Innovation: local heroes Kenyans are used to finding local solutions to everyday challenges and COVID-19 has inspired innovators to find creative ways to cope with the pandemic Onyango Okoth was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 14 July after he visited a hospital in Kisumu for what he claims was a routine medical check. The father of four, who works as a fisherman in Lake Victoria in the western part of Kenya, says he had experienced shortness of breath and high fever the previous day, prompting him to look for treatment. “After receiving initial medical assistance, I was advised to go back…
Mark Kapchanga
Kenya: Armed and dangerous Desperate and ruthless gangs find firearms widely available in Nairobi’s slums, presenting a constant security risk to the city’s residents A message posted on a Kenyan Facebook group known as Dandora Love People on 31 March, 2017 read like the opening lines of a scary movie script. Written by a member under the name of Hesy Wa Dandora, it said: “I won’t get tired to remind you guys, this is a Friday and mostly, such a time until Sunday is when thieves get killed either by mob or bullets.” The writer went on to remind the…
Since Kenya reintroduced a 5% capital gains tax (CGT) in January, its stock market has plummeted. The Nairobi Securities Exchange lost a massive 6.75% of its value in May when foreign investors withdrew 1.5 billion Kenyan shillings ($15m) from the market, according to Standard Investment Bank, a financial services firm based in Nairobi, the capital. The slump followed the reintroduction of the CGT that had been scrapped 30 years before. It could be argued that such losses hurt individual shareholders and also hinder companies’ chances of raising needed funds on the stock market, which ultimately depresses a country’s economic growth.…
Kenya is on track to almost triple its foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 2016 as compared to 2014 on the strength of renewed investor confidence, the Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) says. FDI inflows are expected to reach $3 billion this year as compared to $1.2 billion in 2014, according to a 2015 African Development Bank survey. Kenya “is increasingly becoming a favoured business hub, not only for oil and gas exploration, but also for manufacturing, transport and the booming technology industry,” according to the report. The agriculture and energy sectors were also mentioned as FDI drivers. Other investment opportunities…
Kenya: leading in IT innovation M-Pesa money transfer service has led the way to better, faster business By Mark Kapchanga Before 2007, Dickson Rono would rely entirely on Kenya’s slow, cumbersome and expensive banking infrastructure to pay bills and receive payments from clients. Today, thanks to mobile money transfer service M-Pesa, the managing director of Ron TV International, a documentary and filmmaking company in Nairobi, can use his mobile device as a virtual bank. M-Pesa, launched by telecoms operator Safaricom turns even the most basic cellular telephones into mobile banks, and this has revolutionised the way businesses are run in…
Kenya: out with the old On 6 February this year, Miguna Miguna, a Kenyan-born attorney and a solicitor in Canada tweeted that Kenya was in danger of becoming a Kenyatta-Moi private estate. “Patriots,” he added, would have to “mobilise” to stop the takeover of the country, by creating a “vibrant people-focused and merit-based society … built on the principles of social justice and governed by individuals of integrity”. In an earlier tweet, Miguna had claimed that certain “Anglo-American imperialists” were working with Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, to “mutilate the Constitution” with the aim of turning President…
Kenya: deadly politics Ethnic factionalism results in skewed allocation of resources and opportunities towards majority tribespeople Last year three Kenyan universities closed indefinitely after a poisonous division emerged between two groups of students contesting the outcome of their respective leaders’ elections. The closures revealed an underlying division at Kenyan institutions of higher learning where students mobilise along tribal lines, especially during elections. At all three universities—Chuka, Maasai Mara and Moi— one group was mainly made up of Kikuyus and Kalenjins, while the other included Luhyas, Kisiis and Luos. Together, Kikuyus and Kalenjins make up 11.6 million of the population, and…
Kenya: has Raila Odinga lost his taste for battle? The faded promise of Raila Odinga’s opposition coalition is part of a disheartening pattern in Kenyan politics Raila Odinga cut his political teeth as a dogged opposition fighter in the 1990s. He was imprisoned three times for anti-government activity under former president Daniel arap Moi. His campaign to unseat Mr Moi’s successor, Mwai Kibaki, led to the violent 2007-2008 impasse and his appointment as prime minister in a unity government. But since his defeat to Uhuru Kenyatta in the March 2013 elections, Mr Odinga has gone uncharacteristically quiet. In 2013 Mr Odinga’s party, the…
East Africa: non-tariff barriers Non-cooperation and governmental indifference are blocking the region’s commerce Trade barriers that restrict imports and a lack of political will to remove them impede commerce in east Africa. This is an old problem that Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have been trying to fix since they joined forces in 2000 to form the new East African Community (EAC). In 2010 these five countries adopted a common market protocol calling for the “maximum” removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) such as onerous documentation, slow border posts and import quotas. This move yielded almost immediate results: intra-EAC trade…
