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For 15 years, the Magical Kenya Travel Expo has chronicled the aspirations of Africa’s tourism sector. Its evolution from a national showcase to a continental marketplace is a narrative of genuine progress.

However, ambition alone does not build infrastructure or fund the visionary enterprises needed to secure the continent’s economic future.

The expo, which took place from October 1-3 at the Uhuru Gardens National Monument and Museum, addressed this profound disconnect between Africa’s tourism ambitions and the actionable capital required to realise them.

The integration of the African Tourism and Investment Forum (ATIF) into this year’s Magical Kenya Travel Expo brought a strategic focus to closing this critical investment gap. The ATIF discussion and deliberations ignited the continent’s unlocking of its vast, yet undercapitalised, tourism potential.

Kenya’s tourism earnings grew by 31.5 percent in 2023. The sector contributes a significant 8.5 percent to our gross domestic product and, as the Tourism Research Institute notes, supports more than 1.6 million livelihoods. Yet, without continued investment, this momentum will stall and the promise of inclusive prosperity will fade.

Continentally, the African Development Bank projects that tourism could become a $260 billion industry by 2030, but this forecast faces an estimated $1.8 billion annual infrastructure investment gap. Bridging it requires a deliberate, multifaceted approach to building resilient, inclusive, and sustainable tourism ecosystems.

That was the reason we embedded ATIF within the 2025 Magical Kenya Travel Expo.

The expo has long proven its value as Africa’s premier tourism marketplace, historically connecting thousands of delegates, hundreds of exhibitors, and a broad spectrum of globally vetted buyers. It has perfected the art of the travel sale, but the time has come to move beyond transactions and tackle the sector’s foundational issues: policy, capital and innovation.

ATIF shifted the conversation to those pillars, asking not just ‘what can we sell?’ but ‘how do we collectively build the Africa we envision through tourism?’

The theme, Magical Kenya: Unlocking Africa’s Potential through Sustainable Tourism, must be understood in its truest sense. Sustainability is not just about environmental conservation but rather creating an industry that is financially self-sufficient, resilient and capable of long-term growth.

This is where the forum’s function became critical. ATIF was designed to directly confront the investment gap by connecting Africa’s market-ready opportunities from eco-lodges and cultural heritage sites to smart tourism technologies with the investors, development finance institutions, and venture capitalists searching for them.

The expo is just the turning point. We must challenge ourselves and each other. Governments must move forward ready with streamlined policies that prove their investment readiness.

Investors must look beyond traditional assets to the transformative potential of community models and technology. And as an industry, we must collectively demonstrate that we are a unified, strategic sector worthy of significant, long-term capital.

The World Travel and Tourism Council forecasts that the sector could create 8.5 million new jobs in Africa by 2033, but that number is entirely conditional on investment flowing where it is needed most.

The forum was also the arena for essential dialogue between policymakers and the private sector. True progress hinged on this collaboration to improve the investment climate and dismantle the regulatory hurdles that impede cross-border enterprise under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The power of this focused investment is its ability to ripple outwards, stimulating the broader economy in ways that a simple tourism transaction cannot.

Capital directed into tourism does not remain isolated within a hotel’s balance sheet. It is the very force that funds the preservation of our culture, the development of creative industries like film, arts, music, the scaling of African-born technology, and the construction of green infrastructure. It empowers community-owned ventures, ensuring that economic benefits are distributed equitably and that local populations become the primary guardians of their own assets.

The setting of MKTE at Uhuru Gardens National Monument and Museum is a monument to freedom and pan-African unity, is deeply symbolic. Just as this site stands for Kenya’s historic struggle for freedom and unity, MKTE 2025, powered by ATIF, embodied Africa’s determined effort to unlock its own economic destiny through tourism.

The vision, the talent, and the opportunities have always been here and will always be within our grasp. What has been missing is a concerted mechanism to finance them at scale.

Does abnormal define the entrepreneurs and market leaders who refuse to play safe? Are the businesses that question every assumption unusual? Abnormal market leaders, don’t just think outside the box, they tear it apart.

Look around the Kenyan corporate scene – normal is overrated. Why? Because normal keeps companies stuck. Normal settles for slow growth, tired plans, predictable outcomes, responding to the easy stuff.

Abnormal is different, asking hard questions. Abnormal sparks new models, fresh markets, bold moves. Abnormal is where the future is built. Abnormal are the outliers at the refreshing edge of the normal curve. To stand out in a crowded market, should one take three steps to abnormal achievement with a focus on creating value by problem-solving, quick adapting and competing on time?

It’s a question of whether one is content with the status quo. There is a risk in hoping that an infusion of fluffy business jargon will be all that is required to survive another day. Not everyone is ready to break patterns, create new habits.

For those that are done with the average, hovering around the mean, to ignite real change requires a step into the abnormal. Normal solves yesterday’s problems. Abnormal creates tomorrow.

Your boss wants you focused, productive, not distracted. Business model of social media wants you scrolling, not thinking. And schools? They may be still busy preparing students for jobs that may no longer exist.

The world isn’t just changing. It’s accelerating. Blink, and you’re already behind. That’s why smart managers don’t spend their time glorifying stuff they learned back in the day.

Smart managers, at the edge of the normal curve, the abnormal, the outliers, are mastering a different set of skills that are much more likely to compound into unfair advantages.

We crave the Plato’s Cave of familiarity – believing the shadows on the wall are the reality. We don’t see the business world as it is, we see the events we want to see.

One – create value, solve a problem

At its essence, business is about creating and capturing value. It’s about noticing a problem, a need a customer has, and being able to solve it. Solving it with a product – service that they are ready to pay for. That’s the greater differentiator, ready to pay for.

Participants in Y Combinator, a legendary start-up incubation unit, are encouraged to sell their product, the customer solution, online to see if anyone is ready to pay for.

It may not even exist yet, they are taught to just test the waters to see if the market demand is there. After all, does it make sense to create a product that no one wants?

Wicked problem of university graduate unemployment is depressing. Parents have spent their hard-earned money, scrimping and saving, investing in four years of education that is designed to provide young Sarah with job that allows her to demonstrate her learned knowledge, skills and ‘can-do’ mindset.

Yet, the World Bank now reports that it can take up to five years for the typical Kenyan university graduate to obtain formal sector employment.

Reframe of the issue is asking: How can the young graduate obtain work experience the employer craves? How can they be taught to solve problems? If an applicant can demonstrate they can identify and come up a solution to a pressing problem an employer has, they would likely be hired on the spot.

Aim of education should be to inculcate a sense of curiosity, a love of learning, that allows the student to see the world through the eyes of their discipline.

The risk of AI is that it may stifle creativity, encouraging what has been described as ‘brain rot’. It shouldn’t be a replacement for critical thinking.

To be fair, research shows it’s a mistake to equate paper qualifications with intelligence. Some of the smartest, most productive Kenyan’s never attended university.

Two – adapt and evolve

Nothing stays constant. Even in business problem-solving, when one applies inductive logic, setting a [scientific method] hypothesis about what is happening, and goes about proving, or disproving, the best guess hypothesis shifts things, usually in unexpected ways.

Facts and figures one thought were true, often don’t turn out that way. Normal approach might be blame the data, saying this can’t be true.

Read: How do you see what others miss?

While some managers chase normal, the astute abnormal leader bends, twists and even breaks things – until something new emerges.

In fast adapting, they see possibility where others see problems. Ever-evolving, they ask questions that make people uncomfortable. They refuse to follow the linear because the future isn’t drawn in straight lines.

Three – time is the message

“The medium is the message” coined by Marshall McLuhan, means that the way information is delivered-the medium itself-has a greater impact than the content of the message. The properties of the medium, like the linear structure of print, or the visual nature of film, shape our thoughts.

Reality has at least two dimensions: physical space and time. Responding to a customer’s frustrating issue right away, sends a very different signal, in contrast to ignoring it.

Or, what may be for some, the ‘normal’ way of just letting something fall through the cracks, hoping that annoying problem may just evaporate.

Paying attention to responding, competing on the basis of time is the habit of market leaders. Conscientiousness remains a strong predictor of business success.

‘You can’t be normal and expect abnormal returns” advised Jeffrey Pfeffer.

Imagine stepping into a restaurant where you cannot rely on your sight to walk to your table or pick up your fork or knife, and instead, the aroma of food and the feel of cutlery guide you.

That was the experience at Dining in the Dark at Nairobi’s Karen Country Club – an event that let diners experience what it is like to eat out as a blind person.

What’s the best way to buy a car – save up and pay cash, borrow from a bank, or lease hire? And is it better to sell and buy separately, or do a trade-in?

These are all valid and available options, with choice dictated on a case-by-case basis. Overall, there are five ways to get the things you want. Make them, steal them, barter them, pay cash, or get credit.

Those are life’s deals. There are no others. There is always a price to pay – the only option is in how and when you choose to pay it. This has been the case since Adam whittled woman out of a rib (make it), since club-wielding cave-man invented matrimony with violence (steal it), since JJ Hughes swapped Model T Fords for wheat crops in Uasin Gishu (barter), since the clink of the first cowrie shell in Gedi (cash), and since Dr Faust went on tick with Old Nick (credit).

Lawyers, accountants and salesmen have invented hundreds of different words to describe each of these processes in an attempt to bewilder, beguile and finally bedevil and behoof the benighted public to bethink them beneficent and by these parts to ensure the party of the second part has to pay the party of the first part such a huge part of his last part he’s got nothing left to part or party with.

“Make” embraces grow, manufacture, assemble, fabricate, construct…

“Steal” includes rob, burgle, thieve, defraud, embezzle, hijack, half-hinch, and some types of bribe/gift.

“Barter”, meaning swap, has been given fancy titles like trade-exchange; the word ‘inducement’ is in the vicinity.

And even plain-simple cash has notes and coins and cheques and debit cards and direct debits and standing orders and whatnot.

But the greatest creative skills have been reserved for different ways to describe credit.

The business of usury – so famously championed by Shakespeare’s trader of east Mediterranean extraction in an Italian town with wet streets – has been euphemised, bastardised, legalised and otherwise disguised by all manner of pecuniary poetry.

Colleagues borrow and give loans. There is I owe you [IOUs], and small things can be got “on tick” or on account. Bigger items require mortgages, lease hire, hire purchase, otherwise known as the “never-never” (leaving us unsure of whether the pain never starts or the paying never stops). The instruments of credit include pawn shops, overdrafts, credit cards, commercial papers, promisory notes, advances, drawing rights, loan sharks, refer-to-drawer scribbles, failure to get a second signature, the accountant is out at the moment, could you please send me another copy of the invoice, our computer crashed and we’re doing everything by hand, we’re waiting for a tax refund…

Call it what you like. Credit is credit. A get-now-pay-later system. And pay later must, by definition, mean pay more to finance the cost and the profit of a credit facility. It is that extra cost that distinguishes legitimate credit from theft or charity.

There is nothing new about the credit idea, nor the over-riding principle that it increases the price. Kenya’s motorists have been well aware of that for some time (approximately one century). However, they have been most familiar with the idea of buying a car from one person and borrowing the money to pay for it from somebody else.

That keeps things relatively simple. One deal on the price of the car. A separate deal on the price of the money. All clear-cut and clean from everybody’s point of view.

However, as almost everybody depends on credit to buy a car, motor companies could become dependent on finance companies to secure their sales levels and margins.

So, globally, the trend is for motor companies to offer their own finance schemes (they use their own resources or their huge corporate creditworthiness to borrow the money from financiers, and pass that on to their customers, at cost plus.)

So the motorist gets the car, and the credit from the same seller.

And that greatly increases the number of different ways credit can be packaged and promoted. Hot on the heels of come-ons applied to the car – like real discounts, or hidden discounts through inflated trade-ins, cashback, or such nonsense as “free” service – come gimmicks applied to the finance like no-deposit and low-deposit, zero interest periods, and pay-back deferrals; different names and games that affect tax liability, and so on.

In some ways, the co-ordination of all these elements by just one company maximises the potential for a special deal; but it also makes evaluation of that deal much more difficult because it is almost impossible to distinguish which part of what you are paying is covering which part of what you are getting, and therefore to calculate what’s a bargain and what’s a rip-off.

And the more bits and pieces that are rolled into the package, the better the bargain or the bigger the rip-off can be. The most all-inclusive motor package could, in theory, be the cheapest form of motoring. In practice, the most all-inclusive system is called car hire, and it is usually the most expensive form of motoring.

There are dozens of “new” schemes on the Kenyan market. None of them reinvent the credit wheel – but they all spin it in different ways. While the options proliferate and evolve, I offer no judgment, but here are a few principles to be going on with.

One: You are out there to buy a car, not a fancy finance scheme or bonus extras. So above all, select the vehicle first, on the vehicle’s merits. Your usage, your needs and values, your preferences.

Two: When you have chosen the right vehicle for your purposes, only then look at your different options for paying for it. Salesmen are often poor advisors – competitors make better research assistants.

Three: Whatever the sales pitch calls it, if you don’t pay in full and up-front, you are on a credit scheme. You are therefore buying not only the car, but the money with which to pay for it. Evaluate both purchases, separately, with equal care.

Four: There are some very good deals out there. But any deal that looks too good to be true, probably is. Caveat Emptor (Let the Buyer Beware) is not just a legal principle. It is good advice.

Finally, if it has anything to do with motoring (or any commercial human being, for that matter) mistrust the word “Free”. What the word actually means (‘you do not have to pay anything’) and what marketers mean when they use it (‘the cost has already been added to something you do have to pay for’) are not the same thing.

Electric vehicles (EVs) dominate the motoring news, but there’s much less talk about hybrids, which you have predicted will be the dominant future choice in Kenya. What is the worldwide situation now? NJM

‘Terminology’ is to blame for the seemingly lower profile of hybrids, which are now produced and sold in roughly equal numbers to plug-in electric vehicles in major markets.

Between them, they are likely to soon equal sales of new vehicles with internal combustion engines, and thereafter dominate. Policy makers and the tax man will strongly support that trend. But dominant sales, even when they amount to tens of millions of units per year, will not transform the world overnight. There are well over a billion road-going vehicles, and it will take decades to replace them all.and reconfigure national infrastructures and markets.

Kenya is a minuscule part of all this, and only 10 percent of its modest renewal and replacement market is supplied by ‘new’ vehicles of any sort.

The other 90 percent are about eight years old.on arrival. Under the current circumstances of technical upheaval, that is not necessarily a bad thing!

There are just three main options on the menu – vehicles that have internal combustion engines (ICE) running on petrol or diesel, vehicles that run on electricity (EV) stored in batteries that have to be plug-in recharged, and Hybrids (that use both sources of power) – but there are dozens of different design configurations, and all are evolving within and between their different formats.

Meanwhile, bear in mind all the other things that need power to move themselves (trains, ships, submarines, construction equipment etc) and all the other things that produce power (fossil fuels, generators, sun, wind, tides, ocean currents, hydro dams, geothermal mines, nuclear power stations etc) and the capital investment and operational costs of harvesting, distributing and accessing energy (mains grids, storage depots, fuel stations, batteries etc).

All of these things are evolving within and between their fields – scientists, politicians, financiers, businessmen, and the general public have conflicting vested interests and influences, different timelines, resources, objectives, strategies – and there are more wars as there are alliances, more ignorance than knowledge, more scams than facts.

In those circumstances, there is no answer to which of the three (or other as yet unknown) options will finally dominate or when, elsewhere or here.

What we can recognise is that the answers are likely to vary significantly between markets with dramatically different levels of infrastructure, resources, national and personal affluence, climates, road conditions and traffic patterns, public transport options, social attitudes, etc.

The most highly developed markets – where vehicle volumes of all types are incomparably higher – are more able and inclined, and impelled to lead the transitions, and have the infrastructure, resources, and means to transition more quickly with full-time EVs.

But even in those markets, hybrids (in several different configurations) are ‘catching up’ and are likely to predominate as ICE vehicle sales drop into third place, and EVs (after an initial flush) await a technical breakthrough in battery design. There’s a multi-trillion-dollar pot of business gold at the end of that market rainbow, so the search is not underfunded.

In markets either unable or unwilling to take such a plunge, consumers are increasingly likely to take a more safety-first and wait-and-see approach.

Hybrids offer that, assure continued mobility in less than perfect infrastructures, and deliver performance/usage characteristics that best align with the fastest growing category of cars – SUVs.

The World Bank has warned of local job cuts and industry closures in the absence of an extension of the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) which expired at the end of September.

In a new assessment of the impact of the withdrawal of the preferential market access to the US by African countries, the World Bank expects exporters of apparel and textiles in Kenya, Lesotho and Madagascar to face the worst consequences.

Two pharmaceutical companies, one Kenyan and another from India, are locked in a Sh1.4 billion legal dispute concerning rights to manufacture and distribute 45 life-saving medicines in Kenya.

The case currently in the High Court, which also implicates Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB), centres on allegations of brand infringement and regulatory failures involving the essential medicines, exposing potential regulatory gaps in Kenya’s drug oversight.

The relentless pages of auction notices in the Kenyan newspapers are more than just classifieds; they are the stark, public symptom of a sickness within the country’s real estate and banking sectors.

This visible distress is quantified by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which reports that a staggering 26.5 percent of all non-performing loans (NPLs) are directly attributable to real estate and construction sectors.

The industry’s gross NPL ratio, standing at a high of 17.6 percent as of June 2025, continues to be a migraine for bankers, regulators, and policymakers alike. This challenge, however, is as old as financing business itself. The persistent role of real estate as the primary culprit in the deterioration of banking asset quality is not new. Pre-Covid pandemic, the 2019 Financial Stability Report pinned 30.8 percent of total industry’s NPLs on this sector.

The natural question is: why does this sector, often perceived as a bastion of wealth and stability, consistently generate such profound distress or NPLs? While current economic headwinds, particularly high-interest rates, have dampened demand for mortgages and stalled development, a critical analysis reveals the problem is far more fundamental. There are priceless lessons for financiers to pick.

The central, unforgiving lesson is that the real estate business is uniquely specialised and complex, demanding professional expertise at every single step. What many investors and lenders fail to accept is that the rules of the game here are fundamentally different from those in developed markets.

The high rate of NPLs is the predictable outcome of a mismatch between standard lending practices and the region’s unique realities.

The sector’s inherent long-gestation periods and sensitivity to macroeconomic shifts are amplified by local challenges: bureaucratic delays, fluctuating costs, and often inadequate infrastructure.

A lender who fails to model for these specific contingencies is flying blind. But unfortunately, many lenders are already in this doomed flight.

So, how can financial institutions protect themselves? The solution lies in a paradigm shift in underwriting and risk management.

First, one must underwrite the jurisdiction, not just the asset. This means prioritising a country’s legal system, political stability, and currency regime over a property’s projected cash flow, as these macro-factors can single-handedly cause a project to stall.

Second, collateral must be bulletproof; a standard legal charge is frequently insufficient and must be supplemented with other security enhancements as well as ensure control over the all-project assets.

Third, vigilance is key. Early intervention at the first sign of distress is not an option but a necessity. You will agree that Nairobi and other cities are littered with monuments to failed projects where collaboration came too late.

Furthermore, when trouble arises, unlike what is considered the conventional reaction, the courtroom should be a last resort. Embracing alternative dispute resolution offers a faster, more flexible path to recovery or exit.

Remember the goal should always be to recover capital and not to punish a borrower. The original borrower, if competent and cooperative, often remains the best bet to complete such a project.

Finally, there is no substitute for deep local knowledge and pragmatic flexibility to restructure loans when it represents the most viable path to salvaging value.

Ultimately, while lending to real estate in markets like Kenya is inherently riskier, the prevalence of NPLs is not an inevitability. It is a function of inadequate risk assessment, weak portfolio monitoring and at times knee-jerk reactionary strategies to already distressed projects.

By adopting a more nuanced, historically informed, and professionally executed approach, lenders can mitigate these age-old risks, protect their capital, and contribute to a more stable and prosperous sector for all.

Behind every maternal death in Kenya is a family forever changed. Children lose mothers, communities lose leaders, and the country loses potential.

At a recent Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition high-level policy dialogue and CSO roundtable in Nairobi, these stories and statistics came into sharp focus.

With less than five years to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal targets, the two-day convening was an opportunity to accelerate reforms, strengthen accountability, and mobilise political will so every woman, child, and adolescent can thrive.

Kenya continues to face unacceptably high maternal mortality, with 355 deaths for every 100,000 live births.

This translates to around 6,000 preventable deaths each year-about 16 women dying every single day. To put this in perspective: the loss of mothers in Kenya is the equivalent of a deadly matatu crash happening every single day.

Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), the loss of 500ml of blood after childbirth, the equivalent of a standard water bottle, remains the single largest cause of maternal deaths worldwide, disproportionately affecting women in low- and middle-income countries and the leading cause of maternal mortality in Africa.

In Kenya, PPH is the leading cause of maternal mortality (40 percent), followed by obstructed labour (28 percent), and eclampsia (14 percent), according to the Kenya Health Information System and significantly contributes to newborn asphyxia, a leading cause of neonatal mortality.

With universal access to family planning, quality antenatal and intrapartum care, skilled birth attendance, and emergency obstetric and newborn care, most maternal and newborn deaths could be prevented.

Beyond antibiotics and oxytocics, procurement of recent innovations like heat-stable carbetocin for preventing postpartum haemorrhage and tranexamic acid for timely bleeding management is essential. Safe blood transfusions also remain critical, yet many facilities still lack supplies, equipment, and trained staff.

Kenya has a chance to act. The Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Bill 2023, currently before Parliament, would enshrine access to equitable, quality MNCH services in law and strengthen coordination between national and county governments.

For this promise to translate into action, the bill must be urgently prioritised, championed across parties, and advanced without delay.

As Kenya prepares to host the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference in 2026, we cannot welcome the world while losing the equivalent of a matatu full of mothers every day. The fire must keep burning-until women, girls, and children can live and thrive with dignity.

Scaling up proven solutions-such as the E-MOTIVE approach, point-of-care ultrasound for early detection of complications, and CPAP for newborns with respiratory distress-alongside stronger referral systems and reliable supply chains, could transform outcomes.

But even still, facility readiness and antenatal care remain uneven. The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS, 2022) shows that over one-third of pregnant women do not attend four antenatal visits, with stark inequalities: only half of women with no education reach this minimum compared to more than eight in ten with higher education.

Persistent socioeconomic divides, health worker shortages, weak referral systems, and inequitable financing further hold back progress.

Kenya’s health reforms toward primary health care and universal coverage have come with disruption.

The shift from the Linda Mama program under NHIF to the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) has left gaps in access, with maternity services once free, now requiring out-of-pocket payments. Early signs suggest skilled birth attendance is declining as a result, putting mothers and newborns at greater risk.

Figures mask the daily reality: most deaths are preventable, and many could be linked to unintended or poorly supported pregnancies.

Participants highlighted that behind Kenya’s maternal mortality statistics lies a hidden driver: unintended pregnancies. They emphasized that without addressing access to contraception and prevention, maternal deaths will remain unacceptably high.

As asked by Hon. Dr James Nyikal, Chair of the National Health Committee, ‘How many of these deaths are actually coming from a planned pregnancy, and how many are coming from pregnancies that were not desired? There are a lot of maternal deaths that could be avoided by proper contraception.’

Youth voices underscored the hidden trauma of unintended pregnancies and early, unwanted motherhood. Teenage pregnancy rates remain stubbornly high at 15 percent with substantial county variation – and still persistent worrying trends with continued child marriage.

Behind these numbers lie stories of young women forced to leave school, face stigma, or endure motherhood without support – a cycle that perpetuates poverty and poor health.

While Kenya has made progress, with unmet need for family planning declining from 27 percent in 2003 to 14 percent today, disparities between counties remain stark.

More than one in four women in West Pokot (30 percent), Samburu (29 percent), Siaya (27 percent), and Isiolo (27 percent) still lack access, compared with less than 5 percent in counties such as Laikipia and Embu, according to the latest KDHS.

These figures, however, are in contrast with the Constitution of Kenya (2010) enshrines the right of every person to the highest attainable standard of health, including reproductive health and the right to life.

Speaking at the Global Leaders Network high-level side event on the margins of the United Natiions General Assembly this week, President William Ruto reaffirmed Kenya’s commitment to universal health coverage and sustainable financing, declaring: ‘The future of Africa health financing lies in our own hands.’

The time to act is now

As Ministry of Health’s Head of RMNCAH, Dr. Edward Serem, reminded us, ‘With all these investments, women are still dying, children are still dying. We still need to put more efforts.’

The time to act is now.

The Maternal Health Bill offers an opening and we have legislation and commitments to ensure reaffirming Kenya’s commitment to health. But action must be scaled and sustained.

The toll of maternal mortality is measured not only in lives lost but in futures cut short and communities burdened with unspoken grief. Kenya has the knowledge and tools to change this. What is required now is decisive leadership, bold investment, and collective resolve.

The first time Malcolm Kirago held the keys to a Bentley, there was some hesitation because it wasn’t his car. In fact, it was the first Bentley he had ever seen up close with leather that still carried the smell of newness, an engine note that made him marvel before settling into the driver’s seat.

His job? Not to drive it, but to restore it. It has become a thriller teaser into a world of cars, Mr Kirago only grew to admire.