Kenya Shilling's rebound plugs corporate bleeding
The strengthening of the Kenya shilling last year brought a windfall to many forex-guzzling firms in Kenya, we can report. It drove two of the largest guzzlers, KPLC and KQ, out of the red and into black. The rebound that shaved US$900 million off our national debt also wiped between 55 and 67 percent off the books of KPLC and KQ respectively. Consequently, the two firms, which are forex guzzlers, posted huge profits. Kenya Airways (KQ), hit a major milestone. It made the largest net profit in its history - KES 5.4 billion (US$42 million) in 2024 from a net loss of KES 23 billion ($143 million) the previous year. The airline has, since 2014, been a victim of external factors that led to losses: In 2014, it was hit by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, one of its largest markets that grounded it for nearly a year. Then the whole aviation industry globally was grounded by the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 for almost a year. Since then, it has been making losses since it wa...