Kenya is planning a significant move: selling off a portion of its 34.9% stake in Safaricom, the region's most profitable company. The government aims to raise $1.1 billion (KES149 billion) through this privatization push. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi stated that the funds are intended to plug a hole in public finances and avoid imposing new taxes amid a tough economy. This planned transaction, expected before the end of the 2025/26 fiscal year, would be the government's biggest divestiture in nearly two decades.

The backdrop to this decision is Kenya's mounting debt burden. Total public debt stands at $88.5 billion (KES 11.4 trillion), having grown rapidly by $20.8 billion (KES 2.7 trillion) in under three years. Debt repayments are consuming a significant portion of government revenue; in the first eight months of a recent fiscal year, interest payments alone were $5.5 billion (KES 722 billion), more than half of the tax revenue raised. With tax revenues underperforming and little political appetite for more tax hikes, the sources describe selling stakes in profitable state assets like Safaricom as a "fiscal necessity" given limited financing options and rising debt costs.

However, Safaricom is a high-performing asset, posting an 11% rise in net profit to $540 million in 2024 and delivering $130.5 million in earnings to the Kenyan government through dividends. Its current stake is valued at $2.1 billion (KES280.5 billion).

Join us as we question the government's strategy: Is selling a valuable, revenue-generating asset like Safaricom truly the only path forward, a "fiscal necessity", when facing debt pressure and underperforming taxes? Or could other fiscal measures offer alternatives to divesting from a company that provides substantial earnings to the Treasury?

Explore the facts about Ozempic, described in the source as the "hottest drug in the country right now". As part of the GLP-1 agonist class of medications, Ozempic is effective for people with type 2 diabetes but was also discovered to have a beneficial side effect of weight loss about 10 years ago. Learn about its use for weight loss, including recent FDA approval for people who are obese or overweight, and its off-label use. We'll cover how these weekly injections are typically administered (often in the belly) and discuss common side effects like GI issues (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bowel problems), rarer risks like pancreatitis, and the black box warning for a rare type of thyroid cancer.

Most importantly, we delve into the crucial question: What happens when you stop taking medications like Ozempic after losing weight? According to the source, while individual results vary, it is possible if not likely that a person will regain some or all or even more of the weight they've lost. Understand the key reason behind this – overweight and obesity are described as complex, chronic disorders driven by a multitude of factors including behavior, environment, genetics, and even other medications. This episode helps explain the science and what to expect when discontinuing these medications.

This podcast explores the impactful, heartbreaking, and often shocking stories of Kenyan musicians whose lives and careers were cut short. From Hip Hop pioneers like Issa and Wikimwos and Kapuka stars such as K-rupt, to Reggae legend Mighty King Kong and influential Gospel artists including Angela Chibalonza, this podcast delves into their rise to fame, their revolutionary contributions to genres like Hip Hop, Dancehall, Kapuka, Reggae, and Gospel, and the tragic circumstances that led to their untimely deaths. Discover how, despite passing too soon, their music still plays, their influence lives on, and their legacies remain strong.