Author: Francis Muli

Carbacid Investments, a company that manufactures carbon dioxide gas for industrial use has offered to buy out industrial and medical gases manufacturer BOC Kenya. In its offering, Carbacid wants to buy BOC Kenya for Ksh1.2 billion, translating to a  Ksh63.50 for each ordinary share. “The combination of BOC’s product portfolio and services with Carbacid’s existing business is an excellent match that will position the enlarged group to become East and Central Africa region’s supplier of choice for industrial, medical & special gases and related equipment and services,” Carbacid stated in a notice on Thursday. Read: James Wanjigi Retires From Carbacid After…

Kenya’s local content channels, Maisha Magic East and Maisha Magic Plus have garnered 16 nominations at this year’s Kalasha TV and Film Awards, reaffirming their position as Kenya’s best storyteller. Hailed as Kenya’s premier local content awards, Kalasha TV and Film Awards are an annual accolade presented by the Kenya Film Commission (KFC). KFC is a state corporation under the Ministry of Information Communication, Innovation and Youth Affairs charged with the development, promotion and marketing of the film industry locally and internationally by identifying and facilitating the growth of the film industry. Read: MultiChoice Unveils Plan To Increase Investment In…

High Court judge Alfred Mabeya on Tuesday gave a nod to Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to auction property owned by fallen Nakumatt CEO Atul Shah over a Ksh2 billion debt. In a speedy move aimed at evading a tussle between lenders, KCB sold the property to  Furniture Palace International Ltd for Ksh1.04 billion, taking a loss of about Ksh1 billion. The sale was supposed to be closed on Wednesday. Making the ruling on Tuesday, the Judge wondered how several banks were duped into offering loans amounting to over Ksh4 billion for property that was not worth the amount as security.…

The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has announced acquisition of a 62.06 percent stake in Rwandan Bank, Banque Populaire du Rwanda PLC. The share is currently held by Atlas Mara Ltd, a financial services holding company formed to undertake the acquisition of target banks in Africa. “On 25 November 2020, KCB entered into a share purchase agreement (Rwanda Agreement) with, inter alia Atlas Mara Limited (ATMA) and Atlas Mara Mauritius Limited (AMM), for the purchase of 62.06% of the issued share capital of Banque Poputaire Du Rwanda PLC, a company incorporated in Rwanda with registration number 100162830,” KCB said in a public notice. KCB…

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) is set to discuss a motion to impeach President Nelson Havi on December 5, in a special general meeting. In a five-page document, LSK member Charles Midenga accuses Havi of gross misconduct and contravention of Article 10 of the Constitution of Kenya. The motion follows a protracted battle between Havi and CEO Mercy Wambua, with the former fighting to have the latter kicked out of office for misuse of power. On October 19, 2020 the Havi purported to remove from office Ms Wambua despite a majority decision of the Council to the contrary. Read: Nelson…

Kenyans acquired 50,000 smartphones through Safaricom’s Lipa Mdogo Mdogo program between July and September this year. The program allows customers to pay as little as Sh20 for the devices daily. On average, Safaricom disbursed about 769 mobile phones on a daily basis, drawing it closer to its quest of driving up its data revenue. The giant mobile operator hopes to convert at least 4 million 2G and 3G enabled devices to 4G. “We are excited about the results we are seeing. We had said we were going to use the first quarter to test customer behaviour in terms of uptake…

Over 20,000 residents of Kisumu County will access clean water and sanitation through a Last Mile Connection project. The project is a partnership between the County Government of Kisumu, Practical Action and M-Pesa Foundation to increase access to water & sanitation services in Nyalenda. As part of the Ksh8.8 million project, a community-based modern ablution block will be constructed to improve sanitation and 15 SMEs supported to locally produce hygiene products such as soap and sanitary towels. “Through this project, we are looking to provide access to clean water to residents of Nyalenda at an affordable cost so that they…

Twitter will unveil its new verification guidelines policy on December 17 with a relaunch slotted for January 2021. This follows reports in June that the company was working on a new verification system for the little blue badge. Twitter announced through a blog post that the new system would be rolled out early next year. They also invited feedback for the draft proposal which lists government officials, companies, brands, NGOs, News Media accounts, entertainment, sports, activists, Organizers and other influential individuals as eligible users for the verification badge. Read: Twitter Working On New Guidelines To Request A Verification Badge The…

Samsung will reportedly discontinue its Galaxy Note series with speculations rife that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be launched in June 2021. According to Korean Publication, Aju News, Samsung has started developing the final Galaxy Z Fold 3 foldable smartphones samples in anticipation of the launch in June next year. The report also says that Samsung electronics and Samsung Display will use technology that allows light to pass through the gap between pixels to take photos. The phone will also come with an in-display selfie camera, which the company is willing to ditch if the screen and the image…

Snapchat will start paying content creators with the most viewed video posts on the platform’s new spotlight feed. Snapchat is launching Spotlight, a TikTok clone that shows a stream of posts based on personalized content algorithms. Users who contribute by are eligible for a piece of the $1 million (Sh110 million) daily payout from the company. Due to competition from other social media platforms, Snapchat is paying content creators with the aim of retaining top creative talent on the platform. Read: SnapChat Takes On TikTok With Notable Navigation Change Spotlight is Snapchat’s first program that will reward users for content.…

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has announced plans to start distributing electricity directly to consumers, threatening Kenya Power’s monopoly which has lasted for over 100 years. According to KenGen Managing Director Rebecca Miano, the electricity generating company is awaiting a framework to be developed through the Energy Act 2019. “The Energy Act 2019 has provision for us to sell power directly especially to large consumers. What is pending are the regulations of how that would be undertaken and how the infrastructure would be based. We are certain that when the regulations are ready, that possibility will be there,” Ms Miano…

A consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) worth Ksh2.9 billion lies in the stores of the Kenya Medical Supplies Agencies (Kemsa) without proper documentation, the agency has revealed. This was revealed on Tuesday before the parliamentary Public Investment Committee (PIC) by Kemsa finance director Waiganjo Karanja, who said that they are not going to pay for the PPEs delivered to them. Karanja and Kemsa procurement manager Edward Buluma told legislators that most of the commitment letters given to suppliers were drafted in the office of the suspended CEO Jonah Manjari. It also emerged that the CEO bypassed the procurement office,…

TikTok has introduced a feature that will alert users with epilepsy of potentially dangerous photosensitive  content. The feature will allow users to skip videos that could trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. The app already warns creators if their uploads contain effects such as flashing lights or various patterns that could trigger seizures. Now, users will also be able to skip over such videos. TikTok still allows users to upload the videos, but they will be prefaced with a warning screen. Users also have the option of using the “skip all” function to avoid seeing any videos that are…

Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) has unveiled an elaborate renewable energy project pipeline focused on supporting the Government’s economic growth agenda. The company’s focus in the next 12 months, according to the Managing Director & CEO, Mrs Rebecca Miano, is to deliver the Olkaria I Unit 6 geothermal power plant which will add 83.3MW to the national grid. “KenGen is also continuing with its geothermal exploration program in Olkaria. To date, we have drilled more than 310 wells to support our geothermal-led strategy,” she said. In addition, Mrs Miano said, the procurement of the redevelopment of Olkaria I power…

Safaricom’s M-pesa is the first Mobile money provider to join the United for Wildlife financial task-force. The organization comprises a coalition of charities who have come together with the aim of tackling illegal wildlife trade. M-pesa is Africa’s leading mobile money provider, serving about 41.5 million customers across seven countries. The platform is the most popular among Fintech companies, with over 12.2 billion transactions annually. Mpesa enables customers to pay bills, create savings and loans accounts on M-Shwari and access overdraft facilities through Fuliza. The platform also allows users to buy goods, pay for commercial services and transfer and receive…