Author: Korir Issa

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…

Tullow Oil has agreed to squeeze an additional 9 million dollars, roughly 1.16 billion shillings, out of its Kenya exit deal with Gulf Energy, trading away royalty rights and a stake in future development for cash it can bank now. The company confirmed that its subsidiary, Tullow Overseas Holdings BV, has struck the new agreement with Auron Energy E&P Limited, the Gulf Energy affiliate that bought Tullow’s Kenyan assets last year, with payment expected no later than July 17, 2026. What Tullow Is Giving Up Under the new arrangement, Tullow walks away from two rights it held onto when it…

Kenya still wins the trust of its wealthiest investors. Despite easier access to markets abroad, high net worth individuals continue to build most of their wealth inside the country, according to Knight Frank Kenya’s Wealth and Investment Trends Report 2026. Local Assets, Local Oversight The report found that most affluent investors keep the bulk of their residential property inside Kenya. Interest in second citizenships and foreign residency programmes stays low. Investors gravitate toward markets they know, where they can watch over their assets directly and lean on networks they already trust. Boniface Abudho, research analyst at Knight Frank Africa, connects…