By Paul Otieno Onyango A lot has been said and written about the person of Jorge Maria Bergoglio, the Argentinian priest commonly known as Pope Francis, regarding his leadership style and his vision on controversial issues in the society today. He has single handedly changed the image of the Catholic Church and has somehow become a paradigm of what it means to be a catholic and a leader. This month, the Pope is to make his Maiden trip to the continent of Africa at a time when the continent is experiencing difficulties of all kinds: migration to Europe (along the…
Author: Editor
BY DR KELLEN KIAMBATI Engaged people at work are positive, interested in and even excited about their jobs and prepared to go the extra mile to get them done to the best of their ability. The term employee engagement refers to ‘the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work, beyond the minimum to get the job done, in the form of extra time, brainpower or energy’. An engagement strategy will address all the means that an organization can use to promote this type of effort. Engagement and organizational commitment are two important concepts affecting work performance and…
BY PETER WANYONYI Over 80% of professionals that use computers for more than 4 hours a day complain of back pain, in particular lower back pain. This is a well-known phenomenon, and doctors have long counselled a sparing use of computers and a correct posture when using them. Even worse, 90% of people who work at a computer screen have some symptoms of eye trouble, with 50% having problems serious enough to warrant corrective glasses. Ophthalmologists recommend that computer users must step away from their visual display terminals for at least 5 minutes every single hour. But in Kenya, sitting…
Multinational technology firm Lenovo, is banking on the rise in usage of the 4G technology and growing internet usage by the millennials to drive its smartphone business in the East African region. Known for its personal computers business, Lenovo is banking on the success of its smartphone business in Europe and Asia to propel the East African operation. According to the latest Communication Authority of Kenya fourth quarter sector report for the year 2014/15, there are an estimated 29.6 million internet users. Mobile data subscriptions contribute to 99% of the total subscriptions. Lenovo’s focus on the millennials is exemplified in…
By Lanji Ouko If you watched the popular television series “Royal Pains” on USA Network television that premiered June 4, 2009 starring Feuerstein, the concept of door-to-door medical services is not a new practice to you. It is based on a concierge medicine practice of independent doctors and companies. The show depicts the door-to-door doctor service as the most efficient and ideal way to go about health matters in order to avoid the problems involved with medical malpractices. In the recent past, claims of medical negligence and malpractice by medical practitioners have been on the rise with most of the…
By Ian Mwaura The capitalization rate on real estate is at an all time high, as value property investments and income streams increase within the market. But what does this mean? Here is how to determine the capitalization rate, what investors should consider, and why the cap rate of land is important. The capitalization rate, more commonly known as cap rate, is the ratio of net operating income (NOI) to property asset value. It is a first-hand indicator of how much an investment is worth. If a property is listed for Sh1 million and generates an NOI of Sh100, 000,…
By Victor Adar Off-plan buying appears to have given Kenyans a fresh lease of life becoming the latest way that makes buying houses more pocket-friendly. It is seemingly affordable, giving a foothold to first timers as well as new real estate firms keen on getting a piece of the pie. You don’t want to be the one getting surprised at a time when others got better deals. Return is king in this business. That is why more and more individuals choose to buy for speculation. Try to picture buying a property at say Sh14million when your neighbour bought at half…
By Kosta Kioleoglou Did you know that agriculture is, maybe, the oldest investment and one of the most lucrative business opportunities directly connected with the survival of the human race? Well, for dozens of centuries, vast fortunes have been created around the world from farming; plantations and agriculture, while hundreds of millions of people have been making their living from small-scale agro forestry facilities. Economically, savvy investors have been putting cash in hard assets as an inflation hedge against future and present economic uncertainty for at least the last two decades. While much of this demand for these hard assets…
BY DOMINIC OMONDI National and county governments have engaged in a spending contest, which has seen them duplicate each other’s functions and worsened Kenya’s fiscal position according to the latest report from the World Bank. This comes at a time when the Government is straddled in a cash-crunch that has seen it struggle to meet some of its financial obligations including settling power bills for both legislative chambers. The overzealous spending by the two levels of Government has wiped out the fiscal space with the public debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reaching the staggering level of 50% threshold in…
By James Muliro The financial crisis government is experiencing has pushed it to the limit, forcing it to pick up funds from the markets at very lofty rates. Coupled with a high appetite of borrowing from the domestic market, interest rates on Treasury bills have risen to over 20% and are set to remain above this level at least in the coming few weeks. This is both good and bad news for investors and the government. The bad news is that commercial banks, who are the biggest investors in government securities due to their high returns and relative safety compared…