Category: Business Daily

Safaricom will maintain the policy of paying 80 percent of its net profits as dividends despite a growing debt portfolio that will see the telecom firm borrow Sh40 billion through a green bond.

The operator has started selling its first tranche of Sh15 billion of the green in a fundraiser that will push its total borrowings to at least Sh130 billion.

Safaricom states that the extra debt will not impact its dividend payouts, as it will not alter its profit outlook.

It has paid a dividend of Sh48 billion in each of the last three financial years, making it one of the best-rewarding counters at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, and a driver of its share price.

Safaricom’s borrowings at the end of March 2025 stood at Sh107 billion, constituting Sh64.7 billion in long-term loans and Sh42.6 billion in short-term liabilities.

The listed telco can accept an extra Sh5 billion if the first tranche offer gets oversubscribed in what is called a greenshoe option.

The company disclosed it will use some of the proceeds of the bond to refinance the more expensive Sh30 billion syndicated loan borrowed from four commercial banks.

‘No it doesn’t change our dividend policy. Our net debt to Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) is not changing much so our dividend policy remains 80 percent of net income after adjusting minority interest,’ said Dilip Pal, Safaricom chief finance officer.

Safaricom has a window to use part of the proceeds of the green bond to clear some of its debt obligations, which were used for green projects.

The green bond allows for the refinancing of sustainable projects undertaken in the last 36 months. Safaricom borrowed Sh15 billion in 2023 for sustainable projects and an additional Sh15 billion last year.

‘We have the flexibility as part of the programme. The exact amount of that – how much will be allocated for the refinance is not available right now. We will share that later,’ said Mr Dilip.

So-called green bonds are fixed-income securities that raise capital for projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, green transport and waste-water treatment.

Safaricom is raising the funds to carry out sustainability projects in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The projects are hinged on five pillars, which are energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, green buildings, pollution prevention and environmentally sustainable management of living resources and land use.

Safaricom is using the proceeds of the bond to improve its energy efficiency by transitioning its base stations to solar power, deploying 5G, and replacing its legacy network that has been in use for over 25 years.

It has transitioned 1,400 of its 7,000 sites to solar power and installed systems to switch off the stations during idle time. The telco is working on lowering its reliance on Kenya Power for electricity needs.

‘Network operating cost is the largest cost for a telco and within network operating cost 50 percent is energy cost,’ said Mr Dilip.

Safaricom’s network operating costs were Sh24.1 billion for the year ended March, signaling its energy costs are well above Sh10 billion annually.

The modernisation process has the sites running on solar and have batteries that can last upto four hours with Kenya Power being the third option and generators last.

Data centres, which are also huge power consumers, are being transitioned to solar power along with other energy efficiency measures.

Safaricom is also seeking billions of shillings to broaden its 5G networks as it ramps up its data business to offset a decline in mobile calls, where it has seen a small revenue fall due to saturation.

Safaricom reported a 52.1 percent rise in its half-year profit to Sh42.7 billion, helped by a smaller loss in Ethiopia and M-Pesa’s double-digit growth.

Its net profit grew from Sh28.11 billion the previous year, and it expects to declare an interim dividend in February.

The Kenya business continued to be the main profit driver on the back of M-Pesa, the firm’s largest unit and on course to generate half of the telco’s revenues.

Its reported loss in Ethiopia dropped by 59 percent compared to the first half of the previous financial year, which was heavily impacted by a depreciation of the birr currency.

The loss in Ethiopia that is attributed to Safaricom dropped to Sh15.2 billion from Sh19.4 billion in the same period a year earlier, translating to a gain of Sh4.2 billion.

Safaricom launched in Ethiopia in 2022 as the Addis government opened up the tightly-controlled economy to foreign competition and is hoping its presence in Africa’s second most populous country will power future growth.

Its diversification from the saturated voice and SMS business is paying off, with M-Pesa, mobile data and fixed internet emerging as sales drivers.

Safaricom’s revenue rose to Sh199.9 billion in the six months to September, from Sh179.9 billion in the same period a year earlier, reflecting a 11.1 percent growth.

Revenue from mobile financial service M-Pesa rose to Sh88.1 billion from Sh77.2 billion previously, reflecting a growth of 14 percent.

They run toward vision, away from collapse, between expectations, under liabilities, and across a terrain where risk is rarely shared but only transferred.

This is why so many founders wake each day not with ‘I’m fine,’ but with the heavy African phrase: ‘I’m surviving.’ A sentence that hides entire wars fought in silence.

Because in Africa, a founder never carries one burden.

They carry all burdens at once: the financial risks, the emotional labour, the spiritual weight, the market uncertainty, the political games, the institutional negligence, the family expectations, the employees’ livelihoods, the community’s hopes, and their own unspoken fears.

Dr Moka (Shufaay) Lantum said it clearly during our Podcast conversation in episode 7 ‘African institutions don’t solve problems they push liability forward.’

And they push it down the hierarchy until it reaches the final shock absorber: the founder.

Each department deflects responsibility. Each official avoids accountability. Each institution protects itself. And eventually every unresolved risk, every ignored red flag, every delayed decision, lands on the person with the least protection and the most at stake.

We saw this pattern again last week. The Business Daily headline was surgical: ‘Techie loses Sh1.1bn pay in M-Pesa apps ownership row.’ BD, Nov 12, 2025.

The High Court nullified a Sh1.1 billion arbitral award to Popote Innovations after ruling that the alleged partnership agreement with Safaricom was unsigned and that the damages were speculative.

I am not here to debate the judgment. Courts operate on evidence, not emotion. But beneath the legal arguments lies a timeless founder lesson: the emotional and financial cost of litigation is a liability few can quantify as the founder himself alluded to in his public response.

In emerging markets, power asymmetry is real. Corporate actors carry legal teams.

State actors carry immunity structures. But founders? Founders carry consequences.

This case is not an outlier it is a mirror. A reflection of a culture where innovators are often left exposed,absorbing the fallout of structural weaknesses they did not create and cannot control.

Liability behaves like water. It flows downward. It finds the cracks It fills the lowest point. And in our ecosystem, that lowest point is always the founder the one whose optimism becomes collateral,whose resilience becomes the drainage system for the unresolved liabilities of institutions.

But liability is not just financial. It is physical – sleepless nights that erode the immune system. It is emotional – the guilt of paying staff before paying yourself. It is social – the pressure to appear strong when you are breaking inside.

It is spiritual – the slow fading of purpose under relentless survival. Liability is the invisible weight that compounds until the body buckles and the soul whispers what the world refused to hear: ‘This was never mine to carry.’

Why do African founders absorb so much liability? Because someone must. Because someone believes in tomorrow. Because someone chooses to innovate even when the ecosystem starves innovation.

But a deeper question haunts us:

Why does our continent refuse to carry risk collectively? Why do governments avoid supporting early-stage innovation? Why do corporates leverage founders’ ideas yet shield themselves from downside?

Why do investors push liability back onto entrepreneurs under the banner of ‘traction’? Why do families lean on founders as if they are national insurance funds?

This is how litigation cultures grow.

This is how political patronage thrives. This is how corruption becomes normalised. Because liability is not disappearing, it is simply being redirected.

And the one who holds the final link of the rope ends up being pulled under. Look at countries that built global champions. South Korea absorbed early liability for Samsung.

The US absorbed early liability for Apple, Tesla, IBM, SpaceX.

China absorbed early liability for Huawei, BYD, Alibaba. The UAE absorbs risk for startups by design. They understood one truth:

If the state does not carry early risk, the founder is destroyed before the innovation matures.

But in Africa? We place the full liability of national progress on individual backs and then wonder why our companies do not scale globally,

why our talent burns out, why our brightest minds relocate, why our innovations remain early-stage forever.

This is the uncomfortable truth: a country that starves its founders starves its future.

Because when founders break, ecosystems break. When builders collapse, value collapses. When innovators give up, nations lose their competitive soul.

That brings us to the central thesis of this series:

This liability equation appears to balance on paper, but in reality, it balances only because the excess cost is stored in the founder’s body.

And the body cannot carry what the national balance sheet refuses to acknowledge.

So where do we go from here?

Next week in Part 2 – The Rebalanced Founder, we explore how founders can stop absorbing liability meant for institutions, how to reassign risk without guilt, how to build healthier ecosystems, and how the African Founders Operating System offers a philosophical map for a continent that still expects individuals to carry the weight of nations.

The chase will continue the lion will run, the gazelle will run, and the founder will run. But the difference lies in where the founder decides

to place the weight.

Kenya’s bond market has come a long way. Once constrained by illiquidity and limited investor participation, it now stands as East Africa’s most vibrant fixed-income hub.

With over Sh2 trillion traded by September 2025, a stable macroeconomic environment, and robust investor confidence, the market has achieved record performance under the unified Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) – Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) framework.

Against this backdrop, establishment of the East African Bond Exchange (EABX) raises a fundamental question: Do we really need a second bond exchange? The answer, supported by data and expert analysis, is an emphatic no.

Kenya’s bond market is functioning well and duplicating its infrastructure risks, undermining the very gains the country has worked so hard to achieve.

The current bond trading ecosystem powered by the NSE’s Automated Trading System (ATS) and integrated with the CBK’s Dhow Central Securities Depository (CSD), has proven efficient in supporting both market growth and price discovery.

The framework seamlessly links the primary and secondary markets, facilitating high turnover, quick settlements, and transparency for all investor classes.

Liquidity has also improved significantly. Weekly secondary market volumes now average Sh30.6 billion, a record in the market’s history.

Over-subscriptions in government bond auctions, such as the August 2025 infrastructure bond that attracted bids worth Sh323 billion against a Sh90 billion target, demonstrate strong demand and confidence in the system.

Retail investors, once peripheral participants, now rival banks in Treasury bill auctions thanks to the Dhow CSD platform, which enables investments from as little as Sh50,000. In other words, the system isn’t broken, it’s thriving.

At the core of this debate lies the question of yield curves, a key reference for pricing debt instruments.

The CBK has rightly emphasised the importance of maintaining a single, consolidated yield curve, which serves as the backbone of Kenya’s fixed-income market. A unified curve promotes consistent pricing, accurate risk assessment, and efficient monetary policy transmission.

Two yield curves, on the other hand, would create confusion and distortions. Investors and issuers could face ambiguity over which curve to reference, potentially leading to inconsistent valuations, conflicting market signals, and erosion of confidence.

For policymakers, dual curves would blur the transmission of interest rate changes, making it harder for the CBK to manage liquidity and inflation expectations effectively.

Kenya’s progress toward a unified, transparent yield curve has been one of its strongest capital market reforms. To fragment it now would be a step backward.

Proponents of EABX argue that the new platform will enhance liquidity and competition. Yet, recent data disproves the liquidity narrative. Kenya’s bond market liquidity is already at historic highs, driven by structural reforms, not market fragmentation.

Moreover, EABX’s bank-focused model, which limits trading participation to a few large institutions, risks reversing the inclusivity gains achieved under the NSE-CBK framework.

Such elitist exclusivity could sideline the smaller banks, pension funds, insurers, stockbrokers and retail investors – underscore here being the retail investors. This would create a totally distorted market that benefits a select few while undermining transparency and price discovery.

Kenya’s bond market doesn’t need more platforms; it needs deeper reforms within the existing one.

By duplicating infrastructure, EABX also introduces unnecessary regulatory friction and cost.

Its over-the-counter (OTC) trading model may reduce visibility and increase opacity, a stark contrast to the NSE’s real-time, open access system. The result would be a fragmented market, divergent pricing, and potential erosion of investor trust.

The focus should be on diversifying issuance to include more corporate and private-sector bonds, expanding the risk and return spectrum, introducing derivatives such as bond futures and options to provide hedging and trading tools, expanding sustainable finance instruments, including green and sustainability-linked bonds, to attract global ESG capital and enhancing technology and data integration, leveraging fintech partnerships for broader retail access.

These innovations can propel Kenya’s capital markets to the next level not through duplication, but through consolidation and modernisation.

Kenya’s fixed-income market has been built on collaboration, not competition between regulators and platforms. The NSE-CBK partnership has delivered transparency, inclusivity, and record efficiency.

Establishing a second exchange risks undoing this progress.

The bond market is the backbone of Kenya’s financial system. It finances government projects, guides interest rates, and provides investors with safe and steady returns. It deserves unity, not fragmentation.

The path forward for Kenya’s bond market is clear, strengthen what already works.

By consolidating gains, promoting innovation within the NSE-CBK framework, and maintaining a single yield curve, Kenya can sustain its leadership as the region’s fixed-income powerhouse, and advance the Vision 2030 goal of a deep, inclusive, and efficient capital market.

Venture capital (VC) firm Chui has raised $17.3 million (Sh2.2 billion) to back local founders building mass-market, tech startups in Kenya and across sub-Saharan Africa.

This is the final close of the Nairobi and Lagos-based investment firm’s debut Fund I, which originally had a fundraising target of $10 million (Sh1.29 billion).

The funding round attracted commitments from the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. Several family offices also participated, as well as over 25 African dollar-millionaires, the VC firm said.

Chui said it will deploy the capital to seed-stage startups -those that have developed an initial product or prototype and are actively working to demonstrate initial traction.

‘We believe African founders are best positioned to solve Africa’s challenges at scale, and Fund I is proof that global and local investors share this conviction,’ Joyce-Ann Wainaina, General Partner of Chui Ventures, said in a statement.

‘As we look ahead, we will continue to double down on technology-driven ventures that deliver both returns and measurable social impact.’

Chui says it focuses on tech-enabled products for ‘everyday consumers and MSMEs, where leapfrogging is most pronounced.’

Its Kenyan startup portfolio spans financial technology, health-tech, e-commerce, agri-tech, and logistics, with notable investments in Leta, the supply chain software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider; Uncover, a skincare products brand for African women; and the cloud-based kitchen platform Ando Foods.

Chui has also backed the Kenyan ed-tech company Craydel, and Lami, whose application programming interface (API) enables companies to offer flexible digital insurance to consumers.

Fund I has already deployed 60 percent of its committed capital in Kenya and four other sub-Saharan African countries, the company said.

The VC firm added that Fund II targets $60 million (Sh7.8 billion) as the company expands into North Africa and focuses more on financial services, business-to-business (B2B) software, digital commerce, and climate-tech startups.

Africa’s venture ecosystem continues to navigate a global funding slowdown in 2023, attributed to rising inflation, weakening currency, and unfavourable interest rates, leading foreign investors to shift capital from emerging markets.

However, the continent’s recovery is gaining momentum. Data from the startup funding tracker Africa: The Big Deal shows the continent’s startups have already raised $2.65 billion in equity, debt and grants this year as of October.

This is a 56 percent growth compared to the same period last year, and surpassing funding levels recorded over the same period in 2023.

Kenyan startups alone raised Sh17 billion in the six months to June, the database shows, a 12 percent improvement from last year’s figures.

The number of ventures raising at least $1 million on the continent has also increased to 179 as of October, up from 159 in 2024, signalling renewed investor confidence.

A shortage of number plates for motor vehicles has resurfaced again this year, in what has stalled sales of cars and hurt dealers already grappling with low orders due to economic hardships that have beset potential buyers.

Dealers say that the shortage has persisted for the past three weeks even as the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) remains mum. The crisis looks set to derail sales as the year edges to a close -a time when dealers traditionally enjoy high sales.

Lack of number plates hurts the ability to sell cars or even complete bank transfers that require number plates, significantly hurting the cash flows of dealers in a tough environment.

This is the second time this year that shortage of the critical parts has hit dealers, with a similar crisis having been experienced in April this year.

‘There is an industry outcry and it is a big one. It (shortage) has persisted for the past three weeks. We do not have number plates for the KDV-W, X, Y and Z series,’ Charles Munyori, the Secretary-General of Kenya Auto Bazaar Association said yesterday.

Dealers are grappling with low sales amid a tough economy and the shortage of the plates is set to exacerbate the woes.

It is not clear what has triggered the shortage, which has left dealers staring at significant reduction in sales ahead of the Christmas and New Year festivities.

NTSA had not responded to queries from over the shortage and when dealers should expect resumption of normal supplies.

Dealers usually get number plates within a week after registering the motor vehicles. Lack of the number plates is set to trigger a pile up of units at the port of Mombasa and thus increased storage costs for both dealers and buyers.

Besides dealers, buyers are also stuck given that they cannot get their cars even after paying the Sh3,000 fee for the critical parts.

The crisis has forced dealers to deepen reliance on Kenya Dealers (KD) number plates as a stop-gap measure to mainly move them from the port of Mombasa or showrooms for test-drives by clients.

These number plates are for motor vehicles without insurance or those whose whose physical Number plates are not yet out. These plates can only be used between 6am and 6pm.

Lack of number plates has been a recurring problem over the past few years, pushing dealers into cash-flow woes over inability to complete sales and bank transfers.

Dealers grappled with a shortage of number plates in April this year and August last year. NTSA has never offered an explanation behind the cause of these shortages.

The shortage of number plates looks set to derail the steady rise in registration of motor vehicles that has been recorded since the start of this year.

Official data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that registrations of motor vehicles (excluding motorcycles and three-wheelers) jumped 25 percent to 75,059 in the eight months to August this year from 59,945 in the same period of last year.

The richest one percent of Kenyans got 40 percent of the new wealth created in the country amid strong economic growth over the last decade, increasing their fortunes as the number of extremely poor Kenyans burgeoned by millions.

The roughly 500,000 people now control 78 per cent of Kenya’s financial wealth, including stocks, company equity, physical assets and securities, while the bottom half of the population holds only a fraction of that.

Over the last decade, the wealth of this top tier has grown nearly twice as fast as over 7 million Kenyans slipped into extreme poverty, missing out on the gains of Kenya’s economic growth. New analysis by anti-inequality charity, Oxfam, shows that nearly half of Kenyans now survive on less than Sh130 per day and have not felt the benefits of rising average incomes or sustained GDP growth.

Kenya’s economy has expanded by an average of 5 per cent per year over the past decade, yet the richest one per cent of the population captured 40 per cent of all new wealth generated in that period, its study shows.

‘Kenya is becoming wealthy, but a vast majority of its citizens do not feel this,’ said Oxfam Kenya’s economic governance and policy advisor Beverly Musili.

‘The wealth generated is flowing to the richest, and the gap between the richest and the rest has widened.’

The wealth of the richest one percent has grown almost twice as fast as that of the rest of the population in the last two years and they now hold more wealth than 90 percent of Kenyans combined, and 13 times what the bottom half of the population owns.

Oxfam also found that the 125 richest Kenyans possess more wealth than 42.6 million Kenyans combined, underlining an inequality gap that widens each year and limits the public from sharing in Kenya’s economic gains.

‘This clearly shows that without redistribution, growth alone will continue to enrich the richest while deepening poverty for the majority,’ Oxfam said in a policy brief after the research.

Kenya is almost twice as wealthy today as it was ten years ago, with GDP rising from Sh9 trillion in 2015 to Sh16.15 trillion last year, according to the World Bank. Yet a growing number of Kenyans struggle to afford basic needs such as food, education or healthcare.

Oxfam argues that government spending priorities continue to sideline pro-poor sectors.

‘The cost of living crisis is making it hard for families to put food on the table. The number of Kenyans facing severe or moderate food insecurity rose by 17 million (71 percent) between 2014 and 2024,’ the charity said. ‘Inflation has hit those with the least money the worst because they spend most of their income on food.’

With increasing inequality, Oxfam notes that poorer households face rising barriers to education as government funding for both basic and higher learning continues to fall.

Healthcare is also severely underfunded, leading to avoidable deaths and illnesses among poor families, while the wealthiest rely on private healthcare.

Oxfam recommends that the government increase spending on education to at least 20 percent of the budget, raise health spending to 15 percent, and allocate at least one percent of GDP to social protection.

It also proposes reducing the income tax rate for the lowest band from the current 25 percent, raising capital gains tax from 15 percent to 35 percent, and increasing rental income tax back to 10 percent as part of efforts to strengthen tax progressivity.

While the study shows that more Kenyans are falling into poverty as most new wealth goes to a few ultra-rich individuals, the latest World Bank data indicates some progress in reducing income inequality.

The Gini coefficient has fallen from 0.4 in 2015, which reflects high inequality, to 0.38 in 2022, which reflects moderate inequality.

About 25,000 savings and credit co-operative societies (saccos) risk deregistration for failing to prepare and file audited financial accounts with the regulator, raising concerns over the safety of more than Sh1.2 trillion deposits held in the country’s co-operative movement.

The State Department for Co-operatives says just under 5,000-representing 16.6 percent of the nearly 30,000 co-operatives in the country-are preparing and submitting their financial results to the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) and the Commissioner for Co-operative Development.

State Department for Co-operatives Principal Secretary (PS) Patrick Kilemi said in an interview that many of the non-compliant co-operatives have continued to hide their financial dealings despite numerous reminders from the government. Many co-operatives also failed to hold annual general meetings (AGMs) in line with the law, denying members knowledge of their financial dealings.

The absence of shareholder meetings has denied members the chance to elect directors and oust non-performing leaders.

‘Compliance is not a suggestion. It is a legal and moral obligation. We now want to commence the process of cancelling registration certificates of all non-compliant co-operatives,’ said Mr Kilemi.

‘We will sustain enforcement and ensure we protect co-operative members from mismanagement, secrecy and financial abuse.’

Failure to prepare and file audited accounts is in breach of the Co-operative Societies Act and Co-operative Societies Rules, which require co-operatives to submit audited accounts within four months after the end of a financial year.

The move is part of the government’s broader push to clean up the co-operative sector, curb financial scandals and protect the over 7.4 million members from potential losses.

The sector has been hit by several high-profile scandals, including the Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives (Kuscco) fraud, Ekeza Sacco heist and mismanagement at Metropolitan Sacco, which have collectively hurt public confidence in co-operatives.

Latest data from the Co-operatives Department shows the number of audited accounts submitted to regulators dropped to 4,062 in the year ended June 2025 from 4,130 in the previous year and 4,734 in the period ended June 2023.

This points to falling compliance levels in a sector that saw deposits jump to Sh1.224 trillion at end of June this year, compared with Sh1.126 trillion a year earlier.

Sasra oversees all deposit-taking (DT) saccos and non-withdrawable DT saccos that hold at least Sh100 million deposits, leaving the rest of the co-operatives in the hands of the office of the Commissioner for Co-operatives.

The law allows the Commissioner of Co-operatives to cancel the registration of a co-operative society and dissolve it immediately if it fails to file returns for three consecutive years. The law applies to primary co-operatives as well as apex bodies and secondary cooperatives like Kuscco, National Cooperative Housing Union (Nachu) and Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK).

Read: Saccos with 3-year audit lapse now face deregistration

‘Where a co-operative society has- (a) less than the prescribed number of members; or (b) failed to file returns with the Commissioner for a period of three years; or (c) failed to achieve its objects, the Commissioner may, in writing, order the cancellation of its registration and dissolution of the society and the order shall take effect immediately,’ states the Act.

‘Where the registration of a co-operative society is cancelled, the society shall cease to exist as a corporate body from the date the order takes effect.’

The law also provides that if a co-operative society fails to have its accounts audited within the required timeframe, the members of its management committee automatically lose their positions at the next general meeting. Such officials are barred from seeking re-election for three years unless the Commissioner determines that the delay was caused by circumstances beyond their control.

Mr Kilemi’s move looks set to trigger widespread concern among cooperatives, many of which face tight timelines and heavy documentation demands if they are to avoid the risk of regulatory sanctions at a time the government is pushing for mergers among small saccos that find regulations burdensome.

In June, the State Department-through the Commissioner of Co-operatives, David Obonyo-directed societies that had missed the April filing deadline to submit their audited results by the end of September. However, Mr Kilemi said the majority had still failed to comply, prompting the government to consider tougher enforcement measures, including deregistration.

He stressed that no society was permitted to operate without preparing and presenting audited accounts to its members and filing them to regulators.

‘Ignoring official circulars is a direct violation of the Cooperative Societies Act and those who do so expose themselves to sanctions including removal from office, surcharges and deregistration,’ said Mr Kilemi.

In October this year, the purge was extended to external auditors. Sasra ordered external auditors who have been hiding or failing to submit statutory reports on saccos’ operations, financial condition and regulatory compliance to the regulator to do so within 30 days or risk permanent ban from auditing the sector.

Many co-operatives have also failed to hold AGMs as is provided for in the Act, and therefore denying members a chance to know the financial dealings of the entities they have invested money in. Members have also been unable to choose leaders.

Mr Kilemi said there are large saccos that have failed to switch to the delegates system of holding AGMs, making it impractical for their gatherings to offer an equal chance for members to hold their officials accountable.

The delegates system requires large saccos-often those with over 5,000 members- to elect a limited number of representatives to attend and vote on behalf of the entire membership so as to make meetings more efficient and easier to manage.

In mid-June this year, Mr Obonyo wrote to all co-operatives, directing those with more than 5,000 members to update their bylaws within six months and adopt a delegates system for holding AGMs. Under the directive, each co-operative is required to have between 150 and 500 delegates depending on its membership size.

Mr Kilemi warned that CEOs who fail to hold proper AGMs or continue to rely on formats that reduce the meetings to mere ceremonial events with no room for members to democratically elect their officials will be surcharged for the millions of shillings splurged on such gatherings.

‘Without books of accounts, many co-operatives are not holding AGMs. Failure to hold AGMs or hold proper elections means the officials claiming to be in office are doing so illegally. Such officials are liable for surcharges on all expenditures incurred during the period of non-compliance,’ he said.

Some co-operatives have used the weak format of AGMs or the absence of shareholder meetings to borrow excessively and plunge their entities into debt. These loopholes prompted the State Department to issue guidelines demanding that all loan submissions be accompanied by, among other documents, certified AGM meetings, up-to-date audited accounts and a comprehensive business plan.

The State is also pursuing sacco CEOs who have failed to file their wealth declarations as part of wider efforts to tighten governance and curb malpractice in the sector.

The Co-operative Societies Act requires all co-operative officials to file income, assets and liabilities declaration forms within 30 days of assuming office. After the initial filing, officials are required to update their declarations every two years.

East Africa Portland Cement’s (EAPC) biggest shareholder Kalahari Cement has announced an agreement to buy a 27 percent stake in the company held by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for Sh1.6 billion, even as the Nairobi bourse halted trading on the stock on Wednesday morning citing a lack of notification about the material information on the deal.

Kalahari Cement, which is controlled by Tanzanian tycoon Edhah Abdallah Munif, said in its notice that was published in the media that it reached the share purchase agreement with state-controlled NSSF for the pension fund’s 23.4 million shares, pricing the units at Sh66 each for a total consideration of Sh1.604 billion.

‘Kalahari entered into a share purchase agreement with the sellers (NSSF) on November 25, 2025, pursuant to which each of the sellers have accepted Kalahari’s offer to purchase the sale shares.,’ Kalahari, whose parent firm is Amsons Group, said in its notice.

If approved by regulators, the purchase will give Mr Munif effective control of EAPC, with an eventual stake of 68.7 percent. He currently holds a 41.7 percent stake in EAPC through Kalahari Cement (29.2 percent) and his wholly owned Bamburi Cement (12.5 percent).

Kalahari is jointly owned by Mauritius-based investment companies Pacific Cement Limited (90 percent) and Comercio Et Consiel Limited (10 percent). The two investment companies are in turn fully owned by Mr Munif.

The purchase price of Sh66 per share in the latest transaction represents a significant premium on the Sh27.30 per share that Kalahari paid to acquire its existing 29.2 stake or 26.32 million shares from Swiss multinational Holcim in a deal that was concluded earlier this month.

Holcim’s exit valuation represented a 46.2 percent discount on EAPC’s prevailing share price of Sh50.75 at the time the deal was announced for the first time on August 1. On the other hand, the NSSF transaction is being valued at the share’s current market price.

EAPC has 90 million issued shares, giving the company a current market valuation of Sh5.94 billion at Wednesday’s closing price of Sh66 per share. The Holcim transaction price valued the company at Sh2.46 billion.

Both valuations are, however, well below EAPC’s net asset or book value of Sh20.4 billion, as per the company’s latest audited financial results dated June 2024. The company’s total assets stood at Sh35.19 billion, and total liabilities at Sh14.79 billion.

The EAPC on Wednesday stock saw activity only briefly in the morning before the NSE moved to implement a trading freeze on the counter, describing the news of the transaction as ‘unverified’.

Before the trading halt, investors had traded 6,319 shares, with the price jumping by a near maximum 9.54 percent from Sh60.25 per share to Sh66 -suggesting the market was reacting to the news of the transaction.

‘Trading in the shares of EAPC was halted this morning following the circulation of unverified market information regarding a potential share transfer. The halt was implemented in consultation with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as a precautionary measure to ensure orderly trading and protect investors while the matter is reviewed,’ the NSE said in its notice to the market on Wednesday.

‘The NSE is engaging with the issuer to establish the accuracy of the information and will provide further updates once verified details are available.’

Both the NSE and the CMA had not responded to emailed queries on whether they had been made aware of the transaction before trading opened on Wednesday morning.

On its part Kalahari said that it served notice of the transaction on EAPC, the NSE, the CMA and the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) on November 26, 2025, although the fact that the NSE and CMA went ahead to stop trading on the EAPC stock indicated that they had not received the notice before the market opened for the day.

Market rules require listed companies to publish material announcements before the opening of trading, or after the market closes at the end of the day. Announcements made during trading hours usually trigger trading a halt on the security.

Under NSE trading rules, the bourse, in consultation with the CMA, can temporarily stop trading on a specific counter in order to obtain clarification of specific information or report about the firm that has been brought to the attention of the exchange.

Halts are also introduced when there is an unusual market movement in price or volume of a security, and in case of occurrences that could impair transparent, fair and orderly trading of the specific securities.

Taxes on companies’ and workers’ earnings recorded a rare fall in the first quarter of the current financial year ending June 2026, underlining weakening profitability, stagnating formal jobs and freeze on pay raises.

Latest data from the National Treasury shows that income tax receipts dropped 2.31 percent to Sh252.62 billion in three months to September 2025, down from Sh258.60 billion in the same period the year before.

The receipts from income tax streams underperformed the quarterly the Sh317.69 billion target set by the Treasury target by Sh65.07 billion.

The shortfall piles pressure on the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) at a time when the government is pursuing aggressive fiscal consolidation.

The data shows the performance was weighed down by what the Treasury calls ‘other income taxes’ which typically captures instalment taxes on business income and corporate tax advances.

This category of income tax fell 5.13 percent in the review period to Sh115.99 billion from Sh122.27 billion in comparable quarter the previous year, pointing to slower profit growth or cash-flow tightness that affects remittance of advance payments by companies.

That was compounded by softer collections from Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), which grew a measly 0.21 percent to Sh136.62 billion, signalling a cooling formal labour market and stagnant wage adjustments.

Stephen Waweru, a senior manager for tax services at KPMG, said that drop in corporate income tax (CIT) underlined rising signs of business distress across various sectors.

‘A significant number of firms may be operating at a loss. In such cases, where there is no net profit, the business would not incur a CIT liability,’ Mr Waweru said in October.

In contrast, the Treasury data shows that consumption taxes such as VAT and excise duty continued to hold firm.

Domestic VAT collections jumped 17.42 percent to Sh87.34 billion in the period from Sh74.38 billion a year earlier, buoyed by stronger compliance with electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS) and improved domestic consumption. VAT on imports also bumped 11.80 percent to Sh86.03 billion, from Sh76.96 billion.

Excise duty similarly grew 8.43 percent to Sh73.88 billion, up from Sh68.13 billion, reflecting receipts from consumption of excisable goods such as beer, spirits, wine, cigarettes, mineral water, juice, cosmetics and soda as well as excisable services like airtime, internet and earnings on loan fees.

This year’s Africa Industrialisation Day, marked on November 20 under a theme centering on Sustainable Industrialisation, Regional Integration and Innovation, offers Kenya a moment to reflect on how deliberate deployment of sustainable practices catalyses sustainable industrial growth.

Kenya stands at an inflection point where sustainable industrialisation is no longer aspirational-it is the decisive pathway to securing our global competitiveness.

A key enabler of industrialisation is sustainable energy infrastructure. Data from the Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report for the Financial Year ending June 30, 2025 by the Energy and Petroleum Regulation Authority (Epra), shows that of the total power generated that year, renewable power accounted for 80.17 per cent.

Of this, geothermal was at 39.51 percent, hydropower 24.21 per cent and wind power at 13.18 percent while utility scale solar installations contributed 3.27 percent.

To enhance this, the government has put in place policies to generate 100 percent of the electrical energy from renewable energy sources by 2030.

In tandem with this is manufacturing, which is a major energy consumer and a driver of industrialisation through trade facilitation. Kenya’s manufacturing sector contributes about 7.3 percent to the GDP, as of 2024, a figure that has declined from 11.3 percent in 2010 according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

Only a stable, predictable, and innovation-friendly regulatory environment can unlock the potential of our manufacturing sector and protect it from existential threat of illicit trade.

Achieving this goal, especially for the country’s growing private sector, demands that systemic constraints key to sustainable energy access are addressed, including infrastructure gaps, access to industrial financing and regulatory streamlining.

Regional integration via the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) increases the stakes for industrial competitiveness. Access to a larger market makes specialisation more viable and allows Kenyan manufacturers to capture scale economies, which may not be possible in a fragmented or smaller environment.

Kenya’s diversified economy, combined with renewable energy should attract firms seeking stable production platforms with continental reach. Manufacturing driven by technology, innovation and infrastructure, requires both dependable energy and technical expertise. This integrated approach helps to ensure that value addition occurs efficiently while building inclusive technical capacity.

Kenya is addressing this in part through parallel investments in renewable infrastructure and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

For instance, the KOICA-GIZ TVET Project, a joint initiative by Kenya’s Ministry of Education, the Korea International Corporation Agency, and GIZ to equip Kenyan youth with future-ready skills in, among other areas, manufacturing and renewable energy, is a notable step towards the development of an inclusive and sustainable future for Kenya.

As important, sustainable industrialisation must be firmly anchored on a predictable fiscal and regulatory environment which enables medium and long-term planning.

Illicit trade such as in the tobacco industry where illegal tax evaded cigarettes account for approximately 37 percent of the market, and counterfeits such as in the alcohol, cosmetics and electronics industries, is becoming a critical existential threat that needs urgent and decisive attention.

Irrefutably, addressing this critical issue will take a whole of society approach, to help ensure that legitimate industry and the livelihoods of Kenyan supply chains are protected.

At the same time, for industrialisation to be fully sustainable for Africa, it must be pegged on innovation.

Utilisation of science and modern technology in product design and innovation ensures that business solutions remain relevant and responsive to evolving needs and demands of consumers. It is also prudent that regulatory frameworks align themselves with the rapidly evolving marketplace, and even better, be a step ahead through proactive engagement with private sector.

If we are to realise Vision 2030, we must treat industrialisation as a national priority, anchored on renewable energy, skilled talent, and a whole-of-society commitment to safeguarding legitimate industry.

Services alone cannot generate growth at this magnitude while providing broad-based employment. Manufacturing creates formal jobs with competitive wages, develops technical capabilities that are transferable across industries and establishes production competencies that compound over time.

As Africa Industrialisation Day highlights sustainable industrialisation’s centrality to economic transformation, the synergies are apparent. It is time that we up the ante to help accelerate sustained and sustainable industrialisation and socio-economic development in our country, for the prosperity of all.