Category: Business Daily

Across Africa, the conversation has shifted from “What is AI?” to “How can AI drive growth and profitability?” The answer is not more hype, generic training or simply deploying new software. It begins with leadership.

The organisations that will thrive will not necessarily be those experimenting with the most AI tools, but those that build AI into a core business capability.

That requires leaders to integrate AI into strategy, operating models, data readiness, cybersecurity, governance, talent, customer experience and measurable returns. These are executive decisions, not technology projects.

Success starts with asking the right questions. Which business processes should AI improve? Which decisions should it strengthen? What risks must be addressed before scaling? Most importantly, how will success be measured before an AI solution is deployed?

That final question is often overlooked, yet it distinguishes meaningful transformation from expensive experimentation. Launching an AI pilot is relatively easy; defining clear business outcomes in advance is much harder.

A finance team I recently advised illustrates the point. They wanted AI to accelerate invoice approvals and initially planned to automate the existing workflow. Before doing so, however, they examined where delays actually occurred. They discovered that many invoices passed through an approval stage created years earlier to address a risk that no longer existed.

The real solution was not AI but eliminating the unnecessary approval step.

Only after redesigning the process did the team introduce AI to automate a smaller, high-value task. Had they automated the original workflow, they would simply have made an inefficient process run faster while wasting time and money.

This is the lesson many organisations overlook. AI’s greatest value lies not in automating existing work, but in rethinking how work should be done. It forces leaders to question outdated processes, challenge assumptions and redesign operations around value rather than habit.

Ultimately, AI is not a technology conversation – it is a leadership conversation.

Organisations that approach it strategically, with clear objectives and disciplined governance, will achieve lasting competitive advantage.

Those that treat AI as just another software deployment risk spending heavily without transforming how they create value.

Insurer Britam plans to invest up to Sh1.9 billion ($15 million) in financial and insurance technology startups in Kenya and other markets where it operates, as it expands its venture capital arm amid increasing competition from non-traditional insurers.

Through its incubation hub BetaLab, the insurer plans to invest up to Sh1.9 billion in startups across the seven markets where it operates over the next four years, using a mix of equity and debt financing.

Kenya will inject an extra $40 million (Sh5.2 billion) into the African Trade and Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), more than doubling its stake in the quest for greater influence in mobilising billions of shillings for critical projects.

The additional investment will raise Kenya’s capital subscription in the African guarantee platform from $25 million (Sh3.2 billion) to $65 million (Sh8.4 billion), President William Ruto announced on Tuesday.

‘We thank ATIDI for supporting Kenya’s development journey by over $7 billion in investments in energy, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, and trade sectors,’ President Ruto said in a post the X social media platform.

‘To deepen that partnership, Kenya will progressively increase shareholding in ATIDI from $25 million to $65 million as we strengthen the continent’s financial institutions to fund the future.’

The move strengthens Kenya’s position in one of Africa’s fastest-growing multilateral financial institutions as governments increasingly turn to regional lenders and insurers to finance development amid tighter global credit markets.

ATIDI insures investors and lenders against political, sovereign and commercial risks that often discourage financing for projects across African countries.

The guarantees reduce investment risks, allowing banks, insurers and development finance institutions to lend more confidently to businesses and governments undertaking large projects.

The role has become increasingly important as African economies grapple with rising borrowing costs, tighter international financial conditions, as well as reduced appetite for lending to emerging markets. Since its establishment in 2001, ATIDI has supported trade and investment transactions worth more than Sh1.2 trillion ($93 billion) across Africa.

Kenya has emerged as one of the institution’s biggest beneficiaries since joining the institution more than two decades ago.

Beyond buying additional shares in the organisation, Kenya’s increased investment also secures the country greater influence in a body playing an increasingly central role in determining how investment risks across Africa are assessed and financed.

The announcement comes as ATIDI itself expands rapidly through fresh capital injections from governments and international development finance institutions.

Last month, the African Development Bank approved a $125 million (Sh16.2 billion) equity investment to strengthen the institution’s balance sheet and expand its capacity to support investments across member countries.

Germany’s development bank KfW has also invested fresh capital as ATIDI broadens its shareholder base and underwriting capacity.

The additional capital enables the institution to guarantee larger transactions while supporting more investment projects across African economies.

It also reflects Nairobi’s growing ambition to position itself as a leading financial hub for African investment.

South Africa’s Vodacom has completed the purchase of an additional 15 percent stake in Safaricom ahead of the closure of the telco’s shareholder registry for dividend payment on August 4, denying the Treasury Sh16.1 billion in additional pay.

On Tuesday, Vodacom announced it had closed the share purchase, three days after the Court of Appeal lifted orders that blocked the State from transferring the stake to the South African telecoms giant.

The transaction was executed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday as a block trade, marking the largest single transaction ever conducted on the bourse.

Had the sale of the stake been delayed beyond August 4, when Safaricom closes its books for the payment of a final Sh1.15 dividend per share, the Treasury would have earned Sh16.1 billion from the 15 percent stake.

Parties to the transaction had expected the Sh244.5 billion Vodacom deal to be concluded by March 31, locking out Kenya from earning the final dividend from Safaricom’s full-year profits for the period that ended in March.

But the court battle delayed the conclusion of the deal, raising the prospect that the State could receive dividends from the 15 percent stake.

The transaction was frozen when the petitioners, Tony Gachoka and Fredrick Ogola, sued several State agencies, Safaricom Plc and Vodacom Group over the legality of the government’s plan to reduce its stake in the telecoms firm.

The planned sale to Vodacom sharply divided opinion in Kenya.

Some reckoned the deal was good for Kenya, while others were sceptical about the value for the country, arguing that Vodacom remains the winner after getting full control of a cash-generative subsidiary.

Safaricom’s market price

A joint parliamentary committee approved the sale, paving the way for the conclusion of the deal.

The State is set to raise Sh244.5 billion for the exchequer, including Sh204.3 billion for six billion shares sold for Sh34 per share, and an advanced dividend of Sh40.2 billion.

The transfer of the shares to Vodacom boosted the NSE’s daily turnover to a record Sh208.15 billion, from Sh4.7 billion the previous day, and raised the number of shares traded on the day to 6.06 billion from 68.7 million on Monday.

The transaction did not affect Safaricom’s market price since the sale price of Sh34 per share was directly negotiated by Vodacom and the Treasury, with the NSE only providing a platform for settlement of the shares.

Previously, such transactions, which are normally carried out off-market, were not recorded as part of a day’s turnover, denying investors visibility over potentially significant share transfers by large shareholders.

The NSE set up the block trade board in 2023 on the main market segment to handle the sale of shares whose value exceeds Sh3 billion and constitutes five percent or more of an issuer’s total issued shares.

‘This is a landmark moment for Vodacom, for Safaricom, and for the communities we serve across East Africa,’ Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said yesterday in a statement.

‘Acquiring majority ownership in Safaricom strengthens our position as a market leader, while at the same time unlocking new opportunities to drive digital and financial inclusion at scale in Kenya and Ethiopia.’

Facing high public debt, limited room to raise taxes, and annual debt repayments that absorb 40 percent of government revenues, President William Ruto’s administration is turning to asset sales to bolster its finances.

Attaining majority control

The government’s stake in Safaricom will drop from 35 percent to 20 percent.

Concurrently with the purchase of the 15 percent stake from the government, Vodacom is also buying a five percent stake in Safaricom that is held by parent firm, Vodafone Group, at the same price of Sh34 per share.

Once the twin deals are sealed, Vodacom will raise its ownership in the telco to 55 percent, attaining majority control.

Proceeds from the 15 percent State stake sale in Safaricom are expected to form seed capital for the recently established National Infrastructure Fund.

The seed capital for the fund currently has proceeds from the initial public offering of the Kenya Pipeline Company, which was concluded earlier in March.

The NIF is expected to serve as the primary vehicle for financing large-scale infrastructure expansion, including roads, railways, energy and water systems.

A court has halted the auction of a Nairobi businesswoman’s property after she argued she was condemned unheard because court papers were served through WhatsApp.

The dispute centres on whether WhatsApp messages’ ‘grey ticks’ confirm successful delivery to one’s phone, raising broader questions about digital court processes and the right to a fair hearing.

On WhatsApp, a grey tick tells you the status of your message. One grey tick means that your message has successfully left your phone and reached WhatsApp’s servers, but it hasn’t reached the recipient yet.

Two grey ticks mean that your message has been successfully delivered to the recipient’s device, but they haven’t opened or read it yet.

The businesswoman, Jackie Kiaraho, argued that she did not receive the court documents on WhatsApp, nor was she aware of documents left with a security guard as part of an undefended employment case in which auctioneers are seeking to attach her property to recover more than Sh1million awarded to a former security officer, Peter Njonja Bundi.

The Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi granted a stay of execution of the planned auction, allowing Kiaraho to settle the decree under the court’s supervision, saying a stay would avert any further miscarriage of justice while the matter was addressed.

“The stay of execution will be allowed to allow the applicant to settle the claim under the court’s supervision to avert any further miscarriage of justice,” the judge said, in a ruling that highlights fresh questions over the reliability of digital service in litigation.

Grey ticks as proof of delivery

The decision leaves unresolved the central dispute over whether the employer received proper notice of the case before judgment was entered against her.

Ms Kiaraho told the court she only learnt of the proceedings on February 26 this year when Mamalo Auctioneers arrived at her Runda residence and proclaimed her movable property under a warrant issued to enforce the judgment.

She said she had never been served with the claim, summons or other court documents and therefore lost the opportunity to defend herself.

According to her application, one affidavit of service claimed court papers were sent to her through WhatsApp, relying on screenshots showing two grey ticks as proof of delivery.

A second affidavit stated that documents were later left with a security guard identified only as “Ben” at the gate of her residence in Tigoni.

Ms Kiaraho disputed both methods. She argued that the WhatsApp messages did not prove she actually received or read the documents and that leaving papers with a security guard did not amount to personal service required under the law.

“The irregular service denied her the opportunity to defend the suit, resulting in an ex parte judgment that is liable to be set aside to prevent a miscarriage of justice,” her advocate told the court.

She also denied directly employing Mr Bundi, saying he worked intermittently as a casual night guard through a private security company at Jadav Gardens in Tigoni rather than for her personally.

She further argued that part of the claim was time-barred and maintained that any termination followed the claimant’s alleged failure to prevent a felony on the premises in October 2020.

WhatsApp delivery indicators

Mr Bundi opposed the application, insisting the employer had been properly served throughout the proceedings.

He said his advocates physically served the pleadings before also transmitting them through WhatsApp to a mobile number he said belonged to Ms Kiaraho.

He told the court screenshots demonstrated successful delivery of the documents.

“Electronic service through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp has been recognised and accepted by Kenyan courts as a valid mode of service,” Mr Bundi’s advocates argued.

He added that Ms Kiaraho never denied owning or using the mobile number and deliberately ignored the proceedings despite receiving court documents, a decree and execution notices through the same platform.

Mr Bundi also said auctioneers unsuccessfully attempted to notify her by telephone before commencing execution.

“The applicant had actual knowledge of these proceedings but deliberately chose to ignore the same,” he argued.

He described the application as an afterthought intended to delay enforcement of a lawful judgment.

The dispute arose after Mr Bundi sued over the end of his employment as a night guard, claiming he had worked continuously between 2015 and 2020 before being unfairly dismissed.

In March 2025, the court entered judgment in his favour after the employer failed to enter an appearance. He was awarded Sh992,146 plus interest and costs, bringing the decretal amount to slightly more than Sh1 million before execution commenced.

Although the ruling temporarily stops the auction, it leaves open the broader question increasingly confronting Kenyan courts as litigation shifts to digital platforms: whether WhatsApp delivery indicators alone provide sufficient proof that court documents reached the intended recipient and that the right to be heard was fully protected.

Planes registered in Kenya will now be inspected for airworthiness every two years, instead of annually, amid a biting shortage of inspectors as the number of locally registered aircraft grew rapidly.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has spaced out mandatory aircraft inspections as a strategy to cope with the staff shortage, extended validity period of certificates of airworthiness issued to aircraft operators to two years from the current one year, lengthening the mandatory checks intervals.

This is part of major regulatory changes in the industry, aimed at complying with global standards, and is expected to reduce the workload for airworthiness inspectors in the country, as well as the compliance burden for air operators.

It comes as the number of operational aircraft is projected to hit 1,000 by 2030, after growing by about 7.6 percent over the last five years, from 735 in 2020 to 782 in 2025.

Over the same period, the number of airworthiness inspectors working for KCAA dropped from 26 to 21, causing an increased workload on the workers amidst a projected boom in aircraft registrations.

‘The current regulation was put in place when we had about 200 aircraft registered in Kenya; now we are approaching 1,000, the annual checks are no longer tenable,’ said a senior inspector who asked not to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the press.

The regulator engaged aviation stakeholders on the new regulations on Monday, and the majority agreed that the extension was both necessary and long overdue to ease the burden of compliance in the heavily regulated industry. The new laws are expected to take effect from March next year.

Airworthiness is the condition of an aircraft being safe and fit to fly. An airworthiness certificate is the official document issued by KCAA confirming that a plane meets those requirements after an inspector conducts thorough checks on it. Without a valid certificate, an aircraft cannot legally operate, leading to grounding.

A single airworthiness check for the certificate renewal can take several days and up to two weeks for commercial airplanes, highlighting the intensity of work that goes into the activity.

Air operators attending the engagement with the regulator said they have at times had to ground planes while awaiting regulatory checks, as a plane cannot fly without the certificate, straining their operations.

KCAA said the extension of the certificate’s validity will speed up inspection and clearing of planes to fly, as the number of locally registered aircraft.

The change, however, will not impact the safety of Kenyan-registered airplanes as operators will still be required to do regular maintenance and checks before flying and the regulator will continue to conduct impromptu checks to ensure compliance.

It will also not impact compliance costs or revenues for the regulator, as the inspection fees will be doubled to cater for the extended validity period.

Currently, the regulator charges between Sh3,000 and Sh35,000 for the certificate depending on the aircraft, and an extra Sh2,700 for every additional 500 kilogrammes above the maximum aircraft take-off mass. With the doubling of the validity period, this amount is expected to be twice the inspector said.

The regulator says the move will also standardise Kenya’s practice with international standards. The International Civil Aviation Organisation requires the airworthiness certificates to be renewed every two years.

The move comes at a time when Kenyan airlines, including the national flag carrier, face record fleet grounding, occasioned in part by the global shortage of airline parts.

Currently, there are about 17 grounded planes in Kenya, including 11 in Kenya Airways’ fleet.

It is 4pm and a fully packed wooden dhow sets out from the ancient stone town of Lamu into the Indian Ocean at Ras Kitau. As the dhow sails past Shella, a large banner unfurls from its mast: ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’. On board, a group of friends breaks into song.

Such scenes have become increasingly common along Kenya’s Coast, particularly in Lamu, Malindi, Watamu and Kilifi, as Kenyans and foreign visitors hire traditional dhows to host parties in the middle of Indian Ocean.

In Lamu, the parties mostly happen in Shella, Manda, Ras Kitau, Kipungani and Kiwayu islands.

Kristina Emil, a tourist from Norway, is among the growing number of foreigners drawn to the trend. A frequent visitor to Kenya’s Coast, she chose Lamu’s Ras Kitau to mark her birthday this year.

‘I have done birthdays on yachts in Mombasa, boats and floating bars and restaurants in Kilifi. This year, my birthday was in Lamu’s Ras Kitau,’ she tells BDLife.

‘Celebrating aboard a traditional Swahili dhow, she adds, is a distinctly coastal experience. ‘You’re floating on the Indian Ocean, eating fresh seafood, dancing to coastal music, watching the sun set. It’s magical and unforgettable.’

Newest niche

Tourism operators say Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline has long been associated with beach parties and resort nightlife. But middle-of-Indian Ocean celebrations, ranging from sunset cruises to private weddings and engagement parties, are emerging as the newest niche.

Fridah Njeri, chairperson of the Lamu Tourism Association (LTA), says middle-of-the-ocean parties are helping to boost tourist numbers, particularly among repeat visitors and those looking for experiences beyond traditional sand-and-beach.

Ms Njeri, who is also the proprietor of the Lamu Floating Bar and Restaurant, says sailing into the open water gives visitors a different experience.

‘We should be actively promoting this as a new tourism niche,’ she says. ‘It gives visitors a completely different way of experiencing the Coast.’

The cost

Hiring a dhow, decorating it and catering for guests can cost anywhere between Sh15,000 and over Sh150,000, depending on the size of the group and level of service.

‘People are paying for sunset sailing for birthdays, engagements, weddings…any celebration, really,’ Ms Njeri says.

Hassan Faraj, a coxswain who operates the Arya Excursion Dhow in Lamu and has been in the trade for seven years, says his rates range between Sh20,000 and Sh70,000 for a day excursion.

‘It depends on the number of people,’ he says. ‘For three guests, for instance, I charge about Sh20,000.’

In Kilifi, Maureen Obunga, the chairperson of the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers, says mid-ocean parties are a welcome innovation for the Coast’s tourism industry.

‘These experiences breathe new life into destinations that visitors already know,’ she says.

Ms Obunga, who is also general manager of Malindi Ocean Beach Resort and Spa, notes that while established beach towns such as Diani and Watamu remain popular, premium marine offerings-yacht charters in Mtwapa Creek, sunset dhow cruises in Kilifi, or island-hopping parties in Lamu-give travellers fresh reasons to return.

‘It shifts the Coast from being a place where you simply look at the ocean,’ she says, ‘to one where you actually live on it.’

New jobs at sea

Tour guides and beach operators say the trend is opening up new income streams. Mohamed Abubakar, a tour guide in the Lamu Archipelago, describes floating celebrations as a potential game-changer, particularly in culturally conservative destinations with limited nightlife.

Now 53, and with 22 years in tourism, Abubakar points to Lamu Old Town, a UNESCO-listed heritage site, as an example of where entertainment options are intentionally restricted to preserve tradition.

‘Taking parties to the middle of the ocean offers a practical solution for the wide mix of tourists visiting the archipelago,’ he says. ‘These visitors can party at sea,’ Abubakar says, ‘without disrupting daily life or culture of the mainland.’

In Malindi, beach operator Ali Aboud says floating parties are fuelling a small but growing ecosystem of work. Traditional drummers, DJs, live musicians, decorators, photographers and boat crews are all drawn into what he calls a ‘micro-economy’.

‘This creates a micro-economy,’ Aboud says, ‘a single floating wedding or birthday party on a traditional dhow or yacht also triggers a chain of local spending, from captains and sailors to artisans, woodcarvers and mechanics who maintain the vessels.’

Cultural sensitivity

As floating parties gain popularity, Aisha Miraj, a tourism executive in Lamu, says cultural sensitivity must remain.

‘We encourage visitors to enjoy the freedom at sea and the experiences,’ she says, ‘but we also ask that they dress and behave modestly when moving through villages and town centres.’

The balance, Ms Miraj adds, lies in allowing tourism to grow without eroding the social fabric that makes Lamu distinctive in the first place.

Today, the Communist Party of China (CPC) marks its 105th anniversary. For some observers, the milestone is measured in years. For business leaders and development practitioners, however, it is better measured in outcomes.

After all, anniversaries do not build roads, educate children, expand exports, or lift people out of poverty. Policies do.

The story of the CPC began not in the industrial parks of Shenzhen nor the financial district of Shanghai, but on a modest wooden vessel anchored on Nanhu Lake in Zhejiang Province. In 1921 aboard this modest vessel, known today as the Red Boat, it was there that delegates concluded the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China and announced its founding.

What began as a gathering of a handful of visionaries has evolved into a political organisation with more than 100 million members overseeing the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s President Xi Jinping has stressed that ‘There are some fixed principles in governing a state, among which benefiting the people should be the root.’

The sentiment reflects a philosophy that places public welfare, poverty reduction, education, healthcare, and economic opportunity at the centre of national development. President Xi has often emphasised that even seemingly ordinary concerns such as warm housing, hot meals, clean air, and toilet facilities are fundamental measures of good governance.

A major success of China’s people-centred development approach was the Poverty Alleviation Campaign (2013-2020). Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all strategy, local officials identified poor households individually and implemented tailored solutions ranging from housing improvements and vocational training to relocation and agricultural support.

In 2021, China announced that it had eliminated extreme rural poverty under its national poverty standard, benefiting nearly 100 million rural residents.

Following this achievement, China launched the Rural Revitalisation Strategy to improve rural healthcare, expand digital connectivity, and upgrade infrastructure, alongside the Common Prosperity Agenda aimed at ensuring that economic development benefits a broader segment of society rather than a select few.

These people-centred initiatives have supported one of the world’s most remarkable economic transformations, with GDP per capita rising from less than $100 to over $12,000, while positioning China as a global manufacturing powerhouse, infrastructure leader, and one of the world’s largest trading nations.

Today, China is a key economic partner for countries across Africa. For Kenya, this relationship is increasingly significant as China has become a major trading partner and source of infrastructure investment.

Projects such as the standard gauge railway, road networks, and energy projects have improved connectivity and lowered business costs. At the same time, Kenya’s exports to China, including tea, macadamia, avocados, seafood, and other agricultural products, continue to expand as access to the Chinese market grows through initiatives such as the zero-tariff policy.

As Kenya pursues its Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda and seeks to strengthen manufacturing, agriculture, and the digital economy, China’s experience offers an important reflection that sustained economic growth is often the result of sustained investment in people.

China is not alone in demonstrating this principle. Singapore offers another compelling example of people-centred development. When the city-state gained independence in 1965, its GDP per capita was about $500, comparable to many developing countries.

Despite having limited land, no significant natural resources, and a small domestic market, Singapore invested heavily in its people through initiatives such as the Housing Development Board (HDB), which provided affordable housing and helped eliminate slums, and the Skills Future Programme, which supports lifelong learning and workforce competitiveness.

One hundred and five years after a handful of delegates gathered on a small red boat, China stands among the world’s leading economies. Singapore ranks among the world’s most competitive business destinations, and Rwanda has emerged as one of Africa’s notable development success stories.

Perhaps the common denominator is not ideology but continuity.

While many countries change policies when governments change, these three have largely kept their development missions afloat even as leaders have come and gone. After all, it is difficult to reach a destination if the captain keeps changing the map mid-voyage.

Human capital became Singapore’s most valuable resource, with development viewed not simply as economic growth but as expanding opportunities and improving citizens’ quality of life. This approach helped transform the country into one of the world’s most advanced economies, with GDP per capita rising to more than $56,000 by 2015.

Today, Singapore ranks among the world’s leading financial centres, logistics hubs, and innovation ecosystems.

As Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam has often emphasized, true national success is measured not only by economic performance but by whether citizens can face the future with confidence, hope, and opportunity.

Africa offers its own compelling example in Rwanda. The country embarked on an ambitious reconstruction programme focused on healthcare, education, digital transformation, skills development, public service delivery, and investment promotion.

These reforms helped grow Rwanda’s GDP from approximately $11 billion in 2021 to more than $13 billion in 2022, while positioning Kigali as a regional hub for innovation, conferences, and entrepreneurship.

Central to this approach is Imihigo, a performance-based governance system introduced in 2006 that links leadership accountability to measurable improvements in citizens’ lives. Focusing on areas such as healthcare, education, job creation, agricultural productivity, and service delivery, the initiative reflects Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame’s philosophy of putting people at the centre of development and governance.

China, Singapore, and Rwanda differ greatly in size, population, and history. Yet beyond their economic achievements, they share another important characteristic, and that is policy continuity.

Their priorities in poverty reduction, infrastructure, education, healthcare, and human capital development have remained consistent over time.

In China, Five-Year Plans are linked to longer-term national goals, enabling policy continuity while adapting to changing circumstances.

Singapore has maintained a steady focus on its critical policies with strong institutions and a professional civil service. Rwanda’s Vision 2020, Vision 2050, and Imihigo system similarly ensure that national development goals remain central to governance.

For businesses and investors, policy consistency often matters as much as policy quality. Factories, ports, railways, and education reforms require years, sometimes decades, to deliver results. The ability to maintain strategic direction over long periods therefore becomes a significant competitive advantage.

Still policy continuity alone does not guarantee success. The experiences of China, Singapore, and Rwanda suggest that when long-term planning is combined with a sustained focus on citizens’ welfare, continuity can become a powerful catalyst for economic transformation.

When national priorities are treated as generational projects rather than electoral projects, that’s where success lies.

Institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), African Development Bank (AfDB), and African Union also emphasize that progress should be measured not only by economic growth but also by improvements in people’s well-being. Agenda 2063 envisions an Africa whose development is driven by, and benefits its people.

For Kenya, the discussion is timely as the country seeks to create jobs, expand manufacturing, boost exports, leverage opportunities and attract investment. Achieving these goals will require sustained investment in human capital, especially equipping young people with the skills needed to compete in an increasingly dynamic global economy.

The key reflections from China, Singapore, and Rwanda is not that countries should replicate one another’s political systems, but that lasting development can be achieved when people remain at the centre of policy, and national priorities are pursued consistently over time.

Growth, trade and exports, are important, but they are ultimately tools for improving people’s lives, opportunities, and well-being.

British drinks giant Diageo Plc has promoted Kenyan executive John Musunga to managing director for Africa, placing him in charge of the company’s continental business.

The appointment, which takes effect on Wednesday, comes months after Diageo agreed to sell its 65 percent stake in East African Breweries Plc (EABL)for $2.3 billion (Sh296 billion) and its 53.68 percent interest in UDV Kenya for $646 million (Sh83.6 billion) to Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings in a deal due to close later this year.

Mr Musunga will relocate from London to Nairobi to oversee Diageo’s operations across Africa, underscoring the company’s decision to retain a regional management presence in Kenya despite divesting from one of its biggest African markets.

Strategic portfolio changes

‘His appointment underscores Diageo’s confidence in Kenya’s position as a leading regional business and financial hub, and its importance in supporting the company’s long-term ambitions across the continent,’ said Diageo in a statement.

Mr Musunga’s promotion also comes as Diageo restructures its African business following a series of strategic portfolio changes aimed at reducing debt and sharpening focus on core operations globally.

The appointee takes the new role after serving as managing director for Diageo’s South, West and Central Africa business, where he oversaw operations across more than 30 African markets.

He previously served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria, one of Diageo’s largest businesses on the continent.

Senior leadership positions

Before moving to Nigeria, Musunga headed Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) after joining Diageo in March 2021 at a time when the brewer was recovering from Covid-19 disruptions.

His tenure at KBL coincided with a rebound in consumer demand as bars, restaurants and entertainment venues reopened after easing of restrictions.

Prior to joining Diageo, Mr Musunga built much of his corporate career at GlaxoSmithKline, serving in senior leadership positions across Africa, Europe and Asia.

His career has included assignments in Kenya, Nigeria, Belgium and South Africa, giving him experience in managing businesses across both developed and emerging markets.

A society can tolerate the failure of most companies. It cannot function without some systems.

That distinction has acquired new urgency. Modern economies depend on payment networks, cloud infrastructure, digital platforms and communications systems that are privately owned but underpin public life. Institutions are therefore forced to answer a question they were never designed for: what happens when systems that shape everyday public life remain private?

Every era produces organisations that become woven into its economic order. Medieval trading leagues once controlled the commercial arteries of Europe. Chartered companies later moved goods, capital and imperial influence across continents.

One of them, the East India Company, exercised military, fiscal and administrative authority across vast territories before many of those functions were absorbed by the British state.

Industrial economies later produced railroad networks, banking houses and telephone systems powerful enough to shape entire markets.

Concentrated power is not new. The systems through which it now travels are. When Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud-computing platform, suffered a major outage in October 2025, the disruption rippled through more than 1,000 companies.

Banks, airlines, payment systems and major digital platforms including Reddit and Snapchat experienced service interruptions. The infrastructure sat in northern Virginia. The consequences did not. The outage ended within hours. The dependency remained.

The modern economy runs through infrastructure that few citizens see and even fewer governments fully control. A retailer in Nairobi depends on digital payments to settle transactions quickly.

A hotel’s visibility can rise or collapse because an algorithm changed somewhere beyond its reach. A bank may look local while depending on cloud infrastructure sitting outside the country where its customers live. A public agency may deploy digital systems more complex than the legal and institutional frameworks designed to oversee them.

The economy still looks national from the outside. Underneath, payments, communications, logistics and data move through privately governed digital infrastructure. Markets are rarely neutral. They are shaped by law, code, ownership and the institutions controlling access to them

In Kenya, market shifts stopped being theoretical long ago. When mobile money first emerged in 2007, the story seemed straightforward: technology solving a practical problem in a heavily cash-based economy. Transactions became faster. Distance mattered less. Informality became more legible. Entire categories of commerce expanded.

But something deeper was happening at the same time. Private telecommunications system was quietly becoming part of the country’s economic operating system.

Salary payments, transport, utility bills, school fees and small-business commerce moved onto privately operated rails until they became embedded in ordinary life. Millions adopted the transition through convenience rather than ideology. The infrastructure became normal long before its institutional consequences were understood.

That experience now extends well beyond payments. Cloud systems underpin communications, financial infrastructure and data storage. Digital platforms shape how businesses acquire customers, how information circulates and how markets coordinate themselves.

Modern power operates through dependency as much as ownership. A system becomes influential not only because it is profitable, but because public institutions, businesses and ordinary citizens gradually lose the practical ability to function outside it.

That shift is unsettling some of the assumptions on which competition law was built. Industrial-era regulation focused on physical dominance: pipelines, factories, rail corridors and distribution networks. Modern economic power increasingly operates through platforms, ecosystems, payment rails, cloud infrastructure and network effects.

Several global technology firms now shape policy environments less through territory than through dependence. Countries negotiate not only with other states, but with corporations operating systems their citizens cannot easily function without.

Infrastructure, once tied primarily to territory, now sits inside global systems shaped as much by geopolitics as commerce.

Power now travels through these systems as much as territory.

Law has met versions of this problem before. In Munn v Illinois (1877), the United States Supreme Court held that once private property became ‘affected with a public interest,’ it ceased to be purely private and could be regulated in the public’s name.

Grain elevators remained privately owned, yet commerce depended on them. The law therefore treated them differently from ordinary businesses. The more a society depends on a private system, the less purely private that system remains.

Decades later, in Marsh v Alabama (1946), the same court held that a company-owned town could not escape constitutional scrutiny once it served, in practice, as a public space.

Those cases belonged to industrial America.

Today’s infrastructure operates across borders and legal systems in ways nineteenth-century courts could not have imagined. Yet the underlying tension feels familiar: infrastructure remaining privately owned while becoming socially indispensable.

Africa is often described as technologically behind; it may instead be an early laboratory. Parts of the continent encountered these questions earlier because mobile-money leapfrogging compressed several stages of institutional change into a single generation.

The constitutional implications are becoming harder to ignore. American law has long struggled with what lawyers call the state-action problem: constitutional duties generally bind governments, not private actors.

Kenya’s 2010 Constitution takes a broader view. Article 20(1) provides that the Bill of Rights binds not only state organs but all persons. South Africa’s 1996 constitutional framework, under Section 8(2), similarly allows constitutional obligations to operate horizontally between private parties.

African constitutional systems may hold tools for confronting forms of private infrastructural power that older legal traditions are still learning to govern.

Kenya’s courts have begun to encounter the edges of this transition. In the Huduma Namba litigation in 2020, the High Court conditioned implementation of the Huduma Card, the final stage of Kenya’s digital identity system, on a data-protection impact assessment. The point was not hostility to innovation. Societies become dependent on systems long before law settles around them.

No modern economy can function outside these systems. The infrastructure arrived first. Governance is still catching up.