Ramamoorthy.

Cussons has been operating in Kenya for over 60 years and has a production unit at Baba Dogo. Kenya, the United States and Ghana contribute 15 percent of the company’s global revenues.

‘Kenya delivered good, volume-led growth driven by strong Modern Trade performance,’ PZ Cussons said in its annual report.

Kenya’s beauty and personal-care market is estimated at Sh20 billion and shows a steady high-single-digit growth rate.

Margins made by local soap manufacturers have taken a hit from heightened competition from imports from Egypt and reduced buying power due to inflation.

The Kenyan beauty market has also been cited for being flooded with counterfeit and sub-standard products, which hurts producers of quality goods.