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Kenya has launched a buyback of the $1 billion (Sh129.23 billion), 10-year Eurobond that is due to mature in February 2028, looking to avoid the pain of a bullet payment on the debt.

This will be the third early repayment of a Eurobond by the government in the last two years, which is part of the Treasury’s debt management strategy of directly refinancing large upcoming maturities with new bonds of longer tenor.

For Kenyan-born British artist James Vaulkhard, art has always been the essence of his existence. He grew up in the rolling hills and tea plantations of Tigoni, a place whose lush landscapes now take centre stage in his maiden exhibition in Nairobi.

James studied art history at Leeds University in the UK before pursuing classical training at Charles Cecil Studios and Studio Della Statua in Florence, Italy. There, he immersed himself in an Italian system of portraiture and figurative painting that valued rigour and discipline.

He recalls months of intensive classes where students would spend a full year working in one medium, on live models, sometimes nude, while learning to master proportions, form, light and shadow. He also taught younger artists during this period. However, James felt the pull to take a different path, one where his own voice would be the muse, the ruse and the fleeting inspiration of his work.

‘I never wanted to be a classically societal portrait artist,’ he says. ‘I envisioned Florence as a foundation. When I moved to the UK, I used that experience to bend and break rules and to develop my own style. Portraits brought in money, but my dream was always to create and sell work that spoke in my own language.’ Exhibiting frequently in London, he worked to ‘deprogramme’ himself from his classical heritage, which, though invaluable, risked becoming a creative cage.

That transformation required grit.

‘When I applied for school in Florence, I was warned about getting sucked into a tradition and discipline that had stood for centuries,’ he recalls. ‘I knew I wanted the foundation, but I also knew I would constantly experiment from the very beginning. I was, however, doing a few classical portraits and commissions over time just to stay afloat as a young artist.’

London gave him opportunities to push his boundaries. Then came the Covid-19 lockdowns, which provided uninterrupted time to paint. ‘I became maniacal with my work,’ he says. ‘By the time sanity returned to the world, my own style had started to take shape.’

His Nairobi exhibition marks a return to Tigoni, where his childhood among rolling tea plantations continues to inspire him. The landscapes, he explains, are challenging to capture. ‘I have always wanted to paint these tea farms, but their surreal nature makes them hard to translate onto canvas. The luminous greens lie flat like a carpet, almost like an ocean or desert. It can be difficult to make them work as a painting.’

In this series, James combines representational and abstract approaches. Tigoni’s hills are the main subject, but he also paints landscapes of Lake Naivasha and Msambweni, places that he enjoys revisiting. His layering of colours, sometimes deliberately unnatural, creates depth and vibrancy. Patterns emerge across the surfaces, suggesting both vastness and intimacy. Viewers sense open plains, light-filled horizons, and a quiet catharsis.

The portraits are inspired by Kenya, but in composition, James was also looking at the San Francisco Bay Area school of painters, including Richard Diebenkorn, Clifford Still and Joseph Amber, whose bold treatment of colour influences his work.

James’s connection to art began early. At the age of seven, his parents were already framing his watercolours, many of which still hang in their home. His skill was unquestionable, and over time, his work has grown to embrace narrative and historical elements. In his latest paintings, though narrative recedes, African landscapes remain central, an ode to place and memory.

The biggest lesson across his journey, he says, has been faith. ‘Art is not easy, not even as a hobby. It can be frustrating. But having the courage to take risks, even when things do not go as planned, always leads somewhere.’ James has seen every side of the artist’s life. At 18, he sold his first painting – a mural of a Pokot herdswoman – for about Sh17,000. Nearly two decades later, he sold his most expensive painting for Sh3.3 million. His exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery features works priced in the range of Sh232,000 and Sh1.1million.

Though his career has taken him from Florence to London and now back to Nairobi, his practice remains a balance between experimentation and discipline, freedom and foundation. He continues to push his style forward, layering colours and patterns in search of both harmony and disruption, abstraction and representation.

His return to Tigoni, he says, feels inevitable. ‘The landscapes have always been calling. I think I needed the years of training, experimentation and failure before I could even attempt them.’

What stands out in James’s story is not only the technical evolution of his work but also his determination to live by his own vision. He has resisted the pull of purely commercial art, choosing instead to forge a style that is personal and resonant. His art bridges two worlds – the classical discipline of Florence and the luminous freedom of the Kenyan landscape – each shaping the other.

It is this tension that makes his current exhibition compelling. The works are not just portraits of place but explorations of memory, colour and self-discovery. They carry the discipline of tradition while embracing the freedom of experimentation.

James is quick to emphasise that the process is ongoing.

His Nairobi exhibition is not a culmination but another step in his evolution as an artist. Each canvas reflects both his roots and his restlessness, his grounding in technique and his refusal to be confined by it. In his own words: ‘It does not always go to plan, but it always leads to something.’

The exhibition runs until the end of October.

Parliament has questioned Tanzanian tycoon Edhah Abdallah Munif’s bid to purchase an additional 29.2 percent stake in East Africa Portland Cement (EAPC) amid concerns that he would dominate the board of the firm and share trade secrets with a rival company.

The Committee on Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives raised concerns that Mr Munif, through his investment vehicle, Kalahari Cement Limited, may dominate EAPC voting rights and strategic direction with his increased 41.75 percent stake.

Sugar sector stakeholders have given a parliamentary committee mixed submissions on the newly reintroduced Sugar Development Levy, with some demanding the tax rate be lowered to one percent while others suggested higher rates of up to 10 percent.

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) informed the Senate Committee on Agriculture that industrial sugar, also known as Icumsa 45, is an essential raw material for manufacturing and that the levy on it should be reduced or eliminated.

Across Kenya, there is a strong sentiment that there is no money on the ground. Mama Mboga in informal markets, small business owners, and even salaried employees complain that they don’t have money.

On the contrary, economic metrics like gross domestic product (GDP) and money supply, that signal that wealth is growing and money is available, indicates that the economy is on a growth path. Why do we see this inconsistencies!

According to the World Bank, Kenya’s GDP growth rate averages 5.5 percent. On bank assets, this now stands at more than Sh7 trillion, and profits in the sector is growing steadily. If the economy is growing and liquidity expanding, why is there ‘no money on the ground’?

To answer this paradox, we need to look at the nature of money. Banks have the unique privilege of creating money from nothing. Under fiat currency and the fractional reserve system, central banks and commercial banks can create money.

The CBK issues base money, while commercial banks generate new deposits when they give out loans. Money supply and availability is influenced heavily by risk-return fundamentals and the monetary policy.

In 2016, Parliament forced interest rate caps on banks to protect consumers from high borrowing costs.

While this was well-intentioned, from a risk/return perspective, it was a wrong policy, and it quickly backfired.

Banks, finding capped interest rate lending unprofitable, shifted their credit portfolios toward government securities, which were both risk-free and lucrative. Private sector credit slowed sharply.

The caps were repealed in 2019, but the hangover remained. CBK later that year introduced risk-based pricing, allowing banks to vary interest rates depending on the borrower’s risk profile, unfortunately, the framework had some restrictions, and this too hasn’t worked.

In response to the above failure of transmission mechanism, CBK has issued a framework anchored on Kesonia + K to be used by banks in determining interest rates. Kesonia is short for Kenya Shilling Overnight Interbank Average.

At its core it allows capital allocation based on prevailing monetary policy dictated market rates, risk and return. Globally, Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) is used in the UK and Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) is used in the US as anchors for pricing interest rates.

There are other pressures on money supply, like the current fiscal policy, where a heavy government borrowing is required to support servicing of old debt, which continues to crowd out private sector borrowers.

This shift offers hope in the economy. Transitioning to this new risk-based pricing framework will stimulate flow of money to the ground.

It will improve credit worthiness as a culture, which will give banks the confidence to extend more loans to MSMEs and other risky segments of the economy and will improve affordability for good borrowers. With that, we expect liquidity to flow more to households and businesses, strengthening the grassroots economy.

‘I am Wynton Marsalis. I am a musician from New Orleans. My father is a musician and I have three brothers who are also musicians,’ the iconic American trumpeter, bandleader, music teacher and scion of one of the most famous musical families in America introduced himself thus during a conversation with the BDLife in Nairobi early this week.

Marsalis and his ensemble, Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra, performed two shows in the city as part of the Bob Collymore International Jazz Festival Series. Nairobi was the second stop on their first-ever African tour, having performed at the Joy of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg last weekend.

Foreign investors are shying away from buying shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange in the wake of rising returns from the US, United Kingdom, China, and Japan markets.

The foreigners have been net sellers-sold more shares than they bought-in seven of the nine months to September, reflecting their reduced appetite for the Kenya bourse.

The South Sudan government has called for a review of cargo handling charges and container deposits to lower the cost of doing business, with recommendations to set up empty container depots along the Northern Corridor.

The South Sudanese government wants a review of the current charge of $5,000 (Sh647,700) per container destined for its territory from the Mombasa port, saying that the fee is steep and harms business.

As classic plays often do, it was inevitable that Kaggia would return on stage. The first time the cast brought to life of Bildad Kaggia, a man often described as one who would rather die than sell his soul to the devil, theatre lovers didn’t get enough of him. The second time did little to quench their curiosity either.

Now, director Stuart Nash returns is preparing for the third rerun of the play written by John Sibi Okumu that offers an in-depth narration of one of Kenya’s unsung heroes.

In its earlier runs with the Phoenix Players, the play featured a cast of four. The late Harry Ebale played the lead role in the first production, a part now taken over by Martin Kigondu, a talented, prolific, and refined performer who has a unique gift for making the stage feel like his playground. ‘I took on the role of Kaggia to honour the memory of my brother, the late Ebale. And of course, this is John Sibi’s work; anyone would want to be part of it. This time, however, the play takes a different form. The cast is no longer just four as originally written. Stuart Nash’s superpower is bringing visual aesthetics and spectacle to life. I saw his vision and agreed to join the team,’ says Kigondu.

In this latest rerun, Kigondu is the only returning cast member, though he says that has not changed his approach to the role.

‘When you go back to a show you have done before, you always approach it with fresh eyes and maturity. The good thing is that Stuart and I have worked together for so long that we understand each other. The biggest challenge is that we are performing in both English and Kikuyu, with the same cast alternating across different runs. The exciting part is that each day brings a unique version of the play, rather than cramming both versions into a single day.’ For Stuart, directing Kaggia has been a profound learning experience.

‘It is fascinating to uncover so much about a historical figure people rarely acknowledge. During our research, we found that nobody under 25 knew who he was. Those who did, only remember that he was part of the Kapenguria Six and nothing more. Yet he lived such an extraordinary life, full of surprises and challenges, that people will be astonished at what he went through,’ Stuart said.

What can audiences expect from the play?

‘I think they will discover more about Bildad Kaggia than they ever knew. When I first watched the play a few years ago, I walked out of the theatre wanting to know more about him. I think John would love people to walk out of the theatre thinking of how Kenya would be now if they had followed Kaggia’s ideals. It is a thoughtful and sophisticated piece of theatre,’ Stuart said.

For John Sibi Okumu, choosing to write about Kaggia instead of the other five Kapenguria detainees was inspired by an encounter in a bookshop.

‘I came across Kaggia’s autobiography, which he abandoned midway. It was later completed by a Dutchman in collaboration with one of his children. I was vaguely aware of the Kapenguria Six from my schooling, but I found Kaggia’s story fascinating, especially because he was a man who truly walked the talk. He lived with integrity and a strong moral compass. He was detained alongside the others and even shared a cell with Jomo Kenyatta at one point. For me, there was a compelling contrast: what might Kenya have looked like if his ideals had guided its leadership?’ Sibi Okumu posed.

He added, ‘Bildad Kaggia was what we would today call a left-leaning figure, while Kenya has largely remained aligned to the right. His life offers a case study of what might have happened had the country taken a different political path. As a playwright, I am committed to exploring the evolution of Kenyan society before and after independence. My next play will focus on the pre-independence period of the 1950s.’

Kaggia will be staged at the Kenya National Theatre from October 11 to 19.

I live in an apartment where neighbours really don’t talk to – or know – each other. The typical 21st Century snobbery. A real tragedy really because what happens when you run out of salt at 9pm?

By chance we struck a conversation with the Indian fellow who lives below me; a younger outdoorsy fellow with a raggedy Mitsubishi that is always caked in dust of mud every Monday morning.

After a brief conversation we learnt that we both love the outdoors and whisky. After almost six months of planning (we are busy), a plan was hatched to share a whisky at the nearest haunt. It rained that evening. I arrived early and nursed a Fernet Branca as I waited, staring into the busy courtyard. Outside, music blasted from the nearby bar teeming with a younger crowd.

When he finally showed up he started with 12-year-old Aberlour while I did the 15-year-old Dalwhinnie. He orders his whisky by the single. One rock. He told me about his camping adventures on silent hills in Amboseli and northern Kenya.

For the second round we both settled for the 12-year-old Balvenie. We talked about our neighbours; who knew who. I don’t know anyone personally except my next door neighbour’s elegant cat that sits across on the kitchen windowsill each morning, staring at my son while he prepares his breakfast.

For the third round we wanted a specific Glenmorangie but it was missing. I settled for the same 12-year-old Balvenie while he tried something I don’t recall. He told me about his university days in the UK, and his gruesome MBA about to conclude.

I told him about my early career, working in a medical lab. ‘Did you know you could write?’ he asked, laughing. I said, ‘you always know but you are scared. Change is scary.’ Sierra seems to serve that kind of a drink up; a quick snappy beer, a bite to eat, a conversation that doesn’t get diluted by a long night.