Author: Francis Muli

A woman from Ruaka has become the latest victim of a date gone wrong after her would-be lover turned out to be a criminal. The two met virtually on popular Dating site Badoo and after chatting for a few days, decided to meet physically. They man picked up the lady in his vehicle at Marurui Petrol Station and started driving towards Kahawa West. However, things changed along the way when the man turned against the lady and robbed her off her valuables including a phone worth Sh25,000 and then dumped her. In a Twitter Post, the DCI says they were…

Instagram is reportedly working on a new way for users to scroll through Stories. The company seems to have borrowed yet another feature from TikTok as it works on introducing vertical swipes up and down stories. Instagram’s feature, Reels, that is closely related with TikTok, already uses the concept. According to Tech Crunch, Instagram confirmed that the stories feed is not currently in testing, but code for the change is already in development. https://twitter.com/alex193a/status/1356574935024599040 Read: Instagram Testing Full Screen, Scrollable Stories Instagram already operates most of its features vertically, including Reels. The only exception is IGTV which upon clicking on…

Kenya’s World Cancer Day Zoom Meeting was on Thursday infiltrated by unknown people who posted obscene pictures in the virtual event which was attended by Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, doctors and other stakeholders. The Zoom meeting started at 10.50 am with only one participant, Oncologist David Mukami speaking before the obscene images were posted. The meeting came to an abrupt end after obscene messages, explicit videos and images took over the meeting. Read: Whatsapp Now Allows You To Fact-check Forwarded Messages Initially, hackers were thought to have infiltrated the meeting committing the despicable actions. However, it has since emerged that…

TikTok will soon start displaying warnings on videos bearing unverified information. The app will also issue a warning to users when they are about to re-share the videos. The warning will let users know that the videos contains information that could not be verified by fact-checkers. TikTok will display a warning on the videos in question saying, “Caution: Video flagged for unverified content.” This means that the video went through the fact-checker, but they were not able to ascertain if the info was right or wrong. Read: TikTok Makes Under-16s User Profiles Private A similar warning will be extended to…

During the month of January, T-bill auctions recorded an undersubscription, with the overall subscription rate coming in at 67.3%, but still an increase from 54.8% recorded in the month of December, 2020. The highest subscription rate was in the 364-day paper, which came in at 115.9%, an increase from 50.4% recorded the previous month. The subscription for the 182-day and 91-day papers declined to 33.1% and 45.5% from 40.2% and 94.5% recorded in the month of December, 2020, respectively. During the last week of January, T-bills subscription rate declined with the overall subscription rate coming in at 66.2%, from 84.5%…

A major fallout is simmering in the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) following the appointment of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) events manager Ms Tabitha Mutemi as a board member. Ms Mutemi was appointed to the board by ICT CS Joe Mucheru, but it later emerged that she was an employee of the IEBC. Kahawa Tungu understands that Mucheru could have been misled by the selection panel into appointing Ms Mutemi, since he had already directed that all government officers be left out in the exercise. However, the panel still forwarded Ms Mutemi’s name to the CS to…

Kenyans transacted an approximated average of Ksh14.3 billion every day in the year ended December 2020, data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has shown. Cumulatively, mobile money transactions and transfers amounted to Ksh5.21 trillion, a 20 percent increase from the Ksh4.34 trillion transacted in 2019. “A significant increase of mobile money usage has been noted over the period the measures (Covid-19 containment measures) have been in place, demonstrating that they were timely and effective. For instance, the monthly volume of person-to-person transactions increased by 87 percent between February and October 2020,” said CBK in December. During the period…

The Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives Limited (KUSCCO) has signed a half a million shillings sponsorship from Sidian Bank aimed at supporting Co-operatives and accelerating post-pandemic recovery. The sponsorship will also support KUSCCO Limited as they host their sixth Annual Sacco’s Leaders convention which will be held at a Mombasa Hotel from February 22 to 26, 2021. Themed “SACCOs beyond COVID 19: Accelerating towards Recovery”, the convention will expose leaders to the effects of COVID-19 on the SACCO sub-sector, share success stories, exchange information and further provide recommendations and mitigation strategies that will accelerate SACCO growth to recovery. The…

Bolt has rolled out a “Women’s Only” option in South Africa. The service will enable female riders to request services from female drivers only while hiding their requests from male drivers. The Taxi-hailing app also partnered with South Africa’s national safety platform, Namola to integrate an SOS button into the app for lady drivers and riders using the “Women Only” platform. The SOS button will give them 24/7 access to private armed response teams, private emergency medical services, and roadside assistance if they are involved in any medical or security emergency. Read: Bolt Lite Expands To Nakuru And Kisumu “Gender-based…

Vivo has announced the launch of its latest Y-Series device, the Y20s, in Kenya. The smartphone, available in retail stores across the country comes in two colours; obsidian black and purist blue. It features a 6.51 inch Halo FullView Display giving a 20:9 aspect ratio and 1600×720 HD resolution. The Y20s features a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB Internal memory for a power-packed performance. The device also comes with an AI Triple Macro 13MP wide camera,  2MP macro camera, and 2MP depth camera. The camera is supported by Filters for sharper images, Face Beauty, and Portrait Light…

More than 7,500 small scale traders in Nairobi and the environs will now find it easier to collect their goods from the Kenya Railways Corporation (Boma Line) transit shed after the government gazetted the facility to deconsolidate cargo. In a bid to facilitate easy and faster clearance of cargo, the Government of Kenya, through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has gazetted various facilities to be used for deconsolidation and clearance of cargo imported by Small Scale traders. All cargo consolidated at the countries of export, will, upon importation into the country be deconsolidated at facilities designated for that purpose. Effective…

Instagram is rolling out a feature to give users a 30-day window before permanently deleting posts. The “recently deleted” feature will allow users to restore deleted photos, videos, Reels, Stories and IGTV videos on their pages. The feature is designed to help users who are victims of hacking, especially if the hackers start deleting content. To restore or delete content permanently from your page, you will now need to confirm ownership by text or email. Read: Instagram Testing a New Design for Stories on Desktop Deleted content will be held in a folder for 30 days, after which they will…

Two Kenyan Sportpesa shareholders, Paul Wanderi Ndung’u and Asenath Wacera Maina, are counting losses after being edged out of the business. The two have seen their wealth in Sportpesa erode by over Ksh1.1 billion, following a right issue conducted between 2019 and 2020. The two refused to participate in the rights issue following a fallout with other shareholders, even as money laundering allegations mounted against SportPesa Global Holdings Limited (SPGHL) and Pevans East Africa. Pevans was the company that ran the Sportpesa brand in Kenya, before the company left the Kenyan market only to come back under the banner of…

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is stepping down as the Chief Executive Officer this year. The 57-year-old CEO, who has held the position for about 30 years, will be replaced by Andy Jassy. The Chief of Amazon’s cloud computing services will take over the position in December this year. Through a memo sent out to employees, Bezos said he will focus on the development of new products and initiatives at Amazon. He said the transition will give him “the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington…

NCBA Bank has signed a partnership deal with pan-African housing development financier Shelter Afrique to provide mortgage finance to buyers in five counties. Under the agreement, NCBA will offer mortgage finance to over 200 housing units developed by Shelter Afrique and spread across Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kiambu and Machakos counties. The developments include maisonettes and apartments with prices ranging from Ksh5.5 million to Ksh20.25 million. Speaking on the partnership, Shelter Afrique’s Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Chimphondah said Shelter Afrique’s strategic focus is on rapidly closing the housing deficits that are prevalent across Africa. “This cannot be…