Author: Francis Muli

The National Business Compact on COVID- 19 (NBCC) has partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to roll out the 1 Million Kitchen Garden Campaign in an effort to boost immunity of the Kenyan people during the COVID-19 period. The campaign will be spearheaded by the Ministry Of Agriculture as they seek to ensure availability of vegetables, fruits and herbs to enhance proper nutrition in over one million households across the country through the use of kitchen gardens. The pilot phase of the campaign will begin with 15,000 farmers across 47 counties who will act as peer-educators. They will play a crucial role…

Facebook just lost $ 7.2 billion after major global companies started withdrawing their advertisements from the giant social media network platforms. The company’s shares fell 8.3 percent, the lowest in three months on Friday. Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers joined other companies boycotting ads on the social media network. Unilever announced that it would stop spending money on Facebook ads this year. Verizon Communications, Hershey Co and Coca Cola have also joined in the boycott. Coca Cola said it would pause all paid advertising on all social media platforms for a period of 30 days. The boycott came…

President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced that Kenya Airways will resume flights within the next couple of days. The airline has been grounded for the last three months following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March. KQ chief executive Allan Kilavuka revealed that the pandemic had lost the company up to Sh 10 billion due to the lockdowns and restriction on movement globally. President Kenyatta said that the government would soon set the dates for flights resumption “We’re doing everything we can to make sure we are back in the skies,” Mr Kenyatta said during a video conference sponsored by…

Criminal gangs in Nakuru including the infamous “confirm” are using drones to monitor security agencies activities and movements before committing crimes “We have received information that the gang is now using drones to carry out criminal activities. Security agencies have taken that challenge seriously,” Nakuru County Commissioner Erustus Mbui said on Thursday. Mr Mbui said the drones are easily available and unemployed youth who are frustrated by the Covid-19 economic crisis, are taking advantage pretending to be gathering news. Some security agencies have pointed a finger at politicians who are rumoured to be sponsoring the youth’s criminal activities. “Evil politicians…

Thirdway Alliance Party Leader Ekuru Aukot and Narc Kenya Party Leader Martha Karua have dismissed calls for a referendum as a result of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report. The two leaders, alongside Prof Yash Ghai and Dr Mshai Mwangola spoke during a webinar organised by the Uwazi Consortium, where they agreed that there are other pressing issues other than a change of Constitution. During the forum, some of the urgent issues facing ordinary citizens discussed included high cost of living since the 2017 election period which has since been exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic and high levels of…

Applying for a paybill number has become much simpler since the process became digitized. Among Safaricom’s popular products, are short term paybill numbers. They can be used to fundraise for weddings, funerals, school fees, medical appeals or for any charity events. Short term paybill numbers are essential for the period during which you are fundraising only. This can range from a few weeks to a few months after which the number will be discarded. Safaricom provides that Paybill numbers can last up to a maximum of six months for longer fundraising events. The application is done through the Safaricom Self-help…

The Senate Select Committee that was investigating impeachment motion against governor Ann Waiguru has found that there was gross mismanagement of tenders in their report. In the report tabled in Senate today, the committee however said that it could not link the governor to the mismanagement of the tenders. Instead, the committee recommended that the officers who constituted the committees that mismanaged the tender step aside and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) investigates the matter. The two overly mentioned officers include the governor’s former PA Ms Pauline Kamau and Mr Gichira Wayne. “The…

The Senate select Committee has dropped impeachment charges pressed against Kirinyaga governor Ann Waiguru. According to the select committee that investigated the matter, Kirinyaga County MCAs did not table sufficient evidence to support the impeachment. “The Committee having investigated the matter in accordance with its mandate under section 33(4) of the County Gannet as Act and standing order 75(2) of the Senate Standing Orders reports to the Senate that it finds that the two Charges against the Governor have not been substantiated,” the committee concluded in its report. Waiguru was impeached by MCAs on June 9. A total of 23…

The National Aviation Management Bill 2020 has been tabled in Parliament, officially opening the debate into the planned nationalisation of Kenya Airways (KQ). If enacted, the bill will pave way for buyout of  minority shareholders at a premium and converting shares held by banks into Treasury bonds. Currently, the government holds a 48.9 percent stake while 7.8 percent is held by Air France-KLM. Minority shareholders hold 2.8 percent of the shares currently valued at Ksh397 million. Local lenders own a stake of 38.1 percent which they acquired in 2017 after the carrier was unable to service its loans of Ksh16.9…

Banks and Telecom companies have come out to protest the Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK) extension of the waiver on mobile money transactions to December 31, 2020. According to Business Daily, the players in the Kenya’s financial market say CBK should have consulted them before unilaterally extending the emergency measures by six more months. The move will see the banks and Telcos lose more billions in lieu of profits in the period. “We were not consulted given the billions we stand to lose,” said a top Safaricom executive who sought anonymity for fear of CBK reprisals. “We should have gone…

Facebook has announced that it will introduce a notification to let you know if you are about to share content that is more than 90 days old. This will give you the choice to “go back” or still go ahead and share the content, but with the knowledge that it is outdated. The social media giant has acknowledged that old stories shared in different contexts than the original, have a hand in spreading misinformation. Facebook said that in particular, news publishers were concerned about the old stories being recirculated as breaking news. “Over the past several months, our internal research…

Kenya is set to host this year’s Lewa Safari Marathon, formerly Safaricom Lewa Marathon, virtually on Saturday June 27. With global coronavirus putting a halt on international travel and the possibility of having to cancel the world-renowned global event, Huawei Kenya, one of the sponsors, has pledged to provide the much-needed support required to host a virtual event and launch the ‘preparing for tomorrow’ campaign. The campaign is in recognition that the extraordinary impacts the marathon has had on wildlife, communities and the tourism economy has only been possible because of the hard work of the previous 20 years, and…

Huawei has announced expansion of its DigiTruck programme to five additional countries in the next two years, following the success of the pilot programme in Kenya. This was announced by Huawei’s Deputy Chairman Ken Hu during the Global Education Webinar entitled “Driving Equity and Quality with Technology”, where he emphasized on “connecting schools and skills development as two key ways for Huawei aims to improve equitable and quality education.” “We believe that everyone, everywhere has the right to education and the equality of opportunity it brings. As a technology company, Huawei wants to help with connectivity, applications and skills by…

The High Court ha suspended the appointment of a new board of Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company by Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) director general Mohammed Badi until suit filed by activist Okiya Omtatah is determined. Early this week, Badi had reconstituted the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company board and appointed Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Andrew Ikenye to chair the board for a period of three years. Ikenye was to take over from ODM leader Raila Odinga’s sister Beryl Okumu who has been appointed as the chairperson of the Governing Council of Kenya Water Institute. Read: NMS Boss Badi Picks Maj. Gen.…

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has retained the benchmark lending rate at seven percent, for the second time. The reserve bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said in a statement that policy measures adopted since March due to Covid-19 were having the intended effect on the economy, hence the retention. “The Committee noted that the package of policy measures adopted since March were having the intended effect on the economy, and will be augmented by the announced fiscal measures. The MPC concluded that the current accommodative monetary policy stance remains appropriate,” the committee said in a statement. Read: CBK…