Creative economy: Missed opportunities from neglect despite talk about big numbers

Kenya is set to host some of Africa’s footballing greats this August in the African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament.

This is an opportunity not just to showcase the country on the global stage but to set up its creative industry players to tap into a billion-dollar creative economy. But lack of adequate preparations is threatening to turn this moment into a missed opportunity.

The Chan tournament, a precursor to the Afcon 2027 that Kenya will also co-host with Tanzania and Uganda, is not just a sporting spectacle but also a platform for musicians, designers, filmmakers and digital creators to showcase Kenyan culture to the world.

Yet, signs of disorganisation point to a government struggling to take its creative sector seriously.

In the schedule of matches released last week by CAF, Group D matches were reassigned to Zanzibar, and only Group A and one Group C match were to be hosted in Kenya. This was on account of concerns about Kenya’s capacity to host two groups. 

Despite the disappointment in hosting fewer than expected matches, Kenya will host the finals at Kasarani. 

Hosting the final, observers note, is a major win but also a huge logistical challenge. Nyayo and Kasarani stadia will be used for the matches, while Kasarani Annexe, Ulinzi and Police Sacco stadia will be used by the teams as training grounds.

Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, Salim Mvurya, noted Chan’s potential beyond football.

“Major sporting events are no longer just about the game. They are immersive cultural experiences, from branding, music and fashion, to live performances and digital storytelling. The creative economy is central,” he said at a recent forum on the creative economy.

Mvurya had earlier in June directed contractors to complete refurbishment works at Nyayo and Kasarani stadiums by June 25.

The bigger worry, however, is Afcon 2027, which also offers Kenya a bigger platform. The Budget and Appropriations Committee flagged a worrying omission in the 2025/26 budget, where Treasury had not made a provision for Sh3.9 billion ($30 million) to pay for Kenya’s Afcon hosting rights, which has a deadline of April 2026. Without it, the country risks defaulting.

“Our goal is ambitious yet achievable: to grow the creative economy’s contribution to GDP from 5 per cent to 10 per cent by 2025,” said Mvurya but now the 2025 target appears to be a distant reality. 

“Creativity is no longer fringe, it’s a force for transformation. Kenya must shift from being a consumer of foreign content to a leading exporter of world-class talent.”

The shift, Mvurya said, would be achieved through reforming the regulatory and policy frameworks including the Creative Economy Support Bill 2024 and an overhaul of IP laws. 

The Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis in a note last year noted the impact that Afcon can have on Kenya’s economy during the tournament but also public relations for the country and laying ground to hold events of such scale in future. 

“The favourable reputation of hosting an event of the scale of Afcon may encourage future events to be held in the country, which in turn may contribute to the creation of further jobs and the improvement of existing infrastructure,” said Kippra.

The lack of enthusiasm by the government in the Chan and Afcon tournaments is a pointer to its view of not just its sportsmen but also other players in the country’s creative industry. 

Footballers, athletes, musicians, actors and other creative economy players have over time had little support from the government and despite flying the Kenyan flag high in global events and others entertaining Kenyans through their sketches, they have tended to live in despair and this worsens when they are no longer active.

The Kenya Kwanza regime had promised a shift and said it would put mechanisms in place to make the sector “a significant economic actor in its own right”. 

But nearly three years in, it is struggling to get the industry going.

While Hollywood studios like Invention Studios are investing and calling it a “massive economic opportunity,” the government appears to lack urgency.

Despite the hurdles Kenya’s creative sector still promises to have huge potential, with not just local stakeholders but also icons noting that it can emerge as a significant sector for the Kenyan economy, playing a role in creating jobs and projecting Kenya’s image beyond its borders. 

“For too long, we have talked about serious business, and whenever we talk about serious business, we don’t include creatives. But let’s be honest, what’s more serious than an industry that actually creates jobs, exports culture and builds global brands?,” said Maxwell Okello, chief executive, American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham)in Kenya, adding that Kenya cannot afford to continue pushing the sector to the sidelines, noting that in the US, it is massive, valued at over Sh130 trillion ($1 trillion) 

He added that Kenya’s creative sector, growing 60 per cent faster than traditional sectors, holds promise but needed to be nurtured.

Nicholas Weinstock, Founder and President, Invention Studios, said there is huge potential for business within Kenya’s creative economy. Weinstock, who in 2023 hosted President William Ruto at his Invention Studios in Los Angeles, noted that movie-making in Kenya can be a profitable venture.

“This is not charity or an interest in diversity, it’s not a noble desire to ‘give back’,” he said.

“This is the seizing of a massive economic opportunity, both for me as the owner of a profit-driven American company, and for the ambitious creatives from Kenya who are our partners.”

Weinstock, whose TV show Severance has emerged as Apple TV+’s most-watched series, emphasized the multiplier effect of creative industries.

“When you shoot a movie in Kenya, you generate jobs and economic growth in carpentry, craft, fashion, transportation, hospitality, finance, tourism and a spectrum of other sectors that together fuel the health of every country involved,” he said.

Invention Studios is partnering with the government in a long-term creative partnership with Kenya, the first Hollywood company to do so. It plans to develop movies and TV shows together with Kenyan creatives and also support distribution globally.

In the partnership, government agencies are expected to ease the process of shooting through expediting permit issuance, facilitating shooting locations, including low-cost housing, to shoot the shows.

Weinstock said Invention Studios had put out a call for proposals from Kenyan creatives and received over 400 proposals including scripts.

In addition to its tea and coffee, other world-beaters that Kenya has are its sportsmen, particularly athletes. The government has rarely invested in nurturing athletics and other sports, staying away from investing in stadia or even running tracks or training camps at high-altitude training camps in areas like Iten. 

Edwin Sifuna, Senator, Nairobi County, noted that among the key challenges for the creative sector in Kenya has been underinvestment in infrastructure by the government.

Archaic laws, particularly the Sports Act, which discourages private ownership of clubs, have also held back the development of the creative industry. 

“(Moi) is the only president who built international-level infrastructure for football in Kenya. The successive governments have not built a structure worth hosting an international game,” he said.

“In Kenya, clubs must be registered as societies. No investor will put money into a team they can’t control,” he said.

The Sports Ministry said it is in the process of amending the Sports Act to allow private companies to register as sports organisations and reviewing registration requirements to enable foreign investors to have their interests represented within clubs. 

“Additionally, we are developing clear revenue-sharing models that incentivise private sector investment and establishing a robust framework for public-private partnerships in sports infrastructure development and leasing,” Mvurya had said. 

The Kenya Kwanza administration has also started the construction of the Talanta Stadium through a public-private partnership model.

Sifuna also said a welcome shift is the change towards private sector investments in the construction of public infrastructure. These, he noted, could be critical in bridging the investment gaps and dealing with the issue of underinvestment in sports infrastructure but noted that lack of transparency has been rampant in PPP deals. 

Some of the companies attempting to commercialise the creative sector in Kenya tell of both promise and heartache.

Other than inadequate infrastructure, whose quality is also subpar, and lack of ownership in sports teams, another thing that irks the sports sector is importing equipment, which are rarely manufactured locally. There is also an attempt to tax the creative sector, including the recent proposal to charge creators withholding tax, a tough ask for many sub-sectors that are either struggling or at fledgling stages.

Twende Sports, the firm behind Nairobi City Thunder, is among the companies angling for the untapped potential. 

Sandra Kimokoti, the company’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, says their first step was offering salaries and insurance to players, helping them shift from part-time to full-time athletes.

This has started to pay off, with the team now playing at the NBA’s Basketball Africa League, the first Kenyan team to play in the league. She also noted that the team has been able to rally fans and which now promises to pay off financially. 

“The other step was exposing fans to the game and showing them there is a quality sports product,” she said. “Once you build the eyeballs behind the game and you have a committed community, all of a sudden partners are interested.”

Despite the promise, she highlighted major challenges including the quality of facilities and their availability. 

She explained instances where there is double booking at the few venues that offer some form of quality arenas. These include Nyayo stadium, a key venue that is also shared, which is also one rundown and in dire need of repairs.

“For us, the next bit is to think how we address the facility question. And we need to do this in tandem with other partners,” she said. 

Twende Sports, she said, is exploring partnerships with other teams to jointly develop a multipurpose arena that can be used by different teams playing different sports at different times “so you can sweat the assets 24/7”.

Michael Finley, Kenya Country Lead for NBA Africa, argues that shared sports infrastructure could be a game-changer. He cites Rwanda’s $104 million (Sh13.5 billion)  BK Arena, which now hosts the Basketball Africa League, corporate events and music events.

“Look at what Kigali has done with BK Arena… it has brought tens of millions of dollars into their economy,” said Finley. “Kenya could do the same.”

President Paul Kagame pushed the project, aware of its potential not just for basketball but other creative activities. The NBA supported the project despite criticism by US human rights organisations about NBA’s dalliance with an ‘African dictator’.

Thom Wallace of IfWeBuildIt.org is also eyeing untapped potential in a game that is largely unknown in Kenya. His firm is introducing baseball in Kenya and has partnered with JKUAT in constructing a $40,000 (Sh5.2 billion) baseball field at JKUAT dubbed the Nairobi Field of Dreams. 

“There’s talent and passion,” said Wallace, “but you need patient capital. You don’t see returns immediately in grassroots sport.”

He also warns against focusing only on ‘exporting’ athletes to the US and calls for strong local leagues, backed by academic pathways. He notes that of the two million playing in the Little League baseball around the world, only 0.03 per cent make it to Major League Baseball, and hence it is important to set realistic goals at the onset for fans and players andthe  importance of developing the local ecosystem.