Supreme Court premises. [Photo/capitalfm.co.ke]
Businesses are certainly celebrating the Supreme Court of Kenya decision to uphold the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in the October 26 repeat election. Whether from Jubilee or NASA, the election stand-off has been squeezing businesses in equal measure.
Over the past five months, companies have recorded low sales, revenues and some are likely to declare losses related to election blues in the long-run. The situation was complicated by the nullification of the August 8 presidential election, which threw Kenya’s politics into an uncertain mood.
But yesterday’s ruling has affirmed Kenya’s stability and will be cheered by markets, businesses, and employees whose jobs were hanging in the balance. Investor confidence will go up as well. More importantly for businesses, however, is having an independent and more efficient judiciary.
This is a plus and will win the confidence of investors in the court justice system. Granted, most businesses are based on contracts and agreements. Whenever there’s a dispute, businesses resolve the issues in courts. Previously, courts were abused by parties where judges and magistrates were compromised to delay hearings or deliver rulings in favor of their paymasters.
Courts have killed multi-billion-shilling business investments because they either take too long to rule or are bought out by litigants. The confidence is backed up by the generally improving business environment in the country.
According to the latest World Bank report, Kenya moved 12 places in the Ease of Doing Business 2017 to position 80 globally out of 190 countries compared to position 92 in the 2017 report. Indeed, the country was ranked the third position in the continent behind Mauritius and Rwanda. With an improving and more independent judicial system, Kenya is likely to rise further as an investment hub in Africa.
In the last one year, Kenya has delivered the highest number of business-related reforms in Africa. This has boosted foreign direct investment from Sh40.1 billion in 2013 to Sh207 billion in 2016. With this latest improvements, investors and businesses will be the biggest winners.