The duo shocks Kenyan businesswomen

Our beloved Kenya has experienced a surprising shift in societal consciousness over the past week. Amid the new anti-tax protests in Kenya, as academics of business disciplines, we must begin to analyze the potential impacts on businesses and the economy as a whole.

In other countries, small business owners, and particularly women entrepreneurs, face unprecedented challenges when the political and societal climate brings new uncertainties. However, early qualitative research is beginning to show that business owners are genuinely questioning whether the protests will ultimately bring more, rather than less, stability to their strategic and business planning.

Such commercial sentiment is rare when political or societal protests arise in a country. But small business owners surveyed so far say increased fees and taxes would have created more uncertainty and that social action and protests, even with their own uncertainty, could reduce tax increases planned, which could bring greater overall stability.

Compared with research in other countries, a study led by Jasmine Jaim in Bangladesh explores the detrimental effects of political instability on women-led businesses, offering valuable forward-looking predictions for Kenyan businesswomen. Political unrest significantly limits women entrepreneurs’ access to critical resources such as debt financing and disrupts daily operations to a greater extent than their male counterparts.

The study highlights the double burden of generic business challenges and gender-specific barriers.

Women entrepreneurs often bear the brunt of increased insecurity and market volatility, which hampers the growth and sustainability of their businesses. All this while political unrest affects small and micro business owners more than medium and large businesses due to a proportionally higher increase in operating costs and a greater reduction in customer base. So, women-owned small businesses are facing a double economic shock from the unrest.

Resilience strategies used by Bangladeshi women during and after the unrest include diversifying sources of income, strengthening community ties, and leveraging digital platforms to maintain customer engagement.

Kenyan businesswomen could adapt these approaches to mitigate business impacts in the current national situation. Bangladeshi micro-enterprises have even taken advantage of surprising shifts toward online sales channels and formed cooperative groups in new and varied sectors that have provided stability and support.

As part of various research, a book by former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Amy Zegart looks at companies exposed to political risk. Another risk could concern the affairs of politicians.

Companies that once eagerly sought alliances, investments, and partnerships with politicians may now choose to scale back their partnerships with politicians, for fear of becoming future targets of in-person and social media protests.

Additionally, recent research on political risk and the influence of populism by Christopher Hartwell and Timothy Devinney also offers important insights for today’s Kenyan businesses.

By understanding the role of political and societal actors who can foment uncertainty and create institutional volatility as well as the general public’s response to these actors, Kenyan entrepreneurs can better address current challenges.

This obvious perspective encourages local businesses to anticipate potential changes in the political landscape and adapt their strategies accordingly, thereby strengthening their resilience in a rapidly changing environment. But more usefully, the study highlights the need for a broader framework that includes the influence of politicians and executives on business operations.

However, when it comes to our Kenyan businesses, Kenyans are on average much more politically informed than our business competitors around the world, even as small and micro business owners are intensely engaged. So while policy ignorance is not what has kept Kenyan businesses silent before, unlike citizens in other countries, it is rather in Kenya a culture of respect and what researchers call “distance of power” of reverence for authority.

While this deference to authority appears to be disappearing at present, business owners must monitor, pivot and respond even more actively to the maneuvers of political figures who shape economic policies affecting their operations and the response of Kenyan society , even at any time. By integrating such a nuanced understanding of politics into business strategies, Kenyan entrepreneurs can take steps to protect their interests and ensure more stable operations amid political or societal changes.

Nevertheless, the unique nature of the current protests makes the medium- and long-term economic consequences more difficult to predict than other previous unrest in Kenya or political upheavals in other countries.

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