Author: Ableditor

NAIROBI — Absa Bank Kenya has confirmed Yusuf Omari as its managing director and chief executive officer, giving the lender permanent leadership after a period of transition. Omari, who had been serving as interim chief executive, has spent more than two decades with the bank and is expected to lead its next phase of growth amid intensifying competition in Kenya’s financial services industry. He joined the institution in 2004, when it operated as Barclays Bank Kenya, and has held several senior positions during his career, including chief financial officer. His extensive experience within the bank gives him a detailed understanding…

NAIROBI — Investment executive James Mworia has been appointed the founding chief executive officer of Kenya’s National Infrastructure Fund (NIF), taking charge of an institution established to mobilise private capital for major infrastructure projects. Mworia’s appointment places an experienced investment manager at the centre of Kenya’s efforts to develop alternative financing mechanisms for infrastructure at a time when the government is under pressure to reduce reliance on public borrowing. The NIF was established to leverage public resources and attract private and institutional investors into strategic infrastructure projects. The fund is expected to work with pension funds, development finance institutions and…

When Madina Okot heard her name called at the 2026 WNBA Draft in New York, the moment was bigger than basketball. The 21-year-old from Mumias, western Kenya, had just become the 13th overall pick of the Atlanta Dream and the first Kenyan woman selected in the first round of the world’s premier women’s basketball league. For a country accustomed to celebrating its global sporting heroes on athletics tracks, the achievement opened another window. It showed that Kenya’s sporting talent is not confined to running. It showed that a girl who discovers basketball relatively late can reach the highest level of…

For years, Kenya’s retail real estate story revolved around the mall. Developers built increasingly elaborate shopping centres, anchored by supermarkets, restaurants, cinemas and international brands. But the country’s retail geography is changing. The next big shopping destination may not be a regional mall. It could be a neighbourhood centre tucked between apartment blocks in a rapidly growing estate. This shift is being driven by a combination of changing consumer behaviour, rising competition and pressure on household incomes. Knight Frank’s 2026 retail outlook says Kenya’s retail market is increasingly moving towards neighbourhood centres and mixed-use developments, with less emphasis on large…

On Nairobi’s streets, the electric motorcycle is no longer a futuristic idea. It is becoming part of everyday transport. Boda boda riders are increasingly experimenting with electric motorcycles because of their lower running costs, while businesses are exploring electric delivery vehicles and buses. Behind the vehicles on the road, however, another race is taking place inside Kenya’s industrial sector. The country wants to move from importing electric vehicles to manufacturing and assembling more of them locally. That ambition could turn e-mobility into one of Kenya’s most important new manufacturing industries. Invest Kenya identifies electric mobility as a high-potential manufacturing value…

When a patient walks into a pharmacy and buys a packet of medicine, the transaction appears simple. Behind it, however, lies a complicated international supply chain. Active pharmaceutical ingredients may come from Asia. Packaging materials can come from different suppliers. The medicine may be manufactured outside Africa, shipped through international ports and eventually distributed to Kenyan hospitals and pharmacies. That supply chain can become vulnerable when prices rise, currencies weaken or global disruptions interfere with shipping. Kenya increasingly wants to change that equation. The country is positioning pharmaceutical manufacturing as a strategic industrial sector, with ambitions to produce more medicines…

Every day, Kenya produces thousands of tonnes of waste. Much of it has traditionally been treated as a problem to collect, transport and dispose of. But a new industrial idea is gaining ground: what if some of that waste became raw material? That question sits at the heart of Kenya’s emerging circular manufacturing economy. Plastic bottles can become pellets. Waste plastic can become new products. Scrap metal can return to factories. Used materials can be processed instead of buried in landfills. The opportunity is environmental, but it is also industrial. Invest Kenya estimates that Kenya generates more than eight million…

There are road trips where the destination is the reward. Then there are journeys where the road itself becomes the story. Nairobi to Cape Town belongs firmly in the second category. It is a journey of thousands of kilometres, crossing several countries and moving through landscapes that seem to belong to different continents. From Nairobi’s restless traffic and highland mornings, the road descends towards the Great Rift Valley, crosses the savannahs of Tanzania, pushes through Zambia and Zimbabwe, skirts Botswana’s wilderness and finally reaches the dry landscapes of Namibia and the southern African coast before turning towards Cape Town. It…

There is a point on an East African road trip when the journey stops feeling like a holiday and starts feeling like an education. It may happen somewhere between Nairobi and the Ugandan border, while watching sugarcane fields slide past the window. Or on the winding roads of Rwanda, where green hills rise one after another. It may happen beneath Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, over a plate of nyama choma, or beside Lake Victoria as fishermen prepare their boats for another day. East Africa is often sold through its famous wildlife: lions, elephants, gorillas, wildebeest and flamingos. But drive across…

The road south from Morocco does not announce when the adventure begins. There is no dramatic gate. No sign saying civilisation ends here. Instead, the change happens slowly. The mountains become drier. The towns become smaller. The green disappears. The Atlantic remains beside you while the Sahara begins to occupy more of the horizon. A road trip into Morocco’s deep south and towards Western Sahara is one of those journeys where the landscape becomes the main character. Start in Marrakech if you want the classic introduction to Morocco, but leave quickly. The real road adventure begins when the tourist crowds…