OpinionKenGen has built Olkaria into one of the world’s largest geothermal power hubs, but the stalled $1 billion Microsoft-G42 data-centre project exposed a problem that now requires political commitment, regulatory coordination and a financing model built for hyperscale demand. Kenya must find a way to deliver hundreds of megawatts quickly, finance dedicated transmission and make technology buyers carry the cost without pushing more risk onto the Treasury or household power bills.
Policy & Regulation · 16 Oct 2026 · 9 min read
First Reading.Licences that take months, rules that leave founders guessing and few safe places to test new products. FINTAK’s work with innovators and regulators across Africa points to seven fixes. Kenya’s draft payments law has just taken up one of them.
Policy & Regulation · 14 Oct 2026 · 6 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
IndependentA new pure-play operator faces KSh15 million for the licence and an upfront KSh800,000 operating fee, followed by 0.4% of licensed-system revenue or KSh800,000 a year. The deeper question is whether one network rulebook can distinguish colocation from connectivity.
Policy & Regulation · 20 Aug 2026 · 17 min read
CorrectionIt was proposed as a boundary between registration and licensing, not a blanket entry floor. The harder competition test lies in inherited licences, the commercial viability of registration and sharply higher fees.*
Policy & Regulation · 20 Aug 2026 · 15 min read
First Reading.UFAA holds billions in an audited Trust Fund. Its harder test is whether a custodian can grow faster than it restores ownership.
Policy & Regulation · 20 Aug 2026 · 20 min read
