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Ndiritu Muriithi The spirit of Saba Saba 2025 was soiled by the violence and looting orchestrated by gangs. Locals in Mt. Kenya report new faces during the demos in their towns. In the ensuing analysis, a conventional argument that the Mt Kenya people dislike violent demonstrations because they are owners of private property has emerged….
– Ndiritu Muriithi Last week, I accompanied my wife to a big supermarket, part of a foreign owned large chain. When I go grocery shopping by myself, I find the big super daunting, and usually take refuge in a smaller locally owned one in my neighborhood. There, the staff immediately volunteer to assist, and don’t…
-Ndiritu Muriithi Colonial authorities must have been obsessed with Maili ine and Maili saba, as markers of town boundaries, measured from the post office or rail head. Many Kenyan towns have at least one trading centre by either name. Nyahururu has both. And it was at Maili ine where a young man posed a searing…
Promoting SME competitiveness in Kenya is the now somewhat dated 2019 study, a collabo by Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment (MITI), International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), based on survey data from 23 counties. The study has an excellent conceptual framework, focusing on three dimensions of…
Ndiritu Muriithi Boundaries defining African countries were an arbitrary creation. Some boundaries follow natural landmarks, like rivers. They were drawn on maps at conferences in European capitals. Colonialism lasted about one hundred years [1870-1970], with some holdouts, notably Zimbabwe (1980). As African peoples worked to get rid of the colonials, they organized across the countries,…
Ndiritu Muriithi My late friend Moses Nguyo Nderitu, an easy-going guy with a laid-back style, read a leading daily religiously. He was an excellent economist and investment banker. Over copious amounts of African tea – made with an extra tea bag to bring out the rich colour and flavor – we pondered the Kenyan economy…
Ndiritu Muriithi A quasi-religious Kikuyu tune, Ndahuyukite ngiuma kwa Waiin’ga is popular again. “By the time I left Waiinga’s place, I had nothing left”, the soloist in a recent remix proclaims, pausing at appropriate intervals to let the revelers join him in completing the lyrics. One account of the history of this tune, told by…
By Ndiritu Muriithi The East African Community (EAC) is one of the most integrated among the regional economic communities of the Africa Union. EAC integration is following a four-stage process – customs union, common market, monetary union, and political federation. Our customs union is long established. The common market, ratified in 2010 with a five-year…
The external context for framing of the 2025/26 budget is getting very complicated. In Treasury documents including the Economic Survey, global economic conditions are usually summarized in a section referred to by the neutral sounding phrase ‘external scene’. In the current ‘scene’, President Trump’s tariff war is in full gear. Its stated primary purpose is…
Universal and targeted tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imports to the US could dim hopes for an expanded market for scores of Kenya’s avocado farmers. Avocado producers have been yearning for the high-value markets in North America and beyond which would ensure sustainable and better returns. Among those that could be affected by…
