Author: Francis Muli

The ICT Authority hosted the virtual graduation ceremony for the Presidential Digital Talent Programme (PDTP) held in July 2020. Among the partners present was Huawei Kenya which sponsored the Innovation Award for this Cohort, for the fourth year running. This cohort’s overall award winner was Traffic E-court. Other winners were Crysis Nduku who was chosen from a very competitive shortlist of 3, with Mbae Lloyd Mawira taking the first runner up spot and Automated Token System rounding off the top 3. The award is given by Huawei Kenya to an individual or group of interns who have developed an idea or…

The Ethiopian government has suspended the entry of foreign telecommunication companies into the country following its invitation to bidders in an effort to privatize Ethio Telecom, the country’s only Telecom. The decision was arrived at after the government reviewed the list of interested bidders keen on entering the Ethiopian market by buying a stake in Ethio Telecom. Ethiopia made the invitation to foreign telecom companies as part of its homegrown economic reform agenda launched in 2019. Ethiopia invited the companies to buy a 40 per cent stake in Ethio Telecom, in efforts to end monopoly in the sector and liberalize…

Nairobi governor Mike Sonko seems to be in a celebratory mood after the resignation of Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi. Moments after Elachi announced her resignation, Sonko posted several videos on his social media accounts that suggested that he was celebrating the exit of speaker. In one of the worship songs he posted, Sonko captioned “Yuko Mungu Mbiguni Asikiaye Maombi yetu (There is God in Heaven who hears our prayers)”. In another video, Sonko said that “We have seen your mighty hand Lord”, before he added another one with the infamous Jubilee Party supporters campaign slogan that “sio juju…

Cash strapped Uchumi Supermarket has been given six months to pay over 100 suppliers Ksh4.7 billion debt or face auction. Last week, Justice Mary Kasango allowed the implementation of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) that 121 suppliers agreed to in March, that will see them take a 70 percent loss. In the out of court agreement that had initially been opposed by UBA Bank, the retailer will form a committee to ensure the payments are made on time. Justice Kasango ruled that all money claims currently before court be suspended to allow the payments to be made, failure to which…

The Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has said that there was no tender awarded for the development of the new digital occurrence book (OB). Responding to public questions on Twitter, Mutyambai said that the system was developed by ICT experts in the police department. “Thank you for your concern, please note that this is a security matter and being undertaken by security officers who have expertise in ICT matters,” noted Mutyambai. https://twitter.com/IG_NPS/status/1292749941283192833 Mutyambai was responding to a question by former State House director for digital communications Denis Itumbi, who said that he was not satisfied with the answer, but…

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is now facing accusations of bribing a South African witness in the case where Sirisia MP John Waluke and Grace Wakhungu were convicted. In their appeal, the two say that EACC bribed Mr Leon Maynard, a director at Chelsea Freight, to testify in the case entailing Ksh297 million in maize dealings. In his testimony, Mr Maynard says that EACC paid his air ticket from and back to South Africa, accommodation and also a stipend and gave him security. In appeal documents, Waluke and Wakhungu say that EACC did not reveal the payments during trial,…

The Nairobi Metropolitan revenue collection system is ready for use. The system, which was unveiled last week, will be implemented in phases to avoid a system crash. NMS Director of Strategic Communications, Tony Mbarine said that the first area of implementation was the payment platform for parking services activated last week, before they embark on the next phase this week. He said that the NMS preferred a phased rollout of the payment platform to avoid teething problems such as a systems crash or downtime which could occur with many people trying to use the system at once. “We have not…

Toshiba has officially exited the laptop business after 35 years in the craft and transferred its remaining minority stake in the PC business to Sharp. Two years ago, Sharp acquired an 80.1 percent stake of Toshiba’s PC business at $36 million and renamed the division Dynabook. Sharp exercised its right to acquire the remaining 19.1 percent stake in June this year, and announced that it had completed the deal this month. Toshiba’s first PC laptop, the T1100 was made in 1985 boasting internal rechargeable batteries, a 3.5-inch floppy drive and 256k of memory. According to Computerworld’s 20 year retrospective of…

Brookhouse Schools Management has denied allegations that it demanded Sh45,000 from parents to have their children re-enrolled. According to the school, the re-enrolment form exists for administration purposes and the same had been communicated to the chairperson of the parents’ group. The Daily Nation reports that in a letter dated Saturday August 8, Brookhouse schools Director, Rabih Saab explained that the form is used by schools across the world to aid in administrative planning for their timetables. “Brookhouse decided to adopt this administrative mechanism at the beginning of 2020 long before the pandemic issue arose,” said Mr Saab. He said that…

TikTok is seemingly up for grabs and Twitter is the latest contender for a piece of the giant short video making company. Twitter has reportedly approached the Chinese owner of ByteDance to express interest in acquiring its US operations. Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting any kind of business transactions with ByteDance and TenCent, the companies that own TikTok and WeChat respectively. They were given 45 days to complete any sales deals in the offing or face a ban. TikTok has been in sales talks with Microsoft in the last few weeks, with the latter…

Unit Trust Funds (UTF) assets recorded an annualized growth of 1.1 percent in Q1’2020, compared listed bank deposits which grew by 14.3 percent in Q1’2020. Mutual Funds/UTFs to GDP ratio stood at 5.4 percent, which is still very low compared to global average of 61.8 percent. UTFs are collective investment schemes that pool money together from many investors and are managed by professional Fund Managers, who invest the pooled funds in a portfolio of securities to achieve objectives of the trust. In Kenya, Money Market Funds is the most popular Unit Trust Funds investment with a market share of 88.2…

At least 600 journalists have lost their jobs due to Covid-19 pandemic, the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) CEO David Omwoyo has said. Speaking to KTN News, Omwoyo said that as of August 9, 60 journalists had been infected with the virus while one had succumbed. Omwoyo said that he could not reveal to the public the name of the deceased journalist. Omwoyo revealed that another batch of 42 journalists had been “sent away” from their places of work for being associated with Covid-19. “I was recently speaking to a marketing executive from one of the media houses who told…

Kenya has recorded 599 new cases of Covid-19 as the tally of confirmed cases raise to 26,436 after testing 4420 samples in the last 24 hours. 1,062 patients, majority of them in home-based care, have recovered in the last 24 hours, while the death toll has risen to 420 after two more victims succumbed to the virus. Of the new cases 593 are Kenyans and six foreigners. Male new patients are 373 and female patients 226 while the youngest was a year old and the oldest 82. Health CS Mutahi Kagwe who gave the daily address from Kisumu warned doctors…

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday night drove himself in a police car to inspect ongoing projects in the capital, the fourth time this year. The President was accompanied by Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) Director General Maj Gen Mohamed Badi, and first visited Kenyatta Avenue where construction of pedestrian paths is ongoing. He later visited Kirinyaga Road and addressed a small crowd before leaving the city centre. The Standard reports that the President, who was accompanied by a lean security detail, was spotted driving along Thika Road, Outering Road and Jogoo Road where he would stop momentarily to inspect projects. As…

Kenyan khat (miraa) planes have reportedly been banned temporarily in Somalia, until Kenyan authorities allow commercial passenger flights from Somalia to land in the country. Sources from Somalia indicate that the temporary ban was ordered by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo personally. This now leaves Ethiopia as the biggest exporter of khat into the country, an industry that mints billions for Kenyan businesses. https://twitter.com/somalianalyst/status/1292145795098173440 On July 30, Kenya announced resumption of international passenger flights, announcing 11 destinations that left out its neighbours thought to be adversely affected by Covid-19 pandemic. In a communiqué announced by Transport CS James Macharia, China,  South…