SOURCED FROM CURRENT NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALS
After nearly three decades as an employee-more than half of them as chief executive of Crown Paints-Rakesh Rao longed for the day he could start a business of his own.
Entrepreneurship, he believed, would finally give him ‘peace of mind.” In an April 2021 interview, he said he had given himself about three years-around now, as his two sons settled into their paths-to actualise the dream.
Commercial banks are asking the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to cut the base lending rate further to help lift the pace of private sector credit growth.
Through the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), the lenders say overall inflation remains low, the foreign exchange rate is stable and private sector credit remains ‘under strain,’ requiring further easing of the Central Bank Rate (CBR).
Wholesale prices of electricity will be capped at $0.07 (Sh9.04 at current exchange rates) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for new Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that Kenya Power will sign in a move aimed at cushioning consumers from costly electricity.
David Gikaria, the chair of the National Assembly Energy Committee, disclosed that capping of the prices is one of the conditions included in a report that his committee will table in Parliament, setting the stage for lifting of a moratorium that has been in place since 2018.
Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) has extended the suspension of managing director Hillary Wachinga for a further 21 working days starting October 2, 2025.
Dr Wachinga was first suspended on September 3 for 21 working days following what the board termed as a ‘preliminary review of internal matters, which is ongoing.’ This, even as sources linked his suspension to a talent review process he had initiated to streamline operations at the State-owned reinsurer.
A notice on Friday morning announced the extension, which will keep Dr Wachinga out of the office at least up to the end of the month. ‘The board of directors of Kenya Reinsurance Corporation Limited wishes to inform the public that it has extended the suspension of the managing director, Dr Hillary Wachinga, for 21 working days from October 2, 2025,’ read the notice in part.
The extended suspension means general manager for property and investments, Nicodemus Gekone, will continue to serve as the acting managing director for the intervening period. Dr Wachinga, a part-time lecturer at Strathmore Business School, a golfer and poet, became Kenya Re managing director in March 2023, with the board hailing him as a ‘multiskilled strategic thinker’ and a ‘flexible and adaptable corporate leader.’
Kenya Re share price shed 8.38 per cent of its value on the day Dr Wachinga was first suspended, closing the day as the top loser at Sh3.17.
The share price opened Friday trading at Sh3.18.
In the financial year ended December 2023, Dr Wachinga led Kenya Re in a 41.5 percent growth in net profit to Sh4.97 billion that saw shareholders’ dividend per share raised 50 percent to Sh0.30 amounting to Sh839.94 million plus bonus shares of one for each share already held.
Last year, the profit retreated by 10.6 percent to Sh4.44 billion mainly on foreign exchange losses, even as the reinsurance service result -reinsurance revenue less service expenses- grew 4.4 times to Sh2.95 billion. The dividend payout was maintained.
His continued suspension comes at a critical time for Kenya Re given that the September-November window is critical for renewing businesses which has a bearing on the next financial year’s performance.
Kenya Re is also awaiting a new rating from one of the key ratings agencies, raising the risk that the boardroom happenings might filter into the ratings.
A reinsurer’s credit rating is the opinion of an independent agency regarding the company’s financial strength and ability to pay claims coming from insurers. A strong rating points to a reinsurer that can settle insurer’s claims without struggle.
Tanzanian-owned Lake Gas has snapped up two percent of the local market for handling imported cooking gas, taking a piece of a business that has been dominated for decades by African Gas and Oil (AGOL).
Industry data from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) revealed the market share of the Tanzanian oil marketer, adding that AGOL and the Shimanzi Oil Terminal (SOT) dominate with a combined share of 94.56 per cent. AGOL’s facility has a capacity of 25,000 tonnes, while SOT connects to five storage facilities with a combined capacity of 2,335 tonnes.
The rural folk, especially in the arid and semi-arid areas, always experience hardship and poverty exacerbated by the adversity of climate change. It was not any different in the eastern part of Kenya, where my story begins.
Daily life revolved around one basic need: water. As a child, my marathon was running to the Athi River with donkeys, carrying jerricans down dusty paths and rocky hills. It was always under the scorching sun and the threat of crocodiles.
The lack of alternatives meant we had to disturb their dangerous habitat. Every so often, children and adults alike escaped with injuries, while others were not as fortunate.
We drank directly from the river, polluted by upstream waste from Nairobi. We swam not for leisure, but to cool our bodies before the uphill climb home. That was our childhood.
No packed lunches, no clean water, no safety nets. It was survival, and it came at the cost of missed school days and the burden of child labour.
Looking back, there is nothing about that life to miss. It was real human suffering. And yet, it is this very experience that explains why I am deeply passionate about climate action.
I know, firsthand, what degraded ecosystems mean for families. Deforestation upstream disrupted river flows. Soil erosion stripped the land bare.
Prolonged droughts pushed communities deeper into poverty. Climate vulnerability was not an abstract idea; it was the reality of my childhood.
The World Resources Institute notes that by 2050, nearly one billion people in Africa will face severe water stress unless urgent measures are taken. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report warns that children in Africa born in 2020 will experience four to five times more climate extremes in their lifetime compared to those born 60 years earlier.
These numbers confirm what some of us have lived through since birth.
This is why I advocate for the restoration of landscapes, for clean energy, sustainable food systems, and protection of natural resources that communities depend on.
Climate action should go beyond policy frameworks on paper and fancy global conferences. It is all about human dignity. It is about ensuring that the next generation does not spend its childhood fetching unsafe water or battling odds that should not exist in the first place.
May the policies get better and the actions move faster, so that no more generations have to endure the kind of suffering we went through. Because of that suffering, I now dedicate my voice and work to building solutions.
Climate action, for me, is not just a career path. It is a personal mission to turn pain into purpose and to make sure no child has to endure what we did in the dry and semi-arid eastern part of Kenya.
The alleged collusion in the vote to appoint new Senators is under review by an Election Commission subcommittee before the EC’s main panel pass final judgment.
The EC recently addressed growing criticism over delays in investigating the case, stressing that all actions by itself and its secretary-general, Sawaeng Boonmee, are in line with the law.
The investigation is now in its third stage, it said, with the 36th subcommittee reviewing the case files and preparing recommendations. Once complete, the findings will be submitted to the EC for a final ruling.
The commission also outlined the process for dealing with the case: first, the EC’s provincial offices investigate and forward opinions to its central office; second, the central office reviews and analyses the case; third, the EC’s subcommittees examine the evidence and prepare conclusions; and fourth, the EC makes the final decision.
The clarification followed a complaint filed on Friday by reserve senator Akarawat Phongthanachalitkul, who lodged a criminal complaint against the EC and Mr Sawaeng, accusing them of dereliction of duty under Section 157 of the Criminal Code and Section 172 of the Organic Act on Counter Corruption.
Mr Akarawat argued the move was not political but an effort to defend democratic principles, stressing that as a stakeholder in the Senate election, he has the right to demand transparency.
He also expressed concern about recent appointments within the Ministry of Justice, warning they could undermine judicial independence.
“We have repeatedly asked the EC for answers but have never received a clear one. The public has yet to receive justice. There are several cases that have been left to drag on, even though many facts are already evident. This should not happen in a democratic system.”
The demolition of the new Samsen police station started at the Bangkok’s sinkhole site on Samsen Road Saturday night, according to Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt.
The governor said at the site Sunday morning that robots were used to first remove windows and facades of the newly built police station which was subsiding. Vehicles were moved out of the station.
Officials at the site told him that the four-storey police station moved and cracks were heard Saturday night. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration reported on its Facebook page that soil under the station slid as it rained and the station then subsided.
However, adjacent police flat buildings and commercial buildings remained stable, Mr Chadchart said.
In the meantime, the Bangkok governor said, sand was being dumped to fill the sinkhole.
Workers already dumped 3,800 cubic metres of sand into the sinkhole as of Saturday night and 1,200 cubic metres more of sand would be added Sunday morning, he said. He did not see a new crack in the sinkhole Sunday morning.
The governor also said that adjacent Vajira Hospital operated as usual on Sunday.
The sinkhole happened with the original dimension of 30 metres wide, 30m long and 20m deep in the morning of Sept 24 above an underground station under construction for the Purple Line extension route of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority. The state enterprise blamed the subsidence on soft soil in the local area.
Officials concernred decided on the police station demolition and thus the reopening of Samsen Road in Dusit district of Bangkok was postponed indefinitely.
The Department of Highways (DoH) plans to implement 10 urgent policies, costing 131 billion baht, focusing on safety improvement for both road users and construction workers.
Director-General Piyapong Jiwattanakulpasal said the Transport Ministry had assigned the DoH to improve construction safety by implementing technology to improve workflow quality.
In response, Mr Piyapong said the DoH’s safety improvement policies would focus on road construction, communication networks, and public safety regarding road usage.
They include a detailed analysis of construction methodology while swiftly addressing some riskier points in road networks.
The ministry also ordered the DoH to strategically manage its 131 billion baht allocated from the fiscal budget.
The budget was divided into four main missions, with most focused on the communication and logistics development, worth 121 billion baht, or 92.4% of the total budget.
The rest would be used in human resource management (3.7%), competitiveness development (1.1%), and a cooperation project with the Eastern Economic Corridor (2.8%).
He said the DoH had announced 10 urgent policies for the 2026 fiscal year. They included speeding up the M6 and M81 construction projects to meet deadline.
The DoH planned to urgently expedite its budget acquisition, especially for some bidding projects and spending at the start of the fiscal year, to help stimulate the economy, he said.
Its plan also covers the Nakhon Pathom-Pak Tho motorway project, approved earlier by the cabinet.
The DoH also planned to upgrade the M-Flow payment system for easier use and would implement a Job Safety Analysis system for construction projects, he said.
Important news from Blighty. Rice has been grown for the first time in Britain in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. Apparently this is a result of an unusually hot summer. For a project that had once been dismissed as a joke it’s quite an achievement. Let’s hope the notoriously fickle English weather doesn’t spoil it all. It will probably start snowing tomorrow.
Whatever the case I don’t think Thailand need worry just yet about Britain becoming a major competitor in the rice trade.
It got me thinking about when my western taste-buds were introduced to rice. I think the first rice dish I ever consumed must have been at primary school where rice pudding was a regular offering as the dessert for our daily school dinner. It was regarded as a healthy meal for pupils. Not everybody liked it, possibly because we had it too often and I remember some children refusing to eat it. Mind you that was at a time when it was fashionable for kids to hate school dinners.
Rice puddings have been around for a long time in Britain. In 1924 AA Milne of Winnie-the-Pooh fame even wrote a poem entitled Rice Pudding. Here is a brief excerpt: “What is the matter with Mary Jane? She’s crying with all her might and main. And she won’t eat her dinner. rice pudding again.”
It sounds like Mary Jane wasn’t too keen on school dinners either.
Home cooking
My mother was a great cook but we never had rice meals at home. So the first time I ate rice as part of a main meal was as a teenager in a Chinese restaurant in my home town of Reading. I became a huge fan of sweet and sour dishes usually consumed after a few pints with mates at a nearby pub.
Little did I know then that in a few years I would be eating rice virtually every day in a country known as the “Rice Bowl of Asia”. In fact for the first few weeks in Thailand I survived on fried rice (Khao-Pat) at Pratunam market for the grand sum of three baht a dish.
Pudding time
The aforementioned rice pudding was not the most unpopular dish at school dinners. That dubious honour went to tapioca pudding or “frogspawn” as it was known at our school. The negative view was partly due to the bland and stodgy taste. But what really put off the kids was the uncanny resemblance to the jelly-like spawn found in ponds before transforming into tadpoles.
According to the Guardian, tapioca pudding was once named in a poll as the most unpopular school dessert in Britain. In addition to :frogspawn: it was also called “fisheyes” and “eyeball pudding.” Then there was semolina pudding of which I don’t have fond memories.
Picking up steam
Last week marked the 200th anniversary of the historic train journey in northeastern England which paved the way for modern railway travel. A replica of the steam engine Locomotion No 1 recreated the original journey on the Stockton-Darlington railway all those years ago.
Watching the old steam engine chugging along stirred memories of one of my favourite films, The Titfield Thunderbolt made back in 1953. I’ve enjoyed railway steam engines from an early age, no doubt influenced by that film, starring Stanley Holloway. It is a classic comedy featuring a group of villagers battling to save their branch line.
The real star of the show is a lovely ancient tank engine which, among other things, has to overcome a nasty steamroller used by the bad guys to block the line. The engine used in the film, Lion, was built in 1838 and was 114 years old at the time of filming. The film is great fun and still extremely watchable despite its age.
Over the sea to Skye
All this talk about railways sparks fond memories of one particular train journey in Scotland I experienced In the early 1960s. I was with my parents and we travelled from Inverness to the Isle of Skye, via the Kyle of Lochalsh where we took a ferry to Kyleakin. In those days there was no bridge. My mother particularly enjoyed it as The Skye Boat Song was one of her favourite tunes.
That trip always reminds me of bagpipes, an instrument we often joked about at school. On the way to Skye, the train stopped off at a remote spot in the Highlands where we enjoyed some wonderful freshly baked scones and cream. During that break I took a brief stroll and came across a kilted gentleman, standing totally alone on the moor in a sea of purple heather, playing a plaintive tune on the pipes. It sounded quite beautiful and I was never rude about bagpipes again.
Sweeping up
Regarding last week’s item on early toothpaste commercials on UK television it seems the one readers remember most is: “You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.” I think it was the simple but catchy tune that makes it linger in the memory cells. While we are at it here’s another from those early days that may trigger a few memories among more ancient readers. I recall the commercial for Hoover vacuum cleaners which had people singing to an old army marching tune “It beats as it sweeps as it cleans.”