By Francis Monyango Web presence is a requirement in modern business. It is hard to trust a business entity which you cannot Google. How else will you know about the previous customers’ feedback? Trending online can really boost sales and businesses strive to trend for all the right reasons. The biggest nightmare is trending online negatively. The people online are more courageous and unforgiving due to their presumed anonymity. A lot of customer service is done on social media platforms. Service providers and their customers prefer this since it is convenient. This can be said to be in line with…
Author: Editor
BY GABRIEL CAJETAN Flowered maize crop jostle for space as it sways to the cool breeze on the slopes of Kessup village in Keiyo North within Elgeyo-Marakwet County. For more than ten years, Moses Kerita, like majority of the residents of Elgeyo, has been practicing small-scale maize farming. But erratic weather patterns and unpredictable maize prices have pushed many farmers into cultivation of alternative crops. Nightshade, commonly known as managu, is gaining popularity among many farmers in this region. Moses started planting nightshade six years ago on a one-acre piece of land but has since expanded the acreage to four…
BY LANJI OUKO Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say. But who is this beholder we speak of? Today, women are taught about self-love, and self-awareness. By empowering women to be aware of their worth, it is a silent message for women to tenderly take care of themselves. Self-love promotes appreciating and accepting one’s body despite any perceived flaws. Nobody trains one on how to love themselves however, a number of brands today provide women with a platform and products to develop the campaign on self-awareness. We are what we eat and drink, and what we…
By Kosta Kioleoglou Although numbers do not lie, sometimes the market trend is not as crystal clear. Reading the latest available reports on Kenyan economy and the real estate sector, I really find it hard to get a clear position on the status of the market trend. The reason is that it’s towards the end of 2016, and despite a lot of predictions, the Kenyan Real Estate Market seems to have enough strength to resist both local as well as global economic turbulences and market shocks. On the other hand, it is not exactly outperforming. That is what makes things…
By Antony Mutunga ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ (liberty, equality, fraternity) was the famous phrase that commoners (the third estate) used as their slogan during the 1789 French revolution. It was introduced by Maximilien Robespierre who felt it was important in their fight against the ruling Ancien régime. The third estate revolted because they were fed up with the inequality and difference in the social stratas. The commoners had grown tired of living in starvation while they were forced to pay high taxes. What made matters worse was, the law exempted the nobility and clergy from paying most of the taxes while…
BY IAN ONDARI Insider trading is defined conventionally as the buying or selling of securities by a person who is reasonably expected to have access to unpublished information by virtue of their connection with a company. It is a per se prohibited practice, especially if it involves breach of a fiduciary duty, or a relationship of trust and confidence. Enforcing regulations on insider trading has been recognized as the primary goal by regulators because the informational asymmetry undermines investor confidence in the fairness and integrity of the securities markets. Insider trading and market manipulation also continually poses a threat to…
BY NBM WRITER Increasing urbanisation and rising levels of disposable income should fuel growth in Kenya’s retail sector in 2016 and beyond, as demand for quality outlets and a broader range of shopping options drives the construction of floor space. Over the past five years, the average value of consumer spending has risen by as much as 67%, making Kenya the continent’s fastest-growing retail market. With increased urbanisation and an ongoing rise in disposable incomes, formal retail activity – which is led by large blue-chip domestic companies in a number of segments – should continue to expand and diversify, especially…
BY LUKE MULUNDA On November 25th, the US and other markets around the world marked Black Friday, the shopping carnival that signals the end of thanksgiving period in the United States. Since 1932, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers open very early and close late with promotional sales. This culture, like many other American trends, has since spread across the globe. In Kenya it was activated a few years ago by online retailers, such as e-Bay and Amazon, who would spring offers to Kenyan customers. The Black…
BY JANE WACHIRA The world is experiencing phenomenal political and economic restructuring; the year 2016 will go down in history as one when humanity changed the order of doing business in the sense of how people carried out their political and economic affairs. The highlight of economic changes that may be termed as unconventional will be Brexit, the bold move by Britain to withdraw from the European Union in the name of autonomy and, to crown it, US election of controversial businessman Donald Trump as President in the name of democracy. At a time when the political and economic arenas…
The Board of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has taken enforcement action against the former Uchumi Supermarkets Ltd (USL) Chief Executive and Finance Manager, former USL directors and the rights issues transaction advisor for regulatory breaches following an inquiry undertaken by CMA in line with its mandate of investor protection. Set up in 1989 as a statutory agency under the Capital Markets Act Cap 485A, CMA is charged with the prime responsibility of both regulating and developing an orderly, fair and efficient capital markets in Kenya with the view to promoting market integrity and investor confidence. These enforcement actions are…