Author: Francis Muli

6.1 tonnes of pentavalent, also known as Five-in-One, a vaccine that protects mothers and children against five potentially deadly diseases, has expired at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), and will be destroyed. According to reports by the Nation, the vaccine has stayed at the airport for three years as health officials dilly-dallied over clearance. Since 2017, the officials have been indecisive and failed to pay clearance fees for the drug to be released. The vaccine prevents infection against haemophilus influenza type B, diptheria, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and tetanus. Read: Kenya Secures Sh14 Billion Loan For Construction Of Modern Rail…

Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa has today announced newly reduced fees lower value M-pesa transactions. As part of different measures to help the country better weather the Covid-19 Pandemic, Safaricom announced the temporary zero-rating of M-PESA transactions in March. The Central Bank of Kenya under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Njoroge was instrumental in the formulation of this and other measures across the financial sector which resulted in significant gains in the form of the ongoing economic recovery. Read: Business Owners Can Now Make Payments Directly From Their MPesa Till Number “As guided by the Central Bank of Kenya and taking…

Unilever has announced plans to end its boycott and start advertising on social media again from January 2021. In June,the company announced that it was pausing advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter due to their failure to manage hate speech. The company said they would resume advertising as the three social media platforms had made progress in their management of harmful content. “Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have committed to concrete steps to further manage harmful content moving forward, including common definitions for 11 harmful content areas,” Unilever said in a statement. Read: Coca-Cola, Unilever Among Companies Boycotting Facebook Advertising Luis…

Kisumu County Governor Anyang Nyong’o has given striking healthcare workers until Saturday to resume work or be sacked. Nyong’o said the medics had no justification whatsoever to abandon helpless patients. “We call upon the health workers to come back to work by latest Saturday, anybody who doesn’t come back to work will have been deemed to have voluntary abandoned their position,” he said. While defending the county’s health department, the governor said there were no outstanding issues between the county and the workers. The governor made the remarks a day after doctors joined nurses and clinical officers in a nation…

Jane Kamiti, the Principal of Othaya Girls School, has been named the winner of the 2020 African Union Continental Teacher of the Year Award. Kamiti emerged the winner at the event which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was lauded for her quality teaching and engagement that result in high standards of achievement from the students. Kamiti was also recognized for nurturing good behaviour among students using positive feedback and other methods. Read: Teachers Yet To Receive School Calendar – Sossion Last year, Kamiti was awarded for her outstanding innovation in the school which enabled integration of Information and…

A senior police officer has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting four boys and two young male adults in Chogoria, Tharaka Nithi county. Kahawa Tungu understands that Chief Inspector John Marete, who is the Officer Commanding Police Post (OCPP) at Mitheru in Maara Sub-County, was arrested a few minutes past 12am Tuesday, following a tip off from a member of the public. In a tweet on Tuesday morning, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said the boys aged between 14-15 years and the young adults of 18 and 19 years were rescued and are in safe hands. “In a horror-like…

The World Health Organization (W.H.O) last week warned that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading in the UK. The highly contagious strain has caused fresh panic with most countries in Europe barring travel in and out of Britain. The new strain is considered 70 percent more transmissible than the Covid-19 and has already been detected in Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and most recently, Italy. Experts are optimistic that the new vaccines will work against the new strain due to the genetic similarity with the original Covid-19 virus. Read: NTSA Suspends Crucial Services Over Coronavirus Scare “There is a…

Homa Bay governor Cyprian Awiti and his Kisumu counterpart Anyang Nyong’o were barred from entering a venue where Mama Ida Odinga was holding an event. According to reports by The Star, the two arrived at Ogande Girls High School after Mama Ida, CS Fred Matiangi, CS Education George Magoha had entered the venue. The police were instructed to limit the number of people who would access the venue, with the two governors and their bodyguards being among those locked out. The bodyguards of the two governors alongside irate youth caused a scene trying to force the officers on duty to…

Facebook has denied allegations that it allowed some companies unauthorized access to people’s data.This comes following a story on the New York Times alleging that the social network had granted big tech companies greater access to user data. Citing document from 2017, the New York Times said that Facebook allowed Microsoft-owned search engine, Bing to see the names of “virtually all Facebook user friends without their consent” “None of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission, nor did they violate our 2012 settlement with the FTC,” Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook’s director of developer platforms and programs,…

Safaricom Ltd, together with its parent companies, Vodafone Group Plc and Vodacom Group Limited have formed a joint venture in their bid to enter the Ethiopian Market. Dubbed Global Partnership for Ethiopia, the consortium is bidding for one of Ethiopia’s two telecommunications licenses up for grabs. The three partners have now signed an agreement to borrow up to Sh500 million (55.7 billion) from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) The DFC loan deal is part of the trio’s efforts to fundraise for project should they be awarded the license. The companies expect the financial investment towards the Ethiopian market…

Acting Nairobi Governor Benson Mutura has signed budget warrants paving way for release of Ksh37.5 billion that has been on hold since October. Out of the Ksh37.5 billion, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) was allocated Ksh27.1 billion while the county government was allocated Ksh6.4 billion while Ksh2 billion was allocated to the County Assembly. Toppled governor Mike Sonko rejected the Ksh37.7 billion Appropriation Bill in October, saying ‘illegal’ amendments were made to the budget.  Sonko said that NMS was designed to defraud him and the people of Nairobi of their constitutional rights. Read: City Tycoon And Ruto Ally Jimal Ibrahim Accused Of…

Covid-19 had destroyed 70 per cent of the late Joe Nyagah’s lungs,  his brother Norman Nyagah has said. He however had recovered from Covid-19 but could not breath on his own, hence he had to rely on ventilators in his last moments. Addressing mourners in Mbeere South, Embu County, Norman said that doctors said that Joe Nyagah could not breath on his own for the rest of his life, hence the family had two choices, to let him live in a ventilator or choose “otherwise”. “Joe had recovered from Covid and that is why he was moved to ICU…My family continued…

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo now wants Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in peacekeeping mission in Somalia expelled. In the place of KDF, Farmaajo wants Eritrean forces deployed in the African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom). As a result, regional leaders are set to meet in Djibouti to deliberate on the development, even as the tussle between the two nations escalate. The meeting is set to feature Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Farmaajo. KDF has already downplayed the threat by Somali government, saying that it can only be effected by the African Union. “Our presence in Somalia is governed by Amisom…

The Nakuru County government has announced plans to build a Ksh117 million ultra-modern storage facility for potatoes in Muchorwe, Molo Constituency. The facility, according to governor Lee Kinyanjui, will save the farmers from losses experienced every year after harvest, estimated to be well over Ksh3 billion. Nakuru is the second largest potato producer in the country, after the neighbouring Nyandarua County. “The Ksh117 million structure will store at least four million kilogrammes of potatoes, which will help provide a timely market and better prices for farmers. The aim of the cold storage is to eventually eliminate brokers and avoid post-harvest…

Twitter spaces have gone live with just a small number of users testing the company’s voice based chatrooms feature announced last month. The company announced the test through a thread, saying that only a small group of users would be able to create spaces, although anyone could join subject to the approval of the creator. Last month, Twitter said that women and marginalized users would be given priority in the creation of spaces. This is because they are more vulnerable to abuse and harassment whenever they try to engage other users in the normal comment sections on tweets. Read: Twitter…