Category: Business Daily

Kenya Power will close its payment counters by June 2027 as the utility embraces the increased usage of digital channels by customers.

The counters in Nyeri, Thika and Kisii will be shut by the end of this month, followed by those in Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu towards the end of the year.

Closure of physical counters -which facilitate payment of bills and other services – is part of company’s efforts to match the surge in the use of its digital channels by most of its 10 million customers.

The closure of the counters puts at risk the jobs of more than 1,500 customer-facing employees. The utility has, however, downplayed the fears.

Kenya Power says it records an average of five million customer interactions on the digital platforms every month, underscoring the urgency to fully shift to online systems.

‘Since the introduction of these digital skills, we have witnessed a 70 percent reduction in customer traffic in our banking halls. This is an indication that customers are ready and willing to transition to digital service channels,’ Kenya Power said.

Payment counters at Electricity House and Stima Plaza in Nairobi and the one in Mombasa will be the last to shut, by June 31, 2027.

Kenya Power had 10.216 million customers at the end of December 2025, with most relying on digital platforms for services such as settling bills, reporting outages and getting receipts.

Doing away with the counters is part of Kenya Power’s bigger goal of enhancing efficiency by riding on technology, to cut costs and boost revenue.

Kenya Power is also deploying smart meters to enhance billing accuracy and seal revenue leakages.

In its latest annual report, Kenya Power says it remains exposed to the risk of digital and technological disruptions, particularly from the accelerated adoption of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Kenya Power is at the moment enjoying a good run, marked by growth in customer numbers, electricity sales and profits.

The net-profit of the monopoly for the half-year ended December 31, 2026 rose 4.34 percent to Sh10.4 billion from Sh9.9 billion the previous year as electricity sales jumped 10.5 percent to 6,086 Gigwatt-hours (GWh) on December 2025, pushing its total base to 10.2 million.

The number is expected to increase further before the financial year ends on June 31.

Old Mutual Holdings is seeking to restructure its balance sheet with the goal of clearing accumulated losses, a decision that will allow it to pay dividends.

The regional insurer plans to use its share premium of Sh4.66 billion to clear part of the accumulated losses, which stood at Sh7.06 billion by the end of 2025.

Share premium represents the amount investors pay above the assigned share value.

The Company Act bars an institution from paying dividends if it has accumulated losses.

If the transaction is approved, it will see Old Mutual’s accumulated losses drop to Sh2.39 billion, with the company saying it will take additional actions to clear the balance.

‘The board approved the commencement of a phased balance sheet restructuring designed to eliminate the accumulated negative earnings of Sh7,064,040,000 as at December 31, 2025,’ the insurer said a press statement.

‘In the first phase, the company will seek a court-approved reduction of its share premium account of Sh4,664,801,000 in its entirety.”

The share premium reduction has to be approved by shareholders in an annual general meeting scheduled for end of this month and regulators, including the Capital Markets Authority and a High Court order.

The insurer said the action would have no cash or shareholding impact.

The company, a subsidiary of South Africa’s Old Mutual Limited, has minority shareholders who trade on the over-the-counter market.

The South African financial services giant acquired UAP Holdings in 2020 and later merged the business with its existing insurance operations in Kenya.

The combined business, trading as Old Mutual Holdings Limited, posted losses from 2020 before turning a profit in 2025, resulting in accumulated losses growing to Sh7.06 billion last year.

The company did not disclose what the second phase of the restructuring will involve.

“The proposal supports our ongoing efforts to optimise the balance sheet, enhance financial flexibility and position the business for sustainable long-term growth and value creation for our shareholders,’ Old Mutual Group Chief Executive Officer Arthur Oginga said.

Old Mutual becomes the second insurer this year to use share premium to clear its accumulated losses.

Britam Holdings is in the process of a similar balance sheet restructuring, having received shareholders’ approval to use share premium to clear accumulated losses last month.

Britam had an accumulated loss of Sh5.8 billion in the year ended December 2025.

The insurer sought to clear the amount using the share premium, which stood at Sh13.2 billion. The share premium account is to be reduced to Sh7.3 billion.

Britam has lowered the accumulated loss in the last five years to Sh5.8 billion using dividend payouts from its subsidiaries.

The insurer has been relying on dividends from its subsidiaries to cut back the accumulated losses as it is not an operating entity.

If Margarita Nyambura could speak to her 12-year-old self, the girl who used to stop by a prison fence each morning to pick orange and yellow flowers, she would tell her to keep going.

Growing up in Embu, where her father was the auditor in charge of Eastern Province, Margarita lived a relatively privileged life. The family compound was tended by gardeners who maintained tidy, traditional plantings. The grass was always neatly trimmed, and her mother planted flowers, too-the common types that filled most homes those days.

What intrigued her even more were the improvised gardens created by police officers nearby. Old bathtubs had been transformed into planters, teaching her an early lesson that would stay with her for life: Almost anything could become a garden.

Without money to buy plants, she scavenged for cuttings from fences, rescued seedlings from roadsides and collected whatever neighbours were willing to share. Gardening was not yet a hobby.

It was play, discovery and a growing fascination with colour.

When her family moved to Wangige in Kiambu in 1997, she brought along just one money plant. From this, everything else grew. At first, some plants died due to incorrect lighting and insufficient or excessive watering.

Mapping the garden

‘To sustain a plant, you need to buy compost, containers and planters,’ she says.

Prayer plants, for example, are delicate and sensitive, and many people find them difficult to keep alive. She moved hers around the garden, testing different levels of light and humidity, until she found the right spot.

She learnt how to make her own compost, when to use goat manure versus chicken manure, and how to irrigate using inverted bottles so that the plants could survive during her working week. She invested in a water storage facility large enough to sustain the garden throughout the dry season.

Her profession took her across the world. She spent two years in Accra, Ghana, three in Lagos (Nigeria), then moved on to Sudan, Switzerland, Barcelona (Spain), Australia, Prague (Czech Republic), and New Zealand. From every country, she returned with a plant – a phormium from New Zealand, cuttings from Mexico and Paraguay, and bromeliads wherever she could find the right humidity.

‘I’ll show you the castle cactus I planted in 1998-it’s still there. Still tiny.’

Her favourite plant is the foxtail fern, which hangs from elevated planters. It is dense and green and thrives on neglect.

Starting again after an accident

‘It’s so lush. You don’t have to worry about it flowering excessively because it is a perennial plant,’ she says.

In 2021, her gardening story was interrupted. She broke her leg in a road accident, and while she was recovering, almost all of her plants died. Species sourced from four continents, plants grown since the 1990s, and varieties she would never find again withered away despite her best efforts.

When she could finally walk again, only a handful of plants had survived. These included the Monstera, which remained in its original 1997 pot; the castle cactus from 1998, which had barely moved but endured; and two snake plants-one green and one variegated.

‘What you’re seeing right now is a fresh collection,’ she says.

Margarita believes that plants are sensitive to the people around them and register presence and absence.

By 2022, she had started again. By 2025, she had amassed a collection of over 2,000 plants, including bromeliads, foxtail ferns, prayer plants, castle cacti and a pickle plant that had been growing since 2012.

Now aged 53, Margarita has never employed or sought the help of a florist.

‘That’s my therapy. I just do it.’

Enter the garden ‘rooms’

Unlike many homes with flat lawns, Margarita has divided her garden into ‘rooms’, and each section is assigned a day of the week.

‘You can’t do everything. I’ve had to divide it up.”

There is a bromeliad section beneath a wide tree where the canopy keeps things cool; a propagation workstation built around a repurposed stump; a butterfly corridor replanted with Eugenia hedging; a tropical section near the blue rainwater drums, and a Halloween corner where hollowed pots filled with succulents await October and candlelight.

The lawn is covered in Pemba grass, a drought-resistant variety that requires minimal water and thrives in hot conditions. She opted for it after trying Kikuyu grass, which requires moderate to high rainfall, and Arabic grass, which struggles in dry conditions and needs frequent watering-neither of which was suited to the water-efficient compound she had designed.

The 1996 cottage sits quietly within it all. She chose it for its low roof and compact size, allowing the garden to occupy most of the land.

‘I needed more garden than house.’ Having watched people her age build five-bedroom homes and live in just two rooms, she saw no need for a big house.

Plants dedicated savings account

Margarita knows exactly where every plant is, when each one arrived, and where the sun hits at 8am and where the shade falls by 4pm. She has mapped the light across the entire compound and positioned everything accordingly. She also has a dedicated savings account for her plants, covering pots, planters, fertiliser, tools and water storage.

‘You know how you register for a gold membership? I do the same for my plants,’ she says.

Her children, who used to complain that the garden received more attention than they did, now walk through the grounds and say, ‘We’ve created a home.’

Every evening, after watering and weeding, Margarita sits down with a glass of wine. ‘It is a heavenly feeling. I always give thanks.’

Lessons from the 40-year journey

Forty years of growing things have also shaped her attitude towards money.

‘I’ve learnt to be patient with money, just like I have to wait for the plants to grow and the seeds to flower,” she says.

‘Whenever a deal comes along, you must either take it immediately or miss it,’ she says.

The third is spreading her investments. She does not grow just one type of plant, and she does not put all her money in one place.

Margarita recognises a bad investment because she has made them in her own garden. The Duranta hedge has beautiful golden-edged leaves, but it spreads beyond its boundaries and attracts green snakes. She plans to remove it and replace it with Eugenia, which grows more slowly but has golden new growth that can be trimmed cleanly.

“Sometimes you plant something and realise you don’t like it, and you have to accept the loss,” she says.

More than six years after Covid-19 triggered the world’s largest work-from-home experiment, many Kenyan organisations are still struggling to function optimally.

Some jobs can easily be done from home, while others grind to a halt if the employee cannot get to the office.

Last month’s fuel strike exposed more than the country’s transport vulnerabilities. It revealed how unprepared many employers remain for disruption.

No framework, protocol or company guidance

Elsie Owino is a retail representative. Her job involves movement – going out into the city, finding customers, building relationships and hitting targets. The office is merely a starting point. It is in the field that her work actually takes place.

‘I have to go out and look for customers,’ she explains. ‘The two-day fuel strike, for instance, affected me greatly because I wasn’t able to achieve my target while working from home.’

The strike was abrupt and her employer didn’t offer any framework, protocol or company guidance on how to get work done. Her employer offered her no assistance during those two days. She turned to phone calls-only to find her airtime costs rising. At home, she also struggled to secure a suitable workspace.

‘My biggest challenge was the constant distraction from the children,’ she says. ‘If I work from home I have to lock myself in a room to work.’

The organisational gap

James Acholla, a human resource consultant, says that what played out across offices was not a surprise, but the result of preparation gaps that companies have repeatedly chosen not to close.

“The lesson from the strike is that most organisations still treat remote working as a crisis response rather than a legitimate way of working,” he says.

When employees are left without clear guidance or the right tools, the burden falls entirely on the individual. Output suffers, morale dips, and trust in leadership erodes quietly.

Supporting employees through periods like this, he argues, requires more than sending a message telling staff to work from home. It means ensuring people can access the documents and systems they need from outside the office, that managers are equipped to lead remotely, and that communication channels are clear from the start.

“A worker who cannot access what they need to do their job is not working from home. They are waiting at home, and that distinction matters.”

Managing remote teams during sudden disruptions also exposes how under-prepared most managers are. Without proper systems, they default to either micromanagement or complete disengagement, both of which damage morale and output.

“There is a middle ground, and it requires trust, clear expectations and regular check-ins. Most organisations have not invested in building that culture, and it shows the moment a disruption hits.”

Closing the gap

He recommends that every organisation should have a remote working policy that does not need to be written from scratch each time a crisis arises. Employees in roles that can be performed remotely should have the necessary tools and system access set up well in advance. Managers should be trained in remote team management as a standard competency, not an afterthought.

Communication protocols-who reports to whom, how and how often during a disruption-should be agreed upon and tested before they are needed.

“You cannot demand full output from someone sitting at a kitchen table with two children, no proper desk and an unreliable internet connection,” says Mr Acholla. “What you can do is set realistic expectations, check in regularly and make sure people feel seen rather than simply monitored.”

While Elsie found solutions in the form of more calls and an improvised work space, the structural limits of Emmanuel Adika’s role left him with little room to manoeuvre.

‘It ended up being a very sudden transition, and I had to adjust to it as it unfolded.’

Pleasant discoveries

In jobs where work is portable,employees find it easier to switch to emote work. Brian Mwangi discovered its advantages. Brian is a journalist with 11 years of experience. He continued to do what he does every day: write, report, edit and send articles to the newsrooms.

‘My entire job travels with me,’ he says. “All I need is a laptop and a phone. That is genuinely all I need. The story is never in the office.’

In 2020, so many sectors like newsrooms, law firms, financial institutions and tech companies operated remotely for 18 months, proving that a huge proportion of knowledge work can happen anywhere there is a laptop and an internet connection. But the moment the pandemic was over and restrictions were lifted, some returned to the old ways.

The psychological toll

Mwangi notes that the money not spent on commuting, lunches cooked at home and work clothes maintained to a certain standard goes a long way. For many workers on modest salaries, those savings cover rent and school fees.

‘Nobody talks about that seriously enough,’ he says. ‘The cost of the commute is treated as the worker’s private problem, but it is actually a structural tax on employment. Remote work, even partial remote work, partially lifts that tax.’

Annabell Gichure, a counselling psychologist says the psychological impact of sudden disruption is often the part that goes unaddressed.

“Sudden work disruptions trigger loss of control, and that is one of the biggest psychological stressors a person can face,” she explains.

Workers find themselves anxious about job security, mentally drained from constantly rethinking their plans, and frustrated by circumstances entirely outside their hands. Productivity drops not because people stop trying, but because so much energy is going toward managing the disruption itself.

Routine, she says, plays a bigger role in mental stability than most people realise.

“Routines are psychologically stabilising. When they disappear abruptly, people can feel unsettled in ways they struggle to explain. The morning commute, the walk to a desk, the rhythm of a structured day-these are not just habits. They are anchors. When they are removed suddenly, even capable and experienced workers can find themselves disoriented.”

However, not everyone loves working from home. Annabell notes that it can go either way. Some people find the quieter environment a relief.

Others find the home brings its own difficulties-loneliness, particularly for those used to busy, social workplaces; a loss of motivation in spaces not designed for work; guilt about not doing enough professionally while also feeling the pull of responsibilities at home; and the exhaustion that comes when work and rest occupy the same space with no clear separation between them.

Flower exporters in Kenya have lost an estimated Sh724.4 million ($5.6 million) over the past two months due to cargo delays, crop spoilage and declining market prices, as rising air freight costs and global disruptions continue to squeeze one of the country’s key export sectors.

Exporters say persistent delays have led to late deliveries of flowers in key European markets. Given the highly perishable nature of the product, even short disruptions result in wilting, rejection or downgrading of shipments, leading to significant spoilage losses.

At the same time, inconsistent supply has weakened exporters’ bargaining power, forcing some to accept lower prices in international markets, particularly in Europe, where buyers reduce orders or negotiate discounts when reliability is affected.

‘The industry has already recorded losses estimated at over $5.6 million due to shipment delays, spoilage and reduced market prices,’ Kenya Flower Council Chief Executive Officer, Clement Tulezi told Business Daily.

‘In addition, overall production costs have increased by 20-30 percent due to simultaneous increases in fertiliser and fuel costs.’

The losses come amid a sharp escalation in air freight charges, which have risen by up to 110 percent over the past 12 to 18 months.

Exporters are now paying as much as $5.30 (Sh685.82) per kilogramme, up from about $2.50 (Sh323.50) in January last year.

‘The conflict in the Middle East has resulted in flight rerouting, reduced cargo capacity, longer transit times and higher operational costs for airlines,’ Mr Tulezi said. ‘Exporters are facing delays of up to 48 hours for highly perishable products.’

Mr Tulezi attributed the surge to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which have disrupted major aviation routes, increased fuel consumption due to longer flight paths, and reduced available cargo capacity.

‘Air freight costs for Kenyan flower exporters have risen sharply over the past 12-18 months, with the most dramatic increase occurring since the escalation of the Middle East crisis and associated disruptions to global aviation routes,’ he said.

‘Historically, freight rates from Nairobi to Europe averaged between $2.50(Sh323.37) and $3.10(Sh400.98) per kilogramme. However, exporters are now paying between $5.00(Sh646.75) and $5.30(Sh685.55) per kilogramme, representing an increase of approximately 70 percent to 110 percent, depending on destination and carrier.’

He added that flower freighters, which rely heavily on Middle Eastern airspace and hubs such as Dubai, Doha and Saudi transit points, have been forced to take longer detours to avoid conflict zones, increasing both transit times and costs.

Some cargo is now rerouted via extended southern corridors, including detours around the Cape of Good Hope, adding thousands of nautical miles to journeys and increasing delays for time-sensitive shipments. Last year, flights moved more directly through Gulf and Red Sea routes.

The disruption has also triggered higher costs across the global logistics chain, with freight and shipping firms such as DHL and Maersk announcing price increases due to elevated fuel use, longer transit times and constrained capacity.

‘Middle East geopolitical tensions continue to disrupt Asia to Europe corridors and increase transit times and operational costs. Rates from Africa remain elevated due to persistent capacity shortages,’ DHL said.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), horticultural exports, including flowers, reached $1.11 billion (Sh143.8 billion) in 2025.

Cut flower export volumes rose from 102,500 tonnes in 2024 to 130,600 tonnes in 2025, while export value increased from $557.5 million to $628.4 million (Sh81.3 billion).

The flower industry remains one of Kenya’s top foreign exchange earners and a major employer, supporting thousands of jobs directly and indirectly.

However, stakeholders warn that sustained increases in freight costs could erode competitiveness against rival producers such as Ethiopia, Colombia and Ecuador.

Exporters are calling for urgent interventions to ease logistics costs and improve operating conditions, including expanded cargo capacity, reduced airport charges and faster processing of refunds and clearances.

The Court of Appeal has cleared a non-existent Spanish firm to pursue Sh10 billion from 17 bank accounts belonging to State-owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) despite warnings from the Attorney General.

The ruling escalates a legal standoff that now exposes Kenya to the risk of paying the same debt up to three times, as three separate Spanish entities lay claim to a single arbitral award.

The firms include a bankrupt and dissolved company, Instalaciones Inabensa, which the Court of Appeal has given the right to recover more than pound 62.6 million (Sh10 billion) from Ketraco’s accounts.

The appellate court declined to halt execution of the High Court’s December 11, 2025 garnishee orders granted to the dissolved company, reopening the path for it to pursue and retrieve funds in Ketraco’s accounts.

‘The applicant (Ketraco) has not satisfied us that it has an arguable appeal. In the premises, we do not need to consider whether or not the intended appeal will be rendered nugatory. Consequently, this application fails and is dismissed,’ said the three-judge bench.

The apex court in October 2022 ordered the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company to pay Spanish firm, Instalaciones Inabensa, pound 37.6 million for breach of contract after cancelling a contract for building a high-voltage transmission line and substations.

However, unknown to the Kenyan lawyers and judges, Inabesa was fighting for its life in the Spanish capital in a struggle that saw it declared bankrupt a month after the Supreme Court verdict.

In the end, Inabensa was reported dissolved, and some of its assets were tipped for sale to a firm called Cox Energy, with Ernst and Young tapped as the insolvency administrator, said a confidential brief from the Attorney General’s office.

Court documents reveal that on July 28, 2023, Inabensa transferred its rights to another Spanish firm, C.A. Infraestructuras T and I SLU, which is also pursuing payment in the decade-long dispute.

Now, the Attorney General reckons that Ketraco is at a loss on whom to pay the Sh10 billion, with the State law office warning that Kenya could end up paying Sh30 billion to three firms.

In Kenya, Inabensa, which the Attorney General reckons was dissolved, has frozen part of Ketraco’s billions of shillings in 17 bank accounts in NCBA, Standard Chartered Kenya, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Citibank N.A. Kenya, and KCB Bank Kenya.

Separately, Infraestructuras T and I SLU is seeking to wind up Ketraco over non-payment of the Sh10 billion award following the Supreme Court verdict.

The Attorney General has added a fresh twist to the spat after telling the court that the insolvency administrator in Spain, Ernst and Young Abogados, could still assert rights over the money on behalf of creditors.

The origin of the dispute is two engineering, procurement, and construction contracts awarded in April 2013 for the 400kV Lessos-Tororo transmission line and the extension of the Lessos substation.

The projects were valued at over pound 24.5 million (Sh3.6 billion) and Sh893 million, totaling more than Sh4.5 billion.

The claim for the botched contract has grown to Sh10 billion.

They were meant to facilitate electricity trade between Kenya and neighboring countries, but were terminated in 2016 following a fallout between Ketraco and Inabensa.

Ketraco terminated the contract on April 25, 2016, after it received a notice from the Spanish firm on April 12, 2026, that it was suspending works after the State agency failed to settle several invoices.

At the centre of the ongoing dispute is a 2019 arbitral award in favour of Spanish contractor Instalaciones Inabensa S.A., which was contracted in 2013 to build the Lessos-Tororo transmission line and extend the Lessos substation.

The tribunal found Ketraco breached the contract by failing to pay invoices and unlawfully terminating the agreement, awarding the contractor more than pound 30.8 million (Sh4.6 billion) plus interest and costs.

That award was adopted as a judgment of the High Court in 2021, making the debt final and enforceable.

But the amount has since ballooned to over pound 62.6 million (about Sh10 billion), including interest and costs.

Ketraco attempted to overturn the arbitral award through a series of legal challenges in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and later the Supreme Court, but all attempts failed, leaving it exposed to enforcement proceedings.

The dispute has now split into two competing claims.

On one hand is Instalaciones Inabensa, the original contractor seeking to recover the debt through garnishee proceedings.

On the other hand is CA Infraestructuras T and I SLU, which claims to have taken over the rights to the award and is now pursuing liquidation of Ketraco-creating confusion over who the utility should legally pay.

‘The magnitude of the award and the accruing interests far outstrips the applicant’s financial capacity and asset base, hence its immediate enforcement will bring the applicant’s activities to an abrupt halt,’ Ketraco told the courts.

The family, society and the nation at large celebrate a child who excels in examinations. Social media and news platforms light up with congratulatory messages. Parents proudly tell relatives about the achievement. In many homes, academic performance has become the ultimate measure of success.

But as Kenya grapples with cases of school arson, student unrest, rising youth involvement in violent demonstrations, cyberbullying, substance abuse and the disturbing cases in child abductions, a difficult question emerges: Are we raising successful children or merely raising high achievers?

For years, our education conversations have revolved around grades, rankings and examination results. We invest heavily in tuition, revision materials, and academic coaching because we want our children to secure a better future, yet in the process, we may be overlooking an equally important responsibility–to help them discover who they are.

Personal identity is the foundation upon which character, confidence, and purpose are built. A child who understands their values, strengths and responsibilities is less likely to be swayed by peer pressure, harmful influences, or destructive behaviours. When young people lack a strong sense of identity, they often seek belonging in places that don’t serve them well.

The consequences can be seen in acts of violence, indiscipline, online manipulation and decisions that place their futures and those of others at risk.

The challenge facing parents today is, therefore, much bigger than ensuring children pass examinations. It is helping them answer deeper questions: What do I stand for? What kind of person do I want to become? How do I contribute to society? And what values guide my decisions when no one is watching?

These are not questions that appear on examination papers, yet they determine the quality of leadership, citizenship, and professionalism we will see in the future.

The modern workplace increasingly values qualities that cannot be measured by grades alone, such as integrity, emotional intelligence, adaptability, resilience, collaboration and ethical decision making.

As artificial intelligence, automation, and digital technologies reshape industries at unprecedented speed, technical skills are becoming easier to acquire and, in some cases, easier to replace.

Today, a machine can write a report, analyse data, create a presentation and generate computer codes in seconds. What technology cannot easily replicate is human judgment, empathy, creativity, moral courage and the ability to build trust.

This reality presents a profound challenge for parents. We are raising children in a world where they are more connected than any previous generation, yet often more vulnerable to misinformation, online manipulation, cyberbullying, unrealistic social media pressure and digital addiction. A child’s digital footprint is now as important as their academic reports.

Their character is being shaped not only in the classroom and homes but also on screens, social media platforms, gaming communities and online forums.

The question is no longer whether our children can compete with technology; it is whether they can use technology responsibly and purposefully because character is no longer a soft skill; it is a strategic advantage.

The modern workplace increasingly values qualities that cannot be measured by grades alone, like integrity, emotional intelligence, adaptability, resilience, collaboration and ethical decision making. In a world where technology and artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming industries, character may become an individual’s most valuable asset.

As parents and educators. Care givers and leaders, we must redefine success. Let us celebrate academic excellence, but let us also nurture empathy, accountability, courage and purpose. Kenya’s future depends not only on children who solve complex equations but also on youth who know who they are and what they stand for.

Years from now, society will not remember every grade a child earned. It will remember the lives they touched, the values they upheld, and the difference they made. That is a report card that truly matters.

Amazon will build its first African satellite ground station in Kenya to offer faster internet and mobile phone services, intensifying competition with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The Jeff Bezos-owned company has applied for a licence through its newly registered local subsidiary, Amazon Kuiper Kenya Limited, to set up the ground gateway from where it can transmit internet traffic beyond Kenya.

Amazon seeks a 15-year international gateway licence for its Amazon Leo satellite internet project, new disclosures from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) show.

The closer the ground station is to users, the faster services like video streaming and internet calling become.

Why a ground station matters

Such a facility is a local landing point for satellite signals and links mobile users with the internet better by reducing the distance signals travel, as they no longer need to be transmitted to faraway ground stations.

Starlink set up a similar ground station in Nairobi last year, which significantly improved its internet speed and market uptake in Kenya.

Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, was launched to directly challenge Starlink’s dominance in the rapidly growing low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet market and is planned for rollout this year.

It aims to offer a ‘direct to device’ service where data is transmitted between satellites and standard smartphones without the need for cell towers, similar to Starlink.

‘(Amazon Kuiper Kenya Limited) has, pursuant to the provisions of the Kenya Information and Communications Act… made applications to the Communications Authority of Kenya for the grant of the (International Gateway Operator licence),’ CA said in a Kenya Gazette notice.

CA issues the permit to firms seeking to set up satellite earth stations and cross-border land infrastructure.

It allows companies to establish satellite earth stations and network control centres within Kenya to facilitate the transmission and reception of telecommunications traffic internationally.

‘It is given to firms seeking to expand satellite internet services by establishing earth stations that relay internet traffic to terrestrial or submarine cable networks outside the country,’ a CA official told the Business Daily by phone.

The location of the proposed ground station has not been disclosed.

The infrastructure behind ground stations

Ground stations are the critical link between satellites in orbit and terrestrial internet networks. They receive data transmitted from satellites, convert it into conventional internet traffic and route it through fibre-optic infrastructure.

They effectively serve as mission control centres for satellite networks, tracking spacecraft, managing communications and ensuring uninterrupted connections as satellites move across the sky.

The facilities are typically connected to Points of Presence (PoPs), which link satellite networks directly to terrestrial fibre infrastructure.

By shortening the physical distance internet traffic travels, ground stations and PoPs help reduce latency and improve network performance.

Following the launch of Starlink’s Nairobi ground station and PoP in January last year, for instance, the network’s latency fell from 296 milliseconds to 39 milliseconds, according to the network intelligence firm Ookla.

Latency is the delay required for data to travel from its source to its destination in a network. Starlink’s improvement translated into smoother video calls, faster browsing and better video streaming performance for users.

Industry estimates show that building a high-capacity satellite gateway can cost up to $15 million (Sh1.9 billion).

Race for rural connectivity

Amazon plans to sell satellite ‘dish’ antennas and partner with traditional telcos seeking to integrate satellite technology for data relay into their mobile networks to expand coverage in rural areas.

Starlink has already inked deals with Airtel to allow for ‘direct-to-device’ service. Both firms will leverage their owners’ outsized wealth to gain market share.

Bezos, the fourth richest man with a fortune of $224 billion (Sh29 trillion), is both a latecomer and an underdog in the quest to fill the sky with satellites.

But his firm is committed to closing the gap with Starlink, which is galaxies ahead and is owned by the world’s richest man with $839 billion (Sh109 trillion) in wealth.

Kenya is among Amazon’s first African markets for the project, which aims to launch over 3,200 satellites by 2028.

The firm filed for a Network Facilities Provider licence from the CA last month, the basic approval allowing it to deploy communications infrastructure across the country.

Bezos’s firm has signed a deal with UK-based Vodafone, the ultimate parent firm of Kenya’s largest telco, Safaricom, to connect Leo to 4G and 5G mobile masts in remote areas across Africa. Service trials are set to start this year.

The March deal mirrors a similar Africa-wide move that Starlink’s parent SpaceX made with Safaricom’s parent Vodacom in November.

Airtel Africa also partnered with SpaceX last year to introduce Starlink’s direct satellite-to-cell (D2C) connectivity to all its 14 markets, including Kenya, where it is Safaricom’s main competitor.

Kenya as East Africa’s satellite hub

The number of Kenyans using satellite internet has surged since Starlink entered Kenya in July 2023. The company has been betting on lowering internet costs, including hardware acquisition and lease plans.

Starlink enjoys a first-mover advantage in Kenya’s satellite internet market and is the ninth-largest ISP overall, with a 0.9 percent share.

If approved, Amazon’s facility would become Kenya’s third major satellite ground station. The Kenya Space Agency also operates a gateway in Nairobi.

For Amazon, a Kenyan ground station could help address future capacity constraints due to high uptake once Amazon Leo becomes operational in the country.

To compete with the first mover, the company is dangling speeds double those of Starlink, which could shake up competition in Kenya’s internet market.

For a standard terminal, which Starlink offers download speeds of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps), Amazon is promising up to 400 Mbps, while commercial kits, which the Musk-owned firm offers up to 400 Mbps, Bezos’s company says it is delivering a 1,280 Mbps download rate.

The company has not provided pricing details yet, but experts speculate that Leo will present lower prices.

Faster speeds, bigger questions

The Kenyan facility would also allow the company to serve neighbouring markets from a regional hub, making Kenya East Africa’s satellite telecoms gateway.

Telecoms experts have, however, raised concerns over transmission from higher-power satellites, arguing it could result in harmful interference and impact the ground network services deployed by operators like Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya.

Transmission from the satellites creates increased noise levels that degrade the capacity of 3G, 4G and 5G networks, the analysts add, which is the backbone for delivery of high-speed internet services and voice.

Only about 100 gateway stations dedicated to LEO networks were operational worldwide as of the end of 2025, according to the consulting firm Deloitte.

The burden of the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran is disproportionately and indiscriminately being carried by the developing countries through trade. Inferably, these are no ordinary times, the conflict epitomises a major a ticking seismic reconfiguration of global alliances that is driven by the changes of the balance of power toward East and waning dominance of the West.

Consequentially, it is transforming globalisation from a unified, efficiency-drive system into a fragmented autarkic ideologically aligned. The ramifications of this seismic shift will likely be dire and far-reaching. Thus, a policy intervention with a long-term view is needed.

For Kenya, these altercations are no longer abstract. Their effects are being transmitted and permeating through Kenya’ macroeconomic channels. Already there has been sharp increase oil prices, which are expectedly exerting inflationary pressures.

The Persian crisis has put the spotlight on separate and unequal global trading system, which continues to compromise Africa’s development.

Africa contributes approximately three percent to global trade and paradoxically she is the primary supplier of raw materials.

This trade imbalances are imputable to the lingering effects of colonial extractive policies that call for major diversification in favour of intra-Africa trade.

This diversification is embedded in the Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the new Agreement on African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)which provides free movement of persons, capital, goods and service to deepen economic integration and promotion of agricultural development, food security, industrialisation and structural economic transformation.

Seemingly, these developments are repositioning Kenya as a credible gateway to East and Central Africa region as well as political and economic focal point of the simmering global tectonic realignment.

President Ruto being the current Chair of the Committee of Heads of State and Government on the implementation of the AfCFTA, Kenya must leverage on the goodwill to become the regional champion and driver of the implementation of AfCFTA.

These regional and local changes have triggered notable public policy gaps. As a result, a new dawn of opportunities is incubating much-needed localised expertise that can infuse policy debates with rigorous evidence-based data and an authentic African perspective.

To align its future development aspirations to the continental vision and, Kenya must strategically take advantage of the evolving regional policy landscape in furtherance of its vision.

Specifically, Kenya must lobby to drive the AfCFTA implementation agenda by tapping think-tanks such as Kippra to become an affiliate of the Secretariat of AfCFTA with regional focus of East Africa.

The High Court has struck out a fresh application by Standard Investment Bank (SIB) seeking to attach additional bank accounts belonging to Bomas of Kenya in a bid to recover a Sh104 million debt.

In its ruling, the court held that allowing the new application would create parallel recovery proceedings, leading to confusion and possible oppression of Bomas of Kenya and third parties involved.

The judge noted that the mere claim that the State corporation had opened new bank accounts did not justify the filing of separate execution proceedings.

‘Accordingly, the Notice of Motion dated May 18,2026 is struck out with costs,’ the court ruled.

The dispute stems from a Sh104 million debt owed by Bomas of Kenya to SIB following an arbitration award. The court heard that the State corporation had paid Sh30 million through instalments between December 2023 and September 2024.

Bomas of Kenya told court that its subsequent default was caused by circumstances beyond its control, particularly the commencement of the Bomas International Convention Complex project. According to the corporation, the project led to the closure of its commercial operations and an estimated 84 percent drop in revenue.

SIB moved to court in January seeking orders compelling several banks, including KCB Bank Kenya, Co-operative Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, to release funds held on behalf of Bomas of Kenya to settle the debt.

It argued that it had established that Bomas of Kenya maintained additional bank accounts that had not previously been disclosed and whose balances should be available to satisfy the outstanding award.

However, Bomas opposed the fresh application, arguing that a similar execution application was already pending before the court.

The corporation added that it had separately filed an application seeking to stay the proceedings and that both matters were scheduled for hearing. Dismissing the application, the court held that SIB remains at liberty to seek appropriate directions in the pending attachment proceedings regarding any additional accounts or assets discovered during the execution process.

The court heard that filing a new application amounted to a multiplicity of execution proceedings and was therefore oppressive.

Bomas of Kenya also denied holding an account with Standard Chartered Bank and maintained that the funds held at Co-operative Bank were insufficient to satisfy the debt.

The state corporation further argued that freezing all its bank accounts would severely disrupt its operations and affect more than 300 employees.