Big firms worst hit by terror, says lobby

Inayat Kassam (left) evacuating victims of terror attack suspected at Dusit D2 hotel in Nairobi on January 15, 2019. [Edward Kiplimo/Standard]

Businesses in Nairobi, Garissa and Mombasa counties have reported losing an average of Sh175,396 in the wake of terror attacks in the country, according to a new report.

According to the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) report, large businesses were the most affected, with 69 per cent reporting having suffered the effects of violent extremism compared with small enterprises (59 per cent) and medium-sized enterprises (57 per cent). Titled Understanding the Impact of Violent Extremism on Kenya’s Private Sector, the report sampled 357 businesses in the three counties, with 55 per cent saying they had at one point been directly affected by a terror-related incident.

“On the effects of violent extremism on enterprises covered in the study, the findings revealed that most businesses (54 per cent) across the three counties were affected by loss of business revenue due to limited flow of customers, with a similar proportion of respondents indicating that they experienced loss of business revenue due to business closure,” said the report. Four major terrorist incidents have been recorded in the three counties in the past six years.

The latest attack took place last month on the dusitD2 Hotel, located at the 14 Riverside Drive office complex in Nairobi that left over 20 people dead. Nairobi was the most affected by the incident, with the total value of lost revenue estimated to be as much as Sh10 million per business.

According to the report, 70 per cent of the businesses polled in Nairobi reported having heard about or experienced violent extremism.

It put the average value of property destroyed in each affected business at Sh211,684. On average, large businesses lost Sh511,078 value of revenue per day. The losses prompted businesses to adopt mitigation measures, with 46 per cent of respondents saying they had upped security personnel while 36 per cent said they had taken insurance cover.