Category: Business Daily

The State plans to start selling non-personal data collected through platforms such as eCitizen in a bid to generate additional revenue from information sought by researchers, businesses, non-governmental organisations and innovators.

Under a new policy proposal, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICTDE) will establish an agency to aggregate data from government institutions and oversee its commercialisation.

The proposed National Data Governance and Emerging Technologies Council will facilitate the sale of at least 1,000 datasets from various sources over the next five years, creating a new revenue stream for the government.

Data market

Data collected by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and other State agencies in the course of their operations will also be made available through the State-run marketplace.

Non-personal data collected through eCitizen includes information such as business registration trends, demand for government services, passport and immigration application volumes by region, birth, death and marriage registration trends, vehicle registration statistics and land transaction volumes.

Beyond eCitizen, the government collects a wide range of datasets that it believes could be monetised, including traffic flow patterns and regional crop production data.

The proposals are contained in the National Data Governance Policy, which seeks to introduce new safeguards for Kenya’s data and formally designate it as a strategic national asset, paving the way for monetisation.

‘Establish a national marketplace for the lawful exchange of non-personal, anonymised, and aggregated datasets in the public sector, private sector, research institutions, and civil society,’ MICTDE said in the policy proposal.

‘The marketplace shall define clear licensing models, pricing tiers, including free access for public good uses and transparent revenue treatment for government data.’

The marketplace is expected to cost up to Sh396 million to develop and operate over five years and is projected to generate revenue for the State.

Strategic asset

While the ministry does not specify which datasets will be commercialised, it notes that various government departments sit on troves of data that can be anonymised and monetised.

‘The proliferation of sector-specific and government digital services, including eCitizen, has generated massive data volumes across public and private sectors,’ the William Kabogo-led ministry said in the proposed policy.

The government argues that monetising data could unlock economic value and create opportunities for Kenyans to benefit from information generated through public services.

‘The recognition of data as a national strategic asset would foster a trusted, regulated data market to unlock economic opportunities and societal benefits,’ the policy states.

The proposed council will be supported by a Data Governance Office to manage the marketplace and implementing the wider policy framework.

The move comes amid growing recognition of data as a strategic economic resource globally, with some experts describing it as ‘the new oil’.

Recent studies indicate that major technology companies such as Google and Meta generate significant value from user data, up to Sh20 million per internet consumer globally, underlining the economic potential of large-scale datasets.

Governments around the world are increasingly exploring ways to monetise public data, creating additional revenue streams while supporting innovation and research.

Singapore has one of the most developed public data marketplaces, providing free access to some datasets while charging for specialised information such as real estate development trends.

The United Kingdom operates a similar model through Ordnance Survey, which generates over Sh34 billion annually from the sale of State-owned geospatial data to private sector developers.

In Africa, Kenya could become one of the first countries to establish a formal public data marketplace. The push for stronger data governance is gaining momentum across the continent as governments seek to retain greater control over data generated by their citizens and capture more of its economic value.

Properly managed data is expected to play a key role in Kenya’s digital transformation. According to the US International Trade Administration, Kenya’s data economy could spur investment in data centre infrastructure worth more than Sh104 billion by 2031 and boost investment in the artificial intelligence sector, currently valued at Sh31 billion.

Beyond monetisation, the policy also seeks to improve the centralisation of data collected by different government agencies to support planning, public service delivery and innovation.

In 1215, English barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, a charter that limited the power of the monarchy and established the principle that no one, not even the king, was above the law. It did not instantly create democracy, but it marked a decisive shift from unchecked authority to accountability, institutions, and rules that constrained power.

Africa’s food systems are overdue for a similar moment.

On January 1, 2026, the African Union’s new 10-year agricultural development strategy officially began.

Known as the CAADP Kampala Declaration, it sets ambitious targets: a 45 percent increase in agrifood output, a 50 percent reduction in post-harvest losses, a tripling of intra-African agrifood trade, an increase in locally processed food to 35 percent of agrifood gross domestic product, and reducing poverty by 50 percent.

What distinguishes the Kampala Declaration from previous CAADP iterations is not only the scale of its ambition, but its underlying logic. It recognises that increasing public budgetary allocations in agriculture, and productivity gains alone will not deliver food security.

Instead, it calls for inclusive leadership, systemic transformation, stronger governance, resilience to climate shocks, and alignment with the broader food systems agenda that has emerged since 2020. This shift is welcome, but history urges caution.

Since its launch in 2003 under the Maputo Declaration, and its reaffirmation in 2014 through the Malabo Declaration, CAADP has been Africa’s most comprehensive agricultural reform framework. It is African-owned, politically endorsed, and technically robust.

Yet implementation has been inconsistent and outcomes disappointing. By 2021, only Rwanda had met the overall Malabo target score.

Most countries remain off-track on agricultural investment, productivity growth, nutrition outcomes, and resilience-building.

These gaps are often blamed on inadequate financing or limited access to technology. Those constraints are real. But they mask a deeper problem: weak leadership capacity across the Africa’s food system.

Food systems transformation is ultimately a governance challenge. It depends on how decisions are made, how institutions coordinate, how trade-offs are managed, and how accountability is enforced. Leadership is not a ‘soft’ add-on. It is a core enabling condition, alongside finance and innovation.

The 2026-2035 CAADP Strategy acknowledges this explicitly, identifying leadership as essential for effective implementation. This is especially critical at a time when aid budgets are shrinking and public resources are under pressure. Africa cannot rely on foreign money alone. It must improve the quality, quantity, and connectivity of leadership driving food systems change.

This is where initiatives such as the African Food Fellowship and Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture’s leadership programme matter. By equipping agrifood actors with skills in problem-solving, coalition-building, governance, and execution, such programmes help close the gap between policy ambition and real-world impact.

Early evidence suggests stronger leadership improves institutional performance, policy delivery, and community-level outcomes.

If the Kampala Declaration is to become Africa’s Magna Carta for food systems, it must do more than set targets.

It must catalyse a new generation of leaders who are accountable to all actors and capable of designing and implementing policies that respond to climate shocks safeguarding people, livelihoods, and ecosystems.

Declarations do not transform food systems. People do.

The National Treasury has cut Sh9.84 billion in funding for the development of the South Lokichar Basin, hurting the country’s dream of delivering its first oil before the end of 2026.

Budget estimates approved by the National Assembly last Thursday excluded the entire Sh9.84 billion, which had earlier been apportioned to the State Department for Petroleum for development of the oil field.

The 2026 Budget Policy Statement (BPS), which the National Assembly approved in March 2026, had allocated the State Department for Petroleum some Sh30.23 billion for the 2026/2027 fiscal year.

This included Sh20.4 billion in recurrent expenditure and Sh9.84 billion towards development. However, in the estimates approved by the House, the State Department was only apportioned Sh22.04 billion for recurrent expenditure, with the entire development budget scrapped.

The acting Principal Secretary for Petroleum Mohamed Birik said that the scrapped development budget puts the implementation of seven ongoing major projects in the country in limbo.

They include oil production in Lokichar, Turkana, which had been allocated Sh5.52 billion; the implementation of the LPG distribution, Sh991 million; and infrastructure and clean cooking gas for boarding learning institutions, Sh370 million.

‘Withdrawal of the budget under the South Lokichar oil field will hamper the development and commercialisation of the discovered oil resources and realisation of the first oil by December 2026 and export by February 2026,’ says Mr Birik.

Kenya, through Gulf Energy, expects to start commercial production of the Turkana oil Block T6 and Block T7 by December 2026. An estimated 20,000 barrels per day(bpd) of crude oil will be produced in the first phase (2026-2032) before it is scaled up to 50,000 bpd from 2032.

Documents show that Parliament has ratified the field development plan(FDP) for the Turkana oilfields. The FDP shows that 600,000 bpd of crude oil will be exported every month in phase one. This will jump to 1.5 million bpd in phase two.

The slashed funding by the Treasury also risks affecting the midstream and downstream petroleum distribution programmes, which had been allocated Sh590 million; upstream oil and gas exploration (Sh1.41 billion); the Lokichar- Lamu crude oil pipeline (LLCOP) Sh710 million and the petroleum exploration in block T11, which has seen Sh250 million chopped off.

The projects had been funded in the fiscal year 2025/26 supplementary estimates I to the tune of Sh5.3 billion, with the funding for the 2026/27 period meant to oversee their completion.

‘The removal of funding will adversely and immensely affect the projects,’ says Mr Birik.

For instance, the funding for the South Lokichar oil field development was meant to finalise land surveys, the inspection and valuation for the oil fields and compensation of persons displaced by the project.

Also affected are the payments of the ongoing consultancy service contracts for developing a grievance redress framework, resettlement and livelihood restoration framework, and environmental and social impact audits for the oil exploration activities in blocks T6 and T7, among others.

There is also the stakeholder and community sensitisation and engagements on local content, waste management, petroleum revenue sharing and management, negotiation of commercial and host government agreements between the State and the contractor.

The funds were also required for coordination of the multi-agency project support workstreams- water, electricity, security, environment, and monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the project.

LPG distribution through 6 kg cylinders to low-income households and LPG reticulation under the Affordable Housing Programme and support to the LPG growth strategy are part of President William Ruto’s pet growth projects.

The national LPG growth strategy aims to increase LPG per capita consumption from 7.5 kg to 15 kg per year and ‘enhance penetration from 24 percent to 70 percent by 2028.

The funds were meant to cater for the development frameworks and financing models for the manufacturing and distribution of 6 kg cylinders by the private sector and safety awareness sensitisation on LPG usage.

The funding also affects stakeholder engagement and public sensitisation on the LPF reticulation, scoping and pre-feasibility studies of affordable housing sites for LPG reticulations, joint feasibility studies on regional gas infrastructure- the Kenya-Tanzania natural gas pipeline- and monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the LPG growth strategy.

Nearly nine years ago, I projected that in five years long term insurance would overtake general insurance. At the time, general insurance was sitting pretty at 1.5 times the size of long term insurance, but the latter had growth, consistently outpacing general insurance.

Fast forward and the Insurance Regulatory Authority’s (IRA) sectoral report for quarter three of 2025 now places the comparative factor at 1.1, indicating that parity is approaching fast. My five-year estimation, admittedly, was a bit ambitious, but the long term – general insurance ‘flippening’, in my opinion, will materialise by 2027.

My next big call is more near-term; I predict that general insurance will experience its worst underwriting results on record in 2025.

Granted, my ‘prediction’ is actually a retrodiction, but I say this because the industry’s full year (Q4) reports are usually disseminated around the second half of the following year, hence my Janus-esque forward-looking-hindsight.

The IRA’S Q3 report, however, supports my bombast, reporting a staggering Sh7.8 billion underwriting loss for general insurance, an almost outlandish 393 percent year-on-year increase in losses from the Sh1.6 billion recorded in Q3 of 2024.

Put into perspective, Q3 losses from 2022 to 2024 combined were Sh7.9 billion, Q3 2025 alone was only shy of that by Sh118 million. As disclosed in the report, general insurance premiums grew 9.2 percent while claims went up 14.7 percent, rising approximately 1.6 times faster than premiums. Roughly put, for every Sh100 of additional premiums, general insurers are shelling out Sh160 in additional claims.

Furthermore, despite the furor on automation and artificial intelligence, general insurance direct expenses grew 19.7percent, piling even more pressure on tepid top-line growth.

Reaching across the aisle to my actuarial colleagues and their penchant for outlier testing, I must stress that general insurance has recorded underwriting profits only once in the last 13 years, making its profitability, rather ironically, the outlier rather than the norm.

In comparison, the long term industry is living in a veritable oasis. As of Q3 last year, long term insurers posted a 12.5 percent gross premium growth, buffeted by a whirlwind 61.3 percent growth in investment income, which stood at Sh103.4 billion; although this surge can be attributed to strengthened capital markets and favourable pension regulations.

Putting into context this truly astounding fete, long term insurance’s investments can comfortably cover their entire claims book (Sh97.7 billion) with room to spare.

For comparison, general insurance investment income (Sh15.9 billion) can only cover 19.1 percent of its underwriting loss. Granted, similar to general insurance, long term recorded a 21 percent increase in direct expenses and a 24 percent increase in claims and policyholder benefits, but with long term also enjoying its strongest retention rate of the past six years (94.5 percent compared to general insurance’s 69.8 percent), the contrast in fortunes of our two protagonists is indisputable.

The 2025 Insurance Sub-Sector Report by FinAccess and IRA affirms this line of thought, indicating that despite the diverging insurance access and usage trend, the two facets share cost as an underlying factor.

According to the report, 76.2 percent of respondents cited cost as their most significant barrier to access while 61.4 percent indicated their biggest impediment to usage is affordability.

Fate loves irony, so amidst an industry grappling with rising costs, the cost of the industry’s service de facto, is the industry’s largest growth inhibitor.

I am in no way trying to chastise our insurance industry. What I am lamenting is the casual disregard for basic self-scrutiny at the expense of lofty futurisms.

To sum up this antithesis, IRA’s Q3 2025 report showed that new products developed grew threefold, from 15 the previous year to 45, more than the last five Q3s combined.

However, reported fraud cases also shot up from 15 to 57 year-on-year, the highest recorded for such a period in over five years.

As we await the industry’s final reports and as 2026 gathers momentum, perhaps it is time we revisit the paradox with which we began: access to insurance is declining even as usage rises. This is not anomalous and is a signal that the industry is wrestling with contradictions it has yet to reconcile.

On one hand, we innovate relentlessly, creating new products, digital platforms and AI-driven underwriting. On the other, the fundamentals remain stubbornly unresolved, among them rising claims, mounting fraud, structural inefficiencies and a widening affordability gap for the very public we seek to insure.

Foreign investors made net sales worth Sh10.17 billion on the five largest firms at the Nairobi bourse in the year to April 2026, locking in large capital gains after their share prices rallied in the period.

The foreigners were largely offloading their stock in Safaricom, Equity Group, KCB Group, EABL and Co-operative Bank of Kenya to local institutional investors, who increased their stakes at a time when the blue chips raised their full-year dividends.

The sales were part of overall foreign net outflows of Sh17.4 billion at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) over the one year.

Latest regulatory filings show that the foreign investors cut their stake in Safaricom by 268.77 million shares-valued at Sh8.53billion at the current price- to 2.55 billion units in the 12 months, reducing their share of the company’s issued shares from 7.04 percent to 6.37 percent.

In the period, the company’s share price appreciated by 69 percent to Sh29.70, handing investors who had bought their units at a lower price an incentive to sell up and lock in the capital gains.

At the same time, East African institutional investors raised their holding in the company from 88.55 percent or 35.48 billion shares to 89.37 percent (35.8 billion shares).

Institutional investors such as pension funds tend to have a longer investment horizon compared to their retail counterparts, with their stock picks often informed by factors such as consistent dividend payouts instead of short-term price movements.

‘We have seen foreign investors reallocating capital from the equities market to lock in gains, and they are also aware of a riskier investment environment due to rising inflation,’ said Melodie Ndanu, a research analyst at Standard Investment Bank.

On the KCB stock, offshore investors cut their stake in the bank by 42.78 million shares (valued at Sh2.97 billion) to 285.5 million units, bringing down their holding to 8.88 percent at the end of April from 10.22 percent a year earlier. The stock was among the top banking sector gainers in the period at 74 percent.

Local individual investors also cut their holding in the lender by 47.5 million shares valued at Sh3.3 billion to 785.1 million units, joining the foreigners in cashing in on a 74 percent rally in the bank’s share price to 67 in the one year.

Similar to Safaricom, the increased supply in the lender’s shares from foreigners and retail investors was absorbed by local institutional buyers, who increased their holding by 90.3 million shares to 1.5 billion units. The bank raised its full-year dividend to Sh7 per share in 2025, from Sh3 a year earlier.

EABL saw net sales of 5.98 million shares in the period, valued at Sh1.44 billion, while Co-operative Bank of Kenya saw foreigners reduce their holding by 4.52 million shares valued at Sh144.5 million. EABL’s stock was up 40 percent and Co-op’s by 117 percent in the year to April 2026.

The share of EABL’s shares in the hands of foreigners thus dropped to 9.5 percent from 10.26 percent, and that of Co-op from 0.32 percent to 0.25 percent.

Foreign investors reduced their Equity Group stock by 4.47 million shares, valued at Sh346 million, reducing their exposure on the counter to 1.566 billion units. Their holding accounts for 41.51 percent of the lender’s issued shares, down marginally from 41.52 percent a year ago.

The large blue chips tend to have a larger exposure to foreign investors due to high liquidity, which supports large ticket trades and consistency in paying dividends.

These large firms also enjoy visibility to offshore investors courtesy of their listing on global market trackers such as the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) frontier and small-cap indices.

Kenya’s NSE is represented by 18 companies on the MSCI frontier and small caps indices that are selected based on a number of metrics, including liquidity and financial stability, giving them the exposure to the 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 November 2025.

BAT Kenya, KenGen, Kenya Re, Kenya Power, DTB Group, Carbacid, Bamburi Cement, Jubilee Holdings, CIC Insurance Group, Williamson Tea Kenya, Centum Investment and HF Group are on the MSCI frontier markets small cap index.

The MSCI tracks the performance of selected large and medium-sized companies in 10 African frontier and emerging markets, as part of its global series of indices that are closely watched by foreign investors.

Meta has rolled out paid subscription tiers across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, introducing a ‘Plus’ model that bundles enhanced visibility tools, analytics features and expanded user controls across its social media ecosystem.

The move marks a strategic shift by the company toward monetising user experience beyond advertising, gradually layering paid functionality on platforms long defined by free access and algorithm-driven reach.

For Kenyan users, where Meta platforms underpin everything from informal trade to content creation and customer service, the change signals a potential reshaping of how digital visibility is earned and sustained.

Across Kenya’s digital economy, Facebook functions as a marketplace for thousands of small traders as Instagram serves as a marketing engine for creators and brands, while WhatsApp has evolved into a default business communication channel.

The introduction of subscription-based enhancements lands in a market where social media is beyond a mere entertainment infrastructure but a core economic utility for informal and small-scale enterprises.

Under the new structure, Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus and WhatsApp Plus offer differentiated premium tools, including advanced analytics and content visibility enhancements, as well as extended engagement tracking and interface customisation features.

Instagram’s paid tier places elevated focus on audience insights and content performance, while Facebook’s model prioritises post reach management and engagement optimisation tools for personal users and pages.

WhatsApp’s premium layer, on the other hand, introduces organisational and customisation tools aimed at improving messaging workflows, particularly for users who rely on the platform for customer interaction and business coordination.

‘I believe the subscriptions could widen the gap between small sellers and bigger brands. Larger businesses can afford premium subscriptions while smaller sellers may have to rely on free features while competing in the same feeds,’ observes social media analyst Egline Samoei.

‘For Kenyan businesses, the key question will not simply be whether to subscribe, but whether the subscription delivers measurable value. If it does, it becomes a business investment, if it doesn’t, it is just another platform cost,’ she adds.

Meta maintains that the core platforms remain free, framing the subscriptions as optional enhancements rather than a shift toward pay-walled access.

But the introduction of monetised layers inside previously uniform systems has triggered scrutiny over how visibility, reach and engagement may evolve in increasingly tiered digital environments.

In Kenya, where internet penetration is rising but disposable income remains constrained, the glaring question is whether non-paying users will remain competitively visible.

Small businesses operating on tight margins already rely heavily on organic reach to avoid the rising cost of digital advertising across Meta platforms.

Any structural advantage granted to paying users, even indirectly through better insights or optimisation tools, is poised to gradually reshape competitive dynamics in crowded online marketplaces.

This is particularly significant in sectors such as fashion retail, food delivery, beauty services and informal trade, where Instagram and Facebook function as primary customer acquisition channels.

WhatsApp, meanwhile, sits at the centre of Kenya’s informal business communication ecosystem, often replacing websites, call centres and traditional retail interfaces.

Globally, Meta’s shift reflects broader pressures facing large tech companies as advertising growth stabilises and competition for user attention intensifies.

Digital advertising remains Meta’s primary revenue stream, but slowing growth and rising infrastructure costs have pushed the company toward diversified monetisation models.

Subscriptions offer a more predictable revenue base, particularly as Meta continues to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and platform automation tools.

The company is simultaneously expanding paid verification services and creator monetisation tools across its platforms, signalling a broader transition toward multi-stream revenue architecture.

While Meta insists that organic reach remains intact, the introduction of premium optimisation tools is set to gradually redefine baseline performance expectations for users and businesses.

Analysts observe that the US social media giant’s challenge lies in balancing monetisation ambitions with the need to preserve engagement across its largest user bases, particularly in emerging markets.

Kenya, they note, represents a strategically important case in this equation due to its high engagement rates, strong creator ecosystem and deep integration of WhatsApp into commerce and communication.

The country has also emerged as one of Meta’s most active African markets, making it a critical testing ground for behavioural response to platform monetisation changes.

In previous cycles, platforms have introduced optional tools that later became standard expectations for serious business or creator participation.

Five mattress manufacturers suspected of being involved in cartel activity that inflated product prices unknowingly exposed their collusion after jointly seeking a pre-emptive court injunction to block a planned raid on their premises, heightening the watchdog’s fears of secret cooperation and price fixing.

On March 30, the manufacturers moved to court seeking orders to stop an impending raid by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK), citing violations of their rights to privacy, property, fair administrative action and data protection.

However, the petitioners quickly withdrew the suit the following day after realising that fatal mistake of filing their suit jointly, which inadvertently strengthened the competition watchdog’s suspicion that they were communicating with one another in ways that could extend to discussions on pricing and other market practices, Business Daily has established.

The anti-trust watchdog is seeking to retrieve information from e-mails, computer hard drives and WhatsApp, including deleted materials, for proof that the firms have been sharing prices and other market-sensitive information in search of abnormal profits.

The withdrawn court documents also show the mattress manufacturers had intelligence on the planned secret dawn raids across the four counties.

“Take notice that Bobmil Industries Limited, Superform Limited, Foam Mattress Limited, Jumbo Foam Mattress Industries Limited and Vitafoam Products, the Petitioners herein, wish to withdraw the suit wholly with no orders as to costs,” the companies said in a withdrawal notice filed by their lawyers, KAN Advocates LLP and seen by the Business Daily.

Meanwhile, even as the withdrawal notice was being signed, CAK officers descended on six mattress manufacturers across four counties and confiscated electronic equipment, including hard disks, mobile phones and sales records, as part of investigations into alleged anti-competitive conduct.

The unusual sequence of events has thrown a spotlight on Kenya’s mattress manufacturing industry, where the competition watchdog suspects firms may have engaged in cartel-like practices capable of distorting prices and exploiting consumers.

CAK in March confirmed that it had conducted a search and seizure operation, known as dawn raids, on six mattress manufacturers located in Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos and Kisumu counties as part of a widening investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

Dawn raids, which are allowed by the Competition Act, secure credible evidence that is likely to be concealed, destroyed or altered if advance notice is given.

Investigators seized hard disks, thumb drives, mobile phones, management reports and sales records in what the authority described as an effort to uncover evidence of abuse of dominance, collusive tendering, price-fixing and market allocation.

Initially, the authority did not disclose the identities of the companies raided.

However, on March 30, five mattress manufacturers, including Bobmil Industries, Super Foam Limited, Foam Mattress Limited, Jumbo Foam Mattress Industries Ltd and Vitafoam Products Limited filed a petition against the CAK seeking restraining orders against any dawn raids against them.

‘The Petitioners received a report from the 1st Respondent (CAK), that it has invoked Section 32 of the Competition Act (Cap.504) to undertake imminent entry and search business operations against the Petitioners’ premises,’ read part of the petition, noting that the targeted companies included those with two main offices in Kisumu and Athi River.

The manufacturers reckoned that CAK, which they noted had already commenced reconnaissance missions in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa to establish the exact locations of their factories, intended to expand the raids to other companies engaged in the ‘conspiracy’ including their branches in Mombasa.

They insisted that they had not been served with any search warrant authorizing such ‘intrusive enforcement actions.’

‘The 1st Respondent has failed and/or neglected to comply with the mandatory provisions of the Fair Administrative Action Act (Cap.7L), including the duty to provide prior notice, reasons, and an opportunity to be heard before undertaking administrative action that adversely affects rights,’ read the petition.

‘The intended raids are arbitrary, unlawful, and unconstitutional, and amount to an abuse of regulatory power.’

Sources familiar with the matter said the manufacturers appear to have recognised the implications almost immediately, prompting the hurried withdrawal of the case less than 24 hours after it had been filed.

Those found culpable risk penalties equivalent to up to 10 percent of their gross annual turnover, one of the stiffest sanctions available under Kenya’s competition laws.

That precedent has elevated concerns among manufacturers that CAK is increasingly willing to pursue complex cartel investigations involving some of the country’s biggest industrial players.

According to competition experts, dawn raids are among the most powerful enforcement tools available to regulators because they allow investigators to secure evidence before it can be hidden, altered or destroyed.

The Competition Act permits such raids where authorities have reasonable grounds to believe that relevant information may not be preserved if advance notice is given.

CAK insists that the operations against the mattress manufacturers should not be interpreted as proof of wrongdoing.

Instead, they mark the beginning of a lengthy investigative process that could take months, depending on the amount of evidence collected and the degree of cooperation from the firms involved.

“Foam mattresses are an essential household commodity used by millions of Kenyan consumers,” said CAK Director-General David Kemei.

“Our intervention seeks to establish whether collusive practices are undermining the affordability and accessibility of these products for ordinary households.”

The regulator said market surveillance conducted by its officers had revealed patterns suggesting possible coordinated behaviour among competitors in the foam mattress sector.

While the authority has not disclosed the precise evidence underpinning the raids, the joint court application by five rival manufacturers has itself become a subject of interest.

The mattress market has become increasingly lucrative as changing consumer preferences drive demand for premium products.

Beyond traditional foam mattresses, manufacturers now offer specialised products such as orthopaedic, memory foam and high-density mattresses designed to improve comfort and sleep quality.

Prices range from roughly Sh4,000 for basic low-density foam mattresses to more than Sh150,000 for premium orthopaedic and memory foam models.

The growing sophistication of the market has intensified competition among manufacturers seeking to capture a share of increasingly health-conscious consumers.

The Competition Authority argues that any coordinated conduct among competitors could significantly affect millions of households because mattresses remain a basic household commodity.

If investigations establish anti-competitive conduct, the authority may order offending firms to cease the practice, reverse the infringement and implement corrective measures designed to restore competition.

The companies could also face financial penalties running into hundreds of millions of shillings, depending on their turnover.

CAK has sought to reassure the firms that all seized information will be handled securely and that affected parties will have an opportunity to make oral and written submissions before any final determination is made.

The authority’s approach mirrors the strategy it successfully employed in the steel cartel case, where investigators relied on emails, WhatsApp messages and meeting records to demonstrate coordination among rival firms.

In that matter, CAK presented evidence showing senior executives allegedly discussing product specifications, supply restrictions and pricing decisions. The watchdog argued that the conduct undermined competition and defrauded consumers.

‘You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.’ Maya Angelou – author

I recently did a road trip to the beautiful counties of Kisumu, Siaya and Homa Bay. Kisumu City is clean. Like, insanely clean. And, my dear Nairobians, their street lights work. I’m sure you can remember that long forgotten metal tower that would illuminate your pedestrian path or motorised road without having to grope your way through the darkness of suburban hell.

I forgot to mention that Kisumu is also the city you should take your children to experience what smooth tarmac looks like, where you don’t blindly drive into a tyre bursting pothole gleefully manufactured by the same sadist-who-switched-off-the-streetlights.

Once we were through taking pictures standing next to working street lights and paved roads for our gallery titled ‘Basic things that still work in Kenya’, we forged ahead to explore the home of Kenyan dynasties.

Sixty eight kilometres and ninety driving minutes due west of the city of working street lights and paved roads, takes you to Kango Ka Jaramogi in Bondo, Siaya County, where two great doyens of Kenya’s fiery political history are buried.

The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s mausoleum stands proudly in the middle of his beautiful homestead, surrounded by the homes of his wives, one of which had been turned into a museum.

The museum has curated Jaramogi’s illustrious leadership path through Kenya’s independence with hundreds of photographs and Jaramogi’s personal memorabilia that enliven the critical birth of our proud republic.

From the shoes he wore to his first trip to the United States, his weather beaten suitcases, gramophones for his musical indulgences and dozens of his trademark wooden walking sticks, visitors are immersed in a masterful journey of understanding who the man was, and the political dynasty he created.

More importantly, was the recent grave built a few metres away for his son, one of Kenya’s most influential political figures: ‘Baba’.

Completely covered in flowers eight months after his death, Raila Odinga’s grave continues to draw visitors coming to pay homage to a national icon.

With background music belted out by a troupe of traditional Luo singers and dancers with the ubiquitous nyatiti, a pull up banner – emblazoned with a congratulatory message to Arsenal for its recent English Premier League title win – proudly stood beside the grave and reminded the myriad visitors that Raila’s memory (and his favourite football team) would continue to be cherished in the current times.

Powered by the recent memory of city street lights that still worked and paved roads that lacked demonic potholes, we headed due south on an hour’s drive to Luanda Kotieno to take a ferry across Lake Victoria to Mbita, Homa Bay county.

It is interesting to note that vehicular and pedestrian transportation across the lake is privately owned, with ferries and water buses that run on a timed schedule easily accessible on the internet. The ferry crossing is an adventure in and of itself. Being small in nature, the ferry can only carry as many cars as its supervisors can squeeze.

That can range from 10 to 15 depending on the size of cars, which are skillfully parked so tight that even the tiniest omena fish cannot squeeze in between.

Once you drive in, don’t expect to get out and be ready to pass the salt and whatever you might be eating to the driver in the adjacent car, because you’re pretty much sharing a meal and any conversations you’re having as friends around a dining table.

Across from (the working street lights and pothole-free roads of) Mbita, and linked by road via a recently constructed causeway, is Rusinga Island where one can drive to see the other national icon, Tom Mboya’s mausoleum.

Surrounded and shaded by indigenous and exotic tree varieties, we found a bus load of teachers and another of bank employees who had made the Sunday excursion to acknowledge Tom Mboya’s role in the chequered mosaic of Kenyan political history.

Fifty seven years after his death, his carefully curated mausoleum with an architecturally designed silver bullet shaped spire stood as a proud monument to, and museum of Mboya’s own journey as a significant shaper of Kenya’s independence and tragic assassination by a lone gunman.

For all of my Nyanza jaunts, my key takeaway was how heritage is created. I witnessed families that have refused to let the memories of Kenya’s national heroes be buried six feet under.

Families that have curated their past and unselfishly opened their doors to the public to exhibit their bloodline’s rightful place in Kenya’s history as a republic. As Winston Churchill famously said, ‘History is written by the victors.’

IFRS 20 (Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities) is the recently issued IFRS Accounting standard that requires organisations subject to regulatory agreements to provide information on their regulatory assets, liabilities, income and expenses.

The new standard is effective from January 1, 2029, with earlier application permitted. The information provided by organisations applying IFRS 20 is intended as an addition to the information they provide on IFRS 15 (Revenue from contracts with customers).

It provides users of the financial statements a comprehensive picture of compensation for regulatory goods or services and a better assessment of the organisation’s prospects for future cash flows.

Regulatory agreements are pacts that create regulatory assets and regulatory liabilities, which entitle organisations to compensation for regulatory goods or services supplied in a period and specify that part or all of that compensation for regulatory goods or services supplied in a period is charged to customers through regulated rates in a different period, creating a timing difference.

IFRS 20 will help users understand how these timing differences affect the financial statements. It will improve comparability, transparency and the overall quality of the financial statements.

The new standard replaces IFRS 14 (Regulatory Deferral Accounts) and aims to reduce diversity in practice regarding accounting for regulatory balances.

The standard is likely to affect organisations in the utilities, energy, and transportation sectors of the economy.

The changes to the financial statements for entities applying IFRS 20 include presenting current and non-current portions of regulatory assets and regulatory liabilities on the balance sheet, presenting all regulatory income less all regulatory expense as a revenue line item in the statement of profit or loss and providing the reconciliations and maturity analyses of regulatory assets and regulatory liabilities in the notes to the financial statements.

IFRS 20 provides two transition approaches: the retrospective approach and the modified retrospective approach.

Organisations are expected to present and adjust comparatives for the immediately preceding period, irrespective of the transition approach applied.

Companies subject to regulatory agreements that create regulatory assets and liabilities should commence a process to assess the impact of the new standard on their organisation and financial statements. The mandatory reporting requirement introduced by IFRS 20 on regulatory assets and liabilities will drive consistency and improve the quality of financial reporting.

When Joshua Oigara took over as chief executive of KCB Group in 2012, he spent considerable time trying to emerge from the shadow cast by his predecessor, Martin Oduor-Otieno.

More than a decade later, that shadow remains firmly in place.

Mr Oduor-Otieno, who was recently appointed chairman of Allianz-Sanlam Insurance Kenya, has joined a select club of corporate leaders who have chaired more than one listed company at once, cementing his position as one of Kenya’s most influential boardroom figures. He also chairs the board of the East African Breweries Limited (EABL).

The distinction reflects a career that has spanned banking, public service, corporate governance and executive coaching, earning him a reputation as one of the country’s most respected leadership voices.

His standing was built largely during his tenure at KCB, where he served as chief executive from 2005 to 2012.

At the time, the lender still carried many of the bureaucratic characteristics associated with State-controlled institutions. Kenya was emerging from years of economic stagnation and a banking sector that was still finding its footing after the reforms that followed the end of President Daniel arap Moi’s administration.

Invigorated by the reformist energy that followed the election of President Mwai Kibaki and the Narc government, Mr Oduor-Otieno embarked on an ambitious transformation programme that turned KCB from a lumbering State-controlled bank into one of East Africa’s most profitable financial institutions.

By the time he left, KCB had entrenched itself as the region’s largest bank by assets and one of the Nairobi Securities Exchange’s most valuable firms.

It was not the first time he had been called upon to help transform a struggling institution.

Before joining KCB, Mr Oduor-Otieno was among a generation of technocrats tapped by former President Moi to help steer key economic institutions at a time when Kenya was battling high inflation, weak growth and strained relations with international donors.

The government was under pressure to restore confidence in the economy and improve the performance of public institutions that had long been criticised for inefficiency.

Those who worked with him say his ability to drive change while maintaining consensus among stakeholders quickly distinguished him from many of his peers.

Ironically, one of the leadership lessons he now teaches is the importance of knowing when to leave.

In a 2025 interview, he argued that chief executives should avoid overstaying in office because organisations can become excessively dependent on one individual.

“There is the risk of overstaying, where the person and institution become one thing and people over depend on you, such that when you exit they may not necessarily know how to move,” he said.

He cites the experience of legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, arguing that long-serving leaders sometimes leave institutions struggling to adapt after their departure.

“Anything between six and ten years is good. Beyond ten years is stretching it because you run the risk of running short on ideas.”

For Mr Oduor-Otieno, the transition from executive leadership to coaching was deliberate.

After leaving KCB, he founded Leadership Group Limited, a consultancy focused on governance, leadership development and executive coaching.

Over time, the firm has become a destination for executives seeking guidance on leadership, stakeholder management and organisational transformation.

He says one of the biggest lessons he learnt during his own career was that competence alone is not enough.

“In coaching, one of the things that has come up is that one needs to understand their stakeholders quite well,” he said.

“Your good work alone or your competencies alone may not necessarily yield the kind of results that you’re looking for.”

That philosophy has made him a sought-after figure in corporate Kenya.

Besides chairing East African Breweries Plc and Allianz-Sanlam Insurance Kenya, he also serves as a non-executive director of BAT Kenya Plc and AfricaNenda Foundation.

Away from the boardroom, Mr Oduor-Otieno remains deeply influenced by the values instilled by his late father, a primary school teacher.

His father, who died in 2004, taught him discipline, ethics, faith and hard work.

“He was a very staunch Catholic, and that has informed my upbringing and even today I remain quite close to the church and so do my children,” he once said.

Born and raised in a modest household, he watched his father overcome adversity after losing his own parents at a young age.

Those experiences shaped his views on resilience, responsibility and leadership.

Now in his sixties, Mr Oduor-Otieno speaks frequently about family, faith and personal balance.

He has been married for more than four decades and is a father and grandfather.

Despite occupying some of Kenya’s most powerful corporate positions, he remains an introvert by his own admission.

He says he deliberately avoids carrying work into his private life and prefers spending weekends with family or travelling.

Indeed, attempts by Business Daily to reach him on Sunday for this article proved futile. Repeated phone calls went unanswered while WhatsApp messages remained unread – behaviour entirely consistent with his long-held rule that weekends are reserved for rest and family.

“When I’m on holiday or over weekends, I’ve tried not to carry work home and therefore my weekend is for family and travelling,” he once explained.

That discipline may partly explain his longevity.

While many executives struggle to reinvent themselves after leaving corner offices, Mr Oduor-Otieno has successfully transitioned from chief executive to mentor, from banker to boardroom leader.

Today, as he takes up yet another major chairmanship, his influence on corporate Kenya appears stronger than ever.

The man who once transformed KCB is now shaping the leaders who run Kenya’s biggest companies.