Category: Business Daily

The world of sports is changing fast, and knowledge-sharing is how we keep up with it. I recently attended the SportsBiz Africa Forum held in Kigali which brought together a range of voices from across the business of sports.

Data, AI and the future of sport in a rapidly changing landscape was key among topics that took my interest. It crystallised something I have been thinking about for a while, the biggest shift happening in global sport right now isn’t a new league or a new investor – it is data, and what it is about to do to the value of everything we sell.

For decades, sports business has been built on sponsorship. A company sponsors a club, an athlete, a marathon, a federation. In return, it gets branding, visibility, media exposure and association with the sport. The conversation has been simple; how many people attended, how many hours on TV, how many logo appearances, how many impressions?

These metrics still matter but are no longer sufficient. Sports rights are increasingly being viewed as investment assets, not just marketing opportunities.

A sponsor buys a marketing outcome. An investor buys an economic opportunity – ownership in a team or league, a share of media revenue, a rights package, an athlete’s IP. Private equity, family offices and sovereign wealth funds are moving in.

Firms like Arctos have built portfolios across major US sports, and Asia-Pacific sports M and A reportedly hit $3.69 billion by this July, 12 times the prior year. Sport is becoming an asset class. Which raises the obvious question, how do you value the asset? That takes us straight to data.

Two competitions can each claim a million viewers and still not be valued the same. One audience might be young, urban, affluent, mobile-money users and frequent travellers; the other, older and lower-spend.

The real asset was never audience size, it’s audience quality. Sophisticated sponsors and investors now want to know where audiences live, what they earn, what they buy, how they travel, and whether exposure actually shifts purchase intent. That’s the difference between media measurement and commercial intelligence: one tells you people watched, the other tells you what they’re worth.

Nielsen a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics has already made this shift, combining exposure data with demographics, brand-health and sales impact, one study of 100 sponsorships found a 10 percent average lift in purchase intent among exposed fans. The Australian Football League uses consumer research on fan behaviour to build sharper, more targeted partnership deals. The pattern: data isn’t just reporting sponsorship value anymore, it’s discovering new value.

Africa has extraordinary sports stories. Kenyan distance running, Nigerian football culture, South Africa’s sophisticated market, Rwanda’s positioning around cycling and major events, Morocco’s tourism-football play. Yet African sports properties remain significantly under-monetised not for lack of audience, but for lack of commercially structured information about that audience.

A Kenyan athletics event with 20 million views sounds impressive; it’s a far stronger pitch if the rights holder can show five million viewers aged 18 -34, two million frequent travellers, 800,000 likely sportswear buyers, and 40 percent of the audience outside Kenya. That’s the difference between selling impressions and selling a defined, investable consumer segment.

NBA Africa illustrates what this looks like in practice. It isn’t selling basketball games, it’s built an ecosystem of media, partnerships, grassroots programmes and retail. In 2023/24, over 140 live telecasts drove a 41 percent year-on-year rise in viewership and nearly six million watch hours; local social accounts generated almost 90 million video views; NBA Store sales in South Africa rose almost 150 percent. Its 2021 strategic investment round, led by Tunde Folawiyo and Helios Fairfax Partners, shows investors backing the ecosystem around the audience, not just a sponsorship line.

Imagine a Kenyan Sports Audience Index combining media, demographic, behavioural, fan, engagement, commercial, geographic and economic data across football, athletics, rugby, basketball, golf and motorsport.

For Kenyan athletics specifically, this could identify running tourists, marathon participants, sportswear consumers and destination travellers, turning a marathon from a broadcast asset into a tourism and investment asset, this is exactly where sport and tourism converge, a thread that ran through more than one session in Kigali this week.

The same logic applies to football, knowing which banks, telecoms and products a weekly viewer actually uses turns a league’s pitch from perimeter boards into access to defined consumer communities. It applies to individual athletes too, a smaller, more affluent, highly engaged following can be worth more to a brand than a much larger, generic one.

Sponsorship isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming more investment-like, as CFOs increasingly ask marketing teams for evidence, not just awareness. Deloitte’s work on sports partnerships makes the same point, brands need data on outcomes, not generic reach.

Africa doesn’t have a shortage of sports audiences; it has a shortage of proof about who those audiences are.

That’s a valuation gap as much as a data gap, and it’s why African properties get undervalued even when the audience is genuinely there.

The next generation of sports commercialisation, for Kenya and the continent, has to be built on a simple principle – don’t just measure how many people watch, measure who they are, what they do, what they’re worth, and what economic value their attention can create.

The most valuable sports rights won’t be the ones with the largest audience, it will be the one that understands its audience best.

Every progressive nation requires a long-term national survival strategy to shield its future generations from global economic and geopolitical shocks. In fact, nations do not stumble into first-world status by accident.

They are engineered through a disciplined, uninterrupted application of statecraft – the deliberate alignment of a government’s political will, economic infrastructure, and institutional assets toward a singular existential objective.

For Kenya to cross this economic threshold, our leadership must abandon reactive policymaking and instead adopt statecraft as a long-term, predictive science.

To understand where Kenya must go, we must candidly audit where we have been. Statecraft in Kenya has historically been episodic, tethered to the unique philosophies and shortcomings of individual presidencies rather than an institutionalised national doctrine.

Jomo Kenyatta’s foundational statecraft established a sovereign state from the ashes of colonial rule, demonstrating exemplary diplomatic restraint that positioned an infant Kenya as an anchor of stability in a volatile region. However, this early blueprint faced structural vulnerabilities due to institutionalised insularity, land distribution imbalances, and centralised political authority, leaving the young republic exposed to early global market shocks and internal friction.

Daniel arap Moi shifted the apparatus toward survivalist statecraft, focusing heavily on regional mediation and defensive diplomacy. Yet, the domestic economic cost of this hyper-focus on political stability was severe.

The centralisation of power, systematic erosion of State corporations, and resistance to early economic liberalisation led to prolonged stagnation, decaying infrastructure, and a friction-filled relationship with international financial institutions.

Mwai Kibaki is credited as the man who introduced Kenya to its most exemplary era of economic statecraft. Kibaki recognised that true sovereignty is built on fiscal autonomy and domestic productivity.

Nonetheless, his economic statecraft operated largely in a vacuum, detached from the necessary political engineering required to manage domestic ethno-political competition, a blind spot that ultimately culminated in the devastating institutional and social scar of the 2007/2008 post-election crisis.

Uhuru Kenyatta sought to institutionalise statecraft through rapid, legacy-defining infrastructure development. His administration pushed through monumental capital projects like the standard gauge railway to the Nairobi Expressway, aiming to anchor Kenya as the logistical gateway to East and Central Africa.

The failure of this model, however, lay in its fiscal execution. The aggressive expansion was funded by an unprecedented accumulation of commercial debt, which outpaced immediate domestic productivity, resulting in severe fiscal strain, structural inflationary pressures, and public anxieties over the deepening culture of state capture.

President William Ruto’s administration has fundamentally redefined Kenyan statecraft by pivoting toward an inclusive, structurally anchored, and forward-looking economic doctrine. Moving past the transactional frameworks of the past, this modern approach utilises global financial diplomacy, digital connectivity platforms like the Hustler Fund to democratise economic opportunities, and systemic domestic restructuring to balance historical debt obligations while building permanent national wealth.

This model positions Kenya as a vocal advocate for reform of the global finance architecture while executing an aggressive domestic agenda designed to secure the nation’s social and economic future.

Under Rutonomics, Universal Health Coverage serves as a core social anchor. By structuring healthcare as a universal, State-guaranteed right rather than a privilege, the government made a deliberate decision to insulate Kenyan households from poverty-inducing medical shocks.

Alongside health, the Affordable Housing Programme functions as a deliberate engine for macroeconomic stimulation. Beyond providing dignified shelter, it has formalised the construction sector and created millions of manufacturing and jobs for the youth.

To sustain these developments, the National Infrastructure Fund (NIF) was created to act as a strategic vehicle to mobilise domestic and private capital.

Breaking the historical dependency on volatile foreign commercial debt, NIF will ensure that critical transit, logistics, and energy projects are financed through sustainable, non-inflationary partnerships, guaranteeing uninterrupted development across political transitions.

Finally, the Sovereign Wealth Fund is now the ultimate guardrail for future generations by institutionalizing national savings.

By anchoring a portion of state revenues, resource rents, and investment yields into a permanent fund, Kenya will build the fiscal cushion necessary to absorb global macroeconomic shocks and command sovereign respect in international capital markets in the same way as Singapore and western democracies act to cushion their populations in times of crisis which are brought about by acts of God or human failings.

When we look beyond our borders, first-world nations demonstrate that successful statecraft demands absolute harmony between institutional assets, economic goals, and future-focused planning. The United States and the United Kingdom practice a deeply institutionalized form of economic statecraft.

They systematically deploy their financial architectures, international trade frameworks, and foreign assistance programs not merely as altruistic charity, but as strategic tools to secure global supply chains, mandate market access for their domestic industries, and project permanent soft power.

Israel, operating under existential geopolitical vulnerabilities, pioneered a highly specialized security-to-innovation statecraft pipeline. The Israeli state deliberately channels its defense research and military intelligence capabilities directly into civilian technology, advanced agriculture, and global cybersecurity sectors.

By treating a national survival challenge as an incubator for commercial enterprise, Israel transformed itself into a multi-billion-dollar global economic powerhouse.

Closer to home, Rwanda offers an extraordinary continental masterclass in disciplined, vision-led statecraft. By utilizing rigorous institutional accountability and clear structural design, Rwanda has intentionally repositioned itself as a premium African hub for technology, international conferences, and specialized financial services.

Through absolute consistency in policy execution, the state has systematically built unwavering investor confidence, proving that clarity of purpose can override geographical and historical limitations.

For Kenya to break out of its historical cycles and ascend to the first world, we must refine our statecraft into a highly coordinated, multi-generational discipline that transcends electoral timelines.

First, we must aggressively pursue structural economic diversification. Much like Dubai deliberately pivoted away from a finite dependency on oil to build global logistics and tourism sectors, Kenya must look past traditional agrarian exports. We must consciously deploy state machinery to solidify our position as Africa’s green energy titan and principal digital economy.

This is precisely where the long-term vision of the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) becomes foundational to our national statecraft. True industrialization cannot occur on erratic power grids. As we advance plans to integrate reliable base-load power into our national grid, we are not just planning an energy project.

We are securing the foundational infrastructure required to power future industrial parks, support electric mass transit, and sustain advanced manufacturing. Nuclear energy represents the exact type of generational asset insulation demanded by Kenya – a safeguard for our economy against the vulnerabilities of climate-induced hydro-power shortages and global fossil fuel volatility.

Second, our statecraft must establish an unbreakable synergy between the public and private sectors.

The government must cease to view itself merely as a regulatory tax collector and instead act as a deliberate economic enabler. This involves using our international diplomatic networks to actively champion Kenyan businesses, secure expansive regional markets within the African Continental Free Trade Area, and deliberately attract high-value global manufacturing plants to our soil.

Finally, Kenya must foster a deeply entrenched culture of institutionalised generational investment.

Through the synchronised execution of universal healthcare, affordable housing, infrastructure funds, and sovereign wealth accumulation, we guarantee absolute policy predictability for investors.

By converting statecraft from a tool of short-term political management into a unified blueprint for generational prosperity, Kenya can confidently claim its rightful position as a permanent, first-world leader on the global stage.

Research into tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria accounts for 50 percent of all active clinical trials in Kenya across four main categories listed by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB), making it the largest research area in the country.

Clinical trials are a type of research that studies new tests and treatments and evaluates their effects on human health outcomes.

Ahmed Mohamed, the PPB’s chief executive, told the Business Daily that 67 of the 134 active trials fall under this category, emphasising the country’s ongoing involvement in research targeting infectious and tropical diseases.

This is followed by 47 trials involving chronic diseases, including cancer and hypertension. Medical devices account for 12 trials, while vaccines account for eight.

‘The main areas of research include tropical and infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis, HIV and malaria, with 67 applications, vaccines, chronic diseases, and medical technologies and devices,’ said Dr Mohamed.

Overall, 398 trials have been completed, while 134 are still active. A further 16 applications have been withdrawn, 11 suspended and four rejected.

‘Two trials for malaria vaccines have resulted in these vaccines being registered locally. These vaccines have demonstrated a reduction in deaths among vulnerable populations, including children and women,” said Dr Mohamed.

“Once the research has ended, a post-trial access programme is incorporated into Kenyan regulations to ensure the continued availability of beneficial medicines until treatments are publicly available.’

This research activity comes as Kenya seeks to strengthen its clinical trial regulatory system and attract more research investment.

In June, the PPB issued the sixth revision of its clinical trial guidelines, aligning the framework with the International Council for Harmonisation’s Good Clinical Practice standards, known as ICH E6(R3).

The revised guidelines strengthen several areas, including trial monitoring, safety reporting, protocol amendments, progress reporting, and access to source data and documents.

There are no changes or additional requirements for the industry. These were already implemented informally; the guideline provided clarity on the requirements,’ said Dr Mohamed.

The updated framework also allows for the continued monitoring of approved trials and requires researchers to report protocol deviations and violations, challenges encountered during the study, and the trial’s current status.

Kenya has long been a site for infectious disease research, supported by research institutions, hospitals and international sponsors.

‘The country’s clinical research environment is supported by improvements in review processes, research infrastructure, and regulatory systems,’ said Dr Mohamed.

However, the number of new applications has declined in recent years, falling from 76 in 2023 to 73 in 2024 and then to 59 in 2025. In the first eight months of this year, the Board received 40 applications.

Households drove Kenya Power’s record high electricity sales in the year to June 2026, accounting for half of the additional 1,374Gigawatt-hours (GWh) the utility sold amid increased connections and widening use of power.

Electricity sales to homes grew 19 percent to 4,327GWh from 3,641GWh a year ago -fastest growth of Kenya Power’s four consumer categories- as the utility’s total unit sales grew 12 percent to 12,777GWh in the period from 11,403GWh.

The growth highlights the impact of increased connections to homes, besides signaling that more households are widening use of the power on home appliances, hence driving consumption per metered connection.

The growth in consumption by households was double that registered by commercial and industrial (the single biggest consumption class of electricity) and six times the growth that small commercial users posted in the period.

Consumption by commercial and industrial customers increased by 299GWh or five percent to 5,920GWh in the year to June 2026 from 5,621GWh a year ago, while that from small commercial consumers grew by 106GWh (6 percent) to 2,024GWh in the same period.

Kenya Power added 411,710 customers in the year, bringing the total base to 10.4 million.

Most of the additions are homes under the subsidised Last Mile Connectivity. But a reducing base tariff negated the significant rise in unit sales of electricity, hurting the utility’s quest to raise more money to undertake critical projects, notably a revamp of the aging grid.

‘One of the major reasons why our electricity revenue did not grow by a bigger margin was the reducing tariff. The tariff has been reduced by Sh0.70 per unit on average year on year over the tariff control period,’ Joseph Siror, the Managing Director of Kenya Power, said.

Under the current tariffs that came into effect in April 2023, the cost of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) has been dropping year on year, negating the significant rise in unit sales of electricity.

The surge in power consumption from households helped drive Kenya Power’s electricity revenues to Sh238.24 billion in the year ended June 2026 compared to Sh219.28 billion a year ago, as net profit marginally grew to Sh24.99 billion from Sh24.4 billion in the same period.

The slowed growth in consumption from small commercial, industrial and commercial consumers comes at a time when most of them are setting up alternative power sources to complement supply from the national grid.

Major electricity users in Kenya like Bamburi Cement, carbon dioxide manufacturer Carbacid Investments, Africa Logistics Properties, Mombasa International Airport and International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology have recently set up solar power plants.

Others like Coca-Cola were recently cleared to set up solar power plants, which is further expected to affect electricity demand among the big consumers.

The firms have cited the need to reduce their electricity bill and also ensure a reliable supply of power as the major reasons behind setting up the solar plants.

Reliability of the national grid has for years been hampered by blackouts, mainly due to overloaded transmission lines and vandalism of key towers.

Commercial and industrial consumers are the single biggest user of the national grid and accounted for 46.3 percent of the total units that Kenya Power sold in the year to June 2026. Households are the second biggest consumption category, accounting for 34 percent of the units the utility sold, followed by small commercial customers at 16 percent.

Kenya Power’s quest for additional money to revamp the national grid, among other major projects took a hit mid this year after the State froze a proposed tariff review.

Higher consumer tariffs could have allowed Kenya Power and other utilities in the energy sector to raise more cash from electricity sales, affording them the roof to fund critical projects.

The National Assembly opposed a petition by the owners of Nairobi’s 14 Riverside complex, Cape Holdings Limited, which questioned the constitutionality of Section 44A (4) of the Banking Act, which excludes judgment debtors and court decrees from the protection of the in duplum principle. This rule generally limits recoverable interest on a debt to the outstanding principal.

The law is at the centre of a petition by Cape Holdings Limited, which wants the High Court to determine whether it is unconstitutional for allowing interest on court-awarded debts to grow beyond the principal amount and expose borrowers to potentially disproportionate financial claims.

“The formulation, scope and reach of a statutory interest cap, including any question whether and how it should extend to Categories of debt beyond non-performing bank loans, is a matter of legislative policy squarely within the constitutional mandate of Parliament under Articles 94, and 109 to 113 of the Constitution, and this honourable court lacks the necessary to question policy decisions,” Parliament said.

In an affidavit, National Assembly Deputy Clerk Jeremiah Ndombi said Section 44A was never intended to operate as a general law governing all categories of debt, execution proceedings or decretal interest.

He said those matters are addressed under other legislation, including the Civil Procedure Act, Civil Procedure Rules, Arbitration Act and Auctioneers Act and Rules.

Parliament argues that the distinction created by Section 44A (4) is based on a material difference between contractual interest on non-performing bank loans and interest accruing under court orders or decrees.

According to Ndombi, the in duplum rule was introduced to address the ‘unrestrained’ accumulation of contractual interest by licensed financial institutions against borrowers in continuing lender-borrower relationships.

Section 44A(1) and (2) limit the amount recoverable by a licensed institution from a borrower in respect of a non-performing loan to the principal outstanding when the loan became non-performing, contractual interest not exceeding that principal, and reasonable recovery expenses.

Parliament says the rule was intended to address situations in which loan balances could escalate to multiples of the original principal without independent adjudication.

Section 44A(4), however, provides that the section ‘shall not apply to limit any interest under a court order accruing after the order is made.’

Read: 14 Riverside owners seek to block Sh10.6bn debt claim

Parliament argues that such interest is fundamentally different from contractual interest imposed by a bank. Interest under a court order is either determined by a court or arbitral tribunal after the parties have been heard, or continues to accrue on a debt that has already been judicially determined.

It therefore maintains that excluding decretal interest from the in duplum rule was a deliberate legislative choice rather than arbitrary discrimination.

Parliament also argues that extending the rule to court decrees would effectively require the High Court to rewrite the Banking Act and expand a statutory scheme that was deliberately confined to licensed banking business.

It maintains that determining the scope of any statutory interest cap beyond non-performing bank loans is a matter of legislative policy within Parliament’s constitutional mandate.

Parliament wants the court to dismiss the petition, arguing that Cape Holdings has not demonstrated that Section 44A(4) is unconstitutional.

In the petition, the company said it was not asking the court to reopen the underlying arbitration dispute, set aside the arbitral award or overturn previous decisions of the Court of Appeal.

‘The petition does not seek to reopen the merits of the arbitration, set aside the award, reverse the Court of Appeal judgment or invite this court to exercise appellate or supervisory jurisdiction over any superior court,’ the company said.

The dispute stems from a long-running commercial disagreement between Cape Holdings and Synergy Industrial Credit Limited over an aborted transaction involving a block within the 14 Riverside Drive development in Nairobi.

Cape Holdings wants the High Court to determine whether the continued accumulation and enforcement of interest on the decretal amount violates constitutional protections, including the rights to equality, dignity and property.

The company says the claimed amount has grown substantially beyond the original arbitration award.

According to court documents, an arbitrator awarded Synergy Sh1.666 billion. However, fresh warrants of sale and a notification of sale issued on March 16, 2026, put the amount allegedly due at Sh10.679 billion.

Cape Holdings told the court that about Sh9.013 billion of the claim comprises compound interest, accounting for roughly 84 per cent of the total.

The company argues that the interest has therefore overtaken the original award by a significant margin.

The company said it was not challenging Synergy’s status as a decree-holder, but asking the court to examine whether the manner in which the decree had been calculated and enforced was constitutionally permissible.

It also argued that attempts to enforce the Sh10.679 billion claim against the entirety of 14 Riverside, and potentially against property belonging to its directors and third parties, amounted to a disproportionate interference with property rights.

The company further raised Article 27 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination, arguing that the statutory exclusion creates an unjustifiable distinction between judgment debts and other debts protected by the in duplum principle.

Synergy Industrial Credit has opposed the petition and wants it struck out.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has backed central banks’ interventions in the foreign exchange market to address fluctuations emerging from financial shocks like increased global volatility and broad US dollar strength.

The multilateral guidance comes amid continued focus on the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) role in the foreign exchange market as the Kenya shilling marks prolonged resilience even under increased external pressures like the US-Israel war on Iran and a reversal in developed economies’ policies where both the US and the EU central banks have raised benchmark rates.

A staff team at the IMF has recommended that arbitration by central banks be restricted to financial shocks rather than fundamental causes of currency weakness like changes in economic output/productivity or monetary policy adjustments.

The Kenya shilling has held steady against the US dollar amidst evolving global shocks and has traded in a narrow-bound range of between 128 and 130 since August 2024.

CBK does not describe factors driving its interventionist policy in the foreign exchange market, but it says its interference is limited to stamping out volatility.

The apex bank mainly intervenes in the foreign exchange market by selling currencies in the event of a sharp currency depreciation but buys other currencies like the US dollar when the shilling appreciates sharply.

‘A key consideration for policy makers is distinguishing exchange rate movements driven by shifts in macroeconomic fundamentals from those reflecting changes in financial conditions that affect currency risk premia and market functioning,’ the IMF says in staff discussion notes that aim to elicit debate on the implications of foreign exchange intervention.

‘This distinction is critical for policy strategy; in the former case, exchange rates should typically be allowed to adjust to facilitate macroeconomic adjustment, while forex intervention may potentially be justified in the latter case.’

The IMF staff discussions notes state that determining when to intervene in forex markets remains a major policy challenge for central banks in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), amid heightened global volatility.

The IMF lists three cases that warrant forex interventions including smoothing destabilising risk premia –a phenomenon that describes a fluctuation in the premium demanded by investors to hold risky assets in a way that results in greater market volatility and economic instability.

Central banks can also intervene to address financial stability risks from forex mismatches and to support price stability.

The phenomenon is exacerbated in the event of financial shocks like a financial crisis or when the US dollar and other major currencies strengthen considerably against EMDE counterparts.

Financial shocks are revealed in currency markets through imbalances between currency demand and supply and when market liquidity dries up quickly.

IMF has created a tool to help central banks separate currency fluctuations resulting from shocks and those that occur from fundamentals, employing 10 pointers including interest rate differentials, inflation, net capital inflows, net purchase of foreign currencies and the monetary policy rate.

CBK does not publicly disclose when it makes interventions in the forex market, but analysts have mostly tracked the movement of foreign exchange reserves balances to determine instances of arbitration.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge previously attributed the relative strength of the Kenya shilling to adequate foreign reserves buffers in response to queries on the currency stability amid evolving global risks.

‘I know a lot of people wonder how we’ve been able to maintain a stable exchange rate for such a long time,’ Thugge told an audience at the 23rd East African Banking School Conference in July.

‘We still expect a fairly strong balance of payments position this year, notwithstanding what is happening in the Middle East, and therefore, we expect the exchange rate to remain relatively stable.’

However, despite the preference for organic growth, he did not rule out inorganic growth via an acquisition.

Standard Bank’s increased focus on the East Africa market is part of a growing pivot into the region by South African lenders, highlighted by Nedbank Group’s ongoing acquisition of a 66 percent stake in NCBA Group and Absa Group’s recent bid for an additional 16.5 percent stake in its Kenyan subsidiary.

Standard Bank was earlier linked to an acquisition of NCBA last year before Nedbank swooped in and made its offer in January 2026.

‘We currently have 21 billion rand (Sh166.7 billion) available for investments in acquisitions and partnerships, dividends, and share buybacks -providing optionality and supporting distributions to shareholders,’ said Mr Tshabalala.

‘We continue to see significant opportunities to expand and deepen our position across Africa and will selectively invest where we have clear competitive advantages and strong prospects for value creation.’

He added that the bank invested $80 million (Sh10.4 billion) of additional capital in Tanzania in July 2026, with a plan to increase its shareholding in its Angola unit before the end of this year.

The CEO said the East African market has growth opportunities that Standard Bank targets to exploit.

‘There is great interest in Kenya and in East Africa. As you know, our competitors, both South African and international, are here often, and that speaks to something special happening in Kenya and East Africa,’ Mr Tshabalala told the Business Daily during his August visit.

‘This is an economy that has been growing at about five percent since the early 2000s as a consequence of the fact that the economy is diversifying; it is a great logistics hub and entry point into the region, and third is that it forms part of an interesting crescent of that trade route in between Egypt, the Gulf States and the Indian Ocean.’

South African rivals, Absa Group and Nedbank, have already made a Sh116.5 billion investment in the Kenyan market with their recent acquisition actions.

In August, Absa Group raised its stake in Absa Bank Kenya from 68.5 percent to 72 percent in a Sh6.53 billion deal, after existing shareholders agreed to sell their 189.4 million shares in its tender offer. The bank had sought to purchase a 16.5 percent stake or 895.9 million shares in the offer, which would have taken its holding to 85 percent if it was fully subscribed.

Meanwhile, Nedbank is on track to complete its Sh110 billion acquisition of a 66 percent stake in NCBA before the end of the year, after receiving a regulatory nod from the Central Bank of Kenya.

Kenyans living and working in Tanzania sent more money home than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia for the first time in August, coinciding with new foreign-worker rules in the Gulf kingdom that disrupted earnings and cash transfers from one of Kenya’s biggest diaspora markets.

Cash sent home from Tanzania hit a record $11.72 million (about Sh1.52 billion) in August, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows, narrowly surpassing the $11.61 million (about Sh1.50 billion) sent from the Middle East economic powerhouse.

This marked a dramatic reversal in Tanzania’s performance, which had been significantly smaller than Saudi Arabia since the CBK started publishing remittances by source country in 2019.

The data, which captures transfers through formal channels, show the flows from Kenyans in the Gulf country fell 28.7 percent from $16.30 million (Sh2.11 billion) a year earlier, while Tanzania’s jumped 72.3 percent from $6.80 million (Sh880.60 million).

The changes come as Riyadh implemented a new system for foreign workers that replaced the decades-old one-size-fits-all iqama arrangement with classifications based on skills, qualifications, experience, salaries and age.

The framework divides foreign workers into highly skilled, skilled, and basic categories. These changes are aimed at boosting productivity and aligning labour deployment with the country’s economic transformation agenda. Reclassification of existing workers began on June 18, 2025, with enforcement starting on July 5. Recruits entered the system from August 3.

Many Kenyans in the Gulf kingdom work as housekeepers, cleaners, drivers, security guards and casual labourers.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge said in February that changes in labour policies there had slowed inflows, although he expected the disruption to be temporary.

‘There were some changes in labour laws and relations in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has become one of our largest sources of remittances but with those changes in labour policies, there has been slow down in remittances from there,’ Dr Thugge said adding: ‘We expect that this will not be permanent and, therefore, there would be some recovery later in 2026.’

The latest figures show diaspora remittances from that corridor were yet to recover by August. Monthly cash wired home from Saudi Arabia was above $28 million (Sh3.63 billion) between January and July 2025, peaking at $37.23 million (Sh4.82 billion) in March.

They then fell to $16.30 million (Sh2.11 billion) in August and remained below $19 million (Sh2.46 billion) for the rest of last year.

The decline continued into 2026, with the monthly flows falling to $11.89 million (Sh1.54 billion) in June before dropping further in August.

Tanzania, meanwhile, recorded a sustained increase, with August inflows more than double the $5.25 million (Sh679.88 million) recorded in June 2025 and 72.3 percent above the level a year earlier.

The shift in August is significant because the Gulf kingdom had historically been a much larger source of diaspora cash, beating the UK to become the second biggest corridor after the US in 2023 and 2024.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, Kenyans working there sent about $390.6 million home (Sh50.58 billion), compared with about $68.6 million (Sh8.88 billion) from Tanzania.

Over the following 12 months to June 2026, the diaspora inflows from Saudi Arabia fell to about $198.1 million (Sh25.65 billion) while Tanzania increased to about $90.3 million (Sh11.69 billion).

The CBK data indicate the average monthly contribution from the Gulf country nearly halved over the period, while Tanzania’s continued to rise. The US remained the biggest source despite a 15.4 percent year-on-year fall in August to $205.22 million (Sh26.58 billion).

Other markets recorded strong increases, with Australia rising 53 percent to $30.23 million (Sh3.91 billion), Canada increasing 52 percent to $20.69 million (Sh2.68 billion) and the United Arab Emirates jumping nearly 70 percent to $17.44 million (Sh2.26 billion).

The United Kingdom rose 25 percent to $38.82 million (Sh5.03 billion), while Germany increased 17 percent to $17.51 million (Sh2.27 billion).

Total remittances rose 6.03 percent to $451.85 million (Sh58.51 billion) in August from $426.13 million (Sh55.18 billion) a year earlier, showing that stronger flows from other diaspora markets are cushioning declines in the US and Saudi Arabia.

For nearly two decades, a local building-materials distributor, Space and Style Limited, helped build the Kenyan market for New Zealand roofing brand Decra.

But when the roofing business relationship collapsed in 2023, the Kenyan distributor went to court claiming that the commercial goodwill it had built was its property.

The manufacturer, Roof TG Pacific Ltd, countered that the goodwill belonged to it under the contract and that the distributor owed nearly $792,399 (Sh102.6 million).

The dispute has exposed the financial and legal risks facing local firms that invest heavily in developing foreign brands without securing clear protection for the value created through their distribution networks, customers and marketing efforts.

The High Court at Thika dismissed Space and Style’s constitutional petition on September 3, 2026, after finding that the New Zealand company had not been properly brought within the court’s jurisdiction.

The court did not decide whether the contract termination was lawful, whether Space and Style owned the goodwill, or whether the distributor deserved compensation. The decision left the central commercial dispute unresolved.

Space and Style, a local company dealing in building materials and roofing products, said it had been appointed Decra’s exclusive distributor in Kenya under an agreement entered into in July 2004.

It said the arrangement allowed it to distribute the products exclusively for more than 19 years, from 2004 until September 2023, to the exclusion of any other parties.

During that period, it claimed to have invested substantial capital in marketing, promotion, and advertising.

In its petition dated February 2, 2024, the company contended that it built massive goodwill through distributorship of Roof TG Pacific’s Decra-branded roofing products; thus, the respondent’s action to terminate the contract immediately was an infringement of the petitioner’s right to property.

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The company also said it committed time, labour and resources to building Decra’s reputation among Kenyan customers, contractors, developers and other buyers.

It argued that the goodwill generated through those efforts was separate from the Decra brand itself. It claimed that the commercial value attached to its local distribution business amounted to property protected by Article 40 of the Constitution.

‘The said exclusive distribution rights incentivised and motivated the petitioner to invest substantial capital, time, energy and effort in gradually establishing and developing its goodwill in the distribution of the respondent’s Decra-branded roof products in Kenya,’ it argued.

The petitioner claimed that it had also ‘built massive goodwill through distributorship of the respondent’s Decra-branded roofing products’.

Space and Style said Roof TG Pacific withdrew its exclusive rights through a letter dated September 28, 2023. It described the decision as irregular, illegal, unprocedural and arbitrary, and that the withdrawal constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of its property in the goodwill established.

It sued seeking declarations that it remained the exclusive distributor, that the goodwill belonged to it, and that the withdrawal violated its constitutional property rights.

It also wanted compensation, a permanent injunction and an order requiring the manufacturer to reverse any appointment of another Kenyan distributor.

The distributor said no compensation had been offered after the termination. Nonetheless, it contended that no amount of monetary compensation is adequate to compensate it for the deprivation of its goodwill.

It argued that the loss extended beyond stock and immediate sales because its business had been built around Decra products for nearly two decades.

It further told the court that it had entered into several customer orders awaiting delivery. It warned that failure to supply the products could expose it to financial losses and possible lawsuits from customers.

However, Roof TG Pacific presented a different account of the collapse. The New Zealand company said the agreement recognised the manufacturer as the exclusive owner of the intellectual property in the products and all associated goodwill in the brand names.

The manufacturer relied on a clause stating that the distributor would not obtain any claim in the brand names and that goodwill arising from their use would accrue exclusively to Roof TG Pacific.

It also said the agreement allowed termination where a material breach was not remedied within 30 days after notice requiring correction.

Roof TG Pacific alleged that Space and Style had failed to maintain sufficient stocks, had not purchased Decra products since 2022, and had failed to settle invoices falling due between November 2021 and October 2023.

The outstanding amount was stated as $792,399.33 (Sh102.6 million).

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The manufacturer therefore maintained that the September 28, 2023 termination letter was issued under the express terms of the agreement.

It also disputed the claim that Space and Style alone had financed Decra’s roofing products growth in Kenya. Roof TG Pacific said it had spent $860,283.63 (Sh110.9 million) between 2010 and 2021 promoting the brand through credits to the distributor for marketing expenses.

The manufacturer argued that Kenyan law did not automatically give distributors a right to goodwill compensation. It said the parties were bound by their contract and that the agreement contained no compensation provision.

Space and Style disputed that position. It argued that Roof TG Pacific had failed to give the required 30-day notice before terminating the relationship. It also alleged that appointing another local distributor breached its exclusive appointment.

The distributor relied on earlier Kenyan cases recognising goodwill as a form of property. It cited the description of goodwill as ‘the benefit and advantage of the good name, reputation and connection of a business’ and ‘the attractive force which brings in custom’.

However, the court examined the limits of such claims. It said that the Supreme Court had previously held that goodwill qualifies as property only where it is identifiable and a measurable value can be attached to it.

The court noted that distribution agreements define the rights and obligations of manufacturers and distributors, including ownership of goodwill. It also observed that Space and Style had not demonstrated the value of the goodwill it claimed.

“There was no evidence placed before this court to demonstrate the value of the goodwill allegedly built by the petitioner,” said the court.

The case was significant because courts have previously awarded substantial damages to local distributors whose exclusive arrangements were improperly terminated.

For instance, in the case of Dutch firm Heineken East Africa Import Company Ltd and local company Maxam Ltd, the Court of Appeal in May 2024 upheld an award of Sh1.79 billion for loss of business. This was after Heineken breached a beer distribution agreement with Maxam.

The court relied on expert valuation evidence covering discounted cash flow, future earnings, price-earnings multiples and dividend value.

However, that case involved a different contract and different evidence. New Zealand’s Roof TG Pacific argued that that case could not be compared with the Decra dispute because Space and Style had not particularised its damages or supplied a valuation report.

The manufacturer cited the absence of audited accounts, customer details, investment records and an independent valuation as weaknesses in the goodwill claim.

The court ultimately did not reach those questions because it first considered whether it had jurisdiction over the New Zealand company.

Space and Style admitted that it had not obtained permission of the court to serve the foreign respondent outside Kenya. It argued that service by email was valid under the Civil Procedure Rules and that Roof TG Pacific’s lawyers had accepted service and responded to the petition.

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Justice Lawrence Mugambi rejected that argument, and the case failed at that procedural entry point.

The judge held that email service did not remove the requirement to obtain leave before serving a foreign defendant outside Kenya. After filing the petition, the local company was required to seek the court’s permission to serve the foreign defendant the documents.

‘It is only upon such service of summons that a court assumes jurisdiction over a foreign defendant and not a moment sooner,” the court stated, citing the procedural rules.

The court further held that appointing lawyers did not cure the defect because Roof TG Pacific had filed a notice of appointment ‘without prejudice and under protest’.

“It is immaterial that the respondent appointed advocates to represent them in the matter. The purpose of the court before granting leave for service of summons outside jurisdiction is to satisfy itself that there is a case worth entertaining,” the court said.

“It therefore follows that this court has no jurisdiction over the respondent and must down its tools. Jurisdiction is everything. Without it, a court has no power to make one more step,” the court said, dismissing the petition.

For Kenyan distributors, the unresolved dispute highlights the importance of documenting marketing expenditure, separating brand goodwill from distributor goodwill, obtaining independent valuations and negotiating clear termination and compensation clauses before committing resources to foreign products.

It also shows that even a long commercial relationship may not protect a distributor where the written agreement assigns brand goodwill to the manufacturer or where procedural steps for suing a foreign company are not followed.

Private law firms are facing tighter access to government legal work after Attorney-General (AG) Dorcas Oduor introduced rules requiring ministries and State agencies to justify hiring of external advocates.

In an internal circular seen by the Business Daily, the AG has blocked ministries, State departments and corporations from hiring private lawyers or renewing the existing legal services’ contracts without her prior approval, a move that could shrink a lucrative business of government legal work for private law firms.

The circular also warns State accounting officers/chief executive officers that they could be held personally accountable for authorised engagement of external lawyers.

The new framework makes external lawyers an exception, requiring public institutions to show that their in-house lawyers or State counsels cannot handle a matter before seeking private representation and justify hiring of the external advocates.

Private law firms have long secured legal briefs from ministries, State agencies and corporations, including litigation and specialised work, creating a significant public-sector market for advocates.

However, with the s prior written authorisation requirement, that is likely to be affected.

‘Accounting Officers/Chief Executive Officers who authorise or continue any such unapproved engagement shall be held personally accountable,’ the circular says, adding that ‘government agencies are encouraged to ensure sufficient capacitation of their respective legal departments’.

The six-page circular, dated September 11, 2026, is addressed to all Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, chief executives of statutory entities and State corporations.

It is also copied to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, Solicitor-General Shadrack Mose and Office of the Deputy President’s Chief of Staff Chris Wanjau.

It says the AG’s office has noted increasing requests from public entities seeking approval to engage, procure or continue using external advocates and law firms in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings.

The circular says requests must be considered under a ‘coherent, transparent and legally consistent framework’ based on demonstrable need, institutional capacity, specialisation, proportionality, value for money and prudent use of public resources.

‘The framework is intended to ensure that requests are subjected to a uniform and objective assessment, and that approval is not sought or granted as a matter of routine, convenience or institutional preference,’ it says.

The circular cites Article 156 of the Constitution and the Office of the Attorney General Act. It specifically cites Section 17, which requires a ministry or department to obtain AG approval before engaging a consultant for legal services relating to the AG’s functions.

The AG says ministries, State departments and Government agencies should first use existing in-house counsel and the public legal services structure.

External lawyers may be considered where an entity provides reasonable, specific and verifiable reasons why the matter cannot be handled through available government resources.

‘The engagement of external counsel is therefore exceptional rather than routine,’ the circular reads.

The AG’s office says the framework also takes account of High Court orders issued at Nakuru in January 2026, which initially suspended public entities’ engagement, procurement and payment of private advocates where government legal personnel were available in those cases.

The circular says the court initially suspended engagement, procurement, continued procurement and payment of private advocates and firms by public entities.

After applications for variation, the court required express and formal AG approval for external counsel for National Government bodies and the Public Service Commission.

The new rules say no ministry, State department or State corporation may initiate, procure, instruct, renew, extend or continue external counsel where AG approval is required without first obtaining that approval.

This removes the entities’ discretion to hire or procure external lawyers independently in cases covered by the circular. Approval must also be ‘matter-specific and engagement-specific’ and cannot operate as a blanket authorisation.

Each application must address eight areas, including in-house capacity, specialised expertise, complexity and novelty, urgency, financial exposure, budget and procurement compliance, case history and public interest.

Requests must be written, addressed to the AG and signed by the relevant Cabinet Secretary, accounting officer or chief executive. They must contain case details and explain the parameters relied upon.

Any external engagement without prior written approval ‘shall be of no legal effect against the National Government,’ while public funds cannot be used for related fees or expenses.

Once approved, private lawyers must prepare a written assessment of the case’s merits and risks. They must keep the government entity informed, report major developments and maintain records and periodic progress reports.

They must also work alongside designated in-house or State counsel. The circular says the purpose is to strengthen government legal capacity and enable government lawyers eventually to take over matters where appropriate.

The rules allow immediate procedural action during emergencies to preserve the Government’s legal position and meet court or statutory deadlines. The entity must then notify the AG and explain why prior approval could not reasonably be obtained.

‘Accordingly, all Ministries, State Departments and State Corporations are hereby directed to ensure strict compliance with this Circular,’ Ms Oduor concludes.

‘No request for the engagement, procurement, renewal, extension or continuing engagement of external counsel shall be submitted without addressing the prescribed parameters and furnishing the supporting documentation set out herein,’ she said.