Author: Francis Muli

Any staff found to have leaked plans to retrench a section of the Nairobi Hospital staffers will be subject to sanctions including instant dismissal, the management has said. In an internal memo dated March 25, 2021, Nairobi Hospital CEO James Nyamongo accused some staffers of sharing false information about restructuring on social media. “We have noted there is a post circulating on social media with misguided information about reduction of staff. This information is distorted and makes false allegations about the performance of the hospital,” said Nyamongo. “As we follow up on the fake news, let all our staff know…

The Nation Media Group (NMG) has announced a 94 percent drop in profits for the year ended December 31, 2020 to Ksh48 million from Ksh856 million in 2019. The revenue flow for NMG decreased to Ksh6.81 billion from Ksh9.05 billion in 2019 due to Covid-19 restrictions announced by the government in March 2020. The company, which recorded notable online subscriptions for nation.africa, is now banking on digital revenue to get back on its feet. The company recorded 50,000 subscriptions in April 2021. Read: Court Orders NMG To Pull Down COVID-19 Millionaires Exposé “Going forward, the Group will focus on building on…

Section of Uhuru Highway between Nyayo stadium and Bunyala roundabout will be closed for 21 more days from April 30 to May 20, 2021, to pave way for the ongoing construction of the Nairobi Expressway. This was announced by the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) director-general Peter Munindia, who advised motorists to use alternative routes. “The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) wishes to notify the general public that there will be traffic disruption along Uhuru Highway between Bunyala roundabout and Nyayo stadium roundabout for an extended period of 21 days with effect from Friday 30th April, 2021 to Thursday 20th…

The Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee Camps with be closed by June 30, 2022, the government has told the UNHCR- the UN Refugee Agency. According to a statement by the Ministry of Interior, the process of repatriating some refugees to their home countries has already kicked off. However, not all will be repatriated since some will be allowed to stay through Work/Residence Permits. “Kenya has formally communicated to UNHCR its decision to close Dadaab and Kakuma camps by 30 June 2022. Among the precursory activities in GoK’s roadmap is repatriation of refugees to countries of origin and socioeconomic integration of some of them…

Carrefour Kenya has opened another store at the Garden City Mall, the second on the busy Nairobi-Thika highway. The new store is already open to the public and will operate as a Carrefour Market, with a focus on stocking a wide range of food items and selected non-food items alongside small electrical appliances. The new outlet of the store owned and operated by Majid Al Futtaim in Kenya, will allow customers in close proximity to access its WhatsApp ordering service which means they can shop online and have their products delivered directly to their doors. Read: Carrefour Launches Online Shopping…

Kenya Airways has partnered with UK-based advanced air mobility (AAM) company, Skyports to operate drones in the country. The two entities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to launch permanent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations in the country by Quarter 3 of 2021. “This partnership with Skyports will support our diversification plans in drone technology application. This will give us access to available equipment and established operations that will lay the foundation for the Kenyan and regional drone market through our drone and emerging aviation technology subsidiary, Fahari Aviation,” Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer Allan Kilavuka explained. This comes…

Olusegun “Segun” Ogunsanya, Managing Director and CEO of Airtel Nigeria is set to succeed Raghunath “Raghu” Mandava, as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa following Raghu Mandava’s intention to retire. Segun Ogunsanya will join the Board of Airtel Africa plc with effect from October 1, 2021.  Segun Ogunsanya joined Airtel Africa in 2012 as Managing Director and CEO Nigeria and has been responsible for the overall management of Airtel operations in Nigeria, Airtel’s largest market in Africa. Airtel has a presence in 14 countries in Africa. Before joining Airtel in 2012, Segun held leadership roles at Coca-Cola…

More Kenyans visit Pinterest compared to Instagram and YouTube. The latest web analysis by Statscounter shows that 13.43 percent of Kenyans visited the photo-based social platform between March 2020 and March 2021, while 7.03 percent visited Instagram in the same period. Facebook is the most visited social media platform in the country with 51.25 percent of Kenyans accessing the platform between March 2020 and March 2021. Twitter emerged second with 22.19 percent social media market share while YouTube and LinkedIn trailed with 5.42 percent and 0.28 percent respectively. Read: Why Kenyans on Social Media Refer to President Uhuru Kenyatta as…

Britam Holdings has announced a record net loss of Ksh9.1 billion in the year ended December 2020 from a net profit of Ksh3.5 billion a year earlier. The company’s Wealth Fund Management Fund LLP alone recorded a net loss of Ksh5.2 billion. “The results were further depressed by a provision for investment losses of Sh5.2 billion in Wealth Fund Management Fund LLP, a fund managed by Britam Asset Managers which is a fully owned subsidiary of Britam Holdings Plc. The holdings company is committed to supporting the fund to fulfil its obligations as they fall due through oversight of the…

Zoom has released a new feature that allows participants to put themselves in the same virtual background. Whether the video conference is for a school or a conference room,  Zoom’s immersive view feature can virtually place up to 25 users in one meeting space. Zoom became popular in 2020 following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. More employees started working from home and virtual meetings became the order of the day. The company has endured a number of issues most commonly Zoombombing incidences where unwanted guests would crash a meeting with inappropriate content. Zoom fatigue also became a thing due…

The Senate on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 was forced to momentarily adjourn the afternoon session following reports that Meru Senator Mithika Linturi had been arrested. The House had convened to debate the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, famously known as the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill. The senators convened a two-day special sitting starting Wednesday morning to consider the Bill and take a vote. In the morning session, Linturi lamented that the Senators had been ambushed in the debate of the Bill, a move that forced the Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka to adjourn the morning session. Read: Parliament to Reconvene…

South Africans may soon have their Uber eats orders delivered by the post office if the weight is below one Kilogram. This may be the result of a court battle between the South African Post Office and private couriers regarding delivery of parcels under 1Kg. An Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC) ruling against PostNet in 2019 declared that courier services should not be allowed to deliver the parcels under 1kg. The Post Office had raised the complaint with ICASA seeking recognition as the only licensed provider of reserved postal services in South Africa…

Safaricom under the Global Partnership for Ethiopia has edged closer to clinching the Ethiopian telecommunications licence. Under the consortium that consists of Vodacom Group Ltd (South Africa), Vodafone Group PLC (UK), CDC Group PLC (UK) and Sumitomo Corporation (Japan), Safaricom now faces only one competitor in the bid, the MTN Group. In a statement dated April 28, 2021, the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) said that only two bidders expressed interest in getting the licence. “Pursuant to 33 of the Tender Regulations, Qualified Bidders are Global Partnership for Ethiopia (Vodafone, Vodacom, Safaricom, Sumitomo & CDC Group) and MTN International (Mauritius) Limited,”…

The Communications Authority of Kenya  (CA) has today ordered Mount Kenya Television Channel to go off-air for a minimum period of four weeks to address internal structural and operational challenges before resuming normal transmissions. The Authority took this decision, among other raft of regulatory actions, after establishing that the TV channel, owned by Slopes Media House Ltd, had aired inappropriate content during the watershed period. ‘The Authority has established that the airing of the animated movie, Free Jimmy, was in blatant breach of the Broadcasting Regulations, the Programme Code, and the terms and conditions of the station’s broadcasting licence,” said…

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a number of new features on Instagram that will help creators earn revenue from their content. Among the new features are a marketplace to match brands with creators so they can source for content that fits their audience, creator shops to help users push their products directly on the app and an affiliate marketplace where creators can earn commissions. A number of social media creators get paid to promote sponsored content on the app, but through marketplace, Instagram will be more involved in helping brands discover emerging creators, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram said.…