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The Daily Savannah

Friday, 9 October 2026 Edition Nº 39

Kenya's tech exits are a lesson in how much rides on clear rules, Google's tap-to-pay in Kenya is still a deleted LinkedIn post, and a student team wants to fix matatu fare reconciliation.

Featured · Policy

Why tech companies keep struggling to operate in Kenya

Techweez walks through KOKO Networks, Swvl and Little Shuttle, Worldcoin, Twitch, Mobius Motors, and Uber and Bolt — and is careful to say regulation was not the sole cause of any exit, often "a symptom". KOKO shut in January 2026 after failing to win authorisation to sell carbon credits that subsidised its bioethanol fuel. NTSA stopped Swvl and Little Shuttle's app-based commuter services in 2019. Worldcoin suspended iris scanning in August 2023, and in May 2025 the High Court ordered deletion of the biometric data collected. Twitch ended monetisation for Kenyan streamers from 30 September 2025, citing recently imposed regulations. Mobius entered voluntary liquidation in August 2024, with a shareholder telling Reuters that tax increases broke the model. Uber and Bolt warned in 2024 that a proposed 6% Significant Economic Presence Tax could make operations unsustainable; the proposal changed and both still operate. The article's point is that consumer protection, privacy, safety and tax compliance are legitimate aims; the failure is rules that are unclear or unpredictable, so firms cannot comply, invest and grow.

Source: Techweez

A boardroom meeting round a long table — Kenya’s tech exits and what they say about the clarity of the rules
FINTECH

Google Wallet tap-to-pay is not available in Kenya, despite a DTB pilot post

On 6 October Nancy Kilimo, head of DTB's card centre, posted on LinkedIn that her DTB card had been added to Google Wallet in a pilot Mastercard set up manually. The post has since been removed, DTB has not commented, and the only surviving account is an Android Kenya write-up. Meanwhile Google's own pages still say Wallet "isn't available in your country yet": Kenya has been on the list for online and in-app Google Pay since at least February 2023, but not for tap-to-pay in shops, and no Kenyan bank appears among supported issuers. Tap-to-pay today means a bank's own app — KCB's for Visa cards since 2023, AbsaPay since 2024 — each limited to its own cards. The market it would enter is small: the CBK counted 13.1 million payment cards and 57,275 card machines in August 2026, without saying how many accept contactless.

Tech-ish

STARTUPS

GirlCode hackathon winner Naulisako wants to fix fare tracking for matatu owners

The third Kenya GirlCode hackathon drew 44 participants to Konza Technopolis on 3–4 October, with Absa Bank Kenya sponsoring; results came on 6 October. Naulisako, built by Mary Wangui, Linet Mugwanja, Aisha Barasa and Cynthia Chepkorir, takes on a familiar problem: owners are not on the vehicle, so they reconcile the crew's reported takings against what reaches their till or phone, usually at day's end. It collects fares, automates that reconciliation and keeps sales records. Second place went to Biashara Bot, third to Korva Creatives Economy. Open questions are large: the "AI-powered" claim is unexplained, payment methods and cost are unspecified, no website or app listing exists, and adoption depends on a Sacco agreeing to test it. As a reminder of the difficulty, Google's BebaPay matatu card scheme with Equity Bank was shut in March 2015 after failing to win operators. As Kenya's winner, it goes to the Pan-African final, announced on Monday 12 October.

Tech-ish

13.1Mpayment cards in Kenya, August 2026 (CBK)
57,275card machines, contactless count not given
44participants at the Kenya GirlCode hackathon
R100,000Pan-African winner's prize, about KES 783,000
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