The Political Economist

  It felt like a historic moment yesterday: the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda signed a peace and economic-integration agreement brokered by Donald Trump, the President of the United States. This deal, the first of its kind between the two countries in recent times, may open a new chapter for the embattled eastern DRC, long wracked by ethnic violence and instability. Historical Context: Why the Deal Matters For decades, the eastern DRC has been plagued by conflict and foreign interference. A key actor in this has been M23 (the March 23 Movement), a rebel group that initially rose up in 2012. The group emerged after a splinter of the former rebel group CNDP accused the DRC government of reneging on a 2009 deal. M23 rapidly seized key territory, including the provincial city of Goma, forcing thousands, if not millions, to flee. Eventually, international pressure and military counteroffensives, including by a UN-backed force, dislodged the rebels. ...

M rima Hill in Kwale County has quietly sat for centuries as a sacred and culturally significant site for the surrounding Digo community. But beneath this spiritual landscape lies one of the most valuable mineral deposits in modern times: rare earth minerals. Rare earths are a group of 17 elements essential to the technologies that drive the global economy today—electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, smartphones, advanced military equipment, and nearly every green-energy innovation on the planet. The world cannot transition to clean energy or maintain high-tech manufacturing without them. And Kenya is sitting on a hill packed with them. Recent geological studies e stimate that Mrima Hill holds rare earth minerals valued at nearly USD 60 billion. That figure is close to half the size of Kenya’s entire GDP. In Kenyan shillings, that is roughly KSh 9.3 trillion—money that could transform not just the coast, but the country at large. Currently, an Australian consortium has been granted ...

  It almost feels impossible: a currency  that  just over a year ago was crashing past KSh 160 per dollar now stabilizes strongly at around KSh 129, barely moving for nearly two years. For most Kenyans, this stability feels strange, given what the country has end ured: global inflation, geopolitical turmoil, Middle East trade disruptions, and domestic political protests. Yet the shilling has barely fluctuated. In early 2024, Kenya was staring at one of its weakest currency moments ever. The shilling traded at KSh 162–164, foreign debt stress peaked, and a looming Eurobond maturity triggered fears of default. The government and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) responded aggressively: a $1.5B Eurobond buyback, continued support under the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility, and a push to rebuild foreign-exchange reserves. Tighter fiscal and monetary policy also helped restore confidence, allowing the shilling to climb back into the 130s and eventually settle around 129, where...

  Is your bank still charging you the same interest rate on your loan ? Did you know that your loan repayments could be lower now? The credit pricing model used to calculate your interest rate is no longer the same following CBK’s changes.   On 1 st September 2025, the Central Bank of Kenya introduced a new credit pricing model known as the Risk-Based Credit Pricing Model. This change marks one of the biggest reforms in Kenya’s lending space in Kenya’s financial history.   It is designed to make loan pricing more transparent, predictable, and fair for ordinary Kenyans who have long complained about unpredictable interest rates and hidden charges. Under this new model, every commercial bank must now calculate loan interest beginning from a single common benchmark known as the Kenya Shilling Overnight Interbank Average Rate (KESONIA) . This is the rate at which banks lend money to each other overnight. The CBK chose this benchmark because it reflects real market conditi...