Category: Business Daily

‘Legacy is not what you leave behind-it’s what keeps growing when you’re gone.’ – African Proverb

Last week, I wrote about the emotional cost of building to last-the sleepless nights, the hidden weight and the quiet ache that comes when purpose turns into responsibility. Some readers asked: But what is legacy, really?

Fourteen suspects in Kenya have been flagged for financing of terrorism activity through virtual assets, including cryptocurrency, the global police body Interpol said on Wednesday.

Four of the flagged suspects in Kenya have been arrested as part of an operation across six African countries targeting terrorism financing and the illegal activity supporting it.

By mid-October, racks in Nairobi’s sports shops rarely stay full for long. Marathon season sends a rush of customers looking for sneakers they can trust on the road, whether they’re serious athletes or just joining the city’s growing fitness culture. Sellers say this is when shoes move fastest, from the Central Business District (CBD) stalls to mall boutiques.

The spike is more than just seasonal excitement. For many Kenyans, sneakers have become part of everyday life, used for running, gym workouts, weekend walks or simply a corporate look.

Former NIC Bank chief executive James Macharia, who also served as a Cabinet Secretary in the Uhuru Kenyatta administration, has made a comeback into the public eye after being named the chairman of Sidian Bank in a board overhaul.

Mr Macharia who served in various dockets during both terms of the Jubilee administration has not held another public role since the exit of the Uhuru government in 2022.

Kenya’s goat meat exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) increased by Sh300.36 million in the first half of 2025 amid President William Ruto’s national livestock vaccination campaign and renewed bilateral trade ties with the Gulf nation.

Kenya’s goat farmers earned Sh5.47 billion between January and June 2025 from sales to the UAE, latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows, representing a rise of 5.8 percent from Sh5.17 billion in a similar period last year.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has retained the tax rate charged on employee welfare benefits at eight percent for the quarter ending December 2025, marking the first time in five quarters that the taxman has failed to lower the charge in tandem with a reduction in the indicative Central Bank lending rate.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on October 7, 2025, lowered its benchmark Central Bank Rate to 9.25 percent from 9.50 percent, extending its monetary policy easing cycle that began in August last year and has cumulatively cut the rate by 3.75 percentage points.

When Kenya enacted the Virtual Assets Service Providers Bill 2025 in October, few truly grasped its potential to revolutionise our national infrastructure ambitions.

For far too long, flagship projects, such as the modernisation of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), dams and superhighways, among others, have faced hurdles in securing funding without ceding control to opaque partnerships or foreign entities.

This new law is a game-changer, opening the door to blockchain-powered citizen investment, all of which is regulated and safeguarded by Kenyan authorities. For instance, JKIA is more than a transport hub; it is our vital gateway for trade, tourism, and diplomacy. Despite serving more than eight million passengers annually at its peak, its facilities significantly lag behind those of global counterparts like Ethiopia, Dubai, Doha, or Singapore. The government projects that upgrading JKIA to world-class standards will require an estimated Sh200 billion.

It suffices to say the attempt to modernise through the Adani Group became a cropper due to low trust level by the citizens. While this figure may seem daunting, we can draw inspiration from Ethiopia.

When Addis Ababa embarked on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), a $4.8 billion megaproject, international financing proved politically complex due to regional misalignment with Sudan and Egypt.

Ethiopia ingeniously turned to its citizens, issuing bonds, organising lotteries, and launching grassroots campaigns that enabled farmers, civil servants, and the diaspora to contribute.

Citizens didn’t merely donate; they invested in a national asset, fostering widespread ownership and pride. The Gerd was not financed overnight, but this layered citizen participation made it possible without compromising sovereignty.

Kenya can emulate and modernise this spirit through tokenisation, operating under the framework of the new Act. Tokenisation involves transforming a large, illiquid asset into millions of secure, tradable digital units known as tokens.

For JKIA’s redevelopment, the Sh200 billion cost could be divided into 200 million tokens, each valued at Sh1,000. Blockchain technology ensures that every aspect of a token’s issuance, transfer, and revenue distribution is transparent and traceable, visible to all, and impervious to manipulation.

Imagine a boda boda rider in Bungoma purchasing two tokens for Sh2,000, a public school teacher in Nakuru buying 10 tokens, and a major pension fund investing in several million. Each token holder, an individual citizen or an institution, would be entitled to a proportional and equitably allocated share of JKIA’s long-term revenues. The opportunity is now at hand; the challenge ahead is for policymakers, financial institutions, and citizens to collectively take the next step and transform ‘our nation’ into a shared endeavour in every meaningful sense.

The Act serves as the crucial safeguard, ensuring this model is not merely another fleeting digital aspiration.

It mandates:

Licensing and regulation of token issuers, exchanges, and custodians.

Clear investor disclosures and contractual terms.

Anti-money laundering oversight to maintain the integrity of the process.

Technology neutrality, fostering innovation without undue bureaucratic impediments.

This robust legal foundation addresses the transparency concerns that have previously hindered attempts to introduce private concessionaires at JKIA. Citizens will have clear visibility into how their funds are utilised, how the asset performs, and when payouts are disbursed, all verifiable on the blockchain.

Certainly, challenges lie ahead: investor education is paramount to preventing confusion and scams; robust cybersecurity infrastructure must be in place to guard against hacking; and market volatility needs to be understood. However, with the VASP Act now enacted, these risks can be effectively managed within a regulated and monitored ecosystem.

Tokenising JKIA is more than just a financing strategy; it is a profound statement. It signals to the world that Kenyans are ready to directly own, profit from, and protect their strategic infrastructure.

It mirrors the Gerd narrative but leverages cutting-edge digital finance to simplify participation even further: through mobile money integrations, diaspora investment portals, and licensed exchanges where tokens can be freely traded.

In the coming years, as flights from global capitals land at JKIA and passengers disembark into upgraded terminals, Kenyans will be walking through a building they partly own. The revenue generated from every coffee sold in the departure lounge, every cargo shipment processed, will flow back to thousands, perhaps millions of Kenyan stakeholders.

From law to ledger, and from ledger to prosperity, the VASP Act 2025 has provided the framework to achieve what once seemed impossible: funding national projects through national ownership.

This principle extends beyond infrastructure like JKIA to encompass all national and sub-national investments, including agriculture and manufacturing. While this may sound futuristic, it represents a crucial path to engaging millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alphas in the national investment realm.

Vipingo Development PLC, owned by property developer Centum Real Estate Ltd, got a reprieve after a court declared that it holds valid titles to three parcels of land in the Vipingo area, Kilifi County.

The parcels of land have been claimed by five individuals and a community-based organisation (CBO).

The Employment and Labour Relations Court has dealt a blow to 208 former employees of the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA), dismissing their application to sue the State corporation over alleged underpayment of retirement benefits due to missing the legal filing deadline.

The workers had sought court permission to file their case out of the three-year statutory timeline after discovering discrepancies in their 2018 Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) package payments.

Official foreign reserves held at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) hit a new high of $12.1 billion (Sh1.6 trillion) last week, on excess cash from a $1.5 billion (Sh193.7billion) Eurobond sale earlier this month.

Last week’s reserves at the CBK surpassed the previous record of $11.2 billion (Sh1.4 trillion) set in July this year, reflecting an improvement in the availability of foreign currency after months of increased inflows from debt financing and exports.