Author: Francis Muli

Senior Counsel Philip Murgor has taken the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) to court over a six-year-old Ksh360 million debt. The company, according to court documents, has never paid the amount after he represented it in a multi-billion case, and he is now suspecting he was defrauded. He has asked the court to be allowed to cross-examine KPC’s chief legal officer Stanley Manduku over the same. “To establish his motive to adduce evidence on matters that are not within his personal knowledge, when the concerned officers and former officials are all available to swear affidavits,” said Murgor. Read: Murgor Accuses DCI Boss…

Kenya is the leading country in Africa with the most cases of Mobile Fraud. According to research firm, Evina, Kenya faces at least 51 percent of suspicious mobile based fraud, followed by South Africa at 30 percent and 10 percent in Cameroon. “After Kenya, South Africa is the African country most affected by fraud that daily fleeces millions from the mobile accounts of cellular users.” Evina said through a post on its website. “Africa’s youthful population that is mostly unbanked and using some 900 million mobile money accounts is particularly hard-hit by professional cybercriminals from around the world, who together…

A global report shows that wealthy Kenyans are hiding $4.2 billion (Ksh457 billion) in offshore accounts. This has denied the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) $63.4 million (Ksh6.9 billion) in tax revenues. The State of Tax Justice 2020 report released by Tax Justice Network and Global Alliance for Tax Justice shows that the money stashed in low tax territories equals 4.8 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The report also shows that multinational corporations are shifting $1.38 trillion (Sh150 trillion)in profit into tax havens each year, resulting in $245 billion (Sh26.7 trillion) in lost tax. Another report released two…

Safaricom is offering subscribers free access to digital copies of the Daily Nation, People Daily and Business Daily for seven days.Through a text message sent out to subscribers, Safaricom said that users can enjoy the free copies of the dailies from the comfort of their phones. To access the service, dial *550#. You will get a list of the daily papers available on Safaricom Discover and their prices. The normal price for the papers is Sh20. On the list, you will see the three papers on offer; Daily Nation, People Daily and Business Daily at Sh0. Read: How Safaricom Positioned…

The government has set aside Ksh3.2 billion to fight the second wave of desert locusts invasion, Agriculture CS Peter Munya has said. While speaking in Naivasha during a consultative meeting, Munya said the government has managed to contain the first wave of the invasion which was first reported in December 2019 although there were few remnants in four counties. The government, which is working in conjunction with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that counties bordering Somalia could be greatly affected in case of a second wave. “Our projections are that the country will be hit by a second wave…

Kenya has been selected to host Geohub, a technology hub for young people in Africa. The project is a partnership bringing 20 countries together with an aim of providing a geographic platform for the youth to discover their potential. GeoHub is a platform developed by the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development. (RMCRD) Youth participating in the program will be able to access opportunities available from geospatial technologies and develop products that can serve member states in business or innovation and drive growth. RMCRD comprises 20 countries with operations in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda,  and countries…

In the last 24 hours, Kenya has confirmed 413 positive  Covid-19 cases after testing 3,489 samples. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 77,785 and the cumulative tests to 843,103. The death toll also rose to 1,392 after 12 more patients succumbed to the virus, Health CS, Mutahi Kagwe has confirmed. Read: NHIF To Cover COVID-19 Expenses In Government Hospitals 396 patients have recovered from the disease,326 from the Home-based care program, 70 from various health facilities. This brings the total number of recoveries to 51,903. Nairobi still leads wiith the highest number of cases…

2007/08 post-election violence victims are set to start recording statements with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), even as the state seeks to ensure justice to them. This comes at a time the talk that the ICC case against Deputy President William Ruto and radio host Joshua Sang could be revived is gaining traction. DCI boss George Kinoti is set to address the issue during a press conference on Monday at 2 pm. This comes at a time lawyer Paul Gicheru has surrendered to the ICC over allegations that he corrupted and interfered with witnesses, leading to the collapse of…

Game development is undergoing a renaissance in Africa. A new game development studio has been opened in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s first game Usoni, to be released on Friday November 27, is a post apocalyptic journey from the Mediterranean sea to Turkana, the cradle of mankind. Games are big business the world over, bigger than movies and music combined. The gaming industry was worth USD200 billion (Ksh20trillion) in 2019 and expected to be more than USD250 billion this year. This presents a huge opportunity for African game developers to tell their stories to the world. Jiwe Studios was founded by Max…

Twitter started rolling out its latest feature, Fleets, to all users last week. However, barely a few days later, users have reported a bug on the feature that is causing the Fleets to show past the 24 hour period. As reported, Fleets are supposed to disappear after 24 hours, however,the reports indicate that users are still able to view and download Fleets long without any notification to the author. Twitter has acknowledged the issue and issued a statement saying they are working to fix the bug. Read: Twitter Rolls Out New Disappearing Tweets Feature dubbed Fleets “We’re aware of a…

Several American investors are counting losses after a fellow American defrauded them of $7.2 million (Ksh788.3 million) for a for a fake desalination project in Kenya. Verley Lee “Rocky” Sembritzky, Jr. is said to have promised that a desalination exercise would return at least Ksh2.2 billion every year, on top of giving Kenyans clean drinking water. Unsuspecting investors gave their money towards the project, but instead he used the money to buy luxury cars, jewelry, and watches, a condominium for his then-wife and pay off personal credit cards with $2 million (Ksh219 million). Mr Sembritzky had promised that the plant…

14 more patients have succumbed to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country raising the number of fatalities to 1,380. In a statement to newsrooms on Sunday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said 968 more people have tested positive for the virus, from a sample size of 6,610 tested in the last 24 hours, raising Kenya’s caseload to 77,372. A total of 839,614 samples have been tested so far. From the new cases, Kagwe said, 888 are Kenyans and 80 are foreigners. 584 are males while 384 are females. Age-wise, the youngest is a two-month-old infant while the oldest…

Two remandees at the Wang’uru Police Station in Mwea, Kirinyaga County, have died after testing positive for Covid-19. This has been confirmed by Kirinyaga County Police Commander Leah Kithei who said three other remandees were also admitted to hospital. She told Citizen Digital that the five were rushed to Kimbimbi sub-county hospital on Sunday morning but two died while receiving treatment. The remaining remandees are presently awaiting their COVID-19 results. Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have joined forces with fact checkers, governments and researchers to tackle misinformation with regard to the Covid-19 vaccines. Just as fast as news of the disease first hit the internet, vaccine information has been trickling in equally fast. Countries are now preparing to tackle the disease by rolling out the vaccine with hopes of finally ending the pandemic. Fact Checking Charity Full Fact will coordinate the process with support from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport UK, Reuters, Africa Check, Canada’s Privacy Council Office and five other fact checking international organizations. Read:…

YouTube has announced that it will start running adverts that are not part of its partnership scheme on videos. Essentially, this means that some video makers will start running ads on their channels and will not be paid for it. Currently, the company runs ads and shares revenue with content creators through a 45/55 partnership scheme. YouTube retain 45 percent of the total amount advertisers pay, while creators take home 55 percent. YouTube now says it will start running ads from channels that are not part of this scheme. Once this is updated on the terms of service, YouTube will…