OpinionThe journey from an idea to a functioning business is less about polished strategy than survival, improvisation and learning which mistakes can kill the company before it develops scale. Ian Ortega argues that capital can sometimes postpone rather than remove that apprenticeship, while founders who bootstrap their way from zero to one learn the suppliers, customers, hidden costs and informal rules that no business-school framework can fully teach.
Africa Business Stories · 13 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
FINTAK PositionKenyan firms face headline tax rates broadly in line with regional peers, yet frequent rule changes, overlapping levies, short compliance deadlines and VAT refunds that can take 12 to 24 months are making long-term investment harder to price. FINTAK is pushing for a multiyear tax roadmap, longer transition periods and enforceable refund timelines as businesses weigh expansion, hiring and capital spending against rules that can change within months.
Tax & Regulation · 12 Oct 2026 · 8 min read
OpinionPesaLink’s portable payment ID could let Kenyans send money using phone numbers or other familiar identifiers without knowing the recipient’s bank, while lower transfer fees seek to make the rail easier to use. Its rollout also lands as Kenya debates a national instant-payment switch, raising a bigger question over whether PesaLink can evolve from bank infrastructure into part of a broader payments system, and under whose rules.
Payments · 8 Oct 2026 · 7 min read
OpinionKenya has licensed 281 digital credit providers and written rules against abusive collection. Borowers still face disputed charges, contested repossessions, and errors in credit records. Licensed lenders publish annual rates as high as 4,432%. The test is what happens after the license is granted.
Digital Lending · 1 Oct 2026 · 17 min read
First Reading.AI agents can now retrieve data, send files and initiate transactions without a person directing every step, creating a new problem for businesses deploying them. Kenyan law already attaches duties to organizations over customer data and automated electronic instructions, even as criminal liability for an agent’s unauthorized access still requires separate proof of intent and knowledge. The emerging governance challenge is therefore not simply what an agent was told to do, but what it was permitted to do, what it actually did and whether the institution can reconstruct the difference.
Policy & Regulation · 30 Sep 2026 · 12 min read
OpinionUber’s exits from Tanzania, Nigeria and Uganda expose a weakness in ride-hailing that an app cannot solve alone. Fares must cover the full working journey, and a platform that leaves must account for the people who built its market.
Policy & Regulation · 28 Sep 2026 · 11 min read
First Reading.Kenya’s draft National Payment System Bill would replace the 2011 law with activity-based licensing, mandatory interoperability, open-finance services and stronger Central Bank powers, while an accompanying policy proposes a national instant-payment switch. But the decisions that will shape competition remain largely unwritten, including who owns the new rail, who gets direct access, what participants pay and how a regulator that may also operate infrastructure separates those roles. Kenya has already digitised payments. It is now deciding who controls the architecture underneath them.
Policy & Regulation · 22 Sep 2026 · 22 min read
OpinionThe High Court did not invalidate the transaction over one defective meeting. It found that the price preceded the valuation, the contracts preceded parliamentary approval and a transfer of control was presented to the public as an ordinary sale of shares.
Policy & Regulation · 18 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
OpinionThe National Infrastructure Fund was created to move viable projects off the Exchequer. Its first income plan turns privatization proceeds into government debt, while the projects, the safeguards and part of the capital remain unsettled.
Policy & Regulation · 16 Sep 2026 · 10 min read
IndependentA Bill sponsored by Aldai MP Marianne Kitany seeks to make internet usage and billing more transparent, but its four clauses leave undefined what providers must measure, how customers should be charged and what data regulators may collect. Without clearer rules on pricing, privacy, accuracy and implementation, the proposal could raise compliance costs, favour larger ISPs and create a nationwide usage-tracking architecture without directly solving the problem that inspired it: expiring data and unclear value for consumers.
Policy & Regulation · 27 Aug 2026 · 9 min read
IndependentM-PESA has become systemically important to Kenya’s economy, but the businesses that depend most heavily on its APIs, merchant infrastructure and settlement systems often have the least freedom to challenge how those rails are governed. The next phase of Kenya’s payments market will therefore depend less on breaking up Safaricom than on stronger developer standards, portable customer data, clearer competition rules and a credible Fast Payment System that lets fintechs and non-bank providers compete without building their businesses entirely on another company’s permission.
23 Aug 2026 · 20 min read
IndependentSafaricom and Airtel Kenya have reshaped their data menus in opposite directions, cutting the effective cost of mainstream monthly connectivity while reducing or restricting the small, short-duration bundles used by customers with irregular incomes. The result is a widening affordability divide in a market where two operators control more than 96% of subscriptions: planned, high-volume internet access is becoming cheaper, but the smallest unit of connectivity is becoming more expensive, less flexible and, at key hours, harder to buy.
Consumer protection & Product pricing · 21 Aug 2026 · 29 min read
