Fresh headlines and publisher-supplied excerpts from Kenya, Africa and the world—collected in one transparent, attributed briefing.
Prominent lawyer Lewis Uriri has declined a brand-new 2026 Range Rover Sport Autobiography and cash gifts worth millions of shillings offered to him by Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo. Chivayo announced on Monday, September 21, 2026, that Uriri would receive the luxury vehicle valued at $250,000 (about KSh32 million) as a gesture of appreciation for his […]
Read briefingBeyond production: Creating more value from African agriculture Farmer's Weekly SA
Read briefingA doctor is accused of being a party to six genocide murders, including the stoning to death of a taxi driver and the killing of a woman and her child.
Read briefingGoogle Brings Gemini AI Tools to Kenyan Creators and Students techweez.com
Read briefingNAIROBI, Kenya Sep 22 – Kenya’s youthful population, economic transformation and Africa’s growing role in the global economy have taken centre stage at the Unstoppable Africa forum in New York.The high-level gathering, organised by the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) under the United Nations Global Compact, is being held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.The forum has brought together Heads of State, business leaders, investors, policymakers, UN officials, entrepreneurs and other influential players to discuss Africa’s economic future.Among the Kenyan participants is legal and policy expert Silas Jakakimba, who has taken part in GABI discussions for the past four years.This year’s forum is being held under the theme, “Powering Business to Scale Economies and Shape the Future,” with discussions focusing on how investment and business can accelerate economic growth across Africa.Jakakimba has used the platform to highlight the potential of Africa’s youthful population, natural resources and expanding markets, while emphasising the need to connect these assets with investment, technology, entrepreneurship and value creation.“Africa must harness its youthful population, abundant natural resources and rapidly expanding markets to become a global powerhouse for innovation, sustainability and inclusive growth,” he said.The discussions come as African countries seek to move beyond their traditional role as exporters of raw materials and position themselves as destinations for investment, manufacturing, innovation and value addition.For Kenya, the youth question remains central to this transformation, given the country’s large young population and the growing demand for jobs, skills, entrepreneurship and access to technology.Jakakimba said Africa needs to create an environment where young people can become creators of businesses, technologies and solutions rather than remaining consumers or exporters of talent.The forum is also examining the role of stronger partnerships between governments and the private sector in unlocking investment and expanding economic opportunities.A key theme is Africa’s need to retain more value from its natural resources by investing in processing, manufacturing and industries capable of competing in global markets.The discussions have implications for Kenya across sectors including mining, agriculture, the Blue Economy, manufacturing, technology, financial services, infrastructure and the creative economy.With Africa attracting growing global attention because of its markets, resources, demographics and innovation potential, the New York forum provides an opportunity for African leaders and businesses to engage international investors on the continent’s economic direction.Jakakimba’s participation places a Kenyan perspective within the broader discussions on youth, investment, policy and inclusive economic growth.As world leaders gather in New York for UNGA, the discussions underscore the growing emphasis on how Africa can translate its people, resources and ideas into sustainable economic value.The forum also provides an opportunity for African stakeholders to explore partnerships that can support job creation, entrepreneurship, technology adoption and industrial development across the continent.Jakakimba is a Kenyan legal and policy expert specialising in advisory work across the corporate and public sectors.
Read briefingRetired President Uhuru Kenyatta has strongly pushed back against President William Ruto’s continued criticism of his previous administration, urging the Head of State to focus on addressing the needs of Kenyans rather than attributing current governance challenges to past leadership. Speaking during the official handover of the Jubilee Party leadership in Nairobi, Kenyatta questioned why […]
Read briefingKCB to Take 22.23% Stake in Pesapal, Tanzanian Regulator Reveals techweez.com
Read briefingUhuru Kenyatta: Raila Odinga won the 2022 election businesstoday.co.ke
Read briefingKenya’s research and innovation community has outlined priorities for helping locally developed knowledge, prototypes and technologies move from research into commercial use.The priorities emerged from the Research Innovation and Commercialisation Roundtable held at Weston Hotel in Nairobi as part of preparations for the Africa Technology Leadership Conference 2026.The roundtable brought together representatives from public and private universities, TVET institutions, national research organisations, government departments, standards bodies and the private sector.Participants examined why promising research often stalls between the laboratory, validation, certification, investment and market entry.The discussions highlighted the need to identify promising capabilities, involve industry earlier, finance development at different stages, and prepare innovations for standards approval and commercial scale.“We are producing knowledge. Do we have the talent and ideas? The answer is yes. The question is whether we can convert more of this knowledge, consistently and sustainably,” said Professor Shaukat Abdulrazak, Principal Secretary, State Department for Science, Research and Innovation.Abdulrazak said Kenya needs clearer results from investments in universities and research institutions by converting more research into enterprises, jobs, useful products and measurable public benefit.He also called for stronger links between public institutions and the private sector, with industry participating in the research ecosystem rather than entering only after a prototype has been completed.Participants identified several areas requiring attention, including stronger links between academia, research institutions, TVETs and industry around defined national and commercial problems.They also proposed organising institutions into focused clusters supported by a national repository of expertise, facilities and research outputs, alongside stronger access to shared laboratories.Another priority was establishing a financing pathway that distinguishes between ideation, proof of concept, prototyping, validation, commercialisation and scale.The roundtable also called for standards, metrology, regulation and intellectual property requirements to be addressed from the concept stage, including affordable testing support for smaller institutions and innovators.TVET institutions were identified as having a defined role in the commercialisation process, with ATLC 2026 expected to connect screened innovations with investors and corporate partners through deal rooms and structured one-to-one engagements.The Kenya Bureau of Standards emphasised the importance of considering standards during the early stages of product development rather than treating compliance as a final step before market entry.Participants also called for clearer intellectual property ownership and benefit-sharing arrangements to give researchers, institutions, students and commercial partners greater certainty when entering projects.The roundtable will inform a Kenyan position paper for the Africa Technology Leadership Conference 2026, scheduled for October 22–23 at Argyle Grand Hotel in Nairobi.Before the conference, participating institutions are expected to identify their strongest research areas, leading researchers, major facilities and promising innovations for an initial national capability inventory.A first portfolio of innovations will then be screened for engagement with investors, corporate partners and technical institutions.The proposed deal-room model is intended to connect selected projects with potential finance, testing facilities, commercial expertise and distribution partnerships.The roundtable also called for greater domestic financing through public funding, industry investment, matching grants, blended finance and long-term capital aligned with the risk associated with each development stage.“We are here to reflect and prepare ourselves to be part of the upcoming Africa Technology Leadership Conference in October by shaping what we want to find and what we want to give there,” said Professor Vasey N. Mwaja, Chair of NACOSTI.ATLC 2026 will bring together government, academia, research organisations, industry, investors, innovators and international partners around Kenya’s technology priorities and investable opportunities.Available next action: Create a downloadable DOCX file here in this chat containing the editable prose above
Read briefingThe High Court has dismissed a constitutional petition challenging the national verification of presidential election results, ruling that the final declaration made at the national tallying centre remains binding. Delivering the judgment on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, the court upheld the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) constitutional mandate to verify constituency tally forms before […]
Read briefingKenya Seeks Gigiri Land for Permanent UN Mission Offices The Kenyan Wallstreet
Read briefingKCB Extends Lead in Banking Market, Prime Bank Emerges The Kenyan Wallstreet
Read briefingEPRA Removes Monthly Power Limit for EV Charging Stations techweez.com
Read briefingFormer President Uhuru Kenyatta has officially handed over the leadership of the Jubilee Party to his deputy, former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, ahead of the party’s upcoming National Delegates Convention (NDC). Addressing a meeting of Jubilee Party officials in Nairobi on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, Kenyatta announced his decision to step down from the […]
Read briefingKenya Digital Token Raises Concerns Over Supply and Liquidity Risks techweez.com
Read briefingPresident Bola Tinubu has given the Federal Government 180 days to produce a roadmap for the full launch of Nigeria’s Digital Free Zones- a plan aimed at making it easier for tech and service companies to raise international capital, create jobs locally, and serve global markets from Nigerian soil, rather than from abroad.The directive was announced in a statement by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, instructing Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr Jumoke Oduwole who coordinates the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones that Tinubu chairs to build the roadmap alongside the Itana Innovation project. That puts the deadline at roughly midMarch 2027.Tinubu’s own words, as carried across multiple outlets that ran the statement verbatim, framed it as a matter of national ambition rather than technical policy, “Nigeria has the talent, enterprise and ambition to build companies that can compete anywhere.”For years, the standard path for a Nigerian startup chasing serious capital ran through incorporation abroad. A founder could build the product, hire the team and run operations entirely out of Lagos but the company itself, its intellectual property and its cap table typically moved to Delaware or the UK, because that’s what foreign investors required before writing a check. Nigeria’s free-zone rules , which the government itself describes as over thirty years old, weren’t built for remote-first, digital businesses. On top of that, naira volatility made incorporating locally a harder sell than going abroad. The economic value those companies created jobs, tax revenue, professional services was effectively exported along with the paperwork.The government isn’t building this from scratch. Itana, the only entity licensed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) as a Digital Free Zone, has been running a version of this idea since, well before the presidential directive. Andela and Flutterwave cofounder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji first talked publicly about building a jurisdiction for the digital economy in January 2020. The project, initially called Talent City, secured its first physical site inside Alaro City, Lagos, in January 2022.It rebranded to Itana, raised a $2 million pre-seed round in 2023 from investors including LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital and Future Africa, and has since grown into the $500 million project the Presidency now leans on, with the Africa Finance Corporation backing it and, according to Africa Finance Corporation, (AFC’s) own statement, describing itself as “proud to be a pioneer alongside Itana, in building Africa’s first” digital economic zone.Structurally, Itana works less like an industrial park and more like a jurisdiction-as-a-service: companies incorporate remotely, get access to banking, tax and immigration handling through what the company calls a one-stop-shop platform.The Digital Free Zones directive is the newest of three related moves the government has made since mid2026. On 17 August, it unveiled the National Digital Cloud Policy, aimed at drawing investment into cloud and datacentre infrastructure so Nigeria hosts more of its own digital economy rather than renting it from abroad targeting $750 million in private investment over 24 months, with the ministry pointing to state purchasing power as the main lever: “A central feature of the Policy is the use of Government’s collective purchasing power.”Two weeks later, on 31 August, Information Minister Mohammed Idris launched “Hire from Nigeria” in Abuja a campaign to market Nigerian professionals to global employers directly, tied to a target of one million exportlinked jobs. Idris’s pitch: “A young Nigerian does not have to leave the country to participate.”The “how” of the roadmap remains the least defined part of the announcement. Turning one company’s licensed model into a national framework requires coordination across tax authorities, the Central Bank, immigration and arbitration bodies, none of which has been detailed publicly yet. Nor has the government said whether a company incorporated inside a Digital Free Zone would actually be shielded from the currency volatility and capital repatriation friction that made the offshore route attractive in the first place. That question is likely to matter more to founders than the incorporation process itself.Cloud policy addresses where digital business runs. “Hire from Nigeria” addresses who does the work. Digital Free Zones addresses where the company is legally based. Together, the three form a single stack rolled out over one quarter infrastructure, workforce, jurisdiction. The 180day roadmap, due around midMarch 2027, is now the piece that has to turn that ambition into something founders can actually use.
Read briefingNew NEC chair pledges neutrality ahead of December elections Eye Radio South Sudan
Read briefingKenya and US exploring cooperation in critical minerals and nuclear energy, with plans for AI cooperation underway, President Ruto says after talks with US State Secretary Marco Rubio.
Read briefingMartha Karua at 69: Reflecting on a Life Shaped by Law, Democracy and Public Service Sifa FM Kenya
Read briefingThe Most Influential Women In Tech Africa (MIWIT) is back. Every year, CIO Africa by dx5 goes looking for the women advancing technology in Africa. Some of them are well known to the community. Some, not so much. Many are the women who do their best work far from the spotlight. We want to find both.MIWIT started as an East African showcase and is now a pan-African list. Last year’s 45 came from Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Benin, Namibia, South Africa and beyond. Rwanda’s ICT Minister Paula Ingabire was on it for her work making the country an AI hub. So was Uganda’s ICT Permanent Secretary Dr Aminah Zawedde, and Ada Nduka Oyom, who built She Code Africa. The youngest was Dr Viviane Oke, a 23-year-old digital health founder from Benin. Ministers sat next to founders. CIOs sat next to community builders. It is this mix that makes not just our list, but also the continent’s technological edge, unique.2026 has been a big year. AI has moved out of pilots and into daily work. Governments are writing the rules. Boards are asking what their technology spend actually delivers. Women have been part of all of it, even though they still make up only a small share of Africa’s tech workforce. This list is how we make sure this work comes alive.Nominate a woman you admire, or nominate yourself. Tell us how she meets the 2026 criteria. Be specific and comprehensive. Tell us what she or you did and what changed because of it. Numbers, launches and links help far more than general praise.
Read briefingThe Government of Kenya has signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Emerging Markets Working Group at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution to strengthen collaboration on artificial intelligence, data governance, digital transformation, policy research and strategic foresight.The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York by Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi and Dr Jendayi Frazer, Co-Director of Hoover’s Emerging Markets Working Group.The partnership will explore how AI and data can help government analyse emerging trends, develop scenarios and anticipate technological, economic and other changes that could affect national development.Kenya’s State Department for ICT and the Digital Economy said the five-year partnership is intended to move government from “data to insight, and from insight to action”, while building institutional capacity in evidence generation, analytics, monitoring, evaluation and policy development.The collaboration will be anchored through the Hoover Institution’s Emerging Markets Working Group, linking its research and policy expertise with Kenyan government institutions.Strategic foresight involves examining possible future developments and their implications rather than relying on a single forecast.For governments, this can include monitoring emerging signals, analysing trends, developing scenarios and testing policies against different possible outcomes.AI can support this work by processing large volumes of information, identifying patterns and helping analysts generate and evaluate scenarios. The Kenya-Hoover partnership places these capabilities within a broader effort to strengthen institutional decision-making and long-term planning.The initiative will include support for the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), which Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has identified as the proposed strategic policy home for the cooperation. Riara University is expected to provide a Kenyan academic and research base.An immediate priority is an El Niño Impact Monitoring and Response System, which will integrate climate, geospatial, water, agriculture and infrastructure data to generate county-level intelligence and support coordinated responses.Other planned tools include a Digital Trade Readiness Index, a Public-Private Partnership Governance Tracker and a Sectoral Resilience Scorecard focused on areas including agriculture and the digital economy. The tools are intended to strengthen investment decisions, governance and policy coordination. (The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s briefing indicates that the proposed roadmap anticipates an initial working capability within about six months, followed by further development over 12 months.The collaboration brings together Kenyan government institutions and experts from Hoover’s Emerging Markets Working Group, including Frazer and Dr Sanjeev Khagram.Frazer is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-director of its Emerging Markets research team. She previously served as US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and as the first woman US ambassador to South Africa.Khagram is a distinguished research fellow at Hoover and leads the Global Resilience, Intelligence Platform, and Partnership (GRIPP). His work covers technology and data, sustainable development, human security, governance and public-private partnerships.The collaboration therefore combines Kenya’s policy and development priorities with Hoover’s research capabilities in emerging markets, technology and governance.The agreement comes as Kenya continues to expand its use and governance of artificial intelligence.The partnership focuses not only on AI adoption but also on using data, research and technology to improve how government identifies risks, evaluates opportunities and develops long-term policy.Kenya’s Ministry of ICT said the broader objective is to build lasting institutional capability in evidence generation, analytics, monitoring, evaluation and policy development.The next phase will be measured through the implementation of the planned analytical systems and the development of institutional capacity around them.
Read briefingHigh Court declares unconstitutional the law restricting former President Uhuru Kenyatta from holding political-party office and allowing Parliament to interfere with their retirement benefits.
Read briefingKenya Flagged More Than 11 Billion Cyber Threats Last Year The Kenyan Wallstreet
Read briefingSpeaking to the Kenyan diaspora in New York on Sunday ahead of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, President William Ruto delivered a stark warning about the 2027 polls, stressing that the quality of national leadership will dictate whether Kenya succeeds or fails. Ruto urged citizens to exercise deliberate judgment when casting their ballots, asserting that effective governance matters far more than natural resources. “I am very confident about the future of our country. We will succeed,” President Ruto told the gathering. “The one mistake we must never do is to elect a fool to be our president.” He added, “The difference between us succeeding and failing is leadership, period. It is not minerals; it is not all those other things; it is leadership. If you do not have the right leadership, we will fail.” Economic Indicators and Sectoral Progress During the engagement, President Ruto outlined key economic metrics to demonstrate that his administration’s stabilization measures are bearing fruit. He urged Kenyans abroad to look directly at verified data rather than unverified reports. The president noted that inflation and interest rates have fallen, attributing the drop to fiscal adjustments implemented since 2022. In addition, he defended key flagship initiatives: National Savings Expansion: Savings held by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) grew from KSh 320 billion...
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