Author: Nairobi Business Monthly Reporter

Commercial International Bank (Egypt) S.A.E (CIB) has acquired 51% of the shareholding of Mayfair Bank Limited (MBL). The acquisition, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), takes effect beginning May 1. It follows the approval by the CBK on April 7 under Sec 13(4) of the Banking Act and that of the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Planning on April 8 pursuant to Sec 9 of the Banking Act. MBL was licensed in June 2017 and commenced operations in August 2017. The bank has five (5) branches in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa. It targets high net worth…

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Is the next generation of athletes ready to take personal sacrifice, isolate themselves from fads and pursue success with a single-minded focus? BY DAVID ONJILI This is an expression of my gratitude to a man whose life has inspired so many both on and off the pitch. A life cut short in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on the fateful morning of January 26, 2019 alongside his daughter Gianna Bryant and 7 others At 41, Kobe Bryant won it all both on and off the basketball court. Black Mamba, as he was fondly called, was a huge credit to…

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BY ROBERTAS LISICKIS Becoming a new parent is surely exciting, not just for the parents-to-be, but also for everyone involved. Oh, and also the Internet, if you decide to track your pregnancy in pictures and costumes. However, kicking off parenthood also comes with its own challenges, like getting all of the necessary baby items and learning all of the proper methods of taking care of a baby before he or she actually arrives. And that is in addition to the physical challenges that mothers have to go through while pregnant. Well, Finland’s government has kicked off a maternity package program that attempts,…

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The Pakistani Christian woman who spent years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy says she had faith freedom was on the way Now living in Canada, she told the BBC that she hoped she would be able to return to Pakistan one day. Ms Bibi has released a memoir, Enfin Libre! (Finally Free), written with French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet. In it, she recounts her time in jail and her brutal treatment by guards. In one of the most disturbing incidents she recounts how she had her neck put in a brace that was tightened with a key, and…

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We mostly invest so much time, money and effort in looking beautiful or handsome. However, most of the time people end up using products that are causing more harm than good or tools that accentuate their blemishes. NBM’s CYNTHIA WAIRIMU talked with Winnie Wangari, professional make-up artist and owner of Vasari make-up on how to handle certain circumstances when it comes to make-up. How do you ensure that there’s no transference of bacteria from one client to another? Winnie: I sanitize my products by spraying them with alcohol, and as for the tools, I use one tool per person. If that is not…

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BY JACOB OKETCH As opposed to most books, the authorial voice in Happy Birthday presents a very rare form of rendition of a written work. It speaks to an infant as if the child is able to understand what it is being told. In a sense, there is exaggeration of the child’s ability to grasp what it is being told by the father. A child, who is a few weeks old, in the real world, is not able to speak and there is no way of knowing if they understand what we tell them or not. The title also alludes…

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The higher power gives us a chance every other sunrise to change our ways, we just don’t take it most of the time and end up thinking that we are forsaken BY JACOB OKETCH It is a very sad moment for me because I am sitting here at the CITAM church along Valley Road Nairobi for the funeral service of my dear uncle who succumbed to cancer. I am keenly aware of relatives and friends surrounding me, something I could not do when I was drinking. I can notice the pain of my cousins and their mother and I am…

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BY JENNY COETZEE The fourth Industrial Revolution is resulting in schools having to relook the way they are educating not only their students, but their parents as well. Kenyan parents have rightfully shown caution over the introduction of digital devices in classrooms. Many schools have noted the concern about the potential negative effects of computer use and have taken a carefully considered route in the introduction of bringing devices to school. This takes place only when parents and children have been educated in the safe usage of such devices. In both the Cambridge-based curriculum (IGCSE) and the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC)…

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Insights for regulating a rapidly growing and dynamic digital economy in Kenya BY CHRISPIN BOSIRE A digital economy is one based on digital technologies or, more broadly, as the entirety of sectors that operate using digitally enabled communications and networks leveraging internet, mobile and other technologies. When, in 2019, Kenya launched the Digital Economy Blueprint, President Uhuru Kenyatta held the opinion that the current and growing digital world presents a future of immense possibilities. He asserted that with every passing year, new technologies and services are emerging and as digital technologies become the cornerstone of our daily activities, governments, businesses…

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Student housing, or purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), refers to housing that has been designed specifically to meet the demands and requirements of the modern-day student. The concept has gained much traction globally and has become a mainstream investment class asset gaining more attention from institutional investors especially in developed European markets and the United States. It is driven by the huge student enrolment numbers and a failure on the institutions’ part to provide accommodation that is commensurate with the increase in student enrolment populations. The US market, for instance, registered 19.8 million students in 2019, of which 1.5 million were…

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