Category: Business Daily

The Auditor-General has flagged human resource breaches at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), including the recruitment of managers who are not fully qualified for their roles.

The auditor reckons that the banking regulator paid little attention to work experience and length of service for the undisclosed managerial roles and failed to involve the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) when setting its salary structure and perks in breach of the law.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged transparency as Kenya deployed a wider mix of instruments to expand its borrowing options amid rising debt pressure.

Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director, African Department, IMF said that though it is common for countries to try and generate more resources through innovative schemes such as public-private-partnerships(PPPs), such efforts must stay open to public scrutiny.

Cash wired home by Kenyans living and working abroad grew by Sh15 billion during the nine months ended September to $3.774 billion (Sh488.5 billion), a 3.2 percent rise from the $3.658 billion (Sh473.5 billion) recorded in a similar period last year.

New data from the Central Bank of Kenya shows that Kenyans in the diaspora sent home $419.6 million (Sh54.3 billion) in September, adding to the cumulative $3.355 billion

Soon, many Kenyan wills will be written by people who want a swift, simple farewell. Their intention is clear, but the problem is timing, and logistics.

Most wills are stored in lawyers’ offices, bank vaults, or safe deposit boxes.

Kenya is at a digital crossroads. Migration from rural to urban areas, remote work, automation, and entirely new job categories are changing how Kenyans live and work. Yet this transformation cannot happen without infrastructure.

The young Kenyan with big digital ambitions but limited resources is trapped in a kind of digital poverty, connected but not fully included.

On the other end, millennials and Gen Z with more spending power demand seamless, high-quality services that enable work, play, and everything in between.

Meeting both ends of this spectrum requires value-driven, affordable, flexible plans that widen access and high-capacity networks that power Kenya’s growing digital economy.

Government efforts such as the National Digital Master Plan and Kenya Cloud Policy have given investors certainty that Kenya has what it takes to lead in Africa’s digital economy.

GSMA data further shows that mobile internet penetration in Africa is projected to reach nearly 50 percent by 2030, and Kenya is already leading steady development in mobile internet usage thanks to the combination of mobile internet and financial services.

The question lingers: what more can the country do to remain relevant in the ‘Silicon Savannah’ conversation? Infrastructure remains the bedrock of this transformation.

Data centres are the ‘digital power plants’ of the modern economy. Just as power plants keep cities running with electricity, data centres sustain businesses and daily life by storing, processing, and transmitting digital information. But how does this touch ordinary lives?

At the heart of Kenya’s future is a young, tech-savvy population that is ambitious, connected, and eager to be part of the digital revolution.

For the average Kenyan, the promise of a local data centre means cheaper, faster, and more reliable digital services. Today, much of our data is stored thousands of kilometres away, which adds cost and slows down access. Hosting data locally means your video call drops less often, your banking app loads faster, and your government eCitizen service works without frustrating delays.

For innovators, particularly young people in informal settlements, local data infrastructure means they can build and test apps at lower cost. A start-up with an idea for an e-health platform no longer has to pay expensive overseas cloud fees. This lowers the barrier for entry, giving more youth a fair shot at turning ideas into businesses.

Beyond digital access, infrastructure like data centre carries a more immediate benefit, jobs. Kenya’s unemployment rate in 2025 is forecast between 5.2 percent and 7.2 percent, but youth unemployment is far higher, around 67 percent. Data centres matter because they create both direct and ripple-effect opportunities.

From construction workers building the facilities, to highly skilled cloud engineers managing AI systems, thousands of jobs will be created.

And it does not stop there. Data centres need security firms, catering services, transport logistics, equipment suppliers, and maintenance contractors. For every direct job, estimates suggest three more will be created in supporting industries. For the ordinary Kenyan, this translates into immediate opportunities, not just abstract growth.

The 2024 Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index ranked Kenya 8th in Africa and 93rd globally, a clear signal that the country is already laying the groundwork for meaningful participation in the AI economy. Globally, artificial intelligence is projected to unlock $2.9 trillion by 2030, but tapping into that potential requires more than ambition and mobile penetration; it demands infrastructure.

AI thrives on speed, scale and massive volumes of data. Without local data centres, Kenyan innovators face higher costs, slower performance, and limited access to the computational power needed to compete on the world stage. A modern data centre bridges this gap. It allows AI systems to process locally relevant data securely under Kenyan law. This matters not only for startups experimenting with AI-driven solutions, but also for hospitals deploying diagnostic tools, smallholder farmers relying on predictive analytics for crops, and government agencies using AI to improve service delivery. Without a data centre, Kenya risks being only a consumer of imported AI solutions.

Of course, the road is not without potholes. Kenya faces a shortage of cloud engineers, data scientists, and specialised digital skills. Power stability, though stronger than in many neighbouring markets, must scale alongside demand. This path must also be driven by collaboration between the government, regulators, and private sector players.

These challenges are real, but they are not insurmountable. Investing in skills training, aligning county and national regulations, and reinforcing energy reliability will ensure that infrastructure delivers its full promise.

Kenya’s opportunity is clear, and so is the risk. If we fail to invest decisively, the ‘Silicon Savannah’ may remain a slogan while other African hubs overtake us.

But if policymakers, regulators, and private players move with urgency, Kenya can secure its place as East Africa’s digital anchor.

Building world-class data infrastructure is the first and most visible step. Making sure the student in Kisumu is hustling online and the fintech founder in Nairobi is scaling across Africa, both benefits are the work that follows.

Every now and then, a film shows up that leaves a mark, shaping how you see the world, maybe even who you become. For me, as a visual artist, that film was Tron: Legacy, among others.

Movies like Terminator 2, Dark City, The Matrix, 300, and of course, Tron: Legacy presented scenes that made me wonder how they were able to pull them off, even after watching the behind-the-scenes commentary.

The visuals, the colour, the sound, it wasn’t just cool, it was art in motion. Tron: Legacy came out at the perfect time for me. I was in the early days of my visual arts journey, and it’s the only movie that made me want to create cool designs. So, yes, Tron is personal. I’ve been waiting over a decade for a new one, hoping Disney would finally take the risk, build on what Legacy started, and maybe even ask deeper questions.

Instead, Tron: Ares ended up being a painful reminder that good visuals can’t save mediocre writing sprinkled with a lot of generic modern trends.

I walked into the theatre excited. I walked out deflated and, honestly, a bit sad.

Tron: Ares

Directed by Joachim Rønning, Tron: Ares stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, and Gillian Anderson, with Jeff Bridges returning briefly as Kevin Flynn.

On paper, it’s a very promising setup. We get programmes sent from the Grid into the real world to accomplish a mission, a great chance to explore what happens when technology crosses that line between simulation and existence. Something that was promised at the end of Tron: Legacy.

But that’s not what we get.

The story plays out like a checklist of sci-fi clichés, the kind where technology can be exploited but is potentially dangerous, humanity is at risk, but this time it’s two big corporations fighting over the tech.

We’ve learned nothing from the last 50 years of sci-fi movies. The writing is flat, the plot convoluted. The dialogue feels like filler; it’s terrible. You keep waiting for it to say or do something new, but it never does. It’s the kind of film that mistakes looking smart for being smart, almost like something written by, wait for it, AI.

And that’s the most frustrating thing about this film. Because this franchise used to be creatively daring.

The first Tron in 1982 was groundbreaking visually. Legacy in 2010 was bold, stylish, and surprisingly emotional. Ares just feels safe.

Polished, yes, but safe. Disney took a legacy IP, ran it through their modern filter, and stripped out the uniqueness and progressiveness that made Tron special.

Some positives

Here’s what I’ll give it: Ares looks and sounds incredible. The lighting, the red, blue and orange tones at night, the digital textures when programs are derezed (destroyed), it’s everything you’d expect from a Tron movie on a technical level.

There are some very impressive light-cycle chases, and the opening sequence, for a moment, captures that old magic and brings newcomers up to speed. The music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross adds grit and mood, almost matching what Daft Punk did with Tron: Legacy.

There are flashes of something that could have been great. But they never last.

Jared Leto’s Ares is a strange choice. He’s supposed to be this program-turned-being trying to understand humanity, but he feels robotic, which contradicts what’s been set up by the franchise.

Programmes have personalities. Still, I enjoyed his performance; he was easily the most interesting character, but given very little to work with. Greta Lee brings heart where she can, and Jeff Bridges’ cameo is a nice touch, but nothing connects.

The issue is the bloated script, too much exposition, and half-baked dialogue, though it’s somewhat manageable thanks to the direction, action set pieces, pacing, and editing.

At times, it even forgets it’s a Tron movie. There’s so much that feels generic, like those terrible high-budget straight-to-streaming sci-fi films that just happen to have light cycles in it. It’s missing that pulse, that sense of wonder the franchise used to have.

Oversimplified

And maybe this is where my disappointment really comes from. Tron has always been about creation, about humans making something so advanced that it begins to mirror them. It’s about identity, curiosity, and the idea of digital life finding meaning.

Ares should’ve been the perfect sci-fi film for this generation, especially with all the conversations around AI and consciousness. Instead, it goes for the most basic Hollywood sci-fi formula we’ve seen over and over again. Basically, oversimplification killed this movie.

Another thing that stood out, and not in a good way, is how much this movie feels like it’s trying to please everyone. Disney plays it so safe that it becomes bland.

The attempts at representation feel forced, not because diversity is a problem (it’s needed), but because it’s done without any real storytelling purpose.

It feels performative, like a studio note rather than a creative choice, where the push for race and gender sits at the forefront rather than story and plot. Basically, this is hardly a Flynn story anymore; it’s just random diverse characters we’re suddenly supposed to care about.

And maybe that’s the word for this film: performative.

Every part of it feels like an imitation, the design, the dialogue, the emotion. It’s trying to remind you of Tron: Legacy without understanding why that film worked.

It’s frustrating because you can see the potential bleeding through. You can tell there was a version of this film that might’ve worked if they’d just stuck to what was set up by the second movie, one that trusted its audience. But somewhere along the line, it got watered down.

Tron without Tron

And how is this a Tron without Tron? Yes, I understand the events of Legacy, but they should have found a way to bring him back. I mean, what is the point of calling it Tron without the character?

Leaving the theatre, and even now, I couldn’t stop thinking about Legacy.

That film wasn’t perfect, but it was streamlined. It was ahead of its time both visually and thematically. It was about connection, creation, and the idea that even inside a computer, there is complex, vibrant life. Ares only touches on that, then redirects us to lesser intriguing, poorly written real-life characters.

As a Tron fan, I wanted something that built on what made me fall in love with the series in the first place: imagination, risk, sci-fi beauty that bleeds cool, and a sense of awe. But what I got was a waste of money on a ticket, and this is coming from a person who believes in visual flair over substance in film.

Go watch it

If you’ve never heard of Tron and just want a decent dose of visual spectacle and action, then yes, there’s something to enjoy here, preferably on IMAX or any cinema with great audio and a massive screen.

I still think Tron can come back. But it needs creators who understand that visuals are only half the point. The soul is what made it matter.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has recommended a further review of tax exemptions on goods and services as it identifies a Sh1.78 trillion gap in collections of value-added tax(VAT).

An internal report from the tax authority reveals that the difference between actual and potential tax collections from VAT amounts to 11.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as of the end of 2023, which translates to a nominal Sh1.78 trillion.

Veteran stockbrokerage firms are exiting the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) after years of weak earnings, paving the way for a new crop of investors seeking to ride on technology to draw in more retail investors in a market that has gone without an initial public offering in more than a decade.

Kenya’s capital markets landscape has witnessed the buyouts of four brokerage firms in barely a year, a trend that insiders attribute largely to reduced business, rising competition and the persistent initial public offering (IPO) drought.

Every few months, we wake up to the same headlines-collapsed buildings, cracked roads, and washed-out bridges. The conversation quickly turns to who approved the project, but rarely to what lay beneath it. The truth is that many of these failures begin long before the first brick is laid-when we ignore the ground itself.

Across Kenya and much of the developing world, ground science and engineering assessment remain the most undervalued elements of infrastructure planning.

The subsurface -where soil, rock, and groundwater interact-determines whether a structure will last decades or fail after a single season. Yet, in many projects, site investigations are treated as an afterthought, rather than a foundation for design and safety. In my work as a professional engineer, geoscientist, and project management professional, I have seen how early attention to the ground transforms outcomes.

On major infrastructure projects in Canada, Asia, and East Africa, design begins with a thorough understanding of local geology. This upfront investment consistently reduces risks, shortens construction timelines, and saves enormous costs that would otherwise go into repairs and litigation.

By contrast, when ground studies are rushed or omitted, problems emerge later in the form of foundation settlement, cracking, or drainage failure.

We then blame contractors or design teams, when the real issue often lies in the systemic neglect of subsurface science. Studies show that up to 20 percent of infrastructure spending in developing regions is lost to premature failure and repair – a burden that taxpayers ultimately bear.

Three issues drive this pattern. First, ground data is undervalued- investigations rarely exceed three percent of project cost, yet they determine structural integrity.

Second, coordination is weak-engineers, planners, and geologists often work in isolation. Finally, enforcement is inconsistent, even where regulations require engineering assessments.

To change this, Kenya must place engineering geology and geotechnical insight at the centre of infrastructure policy.

That means mandating thorough ground investigations before design approval, promoting the use of modern assessment technologies, and building stronger collaboration between engineers and geoscientists. Policymakers must also recognise that the earth beneath us is a living system – it shifts, absorbs water, and responds to stress. Ignoring these realities guarantees failure.

Infrastructure is the backbone of our economy, but foundations are its heartbeat. Until we start building with the ground – not against it – we will keep rebuilding what should never have failed.

The Treasury has raised concern over the lack of integration and ownership of revenue collection systems across county governments, warning that the gaps pose data breach and revenue leakage risks.

An assessment of county public financial management contained in the Treasury’s 2025 Budget Review and Outlook Paper (BROP) notes that the majority of county governments continue to use unintegrated revenue collection platforms, many of which are operated by third-party service providers.