Category: Business Daily

Gamblers placed bets worth a record Sh330.5 billion in the year to June as the State eased punitive taxes on the sector, which outpaced new investments at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

Data from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) shows the boom in online gambling, with the taxman netted Sh16.5 billion in excise taxes from the industry, surpassing its target by 15.9 percent.

This emerged in a period when Kenya lowered excise duty to five percent from 15 percent, offering relief to gamblers.

The KRA says the five percent generated Sh16.5 billion, indicating that gamblers staked Sh330.5 billion, riding a wave of enthusiasm for sports, up from Sh88.2 billion the previous year.

At Sh330.5 billion, the bets surpassed the Sh145 billion that retail, foreign and high-net worth investors splashed in purchase of shares at the Nairobi bourse, which posted a return of 52 percent.

It nearly matched the Sh367 billion that investors used to purchase units in money market funds amid a boom in Kenya’s unit trust market.

The cut in the excise rate likely encouraged more gambling activities as the taxman rejected a push to encourage betting, linking the rise in collections to improved tax administration.

‘This reflects tax administration in a regulated sector,’ the KRA said last week.

‘KRA administers tax laws and collects legally due revenue from regulated activities. Betting-related tax performance reflects tax administration in a regulated sector, not the promotion of betting.’

The taxman says that 143 betting and gaming companies were integrated for real-time access as of June 2026, as it strengthened the collection at the point where the taxable transactions occur through system integration.

‘The integration of the Integrated Financial Management Information System with iTax has improved visibility over government procurement, while betting and gaming integration supported real-time sector visibility,’ the KRA added.

Under the current tax laws, punters are charged a five percent excise duty on all funds deposited into their betting wallet hosted by mobile money platforms like M-Pesa or Airtel Money.

Additionally, there is a five percent withholding tax deducted when the gamblers withdraw money from the betting account.

This means if gamblers place Sh1,000 in their wallets, the KRA takes Sh50 as excise tax before placement of bets and Sh50 is deducted when withdrawing, regardless of wins or losses.

As a boom in online gambling across Africa gathers pace, governments are hiking taxes to contain addiction risks and fill depleted state coffers.

But Kenya pushed back from the higher taxes in the year starting July 2025.

Betting firms across Africa have lobbied hard against higher taxes, arguing that the tax would not curb problem gambling but instead push it to underground sites, which they say would proliferate without the extra burden of the levies.

Once a niche activity, gambling has exploded across the continent as a result of easily available online betting accounts.

The outsized stakes underline Kenya’s ranking as Africa’s top betting market. A GeoPoll survey published last month revealed that 64 percent of respondents in the country had placed a bet on at least one football game in the past 12 months.

Kenyans outpaced other African peers with the high level of sports betting engagement over the period, beating Ghanaians and South Africans, who ranked second and third with engagement levels of 60 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

GeoPoll noted that betting activities usually rise during major tournaments like the ongoing FIFA World Cup, 2026 hosted by Mexico, the USA and Canada, which featured an expanded 48-team format, handing punters more games to choose from.

The data further showed that Kenyans were not only betting more often but also engaging more intensely with football.

The findings showed that 67 percent of respondents in Kenya watched three or four football matches per week, making Kenya the highest viewer segment among surveyed markets, which included Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon and Egypt.

The survey further revealed that Kenyan punters also lead the way in tinkering with their bets during the 15-minute halftime break, including placing of more wagers.

Members of Parliament (MPs) cut excise duty on betting in June last year, increasing potential winnings for punters.

The Chairperson of the National Assembly Finance and National Planning Committee, Kuria Kimani, did not provide the reasons for slashing the rate of excise taxes when contacted by this publication last year.

Mr Kimani, however, noted that the change to obligate mobile money operators to remit the excise charge before funds are sent to betting wallets sought to close a loophole where Kenyans were placing wagers on foreign-based betting platforms without paying excise taxes.

‘There are so many entities operating virtually, some outside the country, from which we cannot get this excise duty from them. This now means that every time a Kenyan transfers money from their mobile wallet to the wallet of the betting company, then that’s the time the excise duty is paid,’ he said.

Betting firms are required to compute all excise taxes after midnight every day and remit the same to the KRA the following day by seven o’clock in the morning.

The previous increase in the excise duty levied on betting activities was premised on the need to cut the appeal of betting in the country, which has turned to addiction for millions of Kenyans who see it as a source of their livelihood.

The amount wagered would be enough to fund any one of the key government ministries like Roads, Housing or Health.

The government, however, appears to be turning other screws to moderate gambling activities as public health advocates increasingly raise concerns about the rapid expansion, warning that aggressive marketing and easy digital access could be accelerating the problem, particularly among young users.

The Gambling Control (Advertising) Regulations, 2026 seek to bar betting firms from using influential personalities and past winners of large prize money to promote their services.

Further regulations seek to revoke the licences of betting firms that entice addicted punters who have sought to be barred from gambling.

The Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 require betting firms to establish automated systems that reject deposits made by self-excluded punters throughout the exclusion period.

Betting firms in Kenya will also be obligated to freeze the accounts of gamblers who are in financial distress under the proposals that also allow families to request the gaming regulator to ban their kin from gambling.

Dark clouds do not always bring rain, but they often warn that a storm may be approaching. Although no one can predict the weather, prudent people prepare before the storm arrives. Kenya stands at a similar moment as the country prepares for the 2027 General Election.

Elections should provide a platform for candidates and political parties to present ideas, policies, and leadership. Campaign financing plays an essential role in making this possible. It enables candidates to organise campaigns and communicate their vision. In a healthy democracy, it promotes political competition.

In Kenya, however, campaign financing has increasingly become synonymous with vote buying.

Rather than supporting democratic participation, political actors often use the funds to influence voters through cash handouts, gifts, facilitated transport, and other material inducements.

Elections gradually cease to become contests of ideas and instead become contests of financial influence. This trend undermines public confidence in the electoral process and weakens the foundations of democracy.

The upcoming Olkalou by-election offers an early indication of this growing concern. Although the election is yet to take place, reports have already emerged of rival political camps distributing money and other inducements to voters.

Whether these allegations are ultimately substantiated remains a matter for the relevant authorities. Even so, their recurrence reflects a culture that increasingly equates electoral success with financial power rather than public trust.

Against this backdrop, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has published draft campaign financing regulations for the 2027 General Election.

The proposed regulations introduce expenditure ceilings for candidates and political parties in an effort to promote transparency and accountability. This proposal represents a welcome step towards regulating campaign spending.

However, expenditure limits alone cannot address the real problem. The concern does not lie in the amount of money candidates spend but in how they spend it. A candidate who remains within the prescribed spending limit may still engage in vote buying.

Spending ceilings should therefore complement robust enforcement against electoral bribery. Vote buying remains unlawful regardless of the amount involved.

We must also pay closer attention to those who finance political campaigns. Political donations often come with expectations of future influence, while candidates frequently rely on intermediaries to distribute money and conceal its source.

Greater transparency in campaign financing will help expose undue influence, strengthen public accountability, and protect the integrity of elections.

Citizens have a critical role to play. Every voter must reject financial inducements, however small they may appear.

The price of accepting money during campaigns extends far beyond election day. It often results in corruption, poor governance, and leaders who view public office as an investment rather than a public trust.

Electoral integrity depends on accountability, transparency, and public confidence. Kenya still has an opportunity to strengthen its democracy before political temperatures rise further. Campaign finance regulation must go beyond spending limits.

It must prevent the use of money to buy political support and restore elections as genuine contests of ideas.

Morocco’s elimination from the World Cup triggered a frustratingly familiar conversation, dissecting a uniquely African phenomenon, the near-success syndrome.

We play brilliantly in the group stages, dazzling the world with our footwork. But when the tournament reaches its grinding final stages, we are systematically eliminated. The tragedy isn’t just losing; it’s that we celebrate reaching the quarter-finals.

This near-success syndrome isn’t just haunting our football pitches, it has deeply infected our boardrooms. The problem is rarely talent or ambition. It’s sustaining excellence long enough for promise to become victory.

The 2025 African tech funding data is out, and Nairobi once again leads Africa in startup funding. Kenya secured $1.04 billion in investment, outperforming peers and reinforcing her reputation as the Silicon Savannah. We are counting new accelerators and seed-stage pitch competitions.

We are playing a beautiful group stage, celebrating this startup activity as a sign of maturity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. However, we developed the narrative of African entrepreneurship more quickly than we developed the infrastructure to support its entrepreneurs.

Somewhere along the way, entrepreneurship itself has become performative.

We have raised a generation of founders who are exceptional at performing entrepreneurship but struggle with the unglamorous mechanics of creating tangible value.

Being an entrepreneur is becoming an identity rather than an outcome. We’ve become remarkably good at looking like we are building businesses. We polish investor presentations, perfect our social media presence, collect innovation awards, and celebrate funding rounds. These achievements matter, but they are milestones, not the business itself.

Over the last 24 months, the Startup ecosystem has experienced a brutal reckoning.

We’ve watched well-funded startups quietly go into administration, lay off hundreds, or fold entirely. We celebrate the qualification, but we ignore the elimination.

Our ecosystem has become exceptionally good at helping founders start businesses. Too often, however, we begin with the solution rather than the problem.

We build applications before understanding customer behaviour, replicate business models designed for different markets and pursue funding before proving sustainable demand.

The result is not a shortage of entrepreneurial activity, but a shortage of businesses that mature into enduring institutions.

A Kenyan founder can leave an incubator with a compelling business idea and a clear purpose, only to encounter the realities of unpredictable tax changes, overlapping county licensing requirements, fragmented supply chains, and the high cost of commercial finance.

No accelerator can eliminate the operational complexity that businesses face once they enter the market.

An incubator cannot solve the fact that it costs more to move a container from Mombasa to Nairobi than from Guangzhou to Mombasa.

For founders who achieve market penetration, growth itself creates new problems.

Sales increase while processes remain informal. Teams expand, but accountability becomes blurred. Customers multiply while service consistency declines. Eventually, the founder becomes the operating system, approving decisions, solving exceptions, and holding together knowledge that should already exist within the business.

We don’t need more startup bootcamps. We need scale-up infrastructure. The next phase of Africa entrepreneurial sustainability needs to focus on helping businesses build structures that allow them to scale beyond the founder.

Investors, business associations, universities, and policymakers all have a role in supporting this transition.

The true measure of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem is not how many businesses are born. It is how many are still standing generations later. Near success should inspire us but it should not be the goal.

A mid-year opinion poll by TIFA showed that Kenyans are worried most about the economy and livelihoods. Forty-seven percent were worried about the cost of living.

Twenty-three percent worried about unemployment and poverty. One would expect these issues therefore to dominate the political discourse – that the opposition would be keeping government on its toes, by presenting their alternative policy platforms to solve these problems. But it is not happening. Why?

There is a glaring gap between daily political news, and the actual needs of Kenyans. And it seems to be a structural design of the country’s political system, rather than an accident. While ordinary Kenyans are overwhelmingly focused on economic issues and daily household budgets, mainstream political discourse is primarily occupied with power positioning and legacy alliances.

For opposition politicians, the ultimate goal is acquiring and securing power. But leadership is about what one will do with the power – the social contract. The latter has been relegated, ignored or forgotten, as the daily news cycle focuses on political manoeuvring.

But there is reason to hope. Legacy politicians have stuck to the shareholder narrative, relying on ethnic balkanisation to build voting blocs. They are dividing the country into regional or tribal fiefdoms.

However, public polls show that a young, increasingly urban, and hyper-connected population is completely rejecting tribal alignments, and focused on issue-driven politics.

Young citizens care about systemic issues like how corruption drives up costs of living. But some political leaders continue to default to tribal arithmetic because it has worked in the past, as a way to consolidate regional voting blocks.

The public expects solutions for economic issues.

When politicians don’t have answers, they retreat to something they are highly adept at – creating sideshows, such as public insults, dramatic walkouts, or sudden regional spats, to dominate the headlines. They use media theatrics as a deliberate shield against their policy emptiness. The tactical noise fills the media landscape, drowning out data-driven conversations regarding economic prospects.

How can we bridge the gap between what matters to citizens and what politicians are talking about in the media, and give life to the social contract?

A well-functioning democratic system where power rests with the citizens, relies on citizen participation, protection of human rights and the rule of law, to ensure that it remains fair, accountable, and representative.

Citizens are expected and encouraged to engage in political life, most fundamentally through regular, free and fair elections. Tuko Kadi, #TuPartyCipate and other initiatives are, therefore, spot on.

In a presidential democracy like ours, power is separated into distinct branches, creating a high-friction system designed to prevent any single entity from gaining absolute control.

The executives (president and governors) can veto laws passed by the legislatures. The legislature can override vetoes, control government funding, and impeach the executives. Independent courts can declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional.

After an election, the manifesto of the Executive becomes the official government policy – because that is what the citizen is voting for. That is the social contract between the citizen and her elected executives.

Globally, government effectiveness and service delivery are strongly tied to average life satisfaction, even more than the specific type of democratic structure. Strong institutional governance significantly improves quality of life. When governance effectively controls corruption and enforces regulations, it enables better distribution of resources and higher average incomes.

But research also shows that governance systems and standards of living positively reinforce each other. Higher wealth gives nations the resources to build better institutions, and stable institutions consistently yield a higher quality of life for citizens.

Africa has a complex, highly debated relationship between the quality of democracy and economic performance – economic impact depends heavily on how long a democracy has survived (longevity), and the strength of its regulatory institutions.

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies found that Africa’s democratizing (since the 1990s) states, increased their median aggregate per capita income by 15 percent. Those that did not compared poorly, at just a seven percent expansion.

Democracy is, by empirical evidence, good for the quality of life.

Yet, by defeating the process of arriving at the social contract, politicians compromise both democracy and quality of life.

That is why many researchers now argue that holding of votes (electoral democracy) is meaningless for African economic performance, unless accompanied by the rule of law and control of corruption (liberal democracy). When institutional structures are weak, elections do not yield improvements in living standards.

When many chief executives resign despite joining rival companies, there is never a fallout, at least nothing leaks in public. The seamless handover highlights an unwritten rule in many corporates that employees should learn from. So how do you resign without burning bridges or facing legal tussles?

Grace Nzula, a human resource consultant, says a resignation is about a relationship ending the right way. ‘A good resignation is one that follows laid out policies,’ she says.

For senior managers, this often means serving a notice period, sometimes up to three months. During this period, the person must keep working and support the transition, not check out early.

That is the mistake she sees most employees do. ‘You start behaving like you are out already,’ Ms Nzula, who runs a company called Atarah Solutions says.

‘You start missing work. Or come to the office late. You leave early. When asked to join a meeting, you say you’re busy.’

Serving notice diligently sends a message far bigger than simply following a rule. Professionalism during the notice period means that the job mattered and the legacy you leave is something others can build on. ‘It sends a message that you respect your job and yourself,’ she says.

She cites Risper Ohaga, former chief financial officer of EABL, who resigned in February but only left the company in July, five months later, to become APA Apollo chief executive.

Such long handovers, Ms Nzula says, allows the company to train a new team and brief investors properly.

‘That is such an amazing transition,’ she says. ‘It means that it is a true sign of leadership because leadership is about creating other leaders.’

A messy handover can hurt a company. She points at scenarios where a departing employee clears out passwords and information from the office computer, leaving the next person stuck. ‘The organisation can suffer for up to one year,’ she says.

She recalls one CEO handover that has stayed with her. The outgoing chief executive prepared a meticulous handover, documenting every outstanding matter the organisation was managing, from donor relationships and finances to regulatory obligations, and even compiled a separate file containing all the passwords needed to ensure a seamless transition.

A handover doesn’t have to last three or six months to be effective. Even a short transition can work if a departing staff clearly documents where every project stands and what needs attention.

The goal, she says, is to leave knowing you have shared everything, not to hold back information so former colleagues are forced to keep calling you after you have left.

Do you need to reveal where you are heading to next? ‘You do not have to tell people that I am resigning because I am going to your competitor,’ she says.

‘You can simply say you’re pursuing other opportunities, and if pressed further, politely decline to say more.’

Resigning without burning bridges ensure that you can be rehired later or get good referrals. Ms Nzula says she has seen former employees rehired years later, purely because of how they left.

‘Skills make it possible for you to be hired,’ she says. Nzula recalls one employee whose new job opportunity fell through and who asked to return to a former employer. Because they had left on good terms, they were welcomed back.

But she cautions that rehiring is not always straightforward. Some employers quietly question whether a returning employee is committed to staying or is simply looking for a temporary stop before moving on again.

Another resignation rule is never venting about your former employer online. ‘If you have anything negative to say about a previous employer, don’t post it,’ Ms Nzula says. ‘The internet doesn’t forget.’

She says the human resources profession in Kenya, and even globally, is surprisingly small and closely connected. A bitter social media post can resurface years later and quietly damage a person’s reputation or cost them future job openings.

‘If I’m carrying out a background check and I come across social media posts where you’ve publicly criticised your former employer, saying things like, ‘you guys need to style up, you are unfair, you do this, you do this…’ And the post is trending. You’ve totally burned that bridge.’

Josphat Mutua, an advocate of the High Court, explains why the notice period matters. ‘A resignation notice does not immediately bring the employment relationship to an end,’ he says.

Until the period expires, an employee remains legally bound to keep working diligently, protect confidential information, and avoid any conflict of interest. He notes that the Employment Act, 2007 obligates employees to give the requisite notice before terminating employment, and this duty is even stronger for senior executives, who are expected to hand over responsibly and not use their final days to cause harm.

‘A resignation should not become an opportunity to prejudice the employer’s business,’ he adds.

Some top executives leave with employees, which Mr Mutua says, can cause legal tussles. Right up to departure, an outgoing executive must avoid poaching clients or colleagues for the new employer, and must not leak confidential information across.

‘Merely accepting employment with a competitor is not unlawful,’ he says. ‘But problems arise when someone secretly negotiates business for a new employer while still drawing a salary from the old one, or begins recruiting former colleagues before they have even left.’

He adds that confidentiality obligations do not expire simply because someone has resigned.

‘Resignation does not extinguish confidentiality obligations,’ he says.

A departing worker is free to take their skills, their experience, and their professional knowledge with them, but not the client databases, pricing models, or trade secrets that belong to the former employer.

Where personal data is involved, he adds, both the former employee and any new employer must remain mindful of obligations imposed by the Data Protection Act, 2019, since unauthorised disclosure or misuse of personal data can expose responsible parties to regulatory sanctions and civil liability.

Mr Mutua says some contracts include restrictive covenants, such as non-compete clauses, which try to stop a person from joining a competitor for a set period. He explains that Kenyan courts do not automatically enforce these clauses.

They are only upheld if they are reasonable and genuinely protect something such as trade secrets or client relationships, rather than simply blocking ordinary competition.

Mr Mutua says senior executives carry extra responsibilities during the resignation process, known as fiduciary duties, and that directors additionally owe statutory duties under the Companies Act, 2015.

These require them to keep acting honestly and in the company’s best interest right up to their final day, avoiding any conflict between their future plans and the firm’s ongoing deals.

‘For example, a departing CEO should not secretly negotiate business opportunities away from the company, recruit key employees for a competing venture while still employed, or transfer valuable corporate information to a future employer,’ he says.

Breaking this trust can expose an executive to serious legal claims, even after they have already left.

Employees should read their employment contract carefully, understand what it says about notice, confidentiality, and any restrictions after leaving, then submit a formal written resignation and serve the agreed notice period.

They should cooperate fully with the handover, return all company property, and avoid copying documents, forwarding confidential emails to personal accounts, or deleting company records on the way out.

‘Resignation should not be viewed as the end of a relationship but as a professional transition,’ Mr Mutua says.

‘A well-managed departure minimises legal risk, preserves valuable professional networks and often leaves the door open for future opportunities. In today’s interconnected professional environment, one’s reputation frequently becomes as valuable as one’s legal rights.’

Kenya’s wealthy art collectors are searching for paintings created and acquired during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Reason? Not solely to hang them on their walls but as an alternative investment.

Art, the latest Knight Frank Wealth and Investment Trends Report shows, is now the most-sought-after collectible asset by Kenya’s high-net-worth individuals, followed by watches and classic cars.

The surge in demand has driven prices sharply higher. Paintings that once sold for between Sh7,000 and Sh10,000 now fetch Sh800,000, Sh900,000, and in some cases over Sh1 million at art auctions, says veteran artist and curator Michael Soi. He explains that the appetite largely centres on paintings and modest-sized sculptures, unlike the monumental artworks.

‘It basically just revolves around paintings and sculptures, but we’re not talking about huge sculptures, just something manageable. It fits anywhere, no space issues,’ he tells BDLife.

The appreciation in value has now transformed art from a house accessory into an attractive asset for affluent Kenyans with excess liquidity.

‘Art has started enticing local Kenyans who’ve got what I’d call excess liquidity into looking at it as a source of investment,’ Mr Soi says.

‘It is a form of investment where I will pay like $150,000 (Sh19.4 million) today, sit on the piece [artwork] for a few years and then put it in auction. Chances of doubling or tripling what you had invested are very high.’

That growing appetite is now reflected in the latest Knight Frank Wealth and Investment Trends 2026 report, which ranks art as the leading ‘investment of passion’ among Kenya’s wealthy, ahead of luxury watches, classic cars, jewellery and wine.

‘This year, 75 percent of respondents indicated that their clients are interested in acquiring art , up from 72 percent in 2025, reinforcing its position as the preferred passion asset within wealthy portfolios,’ the report states.

However, the report shows most wealthy Kenyans are still reserved, allocating less than 10 percent of their investment portfolios to luxury assets. Real estate, equities and fixed income remain the main ways Kenya’s rich investors are building and protect wealth, with a small share put into collectibles, which give them personal enjoyment and the chance of long-term gains.

More art, many galleries

Mark Dunford, Knight Frank CEO, says that the performance of art as the top preferred passion asset has been reflected in both the market dynamics and the changing consumer preferences.

‘There’s a lot more art in this market. Kenya’s expanding creative scene and internationally recognised artists have made collecting attractive,’ he says.

He points to the rising global profile of artists such as Michael Armitage as one of the factors putting Kenyan art on the international stage. Wangechi Mutu’s work has been exhibited across major cities from London and Moscow to Paris. Agnes Waruguru, whose art featured at the 60th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in Italy, is also helping to boost Kenya’s presence in the global art scene.

Secondary market

For the artists, however, the soaring art prices present a paradox. While collectors celebrate rising valuations, many artists see little of the wealth generated after their original works leave the studio.

‘Unfortunately, for the artists, we don’t seem to be in that equation because of the simple fact that it is always the secondary market that ends up benefiting from it and not the artist,’ Mr Soi says.

He illustrates the point with one of his own artworks. ‘I have once sold my piece to someone who actually bought it for like 1,000 euros (Sh147,410) and then flipped it in an auction in Paris for 37,000 euros (Sh5.5 million). The thing is we are not the beneficiaries. It is the secondary market that seems to benefit,’ the artist says.

He adds that in many cases, artworks are resold privately without the artist’s knowledge. ‘Most of the art will actually be auctioned in secret without your knowledge.’

The disconnect between artists and the secondary market is one of the defining characteristics of the global art trade, where collectors, dealers and auction houses often capture the greatest financial gains as an artwork changes hands over time.

Even so, Mr Soi believes the international success of Kenyan artists has raised the profile of the country’s creative industry and contributed to the stronger demand for local works.

Last year, this growing appetite for art as an investment was in full force when collectors in Nairobi spent about Sh30 million competing for some of East Africa’s rarest artworks. The highlight was ‘Baobab Under the Red Moon’, a 1968 painting by the late Tanzanian artist Francis Msangi, which became the most sought-after piece after selling for Sh3.5 million.

The Kenyan artist with the most sought-after item was Justus Kyalo, whose 2021 painting fetched Sh1 million after three minutes of bidding. Beatrice Wanjiku’s art was also bought for Sh938,200.

However, Mr Soi cautions against equating auction prices with artistic worth. ‘People need to understand that auctions or prices at auctions do not directly tell people how much you sell your work for.’

Instead, he encourages collectors to engage more deeply with artists, galleries and exhibitions. ‘I would urge people to be a little bit more active. Art auctions will never give a complete scope about the artist. It is imperative for people to take their time and travel. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.’

Younger collectors

When it comes to the positive attributes, one development Mr Soi finds encouraging is the emergence of younger Kenyan collectors.

Traditionally, art collecting was associated with older, established business people and expatriates. Today, he says, a growing number of younger Kenyans are entering the market, many of whom have investment motives.

‘I seem to be having a local kind of market for my work, where I am selling work to very young Kenyans, which is very weird.’

Unlike the earlier generations, these buyers view paintings and limited-edition prints as assets that are capable of appreciating over time.

‘The young Kenyans are buying it for investment. Most of the investment is on paintings and prints,’ Mr Soi says.

Many of these collectors have studied abroad, returned from the diaspora or have been exposed to art through international education systems.

He also credits international schools with helping cultivate appreciation for art among younger generations.

‘Access to good quality education, systems that teach art, teach the importance of art. The international schools are doing that on a very large scale, which is very commendable.’

He adds that visibility has also become just as important as talent in attracting collectors.

‘It is more like the role of the artist himself to make sure that your work is visible. Create your own… make noise about your art, tell people, have exhibitions, give talks. This is how people become visible, especially on social media, platforms like Instagram.’

Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) and Safaricom have been jointly held responsible for a SIM-swap fraud that saw a customer lose Sh4.4 million. A court ruled that both institutions failed in their separate duties to protect the client from the fraud.

Dismissing an appeal by DTB and a cross-appeal by Safaricom, the High Court affirmed a magistrate’s finding that the telco and the lender were negligent, as their failures enabled the fraud.

The court upheld the trial court’s apportionment of liability, which found Safaricom 60 percent liable and DTB 40 percent liable for the loss suffered by customer Mercy Wairimu Kariuki.

In a judgment on June 18, the court also upheld the order requiring DTB to pay Kariuki Sh1,788,601, together with general damages for negligence and breach of confidentiality, costs and interest.

“This court finds that the trial court’s apportionment of liability was neither perverse nor erroneous in law. Both the bank and the mobile service provider had concurrent duties of care to Mercy Kariuki,” the court ruled.

The court held that Safaricom breached its duty of care by completing the SIM swap despite Ms Kariuki’s prompt report that it was unauthorised.

“The customer promptly reported the suspicious activity on the day of the swap, yet the fraud was still executed, and her line was only reinstated the following day. This constitutes a breach of its duty of care and a failure to protect her data,” the judge said.

The court also said that DTB independently failed in its obligation to protect the customer’s money by processing a series of unusual transactions that should have immediately raised suspicion.

The court rejected the bank’s argument that it could rely solely on the correct PIN to validate the transactions.

“A bank cannot hide behind a customer’s PIN when it is presented with a series of transactions that are so glaringly out of the ordinary that a reasonable banker would have been put on inquiry,” she said.

The dispute stemmed from events that began on February 6, 2022, when Ms Kariuki received alerts indicating that her Safaricom SIM card had been swapped without her authority.

She immediately contacted Safaricom’s customer care, where she was informed that her SIM had already been replaced through an M-Pesa agent. She was assured the line would be blocked and advised to visit a Safaricom shop.

Although she reported the suspicious activity the same day, the SIM swap was not stopped. Her line was only restored the following day after she visited a Safaricom customer care centre.

The following morning, at about 5.23am on February 8, 2022, Kariuki woke up to a series of debit alerts from DTB notifying her that Sh4,418,601 had been withdrawn from her account through the bank’s mobile banking application and Pesalink.

The money had been transferred in multiple transactions to different bank accounts and mobile numbers without her authority.

Kariuki sued both DTB and Safaricom, arguing that Safaricom negligently allowed the unauthorised SIM swap while DTB failed to stop a series of highly suspicious transactions despite obvious warning signs. She maintained that she had never disclosed her mobile banking PIN to anyone.

DTB denied liability, insisting that every transaction had been authenticated using Ms Kariuki’s correct secret PIN. It argued that under its banking terms and conditions, successful entry of the PIN was sufficient proof that the account holder had authorised the transactions.

The bank also argued that the disputed transfers were spread over three separate days and therefore did not exceed its daily transaction limit of Sh2 million. It further maintained that the fraud originated from the SIM swap and that Safaricom alone should bear responsibility.

Safaricom, on its part, maintained that the SIM replacement followed its verification procedures after the person requesting the swap correctly answered security questions. It argued that it merely provides telecommunications infrastructure and has no control over transactions conducted through DTB’s mobile banking platform.

The telecommunications company also argued that Ms Kariuki had regained control of her line on February 7, before the disputed withdrawals occurred, and therefore the financial loss could not be attributed to it.

The court rejected both arguments, finding that the fraud resulted from a continuous sequence of failures by both institutions.

“A bank is expected to flag suspicious transactions. In this case, the withdrawals from multiple unrelated accounts and mobile numbers in quick succession constituted significant red flags that the appellant ought to have heeded,’ said the court.

Humans are a social sort. We thrive and have become the dominant apex species largely because of our ability to socialise, combined with our capacity for communication.

A large part of socialisation in our close-knit groups involves the ability to ask others for favours. We ask favours from friends, colleagues, family members, government officials and so on. In fact, we build up a “favour bank” with those around us.

Many people think they should merely check on someone with daily greetings-saying hi or asking how they are-so that they can then spring a surprise request on someone a few days later.

Decades-old research by Daniel Howard, a US academic and researcher, shows that this technique can increase the likelihood of compliance, making it more likely that your request will be granted.

However, if someone feels that you are being disingenuous and only greeting them as a build-up to asking for something, it undermines the sincerity effect. Earlier researchers believed that friendships had a shelf life and, if not maintained, would wither away.

But Daniel Levin, Jorge Walter and Keith Murnighan found that rekindling old friendships can yield surprisingly beneficial results. In the internet age, keeping track of friends and professional acquaintances and staying up to date with them is easier than ever and requires minimal effort. However, the interaction must feel genuine to the other party.

But how should you phrase the actual pitch for assistance? Recent research by Andrew Chalfoun, Giovanni Rossi and Tanya Stivers gets to the heart of the best way to ask for help or support. You can ask a favour using either an optimistic or a pessimistic approach.

For example, you could ask a friend: “May I please borrow your car for an event on Sunday?” This is a direct request that assumes-optimistically, though perhaps unrealistically-that the car will be lent to you.

Alternatively, you could first ask: “Do you need your car on Sunday?” This is the pessimistic approach because it hedges against the possibility of rejection. Which one, as a faithful Business Daily reader, do you think is more effective? According to the research, the pessimistic approach is more successful in securing agreement.

Interestingly, which approach do people use most often-the bold one or the cautious one? You can choose an optimistic approach, a pessimistic approach, and then decide whether to use a pre-request.

Yet the research shows that a staggering 88 percent of people across cultures and languages use the optimistic approach, assuming their request will be granted without first making a pre-request. Ironically, this approach has the lowest chance of success.

You are far more likely to receive a favourable response if you use a pre-request and adopt a pessimistic approach, acknowledging that the other person may decline and framing your request accordingly.

Researcher Susan Whitbourne, author of The Search for Fulfillment, notes that you can improve the chances of a favour being granted-and strengthen relationships-by giving the other person an easy way to decline. Structure your request in a way that recognises they may not be able to help.

For example: “I know you will probably be busy, and this is a big ask, but could I please use your car for an event on Sunday?”

Finally, confront the unconscious biases that shape how you ask others for assistance.

These biases influence your assumptions about the likely success of your requests. Frame your requests in ways that preserve the relationship, regardless of the outcome, rather than making the favour a make-or-break test of it.

The listing of Family Bank on the Nairobi Securities Exchange on June 23 is a testament to why resilience, not capital or a forgiving market, is the real secret sauce of any successful business.

Founder Titus Muya was turned down for promotions early in his career for lacking a degree, registered a banking company in 1977 that sat dormant for three years due to lack of capital, and was then rejected for a banking licence outright. He switched to a building society instead. It was not until 2007 that the society became a bank, and almost two more decades before this listing.

Replace the banking specifics, and this becomes a familiar Kenyan business story, except that this one had a happy ending, thanks to the founder’s resilience.

Ask any Kenyan entrepreneur why their business failed, and you will hear a familiar list: funding was hard to come by, the regulatory environment was unforgiving, the economy was tight, the market wasn’t ready.

These are genuine reasons. Capital is truly scarce, and the business environment punishes small players. But more often than not, they usually make us avoid asking the harder question: How many businesses failed not because the idea was bad, but because the owner stopped showing up for it too soon?

We rarely interrogate founder resilience the way we interrogate funding gaps. It is easier to blame the bank that declined the loan than to ask whether the founder stayed with the business long enough to learn what wasn’t working.

Yet resilience – the willingness to absorb a setback, adjust, and try again rather than conclude the whole idea was wrong – is arguably the single most decisive variable in whether a venture survives its difficult middle years.

Around the world, almost none of the founders and inventors whose names became shorthand for success got it right on the first attempt. What set them apart, like Muya, was an unusual tolerance for being told no repeatedly without quitting.

Most businesses don’t die in their first ambitious leap. They die in the unglamorous middle, when the first version doesn’t work, and the founder chooses to quit instead of adapting.

I see this all the time, not in a boardroom, but in a classroom.

I run a writing programme that teaches professionals to publish opinion pieces in national newspapers. Cohort after cohort, the same pattern repeats itself: Week One, everyone is present, energised, certain this is their chance to finally get published.

By week two, one or two students send polite apologies for missing class. By week five, fewer than half are submitting their assignments. By week seven, attendance has roughly halved. Many alumni who do complete the course never write again afterward.

It is usually not about their ability, but their willingness to stay with something once the initial excitement dies down. The early weeks reward enthusiasm; the later weeks demand the much less glamorous work of revising a draft for the third time after being told it still isn’t ready. Similarly, it is at the revision stage – when persistence is required – that founders abandon businesses.

There’s a version of this idea that has been circulating recently in entrepreneurship circles. The fastest way to stay poor, the argument goes, is to keep starting new ventures instead of staying with one long enough to actually master it. The idea applies to any skill – writing, leadership, negotiation, institutional reform – that only pays off after a long, unglamorous middle.

The next time a Kenyan business fails, we should not only ask what it lacked, but also how long its founder stayed with it before deciding to quit.

Francis Ayieko is a Founder of The OpEd Experts and a media strategist. Email: frankayieko@gmail.com.

The government has extended the eight percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel by three months to October 14, in an effort to avert a sharp increase in pump prices in the coming months in the wake of the resumption of the US-Iran war.

The eight percent VAT rate was due to lapse on Tuesday (July 14) but has been extended amid rising global prices of fuel, whose effect is expected to hit Kenyans from the August 14 monthly cycle.

VAT on fuel was lowered to 13 percent from 16 percent on April 15 as the government mirrored other economies in reducing taxes on fuel in a bid to cushion consumers following the start of the US-Iran war in February this year.

A resumption in the US-Iran war last week has already triggered a rally in global prices of refined products, with the government warning that consumers are likely to feel the impact from August.

Consumers are currently smarting from record-high prices of fuel, which have in turn triggered runaway inflation and sparked public outrage over costly goods and services.

A litre of diesel is retailing at Sh222.86 in Nairobi while that of petrol is at Sh214.03 in the current prices lapsing today. The prices had hit a record high of Sh242.92 and Sh214.25 for diesel and petrol, respectively, in June.

‘In order to cushion households and businesses from international market volatility and in consultation with the National Treasury, we have extended the application period of eight percent VAT on petroleum products for a further three months to October,’ Mr Wandayi said on Tuesday.

Steep diesel prices will spark fresh inflationary pressure in what could further fuel public outrage over costly living. Inflation –a measure of the cost of living– is currently at 6.4 percent, reflecting the impact of the costly diesel last month.

Diesel is the main fuel in the Kenyan economy, and it’s used to power farm machinery, industries and public transporters, highlighting why its price is a key factor in determining the inflation rate.

Global fuel prices are on the rise in the wake of the resumption of the US-Iran war, with the government warning that consumers will feel the impact in the coming months.

‘With the restart of the Middle East crisis, international benchmarks have now begun to climb again, and this renewed pressure will be reflected in the pricing cycles that follow,’ Mr Wandayi added.

Extension of the lower VAT rate will also ease pressure on the Petroleum Development Fund (PDL) kitty, which is used to subsidise fuel prices. The kitty is nearly depleted, leaving the government with limited options in efforts to keep a lid on pump prices.

VAT is the second biggest tax on fuel, and the reduction to eight percent has been crucial in helping prevent pump prices from rising by even higher margins.

The highest tax is the Roads Maintenance Levy of Sh25 per litre of petrol and diesel, the Petroleum Development Levy of Sh5.40 per litre of diesel and petrol and Sh0.40 for every litre of kerosene.

Other taxes are excise duty, petroleum regulatory levy, railway development levy, anti-adulteration levy of Sh18 per litre of kerosene, merchant shipping levy and the import declaration fee.

The government has used upwards of Sh20 billion to subsidise pump prices since April this year in the wake of the skyrocketing global prices of fuel due to the US-Israel war on Iran. The steep subsidy has nearly depleted the kitty, which is funded by a levy of Sh5.40 for every litre of diesel and petrol and Sh0.40 per litre of kerosene.

For example, a subsidy of Sh945 million will be applied in the new prices to be set later today as the government grapples with a near depletion of the kitty, which came under pressure from April.

‘The government can only apply what is available,” Mr Wandayi said on Tuesday while responding to a question on the subsidy to be applied in the monthly cycle to August 14.