Author: Francis Muli

The  Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has lost two staffers to Covid-19 while 12 are admitted in hospital after contracting the virus. The remaining staffers are said to be in panic after they were forced to go to work, despite the management having not fumigated the offices. Among those who have died include Isiolo IEBC county manager David Katitia Ole Melita who died on October 17 and a pool driver working at the IEBC headquarters in Nairobi. “In the last two weeks, more cases of Covid-19 related infections have been reported in the commission leading to hospitalisation of the…

Several Parts of the country this evening were struck by a power outage. Among the most affected parts include Nairobi, Coast, Rift Valley, Lower Eastern, Western Kenya and South Nyanza. In a statement, Kenya Power said the blackout was caused  by a technical hitch that has affected two major power supply lines. “We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused and reassure them that our technical team is currently working to identify the root cause and restore power to the affected areas,” the company said in a brief statement. The company has promised to give an update…

Facebook’s Oversight board has announced that they are now accepting appeals from both Instagram and Facebook users who feel that their content has been wrongly taken down. Posts which are reported or found to breach Facebook’s content moderation guidelines are normally taken down without consultation. However, users on the platforms can now submit their appeals on content removals to the Oversight board. Facebook will also be able to consult with the board on whether content should remain up or be taken down. The board’s decision will be independent and final for both users and the social media platforms. Users will…

Tech giants, Google, Facebook and Microsoft use unfair global tax rules to avoid paying up to Sh280 billion in taxes to developing countries, a report from ActionAid International, has revealed. The charity firm’s new research analyzed Facebook, Google and Microsoft and determined the amount in taxes their market activities in 20 countries, including Kenya, could generate. The Sh280 billion in foregone taxes is calculated from the tech companies’ global profits based on the number of users and adjusted to the particular country’s Gross Domestic Capital (GDP) per capita. “India, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and Bangladesh are the markets studied with the…

President Uhuru Kenyatta has this morning signed into law the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (Amendment) Bill No. 3 of 2019 and the County Outdoor Advertising Control Bill of 2020. The amended IEBC law establishes a selection panel to oversee the filling up of vacant positions at the Commission as well as future appointments to the electoral agency. The new law also sets the criteria for the selection of IEBC Commissioners and outlines the qualifications of members of the selection panel. County Outdoor Advertising Control Act seeks to streamline outdoor advertising in the Counties by ensuring a balance between commercial,…

The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Nairobi to Naivasha has reportedly not been operational for the last three months following vandalism by criminals. According to reports, criminals hired by scrap metal dealers to saw the rail bars and sell it to them at night. The vandals have taken advantage of the surrounding forest where they hide their loot before transporting it to the vendors who have increased shops at Kataka, Nkaimurunya and Merisho Markets. The railway line cuts across Nairobi, Kajiado, Nakuru and Narok with four passenger stations- Ongata Rongai, Ngong, Mai Mahiu and Suswa. It has one inter-change station…

Whatsapp is a great platform for small and medium sized enterprises to keep communication open with customers. A Whatsapp Business Account can be used to handle customer inquiries, customer complaints and to provide support. It can also be used to sell products directly to customers with the added advantage of providing personalized services. Big corporate companies like Safaricom have even gone a notch higher and added a bot, Zuri, to chat with their customers on Whatsapp. This helps to greatly reduce the conversion rate for customers waiting to be served. Whatsapp business was launched in 2018 and last week, the…

Zoom has announced that users can how host end-to-end encrypted meetings with up to 200 participants. This is an a bid to make calls more secure. “We’re excited to announce that starting next week, Zoom’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) offering will be available as a technical preview, which means we’re proactively soliciting feedback from users for the first 30 days,” said the company in a statement. The videoconferencing company says that free and paid Zoom users hosting up to 200 participants will be able to use tools which will secure their meetings. “We’re pleased to roll out Phase 1 of 4…

Ranalo Foods, popularly known as K’Osewe owing to its owner William Guda Osewe, is facing auction by Guaranty Trust Bank over Ksh328 million owed to the bank. The bank has been trying to auction Blue Waters Hotels Ltd, which owns the Bluewaters Hotel in Kisumu, Ranalo Foods Upper Hill and Kimathi Street, Nairobi, since 2018. In July 30, 2020, Ranalo Foods Upper Hill was closed after Bensure Auctioneers sold hundreds of items in the hotel with instructions from the bank in a bid to recover the debt. This was two days after High Court Judge Thripsisa Cherere lifted an order…

Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi says his security detail has been withdrawn over his close ties with Deputy President William Ruto. In  a statement on Tuesday, Maangi vowed to sue some “top national and county government officials” who were frustrating him, and linked to the withdrawal of his security. “I am being persecuted because of my close association with the deputy president. I have already consulted my lawyers who will be moving to court to compel the national government to restore my security,” said Mr Maangi. He claimed his security was withdrawn on October 19, without an explanation being offered.…

Safaricom is celebrating 20 years since inception on October 23,2000. The anniversary celebrations have been going on all month long and this morning, the company unveiled a brand campaign “Twende Tukiuke” outlining the Telco’s vision to go beyond. In the virtual event, Safaricom cast its aspirations towards supporting small businesses by developing products and frameworks that would benefit business and customers. “We plan to Go Beyond to new frontiers, be more present, more world-class, and enable new platforms to launch our SMEs into greater possibilities.” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said. Read: How Safaricom is Celebrating 200k Businesses on #LipaNaMpesa “We’re…

Cartels stole fuel worth Ksh2.3 billion in 2018 belonging to the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) thanks to the corporation’s poor record keeping, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has revealed in new report. Nock was unable to account for 2,280,017 litres of diesel and 230,458 litres of super petrol valued at Ksh2,270,336,000, according to the report. The audit discovered that Nock rarely undertook daily and monthly stock reconciliation, and did not even schedule vehicles carrying customers’ fuel. “In addition, instances of malpractices identified in the generation and processing of unauthorised credit notes, illegal diversion of product consignments, dispatches not supported…

The Oppo A93 is now available for sale in Kenya following its October 1 release date. It comes in two colours: Matte black and Mettalic white, and has a glass front and plastic back. The phone comes with dual sim capabilities with dedicated slot for an SD card. It features a 6.43″ display screen with a 1080×2400 resolution. Oppo A93 runs on Octacore processor with a Mediatek MT6779V Helio P95(12 nm) chipset on Android 10 Operating system. It features a 128GB memory with 8GB RAM. Read: Huawei Y9A Launched in Kenya, Here are the Specs The phone comes with a…

Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua has denied transacting over Ksh12.5 billion through his accounts in the last seven years, allegedly proceeds of theft. Gachagua who was arrested on Monday, October 26, 2020 and later released on a police bond is set to appear before the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) today for processing. Speaking on Tuesday morning, Gachagua denied ever being in possession of such money, or even ever ever possessing Ksh1 billion in his life. “I told them that I have never seen a billion shillings in my lifetime leave alone in the seven years that they are saying. I…

Two students from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been charged with stealing Sh24.4 million after hacking NCBA Bank systems between October 20 and October 22 The two IT students were also accused of conspiracy to defraud the bank of over Sh190.7 million after they attempted to move it from the bank’s system. Antony Mwangi Ngige, 23, and Ann Wambui Nyoike, 21, denied the charges before senior resident magistrate Carolyne Muthoni Njagi at the Milimani Law Courts. Read: Hacker Leaks Transnational Bank Customer Data The prosecution alleges that the two worked in collaboration with others who…