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The Spat that Jinxed a Tea Market
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In today's newsletter, the tea sector regulator won a reprieve in court but behind the conflict with an exporter, a key tea market was lost.
Also, environmental activists are not convinced that lifting the logging ban in Mau Forest is a noble thing to do…
The Spat that Jinxed a Tea Market
By Brian Nzomo
Tea pickers in a plantation
A licensing dispute that should have remained bureaucratic quietly metastasized into a trade rupture. When a Kenyan tea exporter lost its registration through an opaque regulatory process, the damage extended far beyond one firm. Iran, one of Kenya’s key tea markets, suspended imports, unsettling exporters, farmers, and diplomats alike. In court, the case collapsed not on facts but on form. The exporter had knocked on the wrong legal door. The episode exposed how procedural rigidity, when paired with regulatory opacity, can cost an economy far more than it ever intended to discipline.
Read the full article here >>>>>
Chainsaws Over Water Towers
By Fred Obura
Forest
Global forest product trade is stabilizing after a turbulent downturn, yet Kenya faces a quiet crisis at home. Environmentalists warn that lifting the logging ban in the Mau Forest threatens water security and long-term agricultural stability. Deforestation continues at an alarming pace; nearly 85,000 hectares lost annually, undermining the very ecosystems that sustain livelihoods and climate resilience. While policymakers emphasize plantation harvesting, past governance lapses make oversight a fragile promise. In a country still building tree cover toward its constitutional goal, the tension between short-term timber gains and enduring ecological wealth has never been sharper.
Read the full article here >>>>>
Tracing Kenya's Economic Pulse
By Harry Njuguna
Economic growth
Kenya’s economy is quietly flexing its resilience, posting a 4.9% growth in the third quarter of 2025, led by a cautious revival in farms and construction. Agriculture’s mosaic of milk, flowers, and livestock tells a story of uneven recovery, where some crops thrive while others lag. Construction, by contrast, is booming. Cement and steel flowing as if to signal confidence in urban expansion. Yet beneath these numbers, the current account deficit widens, a subtle reminder that domestic momentum still leans on imported inputs.
Read more here >>>>>
Snapshot
Source | NSE
OPINION : Data Centers Could Be the Spark Africa’s Power Sector Needs
By NJ Ayuk
Data center
Africa’s digital revolution is colliding with its energy reality. As smartphone adoption and AI usage surge, the continent’s demand for electricity-intensive data centers is exploding. Kenya, with over 60% renewable power, is positioning itself as a hub for green, stable computing, while much of sub-Saharan Africa struggles with intermittent grids. Investors are taking note: reliable power is no longer just infrastructure, it is a financial incentive. Data centers are emerging not just as nodes of computation, but as catalysts for modernizing Africa’s electricity networks.
Read the full article here »»»»»
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Source | NSE
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Today in History
About 3,000 workers in Mombasa organized a strike to protest low pay and racial wage discrimination, setting in motion a mass labor uprising that would paralyze the colonial economy and mark a turning point in Kenya’s anti-colonial political consciousness.