Turning up pressure on asset declarations

Good evening. It’s Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street. 

Here are our top stories for today as we head into the weekend :

Turning up pressure on asset declarations

By Brian Nzomo

A missed asset declaration could soon hit a Kenyan public official where it hurts most, in the monthly payslip. New rules from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) allow government agencies to track compliance, warn defaulters, begin disciplinary action and eventually stop salaries until the required declaration is made. The framework also tightens the handling of conflicts of interest by requiring officials to declare them, recuse themselves, and have the recusal formally recorded and reported. That creates a much clearer trail around decisions involving public money, while new digital systems could eventually flag discrepancies by checking declarations against other government records. The rules could therefore change asset declarations from a routine administrative obligation into a form of financial scrutiny that state officials will have a much harder time ignoring.

Read about it here >>>>>

Heads Up

INSIGHT : Why Kenyan Boards, Executives, Can No Longer Sit Out the AI Governance Debate

By Vanessa Diane Mbugua

On the morning of July 30, Nairobi's executives gathered for ALX Enterprise's exclusive breakfast session, "Leading in the Age of AI" hosted by ALX Enterprise. While the broader market narrative has fixated on automation and efficiency, the consensus among panelists and attendees was clear: The biggest bottleneck to AI adoption in Kenyan organizations is no longer the infrastructure, it is the governance vacuum and the human trust deficit.

It became evident that local leaders are moving past the "what" of AI and are now grappling with the "how", specifically, how to govern systems evolving faster than the law, and how to lead teams through disruption without breaking morale. The event, which followed a successful Kigali edition on July 24, shifted the conversation from technical demonstrations to an "executive strategy laboratory." ALX Enterprise framed the morning with a stark observation, that "AI has stopped being a technology decision and become a leadership one." That single sentence captured the tectonic shift underway in boardrooms across the region.

Read the full article here >>>>>

CONVOS : Can Private Debt transform underserved Kenyan businesses?

By Brian Nzomo

Kenya’s MSMEs face a KSh2.5 trillion financing gap, but the problem is not simply a shortage of lenders. Most small businesses do not fit neatly into conventional credit models. Private debt is emerging as an alternative, particularly for viable businesses that may lack sufficient collateral or need repayment terms that better match their cash flows. In this interview with The Kenyan Wall Street, Stanley Mutuku, CEO of Lofty-Corban Investments, explains where private debt fits into Kenya’s financing market, what borrowers give up in exchange for its flexibility, and how investors distinguish an overlooked business from a bad credit risk. He also makes the case for looking beyond the headline financing gap to the quality of businesses that private lenders can realistically serve. The conversation offers a closer look at whether private debt can expand access to formal capital without simply becoming another expensive source of credit.

Read the interview here >>>>>

What You Should Watch

Briefs

• Tourism. Kenya’s tourism sector maintained strong momentum into 2026, with international visitor arrivals outperforming pre-pandemic trends

• Banking. Family Bank Plc has posted a 62% year-on-year surge in profit after tax, reaching KSh 3.70 billion for the first half of the year.

• Aviation. The National Assembly has invited public submissions on Kenya’s proposed ratification of Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASAs) with 17 countries.

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.