Author: Francis Muli

Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) Director General Pavel Oimeke could soon be thrown out and his replacement appointed soon, Kahawa Tungu understands. Reports reaching Kahawa Tungu indicate that the board held an emergency meeting over the weekend, after Oimeke was arrested last week over bribery allegations. According to the Ethics and anti-corruption Commission (EACC), Oimeke received a bribe of Ksh200,000 to approve the reopening of a fuel station in Oyugis, Homa Bay County,  which the authority had closed. Following his arrest on Thursday night, Oimeke was detained at the EACC basement cells, awaiting arraignment. Oimeke’s first term at the…

Digital payment giants Mastercard and Visa have ended their business partnership with adult content site Pornhub over what they term as presence of unlawful content. The site, according to an investigation by New York Times, is filled with with child-abuse and rape-related videos. “Mastercard has just advised me that it has confirmed the presence of illegal material on Pornhub, so it is immediately ending Mastercard use on Pornhub. It will also address the issue on other websites. This wouldn’t have happened without survivors bravely speaking up,” tweeted New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof. https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1337109185876647941 A statement from Mastercard affirmed the…

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday signed into law a Bill that had proposed to give the Interior Cabinet Secretary powers to access mobile phone data from individuals suspected of spying for foreign powers without a court order. The New Statute Law (Miscellaneous amendments) Bill, 2020 however states that the CS must obtain permission from the court before searching your phone. The president also signed into law the New Sectional Properties Act,2019 that allows the division of buildings into units granting ownership to individual proprietors. Read: Failure to Disclose Secret Whatsapp, SMS and Email Messages to the State Could Soon Cost You…

Instagram is continuously improving its stories segment by adding features to improve engagement on the platform. The company is now testing adding timers to stories, indicating how much time is left before the story disappears. Stories typically last for 24 hours. The timers will come underneath the stories bubble letting users know how long the story will be up. Instagram is hoping that by doing this, more people will be prompted to view stories due to the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Read: Instagram Introduces Feature For Personal Fundraising The new feature being tested was announced on Twitter by a…

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has issued a warning to Kenyans against falling prey to a copycat website defrauding members of the public. The scam website called Nairobi Exchange, bears NSE’s trademark logo, making it easy for unsuspecting users to trust it. “If you are tired of losing money in financial pyramids, Forex, cryptocurrency or other questionable areas for investment and want (to) find a company with which month after month, year after year, you can consistently make a profit, then all you have to do is register, make a deposit and in an hour get the first profit,” the…

Gmail is now enabling users to edit attached Microsoft office files directly in the email without having to download them. Google docs and sheets file already has the function and with it now enabled for Gmail, users will definitely find it easier to work with Microsoft office files. Google Workspace (recently rebranded from G-Suite) is already compatible with office files. However, for a long time, users had to import their files into Google drive for editing as the email attachments are only enabled for viewing. The new function now allows you to open a document and edit it using the…

You will soon be able to hide gambling and Alcohol ads on YouTube if you do not wish to view them. The video sharing app is setting up tools to allow users disable alcohol and gambling ads after getting “feedback that some people would prefer to limit ads in certain categories.” Gambling ads have been on the increase globally over the past few years. This has led to widespread concerns over their impact on children and the youth. “We’re launching a new control in ad settings, enabling people to see fewer alcohol ads, with gambling as an additional option.”…

Twitter users will now be able to add tweets as a sticker to their snaps on snapchat. Before, if you wanted to add a tweet to your snap, you would have to take a screenshot and share it without accessing Snapchat’s camera or editing features. The new feature is quite easy to use. To add a tweet to your snap, press the share button on a public tweet and select the Snapchat icon from the list provided. You can then proceed to create your Snap as usual except this time, you will have your tweet appearing as a sticker on…

20-year-old Stendelis Rokas is among two Lithuanian nationals arrested last night at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) with approximately two kilograms of heroin, detectives have said. According to a statement from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Rokas was in the company of 30-year-old Brencius Karolis, and they had hidden the heroin in a fake bottom of their suitcase. “Two Lithuanian nationals enroute to Dubai were last night arrested by DCI’s Anti-Nacortics Unit detectives at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), after Heroin approximated at 2Kg was confiscated from their travel bags,” said the DCI. Read:U.N. Removes Cannabis From…

Jane Karuku has been appointed East African Breweries Limited (EABL) new Managing Director effective January 1, 2021. Mrs. Karuku takes the place of Andrew Cowan who has been at the helm for four and a half years, and is now moving for a new role in Diageo, EABL’s parent company. Karuku is the current Managing Director of Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), EABL’s Kenyan subsidiary. Her role on KBL is set to be taken over by John Musunga who joins from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he was the head of vaccine business in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Read: EABL Parent Company To Lay Off…

Kenyatta University Teaching Referral and Research Hospital has agreed to release the body of Dr Stephen Mogusu after the government cleared a bill of Ksh204,618. Initial reports had indicated that the bill was Ksh1 million, but a statement from the hospital’s Credit Control Office disputed the figure. “A clearance letter was issued to the wife in order to proceed and finish processing of burial permit at the farewell home. The hospital is awaiting the family to pick up their loved one,” read the statement in part. In a letter from Kenya Medical Association, the deceased’s widow, with the help of…

A Kenyan based Information Technology Company, Yelbridges, has built a Sh150 million virtual reality centre in Thika with the aim of stepping up cyber security in the country. The firm has its roots in Germany, and will draw expertise from the Western country as well as kenya. Yelbridges is also partnering with universities to offer training on cyber security. The project will be launched by the Cabinet Secretary for ICT Joe Mucheru on this week. Kenya has experienced a surge in cybercrime with the country recording 37.1 million attacks in Q4 the 2019, a 47.2 percent increase from 25.2 million…

Facebook is facing two different lawsuits in the US that could result in the sale of its two other platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp. The US Federal Trade Commission together with a number of States has accused the giant social network of engaging in unfair practices to “stifle competition, degrade personal privacy, and crush rivals.” The company is also accused of suppressing innovation and monetizing data while cutting off privacy protections. Read: US President-Elect Joe Biden Urged to Reject the Influence of Tech Giants on His Administration “For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush…

South Africa’s City Lodge Hotel Group has announced its exit from Kenyan market, by opting to sell its three hotels including Fairview Hotel, Town Lodge and City Lodge Two Rivers. The group will also sell its City Lodge Hotel in Dar es Salaam, saying that it has already received an offer from a willing buyer. “Shareholders are advised that following receipt of an unsolicited non-binding offer for the proposed acquisition of City Lodge’s East African operations, comprising of its hotels situated in Kenya and Tanzania, the company has entered into negotiations which, if successfully concluded, may have a material effect…

A law by parliament is proposing to compel Kenyans to disclose Whatsapp messages, emails and SMSs on demand. The Statute Law Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2020 proposes a Sh1 million fine for refusing to avail information that the government believes could breach national security. The Bill seeks to amend the Official Secrets Act of 1968 to compel anyone who owns a communication device to provide information and data on persons that the government is pursuing for breach of national security. The amendment will see the word “telegram” changed to “telecommunications” to cover Whatsapp, SMSs and emails. Read: New Bill Proposes to…