Category: Business Daily

Dr Jephnei Orina stood inside a United States immigration office, watching a woman cry tears of joy. She had waited 18 years for this moment.

Years earlier, immigration officers had planned to deny her asylum application because she had tried to handle the paperwork herself and failed to submit crucial evidence. Then she hired Orina.

He reviewed every page of her file, gathered the missing documents and walked into the interview by her side.

When the woman was finally granted asylum, she hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek.

“That felt so good for me,” Orina says. “You are able to use your knowledge, your skills, and your experience to change someone’s life.”

He believes every green card he secures for a client is, in many ways, a gift to an entire village back home.

Orina is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and runs Orina and Orina Advocates along Ngong Road in Nairobi. Even while living in the United States, he still logs into virtual court sessions whenever his Kenyan office needs an extra hand.

But before any of that, he was a boy from Kisii County chasing a dream.

“I was born and raised in Kisii,” he says.

He attended St Charles Carolina for primary school before joining St Joseph School Rapogi in Migori County for secondary education. He later graduated from Kisii University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Education (Arts).

After graduation, he moved to Nairobi to pursue what he says had always been his ambition.

“I have always wanted to be a lawyer.”

He enrolled for a law degree at the University of Nairobi’s Parklands campus while simultaneously pursuing an MBA at Kisii University’s Nairobi campus. His schedule left little room to breathe.

“I came to town, did morning classes, went to work at a law firm in Upper Hill,” he says, before rushing to evening law classes.

He graduated with his law degree in 2021, joined the Kenya School of Law and was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya in 2023.

Soon afterwards, he left for the United States.

“I really wanted to get this done before I get to my 30s,” he says of his ambition to earn a doctorate. “It exposed me to world-class education and international law.”

He completed a Master of Laws at Northeastern University between 2023 and 2024 before enrolling for a PhD in Law at Suffolk University, graduating on May 17, 2026.

Financing that education demanded enormous sacrifice.

“I sold a piece of land back home, my car. I took out a student loan to help cover my master’s degree,” he says.

To pay for his PhD, he worked at a group home caring for elderly residents and people with mental health needs, earning about Sh2,200 an hour.

“For my PhD, I was working 96 hours, 100 hours a week just to be able to pay it,” he says.

His tuition alone totalled nearly Sh7.8 million.

“So, it was just about working those extra shifts until I’m able to pay it off.”

Finding work as an international student was not straightforward.

“International students are not allowed to work outside the university because, remember, you came to study. That is the main purpose,” he explains.

Campus jobs were scarce, forcing him to seek overnight work at the care facility.

“Once residents finish dinner, take their medication and go to sleep around eight in the evening, you have like a block of 10 hours where you can sit overnight and work on your PhD dissertation. You are not supposed to sleep because you are at work,” he says.

His first days in America proved even more difficult than he had imagined.

“The journey in America was a bit rougher than I thought.”

He landed at Logan International Airport in Boston knowing almost no one. A family friend who had promised to host him stopped answering calls the day before he left Kenya.

“So I get to Logan International Airport, I have nowhere to go. I’m in a new country,” he recalls. “That day I actually slept in the airport.”

The university could only direct him to apartment listings, which offered little help to someone without local contacts.

He began calling everyone he knew in the United States. Eventually, a former Airbnb guest connected him to a family from Thika living outside Boston.

They welcomed him into their home for several months.

Before that, he says, he spent days sleeping in classrooms.

“For almost a week, I was sleeping in the classroom because, you know, you don’t have anywhere to go. So in the morning, you go and take a shower at the gym.”

A friend later gave him a car, making it easier to move around the city as he settled into life in America.

After completing his master’s degree, Orina became eligible to sit the Massachusetts bar examination.

“Massachusetts allows lawyers trained in common law countries like Kenya to complete a one-year master’s programme before testing for the bar,” he says.

“The exam itself is a beast.”

“In Kenya, we just do nine courses and that is one per day. But in the US we do 14 courses within two days, totalling 12 hours.”

He says fewer than 40 per cent of first-time candidates pass.

Preparing for the examination came with immense pressure.

“I had grandparents who depended on me, I have parents who depend on me, I have children, I have a family,” he says.

“I remember when I saw the congratulation email that you passed the bar exams, I literally broke down and cried. It was a good feeling.”

He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in May 2025 and opened his own law firm the following month.

He deliberately chose immigration law because it is a federal practice area, allowing him to represent clients across the country while giving him the flexibility to continue his doctoral studies.

“If I was to go and do something like criminal or family law that needs me to go to court, that means you have to go to court at nine,” he says.

Immigration practice, which largely involves paperwork and filings, enabled him to build his business around his studies.

He says lawyers trained in Kenya already possess many of the legal foundations needed to practice in the United States.

“The US and Kenya were both colonies of Britain. So we inherited a lot of things from the British. That is the common law type of system,” he says.

“The only difference is there are two levels of government – the federal government and the state government.”

Away from work, Orina remains deeply connected to Kenya.

“I watch the news every day,” he says.

He says he remains active in politics and community development, returning home about four times a year.

“It is home and we have to build it,” he says.

“We want to build a country where our children can get education and jobs, so they do not have to come to the US.”

For Orina, success in America was never about leaving Kenya behind.

It was about gaining knowledge, experience and opportunity before bringing them back home.

It is a long way from the night he slept on the floor of Logan International Airport, but Orina says every sacrifice was worth it.

The Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) is aiming to increase its presence in the courier business, hoping to capitalise on the current demand for services in this sector, which is currently dominated by an informal delivery network built around upcountry matatus.

The State-owned rail firm has applied for a national courier business permit, signalling KRC’s plans to expand parcel services beyond the Nairobi-Mombasa SGR corridor where it rolled out earlier this year.

A permit approval from the Communications Authority (CA) would allow the State Corporation to collect, sort, transport and deliver parcels and documents across Kenya under a national intra-country courier licence.

‘We’ll do the bulk of the deliveries on the Nairobi-Mombasa line, but we’re also extending to our other routes. We’re not doing last-mile deliveries so clients will pick the parcels from our stations,’ said KRC managing director Philip Mainga in a phone interview.

‘We’re also looking to partner with other courier operators who’ll pick the parcels and do last-mile deliveries.’

KRC launched a dedicated same-day parcel service between Nairobi and Mombasa earlier this year, using the SGR to move consignments between the two cities.

The rail firm says it will use railway stations as collection and distribution points while leaving the final leg of deliveries to customers or partner courier firms.

The approach allows KRC to concentrate on the long-distance movement where rail has an established network while avoiding the cost and operational complexity of building a nationwide last-mile fleet.

The proposed model comes as the courier market undergoes a structural shift from letter delivery towards parcels and logistics, even as overall domestic volumes remain volatile.

Latest data by CA shows that domestic parcel traffic fell 6.1 per cent to 3.7 million in the quarter ended March, down from 3.9 million in the preceding three months.

This came as domestic letters recorded a sharper contraction, falling 20.1 per cent to 636,566 from 796,578 over the same period.

The decline in letters reflects the continued substitution of physical correspondence by email, messaging platforms and other digital communication, leaving parcels as the more relevant growth segment for postal and courier operators.

The State Corporation is entering the market as e-commerce expands demand for delivery services.

Matatus have emerged as a low-cost alternative for moving parcels between Nairobi and upcountry towns, putting pressure on conventional courier operators.

The sector has also seen competition emerge outside the conventional courier model as matatus and buses become widely used to move parcels between towns along established passenger routes.

Operators on upcountry routes offer a network of collection points through transport stages, giving traders and individuals an alternative to formal courier branches.

The model has also been adopted by newer logistics businesses, with some platforms using the existing matatu network to move parcels while providing tracking and delivery guarantees.

Alcohol manufacturer London Distillers (K) Ltd (LDKL) has lost its bid to avoid paying Sh517 million in excise taxes after the Court of Appeal backed the Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) decision to reject a directive by the National Treasury to abandon 80 percent of the tax liability.

The appellate court ruled that the Treasury Cabinet Secretary had no legal authority to advise the KRA to abandon taxes already collected from consumers by a manufacturer for remittance to the government.

The three-judge bench said KRA acted lawfully by declining to implement the directive, which had been issued despite legal objections from both the tax authority and the Attorney-General.

“We agree with the trial court that he had no such powers. That abandonment was illegal, and the respondent was not bound to act on it,” the judges said.

The court said there can be no discretion to abandon that which has been collected by a tax agent from third parties for onward transmission to public coffers.

The ruling settles a dispute over whether the CS Treasury can unilaterally waive taxes that have already been collected from consumers but not remitted to KRA.

According to the court, KRA is only required to implement lawful directives issued by the Cabinet Secretary under Section 37(3) of the Tax Procedures Act.

“It would be dangerous to hold otherwise. It would breed uncertainty in tax administration and collection, completely obliterate objectivity in the process of abandonment of tax, interest and penalty, and undermine the inbuilt checks and balances that ensure transparency in tax administration,” the judges said.

The dispute arose after LDKL conducted a self-assessment for the period between January 2020 and August 2021 and declared excise duty amounting to about Sh895 million. The company paid part of the amount, leaving an outstanding balance of about Sh529 million.

After KRA demanded payment, the distiller challenged the claim before the Tax Appeals Tribunal. The parties later recorded a consent allowing the company to clear the debt through agreed instalments, but alcohol manufacturer failed to honour the payment plan.

The company subsequently appealed directly to the National Treasury, seeking abandonment of the outstanding tax.

In September 2021, the Treasury considered the request and, on January 20, 2022, informed KRA that then Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani had approved the abandonment of 80 percent of the principal tax and a full waiver of penalties and interest under Sections 37 and 89 of the Tax Procedures Act.

Following the decision, KRA acknowledged the Treasury’s communication and demanded payment of about Sh80 million, representing the remaining 20 percent of the tax. London Distillers agreed to settle the amount through weekly instalments of Sh7.5 million and began making payments.

However, KRA later sought legal advice from the Attorney-General, arguing that the Cabinet Secretary’s decision was contrary to the law because the taxes in question had already been collected from consumers.

The Attorney-General advised that the decision be rescinded. Following consultations involving the Treasury, the Attorney-General’s office and KRA, the Cabinet Secretary’s directive was withdrawn.

On March 2, 2022, KRA informed London Distillers that the tax abandonment had been rescinded and demanded payment of the full outstanding balance of Sh517.1 million within seven days, warning that enforcement measures would follow.

The company moved to the High Court seeking orders to quash KRA’s decision, prohibit enforcement of the tax demand, and compel the authority to implement the Cabinet Secretary’s earlier approval.

London Distillers argued that KRA had acted arbitrarily and unlawfully by disregarding the Treasury’s directive. It maintained that it had never received any communication from the Cabinet Secretary withdrawing the decision and accused KRA of usurping powers reserved for the National Treasury.

The petition was dismissed by the High Court, forcing London Distillers to escalate the matter to the Court of Appeal.

The judges observed that if KRA were required to implement every directive from the Cabinet Secretary, including those issued contrary to the law, tax collection would become vulnerable to abuse.

“If the Commissioner were to comply with all directives, including those that are contra statute, then the Government will never collect any revenues because all that taxpayers would require to escape from their tax obligations is to know someone at the National Treasury and their taxes would be abandoned,” the court said.

Rising flood risk is creating a new market for industrial water-removal equipment in Kenya, prompting engineering firms to expand their product offerings as demand grows from government, construction, mining and infrastructure projects.

Swedish industrial equipment maker Atlas Copco is the latest to enter the segment, introducing dewatering solutions to support customers grappling with increasingly frequent flooding.

It joins established global manufacturers such as Xylem, Grundfos and Sulzer, which also recently entered the flood management equipment segment, as competition grows in a market increasingly shaped by climate-related risks and infrastructure investment.

Atlas Copco, which has operated in Kenya for 90 years, has traditionally focused on power solutions and industrial equipment, but recurring floods and growing demand from industries that require large-scale water removal have prompted it to expand into the segment in East Africa.

‘We see it as an emerging segment for the cities. Nairobi has been flooding, for example. For the mines, for construction quarries, we see that as a new segment to us. It’s a segment we are coming into,’ said Atlas Copco East Africa managing director Raphael Kiandiko.

Xylem, a US-based firm, expanded into the segment in 2025, introducing submersible dewatering pumps in the country through partnership with local suppliers. Sulzer and Grundfos also expanded into the market last year through distribution partnerships.

Kenya has experienced increasingly destructive flooding in recent years, with heavy rains damaging roads, businesses and infrastructure while disrupting transport, construction projects and mining operations.

The growing economic cost of floods is pushing both public agencies and private companies to seek equipment that can quickly remove water and minimise damage and downtime.

Dewatering involves pumping out large volumes of water from mines, construction sites, quarries and other industrial facilities, as well as flooded streets and buildings, to keep operations running and reduce flood damage.

While industrial dewatering equipment has long been used in mining and construction, suppliers say demand is now expanding beyond those traditional sectors as increasingly frequent urban flooding creates new commercial opportunities.

According to Mr Kiandiko, the company expects demand from a wide range of customers, including mining and construction firms, government agencies, emergency responders and humanitarian organisations.

‘There’s big need. There’s big need in Nairobi. We will be knocking doors, engaging with institutions and the government to introduce these solutions. We can have flooding, but to a great extent we can control that with these products,’ he said.

Local availability of the equipment is also expected to reduce reliance on overseas suppliers for installation, maintenance and technical support, allowing customers to access spare parts and servicing more quickly during emergencies and major infrastructure projects.

Mr Kiandiko said the company sees mining, quarrying, construction and urban infrastructure as the biggest drivers of demand.

and expects the new business segment to become an increasingly important part of its East African operations as governments and businesses invest more in flood resilience.

The High Court has certified a suit challenging a new digital cargo system by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as urgent.

The court said the application raises weighty legal issues and directed that it be heard during the court recess.

“The Motion dated August 3, 2026 is hereby certified urgent and admitted for consideration during the current recess,” the court said.

Issa Elanyi Chamao, Patrick Karani and Paul Kirui are challenging the rollout of the Advance Cargo Declaration (ACD) Platform launched on August 3.

ACD is a mandatory digital pre-arrival system requiring a 15-digit alphanumeric reference code for all containerised sea cargo destined for Kenyan ports before loading at the point of origin.

The petitioners argue that despite the substantial public expenditure and national importance of the project, KRA has not disclosed procurement records, tender documents, contract awards or statutory approvals relating to the acquisition, development and implementation of the system.

They say there is no evidence that the platform was procured through an open and competitive process or any other lawful procurement procedure.

According to the petitions, there are no publicly available records showing compliance with Article 227 of the Constitution and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, including the procurement method used, the tender process, the successful bidder, the implementing entity or the contractual arrangements governing ACD.

“The ACD Platform therefore constitutes a matter of considerable public importance, with direct implications for customs administration, the movement of goods into Kenya and the conduct of international trade,” the petition states.

The petitioners are seeking orders suspending further implementation of the platform, arguing that it is already operational and could expose taxpayers to unnecessary costs if it is later found to have been procured unlawfully.

They say suspending the rollout would allow the court to determine whether the platform was lawfully acquired and implemented.

The court directed KRA and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to file their responses within 14 days. The case will be mentioned on September 29 to confirm compliance and give further directions.

The challenge comes as KRA faces a separate lawsuit over the same platform.

In that case, technology entrepreneur Jacob Munene claims the tax authority unlawfully copied a cargo management system he developed and presented to KRA three years ago.

Mr Munene, the founder of Greenworld Big Data Ltd, accuses KRA of infringing his intellectual property rights by launching what he describes as a near replica of his proprietary Advanced Cargo Information Declaration (ACID) System, which he says was designed to digitise and automate cargo import and export operations in Kenya.

He argues that KRA’s ACD platform closely mirrors his innovation in concept, structure, functionality and even its name.

“The 1st Defendant’s product bears an uncanny, substantial and irresistible resemblance in name, concept, structure, sequence and detailed expression to the ACID System disclosed to the Defendant in 2023,” Mr Munene says in an affidavit.

He adds that the similarities are “so glaring not only in form, unique detailed expression and how the system operates, but outwardly, in name and use of the acronyms,” amounting to a serious breach of his intellectual property rights.

According to Mr Munene, he conceived and developed the ACID system before March 2023 after conducting what he describes as a big data forensic gap analysis of Kenya’s trade and transport industry.

The study, he says, exposed major inefficiencies and revenue leakages in cargo operations, prompting him to develop a digital platform to automate cargo declaration, monitoring and revenue assurance across sea, air, rail and road transport.

He maintains that the system was developed independently at his own expense and specifically tailored to Kenya’s cargo management environment before it was presented to KRA.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on Wednesday said it will charge the CEOs of Co-operative Bank, KCB and NCBA for failing to report suspicious transactions in connection with the loss of Sh363 million in an investment firm, escalating the fight against money laundering.

The CEOs — Gideon Muriuki of Co-operative Bank, KCB’s Paul Russo and John Gachora of NCBA — are required to appear before a Milimani court in Nairobi on August 11 over the alleged failure to comply with reporting institutions’ obligations.

The chief prosecutor indicated the CEOs failed to report suspicious transactions from funds believed to have been stolen from First Assurance Investment Ltd.

The ODPP and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) have previously preferred to fine banks for violating anti-money laundering laws, while warning that the office of the chief prosecutor reserved the right to prosecute them in the future.

The ODPP alleges that the three CEOs failed to report the suspicious transactions relating to the fraud, personally holding the heads of the top banks liable, sending shockwaves across Kenya’s capital markets and banking sector.

The charge sheet stated that they conspired with Salim Mohamed Busaidy to defraud First Assurance Investment of the money.

It is alleged that they committed the offence on different dates between May 18, 2018 and April 30, 2024.

Mr Busaidy was a director of the insurance firm and is accused of stealing a total of Sh363.3 million belonging to First Assurance Investment. The money allegedly came into his possession due to his position as a director of the company.

The ODPP said the CEOs will be charged with failure to report suspicious transactions regarding proceeds of crime, contrary to Section 5 as read with Section 44(2) of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act.

The ODPP said investigations established that Mr Busaidy, a former nominated Member of the County Assembly (MCA), forged the signature of his co-director, Issa Abdalla Issa Timamy, who is also the Lamu County governor, on multiple company cheques to facilitate the unlawful withdrawal of the company’s funds.

Mr Busaidy denied a total of 120 counts, including conspiracy to defraud and stealing, 114 counts of making a document without authority, and one count of acquisition of proceeds of crime.

The prosecution alleged that Mr Busaidy exploited his position as a director and his access to the company’s bank accounts held at NCBA Bank, KCB Bank and Co-operative Bank to steal the money.

The prosecution further alleged that he forged the signature of his co-director, Mr Timamy, on numerous company cheques, falsely presenting them as duly authorised, thereby facilitating the unlawful withdrawal of company funds.

The charge sheet shows that he presented cheques of various amounts, ranging from Sh150,000 and Sh350,000 and purported to have been signed by his co-director.

The DPP further contends that the accused acquired Sh363,320,459, knowing the money constituted proceeds of crime arising from the alleged theft.

He denied all the counts and was ordered to deposit cash bail of Sh3 million or an alternative bond of Sh10 million with one surety of a similar amount, to secure his release.

The ODPP reserves the right to charge or withdraw the suit, which is the most significant against banking CEOs.

NCBA Bank, KCB Group and Co-operative Bank are listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

KCB is Kenya’s largest bank on assets, with Co-operative Bank and NCBA Bank coming at number three and four.

The CBK fined five banks in 2018 for failing to report suspicious transactions in connection with the theft of funds at the National Youth Service (NYS), a State agency.

Penalties totalling Sh392.5 million were imposed on Standard Chartered Kenya, Equity, Diamond Trust, Co-operative Bank and KCB Group.

The banks had received a total of more than Sh3 billion from the NYS on behalf of their customers, but failed to report the suspicious transactions, the CBK said.

In 2020, the chief prosecutor fined the five banks Sh385 million for violating anti-money laundering laws, adding that further investigations found the lenders had failed to put in place adequate systems to combat money laundering and to know their customers as the law required.

The United States has issued a new health alert for Kenya due to an increase in dengue fever cases. This places the country back on the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Global Dengue Travel Health Notice, more than two years after the agency first issued the global advisory in June 2024.

The updated notice, released on August 3, maintains Kenya at Level 1 – Practice Usual Precautions, which is the lowest travel advisory level. However, it flags an elevated risk along the coast and in Wajir and Garissa counties. Although it does not advise against travel, the CDC recommends that travellers take steps to prevent mosquito bites.

Kenya is one of 11 countries reporting higher-than-usual dengue activity, or a higher-than-expected number of dengue infections among US travellers returning from these destinations. The others are Bolivia, Cambodia, Colombia, Malaysia, the Maldives, New Caledonia, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Tonga and Vietnam.

“Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus common in tropical and subtropical climates that can lead to fever, aches and pains, nausea and rashes,” the statement said.

“Travellers to risk areas should prevent mosquito bites by using an EPA-registered insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and long trousers outdoors and sleeping in an air-conditioned or screened room.”

Dengue is a viral infection mainly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in stagnant water and bites mainly during the day. The disease can range from a mild or asymptomatic infection to severe dengue, including haemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal without prompt medical care.

Symptoms usually develop within three to 10 days of being bitten by an infected mosquito, most commonly within five to seven days. These include sudden high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and intense muscle and joint pain. Others are nausea, skin rash, and in some cases, mild bleeding such as nosebleeds or bleeding gums.

Diagnosis can be difficult because the initial symptoms are similar to those of malaria and chikungunya.

Kenya does not currently offer a dengue vaccine; therefore, the main defences against the disease are mosquito-bite prevention, vector control, and early treatment.

Kenya’s current outbreak began in November 2025.

The country has experienced repeated dengue outbreaks over the past four decades. Major outbreaks have been recorded along the coast in 1982, from 2013 to 2014, and in 2021.

The northeastern counties of Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera have also experienced periodic surges, including a major outbreak in Mandera between 2011 and 2012 that infected several thousand people.

High income status within a generation is now official policy. Yet at the current growth, Kenya won’t get there until well into the next century. The gap is about savings and investment, not vision.

In an address on July 30, President William Ruto invited the country to a National Conversation to write a development charter that will succeed Vision 2030.

Behind it sits the working group report chaired by Prof Peter Anyang Nyong’o and Prof Hiroyuki Hino. The phrase it uses is unambiguous: a First World, high income and industrialised nation within one generation.

Vision 2030 set a target of 10 percent and delivered 4.9. Our best single year since the 1970s was 7.1 percent, in 2007. The economy fell to 1.5 percent the following year.

Since 1990, only 34 middle-income economies have made it to high income, and more than a third of those did so through EU accession or newly discovered oil.

Sub-Sahara has one high-income economy, Seychelles, a state of about 130,000 people. Vietnam was reclassified by the World Bank as upper-middle income this month, 35 years after its reforms began. Kenya remains lower-middle income.

The ambition places Kenya where most countries fail, in a region it has never been done at scale, on a timetable faster than the fastest recent performer has managed.

Every economy that has made this leap did so on the back of extraordinary investment. The East Asian tigers ploughed between a quarter and two-fifths of national output back into productive assets for decades.

Vietnam and South Korea still run gross capital formation around 32 percent of GDP. Kenya’s stands at 16.8 percent, below the world average of 22.3 percent and well below our own 1978 peak of 29.8 per cent. Gross national savings hover between 12 and 16 percent.

Public debt has passed Sh13 trillion, roughly 69 percent of GDP against a statutory anchor of 55 percent due by 2028. Treasury says debt service could absorb close to 91 percent of ordinary revenue in 2026/27 financial year.

To its credit, the report understands the productivity of half of the equation. Its central argument is about sequence rather than ambition: land reform, then agricultural productivity, then labour intensive manufacturing for export, then the absorption of technology.

Manufacturing has fallen to about 7.2 percent of GDP against a Vision 2030 target of 15, and 83.6 percent of employment sits in the informal sector.

By grounding the charter in Article 43, which guarantees health, housing, food, water, social security and education, he shifts development from a preference of those who govern to an obligation owed to the governed. A charter, unlike a plan, sets standards a government can be measured against.

The report is quiet on where the investment comes from, and quieter on land, listing secure tenure without confronting the redistribution that made the Asian sequence work.

There is also a timing problem: the working group proposes launching the Vision by the end of 2026, while the Conversation begins on August 12. Four months is not a national consensus.

The test for the National Conversation is narrow. Does it produce numbers Kenyans can hold governments to: an investment rate, a savings target, a manufacturing share of GDP, a debt-service ceiling, a date? Get the numbers into the charter and the ambition becomes a plan. Leave them out and we will be reading a fourth grand vision in another 20 years, asking once more why the last one did not hold.

There is an 81 percent chance that the El Niño expected to peak between October and December and possibly persist into early 2027 could become one of the most powerful events since 1950. This is according to a projection by the US Climate Prediction Center (CPC).

That forecast should serve as a wake-up call for the government and all institutions responsible for disaster preparedness and response. The question is no longer whether Kenya should prepare, but whether it is ready.

If preparedness is the country’s first line of defense, the budget does little to reflect that priority. The 2026/27 National Budget contains no dedicated allocation for El Niño preparedness, meaning any response will depend on existing disaster management and contingency financing.

This is despite a recent report from The International Rescue Committee (IRC) placing Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and some regions of Asia among the most at risk.

This challenge is compounded by shrinking donor funding. As reported by the Daily Nation on July 30th, Kenya Red Cross Secretary General, Ahmed Idris says funding from the United States has fallen to about 40 percent. At a time when Kenya is already experiencing a prolonged dry spell, reduced humanitarian financing could weaken the country’s ability to respond to the impacts of El Niño.

The question that keeps coming up though is, why is it that as a country we are always caught flat footed and left to take a reactive approach rather than a proactive one. Where do we miss the mark and what gaps should be addressed?

The World Resources Institute (WRI) warns that decades of poor urban planning, ageing drainage systems and environmental degradation have left Nairobi vulnerable to flood disasters.

While Kenya’s Cabinet Committee on El Niño Preparedness and Response is mandated to implement a national contingency plan, evacuation and shelter, the emphasis remains largely on managing consequences of extreme weather rather than addressing the structural vulnerabilities that make disasters so devastating in the first place.

These are not problems that can be solved through emergency response alone. They require sustained investment in resilient infrastructure, stronger enforcement of land-use regulations, protection of wetlands, and closer coordination between National and County Governments. Without addressing these structural weaknesses Kenya remains exposed to the same vulnerabilities.

We really do not have to look far for lessons. Rwanda has demonstrated how long-term investment in climate resilience can significantly reduce flood risk. Like Nairobi today, Kigali once experienced frequent flooding whenever heavy rains pounded.

Rapid urbanisation had encroached on Kigali’s wetlands, reducing their natural ability to absorb floodwater. With over 500 hectares of urban wetlands rehabilitated, Kigali now stands as the largest wide urban wetland rehabilitation in Africa and in the world.

The rehabilitated wetlands do not just bolster the city’s defense against floods but also offers spaces for tourism, education and recreation, while improving water quality and biodiversity.

According to the World Bank, Rwanda’s Wetland Ecosystem Parks will draw over 1.5 million annual visits by 2036, create 7,500 jobs, nearly half of them for women and result in $45-90 million in avoided flood damages, linking recreation, research, and nature-based tourism to community benefits.

Kenya’s context is different, but the principle is the same. Taking a more proactive approach before disasters strike is significantly less costly than rebuilding after floods. Climate adaptation should therefore be viewed not as environmental expenditure but as an economic investment that protects infrastructure, livelihoods, and public finances while also offering the opportunity to create new streams of employment.

Kenya’s National Treasury has already quantified the cost of inaction. Data from the newly launched Disaster Risk Financing Strategy 2026-2030 shows that the 2023 and 2024 floods resulted in an estimated Sh187.82 billion in damages and losses, underscoring how climate shocks have become a fiscal and economic challenge, and not just a humanitarian one.

With more than 30 percent of Kenya’s GDP and over 40 percent of employment tied to climate-sensitive sectors, investing in preparedness is no longer optional. As the Treasury itself recommends, disaster risk must be integrated into public budgeting and financing.

Last Thursday evening, in a prime-time address, the President announced that Kenya will begin crafting Vision 2060. A national conversation opens on August 12, aiming at a development charter to carry us a generation forward.

It was announced with an honesty worth noting: Vision 2030, still has four years to run, and by the President’s own admission, many of its ambitions remain unattained. Sit with that arithmetic. We have started imagining the next horizon before arriving at the last one.

Our founders’ forum did not receive the news gently. One member argued that the only vision we need right now is the restoration of trust in public institutions; that as things stand, we would struggle to trust even a Vision 2027.

Another, who has studied every national blueprint since the sessional papers, traced how the 2030 momentum thinned after its early champions left, how flagship projects paused for years and restarted with new budgets, how each incoming regime prefers a fresh page to a handed-over one. His conclusion was one line: we do not need visions, we need ethical execution.

A third voice went deeper. Visions die, he argued, when the growth they produce is not broadly shared, because every election is a contest to capture the state rather than to continue the plan. And a fourth held up the mirror nobody wanted: we are hypocrites about values. We demand ethical leaders in public and support unethical ones in private the moment proximity pays us.

This column is not about the government. It is about the mirror. Because founders run the same play in miniature, and we run it fluently.

Walk into most companies and you will find Vision 2060 launched over an unexecuted Vision 2030: a new strategy deck every planning cycle, values framed in reception, mission in the annual report, purpose in the culture handbook. Encoded everywhere. Bent daily, in the corridor between the document and the deal.

The problem was never the encoding. Watch a kindergarten child learning the letter C. The small hand traces the curve until the shape lives in the fingers, and from that day a malformed C announces itself instantly.

The child does not debate it. That is not C. This is the literacy our companies lack. The kickback arrives dressed as a facilitation fee. Capture arrives dressed as partnership. And nobody in the building can say, with a child’s certainty, that is not us.

What converts a vision into arrival is what every faith tradition discovered long before management science: a creed. Not a statement drafted, but a belief practised. Building one asks hard things of the founder. Write values as shapes, not slogans. Integrity floating in the abstract cannot be traced by a junior officer under pressure.

Creeds die the day the congregation notices the priest no longer believes. If the founder bends the letter once, to rescue one quarter, the alphabet is renegotiated by Monday. And note what the nation keeps teaching us: visions collapse at regime change because they live in the leader instead of the people. Companies repeat this.

Every new CEO relaunches the culture; every founder exit resets the values. A creed is the only instrument designed to survive the transition. It is what you hand over when you finally leave the room.

Share the harvest. Here the forum’s hardest argument comes home. An anthem is only sung by people who share in what it celebrates. If the gains of growth concentrate at the top of the company, the vision becomes internal politics, and staff will execute a dream they participate in while quietly sabotaging one they merely witness.

Ethical execution is not only a compliance question. It is a distribution question. Then let the creed become the anthem, and test it in both weathers.

Tough moments test whether it survives fear: the lost contract, the payment that will not move, the offer that would solve everything quietly. Great moments test whether it survives pride: the award season, the scale that whispers the rules were written for the smaller version of you.

Most companies lose their creed not in the storm but in the sunshine. And let us answer the hypocrisy charge honestly, because it lands on founders too. We say we want ethical businesses.

Then we price the kickback into the tender, help the invoice along, and frame the values in reception on the way to the signing. The uncomfortable question of this season is not whether the nation can draft a trustworthy 2060. It is whether my company could survive an audit of the distance between its documents and its deals.

The national conversation opens on August 12, and I genuinely wish it well; a country shouldimagine its future. But founders do not need to wait for a charter to begin ethical execution. In 2060, most of us will be grey or gone.

What arrives at that horizon will not be the vision document. It will be whatever creed outlived us, carried by people who learnt the shape of our letters well enough to say, without fear and without us, that is not who we are. A vision names the destination. The creed decides whether anyone arrives.