By David Wanjala 2018 is almost here and most Kenyans, especially the business owners, will tell you that the journey through 2017 has not been easy. And after a protracted electioneering period that was marred with legal battles, violence, and tension, they will tell you that all they want is some sort of normalcy. The year has not been an easy one for individuals who run businesses as ordinary as selling second hand wares and retail shops. The prospects of some of these small businesses are dimmed, as many of them are now not doing as well as they should.…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY DAVID ONJILI K’Frys Fedha, a medium sized fast food joint in Embakasi’s Fedha estate, employing close to fifteen individuals, has been closed since February this year. Haltons Chemist, just opposite it, was closed in January 2017 rendering 3 staff jobless. Jacknice Supermarket ,a few meters towards Nyayo Estate, has empty shelves and the owner had to lay off six other staff in a cost cutting measure. Mary, a banker who had taken a Sh300, 000 bank loan to start a milk ATM, closed hers after six months of operation while a Mr Mugambi who has a new flat just…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Before the August 8 elections, the Kenyan economy was already experiencing a slowdown. Even though most global institutions were predicting the economy would grow, the story was much different on the streets. Kenyans were not experiencing the positive change in the economy as predicted. On the contrary, they felt things were only becoming worse. High cost of living, an increase in job layoffs and, worse off, the collapse of several firms around the country left many doubts on whether the economy was truly growing as publicised. It is true that the government launched several infrastructural projects including…
BY SHADRACK MUYESU A World Bank report in April this year Projected Kenya’s GDP growth to decelerate to 5.5%, 0.5% down from the 2016 forecast. Among others, the report cited a subsisting drought, a rise in oil prices as well as a marked slowdown in credit growth to the private sector as causes for the slowdown. According to the report, however, medium term GDP growth was to recover to 5.8% in 2018 and 6.1% in 2019 respectively, depending on successful completion of the ongoing infrastructure projects, the strengthening of the global economy, tourism and the resolution of slow credit growth. Most…
Up to 64% of industrial manufacturers forecast zero or negative revenue growth, with only 2% expecting a positive revenue growth in the next six months according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) Barometer Report for the 3rd quarter – a publication used to measure the pulse of the Kenyan industrial sector using a number of indices. A daunting 53% of Kenyan manufacturers surveyed believe that Kenya’s economy has declined since the 2nd quarter of the year with a further 25% stating that the economy was stagnant. Only 22% believed the economy was growing. The economic outlook for the next 6 months…
BY BENARD AYIEKO In the modern corporate world, the role of marketing is just too important to be ignored. No company, small or large has failed to align her strategy with the realities of the market that comes with marketing. Competition for products and markets has taken a competitive approach and only those companies that can swim through this tight market tides will survive. Marketing has taken a central role in shaping the going concern of many companies by boosting sales and revenues. In fact, the survival of a company in this era of cutthroat competition for market share is…
Kenyans generally love football, despite the challenges the sport faces. And their other love, athletics, is a sport well associated with Kenya at the world stage, while our rugby 7s team (Shujaa) continues to be our high profile team sport. But no team can match in terms of African dominance the fete by our female volleyballers, The Malkia Strikers. They are the most successful and dominant team in the continent. Generation after generation, these queens have continued to churn out talent, including Doris Wefwafwa, Nancy Lijodi, Mary Ayuma, Violet Barasa, Dorcas Ndasaba, Janet Wanja, Brackcides Khadambi and Triza Atuka, who…
BY Christopher rosana As Maester Qyburn said in A Feast of Crows, ‘Knowing is the nature of my service’, I believed law school was the place my inquisitive mind would find solace and my argumentative self would find refuge. I was there to learn and then I realized that the law was a new language. Law school started with me groping for the meaning of words. Things were not making sense and I was, for a time, ‘seeing darkly as in a mirror’ as Paul quipped in his epistles of old. Scott Turow narrates, with gripping intensity, the rigors of…
BY TERRY MWANGI Nothing beats the urge of wanting to wear new clothes straight off the rack. They are so perfectly crisp, colors so bright, and the whites are so white! Who would ever want to ruin that? We get so excited that we never really give much thought about where these clothes have previously been before they found their way onto our bodies. Turns out there is a very important step between buying new clothes and wearing them that you have been missing – washing. Do you really want to wash that new pair of jeans? The answer to…
BY BONNIE CHIU When I was growing up, race was rarely discussed at home and at school. In Hong Kong, ethnic Chinese make up 95% of the population, and as a former British colony until 1997, some of us may be accustomed to seeing Caucasians we take for granted that white people disproportionately hold the powerful positions in society. Yet, since an incident in my childhood, I have become very aware of how people may judge each other by their skin colour. I am 100% Chinese, but I just happen to become tanned quite easily. When I was 10 years…