By Edwin Okoth The morning of Thursday, September 21, was not easy for top government officials gathered at Kenya School of Government in Kabete for hours of dress down on a deep vice rattling the principal offices in the Kenya Kwanza administration: corruption. President William Ruto’s right-hand man in the civil service, Felix Koskei, was in a foul mood. In a meeting that brought together 35 Principal Secretaries, more than 200 chief executive officers of state corporations and their board chairs, heads of internal audit functions, and heads of major regulatory watchdogs, like the Auditor General and the Controller of…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
By Njeri Wagacha Sometime in August, the Competition Authority came down heavy on steel manufacturers engaging in anti-competitive behaviour and restrictive trade practices, in what is the toughest action yet against such offences. Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK), previously seen more as a barking dog, appears to be sparing nothing to bite businesses that run afoul of competition regulations and guidelines. The punishment was as shocking as it was deserved. Nine steel manufacturers being fined Sh338 million cumulatively could not have gone unnoticed in an economy where a good number of businesses thrive on breaching the law, frustrating competition, anddodging…
By Karim Anjarwalla While the curtains for the Africa Climate Summit 2023 closed in Nairobi on a very high note last week, the Government of Kenya deserves commendation for conceiving and hosting the Summit and placing the global discourse on climate change firmly on the international stage. If this event serves to expedite the shift towards a fair climate transition, considering the substantial concerns of Africa and the Global South, it could signify the inception of a significant movement. The Nairobi Declaration might well be remembered as the launch of a worldwide re-evaluation of climate, sustainability, and the fair allocation…
By Sola Adegbesan Africa, the second-largest continent and home to 1 billion people, has long captured the imagination of the world. Today, different thinkers, political and business leaders are preoccupied with a single question – what does it take to grow Africa’s economy so it can trade with the world on better terms? The answer is simple: Africa needs to craft its own solutions to solve its problems. It starts with the promotion of a mindset of self-reliance. There’s no better way of expressing that self-sufficiency than creating innovative financing solutions to fund projects that could lead to sustainable economic…
UBA Foundation seeks to re-ignite reading culture On September 22, 2023, the UBA Foundation through UBA Kenya visited Miritini Complex Secondary School and Miritini Junior Secondary School, located in Mombasa County. Its executive director for Kenya, Mary Mulili says, the foundation, which is dedicated to education and literacy, presented 250 setbooks from notable African authors. She said ‘Segu’ by Maryse Conde and ‘The Kaya Girl’ by Mamle Wolo setbooks are not just a source of knowledge, but also a portal to new worlds and opportunities for the students. With a mission to rekindle the dwindling reading culture amongst African youths,…
Did you know one can send money directly to your Airtel Money wallet from M-Pesa without a withdrawal code? Did you also know you can easily load money on your Airtel Money wallet directly from M-Pesa? To send money to an Airtel customer, the receiver was previously given seven days to withdraw the money at the sender’s agent network. The process was not only inconvenient to the receiver, but also expensive for the sender as they were charged more to transfer money outside their network. Today, mobile money interoperability has allowed customers to make (real-time) direct payments to any business…
Family Bank has unveiled an exclusive woman banking proposition dubbed “Queen Banking” and sets aside Sh50 billion kitty for the next 2 years to cater for the “diverse individual and business” needs of women to promote their economic empowerment and deepen financial inclusion in Kenya. The product will cater to the needs of three types of women, namely the woman in business, the professional woman and the “chama” woman, and is exclusive to businesses with at least 51% of the shares controlled by women, or 100% owned by women. It also targets businesses where women constitute more than 30% of…
History has been made at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) following the recent commissioning of the facility’s CyberKnife radiotherapy services. Following the launch of the CyberKnife System, the first and only fully robotic radiotherapy device for cancer treatment launched last May, the first patient has undergone treatment today, in a trailblazing move geared at expanding access to advanced Cancer care in Kenya. Through KUTRRH, Kenya became the first country in sub-Sahara Africa to acquire the CyberKnife, making it possible for local patients to obtain access to the extremely precise stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation…
Medical journal, Lancet Series, has called for the standardisation of data, technology, and quality pre-natal information as national preventive measures to curb the high rate of early infant deaths and stillbirths that currently stand at 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Created through an international collaboration of a group of scientists, it estimates that 566,000 stillbirths and 5.2 million preterm or underweight births could be prevented each year by implementing eight accessible and cost-effective pregnancy interventions in low-and-middle-income countries, with the estimated cost of implementing these measures stands at $1.1 billion by 2030. “As a government and especially with the devolution of…
The agreement, signed during the recent US Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman’s Investor Roadshow supports the “Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan” in mechanization and value addition activities for small-scale farmers. During the second edition of US Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman’s investment roadshow series to the United States, Equity Group Holdings and farm equipment maker John Deere signed a comprehensive agreement to offer tractors into the Kenyan market through well-defined and affordable finance programs for both large scale and small-scale farmers. The agreement underpins the lender’s strategic vision plan for social economic transformation in the `Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan’…