21/10/2026
Kenya Must Act Now to Make Doing Business Easier
By Dr. Vitalis Ogola.
Doing business in Kenya is becoming increasingly challenging, and the government needs to take urgent action to reverse the trend. Entrepreneurs and business owners should be spending their time identifying markets, attracting customers, expanding operations and creating employment. Instead, many are increasingly preoccupied with navigating government offices, meeting compliance requirements and paying levies imposed by multiple regulatory bodies.
The situation raises a fundamental question: are our regulatory institutions making it easier to do business, or are they becoming an additional burden on the very enterprises expected to drive economic growth?
Kenya has established numerous public agencies, authorities and regulatory bodies, each with its own mandate. Regulation is necessary to protect consumers, maintain standards, promote fair competition and ensure public safety. However, when the cost of compliance becomes excessive, fragmented or repetitive, the consequences can be damaging.
The problem is not regulation itself. It is regulation that creates unnecessary costs without delivering proportionate value.
When Compliance Becomes a Business Burden
A business operating in Kenya may have to navigate different permits, licences, inspections, statutory obligations and regulatory fees, depending on its sector, location and size.
Where agencies impose overlapping requirements or operate without effective coordination, businesses can face unnecessary administrative work and additional costs. For small and medium-sized enterprises, which often operate on limited margins, these expenses can make the difference between expansion and survival.
The concern is that some institutions may become more focused on collecting fees and enforcing compliance than on facilitating enterprise and economic growth.
Public bodies should exist to serve the public interest. Their performance should not be measured merely by the number of licences issued, inspections conducted or levies collected, but also by how effectively they support a productive economy.
The Hidden Cost to Job Creation
Every additional cost imposed on a business has the potential to affect its growth decisions.
When entrepreneurs must allocate more money to permits, levies, compliance procedures and administrative obligations, they have less capital available for hiring employees, purchasing equipment, improving technology and opening new branches.
A company that could have hired five additional employees may postpone recruitment because operating costs have risen. A small enterprise planning to expand into another county may abandon the idea after calculating the additional compliance expenses.
These outcomes are not inevitable in every case, but they illustrate why the cumulative impact of regulatory costs deserves serious attention.
Kenya cannot simultaneously demand that businesses create more jobs while allowing avoidable administrative burdens to undermine their ability to grow.
Have Public Institutions Become Employment Bureaus?
There is also a legitimate public policy question about the proliferation of government agencies and public bodies.
Every institution requires funding, personnel, offices, administrative systems and operational resources. Where multiple bodies perform overlapping functions, taxpayers and businesses may ultimately bear part of the cost.
The government should therefore undertake a comprehensive review of regulatory institutions to establish whether their mandates remain necessary, whether their functions overlap and whether some services can be consolidated.
The objective should not be to eliminate essential oversight. It should be to ensure that every public institution delivers measurable value and that public resources are not consumed by unnecessary bureaucracy.
What the Government Should Do
Kenya needs a practical reform agenda focused on reducing the cost and complexity of compliance.
First, audit all business levies and regulatory fees. The government should establish a transparent register of the charges imposed by national agencies, county governments and sector regulators. Duplicate, unjustified and outdated charges should be reviewed and, where appropriate, abolished.
Second, introduce a coordinated compliance system. Businesses should be able to access relevant licences, renew permits and meet applicable obligations through an integrated digital platform, reducing repeated submissions of the same information.
Third, consolidate overlapping regulatory functions. Where different agencies perform similar duties, the government should consider merging functions, harmonising requirements or establishing clear coordination mechanisms.
Fourth, protect small businesses. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises need proportionate compliance requirements that recognise their size, turnover and capacity. Regulation should not impose the same administrative burden on a small start-up as on a large corporation where the risks and circumstances differ.
Fifth, measure institutions by the value they deliver. Regulatory agencies should be assessed on efficiency, transparency, service delivery and their contribution to a healthy business environment, not simply on revenue collection.
The Government Must Change Its Approach
The private sector is a critical partner in national development. Businesses generate employment, pay taxes, develop skills, introduce innovations and provide goods and services that citizens depend on.
But entrepreneurs cannot fulfil this role effectively if their attention and resources are continually diverted from productive activity to navigating an increasingly complicated regulatory environment.
Making Kenya easier to do business in should not be reduced to speeches, policy documents or investment conferences. It should be reflected in the everyday experience of a trader, manufacturer, consultant, farmer, technology start-up and small business owner.
The government must ask itself a difficult question: Are our institutions facilitating economic activity, or are they making productive enterprise unnecessarily expensive?
Kenya needs fewer unnecessary procedures, coordinated regulation, transparent fees and public institutions that understand their role in enabling economic growth.
Ultimately, the goal should be straightforward: let entrepreneurs spend more time building businesses, serving customers and employing Kenyans, and less time worrying about the next levy, inspection or compliance demand.
A country that wants more jobs must make it easier, not harder, for businesses to create them.**
