Tatu City: Kenya’s Experiment in Private Urbanism

I am Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street…

In today's newsletter edition, we explore how Tatu City has become home to over half of Kenya’s SEZ firms, trading bureaucracy for a blueprint of private order. Meanwhile, unit trusts keep swelling, proving that small investors are quietly moving money where the banks once ruled…

Tatu City: Kenya’s Experiment in Private Urbanism

Where half the nation’s SEZ firms now trade tax breaks for order in a private metropolis that promises efficiency, if not utopia…

By TKWS Staff Writer

Tatu City, the private metropolis rising from Kiambu’s farmland, now carries a price tag of $3 billion though the developers prefer to call it “investment value.” More than half of Kenya’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) firms have quietly made it their address, lured by tax breaks, one-stop licensing, and roads that actually exist.

The promise is seductive: a city-within-a-country where approvals take weeks, not years, and where the power is cheaper and reliable. Yet, like all grand experiments, it walks the fine line between blueprint and mirage. The language is heavy with incentives and exemptions, but what really sells is the idea of order: a self-contained economy humming while the rest of Nairobi stutters.

For Kenya’s planners, it checks the Vision 2030 box. For everyone else, it raises the question: is this the future of African urbanism, or simply the most expensive gated community on the continent? Read full article >>>>>

Banking & Credit 

I&M Group flexes its balance sheet in H1

By Harry Njuguna

Profits at I&M Group have surged, driven by rising interest income and disciplined cost management. The lender also marked a symbolic milestone as shareholders’ equity crossed the KSh 100 billion mark for the first time.

Here is how the bank performed :

🟢 The bank’s profit after tax jumped 36% to KSh 8.31 billion.

🟢 Non-interest income climbed 13% to KSh 6.95 billion, supported by fee and bancassurance growth.

🔴 Operating expenses grew 13% to KSh 16.09 billion.

🟢 Gross non-performing loans eased slightly to KSh 34.37 billion, lowering the NPL ratio to 11.8%.

🟢 Shareholders enjoyed a 38% lift in earnings per share to KSh 4.51.

Read full financial analysis »»»»»

Co-op Bank Profits Up 8% in H1

By Chelsy Maina

The lender’s half-year results show steady profit growth, but a slide in non-interest income exposed its reliance on traditional lending. Stronger interest spreads kept the bottom line moving forward.

Here is how the bank performed…

🟢 Profit after tax rose 8.4% to KSh 14.08 billion.

🔴 Non-interest income, however, dipped 8% to KSh 14.11 billion.

🔴 Operating expenses climbed 13% to KSh 24.04 billion, while loan-loss provisions surged 50% to KSh 4.52 billion.

🔴 Gross NPLs expanded nearly 10% year-on-year to KSh 76.29 billion,

🟢 Total assets grew 13% to KSh 811.91 billion, while earnings per share improved 9% to KSh 2.41.

Read full financial analysis >>>>>

Capital Markets 

The New Altar of Kenyan Savings

By Harry Njuguna

Kenyans, half-fearful of inflation and half-bewitched by promise, are streaming into collective schemes with a fervor that has seen the sector’s investments swell to nearly KSh 600 billion. Money market funds, once the domain of the cautious, now anchor the nation’s savings, with Sanlam cracking the KSh 100 billion barrier. The government’s debt remains the favored playground, but offshore bets have tripled in a single quarter. Even fixed deposits, that old-fashioned refuge, are enjoying a renaissance. Read more here >>>>>

NSE’s Bull Run Finds Its Stride

By Harry Njuguna

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), once a picture of fatigue, is suddenly flush with life, its capitalization breaking past KSh 2.6 trillion for the first time in three years. The indices, those fickle barometers of sentiment, now sit at peaks unseen since before the pandemic years, with the new NSE 10 carving out its own all-time high. Blue chips, fattened by dividends and profit windfalls, have become irresistible to both retail dreamers and returning foreign investors. Even relics like Eveready, written off as fossils of another age, have found themselves reborn in a single week of frenzied trading. What lingers in the air is the sense that Nairobi, against its own history of false dawns, might finally be telling a different story. Read more here »»»»»

NSE Gainers & Losers 

INSIGHT : Kenya’s Courts Won’t Rescue Spouses from Unfair Prenups, Legal Experts Warn

By Chelsy Maina

In Kenyan courts, regret is not a legal defense. Prenups, however lopsided, are contracts and judges have little patience for rewriting bad bargains. Legal experts warn that unless fraud, coercion, or manifest injustice is proved, spouses hoping for sympathy will find none. Recent rulings echo the same refrain agreements signed with clear eyes and legal counsel will be enforced, even when they sour. Divorce cases may be rising, but the law leans toward personal responsibility, not rescue. Read more»»»»»

OPINION: For Businesses, Formalizing Philanthropy Shows Purpose and Profit Can Co-Exist

By Nicasio Karani Migwi

There was a time when philanthropy was ornamental, a ribbon tied to the balance sheet, but businesses now find themselves pressed to do more than donate and smile. Corporate Social Innovation asks companies to fuse profit with public good, to design wealth in ways that also heal. The old gospel of Friedman, with its singular devotion to shareholders, is being recast in favor of stakeholders, from employees to rivers to entire communities. The question that hangs in the air: when the language of purpose becomes fluent, will business finally be believed? Read here »»»»»

Also Read

Stories you missed 

♦️ Infrastructure. The State Department for Sports is on the spot after the Auditor General’s 2023/24 report exposed massive waste of public funds.

♦️ Banking. South African lender FirstRand Group, the biggest bank in Africa by market value, sees Kenya’s ongoing increase in minimum capital requirements as an opportunity to enter the market

♦️ Energy. As Africa accelerates its energy transition in the face of climate change, economic growth, and population expansion, nuclear energy is emerging as a strategic option for many countries seeking reliable, low-carbon electricity.

♦️Banking. The Central Bank of Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has lowered the Central Bank Rate (CBR) by 25 basis points to 9.50%, the seventh consecutive cut since November 2024.

♦️ Companies. Listed regional media company Nation Media Group (NMG) has reported a reduced interim loss for the six months to June 30, 2025, supported by significant cost cuts and growth in its digital business, even as turnover fell.

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