GOVERNMENT
Mworia wants Kenya's pension savings financing its roads and grids
Four days into the job, the National Infrastructure Fund's CEO laid out the arithmetic: keep the KSh310 billion seed capital intact, spend only the roughly KSh40 billion a year it earns at 12.5% on government paper, and use that as equity. On his illustration, KSh40 billion pulls in KSh100 billion from capital markets, and a KSh140 billion equity pool carries KSh300–400 billion of project debt — some KSh400 billion of annual infrastructure spending that never touches the budget. Kenya's pension funds hold over KSh3 trillion. He wants a KSh50 billion co-investment fund standing within three months and is in talks on a $100 million project preparation facility, with a blunt filter: a project that cannot carry real debt is a budget item, not an NIF one.
TechTrends KE
SKILLS
700 Garissa youth start a 25-week course in cloud, AI and data
Power Learn Project is running the programme with the ILO, Microsoft and the Garissa County Government, drawing more than 1,000 applications — 35% from women — against 700-plus enrolments so far. The blended 25-week course covers cloud computing, AI and data analytics alongside workplace skills, with Microsoft putting up to 1,000 certification vouchers behind it for Azure, AI, Power BI and Microsoft 365. It runs across 16 of 37 digital hubs in Garissa and Turkana, aiming at 1,700 participants from refugee and host communities across both counties, after launching in Turkana in June.
TechTrends KE
FINTECH
The dividend revival is quietly reshaping who owns the NSE
Nine listed lenders posted KSh144.9 billion in combined after-tax profit, up 16.9% year on year, and the payouts followed: KCB's interim dividend up 50% to KSh3 a share on 16.8% asset growth, NCBA's full-year dividend up 30% on 7% profit growth, and Absa's up 150% to KSh0.50 despite margin pressure. Outside banking, EABL lifted its dividend 59% to KSh12.70 as profit rose 49%. Lower funding costs and healthier balance sheets explain most of it — but the same names increasingly set the index's direction, and foreign ownership of several of them is reshaping how that capital gets allocated.
TechTrends KE
POLICY
Kenya's new trust law puts a name behind every trust
The Trust Administration Bill 2026, enacted on 8 September, requires trustees to identify the people who ultimately control or benefit from trust assets and lodge those records with the Registrar, opening them to the Financial Reporting Centre and law enforcement alongside company, tax and financial data. Existing trusts get 24 months to comply. Failing to keep records draws up to KSh500,000 for individuals and KSh2 million for entities; withholding information from authorities, up to KSh1 million and KSh3 million. It answers part of FATF Recommendation 25 — Kenya has been under increased monitoring since February 2024 — though the grey-list exit turns on implementation, not the statute.
TechTrends KE
GADGETS
Spotify puts Nyashinski's Nairobi set in front of a global audience
Greasy Tunes ran in July at Visit Ngara in Nairobi for about 100 invited guests — music, food, fashion and community in one room. Spotify has now released a properly shot capture of Nyashinski's three-song performance, directed by Tim Horwood of Mashoba Media, as its first online-offline capture in East Africa: made for viewing rather than raw stage footage, and sitting in the video section of his artist page for Premium subscribers. Nyashinski recently signed with Sony Music Africa.
Techweez
