Category: Business Daily

A few weeks before his demise, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga argued fervently for the discontinuation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). He weighed in several times as Parliament scrambbled to find ways to circumvent the law and keep the fund.

Opinion about CDF is mixed, depending on who you ask. There is a good number of people who believe CDF has been a force for good, and as such, the government should find a way to keep it.

Many diehards of the fund argue that it has empowered local communities to decide and invest in development projects that affect their lives. They see it as a lifeline to the poor, delivering public goods, filling in where county or national governments have failed.

Banks have begun to recognise music as more than just art. They are exploring ways to treat songs, catalogues, and royalties as collateral for loans, a move that could unlock long-awaited financing for the creative industry.

For decades, musicians have self-financed their careers, paying out of pocket for studio sessions, production, promotion, and distribution. Without formal credit structures, many musicians and producers are unable to make songs due to financial challenges.

A fish processor has suffered a setback after the High Court dismissed its application to reinstate a case where it was challenging the termination of a Sh1.49 billion contract for a proposed ultra-modern fish hub at Liwatoni in Mombasa.

The case had been referred for arbitration in accordance with a clause under the conditions of the contract.

political party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), that it owns land assets worth nearly Sh2 billion.

In her latest audit of political parties’ accounts for the financial year ended June 2024, Ms Gathungu reports that the ruling party disclosed land assets worth Sh1.953 billion in its books but has no evidence of ownership or valuation.

As Kenya’s construction industry continues to grow to meet the rising demand for housing, a silent threat lurks behind the colourful walls of our homes, schools, and playgrounds-lead in paint.

Paint adds beauty and vibrancy to our surroundings, yet few consumers pause to consider what gives their favourite colours such brightness and durability. Many Kenyans remain unaware that some paints in the market still contain lead levels above the recommended safety limits, posing serious health risks, particularly to children and pregnant women.

While lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal in the environment, it has long been intentionally used in products such as paint, batteries, and gasoline due to its ability to resist corrosion and enhance colour. However, it is also one of the most toxic substances known to science, with no safe level of exposure.

Annually, the world marks International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, with this year’s commemoration set to take place from October 19 to 25 under the theme ‘No Safe Level: Act Now to End Lead Exposure.’

The week underscores the urgent need to eliminate all sources of lead exposure, especially in products that come into contact with children.

The initiative builds on the global success of banning lead paint and the progress many countries have made in enacting laws and regulations that restrict lead in paints and coatings used in homes, schools, and playgrounds.

Once lead enters the body, it accumulates in bones and teeth, disrupting brain development, damaging the nervous system, and affecting vital organs. According to the World Health Organization, children absorb four to five times more lead than adults, making them vulnerable to its harmful effects.

Even low levels of lead exposure can reduce a child’s IQ, impair learning, and lead to behavioural problems that persist into adulthood. Children exposed to lead may experience hyperactivity, attention deficits, hearing loss, and in severe cases, convulsions or death.

In adults, exposure to lead can cause headaches, memory loss, high blood pressure, and muscle weakness. For pregnant women, lead stored in the bones can be released into the bloodstream, exposing the developing baby and increasing the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.

To protect consumers from the lead threat, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) introduced two key standards in 2017: KS 2661-1:2017 and KS 2661-2:2017, limiting the lead content in paints, varnishes, and related products to 90 parts per million (ppm), which aligns with WHO recommendations.

However, studies have revealed that some paints sold in Kenya still exceed the permissible lead limit, indicating gaps in enforcement and compliance monitoring.

As Kenya joins the global community in this year’s awareness campaign, the message is clear that there is no safe level of lead.

This continued exposure places countless people, particularly children at risk who are exposed to ingest lead paint chips, contaminated dust, or soil by playing in lead-contaminated areas or putting their hands or contaminated objects in their mouth.

As Kenya marks International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, advocates are calling on regulators and manufacturers to take stronger action to eliminate lead from paints and other products.

There is need to ensure stricter market surveillance, consistent enforcement of Kebs standards, and enhanced public education and certification for lead safe paint to help consumers make informed choices

‘Consumers have the power to influence change. By choosing lead-safe paints, we can protect our children and our environment,’ says Griffins Ochieng, Executive Director of the Centre for Environment Justice and Development (CEJAD).

Kenyan firms plan to increase the number of full-time employees in the final quarter of the year to support heightened activity anticipated during the festive period, a new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) survey shows.

The survey findings show more respondents expect improved business activity in the fourth quarter, with higher demand orders, sales, production volumes, and employment levels projected as consumer spending and sectoral activity rise heading into the holiday season.

A trader in locally produced rice has sued the State over a gazette notice authorising the importation of 500,000 tonnes of the staple food duty-free, between July 28 and December 31.

Frankline Ojiambo says the directive to authorise duty-free importation of the rice was made without public participation and that the only entity consulted was the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC), which is also the designated importer.

The Two Rivers International Finance and Innovation Centre (Trific) has been designated a project of strategic national importance, allowing it to bypass Nairobi County in seeking development approvals, instead obtaining them directly from the national government.

The designation, announced by the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning under the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development, effectively places the 64-acre Two Rivers Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under the direct supervision of the national planning authorities.

Uasin Gishu, Machakos, and Nairobi counties are the most conducive to doing business for small traders due to the cost of licences and the availability of funding and infrastructure with Nyandarua, Kakamega, and Kisii ranked last, a new index shows.

The index, developed by the African Institute of MSME Policy and Research and consultancy firm Viffa Consult, reckons that unification and cost of licences and business support services like funding and incubation hubs are game changers.

The world’s largest cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has experienced a major outage that has impacted thousands of organisations, including banks, financial software platforms such as Xero, and social media platforms such as Snapchat.

The outage began at roughly 6pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEDT) on Monday. It was caused by a malfunction at one of AWS’ data centres located in Northern Virginia in the US. AWS says it has fixed the underlying issue but some internet users are still reporting service disruptions.

This incident highlights the vulnerabilities of relying so much on cloud computing – or ‘the cloud’ as it’s often called. But there are ways to mitigate some of the risks.

Renting IT infrastructure

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of diverse IT resources such as computing power, database storage, and applications over the internet. In simple terms, it’s renting (not owning) your own IT infrastructure.

Cloud computing came into prevalence with the dot com boom in the late 1990s, wherein digital tech companies started to deliver software over the internet.

As companies such as Amazon matured in their own ability to offer what’s known as ‘software as a service’ over the web, they started to offer others the ability to rent their virtual servers for a cost as well.

This was a lucrative value proposition. Cloud computing enables a pay-as-you-go model similar to a utility bill, rather than the huge upfront investment required to purchase, operate and manage your own data centre.

As a result, the latest statistics suggest more than 94 percent of all enterprises use cloud-based services in some form.

A market dominated by three companies

The global cloud market is dominated by three companies. AWS holds the largest share (roughly 30 percent). It’s followed by Microsoft Azure (about 20 percent) and Google Cloud Platform (about 13 percent).

All three service providers have had recent outages, significantly impacting digital service platforms. For example, in 2024, an issue with third-party software severely impacted Microsoft Azure, causing extensive operational failures for businesses globally.

Google Cloud Platform also experienced a major outage this year due to an internal misconfiguration.

Profound risks

The heavy reliance of the global internet on just a few major providers – AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud – creates profound risks for both businesses and everyday users.

First, this concentration forms a single point of failure. As seen in the latest AWS event, a simple configuration error in one central system can trigger a domino effect that instantly paralyses vast segments of the internet. Second, these providers often impose vendor lock-in. Companies find it prohibitively difficult and expensive to switch platforms due to complex data architectures and excessively high fees charged for moving large volumes of data out of the cloud (data egress costs). This effectively traps customers, leaving them hostage to a single vendor’s terms.

Finally, the dominance of US-based cloud service providers introduces geopolitical and regulatory risks. Data stored in these massive systems is subject to US laws and government demands, which can complicate compliance with international data sovereignty regulations such as Australia’s Privacy Act.

Furthermore, these companies hold the power to censor or restrict access to services, giving them control over how firms operate.

The current best practice to mitigate these risks is to adopt a multi-cloud approach that enables you to decentralise. This involves running critical applications across multiple vendors to eliminate the single point of failure.

This approach can be complemented by what’s known as ‘edge computing’, wherein data storage and processing is moved away from large, central data centres, toward smaller, distributed nodes (such as local servers) that firms can control directly.

The combination of edge computing and a multi-cloud approach enhances resilience, improves speed, and helps companies meet strict data regulatory requirements while avoiding dependence on any single entity.

As the old saying goes, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.