Category: Business Daily

If Kenya is genuinely committed to attaining a development status comparable to Singapore, the starting point is not infrastructure, legislation, or foreign capital; it is mindset.

Nations rise or stagnate first in the collective psychology of their leadership and citizens.

Before Singapore became a global hub for finance, logistics, and innovation, it became a disciplined, purpose-driven society with a shared mental model of success.

Kenya’s ambition to transform into a high-income, globally competitive economy must, therefore, begin with a deliberate and sustained shift in national mindset.

A mindset shift is fundamentally about choices: what a country tolerates, what it rewards, and what it decisively rejects. Singapore, under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, made a conscious decision to reject mediocrity, corruption, and short-term populism.

Scarcity was not treated as an excuse but as a catalyst for efficiency, integrity, and long-term planning. Kenya, on the other hand, tends to display unparalleled potential in hampered thinking patterns, inconsistent policies, and condoning inefficiency.

To turn this trend around, there will be a need for a leadership that will pose the aspects of discipline, ethics and competence not as choices of virtue but as responsibilities of being a patriot.

The President, as the foremost symbol of national unity and purpose, carries a unique responsibility in shaping this mindset. Beyond policy pronouncements, presidential leadership sets behavioural norms across the state.

When integrity is practised on the highest levels, when the handling of the public funds is viewed as the sacred capital and when the performance is evaluated with the level of rigour, the message goes down through the institutions and the society.

The success of Singapore is not by chance, but it is a creation of the leadership that coordinated values, incentives, and accountability. Kenya must similarly cultivate a culture where public office is understood as stewardship, not entitlement.

Economically and financially, a mindset shift translates into prioritising productivity over patronage, investment over consumption, and value creation over rent-seeking.

Rwanda is one of such countries that have shown that with a clear national vision, strong implementation, and an unwillingness to tolerate corruption, countries can change their development paths within a short period of time, despite the lack of natural resources.

South Korea, which was poorer than Kenya in the 1960s, has transformed itself by inculcating an ethic of national education, industrial competitiveness and export orientation. These countries did not only imitate the policies; they instilled a notion that there is no compromise when it comes to excellence, planning and sacrifice.

For Kenya, fostering such a mindset requires institutional coherence and societal alignment. Education systems must emphasise critical thinking, ethics, and technical competence.

The management of public finance should be transparent and strategy-based, and so, the debt, taxation and spending should be directly proportional to the productive areas. The privatised economy should also be seen as a development entrepreneur rather than an object of wealthier extraction.

Citizens must be ready to accept the culture of responsibility, punctuality, and respect for the rule of law.

Ultimately, the journey to a ‘Singapore status’ is less about imitation and more about internal transformation. Mindset is the invisible infrastructure upon which all physical and economic structures rest.

If Kenya chooses discipline over disorder, long-term vision over expediency, and ethical leadership over convenience, progress will follow. History consistently shows that when nations change how they think, they irrevocably change how they perform. This transformation is neither instant nor painless, but it is achievable.

The reformation of mindset requires stability through the electoral outcome and protecting the development priorities in the sharing storms. It needs leaders who are free and frank about tradeoffs and citizens ready to compromise short term gratification with long term prosperity.

When a nation collectively agrees on standards of excellence and enforces them impartially, momentum becomes self-reinforcing, and national ambition evolves from rhetoric into measurable, durable outcomes.

Such consensus defines transformational national leadership.

Kenya’s industrial sector is entering a new phase, one defined by consolidation, capital muscle, and the unmistakable logic of economies of scale.

The recent wave of mergers and acquisitions across industries, from cement to banking and logistics, signals a deeper restructuring of how business is done in a highly competitive, cost-sensitive environment.

The ongoing acquisition of East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) by Amsons Group, coming just months after Amsons’ takeover of Bamburi Cement, perfectly illustrates this shift. The cement industry is capital-intensive, energy-hungry, and logistics-heavy.

This combination punishes inefficiency and rewards size. Larger players produce cement at lower unit costs, spread their overheads across output, negotiate better supplier contracts, and invest in cleaner, more modern technology. Ultimately, consumers are the ones who benefit the most from this.

By contrast, smaller players often struggle to stay afloat. EAPCC, once an industry leader, has in recent years grappled with dead stock, weak cash flow, and years without dividend payouts.

Without the financial strength or production scale to compete effectively, such firms – like EAPCC – become vulnerable to acquisition or decline. Shareholders of EAPCC went 13 years without a dividend payout and finally received one this year, but that was only because of the sale of some land.

With heightened fiscal pressures, rising energy costs, and shifting regulatory policies reshaping Kenya’s business environment, smaller firms are being forced to scale down production or temporarily halt operations due to high electricity tariffs and the rising cost of imported inputs.

In such an environment, only firms able to invest in energy-efficient technology, negotiate bulk power arrangements, or diversify their sourcing strategies can remain competitive. Larger companies can absorb these new costs more easily, whether it means meeting tougher emissions rules or adjusting to new tax measures.

For smaller or struggling manufacturers, these added pressures pile on top of rising energy costs and unpredictable market conditions.

This challenge goes far beyond the cement sector; it affects the entire manufacturing industry, where size increasingly determines who survives and who struggles.

Consolidation, therefore, becomes not just a strategic option but a practical response to economic headwinds that hit smaller and struggling firms hardest.

When done responsibly, it can help protect jobs, stabilise supply chains, and keep Kenya competitive.

In the beverage sector, large players like EABL continue to dominate through integrated production, strong distribution networks, and economies of scale.

In banking, the consolidation trend has seen big players like KCB, Equity, and NCBA leverage digital transformation and regional expansion to spread operational costs to millions of customers, causing smaller banks to either merge, be acquired, or fade out.

Even in logistics, port handling, and energy, scale is everything. A company like Kenya Pipeline Corporation moves oil more efficiently through centralized infrastructure than smaller distributors could ever manage individually.

In telecommunications, Safaricom’s scale advantage enables it to invest billions in 5G infrastructure and digital services that smaller players cannot match.

At its core, economies of scale describe the cost advantage that arises when production becomes efficient. As output grows, the cost per unit falls.

This creates a virtuous cycle; larger firms can reinvest profits into innovation, expand market share, and drive prices lower, which again benefits the public, especially during times of economic hardship.

Of course, consolidation must be handled carefully. Without proper regulation, it can lead to market dominance and reduced consumer choice. But when managed within a competitive framework, mergers can rejuvenate industries that have long struggled to grow or stay organised.

They bring new capital, modern management, and operational efficiency, the very ingredients that Kenya’s industrial sector needs to thrive in a regional and global marketplace.

For Kenya, where infrastructure expansion and housing demand continue to rise, the creation of large, efficient industrial players is not just good for business; it’s an economic necessity.

Therefore, the acquisition of struggling firms like EAPCC, if well executed, could unlock new capacity, stabilize prices, and ensure that industrial assets are fully utilised.

In the long run, Kenya’s growth story will depend less on the number of players in the market and more on their ability to operate at scale, compete regionally, innovate consistently, and deliver quality at affordable rates.

The age of small, isolated operators is fading; the era of scale, integration, and strategic consolidation has arrived, and we should welcome it.

Amina founded and led a mid-sized professional services firm in Nyali. She strongly believed in building up her employees and therefore specifically encouraged her female staff to attend women only networking breakfasts across Mombasa.

While some of the male workers found it odd that Amina championed the women only networking, she firmly believed that gathering women together in one room would naturally spark more collaboration, mentorship and opportunity.

Amina invested her firm’s resources in buying tickets, allocating travel time, and preparation for the events because she especially wanted her younger female managers to build confidence and visibility.

However, she quietly noticed that when many participants returned back from the events energised emotionally, they simultaneously felt uncertain about what tangible career outcomes they could pursue thereafter.

Over time, some of Amina’s senior managers dismissed the networkings as ceremonial while the mid-career women at the company complained about internal intense competition disguised as solidarity around the mission, vision and values.

However, junior staff members, by contrast, praised the internal firm atmosphere and spoke enthusiastically about friendships and encouragement.

Amina listened carefully. She began to wonder why a space designed to empower women sometimes produced confusion, frustration or disengagement instead of collective momentum. Amina decided to dig deeper and deploy a staff engagement survey.

A new global study by Patricia Hein, Marjo Diehl and Karin Kreutzer released this week helps explain what Amina observed in her own organisation around the value of same gender networking functions.

The researchers examined women-only networking events across Europe and uncovered that women attach extremely different meanings to networking with other women. While some women pursue status and credibility, other ladies seek immediate instrumental career gains.

Interestingly, the study highlights a critical distinction between enforced and agentic gender homophily. What on earth does this mean?

Essentially, in compulsory situations, organisations typically design events from the top-down and pressure women to attend under the narrow-minded assumption that shared gender alone guarantees connection.

The study found that it often leads women to withdraw or cluster narrowly with peers of similar rank or social standing. In contrast, independent settings allow women themselves to shape the purpose, format and goals of networking.

The research also reveals how same gendered all male or all female organisational experiences shapes behaviour inside networking spaces. Regarding all female networking events, the researchers posit that senior women often prioritise business focused conversations.

While mid-career women face bottlenecks and intense competition in their current career ambition and more junior ranked women in firms approach networking with much more optimism and expressive energy.

Here in Kenya, our firms and professional associations can draw powerful lessons from the study. Same gender networking succeeds when organisers define its purpose, focus on shared professional goals, and design interaction around collaboration rather than mere symbolism.

Progress only emerges when organisations trust participants to build networks that reflect their real ambitions, challenges and capabilities.

In conclusion, magic does not happen simply because all women or all men gather in one room. Certainly male-dominated organisations should not make assumptions for what would best empower and connect women.

Kenya holds extraordinary female talent across every sector, and intentional agentic networking can convert our homegrown talent into leadership, innovation, and institutional change.

The Gen Z in my family are home for the Christmas break, both from work and university. So the economics debates are as amazing as they are relentless. At dinner in Rumuruti, they grudgingly agree there has been progress in the republic.

That real per capita gross domestic product has increased 7.4 times in 22 years – from $345 in 2003, to $2,550 in 2025.

December has a way of softening even the hardest edges of leadership.

The inbox slows down and titles momentarily loosen their grip.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has started the exchange of information on the financial dealings by Kenyans in 77 foreign countries amid escalated crackdowns on tax dodgers and recipients of illegitimate wealth.

The taxman said the exchange will apply to information returns from the 77 nations beginning January 1.

The exits of Allan Kilavuka and Michael Joseph as CEO and chairman of Kenya Airways, respectively, have thrown off the national carrier’s search for a strategic investor.

The National Treasury, the airline’s single largest shareholder, has said the priority has moved from the search for a strategic investor due to the leadership vacuum created.

More than one million patients suffering from hypertension missed treatment over the past three years due to a lack of anti-hypertensive drugs resulting from inadequate funding.

The latest health sector report shows that the State Department for Medical Services (SDMS), which is responsible for clinical care and drug dispensing, was allocated just Sh2.7 billion for all non-communicable diseases over the period. This is less than Sh1 billion required per year to cover hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and all other non-communicable diseases.

The State is considering introducing insurance for mobile money deposits, such as M-Pesa and Airtel Money, to cover losses should any of the banks holding their e-savings collapse.

The Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) is in talks with mobile money operators and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) about an insurance to cover the mobile money deposits and cut the risk exposure.

As the world reflects on the conclusion of the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the spotlight falls on the 2025 theme: ‘UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls’.

This theme holds particular weight as Africa undergoes a profound digital revolution. Digital platforms are now at the heart of education, commerce, governance, and civic participation across the continent.

Ensuring these spaces are safe and inclusive is key not only for equality but also for the sustainability of Africa’s ongoing transformation.

The digital boom has powered the rise of mobile money, social commerce, and affordable technological tools, enabling thousands of small businesses to join regional and global supply chains.

Women and youth-led SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs are increasingly leveraging online platforms to connect with customers, manage transactions, and expand their operations.

Digital commerce is bringing new opportunities for business growth. However, as digital adoption accelerates, the dangers of online harassment, cyberstalking, non-consensual image sharing, algorithmic bias, and technology-driven coercion have grown, disproportionately threatening the safety and participation of women and girls.

Digital violence has outgrown its roots as a social issue; it now poses a serious economic and developmental risk.

Misuse of AI and digital platforms have enabled the creation and spread of harmful content, impersonation of entrepreneurs, and manipulation of images, all of which erode trust in the digital systems that underpin growth.

The figures are sobering globally, with between 15 and 58 percent of women and girls have been targeted by online violence. In Kenya alone, according last year’s UNFPA report, Rapid Study on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in tertiary institutions, 40 percent of female students report exposure to such violence, with nearly 90 percent witnessing it.

This not only widens the digital divide but also threatens the progress already made towards digital inclusion.

For women-led SMEs, such attacks can cause severe reputational damage.

For women-led SMEs, whose brands often hinge on personal identity, digital attacks such as deepfakes or impersonation scams can cause severe reputational damage.

Combined with existing hurdles like, limited access to capital, markets, and persistent socio-cultural barriers, online insecurity becomes a significant obstacle to sustainable growth, competitiveness and innovation. Young entrepreneurs, especially women, often face harassment after gaining visibility online.

This undermines their confidence in e-commerce and digital payments, paradoxically at a time when a robust online presence is crucial for economic success.

In this context, organisations are called upon to integrate digital safety into the core of institutional strengthening, systems design, and development finance. As the 16 Days of Activism campaign closed, the message was clear: ending digital violence is vital to unlocking Africa’s digital economy and ensuring women and girls can flourish in the future workplace.