Category: Business Daily

Insurers will be required to increase to 25 percent the portion of business that they must mandatorily place with Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re), in a move that will boost revenues for the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm.

The National Treasury has proposed new regulations that will see insurers cede at least a quarter of their reinsurance business to Kenya Re, up from the current 20 percent. The reinsurer is 60 percent owned by the government.

Customer service was once seen as a reactive support function – a place consumers turned to when things went wrong. But in today’s digital-first economy, that definition is evolving. Businesses are no longer competing only on their products or prices. They are competing on how they make consumers feel. This experience is being shaped by data and artificial intelligence (AI).

Traditionally, customer service meant responding to complaints, answering calls or resolving issues after they occurred. But in a hyperconnected world, consumers expect organisations to anticipate their needs – not react to them.

Thanks to AI and advanced analytics, that expectation is becoming a reality. Predictive systems can now analyse patterns in customer behaviour and alert businesses to potential issues before they arise. Take the banking sector, for example. Several Kenyan institutions now use AI-driven analytics to detect unusual transactions in real-time, automatically notifying customer and initiating verification steps. This not only prevents fraud but builds trust and loyalty through proactive engagement.

By shifting from reactive to predictive service, businesses are transforming their support functions into engines of customer satisfaction and retention.

Data: The foundation of better experiences

Every customer interaction – whether it’s a mobile transaction, an online purchase or a social media comment – generates valuable data. When aggregated and analysed effectively, this data offers deep insights into customer behaviour and preferences.

Organisations that integrate their Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and digital platforms can create a 360-degree view of their customers. This enables tailored communication, personalised offers and services that feel intuitive and relevant.

For instance, a retail company can recommend products based on browsing history, while an insurance firm can adjust coverage suggestions based on lifestyle data. Across sectors, the common thread is clear; data turns information into understanding – and understanding into better experiences.

However, this power comes with responsibility. Customers are increasingly sensitive about how their data is being used. Transparency, consent and compliance with data protection laws must remain central to every organisation’s digital strategy.

AI: The experience accelerator

If data lays the foundation, AI acts as the accelerator. Technologies like machine learning and natural language processing are helping businesses automate routine interactions while preserving a human touch.

Chatbots, for example, can instantly handle simple service requests – from resetting passwords to tracking deliveries – while human agents focus on complex or emotionally sensitive issues. Some AI systems can even detect frustration or urgency in a customer’s tone and prioritise escalation.

The result isn’t a replacement for human service, but an enhancement of it. The best experiences blend the efficiency of automation with the empathy of human understanding.

The East African opportunity

In East Africa, adoption of AI and data analytics is gaining momentum across sectors such as banking, retail and telecommunications. Kenya, in particular, has made significant strides, driven by its mobile-first economy and culture of digital innovation.

Yet many organisations still grapple with fragmented systems and data silos. Customers may interact with different departments – from call centres to mobile apps, without those systems sharing information. This fragmentation leads to inconsistent experiences.

The opportunity lies in integration. Businesses that unify their data and systems can offer connected, multichannel experiences that feel seamless to customers, regardless of how or where they engage.

Humanity remains the differentiator

Even as AI becomes more capable, empathy remains the cornerstone of a great customer experience. The most successful organisations are those that use technology to empower people – not replace them.

Customers may appreciate automation, but they value authenticity. They remember when a company listens, understands and acts with care. When data and AI are used thoughtfully, they make those human moments possible more often, and at greater scale.

Real returns on government paper after adjusting for inflation have fallen to single digits, as the cost of living measure rises, hitting investors.

Inflation rose to 4.6 percent in September from 4.5 percent in August and 2.7 percent in October last year.

The share of yuan loans in Kenya’s external debt increased after the Treasury converted three standard gauge railway (SGR) facilities from dollars to Chinese currency, reducing the dollar’s weight in the portfolio by around Sh850 billion in a year.

Treasury data indicates that converting $3.5 billion in SGR facilities to Chinese yuan (CNY) would cut the dollar share of external debt to 44 percent-about Sh2.37 trillion-below 50 percent for the first time in 11 years.

British private equity (PE) fund Actis and its joint venture partner, Shapoorji Pallonji Kenya, have agreed to sell property developer Mi Vida Homes to a consortium of local investors led by the company’s management, marking their exit from the investment after seven years.

Mi Vida chief executive officer Samuel Kariuki told the Business Daily that the consortium is buying out the entire share capital of Mi Vida’s holding company, which was formed as a joint venture between Actis and Shapoorji Pallonji Kenya in 2018.

Last week, while attending the International Trade Fair at the Nairobi Showground, my attention was caught by the impressive section of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).

For many of us, the KDF is synonymous with the battlefield, safeguarding our borders, protecting our sovereignty, and keeping the nation secure. What drew my attention, however, was something that speaks to the future of national protection: the Environmental Soldier Programme.

The State has dangled 21-year renewable leases as it races to woo investors to take up 25,000 acres of land within the Bura Irrigation Scheme for commercial sugarcane production, as part of a wider strategy to generate revenue from idle public assets.

The Bura scheme has a total of 296,000 acres, of which 12,000 acres have been developed, and 6,000 acres are actively under production for rice and maize.

The number of Kenyans lacking sufficient food has increased by 14.6 percentage points in less than a decade, reaching the highest level in 25 years, according to a new survey.

The 2025 Global Hunger Index (GHI) reports that 36.8 percent of Kenyans-approximately 20 million people-are undernourished, meaning they do not consume enough food to meet their basic daily energy needs.

In Kenya the affordable housing conversation has often been framed as a social imperative and rightly so. But what if building homes was also the most powerful way to build our country’s industries? Housing is the single most practical industrial policy the country can execute over the next 25 years and beyond.

Kenya’s housing deficit is often estimated at about two million units, with some 250,000 homes needed annually against a supply of approximately 50,000.

This figure does not include the secondary deficit arising from the need to replace poorly constructed buildings developed in the last two decades. It also doesn’t factor in the emerging county-level demand, as counties become the new economic centres.

With our population estimated to grow to over 84 million by 2050, demand for homes and related infrastructure including commercial, logistics and social infrastructure that accompanies them, will only accelerate. The question therefore begs: how can we link this projected housing boom to our industrialisation ambitions?

Consider this: every housing unit provides a huge demand for steel, cement, ceramics, sanitary ware, roofing, timber, paints, wiring, glass and aluminium. Since materials account for roughly 40 to 50 percent of total housing development costs, housing can be a reliable long-term source of industrial consumption.

Today, manufacturing contributes just 7.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a decline from historical levels and below the global mean.

Turning housing into a multi-year industrial output demand signal is how we can change that. The scale is striking. Today the estimated manufactured inputs for a single housing unit, from steel and cement, to tiles and taps, costs about Sh29,500 per square metre.

If Kenya were to ramp up housing production to 200,000 units per year by 2030 and sustain this to 250,000 units thereafter, roughly six million new homes would be built by 2050.

Assuming an average unit of 50 square metres, this translates to 300 million square metres of newly built-up area.

At the estimated manufactured input per square metre, this construction boom would generate approximately Sh9 trillion in demand for manufactured goods, thereby injecting Sh354 billion into our economy every year. This would be transformational for our manufacturing GDP.

Where this money goes is therefore critical. We already have a strong cement production base. Despite a challenging 2024, cement output has rebounded 17.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025 to 4.85 million tonnes.

Yet, for other critical items like ceramic tiles, sanitary ware, fittings and many steel products, our market is flooded with imports. If we don’t act decisively, this housing boom will not build Kenyan industries; it will just bloat our national import bill.

We don’t have to look far for inspiration. Egypt used State-backed housing projects and a new city construction to fuel an industrial surge. It is now becoming a major exporter of cement and other materials.

Similarly, South Africa built an integrated manufacturing cluster for cement, glass, ceramics and aluminium that now serves the entire region, fuelled by its housing agenda. Its cement capacity is about 15 million tonnes a year. These nations prove that a housing agenda, when linked with smart policy can build entire industries.

For Kenya, the economic case is clear. The government must treat housing as both an industrialisation policy as well as a social policy.

This starts by mandating and enforcing local manufactured content thresholds in all housing projects, which can be gradually increased over time.

As a starting point, the current Affordable Housing Programme should sign long-term procurement contracts that give our factories the confidence they need to invest in kilns, rolling mills and other production lines.

This appears to be ongoing to some extent but remains sub-scale. We must create a reliable pipeline of public and private housing projects that gives the local manufacturing industry a reason to build capacity now.

Housing is about giving our people dignity. But it can also be the industrial flywheel that powers our economy for the next 25 years and beyond. This will leave Kenyans not only better housed but with a much larger, more competitive economy. The choice is whether to import that future or make it right here in Kenya.

At 49, Collins Omondi’s body still bears the sculpted lines of his competitive bodybuilding days, a testament to three decades of iron discipline. His chest, shoulders, and arms carry the story of a life shaped by weights and willpower. Yet, he laughs at the idea that he is still the powerhouse he was in his 20s.

‘I’m not as strong as I used to be,’ he says. ‘But the more I lift, the better I feel. I sleep better. I move better. I plan to keep lifting until I’m 80.’

Collins’s fitness story began in his teenage years, sparked by a neighbour who had an imposing physique.

“People used to talk about him, and I thought to myself, I also want to build that kind of physique,” he recalls. By 17, he was exercising. By 19, he was competing.

The 1990s were a golden era for bodybuilding in Kenya. Gyms, in those days, were crude and ill-equipped. Many gyms were located in makeshift spaces where dumbbells were fashioned from concrete and paint tins, iron bars were unpolished, and young men pushed their bodies to extremes.

‘We didn’t have fancy equipment; it was hardcore. You had to learn to balance your sessions, otherwise your body would end up looking unbalanced,’.

Collins thrived in this hardcore environment, finishing second at Mr Kenya in 1996. He won his middleweight category in 1997 and represented Kenya at Mr Universe competitions in the Czech Republic and Turkey.

After retiring from competitive bodybuilding in 2003, Collins turned to fitness consulting, first in Botswana, then spent over a decade in Southern Africa, where he discovered that fitness consulting could be lucrative for those who knew their craft.

He returned to Kenya with specialised knowledge and a claim to fame. He vaunts without proof that he was one of the first instructors to introduce spinning classes in the country.

“I learned of spinning while I was competing abroad, so in 1999 I started the programme at Arena Gym in Nairobi. This was the first gym to introduce spinning in Kenya,” he says.

What was then a niche cardio option has now become a full-blown craze, Collins observes.

‘Spinning has become trendy in Nairobi. The music, the energy, the fun. make workouts addictive, which is good. But it is also the easiest workout to overdo,’ he notes.

Research supports spinning’s benefits. Better leg strength, lower blood pressure, improved cholesterol. For people over 40, spinning can be a lifesaver since it is low-impact and easy on the joints. But Collins watches Kenya’s current spinning fever with growing concern.

What was meant to be an accessible, moderate workout has morphed into something potentially dangerous. He warns that many Kenyans are now pushing their bodies beyond safe limits on spin bikes.

‘A 30 to 45-minute spin is okay. But when people push past an hour, it can lead to muscle breakdown. Remember, your glutes and quads are some of the largest muscles in the body; you burn massive energy using them. Overdo it, and the body pays the price. That can lead to a lot of muscle breakdown, which is not healthy because having muscles is very fundamental to the body’s functionality,’ he says.

Because the muscles engaged in spinning are among the body’s largest, demanding enormous energy, for beginners or those unaccustomed to vigorous lower-body exercise, the risk of overexertion is real and potentially severe.

Collins’ beliefs are echoed in global studies. An American Journal of Medicine study documented cases of rhabdomyolysis in spinning beginners.

This is a disorder where severe muscle breakdown releases proteins that can poison the kidneys. Symptoms include swollen legs and difficulty walking.

“Spinning wasn’t meant to be an everyday workout. You have to allow the body to recover. When spinning becomes a daily habit, the cumulative intensity can lead to fatigue and declining performance rather than fitness gains. Even if you become a spinning pro, daily sessions may still be too much,” Collins argues.

He claims the trendy nature of spinning has created a market flooded with undertrained instructors who prioritise entertainment over safety.

‘If you decide to dabble in spinning, it is best to do it gradually and ensure you are under a certified spinning coach, someone who understands the basic principles of spinning.’

Since returning home due to a severe case of homesickness after spending 12 years in South Africa, Collins has found his calling by working with clients over 40.

He believes this demographic is severely neglected by Kenya’s youth-focused fitness industry. He has now dedicated his career to helping clients over 40 rethink their approach.

“I realised it is one age group that is highly neglected, and as you age, your body changes. I know how difficult it is to fix your body past 40.’

For women, calcium loss from menstruation becomes critical after 40. For men, testosterone levels drop significantly. Without strength training, consequences arrive swiftly. Bones begin to thin, muscle mass decreases, and complications multiply.

He observes that many in this age bracket avoid gyms, preferring golf or other recreational activities. While not inherently bad, these activities take longer to deliver fitness benefits. Meanwhile, the need for structured exercise has never been greater.

“Nowadays, we need to work out more than ever because of the food that we eat. Most of the food we eat now is processed. When you lift weights, your bones become dense, so it actually reverses that process of osteoporosis,” Collins explains.

His own training approach has evolved with his body. Where he once trained six days weekly, he now works out three times, allowing more recovery time. His weight loads have decreased, but his repetitions have increased.

“I know I can lift as heavy as an 80kg dumbbell, but I don’t dare,” he says. Instead, he sticks to 30-40kg for chest work, 25 -30kg for shoulder presses.

The reasoning is simple.

“When you are at my age, you become susceptible to injuries. The moment I get an injury, it takes a bit of time to heal.”

He says his inspiration to keep lifting into his 80s is an 84-year-old Japanese man he met during his time in Botswana.

‘The man’s posture was impeccable. He could stand upright, had steady hands, agile movement and a lean physique that could pass for a 50-year-old. He told me he had been weightlifting consistently since he was 20. Those are the things that actually motivate me.’

From his more than two decades of experience, he believes one shouldn’t spend more than an hour weightlifting.

“Working out should be at least 45 minutes and a maximum of an hour. You should not train beyond that because after one hour of workout, your body plateaus and anything else you do is counterproductive.”

Fueling your body with the right foods is also key to aging well.

‘I eat lots of sweet potatoes, boiled eggs, rice or ugali with fish or beef and vegetables, lean protein with vegetables at dinner, and I only eat when I am hungry. As you grow older, your body fat percentage rises because your metabolic rate drops. My body fat at the moment stands at 16 percent.’