By Betty Maina, Chief Executive – Kenya Association of Manufacturers

A two-year-old boy gets sick and is rushed to a hospital in Kwale. The clinical officer at the hospital diagnoses feverish convulsions and quickly rushes to the hospital’s  pharmacy where he obtains a dose of medicine that will ease the boy’s suffering. However, nothing happens, and the convulsions continue. As a result of this, the boy is given additional doses of the same drug to which he does respond.

By Ms Betty Maina, Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Association of Manufacturers

The competitiveness of Kenya’s trade in the global market has been on the decline, a situation that is in stark contrast to the government’s ambition to attain its economic blueprint – the Vision 2030 launched earlier this year. This has been blamed on the high cost of production attributed to a number of factors both internal and external.

By Betty Maina (Ms. Maina is the Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Association of Manufacturers)

The decision by the Minister for Finance to exempt local gazetted manufacturers who use refined industrial sugar imported under the remission scheme from payment of Sugar development levy has been challenged in some quarters and has been the subject of misleading and alarming public statements by leaders and interest groups who surely must know better.

By Betty Maina, Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Association of Manufacturers

It is now the onus of the key players in the energy sector to demonstrate that the power increases were indeed caused by the rising worldwide fuel costs and not their thirst for profits. While it is well understood that the global crude oil prices were rising for a few months, it is indeed surprising that the companies did not march the drops in these prices with a reduction in the electricity costs - they remained as they were.

By Kenya Association of Manufacturer’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Betty Maina

The writing is on the wall – Kenya’s competitiveness is at stake. This was clearly demonstrated in the recently released World Bank Doing Business (DB) 2009. This  startling revelation calls for urgent action from Kenyan Government to ensure a conducive operating environment for the business community.

A two-year-old boy gets sick and is rushed to a hospital in Kwale. The clinical officer at the hospital diagnoses feverish convulsions and quickly rushes to the hospital’s pharmacy where he obtains a dose of medicine that will ease the boy’s suffering.

By Betty Maina (Ms. Maina is Chief Executive, Kenya Association of Manufacturers)

With the ongoing public debate on wage increase taking shaking shape ahead of Labour Day, Kenya’s businesses, particularly manufacturers should worry about what is likely to hit them. Given the statement of the Minister for Labour recently and the ongoing concerns about the cost of living, it appears that the Government is already  considering increasing the minimum wage by 10 per cent in the name of cushioning workers against soaring consumer goods prices.

By Betty Maina, Chief Executive – Kenya Association of Manufacturers

Kenya’s manufacturing sector is once more in a quandary following the recently released power rationing schedule by Kenya Power which will largely affect the country’s  manufacturing sector. It is a major source of concern that the recently rebranded Kenya Power has decided to constrain power supply by as much as three hours for three days weekly.

By Betty Maina - Chief Executive Officer KAM

14th April, 2011, Nairobi: Kenya’s business community and indeed Kenyans in general are in the doldrums following the decision to increase pump oil prices by ksh 5 and now (as at Thursday) Ksh 8.

By Betty Maina (Ms. Maina is the Chief Executive, Kenya Association of Manufacturers)

On 1st July, this year, the East African Community marked the first Anniversary since the coming into effect of the Common market protocol last year expected to usher in a seamless and borderless internal market for goods and services in East Africa.