This blog post builds on ongoing discussions in the Nairobi tech space where race-based privilege is being increasingly articulated to describe the unequal playing ground that black Kenyan founders and white expatriate founders face when looking for start-up capital. This post focuses on the 30% Kenyan ownership criteria of the 2019 Kenya ICT Ministry's policy ("The government strongly encourages Kenyans to participate in the ICT and Science & Technology sector through equity participation. It is the policy that only companies with at least 30% substantive Kenyan ownership, either corporate or individual will be licensed to provide ICT services. For purposes of this rule, companies without majority Kenyan ownership will not be considered Kenyan, and may thus not be calculated as part of the 30% Kenyan ownership calculus," page 26). However, this policy stipulation will not likely lead to real change as I know anecdotally that many foreign-owned companies have Kenyans on their company in name only (and receive monetary compensation for doing so).
Henry Nzekwe, "Nzekwe, H. (2020, August 17). Kenya Hunts Foreign-Owned Tech Startups With 30% Local Ownership Law. Wee Tracker. ", contributed by Angela Okune, Research Data Share, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 22 September 2020, accessed 25 April 2024. https://www.researchdatashare.org/content/nzekwe-h-2020-august-17-kenya-hunts-foreign-owned-tech-startups-30-local-ownership-law-wee
Critical Commentary
This blog post builds on ongoing discussions in the Nairobi tech space where race-based privilege is being increasingly articulated to describe the unequal playing ground that black Kenyan founders and white expatriate founders face when looking for start-up capital. This post focuses on the 30% Kenyan ownership criteria of the 2019 Kenya ICT Ministry's policy ("The government strongly encourages Kenyans to participate in the ICT and Science & Technology sector through equity participation. It is the policy that only companies with at least 30% substantive Kenyan ownership, either corporate or individual will be licensed to provide ICT services. For purposes of this rule, companies without majority Kenyan ownership will not be considered Kenyan, and may thus not be calculated as part of the 30% Kenyan ownership calculus," page 26). However, this policy stipulation will not likely lead to real change as I know anecdotally that many foreign-owned companies have Kenyans on their company in name only (and receive monetary compensation for doing so).