Category: Business Daily

The stock market has shed Sh158 billion in investor wealth over the past week after the share prices of blue-chip firms retreated under pressure from investors keen to profit from the market rally through August.

Market capitalisation -the measure of investor wealth- dipped to Sh4.126 trillion as at the close of trading on Tuesday, from its all-time high of Sh4.285 trillion that was achieved on September 3.

The sales at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) have also come in the wake of rising jitters among international investors over the escalation of tensions in the Middle East due to the US-Israel war against Iran.

Attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on the Red Sea shipping channel have also caused a jump in benchmark oil prices, triggering fears of a new round of higher global inflation.

Large stocks, including Safaricom, Equity Group, KCB Group and Co-operative Bank of Kenya, have led the market correction, collectively accounting for Sh113.6 billion in capital losses over the period.

The valuation loss comes on the back of a strong rally at the bourse from mid-August, when it crossed the Sh4 trillion market cap milestone for the first time. This rally was primarily driven by the same large counters that are now subject to profit-taking, with Equity, KCB and Co-op Bank touching all-time highs of Sh106, Sh98.55 and Sh38.55 per share a week ago.

Safaricom share price closed at Sh36.50 on Tuesday, meaning its valuation has declined by Sh58 billion since September 3 to Sh1.46 trillion. Equity closed at Sh101.75 per share, cutting its valuation by Sh16 billion from its all-time peak of Sh400 billion.

KCB’s share price stood at Sh90 at close of trading on Tuesday, meaning its valuation has dropped by Sh27.4 billion to Sh289.2 billion. Co-operative Bank has meanwhile shed Sh13.8 billion to stand at Sh212.4 billion, after its share price dropped to Sh36.20.

‘The correction on large counters over the last few days is mainly due to investors taking profits and locking in substantial capital gains after the strong rally over the first half of the year,’ said Melodie Ndanu, a research analyst at Standard Investment Bank.

‘Investors are also pricing in the potential impact of higher crude oil prices on inflation following the developments in the US-Israel-Iran tensions, and the implications of the upcoming decision by the US Federal Reserve regarding interest rates given economic conditions.’

Due to the rising geopolitical tension, the rate on US 10-year bonds hit the key five percent threshold for the first time since 2023 on Monday, as markets priced in the likelihood of the Fed keeping its interest rates higher ?for longer on renewed inflation pressure.

The benchmark US 10-year bond rate is a closely watched gauge of market inflation expectations, with its movement influencing investor activity across the globe.

For the equities markets, higher US bond rates tend to cause capital flight from smaller, riskier markets, especially when they are accompanied by a strengthening of the dollar in the forex market.

The capital flight ultimately weighs down share prices of stocks that are favoured by foreign investors.

On the NSE, foreigners cashed in on shares worth Sh4.55 billion in August, taking advantage of a rally in blue-chip share prices to secure profits on their investment.

‘Foreign investors may also be using the rally opportunity to exit and reallocate funds toward safer global assets as the global outlook shifts,’ said Ms Ndanu.

Market trade data shows that their net sales accelerated in the second half of last month, coinciding with the period when stocks such as Safaricom, Equity and KCB were climbing towards multi-year or all-time highs.

In the first two weeks of September, foreigners have made further net outflows of Sh1.6 billion, even as some locals join in the sales to lock in their own profits.

The foreign traders usually concentrate their activities on these select large and liquid stocks, alongside others such as Co-operative Bank and EABL, that have the necessary liquidity to support sizeable trades and ease of entry and exit.

The stocks being offloaded by foreigners were taken up by local corporate investors, primarily cash-rich fund managers and pension funds that have been diversifying from government bonds whose interest rates have declined.

A larger number of NSE stocks have gained visibility among foreign investors due to their inclusion in the closely watched Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) emerging and frontier market indices, amplifying foreign inflows and outflows.

Kenya is represented by 17 companies on the MSCI Frontier and small-cap indices that are selected based on a number of metrics, including liquidity and financial stability, giving them exposure to foreign investors that boosts their price discovery.

Safaricom, Equity Group, EABL, KCB Group, Co-operative Bank and Standard Chartered Bank Kenya are listed on the MSCI Frontier Markets Index, as at the most recent review of May 2026.

BAT Kenya, KenGen, Kenya Re, Kenya Power, DTB Group, Carbacid, Bamburi Cement, Jubilee Holdings, CIC Insurance Group, Centum Investment and HF Group are on the MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Index.

Other countries included on the frontier markets indices are Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritius and Côte d’Ivoire.

South Africa, which has the largest and most liquid stock market in Africa, and Egypt are classified as emerging markets by the MSCI.

Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd has lost a Sh69.7 million input value-added tax (VAT) claim from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) after a tribunal ruled that the company introduced the claim 20 days after the statutory six-month deadline.

The Tax Appeal Tribunal observed that the beverage firm filed its VAT claim on August 20, 2025, way past the statutory July 31, 2025 deadline.

Consequently, the Tribunal dismissed the beverage manufacturer’s appeal against the KRA’s Commissioner of Domestic Taxes and upheld the tax decision rejecting the claim.

It held that the six-month statutory period runs from the end of the tax period in which the supplies occurred and is not extended by the filing deadline for a subsequent VAT return.

The dispute started after Coca-Cola omitted input VAT of Sh69.7 million incurred on taxable purchases made in January 2025 from its original July 2025 VAT returns.

The company later sought to introduce the claim by filing an amended July return on August 20, 2025, adding the January invoices. It argued that the return still related to July, a tax period falling within six months of January.

The Commissioner rejected the amendment, saying the invoices should have been claimed by July 31. Coca-Cola objected, but the Commissioner maintained the position.

Coca-Cola then appealed to the Tribunal, arguing that Section 17(2) of the VAT Act allows input tax deductions within six months after the end of the tax period in which supplies occurred.

The company argued that July’s return was legally due on August 20, meaning the amendment was filed within the lawful filing period.

Coca-Cola also said the January invoices were genuine, supported by records and incurred wholly for making taxable supplies. It maintained that the amendment corrected an omission rather than introducing a fresh claim outside the law.

‘The amendment did not introduce a new claim outside the statutory window but merely corrected the July 2025 return,’ the company submitted.

It further argued that KRA’s i-Tax system had accepted the amended entries, creating a legitimate expectation that the claim complied with the statutory requirements.

The Commissioner, however, maintained that the six months concerned when input tax was claimed, rather than when the relevant return was due. It said the deadline expired on July 31, regardless of the August filing date.

KRA also argued that taxpayers were not permitted to introduce a claim after the deadline merely because the return concerned an earlier tax period.

In its ruling, the Tribunal agreed with KRA after examining the competing submissions and statutory wording. It found there was a distinction between correcting a claim already included within time and introducing an omitted claim after the deadline.

‘The six-month period runs from the period in which the supplies/importation occurred and does not depend on when the VAT return was filed,’ the Tribunal said.

It found that Coca-Cola had completely omitted the amount from its original July return. Introducing it through the August amendment therefore occurred after the statutory period had lapsed.

According to the Tribunal, an amendment cannot revive a claim first introduced after the deadline.

The Tribunal added that the outcome could have differed if the amount had already been included before July 31 and the amendment merely corrected an error.

‘Had this amount been included in the July return but for some reason be erroneous, then it would have been safe to be included in the amended return,’ it said, placing responsibility on taxpayers to reconcile returns before the statutory window closes.

The Trade ministry has officially terminated its plans to repeal the controversial 17.5 percent levy on imported clinker, ending a push-pull with President William Ruto, who had opposed proposals to scrap the controversial tax.

Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui, said the ministry has dropped earlier plans to repeal the levy, citing improved local production of the raw material used for manufacturing cement.

‘It did not go through (petition for repeal) because we were time- barred when the Finance Bill came, but it appears it may have been overtaken by events. It could mean because of the many companies that have invested in building clinker. We have like four of them already there.

“So somehow the industry is aligning to that reality. The initial inconvenience was very heavy, but it is aligning itself,’ he told Business Daily in a phone interview.

‘The point is that the country is adapting to local production of clinker, and companies are aligning in that direction, which is a good thing because it is saving on the forex. If you look at the total volume of imported clinker, maybe as of today the number has come down, so it is part of what we call import substitution strategy,’ he said.

The government introduced the 17.5 percent levy on the importation of clinker in the country in July 2023, rattling the cement sector with clinker imports falling from 148,000 tonnes in 2023 to 10,300 tonnes in 2024.

The ministry had previously petitioned for the removal of the export and investment promotion levy on imported clinker, arguing that relying on heavily protected raw materials skewed industry competition and choked independent manufacturers who lacked the internal grinding capacity for clinker, a raw material used in the manufacture of cement.

The ministry’s position, however, had contradicted President Ruto’s, who, in December 2025, indicated that he was not persuaded that Kenya lacks enough capacity to produce its own clinker.

Speaking during the signing of a Sh32 billion ($250 million) deal between Bamburi Cement and Sinoma CBMI Construction for the construction of a clinker plant in Matuga, Kwale County, the President maintained that Kenya has enough limestone to be used for the manufacture of clinker, a crucial raw material in cement production.

‘We have limestone, we have all other raw materials that are necessary for the production of cement here in Kenya. Somebody needs to explain to me why we want to go and import stones,’ President Ruto said.

In a change of tune, Mr Kinyanjui now says plans to repeal the levy have been overtaken by events.

The CS said that local production of clinker is part of the country’s import substitution strategy aimed at preserving the economy’s forex reserves and has also created an industry that was not there before.

‘The issue of import substitution is a way of reducing hemorrhage on the economy. So all other products we want to see how we can localise them; there is also localisation of raw materials, which is now the case of clinker, and adding value to it,’ he says.

He says the situation has changed from the time the ministry wanted to review the levy, with fresh details showing that the imposition of the levy has created an industry (clinker manufacturing) that was not there before.

‘At the time we wanted to change it (17.5 percent levy), our feeling was it should increase the cost of production in the short run and at the same time we were running the affordable housing programme, and you know you don’t want to say you are running an affordable housing programme while your cement is getting more expensive. So that was the real concern,’ he says.

‘… it took a bit long because you know parliamentary procedures and all those things, but looking at it in terms of its impact it has created an industry that was not there before which we need to build on now.’

In October last year, Mr Kinyanjui said the Executive would petition Parliament to repeal the 17.5 percent export and investment promotion levy on clinker and steel, noting that it had unintended effects on companies in these critical sectors.

‘We are currently charging 17.5 percent for anybody who imports clinker, yet we don’t have enough local clinker,’ he said.

‘So, many of our cement factories are operating sub-optimally because they don’t have enough clinker, and the people who have clinker sometimes refuse to sell to them because they’re also competitors,’ he added.

China, India, Saudi Arabia and UAE supplied 55.1 percent of Kenya’s imports in the first half of 2026, highlighting the vulnerability of the country’s supply chain amid disruptions on key trade routes due to the Middle East crisis.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data indicates that Kenya’s import bill grew by 21.9 percent to Sh1.63 trillion in the six months to June 2026, with the four countries absorbing Sh898.8 billion, representing 55.1 percent of Kenya’s import expenditure.

According to KNBS data, non-food industrial supplies, fuel and lubricants, which are sourced from the Middle East and other Asian nations, accounted for 59 percent of the country’s import bill.

India, which largely exports pharmaceuticals and mineral fuels to Kenya, cemented its second place with goods worth Sh215.16 billion from Sh139.68 billion in 2025.

Imports from Saudi Arabia surged 484.4 percent to Sh149.8 billion, lifting the kingdom from sixth position in 2025 to third this year.

At the same time, imports from the UAE fell 35.1 percent to Sh115.9 billion, pushing the Gulf state from Kenya’s second-largest supplier to fourth.

The reversal followed the outbreak of the Middle East conflict and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz.

But the latest developments in the Middle East expose the risks of relying on the Middle East for essential imports.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global crude oil and LNG supplies normally pass, has seen shipping traffic collapse as the war has intensified.

Kenya has the second-highest number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Africa, signalling the country’s push to curb carbon emissions by shifting away from petroleum-powered transport.

A survey by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) shows that Kenya had 235 such stations in 2025, only behind Egypt, which had 300. The survey revealed that more than 25 countries on the continent did not have a single EV charging station.

Kenya’s private sector has taken the lead in installing EV charging stations, mainly spread in Nairobi and satellite towns. The State-owned Kenya Power has in recent times installed several stations at its offices.

EVs are part of a global push to reduce environmental pollution by cutting carbon emissions from the transport sector, with major economies setting timelines to stop production of diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles.

‘The Government of Kenya is actively promoting electric mobility by facilitating the adoption of electric vehicles through various initiatives, including tax incentives, rebates and the enhancement of electric vehicle infrastructure,’ ECA says in the report.

‘Certain Governments, notably those of Kenya, Morocco and Rwanda, are endorsing electric mobility, thereby fostering an environment that is conducive to attracting investment in technical services.’

Ethiopia and Rwanda had 100 and 40 EV charging stations, respectively, last year, making them the other East African nations spearheading the shift from the use of fossil fuel-powered engines.

Mobility startup firms BasiGo, Roam Electric of Sweden, Ampersand, and Kiiri EV are some of the private firms leading in the installation of the charging stations.

Kenya Power has at least 10 EV charging stations and 15 smart socket deployment sites across the country, complementing similar efforts by the private firms.

BasiGo recently rolled out a joint venture with Rubis Kenya to set up EV charging points at the fuel stations owned by the OMCs. The first such facility was installed at the Rubis service station at Sabaki along Mombasa Road.

Recently gazetted guidelines show that highways will have public charging stations located every 25 kilometres on both sides of the roads in Kenya, while in cities, the charging stations for heavy-duty units like lorries and buses shall be located at bus stops.

Kenya is currently experiencing a surge in the uptake of electric vehicles and motorcycles, a shift largely boosted by the growing number of players entering the sector to assemble the units and set up the charging infrastructure.

Official data from the National Transport and Safety Authority shows that Kenya had 35,661 EVs, with motorcycles being the majority at 33,374 and only 829 motor vehicles. The rest are three-wheelers.

Major economies have set ambitious deadlines for the shift to the production of EVs, moves that will significantly increase the number of EVs in African countries given that the continent imports used motor vehicles.

China, for example, targets having 70 percent of all new cars being manufactured as EVs or hybrids by 2030, while Japan targets to have all new passenger vehicles to be electrified or hybrids by 2035.

Every year, roughly a million young Kenyans enter the labour market, while the formal economy absorbs only a fraction of them. That gap is not a statistic to me; it is the defining question facing our ICT and innovation sector as a whole.

As the Nation continues to delve deeper into matters of ICT and the Digital Economy, I am convinced that the most consequential infrastructure this country can build for its next generation is not fibre, data centres or office parks alone, though we need those too, but skill, and an economy that knows how to recognise and reward it.

Kenya has spent the last few years positioning itself as a serious player in Africa’s digital economy: a Digital Superhighway agenda, a national AI and emerging technologies policy, an ICT Authority pushing connectivity into every county, and a growing number of digital hubs where young people can, for the first time, walk in with an idea and walk out sharpened with digital skills.

This is not the work of any single institution; it is a national effort. The Technopolis Development Authority, established this year under the Technopolis Act, 2026 with an expanded mandate to develop, manage and promote technology-driven innovation ecosystems, is one contributor among many to that wider push.

Connectivity and infrastructure only add value when they lead somewhere: a digital hub must offer our youth real pathways to jobs.

Across the country, in partnership with training institutions, private technology firms and creative agencies, we have supported programmes that take young people through practical, employable digital skills: software and digital literacy, as well as photography, videography, graphic design, video editing and social media management, among others.

We then go a step further, connecting them to digital work and remote jobs, or building their confidence to start something of their own. The lesson from every cohort we have watched graduate is the same: the ambition was never missing from this country’s youth. It was waiting for a door, and for a market that would pay for what was on the other side of it.

It is in that spirit that we recently launched something a little different: a nationwide competition inviting young Kenyan designers and creatives to submit concepts for the official logo and visual identity of the newly constituted Technopolis Development Authority.

On the surface, it is a practical exercise (every institution needs a logo to stand behind), but we conceived it deliberately as more than that. We are asking the same young creative talent we spend our days trying to upskill to define, quite literally, how this authority presents itself to the country and the world.

I don’t think that choice is small. For too long, creative work, graphic design, branding, illustration, has been treated as a soft add-on to the ‘real’ digital economy of code and infrastructure. It isn’t.

A country’s creative and design talent is as much a part of its ICT and innovation capacity as its software engineers, and a competition of this kind says so out loud, with a national platform and real stakes attached. A young designer whose work becomes the face of a government innovation authority walks away with more than a prize: they walk away with a credential that opens doors, a portfolio piece no client brief could match, and proof that the state is willing to trust youth talent with something as consequential as its own identity.

Every time a young creative’s work is chosen on merit and given that kind of visibility, it strengthens the case that Kenya’s creative economy deserves the same seriousness of investment as its tech economy, because increasingly, the two are the same economy.

These hubs and training pipelines, including the logo competition, are direct investments with a return we can measure: in freelancers earning through digital platforms, in small creative and technology businesses that did not exist eighteen months ago, and in young designers and developers building portfolios that compete internationally. It is also self-interest on behalf of the country.

Every investor and every ambitious firm looking to build here will ask the same question first: is there talent, technical and creative, that can do the job at a world-class standard? Our answer has to be yes, and initiatives like this one are how we keep proving it.

A million young Kenyans will enter the labour market again next year, and the year after that. Some will write the code; some will design the interfaces, the brands and, yes, the logos that represent the institutions built to serve them.

Our job, across every corner of this sector, is to make sure more of them find at the end of that search not a closed door, but a market that is already paying for what they can do.

When Kenya launched Ardhisasa, it took an important step towards modernising one of the country’s most important public services. Significant aspects of land administration could, for the first time, be undertaken through a digital platform rather than traditional paper files.

Applications that once required multiple physical visits could increasingly be initiated online, making records more accessible and transactions more transparent.

Yet digitisation has revealed the next challenge rather than eliminated it. Anyone involved in conveyancing understands the reality. A transfer is lodged, documents are uploaded and the application enters the system.

Yet advocates and clerks still make phone calls, send emails and make inquiries to establish whether a valuation has been assigned, an assessment completed or a registration executed. The transaction is digital, but monitoring its progress often remains manual.

The challenge is institutional rather than personal. Kenya has made tremendous progress in digitising transactions but has not fully digitised workflow visibility. Participants may know when a file enters the system but struggle to determine precisely where it is, how long it has been there and what is delaying it.

This has economic consequences. Developers, manufacturers, financial institutions, pension funds and families all depend on land transactions being completed efficiently. When visibility is limited, uncertainty increases and investment decisions slow.

Georgia’s property registration model offers an important lesson. Its one-day and same-day registration services are significant not simply because they are fast, but because transactions can be monitored, timelines defined and institutional performance measured against successful completion. Kenya should establish a one-day benchmark for clean, compliant transactions while allowing complex cases involving disputes, succession, fraud or incomplete documentation additional scrutiny.

One practical reform would be a National Land Transaction Dashboard integrated into Ardhisasa.

Each transaction would receive a tracking number, with every stage visible in real time, including where it sits, when it arrived, the applicable service standard and whether it has exceeded the timeline.

Globally, accurate information on the spatial position of objects on, above and below the earth’s surface is essential for planning, construction, property ownership, navigation and infrastructure development.

From defining land boundaries to guiding engineering works, reliable measurements underpin countless activities. This makes land surveyors among the most important professionals in real estate and construction, although their role is often overlooked.

Land surveyors define land parcels for title registration and reestablish boundaries where they have been lost or become uncertain in both urban and rural Kenya. They also facilitate the subdivision, amalgamation and adjustment of land parcels for registration purposes. Real estate developers rely on surveyors to identify, subdivide and point out plot boundaries before selling land to investors.

Surveyors also play a critical role in compulsory land acquisition for public projects. They measure, map and determine the size of land to be acquired, providing the basis for compensation.

In the financial sector, lenders often engage surveyors to verify the location and boundaries of properties offered as collateral. They guide valuers during property valuation and help auctioneers identify the correct parcels when properties are sold after loan defaults.

The growth of high-rise developments has also expanded the surveyor’s role. In many commercial and residential buildings, surveyors take measurements for individual units to prepare plans required for registering sectional titles under Kenya’s Sectional Properties Act.

Construction projects depend heavily on surveying expertise. Surveyors determine the volume of construction materials, identify parcel boundaries and capture topographical details that architects, planners and engineers use during project design. They also transfer architectural and engineering drawings onto the ground, ensuring buildings are positioned correctly and do not encroach on neighbouring properties.

Beyond setting out construction works, surveyors verify whether completed structures comply with design specifications. They measure floor levels, confirm the spatial position of walls and pillars, and check whether structural elements are perfectly vertical. These checks help detect defects that could compromise a building’s structural integrity over time.

Although post-construction verification is not yet standard practice across Kenya, it provides valuable assurance that buildings have been constructed according to design. Monitoring the verticality of high-rise buildings throughout construction is also considered good practice.

The surveyor’s work should not end when construction is complete. Periodic monitoring can detect tilts, settlement or deformation caused by shifting ground or other environmental factors, allowing corrective action before damage becomes severe.

The closure of the East-West pipeline was announced on Friday following drone attacks that damaged parts of the critical infrastructure in Riyadh and Medina.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest exporter of oil, and its inability to supply this commodity due to closure of the East-West pipeline and the Strait of Hormuz will rattle the globe, choke fuel supply and send prices skyrocketing.

What is the East-West pipeline?

It is a 1,200-kilometre (km) (746-mile) pipeline, also known as the Petroline, that carries roughly four to five million barrels of oil per day (bpd) and links Saudi Arabia’s major oil-producing fields in Abqaiq with the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

Saudi Arabia built the facility in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War, to help the country bypass maritime threats arising from the conflict.

The East-West pipeline is the primary alternative oil pipeline that Saudi Arabia relies on to bypass the Persian Gulf, which is now impassable due to the US-Iran conflict.

Prices of Brent crude, the primary benchmark for fuel prices globally, hit $107 (Sh13,865.06) per barrel on Tuesday, reflecting the impact of the US-Iran attacks that have intensified in the past few weeks.

Closure of the pipeline could compel Saudi Arabia to ship the four-five million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, a not so welcome scenario given the current paralysis of the critical maritime chokepoint.

How big is the damage to the pipeline and how long will it remain closed?

The Saudi government did not give an official statement on the extent of the damage inflicted by drones. However, satellite photos from media outlets showed at least one pumping station was charred and badly damaged.

The duration of the closure remains unknown, but unnamed sources within the government said that damage could take upto six weeks to repair, but could be fixed sooner and pumping could resume partially while repairs are ongoing.

How critical is it to Saudi Arabia’s fuel exports in the wake of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz?

The pipeline became Saudi Arabia’s alternative route to ship fuel from the oilfields in Abqaiq on the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea without relying on Gulf shipping routes. It is estimated that the pipeline has been carrying about four percent of the global fuel supply, helping to significantly ease the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil buyers and traders in Saudi Arabia reckon that the country will run out of oil stocks available for export if it does not restart the drone-damaged major pipeline to the Red Sea within days.

What are some of the impacts of the closure of the East-West pipeline?

Closure of the pipeline could potentially force Saudi Aramco, the operator of the pipeline, to look for alternative routes to ship out fuel.

Forced rerouting of fuel exports from Saudi Arabia will trigger steep freight charges, besides the skyrocketing prices of the commodity due to the Middle East war.

Kenya, which relies on Saudi Aramco and two other Gulf oil majors for fuel supplies, is now staring at uncertain months ahead.

On Monday, Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi owned up to the jitters, saying that closure of the pipeline will significantly impact fuel prices.

What happens to Kenya and other importers of refined fuel now that the East-West pipeline has been shut down?

The pipeline has been critical in helping Saudi Arabia to increase exports to Kenya despite the disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz.

Official data shows that Saudi’s exports to Kenya rose to Sh24.60 billion in March, Sh31.50 billion in April and Sh43.69 billion in May, compared to Sh13.50 billion and Sh11.35 billion in January and February this year, before the outbreak of the war.

Has Kenya found herself in a similar state of supply uncertainty in recent times?

Closure of the East-West pipeline marks the second time since the start of the US-Iran war that Kenya’s security of supply has been threatened.

In March this year, a vessel that was loaded at the Jebel Ali port in Dubai was unable to sail to the port of Mombasa, and this forced Kenya to seek back-up cargoes to avert a fuel shortage.

Saudi Aramco disclosed that it has been forced to load fuel at ports in Europe and India in order to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

An extended shutdown of the East-West pipeline could see the company stick to alternative ports in order to ensure uninterrupted fuel supply to Kenya.

Has the East-West pipeline been in the past and were there any major disruptions?

Last week’s drone attack was the third in seven years, with the first being in May 2019. The attacks led to minor damages at at least three pumping stations.

The pipeline was also attacked in April this year, months into the US-Iran war, with minor damages to pumping stations forcing Saudi Arabia to cut supply by an estimated 700,000bpd.

But the two attacks in May 2019 and April this year did not trigger a prolonged shutdown of the pipeline. Last week’s drone attacks are the first that look set to keep the facility out of use for an extended period.

Kenya’s next generation of businesses will not necessarily be built around factories, machinery, land or buildings. Some will be built around a camera, laptop, fashion label, beauty brand or creative talent.

Yet when these entrepreneurs seek capital, they are often assessed using lending models built for a different economy: what asset do you have that we can take as collateral? That excludes businesses whose value sits in intangible assets such as intellectual property, brands, audiences and future income streams.

Globally, the World Bank estimates creative industries generate about $2 trillion in revenue and support more than 50 million jobs.

Kenya’s next generation of businesses will not necessarily be built around factories, machinery, land or buildings. Some will be built around a camera, laptop, fashion label, beauty brand or creative talent.

Yet when these entrepreneurs seek capital, they are often assessed using lending models built for a different economy: what asset do you have that we can take as collateral? That excludes businesses whose value sits in intangible assets such as intellectual property, brands, audiences and future income streams.

Globally, the World Bank estimates creative industries generate about $2 trillion in revenue and support more than 50 million jobs.