Category: Business Daily

Mashujaa Day has always been a time to celebrate Kenya’s heroes whose courage and sacrifice shaped the nation’s journey.

This year, as the celebrations are held in Kitui County, the moment carries added significance. It is a recognition of the resilience of dryland communities and an opportunity to inspire a new chapter of progress, sustainability, and inclusive growth.

Hosting the national celebrations in Kitui is a proud milestone that honours the spirit of a region long known for hard work and innovation.

It symbolises the government’s commitment to balanced regional development and its recognition that Kenya’s drylands hold immense untapped potential.

From the Presidency to the Kitui County Government, the national and county administrations have shown strong alignment in promoting projects that enhance livelihoods while restoring ecosystems.

However, Kitui’s big day must also spark honest reflection on stalled development projects that hold the key to long-term transformation.

The Thwake Dam and Umaa Dam projects were conceived to provide reliable water for households, irrigation, and energy production, yet progress has been painfully slow.

For many residents, the promise of clean water and improved farming has remained a distant dream. The renewed national attention on Kitui should, therefore, bring renewed urgency to complete these critical projects and ensure they deliver lasting benefits for the people.

Alongside these major infrastructure efforts, Kitui continues to show the power of community-led initiatives.

Beekeeping, for example, is a sustainable enterprise that supports biodiversity and provides income for local farmers. In contrast, sand harvesting, though economically significant, requires tighter regulation to prevent environmental degradation.

These contrasting realities highlight the need for development that balances economic opportunity with ecological care.

The Agriculture and Environment ministries have a shared responsibility to translate national policies into tangible results for dryland counties. By promoting dryland farming, tree growing, and carbon projects, they can help communities turn climate challenges into opportunities for green growth.

True heroism in Kitui today is found in the quiet determination of women, youth, and farmers who nurture the land and protect scarce water sources. Their efforts reflect a modern form of patriotism; one rooted in sustainability and shared prosperity.

Mashujaa Day ceremony in Kitui should, therefore, not just be a celebration of history, but also a call to action. Completing the stalled projects, empowering local initiatives, and restoring the land will be the surest way to honour our heroes and build a resilient future for generations to come.

Global index provider FTSE Russell has upgraded its market access rating on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) following the recent move by the bourse to allow investors to trade in multiples of a single share compared to the previous minimum lot of 100 units.

FTSE Russel’s annual review of markets that was carried out in September raised the NSE from ‘Restricted’ to ‘Pass’ status on its efficient trading mechanism criterion, reflecting the improved access to the market by investors as a result of the change in minimum lot size.

The index provider assesses the quality of markets under a number of criteria which cover regulations, foreign exchange access, dealing, custody and settlement.

The ratings are done on a sliding scale, starting from Pass which signals that the market is meeting the minimum requirements of a particular criterion.

A Restricted rating indicates that a market has partial failure to meet some of the required metrics, while Not Met indicates failure to meet the minimum standards.

In a statement following the review, the NSE said the upgrade will improve the Kenyan market’s standing among global asset allocators, while reinforcing confidence in the country’s capital markets.

‘FTSE Russell’s flagship equity indexes are trusted worldwide for portfolio construction, risk analysis, and asset allocation, making this development a strategic win for Kenya’s integration into global investment flows,’ said the NSE in its statement last week.

‘By enabling trading in single-share multiples, the NSE opens doors for retail investors, making participation more accessible than ever before. The change also drives liquidity, creating deeper, more active markets that benefit all stakeholders.’

Starting August 1, the Nairobi bourse changed its trading rules to allow for trades of shares in multiples of a single unit, while also shutting down its odd lots board that previously handled such small trades since the market’s automation in 2006.

The new rules ended two decades of a two-tier trading board system, collapsing the odd lots and the normal board-which had a minimum trading stipulation of 100 shares- into a single new platform that has no trading size restriction.

The NSE also created a new recovery board which will temporarily host listed firms that are technically insolvent, non-compliant with listing obligations or whose operations are considered prejudicial to the interests of investors.

Trading boards are electronic platforms or systems where shares and other securities such as bonds are traded. Both normal and restricted boards sit across the NSE’s main and SME market segments.

Under the old system that had minimum trading sizes of 100 shares, stocks with high nominal process were often out of reach for retail investors, locking them out of the dividends and capital gains that are usually available on such counters.

Such market access roadblocks did not favour the NSE’s standing with global index providers such as FTSE Russel and the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), which are keenly watched by foreigners looking to invest in emerging and frontier markets such as Kenya.

Inclusion in the indices is dependent on meeting conditions such as free float liquidity for key stocks, market accessibility for investors and availability and free flow of foreign currency.

The NSE has 10 of its companies included on the FTSE Africa Extended Index, which tracks 239 stocks with a combined market capitalisation of $463.3 billion (Sh60 trillion) in seven African markets.

Kenya has the fourth highest number of firms on this index behind South Africa (120), Egypt (55) and Morocco (37), and is ahead of Tunisia (nine), Côte d’Ivoire (seven) and Tanzania with one company.

The NSE is also represented on the MSCI frontier markets and frontier small cap indices by 14 companies.

The firms on these global indices comprise the largest at the market by valuation, including Safaricom, Equity Group, KCB Group, EABL, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya and Co-operative Bank of Kenya.

Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is seeking to raise the cost of storing, handling and transporting fuel through its infrastructure in a bid to boost revenues ahead of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in March next year.

The State-owned firm submitted a new tariff where the cost of storing and handling every 1,000 litres of fuel will rise 7.4 percent to Sh1,065.61 in the year to June 2026, from the current Sh992.46 for similar quantity. It will then jump to Sh1,068.94 from July next year.

KPC’s proposal to increase the tariffs is aimed at raising an additional Sh2.79 billion in revenues to fund a number of projects even as the firm looks set to list on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). The company’s sales stood at Sh28.9 billion in the year ended June 2025.

The government is set to sell up to 65 percent of its stake in KPC by March 2026, in a bid to raise an estimated Sh100 billion and help plug the widening budget deficit.

‘The derived composite tariff is a marginal increase of 2.4 percent above the current tariff of Sh5.44 per cubic metre per kilometre,’ KPC says in tariff application to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra).

The tariffs which will be in force for a three-year cycle to June 2028, must get approval from Epra in order to become effective. A composite tariff refers to a single charge that combines multiple fees such as storage, handling and pipeline transportation, into one fee per a defined unit of fuel, mostly 1,000 litres or one cubic metre.

Read: MPs approve sale of KPC, State to retain 35pc stake

Oil marketers will be hit hardest on the storage fees as compared to the transport charges. Transport cost for every 1,000 litres will rise to Sh4.10 per kilometre from the current Sh4. It will then increase to Sh4.26 from July 2027 and then to Sh4.93 a year later for the same quantity and over the same distance.

The composite tariff will rise highest in the last year (2027/28) when it will increase from Sh5.76 per cubic metre per kilometre to Sh6.61 for the same quantity and distance.

The new tariff will replace the current ones that which started in July 2022 and lapsed in June this year.

The higher charges come at a time when the State is preparing to relinquish its majority ownership in the company by listing at the NSE.

Sale of KPC marks the start of the government’s plan to raise billions of shillings through privatisation of State entities and help reduce the growing budget deficit without relying on fresh loans.

KPC is eyeing revenues of Sh31.69 billion in the year to June 2026, from the current Sh28.9 billion. The revenues will then jump to Sh39 billion in the last year, if Epra approves the tariff as proposed by KPC.

But KPC has downplayed fears that the new higher will trigger more pain at the pump, saying that the impact of the new rates on pump prices will not exceed Sh0.16 per litre of fuel.

Epra is expected to factor in the new tariffs when setting both retail and wholesale prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene. Oil marketers in the transit market will also factor in the impact of KPC’s higher tariffs.

KPC enjoys a near monopoly status in the storage and transport of fuel for the local market and Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Many people eat healthily and exercise regularly, yet still struggle to lose fat around their waist. Experts suggest that the solution may not lie in doing more exercise or reducing calories, but rather in understanding how the body stores and uses energy.

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According to nutritionist Gladys Mugambi, the head of the Division of Health Promotion and Education at Kenya’s Ministry of Health, strategic fasting, a mindful and structured eating pattern, may hold the key.

While intermittent fasting is often practised in a routine manner-such as the popular 16/8 method (fasting for 16 hours and eating within an 8-hour window), strategic fasting takes a more tailored approach. It involves planning fasting and eating windows based on individual lifestyles, metabolic needs and goals.

‘Intermittent fasting focuses on the schedule,’ says Ms Mugambi. ‘Strategic fasting, on the other hand, emphasises the strategy-why, when and how you fast, as well as what you eat in between. It’s about aligning fasting with your body’s natural rhythms to improve hormone balance, metabolism, and overall body composition.’

Why is belly fat so stubborn?

‘There’s no specific area where the body chooses to lose fat first,’ says Ms Mugambi. ‘However, people tend to notice belly fat more because it is visible, and it is often the last to go.”

The midsection is particularly resistant to fat loss because visceral fat-the deep fat that envelops organs is hormonally active. This type of fat releases compounds that increase inflammation and insulin resistance, creating a cycle that makes fat harder to burn.

While exercise can tone muscles and boost metabolism, Ms Mugambi emphasises that diet and hormones play the most significant roles in fat loss.

‘You can’t out-train a poor diet. The balance between food and exercise is crucial – not just for the stomach, but for the whole body,’ she says.

The hormonal connection: Insulin, cortisol and growth hormone

Hormones, particularly insulin, determine whether your body stores or burns fat. Frequent eating, especially of refined carbohydrates or sugary foods, keeps insulin levels elevated, signalling to your body to store fat rather than use it.

‘That’s where fasting helps,’ explains Ms Mugambi. ‘When you go for extended periods without food, insulin levels drop and your body begins to use stored fat for energy instead of relying on glucose.’

Fasting can also help to rebalance cortisol (the stress hormone) and growth hormone, both of which influence belly fat. High cortisol levels resulting from chronic stress can lead to cravings for sugary or fatty foods, whereas growth hormone, which increases naturally during fasting, promotes the breakdown of fat and preserves lean muscle.

Read: Weight loss: How to find what works for you

How strategic fasting works

When practised correctly, fasting triggers a process called metabolic switching, whereby the body shifts from burning glucose (sugar) to burning stored fat for energy.

‘Initially, the body may resist; you might feel tired or hungry,’ says Ms Mugambi. ‘However, once it adapts, it becomes more efficient at burning fat.’

It is at this point that many people start to notice significant changes, particularly in terms of their waistlines.

However, Ms Mugambi cautions that fasting should always be combined with physical activity. ‘Exercise helps your body utilise stored energy and maintain muscle mass. But don’t overdo it; fasting should be gradual and disciplined to avoid straining the body.’

Common fasting strategies, she says include the 16/8 method: Fast for 16 hours and eat within an 8-hour window each day, for example from midday to 8pm. This approach supports insulin regulation and calorie control.

The 5:2 method, which entails eating normally for five days a week and consuming 500 to 600 calories on two non-consecutive fasting days. This creates a manageable calorie deficit and a metabolic reset.

Ms Mugambi advises beginners to start with shorter fasts of eight to 10 hours and gradually extend them as their bodies adapt. She emphasises that what you eat after fasting is as important as the fasting itself.

She recommends a nutrient-dense, whole-food approach, including plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats such as olive oil, avocados, and nuts, but in moderation.

‘Drink eight to 10 glasses of water daily to flush out waste and support metabolism,’ she adds. ‘Choose whole foods such as traditional brown ugali or brown rice, reduce refined carbohydrates, and limit fried foods.’

While fasting can be beneficial for many people, it is not suitable for everyone. Those with diabetes, heart disease or other chronic conditions should only fast under medical supervision. Pregnant or breastfeeding women, older adults and people taking blood sugar-lowering medication should also be cautious, as fasting can have adverse effects if not managed properly.

Ms Mugambi warns that one of the biggest mistakes is to treat fasting as a quick fix. ‘Some people lose weight quickly, but then regain it once they return to normal eating habits. Fasting should form part of a long-term lifestyle change, not a short-term challenge,’ she advises.

Another common pitfall is overeating during eating windows. ‘If you fast for 16 hours and then snack continuously for eight, you cancel out the benefits,’ she cautions. Be deliberate with your portions.’

Stress and poor sleep can also undermine fasting efforts. ‘When cortisol levels rise, your body craves quick energy from sugary foods. Adequate sleep and hydration are critical, as they help regulate hormones and support metabolism,’ adds Ms Mugambi.

Additionally, mindset and routine are crucial for success. “First, decide that you’re going to do it, and then plan your routine. Support from friends or family can help keep you accountable,” she advises.

She also recommends changing your environment. ‘If you tend to eat out of boredom, keep busy or spend more time outdoors during your fasting hours to avoid temptation.’

Eating at consistent times helps to align your body’s internal clock with digestion and energy use. ‘If you eat just before going to bed, your body will store most of that energy as fat,’ she explains. ‘Eating earlier allows your metabolism to utilise food more efficiently.’

Kenya’s trade deficit with China widened further in the first half of 2025 to Sh295.80 billion, underlining the country’s continued dependence on Chinese-manufactured goods, even as it pushes to expand exports through a proposed bilateral deal.

Latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the gap between exports and imports increased by 21.86 percent from Sh242.75 billion in the same period a year ago.

The widening gap was driven by the growing value of imports from China, which surged past Sh300 billion in the half-year period for the first time.

Imports climbed 18.42 percent to Sh304.65 billion between January and June, up from Sh257.27 billion a year earlier. Exports, on the other hand, nearly halved to Sh8.85 billion from Sh14.53 billion in the same period, highlighting the persistent imbalance that has for decades defined the bilateral trade relationship between Nairobi and Beijing.

Over the last decade, China has tightened its grip on Kenya as a top source market, strengthened after it won a landmark deal to build a modern railway from Mombasa to Suswa near Naivasha and has dominated the supply of machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, construction materials, and other manufactured goods.

KNBS data shows that iron and non-alloy steel products – including automotive frames, panels, and building materials – were among the biggest imports in the first half of 2025, valued at Sh12.53 billion.

This growing inflow of capital and intermediate goods underscores Kenya’s reliance on Chinese industry to power its construction, manufacturing, and logistics sectors.

However, exports to China have narrowed for two years running after the shipment of titanium ores dried up following the closure of the Kwale mines.

Top sales to China included copper waste and scrap, whose value was nearly Sh3.34 billion in six months to June 2025, and tea at Sh1.14 billion.

The depth of the trade imbalance was a key agenda for President William Ruto during his four-day State visit to China in April.

‘We have concluded the high-level conversations with China. They have agreed to a reciprocal arrangement between Kenya and China.to remove all the tariffs on our tea, coffee, avocado and all other agricultural exports,’ Dr Ruto told business leaders in Nairobi on August 6.

‘That I think is a major breakthrough for us. We are now finalising the bilateral instruments so that in the next couple of months, we should be able to take advantage of that huge market.’

The looming bilateral deal, the finer details of which remain confidential, will mark a significant step towards removing long-standing inequities in trade flows between the two countries.

Farmers and exporters will, however, still face challenges in scaling production, meeting stringent certification requirements, and competing on quality in the highly regulated Chinese market, which has a population of 1.4 billion.

Investments, Trade, and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui has backed the proposed tariff agreement to transform Kenya’s export landscape.

‘If we were to plug into just one percent of that market for our coffee or tea, it would completely change the lives of Kenyans,’ Mr Kinyanjui said in August.

‘Some of our exporters have been forced to pay up to 10 percent duty to China, while our neighbouring countries pay zero because they are low-income. Others even export through Rwanda to avoid the tariff. With the removal of that, we can now export directly to China, and that will be a landmark deal.’

Kenya’s push for a bilateral trade deal with China aligns with its Integrated National Export Development and Promotion Strategy, an initiative launched in 2018 to diversify exports beyond traditional Western markets.

Read: Kenya edges closer to trade deal with China after Trump tariffs

In the same year, Kenya posted five new envoys to key Far East capitals – Beijing, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore – to scout for new market opportunities.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, agencies such as the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (Keproba) had embarked on aggressive marketing drives in China, including plans to establish promotional centres in Wuyi (Fujian province) and Hunan, major agricultural and tea-growing regions.

President William Ruto last week signed into law the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act, 2024, in what has been widely interpreted as a move to give the State broader powers to police online spaces in addition to enhancing penalties for digital offences.

The law, assented to last Wednesday amends the 2018 Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act to cover emerging threats such as SIM-swap fraud, phishing, and cyber harassment.

While the signed version was yet to be publicly published by the time of going to press, the changes are largely based on a legislative Bill tabled in the National Assembly in August last year.

Analysts at Nairobi-based legal firm Manwa OH Advocates have described the law as a pivotal shift in Kenya’s digital governance, one which extends the State’s enforcement reach while introducing heavier compliance burdens on businesses.

Under the amendments, the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NC4) gains powers to direct service providers to block websites or mobile applications deemed to promote illegal activity, terrorism, or extreme religious practices.

‘.seeks to give the NC4 an additional function of issuing directives on websites and applications that may be rendered inaccessible within the country where the website or application promotes illegal activities, child pornography, terrorism and extreme religious and cultic practices,’ read the draft copy.

The publicly-available Parliamentary version allowed such orders to be issued without prior court approval.

‘This grants significant government control over online content and raises the need for companies hosting platforms to align with content moderation standards,’ observes Manwa OH Advocates.

The new law also introduces a new offence targeting unauthorised SIM-swap transactions. A person who alters or takes ownership of another person’s SIM card with the intent to commit a crime faces up to 10 years in prison or a Sh5 million fine.

Read: AI unfair competition: Why Kenya needs to adopt protectionist policy

At the time, Wajir East MP who had sponsored the legislative paper noted that the amendments sought to curb rising mobile-based fraud affecting banks, fintech players, and digital payment platforms.

In addition, the enactment raises the penalties imposed for cyber harassment, with offences such as online stalking or conduct that induces self-harm now attracting up to 10 years in prison or a Sh5 million fine.

The Bill had also proposed to prohibit the spread of ‘false’ or ‘misleading information’ that causes public panic or threatens national security.

However, the vague wording of the ‘false information’ clause has drawn criticism from civil rights groups, who are apprehensive that it could be deployed as a tool to silence journalists and whistleblowers.

The High Court has previously suspended similar provisions in the 2018 law for infringing on the freedom of expression.

The current amendment further expands the scope of obligations for operators of critical information infrastructure such as banks, telcos, and utilities, requiring them to localise data storage, conduct annual cybersecurity risk assessments, as well as establish internal operations centres.

All cyber incidents must be reported to NC4 within 24 hours.

According to Manwa OH Advocates, the requirements ‘align with global data governance standards but impose steep compliance costs, especially for fintech and telecom operators.’ Non-compliance could attract fines of up to Sh10 million or prison terms of up to 20 years in severe cases.

Kenya’s tightening of cybercrime laws comes amid a sharp rise in digital fraud and a growing State appetite to regulate online activity.

In recent years, banks, telcos and government agencies have faced escalating breaches that have exposed vulnerabilities in payment systems and public databases.

Data from the Communications Authority shows that detected cyber threats rose to 842.3 million during the quarter ended September 2025, up from 657.8 million recorded during the period between July and September last year, driven by phishing, SIM-swap fraud, and ransomware targeting institutions handling financial data.

Mobile money services, which move more than Sh8 trillion annually, remain a prime target for fraud syndicates exploiting weak verification systems and insider collusion.

The 2018 Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act was Kenya’s first attempt to address hacking, identity theft, and online harassment, but enforcement has remained uneven.

The High Court in 2020 suspended several sections of the law over free speech concerns, leaving regulators with limited tools to act against emerging online crimes.

Milestones are essential for organisations on their sustainability journey because they help them to measure and monitor their performance while providing opportunities to make corrections along the way.

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Understanding the milestones on the sustainability journey will empower organisations to take thoughtful actions to implement sustainability in the organisation.

When viewed over a time horizon, organisations can equally assess the progress or maturity achieved against the time taken.

A good measure of not just progress but the resources taken and benefits realised.

This journey would typically involve five major milestones for an organisation, with variations required for tailoring and revisions to suit an organisation’s unique context.

The first milestone for organisations is ‘Purpose Alignment’. It is the most critical phase and a necessary first step on the journey of sustainability transformation. This step is where organisations determine their why for sustainability and integrate sustainability into their purpose holistically in a manner that ensures it delivers long-term sustainable value creation for stakeholders.

Organisations that don’t have this alignment fail to realise tangible benefits from sustainability adoption and end up simply approaching it as a compliance burden.

The next milestone is ‘Baselining’. This phase requires organisations to perform an as-is assessment of the business to understand their current positioning, considering the sustainability purpose set for the organisation. It involves materiality assessment, gap analysis, capacity building and a definition of sustainability goals and targets.

Organisations also conduct baselining exercises across priority areas like emissions and resource utilisation.

The subsequent milestone is ‘strategy and roadmap’ development. It involves planning the integration of sustainability as an enabler of the organisation’s business growth strategy and establishing governance structures to support it.

The outcome of this phase also includes an implementation roadmap for the organisation with timelines.

The fourth milestone is ‘implementation’. The implementation milestone is the phase where sustainability gets cascaded across the functional teams of the organisation. It also involves technology implementation considerations, including processes and controls.

The final phase is ‘reporting and assurance’. This phase represents the outcome of the earlier milestones achieved by the organisation.

It involves sustainability reporting that complies with standards and frameworks, assurance readiness considerations, communication, continuous improvement and refinement to the reporting process and maturity over time.

Traders shipping goods to and from Europe will continue to experience higher costs despite the recent cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as logistics firms take a cautious approach before resuming full use of the Red Sea route.

The conflict in the Middle East, which began in October 2023, negatively affected trade when Yemeni Houthi rebels started attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea corridor in retaliation to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.

This forced shipping firms to use the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa for safety reasons, adding weeks to transit times and cost of goods as exporters and importers passed on the higher charges to their customers.

Israel and Hamas inked a US-brokered deal last week to end their two-year conflict, but the killing of a Houthi military commander in an Israeli airstrike has raised the risk of continued attacks on shipping in the region.

‘One thing that we hope is that we will be able to use the Red Sea route, so that from a global logistics perspective that people will not be forced to waste 20 days travelling around the Cape,’ said Amadou Diallo, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding for the Middle East and Africa region.

‘It is, however, difficult to predict when we will see normalcy on the route because at the same time we have had the complication in Gaza, we still have more issues elsewhere, for instance, between China and US, Russia and Ukraine, that are also affecting global trade dynamics.’

DHL Global Forwarding is the cross-border freight arm of Germany based DHL Group.

Shipping firms also reported alternative shipping options to circumvent the Red Sea bottleneck, which involved partial transportation of goods on land across Saudi Arabia to Egypt from ports in Oman and other Persian Gulf States.

The circuitous route also applied for goods and inputs meant for African destinations, adding to the overall cost of products on shop shelves.

A detour around Africa raises fuel cost by 40 percent, according to Maersk Shipping Line, which started bypassing the Red Sea route in favour of the Cape of Good Hope in February 2025.

Due to the Middle East conflict, the price of freight for ships heading to Red Sea ports more than doubled to $6,800 per container, largely reflecting higher insurance costs.

Read: Middle East conflicts threaten Ruto’s fertiliser subsidy plan

Last year, shipping lines also introduced transit disruption surcharge of $200 for a 20-foot container and $400 for a 40-foot container, and an emergency contingency surcharge of $250 and $500 for 20-foot and 40-foot containers, respectively.

For Kenya, the biggest impact besides the higher cost of imported products was seen on the agricultural sector, where exporters of fruits, tea and coffee were forced to ship their produce over the longer South Africa route, leading to increased cases of spoilt produce and uncompetitive prices.

For more perishable products such as fresh vegetables and flowers, the cost of airfreight also went up due to increase demand for space by exporters, cutting margins for local famers and producers.

Listed agriculture firms issued profit warnings last year due to higher logistical costs. They included Kakuzi and Sasini, which said that the geopolitical tensions made it costlier and harder to supply their European markets.

For tea firms, the higher operating costs were accompanied by lower prices in the global market due to oversupply, while earnings in local currency were depressed due to the shilling strengthening against the dollar by up to 21 percent between January and December 2024.

They also reported higher cost of fertiliser and higher cost of power, which added to the cost of production for the plantations.

Walk into any boardroom across Nairobi, Mombasa or Kisumu today, and you’ll hear the same conversations echoing as business leaders excitedly discuss their latest investments in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud migration projects, and digital transformation initiatives.

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Kenyan companies are allocating substantial budgets to cutting-edge technologies, armed with the knowledge that modern tools will unlock competitive advantage, and drive the explosive growth the country’s dynamic markets demand.

However, as these enterprises pour millions into sophisticated AI platforms, advanced analytics tools, and cloud infrastructure, they’re systematically ignoring a fundamental weakness that quietly undermines every digital initiative they undertake.

Their data is chaotic, fragmented, and fundamentally disorganised. Sales information lives in one system, financial data in another, customer service records in a third, and operational metrics scattered across countless spreadsheets and standalone applications.

This isn’t merely a technical inconvenience that IT departments can eventually sort out, it’s a silent revenue killer that’s costing Kenyan enterprises millions in lost productivity, missed market opportunities, and competitive disadvantage. The harsh reality is that no amount of sophisticated technology can compensate for fragmented, siloed, and poorly organised data.

Companies with fragmented data systems are systematically handicapping their ability to compete, scale, and survive in increasingly sophisticated markets. For Kenya’s fast-scaling enterprises, this data disorganisation represents an existential threat that demands immediate strategic attention.

The compounding costs of fragmentation

The consequences of data chaos manifest across every aspect of business operations, creating inefficiencies that compound rapidly as organisations grow. Sales representatives waste precious hours manually updating multiple systems with identical customer information.

Finance teams struggle to generate accurate reports because critical data exists in disparate formats across various platforms that don’t communicate with each other. Marketing campaigns consistently fail to leverage valuable customer insights that remain trapped in isolated sales databases.

These operational cracks quickly spread into customer-facing functions. Customer service suffers dramatically when representatives lack complete visibility into client interaction histories, previous purchases, or ongoing support issues.

Operations teams make suboptimal decisions because they can’t access real-time information about inventory levels, supply chain status, or production capacity. Management operates essentially blind, making strategic decisions based on incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent information.

These problems become particularly acute in Kenya’s dynamic business environment, where companies often need to scale rapidly to capture fleeting market opportunities.

Unlike mature markets where gradual growth allows for incremental system improvements, Kenyan enterprises frequently face explosive scaling demands that expose every weakness in their data infrastructure.

A fintech startup handling thousands of daily transactions might suddenly need to process millions as adoption accelerates. If customer data, transaction records, compliance information, and operational metrics exist in separate, disconnected systems, the company faces an impossible choice: slow down growth to fix their data foundation, or scale inefficiently with massive operational overhead that ultimately limits their potential.

And this challenge is not confined to fintech alone. Similar patterns emerge across sectors. Agricultural technology companies struggle to integrate farmer data, weather information, supply chain logistics, and financial records.

Manufacturing enterprises fail to coordinate production data, inventory management, quality control, and distribution information effectively. Healthcare platforms cannot seamlessly connect patient records, provider information, scheduling systems, and billing processes.

Harnessing unified data for a sharper competitive edge

To break free from these limitations, the solution isn’t acquiring more sophisticated technology, it’s implementing unified technology architecture. Successful organisations across Africa are discovering that their competitive advantage lies not in possessing the most advanced individual tools, but in creating seamless information flow across their entire operation through integrated platform approaches.

This integration imperative reflects a fundamental shift in how businesses must conceptualise their digital infrastructure.

Rather than treating software systems as isolated tools for specific departmental functions, forward-thinking companies are recognising that their entire technology stack must function as a coherent, interconnected ecosystem that enables rather than hinders growth.

When properly implemented, unified data systems transform business operations completely.

Beyond survival: The competitive reality

All of this points to a simple truth: for Kenya’s business leaders, data organisation isn’t just about internal efficiency. It’s about competitive survival and regional expansion capability.

As the country solidifies its position as East Africa’s technology hub, companies that master data integration can serve broader African markets more effectively, while those trapped in fragmented systems struggle to expand beyond their initial market boundaries.

On June 10, 2008, then President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga launched Kenya Vision 2030, the long-term plan to transform Kenya into ‘a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030.’

For Mr Odinga, then 63, being around to see the full 22-year journey seemed improbable. Speaking after a stirring address by youth representative Caren Wakoli, he picked up her theme with a touch of humour: ‘When you [Wakoli] get there (in 2030), tell them to remember us,’ he said, urging the next generation to carry the torch.

It almost seemed like Mr Odinga was poised to defy his own quip and reach 2030.

However, like Moses of the Bible, he was not going to live to see the symbolic Canaan he so often promised his followers: a highly industrialising nation with decent jobs, universal healthcare and shared prosperity.

The former Prime Minister died on October 15, 2025, five years before 2030, leaving some unfinished business-including many flagship projects he and the late Kibaki envisioned in the Vision 2030 blueprint.

Mr Odinga, who died at 80, was eulogised chiefly as a towering politician. Yet behind the firebrand persona-mocked by rivals as the ‘Lord of Poverty’-ran a consistent economic reform agenda across his five unsuccessful presidential bids: decentralising power and resources, building safety nets for the poor, creating jobs through manufacturing, fighting corruption and taming the cost of living.

Read: Raila’s dream of factory wealth

Two months ago, Mr Odinga revisited Vision 2030, arguing that it should be put squarely back on the table and that the National Economic and Social Council (NESC)-the think tank that helped lay the groundwork for the plan-should be revived to drive coordination.

‘So that all those flagship projects that we coined during that time can be revived and we make sure they are all moving together,’ he told the 2025 Devolution Conference in Homa Bay.

‘This will help us as a country. I am saying this as a Kenyan patriot who is thinking about Kenya-Kenya number one, Kenya number two, Kenya number three.’

Vision 2030 places heavy emphasis on infrastructure, including the Sh2.5 trillion Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor meant to turbo-charge the economy through a network of seaports, airports, roads and railways.

Launched in March 2012 under the Grand Coalition government, a few LAPSSET projects are complete while many remain pending, leaving a significant infrastructure gap Mr Odinga had wished would be plugged. Lamu Port’s first three deep-water berths are operational, supported by the 113.5-km Garsen-Witu-Lamu highway.

Regionally, the Moyale One-Stop Border Post with Ethiopia is in service. Still outstanding are the standard-gauge railway (SGR) from Lamu inland, the Lokichar-Lamu crude-oil pipeline and the resort cities/airport upgrades, which remain at planning or partial-delivery stage.

Having championed the SGR concept, Mr Odinga hoped to see the line extended from Naivasha to Kisumu and onward to Malaba on the Ugandan border.

As African Union High Representative for Infrastructure, during the ‘Handshake’ era, he is understood to have accompanied President Uhuru Kenyatta to China to seek additional financing. They did not secure funds, but the current administration-working with Mr Odinga under the broad-based government-says plans are at an advanced stage to launch the SGR extension to western Kenya and onward to Uganda.

Increased manufacturing and value-addition also lay at the heart of Mr Odinga’s idyll. Since 1997, his manifestos have contained a plan to cut production costs, anchor firms in industrial parks, finance micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and enforce fair competition to unlock jobs.

The 2007 manifesto tied factories to devolved growth poles; the 2013 campaign promise synced with Vision 2030’s industrial parks and SEZs.

The manifesto of his National Super Alliance (Nasa), the pre-election political alliance that backed his presidential bid in 2017, set a 15 percent manufacturing-to-GDP target within five years; Azimio’s 2022 plan raised that to 30 percent and proposed a single business permit and ‘buy-Kenyan’ procurement.

All assumed cheaper logistics, reliable power and contract certainty. Vision 2030’s benchmark is 20 percent by 2030, but manufacturing has hovered around seven to eight percent in recent years, reflecting high energy costs and weak demand, even as services grow faster.

Mr Odinga envisaged an economy where smart agriculture, a vibrant manufacturing and social spending would cut the growing youth unemployment,

Unlike his predecessors, President William Ruto faces a generation of uncompromising young Kenyans desperate for economic opportunities, who can mobilise amorphously through social media, bypassing opposition parties and leaders.

Read: Inside Raila’s quiet business empire

With up to 800,000 young people entering the job market each year, Gen Z are more educated than their elders, but also more likely to be unemployed, according to a report by Afrobarometer, a pollster.

Mr Odinga put money behind his beliefs. In 1971, he and his father founded East African Spectre to make gas cylinders, applying his engineering training.

‘He did not consider himself just a director; he was part of us,’ said Hudson Chitala, the company’s general manager.

‘While other directors headed to the boardroom, he went straight to the factory. in fact, if you heard the noise in the factory, you knew he had come,’ added Chitala.

The Odinga family also invested in a molasses plant in Kisumu to produce ethanol from sugarcane by-products, an ambitious venture that later collapsed.

A firm believer that industry creates jobs, he often argued for temporary protection of local firms, including selective bans and higher tariffs to curb unfair competition.

On the 2022 campaign trail, as he argued for the revival of textiles and apparel, a remark about second-hand clothes (mitumba) was widely interpreted as calling them garments ‘worn by the dead,’ drawing backlash from traders.

He later framed the point as a call to rebuild local manufacturing while organising the mitumba trade. Meanwhile, his stake in LPG cylinder manufacturing and validation grew through East African Spectre, which recently opened a larger branch near the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC).

Under Vision 2030’s political pillar, a new Constitution was central-a long-held rallying call for Mr Odinga and a plank in his 2007 manifesto. After the defeat of the 2005 draft and his disputed 2007 loss to then President Kibaki, that dream appeared out of reach.

But a post-election truce produced a reform deal, culminating in the 2010 Constitution that created 47 devolved government and delivered his vision of resources cascading to the grassroots.

Yet 12 years since devolution took effect in 2013, Mr Odinga felt it ‘was becoming another problem,’ weighed down by transparency and accountability gaps, said Dr Scholastica Odhiambo of Maseno University. ‘He asked, what can we do better?’ she added, noting he did not necessarily support reducing the number of counties.

At the heart of his push for devolution was inclusion. This zeal endeared him to marginalised communities but rattled those at the centre who criticised redistribution policies as anti-capital.

‘His voice for economic inclusion has been loud. resources should not be only at the higher level,’ said Dr Odhiambo, noting that the new Constitution included the Equalisation Fund to uplift vulnerable communities, especially in arid and semi-arid lands. ‘He was really loved in the marginalised [communities]. He was talking their mind.’

His aggressive push for social equity-including the Sh6,000 monthly stipend for vulnerable families in the 10-point People’s Programme under the 2022 Azimio manifesto-was dismissed by critics as populist and unaffordable, given fiscal constraints. Where would the money come from for free education from pre-primary to university, universal healthcare and expanded cash transfers for the elderly and persons with disabilities?

‘I know where the money is because I have been in government for five years. I will seal all the loopholes and I will have enough money to give to Kenyans,’ he said.

Beyond Kenya, Mr Odinga was a pan-Africanist who viewed the continent’s liberation as incomplete without economic integration and shared prosperity.

As AU High Representative for Infrastructure, he championed trans-continental rail, road and energy corridors to knit Africa together, arguing that ‘Africa cannot trade if it cannot connect.’

His vision drew from the ideals of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere-an Africa that speaks with one voice in global affairs.

A dream of a united Africa, which eluded independence leaders like Mr Nkrumah and Mr Nyerere, was also not achieved by the second crop of post-independence leaders like Mr Odinga. That is left to the next crop of leaders.