Obado convicted, Google fined €890M, Ford embeds Apple Maps

The High Court found Obado guilty alongside his co-accused, seven years after Otieno's body was discovered in a forest near Homa Bay. She was seven months pregnant with Obado's child when she was abducted and killed in September 2019. The court immediately revoked his bond and ordered pre-sentence reports. The conviction ends one of Kenya's most closely watched murder trials and signals growing accountability for violence against women, though Obado's legal team is expected to appeal.

The Treasury's initial proposal would exempt employees earning Sh30,000 and below from PAYE and lower the rate for those earning between Sh30,001 and Sh50,000. Mbadi said he will present a report to President Ruto at the end of August, with legislation tabled in September so workers can see relief on their payslips this year. The Kenya Bankers Association has proposed an alternative: cutting PAYE rates by five percentage points across all bands and capping the top rate at 30%, which it estimates would leave workers with an extra Sh28.1 billion in disposable income annually and create about 36,000 jobs.

Kenya Private Sector Alliance CEO Carole Kariuki told the Third Annual SME Conference that businesses cannot depend on a single export market or supplier anymore, given geopolitical conflicts, shifting trade dynamics and volatile economic conditions. She urged SMEs to use digital technologies for market intelligence, embrace AI tools to improve efficiency, and pursue new export opportunities by improving product quality. Kariuki noted that technological disruption, climate change and geopolitical instability have made business planning more complex, and stronger collaboration between government, financial institutions and the private sector is essential for building resilient enterprises.

The Commission imposed a €460 million penalty for giving Google's own Shopping, Hotels and Flights services preferential treatment in search results, and a further €430 million for Play Store rules that blocked Android developers from steering users to cheaper alternative payment systems. Google has 60 days to change its policies or face additional periodic penalties. The company must now treat third-party services fairly in search and allow developers to freely promote offers both inside and outside the Play Store. Google has previously argued the DMA forces it to degrade Android security, but the Commission says the latest proposals show good progress towards compliance.