Author: David Indeje

Khetia Drapers Ltd., a fast-growing Kenyan company, says it is consolidating the management of Society Stores under one roof to unlock value and accrue synergy benefits for the business. This is one of the latest consolidation moves within Kenya’s retail sector.  The company said the two entities have existed under one family umbrella since inception and they felt “it is time to bring everything under one’ creating one large national chain which will have more than 20 outlets making a combined turnover among the top 5 in the Kenyan retail industry. “The above will also lead to economies of scale…

Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hotspots, a World Bank report has found. The report calls for urgent action to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap. The second part of the Groundswell report, published on Monday, examines how the impacts of slow-onset climate change, such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity, and rising sea levels, could lead to millions of what the report describes as climate migrants by 2050 under three different scenarios with varying degrees of climate action and development. The new Groundswell…

Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) has announced that the creative community can nominate their choice of persons and blogs for the BAKE Awards 2021. The annual blogging competition, which is in its 9th year, was conceptualised with an aim of recognising and rewarding excellence, innovation and originality within the Kenyan blogging community.  “The BAKE Awards 2021 will begin today, September 14th 2021, where we will accept submissions in the various categories,” BAKE announced. The competition was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The timeline this year is as follows: Submissions phase –14th September – 20th October 2021 Judging…

Liberty Holdings, a leading South African financial services company, has increased its stake in its Kenyan subsidiary by acquiring an additional 84,235,930 shares through private transfer. In the transaction, it acquired 49.5 million ordinary shares (9.248 per cent) of the listed insurer from KFAMF Sellers and 34.7 million ordinary shares (6.476 per cent) from Coronation Sellers. “Consequently, following the completion of the acquisitions, Liberty Holdings now holds 73.467 per cent of the issued share capital of Liberty Kenya,” the Board of Directors said in a statement Tuesday. Liberty Holdings entered into a sale of shares agreement with KFAMF Sellers and…

The Kenyan shilling strengthened against the dollar week ending September 10 due to a slowdown in demand for hard currency. It closed the week at Kshs 109.9, from Kshs 110.0 recorded the previous week a 0.1 per cent gain. “The Kenya Shilling remained stable against major international and regional currencies during the week ending September 9,” the Central Bank said. However, on a Year to Date (YTD) basis, the shilling has depreciated by 0.6 per cent against the dollar, in comparison to the 7.7 per cent depreciation recorded in 2020. forex reserves up 8.4% In the week, foreign exchange reserves…

With the theme “Internet United,” the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTAnet) will host a one-day session, beginning September 23, to discuss public policy issues related to the Internet. The Kenya Internet Governance Forum (KIGF) is an annual meeting that brings together various stakeholder groups to dialogue on ICT and Internet policy was first held in 2008.  https://twitter.com/KICTANet/status/1435855214121213952?s=20 This mode of engagement is referred to as the multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance, which has been the key feature for the Internet’s success. The multi-stakeholder concept is well adopted by IGF (Internet Governance Forum) under the UN and by the Internet Corporation…