We are almost half way through 2025 and it has gone by in a flash. The beginning of the year was busy with some big events at work in Kenya (and the usual trip to Spain in early March for MWC), then there was a lull and then another hectic period at work after Easter. Once June passes, it might calm down now a little until September.
Those trips took me from Western Kenya (Homa Bay) to the Rift Valley (Baringo) to the Coast with several places in between (Machakos) and a lot in Nairobi of course. The government launched a Cloud Policy and an AI Strategy, as well as a USF Strategy and is working on various other key documents to enhance the tech sector, so generally business is fine. Kenya is still doing well technology-wise.
Now the kids have their scuba diving qualification they often head to the Coast during half-terms (in Easter they also went to Germany). Over Easter we also did a few days in Central Kenya, rafting, and stayed in an old colonial-style River Lodge in Naro Moro where apart from swimming we played quite a bit of tennis as a family. Since the dual carriageway going North from Nairobi was extended last year, it is a nice and easy and generally fast drive up that way.
Hannah's swimming has taken up a bit of time, including a week in the UK for an inter-school swimming championship that was a good experience, and a school trip in Sagana rafting. Leah's also attended a few chess tournaments in Nairobi (and a hockey tournament a few hours drive away) and both kids continue to do a lot of horse riding, including winning a recent inter-school team show-jumping competition (at a fairly low level, but at least the horses generally were obedient this time, unlike the previous two events when they seemed to freeze in a new environment--next time they can do a higher level).
The environment in the country is quite interesting. Last October we had the impeachment of the Deputy President (a new worn was sworn in, and the Cabinet reshuffled substantially as part of various political deals between different political parties/factions), which had followed a few months of unrest due to protests over the Finance Bill. This has been a movement partly about the high cost of living, corruption and general feeling that the political elites were not listening to the rest of the country, or acting in their interests. It subsequently died down but has now come back again, as the new Finance Bill for the new financial year is readied, the anniversary of last year's protests (when there were deaths) nears, and due to the death of a recent blogger in Police Custody (there have been other issues over the last year of physical or online protestors being arrested).
Last week there were protests, and it is believed that later in the month there will be more again. Let's see what happens; a lot may depend on what the other political parties do or say (there is now a group of opposition parties with the former Deputy President amongst them). And, of course, how the security forces act and react, particularly related to force. The political leaders are at least proposing less new taxes in order to address the concerns over the cost of living, but many from last year still have come in--particularly for funding healthcare and housing. Unfortunately the government still has a very high debt burden they need to pay back, with the interest payments taking up something like 70% of all the government revenues (a lot of the local debt and some foreign debt is at high interest rates; whereas debt to foreign governments or development banks would be at much lower rates).
The government still plans to keep running a deficit (i.e. having to borrow more money because revenues don't meet expenditures) which will just make the debt burden worse. It is a cycle that is not very good to say the least. And there does not seem to have been much success in improving efficiencies or reducing wastage in government.
The private sector gets affected, but in general is quite resilient and quite diversified (unlike many other countries on the continent). Not too reliant on any one industry for jobs or exports or growth overall. A wide variety of exports, a strong service industry, some manufacturing and important finance, logistics, agriculture (as long as there is no drought), and construction industries. Of course, the unpredictable international economic situation (including tarrifs by the US) doesn't help.
Talking of which, the President had spent 2 years cosying up to the US, and has now had to quickly diversify international relationships, which should be to the country's benefit. Whether it is Eastern Asia, the Middle East, Turkey, India or others, there are a lot of opportunities out there, and those countries are more stable and predictable. The relationship with Europe remains strong.
