The Final Downgrade

Hello 👋🏽 It's Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street.

In today's newsletter…

• We take a look at the sour relationship between Fitch ratings agency and Afreximbank.

• A SACCO has obtained court orders to join the liquidation party of KUSCCO.

These and more…

The Final Downgrade 

By Fred Obura

Fitch Ratings has downgraded African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) long-term issuer rating, citing rising restructuring risk and a diminishing policy role, before promptly withdrawing all ratings and analytical coverage.

The bank announced terminating its relationship with the credit rating agency, arguing Fitch failed to grasp its treaty-based structure and intergovernmental mandate. While Fitch fretted over political exposure and credit risks across fragile markets, Afreximbank pointed to solid capital buffers, strong liquidity, and shareholder protections ratified by member states.

Fitch suggested that multilateral lenders are no longer insulated from sovereign restructuring, a view Afreximbank called short-sighted and misinformed. The dispute spotlights broader frustrations with global rating agencies, whose assessments often clash with Africa’s institutional realities.

Read the article here >>>>>

Render unto Caesar…what belongs to Caesar!

By Brian Nzomo

A Christian-based SACCO has decided it will no longer wait for a revival at KUSCCO. After more than two years of unmet promises, it has moved to recover KSh108.8 million by auctioning the cooperative body’s movable assets. The shift narrows the story from boardroom collapse to the blunt mechanics of recovery; what can be seized, sold, and counted. KUSCCO says it has been paying other creditors, a claim that quietly rearranges the moral order of the insolvency. For RUPSA, the aim is not drama or damages, but the simple return of members’ money, whatever form it now takes.

Read the story here >>>>>

Escaping the Tax Man's Maze

By Brian Nzomo 

Prime Bank will not have to pay KSh 87.6 million in erroneous taxes after the Tax Appeals Tribunal found the revenue authority’s handiwork “internally inconsistent and legally unsustainable.” KRA had tried to tax everything from routine business expenses to international software payments, ignoring exemptions the bank had long documented. The Tribunal ruled that double taxation and creative stretching of the law would not stand. Even excise duties dressed up as interest or card fees were firmly rejected. For Prime Bank, the decision clears the books; for KRA, it serves as a reminder that its clever arithmetic cannot substitute for legal grounding.

Read the article here »»»»»

Coming Soon!

This coming week, Andrew Barden, CEO of The Kenyan Wall Street will moderate a webinar session will examine how global institutions are quietly reshaping the crypto market and what this evolution means for Kenya. Register your attendance here »»»»»

OPINION : Why Resilience Is Now a Core Corporate Governance Imperative 

By Nicasio Karani Migwi

Volatility, once treated as a temporary inconvenience, has hardened into the operating condition of modern institutions. Our columnist, Nicasio Karani Migwi, argues that resilience is no longer a back-office function or crisis-management slogan but the central test of corporate governance in an age where shocks arrive bundled and unannounced. From pandemics to geopolitics to technological disruption, institutions that merely endure will fall behind those designed to adapt. Survival, the piece suggests, is no longer the goal. It is longevity.

Read the opinion article here >>>>>

Heads Up

On your watchlist 

Snapshots 

Upcoming Events : KenInvest Announces the Upcoming Kenya International Investment Conference (KIICO) 2026

Taking place at the Radisson Blu Upper Hill on March 25, 2026, the 4th Kenya International Investment Conference (KIICO) 2026 is set to be the largest and most impactful investment promotion conference in Kenya’s history.

Key areas of focus during KIICO 2026: Agriculture, Finance, Economic zones and Textiles & Apparel, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), E-mobility, Clean Cooking, Renewable Energy, Waste Management, Mining, and the Creative Economy.

During KIICO 2026, Kenya will also host the 2nd COMESA Investment Forum on March 26 and the Africa Green Industrialization Initiative (AGII) on March 27th.

Read more about it here »»»»»

Partner Content 

Today in History 

Keep up with what’s happening on our X and LinkedIn pages. Stay updated with the latest financial news on our website The Kenyan Wall Street.