Kenya to privatise 35 state companies

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Kenya’s President William Ruto said on Thursday, the government was poised to privatise 35 state companies and was looking at a further 100 firms following a change in the law.

“We have identified the first 35 companies that we are going to offer to investors,” Ruto told a meeting of African stock market officials in the capital Nairobi.

Kenya’s parliament revised its privatisation law this year to eliminate bureaucracy and make it easier to sell the firms, he said.

While he did not explicitly link the sale to the government’s financial woes, the nation is grappling with acute liquidity challenges caused by uncertainty over its ability to access funding from financial markets before a $2 billion Eurobond matures next June.

Is privatisation the solution for struggling State-owned Enterprises?