Pure Digital Passion with Moses Kemibaro

This video captures the full "Connected to Protect" discussion panel on how health insurance can become more accessible, relevant and useful within the everyday lives of Kenyan and East African consumers.

I moderated the panel during the launch of the strategic partnership between Jubilee Health Insurance and global insurtech bolttech last week. While the partnership provided the setting, the conversation went much wider: healthcare costs, fraud and extra billing, product relevance, customer segmentation, flexible payments, trusted distribution, asset financing, consumer education and claims.

The panel brought together four distinct perspectives:

Njeri Jomo - CEO and Principal Officer, Jubilee Health Insurance
Bente Krogmann Osore - General Manager, Africa, bolttech
Bryan Nyutu - Principal Officer and Insurance Portfolio Lead, Safaricom PLC
Ken Gitonga - Group Head of Technical Product, Watu Credit
Moderator: Moses Kemibaro

Key areas discussed:

Why reducing healthcare fraud, waste, abuse and unnecessary billing is essential to affordability
Why protection must reach the right customer at the right moment
How embedded insurance differs from placing an existing policy inside an app
What Safaricom has learnt from Tuunza Mapato and Tuunza Simu
Why data, customer segmentation and payment frequency shape insurance uptake
How health protection can safeguard the livelihoods of Watu's asset-financing customers
Why hospital cash should not be confused with comprehensive medical cover
Why technology alone cannot compensate for an unclear strategy or the wrong partners
How insurance can become a reward that strengthens engagement and loyalty
Why transparency, voluntary participation and a dependable claims experience are fundamental to trust

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction
00:12 The biggest friction between customers and useful health protection
00:37 Jubilee Health: using AI to reduce fraud, waste, abuse and extra billing
02:34 bolttech: making insurance relevant and timely
04:28 How embedded insurance changes Jubilee Health's approach
07:58 Safaricom's lessons from Tuunza Mapato and Tuunza Simu
12:24 Watu: protecting livelihoods within the asset-financing journey
14:35 When customers experience the real value of insurance
16:17 Why Kenya needs fully fledged micro-medical cover
19:12 Audience questions begin
21:10 Technology is an enabler - why the right partners matter
25:21 Bridging consumer and product-segmentation gaps
27:47 Human-centred design for mass-market insurance
31:46 Insurance as a reward and engagement tool
33:41 Medical borrowing, community fundraising and catastrophic health expenditure
37:20 Health and device protection for young daily earners
38:51 Closing

#ConnectedToProtect #EmbeddedInsurance #HealthInsurance #Insurance #FinancialInclusion #Kenya #EastAfrica #Africa

In this episode of NTV Kenya's Fixing The Nation, I joined Mariam Bishar, Eric Latiff and Fellaris Wambui to unpack Kenya’s growing debate around minimum fares for ride hailing.

The discussion was focussed on the Business Daily's headline on Uber and Bolt drivers potentially getting more power in how fares are set, as well as broader proposed reforms that could bring ride-hailing platforms under greater regulatory scrutiny.

We discussed what this means for drivers, passengers, platforms, businesses, regulators, competition policy, and Kenya’s wider gig economy.

At the heart of the conversation was one question:

How does Kenya improve driver earnings without pricing passengers out of digital mobility or weakening the ecosystem that makes ride-hailing possible?

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: Business Daily headline and the digital taxi fare debate
01:20 – Moses Kemibaro joins Fixing The Nation
02:30 – How ride-hailing platforms work and why the issue matters
03:32 – From traditional taxis to digital ride-hailing in Kenya
05:38 – Market scale: drivers, users, rides and the gig economy
06:52 – Owner-drivers versus rental drivers
08:13 – Are driver complaints justified?
10:26 – Understanding the 18% commission discussion
11:57 – Platform value: marketplace, trust, safety and digital payments
13:40 – Tanzania as a cautionary case
14:28 – Passenger affordability and price sensitivity
16:34 – Why smart regulation must balance all stakeholders
18:14 – Where did the “doubling fares” idea come from?
20:18 – Viewer comments and subscription model proposals
21:01 – Competition risks if pricing is over-regulated
22:21 – Price elasticity: what happens if fares double?
24:08 – Passenger willingness-to-pay thought experiment
26:11 – Draft minimum compensation rules and the missing passenger voice
29:20 – Driver welfare, classification and platform responsibility
30:22 – Financing, insurance and formalizing the gig economy
33:05 – The platform as a marketplace creator
35:08 – Kenya’s ride-hailing market versus Nigeria and South Africa
37:19 – Could electric mobility reduce driver operating costs?
38:49 – Higher fares and higher consumer expectations
40:13 – Viewer comments on commissions and platform costs
42:53 – Final thoughts: broader consultation and a balanced way forward

Key Themes

Minimum fares versus minimum driver earnings
Driver welfare and platform work
Passenger affordability
Commission transparency
Owner-driver versus rental-driver economics
Competition and platform regulation
Smart regulation for Kenya’s gig economy
The long-term future of ride-hailing in Kenya

#FixingTheNation #NTVKenya #NationFM #RideHailing #DigitalTaxis #GigEconomy #Kenya #PublicPolicy #FutureOfWork #DigitalEconomy

WhatsApp is preparing to introduce usernames that will allow people to communicate without publicly sharing their phone numbers.
The feature could deliver a meaningful privacy improvement, particularly in group conversations, business interactions and chats with people who have only recently met. However, it has also raised questions about impersonation, phishing, financial fraud, mobile-money security and whether accounts involved in criminal activity will remain traceable.
On the 15th July 2026, I joined Nkechi Onyinyechi Ogbonna on BBC World Service’s Focus on Africa to discuss WhatsApp’s forthcoming username feature.
The programme also featured Somalia’s State Minister of Communications and Technology, Hon. Ahmed Osman Diiriye, who explained why his government wants Meta to provide stronger assurances around fraud, mobile-money security and digital traceability.
The discussion examines why Somalia wants Meta to demonstrate “proof of traceability,” the concerns India has raised and the protections WhatsApp says it is building into the feature.
It also explains:

The difference between reserving and activating a username
How usernames differ from display names
Why users will still need telephone numbers
How optional username keys will work
Why WhatsApp will not offer a public username directory
How usernames could protect people in group chats
What the feature means for creators and businesses
The risks of lookalike usernames and impersonation
Why mobile-money markets require additional safeguards
How digital literacy can help users identify scams

Chapters

00:00 — Introduction to WhatsApp usernames
00:55 — Somalia’s security and accountability concerns
01:53 — Consultations between Somalia and Meta
02:16 — Is there evidence that usernames will increase
fraud?
03:22 — “We want proof of traceability”
04:27 — Meta explains its proposed safeguards
05:19 — Why WhatsApp is separating identity from phone numbers
06:26 — How usernames will change one-to-one and group communication
07:11 — Impersonation, financial fraud and mobile-money risks
09:02 — Digital literacy and practical user protection
10:50 — Conclusion

Africa’s scam economy is becoming more organised, automated and sophisticated.

What was once the occasional fraudulent SMS has evolved into smishing, vishing, identity theft, business impersonation, SIM-swap-enabled account takeovers, AI-generated identity documents and deepfake voice calls.

I moderated a discussion recorded at the TARS 2026 Telecom Africa Revenue Assurance & Fraud Management Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, on the 13th May 2026 titled:

Protecting the Customer: Scam Typologies, Operator Responsibilities & Fraud Awareness in Africa

The panel brought together:

Ann Khambo - Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Manager, Airtel Money, Airtel Kenya
Ogochukwu (Ogo) Onwuzurike - Country Manager, Nigeria, Truecaller
Mieraf T. Birhane - Executive Head of Fraud Management, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia

The discussion examines how customer-facing fraud is changing across African telecom and mobile-money markets, why social engineering remains such an effective attack vector, and why operators can no longer regard themselves as neutral pipes when their networks, brands and identity systems are being exploited.

Mieraf shares insights from Ethiopia’s evolving fraud landscape, including smishing, account takeover, subscription fraud and commission-related abuse. She also describes a striking case in which fraudsters used makeup and physical impersonation to attempt fraudulent SIM swaps—an incident detected because the agent involved had received practical fraud training.

Ann explores identity theft, including situations where innocent customers may not know their photographs or personal information have been used to register SIM cards or commit fraud. She also explains why GSM and mobile-money fraud must be analyzed together using KYC, voice, SMS, location, SIM, device and transaction data.

Ogo introduces the “machine era of spam and fraud.” According to the figures shared during the panel, Truecaller intercepted approximately 68 billion spam and fraud calls in 2025, compared with approximately 37.8 billion in 2021. She explains how AI and automation are helping fraudsters scale while excessive calls and messages from legitimate organisations are also eroding trust in phone-based communication.

Key Themes:
Smishing, vishing and social engineering
Identity theft and fraudulent SIM registration
SIM-swap-enabled account takeover
Business impersonation and investment scams
Real-time detection, analytics and machine learning
Internal fraud and insider risk
Anti-fraud by design
Operator responsibility and customer protection
Cross-industry collaboration

Time Stamps

00:00 Intro music
00:12 Africa’s scam operations have industrialised
04:09 What keeps fraud leaders awake at night?
04:44 Ethiopia’s evolving fraud landscape
08:43 Identity theft and the innocent customer
10:54 The human factor in customer-facing fraud
11:24 Why operators must take greater responsibility
13:43 The machine era of spam and fraud
18:05 AI call scanning and verified business communication
19:40 Smishing and sophisticated account takeover in Ethiopia
23:21 Data-driven controls for mobile-money fraud
24:05 Connecting GSM and mobile-money fraud
27:52 Business impersonation, investment scams and credibility engineering
30:49 Outro music

The central takeaway is that customer-facing fraud is no longer only a fraud-management or revenue-assurance issue. It is a customer-experience, brand-trust, financial-inclusion and digital-economy issue.

Protecting customers requires shared responsibility across telecom operators, mobile-money providers, banks, fintechs, platforms, regulators, agents, employees and customers.

Kenyan and African retailers generate enormous volumes of information through point-of-sale systems, inventory platforms, loyalty programmes, e-commerce, mobile applications, social commerce, delivery platforms and digital payments.
However, much of that data remains fragmented, underused and disconnected from everyday business decisions.
In this special episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast, I moderate a discussion from the RETRAK Retail Summit 2026 titled:
Smarter Retail: Turning Data, AI and Insights into Competitive Advantage
The session took place on Thursday, 14 May 2026, at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi and brought together four experts representing retail entrepreneurship, digital payments, financial-services platforms and retail technology, as follows:
Judy Waruiru - Regional Managing Director, Network International
Sonal Haria - Co-Founder and CEO, Canvas Cosmetics, Co-Founder, CB Consulting & Media Group
Eric Muriuki - Group Director, Digital Business, CEO, LOOP DFS, NCBA Group
Siddesh Narkar - Head of Product, Compulynx

Topics Covered
Why many retailers are data-rich but insight-poor
The importance of connecting fragmented customer data
Building a unified view across stores, websites, apps and payments
Why data readiness must come before AI readiness
Using data to improve product development, pricing and assortment
How Canvas Cosmetics used customer insights to guide product development
Using payments data to understand churn, market movements and fraud
AI-supported replenishment, stock management and pricing
How AI can improve sales productivity and outreach
Balancing personalisation with customer privacy and trust
Privacy-by-design approaches to retail data
How AI agents may soon shop and pay on behalf of consumers
Practical AI actions retailers can take during the next 12 months
Key Message

Retailers do not need to begin with an expensive, enterprise-wide AI programme.
They should begin by digitizing operations, organising existing information, selecting one or two commercially important problems, measuring the results and building from the small wins.
AI can analyze more information and provide options faster, but human judgement remains essential.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RETRAK panel00:44 The state of retail in Kenya and Africa07:07 Sonal Haria on combining data with human judgement09:20 Judy Waruiru on fragmented customer data10:43 Eric Muriuki on data readiness and AI15:50 Siddesh Narkar on clean and usable retail data17:32 How Canvas Cosmetics used data for product development21:12 Payments data, customer journeys, churn and fraud26:39 AI as an intelligent wrapper around the business33:53 Audience questions begin34:36 Preparing and labelling business data for AI38:25 AI-generated cosmetic formulations and human oversight39:44 Understanding wider market and industry trends40:48 Using payments data for retail-market intelligence42:07 Turning financial-service providers into insight partners44:59 How AI improved sales productivity and outreach46:33 AI personalization, privacy and customer trust49:15 Cloud and on-premise AI deployment50:08 Agentic commerce and the machine as the next customer53:27 One action retailers should take in the next 12 months57:42 Closing remarks

The Pure Digital Passion Podcast explores the people, organizations, technologies and ideas shaping digital transformation, marketing, media, innovation and business across Kenya and Africa.
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#Retail #RetailTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DataAnalytics #DigitalTransformation #Payments #Fintech #CustomerExperience #Kenya #Africa #PureDigitalPassion