Nairobi, June 28 -- Last week, I began a review of the recently gazetted Government Owned Enterprises (GOE) Act 2025. To reiterate, the Act can fundamentally change public ownership by treating State-owned commercial entities more like accountable investment assets rather than than administrative extensions of ministries.

This means moving from political control to shareholder discipline: the National Treasury becomes the central ownership authority, reducing fragmented ministerial control and helping the government act more consistently as a shareholder.

A key element of the Act is the methodology of appointing independent non-executive directors (INEDs) to boards of the companies. The GOE Boards Search and Selection Panel was created ...