Author: Francis Muli

Residential apartments registered relatively higher average total returns to investors at 5.4 percent compared to detached markets at 4.2 percent in the third quarter of 2020. This is according to Cytonn Investments’ Q3 ’2020 Markets Review, which notes that the retail and commercial office sectors recorded declines in rental yields to 7.4 percent  and 7.2 percent in Q3’2020, from 7.8 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively in FY’2019. The land sector recorded an overall annualized capital appreciation of 2.4 percent, indicating that investors still consider land as a good investment asset in the long term. Read: Cytonn Eyes Real Estate Investment Trust…

Huawei Kenya has held the Graduation Ceremony of the 7th Edition of the Seeds for the future program. For the first time in its history Huawei’s Flagship program was held virtually providing a 5 day intensive training with more than 20 mandatory and elective courses offering 60 participants from around the country training in technology fields, including 5G, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing. Prizes were awarded to the Best Team, Best Essay, and Creativity. Alexander Mutua from Kisii University and Jacqline Kamau from JKUAT walked away with internship offers. Read: Huawei Drives 100 Typical Scenario-based Solutions Built On…

Computer Programmer, John McAfee, founder of the McAfee antivirus software has been arrested in Spain for allegedly evading tax. US Prosecutors allege that McAfee failed to report millions earned from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work and the sale of the rights to his life story for a documentary. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has disclosed that McAfee received more than $23 million in crypto. The charges also claim that McAfee hid assets including real estate property, a vehicle and a yacht from the revenue authority. He did so by putting them under other people’s names. McAfee rose to prominence…

Kenyans borrowed an average of Ksh967 million from Safaricom’s overdraft facility Fuliza in a six month period ending on June 31, 2020. Cumulatively, the amount rose to Ksh176 billion from Ksh81 billion in the same period for the year 2019, indicating increased appetite for loan facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Fuliza is co-owned by the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and NCBA Group, with the latter taking the lion’s share. NCBA lent Ksh132 billion through Fuliza while KCB Group loaned out Ksh44 billion through the facility in the period under review. Apart from Fuliza, KCB and NCBA have a partnership…

Instagram has announced that it will activate the shop button on IGTV for all its users worldwide. The company also said that it will start testing the shopping function in its 2 month old feature, Reels. Instagram announced in July that it was creating a shop page that is dedicated to shopping within the app. The new feature enables viewers to tap through an IGTV video and purchase the items they lik and check out on Instagram or on the seller’s website. Most marketing pages on Instagram list catalogues of their products on their videos or stories but to shop,…

Thika Town MP Jungle Patrick Kimani Wainaina has been accused of running early campaigns for Kiambu gubernatorial seat at the expense of development in his constituency. According to residents who took to social media to vent their anger, the MP has been moving around Kiambu county donating masks, sanitizers and hand cleaning kiosks, without helping his constituents who need his services most. The residents say that the MP should concentrate on helping schools in Thika town to prepare for reopening. “What we are telling Wainaina is that, before you go out giving all this items to the rest of the…

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has been accused of leaking to the media and the public fabricated documents about a case with Cytonn Investments, in which CMA has been seeking to limit the Cytonn High Yield Funds (CHYF) investments 10 percent. In a replying affidavit, Cytonn CEO Edwin Dande accuses the regulator of sponsoring false stories against CHYF in a bid to destroy Cytonn’s credibility, and scare away investors. Dande even says that he has never seen some of the documents being circulated in public “In what seems like a sponsored media advert, the Standard Newspaper published, in its newspaper…

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has officially launched its new M-service app today. The app was unveiled in August this year and is available for download on Google Play store. According to Jacob Aliet, M-Service’s project manager, the app will be available for iOS on Apple’s App store in early 2021. He also said that the USSD version of the M-Service App will be available early next year. Over the years, KRA has transformed its services and adapted to new technology to enhance customer experience. To simplify and facilitate taxpayers processes, the state agency integrated systems such as iTax, iCMS,…

The Kenya Revenue Authority invokes Sh2000 or five percent of the tax due as a penalty for late filing. Individual income tax should be submitted by June 30 of the following year. This article will take you through steps on how to apply for a KRA waiver of the penalties on your iTax account. To check if you have pending penalties or how much your penalties are, log into your iTax account, go to debt and enforcement and click on request for Waiver of Penalties and Interests; under details of waiver, click on tax ‘Income Tax Resident Individual’ and then…

Beer takers will have to pay an extra Ksh6 for a litre of beer and products with alcohol content not exceeding six percent while spirit takers will pay Ksh12.50 more for a litre. This follows a move by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA to increase the excise duty on 31 products by 4.94 percent, in line with the inflation rates to the financial year ending June 31. Among other products whose prices rose effective October 1, two days after President Uhuru Kenyatta reopened bars, include fuel, bottled water and juice. “The Commissioner-General adjusts for inflation the specific rates of duty…

Royal Media Services (RMS) owner SK Macharia has lost a court appeal seeking to stop a judgement that declared him bankrupt over 34-year.debt. Mr Macharia and his wife Purity Gathoni had been declared bankrupt over aKsh500,000 debt, which has since ballooned to Ksh293.4 million. The loss now means that the State will take over and supervise Macharia’s business with the aim of settling all his debts. The state will now take over his businesses including RMS which houses Citizen TV and other TV and radio stations. However, Macharia has an option of thwarting the takeover by issuing a plan on…

All might not be rosy in DJ Mo and Size 8’s marriage after they were caught on camera recently having a heated argument in a restaurant. This comes a few days after reports emerged that the two were not in good terms and their marriage could be on its death bed, following allegations that DJ Mo was cheating. In the video that has gone viral, DJ Mo is seen trying to pull Size 8 to sit down for a conversation that she seems disinterested. “What you are telling me, just wait nkt!,” Size 8 said as she stood up in…

243 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours from a sample size of 4,385 tested, bringing the number of confirmed positive cases in the country to 39,427. The cumulative tests are now 563,483. From the cases, all are Kenyans except 6 who are foreigners. 179 are males and 64 females. The youngest is a four -month old infant while the oldest is 80. Today 233 people have recovered from the disease, 219 from the home-based care program, while 14 have been discharged from various hospitals. Total recoveries now stand at 26,659.  Sadly, 3 patients have succumbed…

Teachers are yet to receive a school calendar despite being ordered to go back to school, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion has said. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had ordered teachers to go back to school and prepare timetables and schemes of work. However, Sossion in a notice to TSC says that teachers cannot prepare timetables and schemes of work since they do not have a school calendar, which determines the schemes of work. “Teachers go to school to work. With no learners around, they are only there to prepare for safe reopening,” Mr Sossion…

A Chinese company, Shegli Engineering Construction Group Ltd, has been ordered to pay Kangemi MP Muturi Kigano Ksh10 million over an accident that happened on March 8, 2011. The MP was involved in an accident along Thika Superhighway that caused scalp injuries, fracture of skull and sensorineural hearing loss. At that time, the company was undertaking road works on the road, and the court found that the company did not care for road users during the construction. “If the defendant left, the duty of care was solely on the part of the employer (Ministry of Roads), It would have as well…