Seeping through Beijing's Tough Wall

A Happy New Year 😀

It's Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street.

In today's newsletter, China has bent its trade rules for Kenya. Will the country manage to exploit the opportunity?

Also, the government may be easing up its interests in some listed entities but in Kenya Re, things are looking different…

This and more stories…

Seeping through Beijing's Tough Wall

By Fred Obura

Kenya has struck a preliminary trade deal with China that would allow nearly all Kenyan goods to enter the Chinese market duty-free, a rare breakthrough in the country’s long-running trade talks with Asia. The agreement covers 98.2% of products and is being framed by officials as an early win rather than a final settlement. For exporters, especially in agriculture and light manufacturing, it opens access to one of the world’s largest consumer markets. The bigger question is whether Kenyan producers can scale up and meet China’s strict standards fast enough to take advantage. If it works, the deal could begin to rebalance a trade relationship that has long run heavily in China’s favour.

Read the article here >>>>>

Tightening the grip at Kenya Re 

By Harry Njuguna 

Kenya Re wants to change how its shares work so the government keeps firm control of the company’s board, even as it remains listed on the stock exchange. Under the plan, all shareholders would earn the same dividends, but the National Treasury would get special shares with more voting power. That would allow the government to appoint most of the board and steer big decisions more directly. For ordinary investors, nothing changes financially, but their say in long-term strategy would shrink.

Read the full story here >>>>>

The NSE 20 Index : How a Market Benchmark was born

By Harry Njuguna

If you want to understand why Kenya’s stock market looks the way it does today, it helps to start with an index most investors take for granted. The NSE 20 did not begin as a national yardstick, but as a regional one, designed to measure the industrial promise of a united East Africa in the early years after independence. Long before tech listings and mobile money reshaped the market, this single number tracked factories, breweries, and power companies that operated across borders. Political fractures eventually shrank that vision, leaving the index intact but transformed. Its history offers a quiet, revealing guide to how regional ambition gave way to national markets.

Read the full analysis here >>>>>

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