Category: Business Daily

For Kenyan-born British artist James Vaulkhard, art has always been the essence of his existence. He grew up in the rolling hills and tea plantations of Tigoni, a place whose lush landscapes now take centre stage in his maiden exhibition in Nairobi.

James studied art history at Leeds University in the UK before pursuing classical training at Charles Cecil Studios and Studio Della Statua in Florence, Italy. There, he immersed himself in an Italian system of portraiture and figurative painting that valued rigour and discipline.

He recalls months of intensive classes where students would spend a full year working in one medium, on live models, sometimes nude, while learning to master proportions, form, light and shadow. He also taught younger artists during this period. However, James felt the pull to take a different path, one where his own voice would be the muse, the ruse and the fleeting inspiration of his work.

‘I never wanted to be a classically societal portrait artist,’ he says. ‘I envisioned Florence as a foundation. When I moved to the UK, I used that experience to bend and break rules and to develop my own style. Portraits brought in money, but my dream was always to create and sell work that spoke in my own language.’ Exhibiting frequently in London, he worked to ‘deprogramme’ himself from his classical heritage, which, though invaluable, risked becoming a creative cage.

That transformation required grit.

‘When I applied for school in Florence, I was warned about getting sucked into a tradition and discipline that had stood for centuries,’ he recalls. ‘I knew I wanted the foundation, but I also knew I would constantly experiment from the very beginning. I was, however, doing a few classical portraits and commissions over time just to stay afloat as a young artist.’

London gave him opportunities to push his boundaries. Then came the Covid-19 lockdowns, which provided uninterrupted time to paint. ‘I became maniacal with my work,’ he says. ‘By the time sanity returned to the world, my own style had started to take shape.’

His Nairobi exhibition marks a return to Tigoni, where his childhood among rolling tea plantations continues to inspire him. The landscapes, he explains, are challenging to capture. ‘I have always wanted to paint these tea farms, but their surreal nature makes them hard to translate onto canvas. The luminous greens lie flat like a carpet, almost like an ocean or desert. It can be difficult to make them work as a painting.’

In this series, James combines representational and abstract approaches. Tigoni’s hills are the main subject, but he also paints landscapes of Lake Naivasha and Msambweni, places that he enjoys revisiting. His layering of colours, sometimes deliberately unnatural, creates depth and vibrancy. Patterns emerge across the surfaces, suggesting both vastness and intimacy. Viewers sense open plains, light-filled horizons, and a quiet catharsis.

The portraits are inspired by Kenya, but in composition, James was also looking at the San Francisco Bay Area school of painters, including Richard Diebenkorn, Clifford Still and Joseph Amber, whose bold treatment of colour influences his work.

James’s connection to art began early. At the age of seven, his parents were already framing his watercolours, many of which still hang in their home. His skill was unquestionable, and over time, his work has grown to embrace narrative and historical elements. In his latest paintings, though narrative recedes, African landscapes remain central, an ode to place and memory.

The biggest lesson across his journey, he says, has been faith. ‘Art is not easy, not even as a hobby. It can be frustrating. But having the courage to take risks, even when things do not go as planned, always leads somewhere.’ James has seen every side of the artist’s life. At 18, he sold his first painting – a mural of a Pokot herdswoman – for about Sh17,000. Nearly two decades later, he sold his most expensive painting for Sh3.3 million. His exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery features works priced in the range of Sh232,000 and Sh1.1million.

Though his career has taken him from Florence to London and now back to Nairobi, his practice remains a balance between experimentation and discipline, freedom and foundation. He continues to push his style forward, layering colours and patterns in search of both harmony and disruption, abstraction and representation.

His return to Tigoni, he says, feels inevitable. ‘The landscapes have always been calling. I think I needed the years of training, experimentation and failure before I could even attempt them.’

What stands out in James’s story is not only the technical evolution of his work but also his determination to live by his own vision. He has resisted the pull of purely commercial art, choosing instead to forge a style that is personal and resonant. His art bridges two worlds – the classical discipline of Florence and the luminous freedom of the Kenyan landscape – each shaping the other.

It is this tension that makes his current exhibition compelling. The works are not just portraits of place but explorations of memory, colour and self-discovery. They carry the discipline of tradition while embracing the freedom of experimentation.

James is quick to emphasise that the process is ongoing.

His Nairobi exhibition is not a culmination but another step in his evolution as an artist. Each canvas reflects both his roots and his restlessness, his grounding in technique and his refusal to be confined by it. In his own words: ‘It does not always go to plan, but it always leads to something.’

The exhibition runs until the end of October.

If you asked Addis Alemayehou where to put money between Kenya and Ethiopia, his answer would depend on the size of the cheque. The seasoned entrepreneur, who has invested in both markets, believes scale is everything.

‘If you gave me Sh100 million, I would bet it on Ethiopia. You can call me biased, but I’d rather go for a market of 130 million people than one of 50 million or 60 million people. The potential for growth is much higher. Ethiopia’s economy has been growing faster than Kenya’s. We caught up, and now we’re ahead. A giant has awakened next door, and it’s not going back to sleep. For Sh10 million, however, I’d put that in Kenya, it’s competitive, but with the right niche, you’ll still thrive,’ he tells BDLife.

Three former managers of the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) have been acquitted by a Nairobi court of charges of fraudulently clearing six companies’ loan arrears totalling to Sh1.056 billion.

Milimani magistrate Gilbert Shikwe quashed the charges brought against George Weke Jaba (chief credit officer), Bonface Amunga Biko (executive director corporate banking), and Dennis Chumbe who was the head medium business.

The Executive is petitioning Parliament to repeal a tax on clinker importation, revealing huge disruptions it has caused in the steel and cement industries since its introduction two years ago.

Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui says the Executive is taking action after observing the impacts the levy has had on the operations of companies in the steel and cement sectors.

Tea produced in Rwanda and Burundi suffered the sharpest fall in prices at the weekly regional auction in Mombasa over the first eight months of 2025 amid overall subdued demand from buyers, which is likely to trim farmers’ earnings this year, analysis showed.

Data showed that the average price from Rwanda stood at $1.61 (Sh208.07) over the first eight months of 2025, compared to $2.84 (Sh367.04) in a similar period, marking a 43.3 percent drop, which is the sharpest among countries trading at the regional auction run by the East African Tea Trade Association.

Africa’s youth have, over the years, been referred to as the continent’s untapped potential. This framing is common in reports and political speeches in Kenya, where 85 percent of the population is below the age of 35.

However, the truth is that young Africans do not stand on the fringes. They are already creating the future, innovating technologies, disrupting industries, and driving social change.

What is now needed is a strong commitment to ensuring that the youth have the environment and resources needed to tap into their power, a commitment that African governments must make now.

So how do we unlock this power?

There are key elements that must be unpacked, no matter how uncomfortable they make us. It is in this discomfort that we can start to actualise Africa’s great future. It is paramount that the trust deficit between citizens in multiple African countries and their governments is addressed first.

We cannot build on a rocky foundation, and the youth, especially, do not trust their governments. This trust will be rebuilt on the delivery of services, on an accountability that honours enquiries from the youth instead of punishing them when they demand a just government.

Governments must start seeing the youth as capable partners in building Africa’s future and solving global problems.

A testament to this is Wawira Njiru. At just 21, she founded Food for Education, which ensures students get access to nutritious meals at school. Their work is efficient and leverages technology, too. She has gone from serving 25 students to serving 500,000 children daily across Kenya. The schools she supports have seen a 27 percent increase in enrolment.

Additionally, national policies must not only incorporate youth insights but must have a tangible impact today. Youth representation in government is key in this and must be harnessed from a young age. A key example that can be borrowed is that of the Liberian Children’s Parliament, now known as the Liberian National Children’s Representative Forum.

This space ensured children across Liberia were not just represented in national governance issues, but got to interact with leadership organs in government. It also gave rise to the youth leaders Africa needs, like the powerful human rights activist Satta Fatumata Sheriff, a dynamic young Liberian changemaker. Satta is making a real-time impact in Liberia today.

Another uncomfortable truth we must face is that we are at the beginning of the end of funding as we’ve known it. African governments must wake up, clamp down on corruption, bridge commercial alliances with each other, and begin to leverage domestic revenue.

Without prioritising this, we will not have the autonomy or sustainability needed to ensure that African youth can realise their potential.

The future of Africa isn’t on a distant horizon; it is unfolding right now. Every day, the youth of this continent are actively creating it. The world must catch up.

Why the world must pay attention

While income gaps in Africa are often discussed, age gaps between leaders and their people present an opportunity to discuss what a brighter African future should look like.

It is against this background that the Future of Africa Podcast, which I have the pleasure of co-hosting, was created. The podcast was developed to amplify African voices participating in global discourses and also align with generational views.

Each episode is a moderated, intergenerational conversation featuring a youthful changemaker alongside an elder statesperson or thought leader, ensuring a true exchange of ideas across generations.

It is a seven-episode series, with each episode bridging local experiences and global policy debates. The most inspirational idea to me is the nature in which the podcast reinvents youth not as passive beneficiaries of development, but as active creators of the future of Africa.

Moving from potential to power

To unlock the youth potential, there is a need to transform education systems to incorporate digital literacy, green economy, and entrepreneurial skills.

Youth-led ventures should also be funded. It is also crucial to provide the youth with a place at the decision table and make their voices heard on the policies that have direct influence on their lives and ambitions.

Governments, investors, and global partners face a crucial challenge: It’s time to move beyond discussing potential and start investing in these empowered individuals.

For years, with its low operating costs and strong profit margins, Joseph Karuga’s beekeeping and honey aggregating venture was a sweet business.

He was a happy entrepreneur. Then, as demand grew, shortages and unreliable supply left him frustrated – until he decided to build the solution himself.

Eight commercial banks raised interest rates in the year to August, placing them on a collision course with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which has threatened daily fines on lenders that deny borrowers lower interest charges.

The overall weighted average lending rates of DIB Bank Kenya, Consolidated Bank of Kenya, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Kingdom Bank, UBA Kenya Bank, Diamond Trust Bank Kenya, Premier Bank Kenya, and Access Bank Kenya have increased over the past year, according to fresh CBK data.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few,” said Shunryu Suzuki.

Don’t read this if –you are expert in luxuriating in a warm comfortable bubble bath of sameness.

Why is it that managers are taught to differentiate, yet they don’t? Are you running stuck in the same spot? Can a blue ocean approach capture customers you never knew existed? Is it naïve to think that one just push a button and, AI — part fad, part trend — can replace the hard work of critical thinking? Paradox is, the more companies compete, the more they look the same. When one scratches below the surface of Kenya’s crowded banking, insurance, hotel and hospitality, and professional services sectors, it’s very hard to tell one organisation from another.

With over abundant consumer choices and superfluous apps, upgrades and add-ons and features, brands and product offerings have become nearly identical as the efforts to outdo each other have pushed them into a dizzying herd of indistinct options.

Stuck in the soap opera of season 1, episode 1

Imagine watching a captivating popular drama series, talking about a season 1 episode, when the rest of the world is in season 7.

Why are we continually playing a game of catch up? Can one shift from playing the part of the dumb ‘wanna be’ all knowing make believe expert? Helps to avoid preconceptions when addressing a business issue, similar to how a true beginner would approach things.

Having a beginners mindset allows for more possibilities, creativity, and a deeper understanding — by letting go of what one already knows, being open to new blue ocean perspectives and experiences.

Blue ocean strategy

Want to launch a successful business? Is it possible to avoid wasting time on competing for market share? Ideal is to focus on creating new value, expanding the current market space.

If you can create new value, you will find yourself in a highly profitable ‘Blue Ocean’ where the competition is irrelevant. This is the thinking of W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, first published in their 2005 book: Blue Ocean Strategy.

If two people are sitting by the side of the road selling tomatoes, do you join them as the third tomato seller? That’s the temptation. Competing — thinking that one can be just a little bit different, drop the price slightly, give one away free, offer juicy ripe tomatoes, or sit closer to the matatu stop. That’s the easy conventional thinking, the default programming on how to do business.

Blue ocean strategy asks: How can you create value by addressing the needs, problems that customers face? And, go after ‘non-customers’ that others have not thought of. Market leaders like, for example, Tesla, South West Airlines, Ikea, and Cirque du Soleil all followed a blue ocean approach, attracting customers who the competition could not reach.

Even the money transfer platform, M-Pesa, the financial backbone of the Kenyan economy is an example of a blue ocean style approach. In 2024, 59 percent of the Kenya’s gross domestic product flowed through the phone app in your pocket, that has a 90 percent market share.

Four steps to value innovation

Value innovation is at the core of blue ocean strategy. Aim is to create an innovative new product at a remarkably low price. First step in value innovation is selecting your target audience.

Instead of focusing on ‘regular’ customers within your desired market – the existing customers everyone else is competing for — focus on the customers on the edge of your market. These are the infrequent buyers and customers in adjacent market spaces, who either avoid your shop, or who have never heard of your market.

First step is to have a beginner’s mind and see differently. Focus on the needs, the problems faced by your potential consumers.

Next step in value innovation is to look at the typical business model in your market and ask four questions: 1) What processes can we eliminate? In other words, what adds cost, but really isn’t required? 2) What standards can we reduce? 3) In contrast, what quality benchmarks can be raised? 4) What ways of doing things, in systems and processes, can we incorporate from adjacent sectors – industries to create a new experience? Here one takes best practices that ‘Wow’ customers from outside of the conventional ‘business as usual’ space.

Coming up with a blue ocean strategy is tough. It requires solid facts and figures analysis, and big injection of ‘out of the box’ creative thinking. But the rewards are considerable, if you can create your own market, no one else is in.

The law of hype

Perhaps one should pray your competitors stick with the hype — all the meaningless fluff — with words like: transformation, future ready, AI- enabled and high stakes leadership. Notice that when things are going well, a company doesn’t need the hype. When you need the hype, it usually means you’re in trouble.

‘No one can predict the future, not even a sophisticated reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The only revolutions you can predict are the ones that have already started.

Over the years, the greatest hype has been for those developments that promise to single-handedly change an entire industry. Real revolutions arrive unannounced in the middle of the night and kind of sneak up on you,’ advised Al Ries and Jack Trout.

Avoid the path well trodden, have a beginner’s mind and break some rules.

Harvard Business School professor, Youngme Moon talks about those to watch out for: ‘In field after field, past experiences have taught us, that the ones to pay attention to, are the ones who understand the rules so well that they understand the urgency to break them.’

The reality of energy poverty facing Kenya, just like the rest of the countries in Africa, is with us. The government seems intentional in pushing the realisation of energy sovereignty, as seen in the focus of 2025 Mashujaa Day themed Transforming Lives Through Sustainable Energy Solutions’ in Kitui.

In addition to focusing on improving sector policies, better management, and opening up the sector, the government is making efforts to mobilise resources and investors to grow the industry. Key policy and administrative actions noted that it’s possible to achieve this through reducing the costs of renewable energy technologies, making it the most viable energy source.

Kenya is highly endowed with several energy sources, including geothermal, solar, wind and hydrological sources, which, if harnessed through government policies, private sector investment and private-public partnerships, will end citizens’ struggle to access clean energy.

The energy sector continues to be highly regulated, closed and left to public agencies, and little information, including through the media, is circulated to enhance understanding, regulation and opportunities that would allow other players to invest and create mass demand for energy by citizens. This has been very frustrating for private players/investors.

The government master plan for the energy sector notes that, given its position on the Equator (4.5° South and 5° North), Kenya is endowed with very high solar resources, among the highest 10 of sub-Saharan African countries.

For this reason, the government is keen on the development and use of renewable energy sources, including solar, which are widely available for power generation in Kenya, in addition to being socially, economically and environmentally friendly.

The focus on the energy sector by the government is not an isolated act, for a few years ago, President William Ruto addressed the issue, noting that Kenya is on a transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2030 and affirmed his commitment to the same.

He acknowledged that access to clean and improved cooking solutions as a contribution to Kenyans’ efforts towards adapting to climate change resilience remains a challenge because of financing. Improved cooking technologies also reduce the amount of time women and girls spend collecting fuel, allowing them to pursue education, training and economic activities.

In addition to the fact that high efficiency cooking stoves lead to even larger benefits in time and energy saving, it also contributes to reduction of emissions.

He particularly noted that the clean cooking sector requires urgent attention, because its continued neglect will frustrate the country’s efforts towards dealing with pollution, improved health through decreased disease burden and mitigate adverse effects of climate change.

Among the challenges hindering access to energy in Kenya is the inability to apply new innovations and technological adaptations enhance production and distribution, reluctance by the sector to open to more players, poor marketing and inadequate financial investments.

However, the most overriding challenge to Kenyans realising the benefits in the sector is lack of information on using clean energy, available energy options, health and economic advantages on using clean energy, which limits demand and reliance on single traditional energy source, and limits investment in the sector.

Knowledge and public awareness are critical in the revolution that is needed to deal with energy poverty in the country, as this will create demand, create a market and attract investors in the sector.

Public awareness and access to information on the policies, procedures and opportunities is critical for opening the sector, interesting investors to the sector and allowing reaping the benefits in the sector.

The media is a critical player in this endeavor, and the framing and setting agenda on the sector on eradicating the challenges in the sector.

Availability of information, on specific costs, resource allocations and legislative frameworks through public databases and official websites, media space and related are very vital.

This kind of transparency builds public trust and facilitates foreign and domestic investments by reducing the friction caused by information scarcity.

In most cases the factors limiting access to cleaner and more efficient energy supply are not primarily of a technical/engineering nature – inventing more products will on its own make little difference but public mobilisation, information on advantages that come with use of clean energy, push for enabling policy environment for increased investment among others.

The media has a substantive role to play if Kenyans will solve the challenges in the energy sector. Besides and at basic level, informing and educating people about the nature of the sector is a necessary requisite for participation in the decision-making process on issues affecting the local communities.

For the media to effectively play its public education, agenda setting roles, a more in-depth approach to coverage of the renewable energy sector should be used. This will require that the media changes its framing on adoption of renewable energy as a public interest issue, offer possible solutions to challenges in the sector and help the country focus citizens on use of renewable energy.

It’s desirable that media prioritise critical information and stories on opportunities in the energy sector and inform local communities and the citizenry at large on potential impacts of such activities.

The government has made it clear in several policy statements including in the Vision 2030 that it is committed to ensuring access to clean energy a key priority.

Use of clean cooking technologies will reduce the country’s annual disease burden attributable to Household Air Pollution from 49 per cent (21,560) to 20 percent.