Opening the floodgates

Hi 👋🏽 It's Brayo from The Kenyan Wall Street.

In today's newsletter edition, parliament has been busy this week. From amending laws governing shareholding in listed firms to promising deeper oversight on independent power producers. Meanwhile, Kakamega residents think that the euphoria around the discovery of massive gold deposits in the area should be subject to interrogation.

Opening the Floodgates

By Harry Njuguna

Parliament’s decision to scrap the long-standing ownership caps on capital-markets firms signals a quiet but decisive reshaping of who gets to control Kenya’s financial architecture. The old ceiling, once defended as a safeguard against dominance, had over time become a wall that kept out the capital the industry now desperately wants. With its repeal, a rush of strategic investors, both domestic and foreign, can finally take the stakes they were previously forced to nibble at from the margins. What follows is a test not just of market appetite, but of whether Kenya can manage concentrated ownership without letting it mutate into concentrated power.

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The Gold-Mining Uncertainty 

By Fred Obura

Shanta Gold is planning a US$19 million annual operation for its Isulu–Bushiangala underground mine, but numbers on paper aren’t calming nerves on the ground. Locals, long accustomed to drilling and truck movements, worry that the line between exploration and extraction has already blurred. Royalty projections and a small community levy sit against a backdrop of mistrust, with residents demanding proof that gold isn’t slipping quietly out of the earth. The company insists all activity remains strictly exploratory, promising transparency and ongoing dialogue to rebuild frayed trust. Yet in Kakamega, the real challenge is persuading a skeptical community that the mine’s promise won’t come at their expense.

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Private Electricity Sources and the Quest For Accountability

By Brian Nzomo

Parliament’s move to unmask the owners of Kenya’s private power plants reflects a deeper anxiety about who really shapes the country’s electricity market. For years, IPPs have operated behind offshore structures and confidentiality clauses, leaving consumers to absorb high tariffs without a clear sense of who profits. The lifting of the PPA freeze signals a reopening of the sector, but one that arrives with sharper rules and a mood of public suspicion. The new currency flexibility and auction system suggest a state trying to appear investor-friendly while wrestling back control of the terms. What follows is a test of whether transparency can tame a market long defined by opacity.

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OPINION : Africa Needs More, Not Less, Oil & Gas Production to Develop

By NJ Ayuk

Africa’s energy debate has calcified into a familiar script: wealthy nations urge restraint while the continent argues that its development cannot run on borrowed timelines. It is reasonable to say that Africa’s minuscule contribution to global emissions makes the moral pressure to halt oil and gas both hypocritical and economically reckless. Hydrocarbons remain the only realistic bridge for a continent where 600 million people still live without reliable electricity and where promised climate finance has largely failed to appear. What emerges is a plea for sovereignty over transition, a reminder that Africa’s path to a cleaner future must first pass through the resources beneath its own feet.

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