Jaindi Kisero

Nairobi

Economics Editor and Columnist at Business Daily Africa

Managing Editor, Economic Affairs, Nation Media Group. Columnist for @dailynation and @BD_Africa

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Articles

Pensions funds deserve bigger role in economy

3 weeks ago | businessdailyafrica.com | Jaindi Kisero

For me; what the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has done by investing in the Nairobi- Mau-Summit Road is an example of bold ambition. Today; following the implementation of the higher contribution rates under the controversial NSSF of 2013; the fund is collecting close to Sh6 billion a month. I ask? Where is the fund going to invest all this money if it does not start looking for bankable investment opportunities in alternative asset classes?
No, the economy is not doing well

3 weeks ago | nation.africa | Jaindi Kisero

Here are a few excerpts from the speech by President William Ruto during the Madaraka Day celebration in Homa Bay: “I speak with conviction that our country is firmly on the path to stability and progress. We have weathered turbulent times, navigated serious challenges and through courageous policy decisions, stabilised our economy.” As a society, we are surely suffering from an acute bout of low ambition.
Shif uptake shows public health changing

4 weeks ago | businessdailyafrica.com | Jaindi Kisero

Eight months into implementation of the Social Health Insurance Fund, popularly known as Shif, opinion remains divided on whether the new system is providing better access to healthcare for citizens who have all along been uninsured. On Tuesday, there were heated exchanges on the floor of the Senate about the progress and status of the implementation of the programme and whether it was working well.
Fix mess on county budget allocations

1 month ago | businessdailyafrica.com | Jaindi Kisero

I have been a supporter of devolution since the advent of the system in 2010. But we are at a point we must squarely look into the mirror and accept that what is reflected there is not what the framers of the public finance chapter on the 2010 constitution had hoped to achieve.
Cancel public sugar mills leases

1 month ago | nation.africa | Jaindi Kisero

How does a sugar factory that has hardly been in operation for two years qualify to be selected to run Muhoroni, which has been milling sugar since 1966? Little-known West Valley factory, owned by a Mr Ben Soi, was commissioned as recently as October 2023. And in terms of capacity, it is licensed to crush only 1,250 tonnes of sugar cane per day, slightly over half of Muhoroni’s capacity of 2,200 per day. In terms of area under cane, excluding the out-grower zones, Muhoroni is at 1,393 hectares.
Hidden truth in Ruto leasing of State millers to sugar oligarchs

1 month ago | nation.africa | Jaindi Kisero

There is a new chapter in the political economy of the local sugar industry. On paper, the government has leased five State-owned sugar companies to local private mills. In reality, what we are witnessing is a scenario where the government has just dished out management of the largest sugar mills in Kenya to a clique of politically-connected local millers and oligarchs.
Cancel suspect-sugar factory lease deals

1 month ago | businessdailyafrica.com | Jaindi Kisero

Where are the sane voices to guide and to inform the raging controversy over the plan by the government to lease five state-owned sugar companies to local sugar oligarchs? The economic merit for privatising the sugar companies cannot be gainsaid. But the biggest mistake the government is making is to cherish the illusion and pretend that it doesnâ€™t know that private sugar oligarchs in this country can never be part of the solution to the problems bedevilling the state- owned sugar companies.
Budget estimates carry economic lies

1 month ago | businessdailyafrica.com | Jaindi Kisero

The Economic Survey is out. We are also in the season where the government publishes statistics on the budget. They have made an art form of manipulation of statistics. Take the case of unemployment statistics for example. The statistics from the Economic Survey show that the informal sector created the highest number of jobs- a total of 703,704 jobs in 2024.
Let’s not privatise our ambitions

1 month ago | nation.africa | Jaindi Kisero

Last week, a top government official called to harangue me over an article I wrote recently questioning the lack of transparency in a deal in which land belonging to the State-owned Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL) has been leased to a company owned by little-known Nigerian investors.
Kenya must not descend into eco-tyranny

1 month ago | businessdailyafrica.com | Jaindi Kisero

The manufacturing sector is on the cusp entering into a new complex and stringent regulatory regime of environmental and waste management rules under the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations (EPR). The sustainable Waste Management (Extended Producer Responsibility) regulations 2024 objective is to create a clean environment by imposing levies on imported intermediate and finished products.