BY VICTOR ADAR As recent as a year ago, banks charged an average of 18% on loans. Some passed exorbitant percentages of as high as 27% to borrowers. Today, the maximum interest charged by banks is less than 14%, yet bottom up economy is not strong. Experts say that from manufacturing to trade, real estate to transport, as well as agriculture, which are the biggest contributor to Kenya’s economic growth, have not benefited from credit after the country re-introduced interest rate capping law that was scrapped in 1991. Asset management firm, Britam, reveals that the drive to lower interest rate…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY PETER WANYONYI Back in 1929, at the height of British colonial oppression in Kenya, the Kikuyu Central Association sent Mzee Jomo Kenyatta abroad to lobby for Kikuyu land rights and restitution. It was felt that, given the denial of rights to Black people to express themselves in British colonial Kenya, there was only one place in the world that would tolerate and in fact welcome and embrace the ideals of free speech and open debate to the extent needed to push African land rights to the fore of British colonial debate. That place was, quite ironically, Britain – the…
BY ISAAC SWILA Christened the Enigma in Kenyan politics by Nigerian author Babafemi Badejo in his 2006 biography titled “Raila Odinga”, the son of the doyen of opposition politics seems to feel the sweet aroma of the presidency so closer to his nose yet he fails to have a real bite and taste of the delicacy. At each election cycle beginning with 2007, 2013 and 2017, Raila has come so close yet to so far; and his is a rich narrative that will be written and told for ages for future Kenyan children and students of history. And like a…
BY KENYATTA OTIENO The political heat generated by recent call by NASA Coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga to the Maasai in Kajiado not to sell their land to outsiders and subsequent commentaries by Kibe Mungai, an advocate of the High Court and social commentator and Dr David Ndii, an economist and NASA’s strategist, has led me to write this article. I have had the privilege to do some work in groundwater across Maasailand. I have been to the east in Rombo near Kilimanjaro where the Maasai border Taitas, Sultan Hamud where they have mixed with Kambas and to Kilgoris in…
Kenya hosted major conferences including TICAD and UNCTAD last year. Given the strategic and geographical location of the country; giving it an edge to host more international conferences, investors mainly hoteliers, have shown business interests mainly aiming at offering visitors an opportunity to enjoy. Things were rosy until politics set in. With the elections in the backdrop this year, the economy has been growing at a slow pace. Despite the setbacks, tourism has been upbeat as international bookings have been steady at 70%, according to Bobby Kamani, MD of Diani Reef. He spoke to Victor Adar on fourth quarter performance…
BY VICTOR ADAR HMD global Oy, the licence holder for the Nokia brand, seems to be giving Nokia 3310 a fresh run-around. New version of this mid-range phone that stole many peoples’ hearts some 17 years ago is still remarkable. Back in the days, the few features the model was synonymous with was not only a torch and a ringtone composer, but also heritage of quality, simplicity and reliability. And if you were lucky to own one, you know you could stay connected regardless of how remote your village was. Those devices did not come with issues of “no” network.…
BY DAVID ONJILI Company Shop, Britain’s largest re-distributor of surplus food and goods partnered with Community Shop to help manufacturers and retailers deal with the headache of surplus sustainably around the year 2013. This was to mark the beginning of a successful journey of community shops, an idea for shoppers on the verge of food poverty to get the opportunity to buy food and drink for up to 70% less than the normal high-street prices. The aim is to stop the large stores from dumping. A community shop is simply a social enterprise that is empowering individuals and building stronger…
Michael Kamau, former PS for Transport and Infrastructure ones said, “You can shut down railway transport and the Kenyan economy will just continue without feeling the pinch.” Mr Kamau was interviewing for the position of Cabinet Secretary for the same ministry before a parliamentary select committee. He also noted in the same interview that cargo transport at the time, May 2013, had declined from 15% to 3% and directly blamed it for the heavy traffic congestion along the busy Nairobi Mombasa Highway. Since the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) won the concession to run the approximately 2,352 Km Kenya – Uganda…
Rebecca Miano may be the latest lady to take up a top job. She is the new acting managing director and chief executive of Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) after its previous head, Albert Mugo, who had held the office for the last four years, retired. Becoming the first woman to hold the office since its establishment in 1998, Ms Miano has been part of the company for the last 9 years where she held the dual post of company secretary and legal affairs director. As the legal affairs director, she was responsible for driving the corporate governance agenda in…
African Organization for Families has decried the effects of contraceptives, saying it has resulted in massive population control, Eugenics, Abortions and free sex culture. Instead of teaching chastity before and after marriage, the organization said, the society has resorted to contraceptives to control births and “space children” adding that this has created a permissive sexual culture where anyone can have sex anywhere with whoever and at any time, most of which is fornication and adultery. Contraceptives are artificial agents that were invented in the 1960’s to help in population control. The world celebrates contraception every September 26 and African Organisation…