Author: Khusoko

Khusoko provides market insights into Africa's business investment as well as global trends that impact East African businesses.

34-year-old Kenyan athlete, Eliud Kipchoge, who has stopped the world since he broke human limit by running a marathon under 2 hours has caught the eye of former US President Barack Obama. On Saturday, October 12, Kipchoge was over to the moon and back after clocking 1:59.40 making history as the first man to run a 42-km marathon under one hour. The world was glued to Vienna, Austria and among those who could not sweep away the Kipchoge effect was Obama. Just like he captured the world when he first ran for US President, Obama also captured the world when…

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Estonian taxi-hailing firm Bolt (formerly Taxify) has appointed Kenneth Micah as the new General Manager for East Africa.  Micah is a multilateral professional with experience in strategy design and execution. In his current role, he will be key in driving expansion across Eastern Africa and spearheading the company’s operational excellence.  “We’re really fortunate to have a leader of Micah’s experience, talent, and vision. He is one of the most impressive leaders on the continent and has exceeded expectations in all spheres. We are thrilled about what this means for our business as we continue to rapidly scale and widen the…

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Unlike many leading Kenyan athletes who first make their mark as an U18 or U20 athlete, Brigid Kosgei’s career path was somewhat different. Born in Sinon village at Kapsowar, Kosgei was one of eight children in her family. But in 2012 she was forced to leave school because her family couldn’t afford the fees, meaning she missed out on sitting her final exams. Keen to do something with her days, Kosgei and her partner Mathew started to dedicate more time to training. But two years later, Kosgei’s athletics ambitions had to be put on hold as she gave birth to…

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Since time immemorial and in many jurisdictions, taxation has been perceived as a hard nut to crack. In light of this, a top global agenda on tax administration has been an exploration of possible avenues that will see the simplification of the tax processes to the simplest level possible.  Many scholarly findings unanimously posit that one of the most important outcomes of a simplified tax system is improved tax compliance. In his article titled Tax Simplification: Issues and Options (2001) published on Brookings in 2001, William Gale notes that successful simplification of the tax processes has numerous benefits. Fundamentally, Gale…

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The equities market continues to be dominated by foreign investors at the Nairobi Securities Exchange(NSE).  The week ending October 9, 2019, they accounted for 56.3% of the week’s total activity, compared to 74.5% in the previous week. “Foreign investors were net sellers, reversing a three-week trend, logging net outflows of Ksh 38.1 million compared to a net inflow of Ksh 249.6 million in the previous week,” reported Genghis Capital, an  Investment Bank in Kenya. During the week, the equities market recorded mixed performance with NASI and NSE 20 gaining by 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively, while the NSE 25 declined by…

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Brigid Kosgei broke the women’s world marathon record at the  2019 Chicago Marathon running in a time of 2:14:03 on Sunday. https://twitter.com/ChiMarathon/status/1183395592405434370?s=19 She trounced Paula Radcliffe’s  2:15:25 by 71 seconds set in 2002. Ababel Yeshaneh of Ethiopia, was second in 2:20:51. Gelete Burka of Ethiopia was third in 2:20:55. https://twitter.com/ChiMarathon/status/1183398806030823424?s=19 This was her third time competing in the race. In 2017, she was second after clocking 2:20:22. In 2018, she was triumphant with an improved time of 2:18:35. In an interview with Daily Nation ahead of the Chicago Marathon, she said she had prepared well. “I have done proper preparations…

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