Category: Business Daily

Supermarket chain Quickmart will sell up to a 57.5 percent stake through the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), providing a multi-billion-shilling partial exit route for private equity firm Adenia and its founders.

The supermarket announced on Wednesday that its owners-Sokoni Retail Kenya Limited (SRKL)-will sell 2 billion shares equivalent to a 50 percent stake and are open to selling an additional 7.5 percent in the event of increased demand.

Sokoni Retail Kenya Limited is owned by Adenia and the founders of Quickmart and Tumaini Supermarket-which were merged in 2019.

The Chief executive officer of Quickmart, Peter Kang’iri, is selling part of his stake in the retail chain.

All four core investors will sell part of their shares, with Adenia remaining the anchor shareholder at the Supermarket.

In its offer, the chain, which posted a profit of Sh1.7 billion in the year to December, is promising to share 80 percent of the profits with investors as dividends.

The sale through the NSE is a boost to the bourse, which this year ended a listing drought that lasted years following the Kenya Pipeline Company IPO and the entry of Family Bank through introduction.

This has widened investors’ choice in a market where five counters-Safaricom, Equity Bank, KCB, EABL and Cooperative Bank-dominated trading, masking the overall performance of the bourse.

The sale is subject to approval from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and NSE.

‘The existing shareholder group intends to retain a substantial interest in the Company following the Offer, reflecting our continued confidence in the Company and its long-term prospects,’ said Martha Osier, a partner at Adenia, in a statement.

The Shareholders are in line for a multi-billion shilling payout in a stock market that has witnessed a boom on the back of increased investor participation.

‘The shares to be sold by SRKL under the Offer will be sold in a manner that results in a pro rata partial exit by the shareholders of SRKL. Following completion of the Offer, if the over-allotment option is not exercised, SRKL is expected to retain approximately 50 percent of the Company’s issued share capital. If the over-allotment option is exercised in full, SRKL’s remaining shareholding would reduce to approximately 42.5 percent,’ the statement reads.

Quickmart will become the second listed supermarket at the NSE, joining the struggling Uchumi supermarket.

The sale of part of Adenia’s stake through the NSE marks a rare move for a private equity firm, which typically sells shares to high-net-worth investors or their peers.

‘Listing on the NSE will give Kenyans the opportunity to own a share of a business they already shop in, while raising our profile with suppliers and partners as we continue to deliver on our growth strategy,’ Mr Kang’iri said in a statement.

The deal aligns with PE funds’ strategy of staying in a business for five to seven years, with an average holding period of about six-and-a-half years.

This timeframe allows the firm to restructure, build value, and prepare the company for a profitable exit.

Adenia invested in Kenya’s retail sector in 2018, taking over not one but two family-run concerns.

In 2018, it bought Tumaini. The following year, after adding five new stores, it acquired the Quickmart business, bringing the total to 24 outlets.

Adenia sought to bet on a sector that had witnessed turmoil after several Kenyan supermarkets, including Uchumi, Nakumatt and Tuskys, had either gone bust or were about to do so as foreign retailers such as Shoprite and Game exited.

Read: Why QuickMart cannot recover Sh15m from Sh94.9m transit heist

Quickmart launched a breakneck expansion that at first saw it open a branch nearly every month to become the fastest-growing supermarket chain in Kenya.

Financial Times ranked it this year at number 97 among Africa’s fastest-growing companies in a top 100 list that had 17 companies from Kenya.

Quickmart posted sales of Sh50.4 billion in 2024 from Sh29.3 billion in 2021.

It has 72 branches in 16 counties and intends to open up to 15 stores this year.

While taking over Tumaini and Quickmart, Adenia judged Kenya a nascent retail market with potential to grow in both scale and sophistication.

Adenia’s initial growth strategy was two-fold. First, it replaced the Kinuthia founding family with professional management. It brought in Mr Kang’iri, with a background in retail, logistics and finance, as chief executive, and Jacques Dôme, who had been in retail in Dubai for 15 years, as his deputy. Members of the Kinuthia family retained two seats on the seven-member board.

Second, it sought to strike better deals with Kenyan suppliers, many of which enjoy dominant market positions.

Quickmart, now the second-largest retailer after Naivas and ahead of Carrefour and Chandarana Food Plus, has acquired the scale that has provided it with the bargaining muscle.

Its growth and ownership mirror that of rival Naivas.

In 2022, France’s Amethis investment fund sold its stake in Naivas to Mauritius-based IBL Group.

Amethis bought a stake in Naivas for an undisclosed amount in 2020, which has remained under the control of the Mukuha family since 1990.

Naivas became a top retailer after the collapse of Nakumatt, which had dominated the sector.

Nakumatt’s failure has also created an opening for other chains like Quickmart and Carrefour.

Quickmart is presently the second-largest retailer after Naivas, which has over 100 branches.

The sale of Adenia shares via the NSE will mark a rare deal as PEs have traditionally steered clear of public markets as a departure route.

Liquidity concerns and a burdensome listing process have previously been cited as reasons for few to non-existent PE exits via public markets.

The 2024 Deloitte Africa Private Equity Confidence Survey showed that 56 percent of PE firms preferred secondary sales to their peers, while 32 percent favoured selling to strategic investors or partial exits.

The NSE has yet to record a listing from a PE firm/fund in the recent past, but its struggles to register new initial public offerings (IPOs) have eased with the listing of KPC, Family Bank and Shri Kishana Overseas Limited over the past year.

Multinational banks operating in Kenya have failed to keep pace with the rapid expansion of their homegrown rivals, resulting in a loss of market share that has seen Standard Chartered Bank Kenya drop off the list of tier one lenders.

Newly published data by the Central bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that locally homegrown institutions such as KCB Bank Kenya and Equity Bank Kenya have progressively claimed a larger share of the market as measured through net assets, customer deposits, loan book, deposit and loan accounts and shareholder equity.

Stanchart and Absa Bank Kenya, which are majority owned by UK multinational Standard Chartered Plc and South African lender Absa Group respectively, have seen their share of the market fall over the past seven years, pointing to slower growth in assets and deposits compared to the local lenders.

The most marked decline has been on Stanchart, whose market share fell from 6.37 percent in 2019 to 4.5 percent in 2025, resulting in its drop into the second tier of banks. In 2019, the lender was ranked sixth in size in the market, but has since then been overtaken by DTB, I and M Bank and Stanbic Bank.

Absa’s market share dropped from 6.8 percent to 6.4 percent over the seven years, although the bank maintained its position as the country’s fifth largest lender by market size. Stanbic, which is controlled by South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, expanded its market share from 5.64 percent to 5.8 percent in the period.

CBK segregates the banking tiers based on a market size index, with the top tier comprising those with a share of five percent or more.

Tier two or medium sized banks have a market share of between one and five percent, while those with a share below one percent each are classified as tier three or small banks.

The market is dominated by the large banks in terms of assets and profits, but this was dented last year by the movement of Stanchart into the tier two group. Sidian Bank also crossed into the medium size peer group from tier three, after doubling its market share from 0.53 percent to 1.1 percent within the space of 12 months.

‘Banks in the large peer group decreased their combined market share to 69.7 percent in December 2025 from 75.6 percent in December 2024 due to the exit of Standard Chartered Bank Kenya from large to medium peer group,’ said the CBK in its bank supervision report of 2025 that was published on Wednesday.

KCB led the banking sector with a market share of 17.3 percent as at December 2025, followed by Equity and Co-operative Bank of Kenya at 11.8 percent and 9.4 percent respectively.

KCB’s share has expanded from 13.89 percent in 2019 and Equity’s from 10.24 percent, deepening their hold on the market within a period in which their respective balance sheets have risen above the Sh1 trillion mark.

KCB grew its net assets from Sh674.3 billion in 2019 to Sh1.49 trillion in 2025 while Equity’s net assets doubled from Sh507.5 million to Sh1.04 trillion over the same period.

In contrast, Stanchart’s net assets grew by only a fifth to Sh364.5 billion from Sh302.3 billion.

Absa’s net assets meanwhile rose from Sh374.1 billion to Sh536.7 billion, a growth of 43.5 percent.

The faster expansion of the local lenders has partly drawn from their investment in digital and physical outlets to gather larger volumes of deposits and hand out more loans, in contrast to the more conservative approach of the multinationals.

Multinational lenders have also been more willing to distribute a larger share of their profits as dividends to their shareholders, while the likes of KCB and Equity have withheld more to fund growth.

In the financial year ended December 2025, Stanchart distributed Sh11.71 billion in dividends at a rate of Sh31 per share, which was equivalent to 94 percent of its net profit of Sh12.44 billion in the period.

Absa paid out 49 percent of its net profit of Sh22.9 billion to shareholders as dividends, equivalent to Sh11.14 billion, while Stanbic paid out 64 percent or Sh8.8 billion out of its net earnings of Sh13.72 billion.

KCB, at group level, meanwhile distributed 34 percent of its net profit, translating to a payout of Sh22.49 billion against net earnings of Sh66.82 billion. Equity Group had a payout ratio of 30 percent after distributing Sh21.7 billion from its net profit of Sh71.96 billion in 2025

Compounded over a number of years, the retained profits for the lenders give them a sizable capital war chest with which to lend more to customers and government, and also to fund regional expansion that further bolsters the bottom line.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) fined a record 33 commercial banks for defying the regulator’s calls to cut their loan rates in line with the reduced benchmark rate, denying borrowers cheaper credit.

The penalties followed on-site inspections of all 38 commercial banks, after which the CBK cracked the whip to force lenders to match their lending rates to the reduced Central Bank Rate (CBR).

The CBK did not disclose the identity of the banks in breach of the Banking Act provisions or the fines slapped on the 33 lenders, which represent 86.8 percent of the industry.

The apex bank said it took unspecified administrative actions on two other banks, while only three were fully compliant with the risk-based credit pricing model (RBCPM).

Between August 2024 and August 2025, the CBK cut the benchmark rate or CBR seven times by 3.5 percentage points to 9.5 percent from a 22-year high of 13 percent that lasted for about seven months.

Only six lenders — Citibank N.A Kenya, Absa Bank Kenya, Credit Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, Stanbic Bank Kenya and Victoria Commercial Bank — cut their overall lending rates to match or exceed the benchmark.

The banking regulator last year repeatedly put pressure on banks to lower borrowing costs and match cuts in the benchmark rate while threatening daily fines.

‘CBK conducted target inspections in 2025 on the implementation of the RBCPM rolled out in 2019 by all commercial banks. Following the inspections, penalties were levied on 33 banks, and administrative actions were taken on two banks,’ the CBK said in its latest annual banking supervision report.

‘Three banks were fully compliant with the RBCPM.’

The penalties on credit pricing breaches raised the number of commercial banks in violation of the Banking Act and CBK Prudential Guidelines in the year ended December 31, 2025 to 35, compared to 11 previously.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge accused banks of failing to cut loan rates even after the CBR was trimmed from 13 percent in August 2024 to 10.75 percent in February 2026.

This triggered on-site inspections of banks up to June 2025 by the CBK to review the movement of lending rates.

Banks faced fines of Sh20 million or three times the monetary gain made from ‘overcharging’ borrowers, with the regulator leaning on the punitive penalty.

The banks also risked additional daily penalties of up to Sh100,000 for every case or implication for each loan account, with the executives liable for a Sh1 million

The banking sector regulator hinged its actions on Section 55 of the CBK Act.

‘The (Monetary Policy) Committee observed that the CBR had been lowered substantially since August 2024, yet lending rates have only declined marginally,’ Dr Thugge said in February last year.

The apex bank said it took unspecified administrative actions on two other banks, while only three were fully compliant with the risk-based credit pricing model (RBCPM).

Between August 2024 and August 2025, the CBK cut the benchmark rate or CBR seven times by 3.5 percentage points to 9.5 percent from a 22-year high of 13 percent that lasted for about seven months.

Only six lenders — Citibank N.A Kenya, Absa Bank Kenya, Credit Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, Stanbic Bank Kenya and Victoria Commercial Bank — cut their overall lending rates to match or exceed the benchmark.

The banking regulator last year repeatedly put pressure on banks to lower borrowing costs and match cuts in the benchmark rate while threatening daily fines.

‘CBK conducted target inspections in 2025 on the implementation of the RBCPM rolled out in 2019 by all commercial banks. Following the inspections, penalties were levied on 33 banks, and administrative actions were taken on two banks,’ the CBK said in its latest annual banking supervision report.

‘Three banks were fully compliant with the RBCPM.’

The penalties on credit pricing breaches raised the number of commercial banks in violation of the Banking Act and CBK Prudential Guidelines in the year ended December 31, 2025 to 35, compared to 11 previously.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge accused banks of failing to cut loan rates even after the CBR was trimmed from 13 percent in August 2024 to 10.75 percent in February 2026.

This triggered on-site inspections of banks up to June 2025 by the CBK to review the movement of lending rates.

Banks faced fines of Sh20 million or three times the monetary gain made from ‘overcharging’ borrowers, with the regulator leaning on the punitive penalty.

The banks also risked additional daily penalties of up to Sh100,000 for every case or implication for each loan account, with the executives liable for a Sh1 million

The banking sector regulator hinged its actions on Section 55 of the CBK Act.

‘The (Monetary Policy) Committee observed that the CBR had been lowered substantially since August 2024, yet lending rates have only declined marginally,’ Dr Thugge said in February last year.

Nine years ago, Matt Muthama owned only two goats, a gift from his uncle in Githunguri, Kiambu. Today, he is the co-founder of KEFT Farm in Wamasa, Kinango, Kwale County, a 600-acre enterprise running more than 3,000 goats and 600 breeding cattle, and selling animals as far as Tanzania, the Gambia and Zambia.

A breeding goat from the farm sells for an average of Sh15,000, with superior animals fetching considerably more depending on genetics, age and other traits.

Roughly 40 percent of everything sold eventually leaves Kenya altogether, carried across borders by buyers who resell them in other African markets.

“We have encountered animals originating from our farm in Tanzania, the Gambia and Zambia after buyers acquired and resold them,” Mr Muthama says.

Two business models

The farm runs two parallel business models, and the logistics behind each are deliberately different.

The first is breeding: producing and selling quality Galla goats rather than fattening them for meat, with does retained to grow the herd and bucks sold on to avoid inbreeding.

The second is trading: buying goats from northern Kenya when prices are low, fattening them on the farm’s own fodder for about 90 days, then selling at nearly double the purchase price.

Once buying and fattening costs are factored in, that model alone earns about 40 percent returns. Together, the two approaches spread KEFT’s income across breeding and commercial trade, while home-grown fodder keeps feed costs down.

The six partners who run KEFT Farm have set aside 100 of their 600 acres purely for fodder, growing maize for silage, lucerne, sorghum and cowpeas, and buying in only minerals, vitamins and salts from Nairobi.

Growing their own feed has cut feeding costs by close to 70 percent, and improved production techniques have pushed maize silage yields from about seven tonnes per acre to 20 tonnes.

The farm aims to keep six months of feed in reserve at any time, a buffer against drought.

Hobby turned business

Mr Muthama’s route into livestock business began far from Kwale. Trained as an irrigation engineer by a French company and specialising in centre-pivot systems, he worked on large farms, including one in Naivasha growing lucerne, where he first saw how irrigation and fodder production could be built into a proper livestock enterprise.

His own experiments started small: dairy goats kept on a quarter-acre plot in Dagoretti, Nairobi, after a friend brought in Saanen goats from South Africa. One of his animals, a Toggenburg he named Githunguri, produced between two and three kids and about five litres of milk a day.

Turning point

The turning point came just before the Covid-19 pandemic, when Mr Muthama sold one of his best dairy goats at a Nairobi breeders’ show for Sh120,000. “That is when I knew livestock can give me something,” he says.

He went on to acquire more Saanen and Toggenburg goats, later adding French Alpine genetics, and crossbreeding produced what he calls Kenyan Alpine animals.

Turning a backyard hobby into a 3,000-goat business took partners, and Mr Muthama found his in an unlikely place.

“I met the business partners in an entertainment joint,” he says. One of them backed his livestock venture financially, and the hobby became a company.

One of KEFT Farm workers, Mangale Mulero in Wamasa, Kinango, Kwale County, counts cattle on September 16, 2026.

Sammy Waweru | Nation Media Group

The partners started by buying goats from Baringo at Sh6,000 to Sh7,000 each, fattening them and selling into the meat market. By 2022, their herd in Dagoretti had reached about 1,200 goats.

A scouting trip to Kwale in 2020 set the next stage in motion. The partners pooled their savings and bought 105 acres as the foundation of what is now their 600-acre ranch.

KEFT Farm began with 200 Galla does and 10 bucks. Through steady breeding and additions to the herd, that foundation grew into roughly 1,500 breeding does and about 1,000 young does, with the partners now working to hold a herd of around 3,000 goats at any given time.

Galla was chosen deliberately, for its suitability to Kwale’s conditions and for its demand. “We are trying to address quality Galla goats. Kenya has quality animals that the international market accepts,” Mr Muthama says.

The farm also keeps around 600 breeding cattle, using Boran as mother stock crossed with Limousin and Simmental genetics to produce larger animals.

Buyers are walked through management, breeding information and record-keeping before they take animals home, and Mr Muthama says many return once they see how the genetics perform. “Training is part of our sales model.”

The setbacks

Scaling a herd this size has not been without setbacks. The partners arrived in Kwale to find plenty of grass but little water, and heavy rains that made access difficult. Ticks became enough of a problem that the farm built its own dipping system, and increasingly erratic rainfall has made fodder planning harder, even with mechanisation and irrigation easing some of the pressure.

The farm’s answer is a mega dam, currently under construction, covering about four hectares with a planned capacity of 202,000 cubic metres. “We expect it to support irrigation of up to 80 hectares of fodder,” Mr Muthama says.

Mechanisation, including a tractor for fieldwork, has also kept the workforce lean: just nine employees split between livestock and agronomy handle a 3,000-strong herd and 100 acres of fodder.

The lessons

For Mr Muthama, the biggest lesson from nine years in the business is that livestock farming never stops demanding research. Of the six partners now behind KEFT Farm, four are directly involved as co-founders, and Mr Muthama is candid about what that partnership has meant.

“You join hands, you go far. You go alone, you go fast, but you go nowhere.”

The next chapter, he says, is turning KEFT Farm itself into a training centre for Galla breeding, animal nutrition and livestock management.

Access Bank Kenya is set to resolve a Sh2.11 billion capital shortfall through its merger with National Bank of Kenya (NBK) as their parent firm consolidates its Kenyan operations amid rising regulatory requirements.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) said Wednesday that it had approved the transfer of all assets and liabilities of Access Bank Kenya to NBK, following approval on August 17 under the Banking Act and clearance by the Treasury on September 21.

Nigeria’s Access Bank Plc acquired NBK from KCB Group in May 2025. The buyout of NBK was Access’ second acquisition in Kenya, coming after the 2020 deal in which it bought Transnational Bank and rebranded it to Access Bank Kenya.

‘The CBK announces the transfer of all assets and liabilities of Access Bank Kenya to NBK…The transfer shall take effect upon completion of the transaction in accordance with the terms of the Business and Assets Transfer Agreement between the parties,’ said CBK.

The completion of the transfer in line with the business and assets transfer agreement between the pair will come as a relief for Access Bank Kenya, which had core capital of Sh892 million as at end of June 2026 against the required minimum of Sh3 billion.

NBK held core capital of Sh12.01 billion over this period, making it fully compliant with the Business Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 that raised the minimum core capital from Sh1 billion, triggering a wave of fundraising for extra capital among 10 banks.

However, Access Bank Kenya, had stated in June that it was counting on the merger with NBK to hit compliance rather than turn to its parent company for additional funding.

‘Access Bank (Kenya) Pic’s core capital currently stands at Sh892 million, which is below the regulatory minimum of Sh3 billion. The proposed merger with NBK is expected to fully close this shortfall, strengthen the combined entity’s core capital and ensure regulatory compliance,’ Access Bank Kenya said in August in a commentary on its half-year 2026 financial results.

The transfer also consolidates Access Bank’s Kenyan operations under NBK, potentially giving the group a larger balance sheet.

The transaction comes as Kenyan banks face progressively higher capital requirements following changes to the Banking Act.

Under the Business Laws (Amendment) Act 2024, the minimum core capital requirement was raised from Sh1 billion to Sh3 billion by December 2025. The law initially provided for further increases to Sh5 billion by the end of 2026, Sh6 billion in 2027, Sh8 billion in 2028 and Sh10 billion by 2029.

The higher requirements triggered a wave of capital raising, particularly among smaller lenders seeking to remain compliant.

The government has since adjusted the implementation of the Sh10 billion requirement. In June, Treasury CS John Mbadi scrapped the staggered compliance timeline, extending the deadline to December 2032 and setting a one-off deadline for banks to meet the threshold.

Armed with a noise-measuring app, Nairobi-based teacher Alice Wawira was determined to prove that a bus she boarded on August 31 was playing music at volumes at least 21 units louder than acceptable.

She started the app and let the technology do the analysis. The results shocked her. The bus was playing music at an average of 106 decibels (dB), well above the 85-decibel threshold for safe volume levels. It detected a maximum of 114 decibels and a minimum of 94.9.

“It is the most hazardous noise level I have ever encountered,” Ms Wawira told BDLife.

She raised the matter with the conductor, but nothing came of it. She then took the drastic step of alighting midway through her journey. She had been heading to Juja from Nairobi and had to leave the bus at Githurai.

Experts, including the United States’ National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), advise that at 106 decibels, the level Ms Wawira detected, one should not be exposed for more than three minutes and 48 seconds at a time.

“This is a serious health issue for the people immediately affected-the conductor, the driver and their families,” Ms Wawira said. “After some years, these people will need hearing aids.”

Hearing loss

Ear, nose and throat surgeon, Dr Kennedy Kipkoech, who works with Equity Afya, advises Kenyans to use Wawira’s approach to check whether they are in environments detrimental to their ears.

“If you want to really understand your exposure, just download those apps,” said Dr Kipkoech. “We call them sound level meters. They average the total noise you are exposed to in a particular place.”

Explaining how prolonged exposure to loud volumes can damage the ears, he notes that hair cells inside the ear can snap and fail to recover.

“Sound energy is transmitted into electrical energy for the brain to interpret,” he says, adding that this transformation happens in the inner ear, about four centimetres from the visible outer ear, with the hair cells playing a key role.

These hairs can bend and recover after a while, but if noise is too loud for too long, they die.

“There are times when the damage is irreversable. If the sound is too loud for too long, it causes serious stress until the hair cell dies. The more persistently you expose yourself, the more cells die. Unlike hair cells in birds or amphibians, human hair cells, once dead, stay dead,” he says.

Noting that normal human speech ranges from 60 to 70 dB, Dr Kipkoech says people should not dismiss loud music in open spaces or through earphones as a mere nuisance.

“The higher the decibel level, the higher the risk,” he says. “There is also a time factor-how long you are exposed. Both play a critical role in the risk of hearing loss.”

In occupational health, 85 decibels over an eight-hour period is commonly used as the threshold at which repeated exposure becomes hazardous. NIOSH states that workplace noise becomes hazardous with repeated exposure at or above 85 dB, and that noise-induced hearing loss is preventable. At higher volumes, safe exposure time drops sharply.

“At 85 dB, you should not be exposed for more than eight hours continuously. At 90 dB, the allowable exposure drops to four hours. At 95 dB, you must halve that to two hours,” explained Dr Kipkoech.

This is why personal listening devices require special caution, he says. Earbuds and in-ear headphones deliver sound directly into the ear canal, encouraging long listening sessions without anyone noticing the volume.

“Long ago, we had what I call communal hearing,” he says. “There’s a TV, we’re all listening, and a parent says, ‘Turn that down.’ That was a form of self-regulation. Now everyone is on their earphones, in the streets, and we don’t know how loud it is. Sometimes, sitting next to someone in a matatu, you can hear their music more than they can.”

The World Health Organization advises keeping personal-device volume low, using well-fitting noise-cancelling headphones, limiting time in noisy environments, taking listening breaks and monitoring sound levels. It warns that loud sound exposure can cause temporary hearing loss or tinnitus, while regular or prolonged exposure can permanently damage sensory cells.

For those working in noisy settings-factories, workshops, bus termini or venues with heavy machinery-Dr Kipkoech says prevention shouldn’t rely on willpower alone. Employers and regulators can reduce risk through engineering controls, shorter exposure periods, rest breaks, monitoring and protective gear such as earplugs or earmuffs.

He also cautions against assuming the ear will always recover after a loud event. Muffled hearing or ringing after a concert may fade, but that doesn’t mean no harm was done.

“You might be lucky, but you don’t know the resilience of your inner hair cells. Chronic exposure will wear them out, even if you’re banking on recovery.”

A single extremely loud event-above 120 dB, up to 160 dB, such as in minefields or war zones-can rupture the eardrum, dislocate the tiny middle-ear bones, or damage inner hair cells directly.

Warning signs include needing people to repeat themselves, missing words on the phone, struggling in noisy conversations, and hearing persistent ringing or buzzing. Dr Kipkoech recommends at least one hearing check-up a year, and more frequent reviews for those regularly exposed to high noise.

Hearing aids can help those with hearing loss but are not cosmetic devices, he stresses. “This is something you can prevent. But if you don’t, noise-induced hearing loss is permanent.”

An importer and a clearing agent face prosecution after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) uncovered Sh56 million in under-declared tax on a consignment of mobile phones imported through the Eldoret International Airport.

KRA investigators found 55,607 basic smartphones in a shipment whose owners had only declared 3,000 gadget for taxation in customs documents. The investigators also discovered 309 undeclared high-end phones, highlighting the difficulty of relying on broad customs benchmarks to assess consolidated cargo, particularly where large quantities of high-value electronics are packed into mixed shipments.

‘All the taxes due to be demanded,’ KRA officers from Investigations and Enforcement, Business Intelligence and Customs and Border Control units have recommended in a confidential report seen by the Business Daily after determining that the consignment involved both under-declaration and non-declaration of dutiable goods.

‘Prosecute or compound upon request, both the importer and the clearing agent,’ the KRA team adds in the report, citing Section 219 of the East African Community Customs Management Act.

Under-declaration and non-declaration offences under Section 203(a), (b) and (e) of EACCMA, 2004, attract a maximum penalty of USD 20,000 (about Sh2.59 million) or 50 percent of the dutiable value of the goods involved, whichever is higher, or imprisonment of up to three years.

The law also empowers KRA to compound the offences, which means settling the case administratively out of court.

The phones were part of a much wider consolidated cargo shipment containing electronics and other consumer goods.

The manifest included 800 refurbished laptops, 1,300 MacBooks, 63 tablets, 950 mobile phone screens, 1,510 Meeto phone screens, 10 Starlink units, printers, televisions, routers, network equipment and other goods.

There were also six drones, 380 pairs of ear pods, gaming equipment and assorted cosmetics, clothing and shoes.

The KRA officers have also recommended detention of the drones found in the wider shipment pending production of proof of authority from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.

‘KRA is actively engaged in unearthing tax evasion schemes in order to boost tax revenue compliance as well as adherence to tax laws and procedures, hence ensuring fair trade is maintained within the market,’ Commissioner for Investigations and Enforcement, Mohamed M’maka, wrote in a press statement on Wednesday.

The case comes weeks after President William Ruto directed the tax authority to reduce the minimum customs benchmark for containerised consolidated cargo to Sh2 million, reversing an August increase that had pushed the benchmark for a 40-foot container to Sh3.2 million.

The higher benchmark had triggered protests from small traders, with the President’s September 2 directive restoring the charge to below the Sh2.5 million level that had applied for about six years.

An insider at KRA told Business Daily that the reversal would put pressure on the authority’s revenue projections.

‘The directive caught us off-guard, and there will be a lot of reviews to correct the mess from the development. The new rates had already been factored into collection projections, and placing the rates back to levels of more than six years ago will certainly cause setbacks,’ the source said.

‘Customs is a key mover for our overall numbers, and any variations on such rates reflect on the bigger picture,’ the source added.

The Eldoret case, however, involves a separate issue from the general customs benchmark, namely the accuracy of declarations made for individual shipments.

The investigation began on September 11 and 12 after KRA received intelligence that a regional airline cargo flight had arrived at Eldoret International Airport carrying suspected undeclared mobile phones and other high-end electronic goods. That triggered a physical verification of the consolidated cargo.

The probe found that the consignment weighed 49,000 kilogrammes and had been cleared through five customs entries, on which importers had paid Sh24.12 million in taxes.

At the prevailing airport benchmark of Sh440 per kilogramme, the report states, the shipment would have generated an expected Sh21.56 million tax. That meant the taxes paid appeared higher than the benchmark.

Physical inspection, however, revealed a substantial discrepancy in the quantity and type of phones contained in one of the entries.

The entry had declared 3,000 mobile phones valued at $10 (about Sh1,295) each, with Sh2.52 million paid in taxes. Investigators instead found 55,607 ordinary smartphones, resulting in an under-declaration of 52,607 units.

KRA calculated total taxes payable on the smartphones at Sh49.92 million against Sh2.52 million already paid on the declared phones, yielding an additional tax liability of Sh47.39 million, according to the investigation report.

There are also 309 undeclared premium phones, including 38 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra units, 24 Galaxy Z Fold 8s, 24 iPhone 17 Pro Max units and 19 Galaxy S25s, among other models, raising the tax bill to Sh56 million.

The assessment includes import duty, excise duty, value-added tax, the Import Declaration Fee and Railway Development Levy.

For the ordinary smartphones, KRA used an estimated free-on-board value of $10 per unit, while the 309 high-end phones were provisionally valued at $150 each.

The authority said the assessment for the premium devices could change following a formal valuation.

‘The additional taxes applicable to the high-end mobile phones are provisional estimates, pending valuation guidance from the Customs Valuation and Tariff Unit,’ the report says.

In July 2026, private-sector credit growth reached 10.6 percent the highest since February 2024. Total private-sector credit rose to Sh4.15 trillion. This growth is partly attributable to 10 consecutive Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) rate cuts, which reduced the benchmark rate from 13 percent to 8.75 percent.

As rates fell, average commercial lending rates declined from 17.2 percent in 2024 to about 14.3 percent in July 2026, while inflation and exchange-rate stability improved. However, there is serious work to do to make the credit market in Kenya more effective.

First, non-performing loans (NPLs) remain high at about 15.5 percent. The portfolios with disproportionately high NPLs in 2026 include agriculture, trade, manufacturing and traditional consumer lending. One category that is doing well in Kenya is digital consumer lending products, which have lower NPL rates.

Second, financial health among individuals and small businesses is worsening. FSD Kenya reports that the share of adults able to manage daily needs, absorb a financial shock and invest in their future fell from about 36 percent in 2016 to 18.3 percent in 2026.

Credit reference bureau (CRB) data shows that loans to men were nearly twice those o women in the period between 2019 to 2026, even when women recorded lower default probabilities.

Additionally, only 3.5 percent of lending was advanced to agriculture, despite agriculture contributing about 23 percent of Kenya’s GDP.

The same structural gap is visible in MSME lending. While there is private sector credit growth, MSME loan accounts is declining. As at end of July 2026 , only 6 percent of bank loan accounts were to MSMEs, translating to 4 percent of Kenya’s 3.8 million operating businesses.

This is the real reason Kenya’s private sector credit-to-GDP ratio remains about one-third of GDP, compared with in other markets; it is 70 percent in Mauritius and 90 percent in South Africa.

Can these structural misalignments be addressed through better information and incentives? In 2026, CBK rolled out a new Credit Risk Pricing Framework. We can observe that lower interest rates can stimulate credit. The next phase of development will depend on both the price of money and the quality and coverage of information used to allocate it. At the heart of this challenge is trust.

In credit, a lender advances money today in exchange for a promise of repayment tomorrow. Where this information is incomplete, commercial banks in Kenya shy away from lending. What happens there after is that informal lenders take over. These informal lenders compensate the lack of information by charging higher rates and by demanding more collateral.

Kenya’s opportunity is to convert more economic activity into trusted, verifiable information. The Open Finance framework, which has been in the works from mid-2025 and targeting full compliance by January 2027, will allow customers to authorise lenders to access verified financial information held by different institutions.

Trust can also be strengthened through technology. The growth of digital credit providers (DCPs) demonstrates what becomes possible when large volumes of alternative data are analysed in real time.

This is the foundation of a more connected credit market. When information is shared with consent, verified and used consistently, uncertainty falls. When uncertainty falls, the cost of assessing risk falls.

This creates room for better pricing, more appropriate products and greater access to credit. Kenya’s next credit-market opportunity is to create a trusted information ecosystem in which more economic activity becomes visible, verifiable and financeable.

The National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2025-2028 and the new Consumer Protection Framework, developed across seven regulators, provide a basis for wider information sharing. Agriculture lending will be a big beneficiary. Better information sharing can reveal the links between farmers, processors, traders and buyers within the same value chain.

A farmer’s repayment history, production records, sales, mobile-money flows and relationships with processors will be able to provide a fuller picture of creditworthiness than collateral alone.

With harmonised reporting rules, lenders can also develop products that reflect agricultural cash flows rather than forcing farmers into products designed for monthly salaries. This can address some of the prudential and product challenges that currently affect agricultural lending.

DCPs have rapidly expanded access, with more than 8.37 million loans worth over KSh150 billion disbursed. Their use of algorithms and data-driven credit assessment shows that credit decisions can increasingly be based on observed behaviour rather than assumptions about entire categories of borrowers.

The next step is to build trust across the financial ecosystem. Trust should become a currency that allows institutions to share information, technology, risk and balance-sheet capacity.

A lender with capital but limited technology can use a technology platform operated by another institution. A business with receivables can use verified transaction data to secure financing. A risk-sharing arrangement can allow several institutions to participate in a transaction while relying on common information.

In the corporate world, the question of when one is ready to assume the corner office is typically discussed in hushed tones and often in a way that keeps this bias from being openly acknowledged. The same is the case in politics and in other spheres of leadership.

There is an unwritten rule that leadership belongs to those who have accumulated decades and rarely about ideas, energy, or vision.

Therefore, when a 44-year-old Nairobi Senator named Edwin Sifuna is mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, the predictable chorus begins: He is too young. He needs to wait his turn. But wait for what? And until when? Others who are old long-entrenched veterans who have held leadership positions for eons are quick to dim his star, reminding him that he needs to be ‘mentored’.

Nelson Mandela reminded us that ‘the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.’ But perhaps the real question is this: should we be speaking of leaders of tomorrow or leaders of today? If these words mean anything, Kenya must confront an uncomfortable truth: we have confused age with wisdom and youth with incompetence. And for so long.

My father always reminds me that even fools grow old. Silver hair is no passport to claim leadership or to deny others their turn.

History is unmistakable on this matter. Throughout medieval and modern times, young leaders have risen to power and midwifed earth-shattering achievements.

In Africa, Thomas Sankara became President of Burkina Faso at just 33, transforming a poor nation with bold policies on health, education, and women’s rights. More recently, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was sworn in as Senegal’s president in April 2024 at 44.

Arguably, the Africa’s youngest elected leader after a dramatic rise from prison to palace. In Burkina Faso today, Ibrahim Traoré assumed power at 36, making him the world’s youngest serving head of state.

The West offers no shortage of examples. Emmanuel Macron became France’s youngest president at 39. Jacinda Ardern was 37 when she became New Zealand’s prime minister. Sanna Marin took Finland’s top job at 34. John F. Kennedy was 43 when he assumed the American presidency. Theodore Roosevelt was even younger at 42 when he took office.

Asia and the Middle East have also embraced youthful leadership. Benazir Bhutto became Pakistan’s prime minister at 35. Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani assumed Qatar’s leadership at 33. Kim Jong-un took power in North Korea in December 2011 at the age of 27, although we understand the set of circumstances that were involved.

Critics will argue that Kenya is different, a young democracy with a GDP of approximately $147 billion, far smaller than France, New Zealand, or Finland.

Nonetheless this argument flops under clear examination. If anything, Kenya’s challenges demand the energy, adaptability, and fresh thinking that younger leaders often bring.

Our problems such as unemployment, corruption, debt, and inequality cannot be solved by age. They are solved by vision, courage, and competence. Therefore, while age could be important, it is not entirely the only factor. Indeed, at times experience could be just bad experience.

Kenya’s fixation on gerontocracy is not rooted in evidence. For starters, gerontocracy is a form of government or social system in which power is held by leaders who are significantly older than the majority of the population.

It is rooted in fear that young leaders might disrupt old power structures and pull to pieces the patronage networks that have well-defined our politics for generations.

The same fear that dismissed Sankara, Macron, and Ardern is now being deployed against youthful potential candidates.

To move this country forward, we must refuse to push the wisdom in the fact that leadership is not a function of birth year.

It is a function of character, capability, and clarity of purpose. The question that we must ask is not “How old is this leader?” but “What has this leader done, and what can he or she do?” Perhaps no example better exposes the fallacy of age-based leadership than Martin Luther King Jr.

He was just 26 when he began leading the Montgomery bus boycott. By the time he was assassinated at 39, he had delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and fundamentally transformed American society.

Kenya stands at a crossroads. If we continue to equate leadership with longevity, we will remain trapped in the same cycles that have defined our past. If we embrace a different standard based on integrity, competence, and vision. We might finally unlock the future Mandela spoke of.

The youth of today are the leaders of today. Tomorrow never comes. Kenya must not be left waiting.

Wananchi Group’s Zuku satellite television service lost 30,788 subscribers in the year to June 2026 to bring its consumer pool to 157,051 users, deepening pressure on the pay-TV operator as rival providers MultiChoice and Azam attained significant gains during the period.

Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that active Zuku satellite subscriptions dropped from 187,839 a year earlier, representing a 16.4 percent annual decline.

Zuku was the only other operator to post a drop alongside Star Times whose customers shrunk 3.1 percent to 189,871 during the year.

MultiChoice, which serves Kenya through GOtv and DStv, saw its collective subscriber base expand by 137,086 new users while Tanzanian-owned Azam saw its customer numbers increase by 7,883.

GOtv, which is the budget operator, recorded a 21.3 percent jump to hit 381,383 users while DSTV posted a 37.2 percent rise to 259,047.

Zuku’s decline comes as the broader broadcasting sector faces competition from IPTV services, while households contend with the cost of television subscriptions, internet connectivity and digital entertainment.

The CA data shows that total broadcasting subscriptions fell 1.8 percent to 1.55 million in the three months to June, down from 1.58 million in March.

The decline followed a 5.1 percent contraction in the previous quarter, when broadcasting subscriptions fell by 85,177, indicating continued pressure on traditional television distribution platforms.

The CA attributed the decline to customers moving to IPTV (internet-based content) services and higher set-top box costs linked to global chipset and related component prices.

‘The total number of subscriptions to broadcasting services stood at 1.5 million as of June 30th, 2026, representing a 1.8 per cent drop from last quarter, mainly attributed to lose of clients to IPTV subscribers and changes in the cost of Set-Top Boxes, following increases in global chipset costs and related component prices,’ said the CA.

‘The resulting increase in decoder acquisition costs constrained the ability of operators to sustain the previous level of new customer activations, consequently contributing to the decline in subscriptions recorded during the quarter.’

Zuku’s satellite business has contracted alongside a sharper decline in its cable television operations, which lost 3,282 subscriptions during the quarter under review to stand at 27,831 down from 31,113 in June 2025.

Combined, Zuku’s satellite and cable services stood at 184,882 subscriptions at the end of June, down from 204,509 three months earlier, marking a reduction of 19,627.

The annual decline contrasts with the growth recorded by competitors MultiChoice and Azam TV.

The growth of rival platforms comes as viewers gain more ways to access entertainment through satellite television, mobile broadband, fixed internet and streaming services.

Kenya’s fixed internet market has expanded as operators increase fibre and wireless connectivity, supporting access to online video platforms and IPTV services.

The CA recorded 2.84 million fixed internet subscriptions in June 2026, representing a 6.9 percent quarterly increase and 32.4 percent annual growth.

The expansion of internet connectivity gives households alternatives to traditional satellite and cable subscriptions, although access costs and content preferences continue to influence consumer decisions.