Sh2.6bn Boma Yangu withdrawals, Nairobi finance chief on run

Prospective homebuyers have withdrawn Sh2.6 billion from the Boma Yangu platform, nearly half of the Sh5.4 billion collected, according to new data. The government rolled out a refund policy earlier this year allowing Kenyans who no longer want to participate in the affordable housing programme to pull their savings. The scale of withdrawals signals low confidence in project delivery and unit allocation. The programme has registered over 1 million Kenyans but only a fraction have been allocated homes, with many complaining about stalled projects and unclear timelines.

The government has stepped up engagement with foreign diplomats to sell Kenya as a regional pharmaceutical manufacturing base, as it pushes to reduce import dependency and meet its 2030 health manufacturing target. The push comes as Square Pharmaceuticals of Bangladesh begins constructing a plant at EPZ Athi River. Kenya already has the largest pharma manufacturing sector in East Africa, but relies on imports for most medicines. The diplomatic charm offensive targets investors from India, Bangladesh, Europe, and the Middle East to set up local production of essential drugs, vaccines, and medical supplies.

Banks resumed bigger credit disbursements to households in early 2026 after an unusual retreat from consumer lending last year. Falling borrowing costs and improving economic conditions spurred the turnaround. The Central Bank data shows household credit growth picked up after a period of tightness that saw banks prioritise government securities over private sector lending. The reopening of the credit tap is good news for consumers who had been largely cut off from bank financing, but lenders remain cautious, keeping a close eye on default rates.

Nairobi County is struggling to process payments after its former finance chief went missing. Court documents reveal arrest warrants had been issued against the official in a separate criminal matter before he disappeared. The absence has frozen supplier payments and disrupted salary processing, with the county unable to authorise transactions without his sign-off. The saga underscores the operational dysfunction plaguing Nairobis county government, which has a history of stalled projects and payment backlogs stretching back months.

Biren Technology, one of Chinas top AI chip designers, has unveiled a next-generation supernode architecture that uses optical data transmission instead of copper to link thousands of chips. Current copper connections restrict clusters to about 128 GPUs per server rack; Birens near-packaged optics (NPO) design scales to 1,024 GPUs. The announcement, made at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, signals a strategic shift from standalone chip competition to system-level infrastructure. It also highlights how Chinese chip firms are innovating around US export restrictions that cut them off from Nvidias most advanced hardware.

Dave Eggers, the novelist and publisher of McSweeneys, was invited by Sam Altman to speak to roughly 200 OpenAI staffers. He used the opportunity to deliver a blunt critique: ChatGPT is silencing an entire generation of writers. Eggers argued that students are outsourcing their thinking to AI, robbing themselves of the voice and craft that only comes from struggling through the writing process. The talk comes amid growing backlash against AIs impact on education and creative work. It is a rare instance of an artist being given a platform inside the company to speak candidly to employees about the damage their product may be causing.