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It is black November. The Christmas and New Year festivities fever is once again here with us. And as usual, during these times, our consumption spending is rising sharply.

The increased spending is on celebratory purchases of all kinds, ranging from hosting ceremonies, gifts, food, decorations, and travel.

Unfortunately, we will spend money we don’t have. Studies indicate that many families will spend more than their monthly income in the next two months to fund festive activities.

Why is this so? Kenya, like many liberal capitalist economies, has gradually shifted from a market economy to a market society, where nearly every aspect of life is now transactional and commercialised.

Social interactions that once depended on community reciprocity now require money. This means we can no longer rely on relatives or neighbours for ‘free’ assistance.

The consequences are evident in the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor. The more things we need money to buy, the more severe the effects of inequality become. Rising inequality weakens social cohesion, diminishes trust, and undermines confidence in institutions.

Money is now the main determinant of enjoying social interaction, let alone fun opportunities, and is even a requirement for acceptance into relationships. Those without adequate resources during this festive season face serious isolation and loneliness.

Without money, life is hard. The festive season magnifies these hardships, especially for low- and middle-income households.

To deal with this, many families will have to go for very expensive short-term credit to meet the social expectations and personal needs, placing further strain on household finances and the credit market in the coming months. ‘Njaanuary’ always comes.

In this economy, low-income households are more disadvantaged. They are faced with limited access to affordable credit, which reduces opportunities for entrepreneurship and asset accumulation. Over time, inequality hardens into structural poverty.

Addressing these disparities requires institutions that distribute not only income but also opportunity and social capital. Kenya’s cooperative movement provides a credible response to these challenges.

Rooted in collective self-help, savings and credit cooperatives (saccos) embody economic democracy by pooling resources to serve members rather than external shareholders. They mitigate market failures through shared governance, risk pooling, and local knowledge, enabling small savers to access credit, lower borrowing costs, and promote inclusive growth.

The move toward a market society has intensified inequality and eroded social trust. Already, we see complaints of dire poverty amid economic progress and positive macroeconomics. The cooperative sector could ensure that prosperity is shared more equitably across society.

The telos of saccos is member empowerment. As households prepare for the festive season, saccos should step in and provide affordable loans, flexible repayment terms, and a culture of savings and accountability to its members to restore their dignity and welfare.

According to the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra), the sector’s total assets is now more than Sh1 trillion, equivalent to about 6.4 percent of Kenya’s gross domestic product. Total membership is approaching eight million Kenyans, nearly 30 percent of the working population.

Clearly, saccos are now vital channels for household savings and credit, especially low-income workers and small-scale traders. They finance housing, education, agriculture, and business development, areas often neglected by commercial banks.

It is time for government and regulators, including Sasra, the CBK and Treasury to recognize the impact and role of Saccos and the cooperative movement in addressing pressing social welfare concerns of Kenyans, including cushioning the vulnerable groups in our society from market shocks.

With the right policy support, Saccos can play a greater role in financing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), facilitating agricultural value chains, and mobilising domestic savings for productive investment. As Kenya seeks to reduce inequality and sustain growth, the cooperative movement remains one of the most effective instruments for inclusive finance.

In the credit market, there are many tools and solutions that are already supporting Saccos leverage data and technology to drive sustainability in saving and credit risk management.

Already Sasra is doing a lot in strengthening of governance, expanding digital systems, and adopting risk-based supervision.

The concentration of software engineers relative to population in Kenya is Africa’s sixth highest, with 1,095 techies in every one million people, highlighting the country’s rising digital talent momentum.

Kenya’s concentration of techies is placed behind Tunisia, which has 4,120 developers per a million people, South Africa (2,234), Mauritius (1,345), Morocco (1,345) and Egypt (1,224).

The rising generation of software engineers is shaping Kenya’s innovation narrative as the digital layer becomes central to payments, logistics, agriculture, retail, energy and health delivery, among others.

Data from the Commission for University Education (CUE) shows that computer programming and software development contributed 4.6 percent of all graduates to the computing and ICT cluster during the academic year ended April 2024.

This signals that more students are moving into specialised technical workstreams that have high scalability and direct commercialisation routes.

Kenya currently has 18 institutions of higher learning formally teaching artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, amplifying deep tech capacity building at a time global capital is increasingly prioritising proprietary models and advanced applied research talent.

More developers are also opting for on-demand work rather than traditional employment, with Kenya’s gig share at 56.1 percent, signalling a structural shift towards more flexible digital labour models.

This has compelled software companies to increasingly compete globally for local engineers, driving more engagement with dollar-paying platforms and AI-first venture labs as talent supply structurally fragments.

The fast expansion of engineering talent places Kenya in a stronger regional competitive position to capture higher volume outsourcing value rather than remaining a consumption market for global technology systems.

Earlier this year, a Future of Jobs forecast by the World Economic Forum identified tech-backed careers such as Big Data specialists, fintech engineers, AI and machine learning experts, and software developers among the roles expected to post the fastest percentage growth globally this year.

The report noted that although broad-based AI use among enterprises remains relatively low compared to more traditional technologies, adoption momentum is rising across sectors- even though progress is uneven and largely anchored on early mover industries.

The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has unconditionally approved French infrastructure investor Stoa’s $27 million (Sh3.5 billion) bid to acquire Atlas Tower Kenya Limited.

Atlas, owned by Kalahari Capital LLC, has been operating in Kenya since 2019 with more than 450 telecom towers to date, providing key connectivity infrastructure to local Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.

Stoa, meanwhile, is an impact investment firm incorporated in France, specialising in investment in infrastructure and energy projects in emerging and developing countries.

The company, through Stoa Africa Limited, is acquiring a 31.03 percent minority shareholding with veto rights in Atlas Kenya to provide it with access to additional capital to expand its Kenyan operations.

According to the mobile and wireless infrastructure community TowerXchange, there were 12,555 telecommunication towers in Kenya as of January 2025.

Safaricom leads the market with 58.94 percent of the tower infrastructure footprint, followed by ATC Kenya with 32.64 percent, while Atlas Kenya has a 3.25 percent market share.

The CAK approved Stoa’s acquisition of Atlas, saying it will not affect the structure and concentration of the Kenyan telecoms market because the French firm is not engaged in a similar business.

‘The authority determined that the transaction is unlikely to lead to a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in the market for provision of telecommunication infrastructure in Kenya, nor elicit negative public interest concerns,’ said the competition watchdog.

Telecommunication towers are fitted with antennas, transmitters, and receivers to support cellular networks by enabling voice, data, and broadband connectivity.

However, mobile operators have recently been selling off much of their infrastructure to free up capital and lease towers from independent providers that own and manage their own infrastructure.

Through infrastructure sharing, tower companies can own and operate the passive infrastructure, then lease space, power, and other services to multiple MNOs and ISPs, reducing their capital expenditure on building their own infrastructure.

It also allows the network and internet service companies to deploy new services and upgrades quickly.

Providing tower infrastructure could also entail constructing a new tower at a specified site and within agreed timelines to meet a telco’s requirements.

In 2021, Atlas Kenya invested $48.9 million (Sh6.3 billion at current exchange rates) in the installation of 4G towers countrywide, with backing from the International Finance Corporation.

Now, with the Stoa acquisition, the tower company says it plans to boost its infrastructure portfolio and improve solar power and battery storage systems across its network.

‘We will scale our tower portfolio, strengthen the sustainability of our operations, improve power generation, and reach more communities with critical wireless infrastructure,’ said Randi Clendennen, Atlas Kenya Chief Strategy Officer.

Abdullahi Bulle, the founder of Nuria Bookstore, who bet big on self-published authors, always has a thirst for entrepreneurship. Even while working at Chase Bank, a job that he got immediately after completing his undergraduate studies, and rising to the rank of credit manager, he had a side hustle. He was comfortably employed, with good pay, but he went into a motor vehicle spare parts business, running a shop alongside other side-hustles.

Unfortunately, the businesses failed, and Mr Bulle has extra time on his hands. He decided to advance his studies, and along the way, he developed a strong reading habit, including during lunch breaks at work, which his colleagues noticed.

‘They were borrowing my books, seeking book recommendations, and one of them wondered why I was gifting free books instead of selling. That challenged me, but since I had the trauma of previous business failures, I could not jump into the business of selling books blindly,’ says Mr Bulle.

Armed with his go-to-market strategy research report, Mr Bulle discovered that online book space was nonexistent and decided to start an online book platform.

He looked for a web developer, but unfortunately, could not find a good one locally. He got a US-based one, who took advantage of his little IT knowledge to overcharge for the services at Sh400,000.

Mr Bulle says that after ordering books worth Sh125,000 from the UK in 2016, he realised that the website was not really meeting his expectations and made a painful decision of abandoning it altogether and developed a new one from scratch at an extra cost.

‘The first year was tough and challenging because in the same year, my bank was put under receivership with all my savings, though we still managed to sell some of the books,’ he says.

When the books business started picking up well, Mr Bulle finally quit employment in 2018. He decided to set up a physical store, tucked on the first floor of the Bazaar Building along Nairobi’s busy Moi Avenue.

Unlike other big bookshops, his is surrounded by mobile phone dealers, clothing, and the likes, but is gradually gaining a share of the market.

His strong focus on local self-published books, which had been avoided by top bookstores, started paying off. By the end of that year, he had onboarded five Kenyan authors, who have now grown to 2,650.

Self-published authors are authors who do not go through the mainstream publishers, so, if you have a ready manuscript, Nuria Bookstore links the author to an editor, book designer, and once it is ready, the author buys the barcode from Kenya National Library Services at a cost of Sh1,500, then brings the book for sale.

‘Compared to other bookshops which do not stock authors without brand names, we enable them [self-published authors] to crack the market without having to go through the mainstream publishers,’ he adds.

The hard part

The ex-banker says that the biggest challenge he has had to contend with and still do is marketing self-published books because ordinarily, most bookshops reserve their shelves for fast-moving books, which makes business sense.

However, the good thing at first it was an online platform, therefore operational expenses were low. Online also gave them a bigger reach and visibility. All they needed was to pick and deliver whenever a buyer placed an order, which worked well during the early years.

‘The other issue was how long the books would stay in the store, so we invested heavily in online marketing even though online and social media as a marketing medium wasn’t popular then,’ recalls Mr Bulle.

As a book seller, he adds that the other challenge is stock theft or stock loss, which leads to serious cashflow problems, hence the reason he prefers hiring staff based on honesty and not just academic papers.

He says that it has helped the bookseller a lot in managing cash flow and paying suppliers on time, thus bridging the finance load.

‘Setting up a bookshop in prime locations like the Central Business District or high-end shopping malls is expensive in terms of rent space. Content creation around books is equally higher than other products,’ he adds.

How much he earns

He says that, as a bookseller just like others, he takes 30 percent commission on any book sold, inclusive of 16 percent, but Nuria Bookstore has a unique approach of a pay-as-we-sell model with a decentralised vendor platform, a first in Africa.

‘As an author or publisher, you register as a vendor on the platform, upload the book, and every time a customer visits the link and orders a book, you get a real-time notification, and once delivery is completed, money is reflected in your account/vendor portal immediately,’ he explains.

Despite the impressive growth, Mr Bulle says expansion was not easy due to limited resources despite of making a pitch to nine potential investors between 2016 and 2021.

‘They all rejected me, so he abandoned that approach after realising that not every investor understands the book-selling business. Book selling is a volume business, not a high margin one, yet the majority want high quick returns. Two, due to the low reading culture in our society, they understand that market dynamic and are unwilling to wait for many years for returns,’ he adds.

He cites an example of Amazon, which took 10 years to break-even but was continuously backed by investors and is presently the biggest e-commerce company in the world.

Risks to the business

Mr Bulle says the biggest risk, not just to his business but other book sellers as well, are pirated books and online PDF copies that don the streets, aided by the fact that most of buyers are price driven, not value-driven, and are unethical.

He says that focusing on promoting African books has worked in their favor compared to other bookstores.

‘We have also given life to books that are over 70 years old that were lying in publishers’ warehouses, and Kenyans can now identify Nuria as the go-to African books store,’ says Mr Bulle.

Regrets

If there is one regret he has had is the inability to raise funds early enough for expansion, as he was a bit worried about losing control over the business.

‘I did not open up myself earlier enough to banks to help me grow the business. That lack of boldness held me back,’ says Mr Bulle is looking at setting up a new branch in Nyali, Mombasa.

He encourages entrepreneurs with good ideas or with a business that is doing well to borrow money and payback as quickly as possible because the biggest challenge to the growth of a business is usually raising equity or debt capital.

‘In 2016, I needed around Sh5 million. In 2021, when I stopped pitching, I probably needed Sh50 million, and if I were to raise money now, it could be between Sh100 to Sh200 million, but the business is now self-lubricating,’ he says.

Mr Bulle clarifies that the problem with most investors is that they need a ‘massage presentation’ during a pitch or a tried and tested concept with a fixed timeline on return on investment, something he couldn’t promise prospective investors.

‘This is partly the reason some startups collapse. They probably sold ‘lies and being liquid during early years brings growth, but that becomes unsustainable in the long term,’ adds Mr Bulle.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange has recorded back-to-back gains of more than 30 percent in 2024 and again so far in 2025, buoying investor confidence and lifting portfolio values.

But for those who stayed on the sidelines, is it too late to join the rally?

In this episode, NSE Chief Executive Officer Frank Mwiti breaks down the key drivers of the market recovery, where fresh opportunities remain, and what investors should watch as the momentum continues.

Make Money, a podcast series, hosted by Kepha Muiruri, from Business Daily Africa unravels ways to be financially savvy. Get practical tips and advice on how to increase your income, build wealth, and achieve financial freedom in Kenya. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned investor, we’ve got something for everyone.

Last week, we left the classroom and entered the battlefield; that chaotic space where African founders learn the real curriculum of leadership. This week, we step deeper into that learning. Because once you’ve recognised how formal education failed you, the next question is how to replace it. What does it take to learn in real time to build while being built, to teach while still learning?

Across coffee tables and co-working spaces, in WhatsApp groups and late-night calls, a quiet curriculum is taking shape. It has no exams, no degrees and no dean, but it forges something formal education never could, wisdom born from lived experience.

Every founder must become a lifelong student, and in Africa that learning must stretch from the first spark of a startup to the stewardship of legacy.

The startup stage is a crash course in humility. You learn by doing, by listening, by being wrong in public and showing up again the next morning. The world becomes your university, the market your examiner and every mistake a tuition fee.

Founders quickly realise they must treat failure as feedback, not verdict.

They seek mentors, swap insights, and build small tribes of trust where they can be honest about fear and fatigue. In these circles, emotional resilience is strengthened and social intelligence deepens.

When success finally arrives and the company begins to scale, the syllabus changes. The founder, who once did everything must now learn to lead others who can do it better. Leadership becomes less about control and more about coordination, turning chaos into coherence without losing the company’s soul.

Strategy shifts from survival to sustainability. This is where strategic clarity and spiritual grounding intersect. Decisions move slower but cut deeper.

At this point, mentorship and community become lifelines. Founders who invest in peer networks avoid the trap of isolation. They find wisdom in other founders’ stories, learning to spot blind spots before they become pitfalls. The humility to remain a student even at the top becomes a defining advantage.

As one founder said, experience doesn’t make you wise; reflection does.

Eventually, the baton must pass. The next generation the heir, the successor, the new steward steps into a legacy they did not build but must now preserve. No MBA can prepare them for that moment. They inherit more than profit; they inherit a story. That story must be reinterpreted for a new era.

Mary Waceke Thongoh-Muia often says unchecked entitlement erodes legacy faster than competition.

A wise founder steps aside not because they’ve run out of strength but because they’ve built others strong enough to continue. Letting go becomes the final module in the hidden curriculum the hardest, but the one that defines true leadership.

And now, as founders chart the next decade, a new teacher has joined the circle artificial intelligence (AI). For the first time, founders can learn from living data as quickly as they learn from lived experience.

AI is not here to replace intuition but to refine it; not to erase the human touch but to sharpen our discernment.

In the hands of a conscious founder, AI becomes an amplifier of wisdom a digital co-mentor that helps us see patterns faster, test ideas smarter, and scale systems ethically.

That is why African Founders Operating System with its emotional, social, strategic, spiritual and mindset dimensions matters more now than ever. It ensures that as technology accelerates us, humanity still anchors us.

Across startups, scale-ups and legacy enterprises, one truth connects them all: founders learn best by doing, failing, reflecting and now by integrating insight with intelligence, both human and artificial.

In truth, the classroom never left us; it simply moved. It now lives in conversations after midnight, in mentorship lunches, in podcasts and panels where honesty replaces theory, and increasingly, in the quiet guidance of digital systems that can mirror our decisions back to us.

Founders are teaching one another what our institutions could not; how to build without losing humanity, how to harness intelligence without surrendering integrity. That is the hidden curriculum in the education that prepares us not only to lead but to last.

This second part completes our reflection on the founder’s true education from the failures of the classroom to the revelations of the battlefield. Yet in many ways, the learning has only begun. What started as a conversation about gaps in our schooling has become a blueprint for a new kind of consciousness one that turns founders into teachers, and companies into classrooms.

The challenge ahead is not to abandon education, but to redesign it in our own image: practical, soulful and grounded in shared wisdom.

Because in the end, the founder’s greatest legacy will not be the company they build, but the minds and movements they inspire to keep learning with heart, with humility and with the help of every new tool, human or digital, that expands what it means to be wise.

Michael Anthony Macharia is a serial entrepreneur, founder of Seven Seas Technologies and Ponea Health

Four years ago, Anthony Mwangi visited his now-business partner, Henry Guchu, and a container of honey in his office generated an investment idea that the two now boast of.

‘When I visited Guchu, my brother-in-law, he told me what I was seeing on his table was gold,’ Mr Mwangi says.

Mr Guchu, a lawyer, told him that local honey production only meets a fraction of its total demand. They saw an opportunity, which gave birth to Kijani Honey. They started a business of testing and selling honey.

‘We realised the major problem facing the industry is adulterated honey. Suppliers of quality honey also rarely meet the demand volumes,’ Mr Guchu says.

They first started conducting market research to understand the scope of production and quality.

‘We toured honey-producing regions, Ukambani, Baringo, West Pokot, Tanzania, among others,’ Mr Mwangi says.

During their visits, they never left the refractometer, a honey quality testing equipment, behind.

‘We got so many complaints and concerns about adulterated honey from consumers,’ he says.

They travelled to Tabora in Tanzania, where they drew key lessons on beekeeping, because most keepers there are large-scale and operate in public forests.

Armed with knowledge and skills, their journey in establishing Kijani Honey started.

‘We started with a 30-tonne consignment from Tanzania,’ Mr Guchu says, injecting Sh14 million as seed capital, money that was also used to set up a facility in Nairobi. ‘We got the funds from our savings.’

However, the journey was not easy. Understanding the import duties, taxes, and clearance procedures at the Kenya-Tanzania border, Mr Guchu says, was difficult.

Also, the stock run out after just one and a half years. That taught them a lesson.

Mr Mwangi says testing honey quality and ensuring customers have an all-year-round supply is key. Besides, Kenyan honey being produced in low volumes, with most of it adulterated, he also says it is pricey.

Quit employment

With continuous research and upscaling, they mastered how to maneuver in the honey industry. Now they have a facility at Jamhuri Show Grounds, Nairobi, for testing and processing.

Mr Mwangi resigned from the hospitality industry to give full attention to their business. He says he can now easily tell the best honey in terms of taste and even the corresponding age preferences.

He says honey from West Pokot, since beekeepers have not embraced modern beekeeping and are still harvested by burning using leaves, it is usually over-smoked.

Ukambani honey is a favourite for many people; it is pure and not over-smoked. The beekeepers there have adopted modern ways of beekeeping and harvesting. Ugandan honey, on the other hand, Mr Mwangi says, is nutritious as the region has many and different tree species.

Once the honey is received from Kitui, Kimana in Kajiado County, West Pokot, Kitale, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, it goes through tests.

It is processed through pasteurisation, which includes heating it to above 50°C and allowing it to settle for a few days before sieving, value addition, and packaging. Mr Mwangi said they are keen on colour and taste.

A refractometer is used to measure the moisture content by detecting how light the honey bends through it. It converts this reading into a percentage of water, helping determine honey quality.

Good-quality honey, Mr Mwangi said, contains 17 to 20 percent moisture, while sugar concentration should be above 80° Brix.

‘If honey measures 80° Brix, that means it has roughly 18 percent water and is considered ripe, high-quality honey,’ he says.

They now test and process over 10,000 kilogrammes of honey per month. A kilo is sold between Sh800 to Sh1,000. They work with over 100 beekeepers, and a farmer is paid between Sh450 and Sh600 per kilo of unprocessed honey.

Having started with three workers, they now have 12 permanent employees and five on a casual basis. How have they managed to build a vibrant business? Mr Mwangi says, ‘We ensure we have enough honey for an all-year-round supply and conduct constant research to improve our products.’

It’s deeply concerning how the country is handling its human resource development if what’s happening in our education, especially at the universities, is to go by.

Serious learning and student development has collapsed; most are reeling in debts and several heavily engaged in nothing related to production of knowledge leaving of the public institutions of higher learning just marking time.

The running and management of public universities requires urgent radical re-organization and re-orientation; for as its now, you cannot convince anybody that they can produce what the country needs.

The disruption in the university education is costing the country big loss, and now due to a flawed system of recruiting top managers including the Council chairs, chancellors and vice chancellors, these public universities stay at stalling and destroying the future of attending them.

We must quickly fix this, in addition to addressing the current industrial action facing them. It has become too costly for the students, staff, partners and parents associated with public universities as more relating to these institutions of high learning happens outside the institutions than inside.

The waste and idleness associated with academic institutions is irritating as we waste the future of our children.

The seeming lack of leadership and impunity by the heads of these institutions is largely because of the politicization of the appointments of the University Council members and lack of merit thereof which denies them diversity, relevant qualifications and competence in leadership.

This has eroded trust and confidence from staff, students, development partners, associates and government, who are not sure how to fund the universities to enable them play serious national development through research and intellectual contribution to the good of the nation.

In addition to the current strike by lecturers and staff, which has seen students waste themselves around the institutions, with some opting to sending students home indefinitely, most public universities are reeling from massive debts, led by incompetent and insecure managers afraid to engage with their colleagues, struggling with bloated staff and are not fully functionally, have abandoned their core functions of curating knowledge and innovation through teaching and research.

Academic schedules have been reduced to routine class rituals where class work is relegated to photocopying books; AI generated assignments and WhatsAp forwards.

University hostels and restaurants are filled with non- university students, as most of the halls have been rented by middlemen, who sell the rooms to students are exorbitant prices. It’s almost impossible for students to get access to university facilities.

Missing marks for students, missed graduation and permanent students are now the hallmarks of the once prestigious institutions, with no serious research, knowledge production and academic exchange happening.

It’s sad the universities that are independent institutions under various constitutive Acts with councils have been denied the opportunity to appoint vice-chancellors, their deputies, principal of colleges and their deputies who understand the environments and requirements better to outsiders.

We have witnessed constant clashes between the Councils and the Vice Chancellors, leading tensions that frustrate learning and running of the institutions-extending to frustrating partners, joint programmes and student development.

There is too much external influence in who can become a senior manager at the universities, relegating Councils to mere conveyor belts in the management of universities. This has created the impression that the Councils, unlike boards of other Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies, cannot be trusted or are competent enough to be fully in charge of these academic institutions.

The Universities Act 2012 empowers universities as independent institutions to regulate their affairs in accordance with their independent ethos and traditions including in regard to- the promotion and preservation of equality of opportunity and access. The Act also requires Universities to preserve and promote the traditional principles of academic freedom in the conduct of their internal and external affairs.

Currently, University Councils under the Statue Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) 2018 Act were dethroned from advertising, interviewing and recommending for appointment top university managers.

Just like boards recruit chief executive officers guided by the various national public interest requirements and constitutional provisions, councils should be given mandate to recruit the top leadership for universities, as independent institutions.

It requires that university councils appoint the top managers in consultation with the education minister after a competitive recruitment process by the Public Service Commission (PSC). In the case of chancellors, the university senate will in consultation with key stakeholders identify suitable persons for appointment.

‘Five names shall be proposed to the Senate and submitted to PSC for shortlisting and identification of three suitable candidates ranked in order of merit.

Government should assist universities secure their properties including land assets, buildings and security of students in and around universities.

The Public Health Ministry should ensure the university environments meet basic requirements of health, as many of the institutions have run out of habitable public utilities in around classes and in the halls of residences.

A Kenyan based in the UK has moved to court seeking to quash the Privatisation Act, 2025, arguing that it is inconsistent with the Constitution.

Eliud Karanja Matindi says in a petition before the High Court that the entire Act is illegal as it was enacted in violation of the Constitution.

He further argues the law was passed without the involvement of the Senate.

The court has directed him to serve Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor and Parliament with the petition documents, within three days.

The case will be mentioned on November 17, for directions.

Mr Matindi says the purpose or effects of the Act is to privatise public entities by transferring, other than to a public entity, the assets and or liabilities of a public entity including the shares in a public entity.

‘To the extent the Act provides for privatisation of public entities that hold public land as defined by Article 62 of the Constitution, it is the petitioner’s case that the whole Act is unconstitutional,’ he says.

He cites several public entities, including Kenya Pipeline Company, Mt Elgon Lodge Ltd in Kitale, Golf Hotel (Kakamega), and Kabarnet Hotel in Baringo County.

Once public land is privatised, Mr Matindi says, it can no longer be held, used and managed in a manner that is equitable, efficient, productive and sustainable for the people of Kenya collectively.

‘It also cannot be equitably accessed by persons other than the new, private owners,’ he notes, adding that public land belongs to the people of Kenya, collectively, and cannot be privatised without violating Article 61(1).

Mr Matindi says the privatisation of public land would, as provided by Article 64 of the Constitution, lead to its conversion to private land, held either under freehold or leasehold tenures.

He argues that there is no suggestion that land currently held by public entities to be privatised, would be converted into community land under Article 63 of the Constitution.

He adds that the Act is silent on which of these two holding tenures will apply to public land targeted for privatisation.

‘This lack of clarity on such a critical aspect of matters to be dealt with under the Act, violates the national values and principles of governance under Article 10(2) of the Constitution, including the rule of law, democracy and participation of the people, good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability,’ he says.

It is his argument that the conversion of public land to private, as contemplated by the Act, including on freehold tenure, is a threat to Article 201(c and d) of the Constitution.

The UK-based Kenyan says the privatisation would mean the burdens and benefits the public currently derives from holding public land, including by the public entities earmarked for privatisation, will no longer be available for equitable sharing between present and future generations.

Instead, he notes, present generation will convert previously owned resource (public land) to benefit only a small section of its own, depriving future generations the opportunity to equally, and equitably enjoy those benefits.

Mr Matindi further says that it is notable that, as provided by sections 6 and 54 of the Act, money raised from privatisations shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund if it is from the sale of a direct national government shareholding.

He says it is a matter of public record and notoriety that a significant percentage of revenue being currently collected by the government is being used to pay the national debt.

Mr Matindi argues that it is therefore inevitable that proceeds from privatisations will actually be used toward paying the national debt, rather than any investments for the benefit of present and future generations.

‘In addition, should future generations wish to convert the privatised land back to public, they will have to pay compensation to the private owners, a threat to the duty to use public money in a responsible and prudent way,’ he adds.

When Tosheka Textiles first set up in 2004, it was not structured as a commercial outfit. At the time, the venture was working as a community-based organisation teaching women in Makueni how to spin yarn from raw cotton grown in the area.

The intention then was to create skills, empower rural households, and demonstrate to the community that even low volumes of cotton could have value once processed.

Over time, they shifted into a fully-fledged textile business, producing premium fabrics and customised fashion pieces.

Today, Tosheka Textiles, co-founded by Nyokabi Mwangi and her aunt Lucy Lau Bigham, has shifted focus to modernising production systems, growing a business-to-business client base, and scaling sustainable fabric production capacity.

‘As we progressed, we realised we needed to professionalise the business,’ says Ms Nyokabi, who now serves as the production’s Associate Director.

‘Back then it was community driven. People brought whatever they could and contributed labour. But for textiles to be viable, you have to standardise. You have to pay for items at production stage. You have to create consistent supply. That transition wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.’

The shift into commercial production fully took shape in 2011. The founders decided that instead of waiting for women to produce fabrics then attempt to market later, Tosheka would buy fibre and pay the women directly for spinning.

This, Ms Nyokabi says, guaranteed income at point of production, raised quality expectations, and set the business onto a more formal contract and delivery footing.

‘When we commercialised, we had to define quality and create clear specifications. This was a big lesson. A lot of businesses collapses because the product is not consistent. In this business, what the market pays for is not the story, it’s the quality,’ she explains.

Tosheka produces both fabric by the metre as well as finished premium garments. Clients bring their own designs or choose from Tosheka’s catalogue, with most of the customers being designers, boutique fashion houses, decor and interior players, as well as high-end lodges and hotels.

However, despite Kenya being a cotton-growing country, one of the constraints the business has faced is the scarcity of enough skilled weavers who can produce high standard textile output. Ms Nyokabi says the pool is still very limited, even after years of community skill investment.

‘That is still one of our biggest constraints. The artisan base is not yet large enough. We have trained many, but to replace the older, traditionally skilled artisans is a huge challenge,’ she says.

‘This is a skill that needs protecting. Young people need to see weaving as a dignified career. If we lose the skill pipeline, the industry declines.’

As part of diversifying the production range and elevating the value proposition of their fabric, Tosheka also does silk, a move Ms Nyokabi describes as a breakthrough in their evolution.

‘Silk was a turning point. It opened up the ability to serve a different level of product demand; luxury, high-end, premium design work,’ she says. ‘It allowed us to target a stronger market segment that values natural fibre, longevity and unique textures.’

Currently, 70 percent of Tosheka’s clients are local while 30 percent is export. In the next two years, Mr Nyokabi is targeting a 50/50 balance, especially as the business expands capacity to serve more bespoke designers and more specialised interior clients.

In the run to this target, Tosheka is now focused on getting new machinery for increased production.

‘We want to modernise while protecting heritage. If we lose the craft, we lose what makes this special. We cannot replace artisanal feel with industrial mass production. People who buy our fabric buy the uniqueness and the texture,’ she says.

While the sustainability tag is an advantage, it also raises the cost curve. Tosheka selects premium natural fibre inputs, and Ms Nyokabi says this means the company spends more on raw materials compared to other mass production garment or fast-fashion aligned players.

‘Our cost base is high because we invest in quality. It affects our pricing. It affects our margins. But premium textile buyers understand what they are paying for,’ she says.

Running the business with a co-founder who also doubles up a family member has also shaped how the two make decisions, pace growth and share operational roles. Ms Nyokabi describes herself and Ms Bigham as extremely complementary in execution style.

‘We have different working approaches but we are very aligned in purpose. That balance is what has kept the company stable,’ she says.

‘Partnership is one of the most important things in business. It has to be built on trust but also on realistic expectations and shared clarity.’