Category: Business Daily

Mweni runs a small Nairobi team in a Riverside Drive tech firm. Over the years, she treats work pressure like a private battle.

If and when a key client threatens to leave the firm, she pivots and cancels all her staff one-on-one meetings, but keeps her client retention battle plan in her head without sharing it, and powers through working extra hours and nights alone to try to remedy the problem.

Paul Onditi has long been regarded as one of Kenya’s most distinctive contemporary artists. The 45-year-old painter and printmaker moved to Germany in 2000 to study at the Hochschule fr Gestaltung Offenbach am Main, returning home a decade later to a vibrant but evolving Nairobi art scene.

Two years after his return, he held Another World is Possible at the Alliance Française, the exhibition that launched his career.

Some empires are built with five-year plans and venture capital. Wawira Njiru began with 25 hungry children and a kitchen in Ruiru. Fresh out of university in Australia with a nutrition degree and no clear plan, Wawira wanted to do something, anything, for the children back home in Ruiru. School feeding was not the dream. It was simply what urgently needed to be done at that time.

That was 2012. Today, Food4Education feeds 600,000 children daily across 1,500 schools in 13 counties. The organisation processes 100 tonnes of ingredients every day and has delivered over 100 million meals. It employs 5,000 people. Some of those original 25 children now work for her.

A few weeks before his demise, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga argued fervently for the discontinuation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). He weighed in several times as Parliament scrambbled to find ways to circumvent the law and keep the fund.

Opinion about CDF is mixed, depending on who you ask. There is a good number of people who believe CDF has been a force for good, and as such, the government should find a way to keep it.

Many diehards of the fund argue that it has empowered local communities to decide and invest in development projects that affect their lives. They see it as a lifeline to the poor, delivering public goods, filling in where county or national governments have failed.

Banks have begun to recognise music as more than just art. They are exploring ways to treat songs, catalogues, and royalties as collateral for loans, a move that could unlock long-awaited financing for the creative industry.

For decades, musicians have self-financed their careers, paying out of pocket for studio sessions, production, promotion, and distribution. Without formal credit structures, many musicians and producers are unable to make songs due to financial challenges.

A fish processor has suffered a setback after the High Court dismissed its application to reinstate a case where it was challenging the termination of a Sh1.49 billion contract for a proposed ultra-modern fish hub at Liwatoni in Mombasa.

The case had been referred for arbitration in accordance with a clause under the conditions of the contract.

political party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), that it owns land assets worth nearly Sh2 billion.

In her latest audit of political parties’ accounts for the financial year ended June 2024, Ms Gathungu reports that the ruling party disclosed land assets worth Sh1.953 billion in its books but has no evidence of ownership or valuation.

As Kenya’s construction industry continues to grow to meet the rising demand for housing, a silent threat lurks behind the colourful walls of our homes, schools, and playgrounds-lead in paint.

Paint adds beauty and vibrancy to our surroundings, yet few consumers pause to consider what gives their favourite colours such brightness and durability. Many Kenyans remain unaware that some paints in the market still contain lead levels above the recommended safety limits, posing serious health risks, particularly to children and pregnant women.

While lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal in the environment, it has long been intentionally used in products such as paint, batteries, and gasoline due to its ability to resist corrosion and enhance colour. However, it is also one of the most toxic substances known to science, with no safe level of exposure.

Annually, the world marks International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, with this year’s commemoration set to take place from October 19 to 25 under the theme ‘No Safe Level: Act Now to End Lead Exposure.’

The week underscores the urgent need to eliminate all sources of lead exposure, especially in products that come into contact with children.

The initiative builds on the global success of banning lead paint and the progress many countries have made in enacting laws and regulations that restrict lead in paints and coatings used in homes, schools, and playgrounds.

Once lead enters the body, it accumulates in bones and teeth, disrupting brain development, damaging the nervous system, and affecting vital organs. According to the World Health Organization, children absorb four to five times more lead than adults, making them vulnerable to its harmful effects.

Even low levels of lead exposure can reduce a child’s IQ, impair learning, and lead to behavioural problems that persist into adulthood. Children exposed to lead may experience hyperactivity, attention deficits, hearing loss, and in severe cases, convulsions or death.

In adults, exposure to lead can cause headaches, memory loss, high blood pressure, and muscle weakness. For pregnant women, lead stored in the bones can be released into the bloodstream, exposing the developing baby and increasing the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.

To protect consumers from the lead threat, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) introduced two key standards in 2017: KS 2661-1:2017 and KS 2661-2:2017, limiting the lead content in paints, varnishes, and related products to 90 parts per million (ppm), which aligns with WHO recommendations.

However, studies have revealed that some paints sold in Kenya still exceed the permissible lead limit, indicating gaps in enforcement and compliance monitoring.

As Kenya joins the global community in this year’s awareness campaign, the message is clear that there is no safe level of lead.

This continued exposure places countless people, particularly children at risk who are exposed to ingest lead paint chips, contaminated dust, or soil by playing in lead-contaminated areas or putting their hands or contaminated objects in their mouth.

As Kenya marks International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, advocates are calling on regulators and manufacturers to take stronger action to eliminate lead from paints and other products.

There is need to ensure stricter market surveillance, consistent enforcement of Kebs standards, and enhanced public education and certification for lead safe paint to help consumers make informed choices

‘Consumers have the power to influence change. By choosing lead-safe paints, we can protect our children and our environment,’ says Griffins Ochieng, Executive Director of the Centre for Environment Justice and Development (CEJAD).

Kenyan firms plan to increase the number of full-time employees in the final quarter of the year to support heightened activity anticipated during the festive period, a new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) survey shows.

The survey findings show more respondents expect improved business activity in the fourth quarter, with higher demand orders, sales, production volumes, and employment levels projected as consumer spending and sectoral activity rise heading into the holiday season.

A trader in locally produced rice has sued the State over a gazette notice authorising the importation of 500,000 tonnes of the staple food duty-free, between July 28 and December 31.

Frankline Ojiambo says the directive to authorise duty-free importation of the rice was made without public participation and that the only entity consulted was the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC), which is also the designated importer.