Author: Korir Issa

SBM Bank Kenya has become the first Kenyan lender to release its first half 2026 earnings, and the numbers set a high bar for the rest of the sector. Profit before tax jumped 171% to KSh 548 million for the six months ended June 30, up from KSh 202 million in the same period last year. Profit after tax rose 88.2% to KSh 380.17 million, a smaller percentage gain than the pretax figure but still one of the strongest half year turnarounds among Kenyan banks so far this year. The Numbers Behind the Turnaround Operating profit nearly quadrupled, rising 279%…

Kenya’s National Treasury has released a compressed budget calendar for the 2027/28 financial year, alongside the numbers behind the current 2026/27 budget and a look back at how the outgoing 2025/26 budget actually performed. The country goes to the polls in August 2027, which means every constitutional and statutory deadline in the budget process must clear before a new administration takes over. That single fact reshapes the entire calendar. Why the Timeline Has Tightened Government budgets normally follow a set rhythm stretched across most of the year. This cycle compresses that rhythm. Treasury officials must finish the Budget Policy Statement,…

Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy has opened its draft national AI policy to public comment, giving citizens, businesses, and civil society groups until August 4, 2026, to weigh in on how the country will govern the technology. The document, titled the Kenya Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies Policy, sets out a national framework covering the governance, development, deployment, and use of AI across every sector of the economy. It also reaches beyond AI to cover other fast moving technologies such as blockchain, robotics, extended reality, and quantum computing, provided they meet at least two of…

More Kenyans are trusting Equity Life Assurance with their retirement savings, and the numbers show why. Two schemes sponsored by the insurer delivered double digit returns above the industry average in 2025, pushing their combined assets under management past KSh 900 million. The results, announced at the Annual General Meetings of the Equity Income Drawdown Fund and the Equity Individual Savings and Retirement Plan, point to growing confidence in structured retirement products at a time when more Kenyans are looking beyond a monthly salary for financial security in old age. Strong Returns Across Both Schemes Equity Life Assurance Managing Director…

Kenya’s residential property market is telling two very different stories at once. Standalone houses are climbing fast. Apartments are still stuck in reverse. That’s the picture from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ latest Residential Property Price Index (RPPI), covering the first quarter of 2026. The full report shows the overall index rose 4.8 percent year on year, reaching 118.4 in Q1’2026, up from 113.0 in Q1’2025. Quarter on quarter, growth was far more modest at 0.6 percent, up from 117.7 in Q4’2025. Segment Q1’2025 Index Q1’2026 Index Annual Change Quarterly Change Overall RPPI 113.0 118.4 +4.8% +0.6% Apartments 91.5…

Money sent home by Kenyans abroad kept sliding in June, extending a slide that started in April. According to the Central Bank of Kenya, remittance inflows totalled 375.6 million dollars in June 2026, down from 394.2 million dollars in May, a drop of 4.7 percent. The 12 month total to June fell too, down 2.4 percent to 4,960 million dollars from 5,084 million dollars over the same window a year earlier. CBK pointed to weaker inflows from key source markets as the main driver. What the 2026 Numbers Show Month by Month Remittances did not fall in a straight line…