Author: Francis Muli

The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has announced fresh lay offs through voluntary early retirement for all employees. According to acting managing director Stephen Nthei, the scheme is open to all employees until June 15, 2020. “We remain focused on managing our cost base and affirm that the restructuring will not have any negative impact on the services and products we offer,” said Mr Nthei Thursday in a statement. Early this year, the cash-strapped firm fired at least 150 employees in administrative roles. At that time, EAPCC had around 800 workers, and aimed at cutting the workforce by a…

Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd were the pioneers of using live-streaming hosts to sell everything from lipstick to Smartphones in China. They now want to replicate the move with the help of a million influencers on forums such as TikTok and Instagram. AliExpress, the online market place for shoppers out of China, is looking for 100,000 influencers to hawk its products across the globe this year, with a projection of over a million influencers in three years. Through AliExpress connect, the platform is offering a matchmaking service to pair social media influencers to brands and merchants interested in selling their products.…

Facebook’s experimental app division has released a new product that will deliver a new approach to collaborative music making. The product, dubbed ‘Collab’ is from Facebook’s New Product Experimentation Division (NPE) and already bears lots of similarities with the latest Social Media sensation, TikTok. It is currently launched as an invite-only beta on iOS. According to Collab’s primary pitch, you can create short form videos split into three simultaneous sources, meaning you can perform one song by playing three different instruments and then blending it all together. Or you and one or two other friends, can collaborate together by each…

Instagram is moving into more direct competition with YouTube as it sets to help creators generate revenue directly from IGTV. As from next week, Instagram will show ads before clips that run on IGTV service for the longer-form videos. The company plans to give the content creators a 55 percent share of the cut from the ads, the same amount YouTube gives its content creators. Instagram will also test a way for users to purchase digital badges in the live videos. If viewers buy the badges, their names will be highlighted amongst the fans comments identifying them as supporters. For…

Donald Trump has been at war with Twitter, since the social media platform flagged his recent tweets for fact checking. The US president is set to take action against Twitter, Facebook and social media networks and technology giants, by narrowing down the liability protections against third party posts the companies enjoy. This is according to a draft of an executive order. The companies enjoy protections against lawsuits when they act in ‘good faith’ by taking down or limiting the spread and visibility of inappropriate posts, videos and images. However, the law does not define ‘bad faith’. The draft order aims…

The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has barred Disk Jockeys (DJs) from streaming their shows online unless they are licenced by owners or Collective Management Organisations (CMOs). In a tweet on March 26, KECOBO says that once a DJ starts streaming music online, he/she automatically becomes a radio station and should pay the licencing fees. “Anyone who violates the exclusive rights of the copyright owner is an infringer of that copyright. When a DJ creates a live stream and starts broadcasting music to the Internet, he has become a radio station. He needs licences from copyright owners or CMO,” wrote KECOBO.…

Fairmont Hotel has closed its two hotels in Kenya, Fairmont The Norfolk and Fairmont Mara Safari Club due to the effects of Covid-19 and flooding. In a statement, the management announced that all employees will be sent home, with only those that have served the hotel for over five years getting severance pay while others will get a one month’s pay in lieu. “It is regrettable that our hotels, Fairmont The Norfolk and Fairmont Mara Safari Club have since ceased their operations as a spiral effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent flooding of Fairmont Mara Safari Club. These…

YouTube Kids, the video platform’s version that allows families to set age categories, viewing timers and other controls, is now available on Apple TV. According to YouTube, safety controls still need to be set through the mobile version of the app. YouTube Kids is designed for children. It offers a safer alternative to YouTube where violent content and inappropriate videos can get through despite using the restricted mode, exposing children to content that parents and caregivers may not want them to see. Some of these include videos made to look like they are made for kids, sometimes depicting popular and…

Nominated Senator Victor Prengei has revealed that the newly appointed Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kang’ata tried to coerce him to sign the attendance list of the Jubilee Party Parliamentary Group meeting held at State House, despite having not attended. Appearing before the Jubilee Party disciplinary committee, Prengei said that at the time the meeting was called, he was in his rural home where there is no network, and his phone was also off. He said after getting back to Nairobi, he went to a restaurant with Kajiado Senator Philip Mpayeei, where Mr Kang’ata joined them at around 5pm. Read: We…

Google has removed millions of negative TikTok reviews from its playstore after users from India decided to give the app 1 star reviews tanking the overall rating from 4.5 to 1.2 within a short period of time. The negative reviews came following last week’s report of a TikTok influencer Faizal Siddiqui posted a spoof video of an acid attack. Numerous TikTok videos were also shared on Twitter depicting racism, domestic violence, animal cruelty, child abuse and objectification of women. For the better part of last week, hashtags such as BanTikTok, DeleteTikTok, TikTokexposed and many others were trending on twitter with…

Senator Millicent Omanga has revealed that most Jubilee Senators were forced to vote out Meru Senator Prof Kithure Kindiki from the post of Deputy Speaker of the Senate. Appearing before the Jubilee Party’s disciplinary committee, Omanga said that she was never invited to the Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting for Senators that ousted former Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen and Majority Whip Susan Kihika. “We had a party position last week on Friday which we were told to to vote according to the party stand. I did not question. Normally we would question. The Deputy Speaker (Kindiki) is a personal friend.…

National Carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has posted a Ksh12.9 billion loss in the year ended December 2019. This is a 71 percent increase in loss as compared to Ksh7.6 billion loss posted in the year ended December 2018. In a statement, KQ said the total revenue for the group increased by 12.4 percent from Ksh114 billion in 2018 to Ksh128 billion last year. “The growth was due to improved passenger, cargo, ancillaries, and other revenue streams, mainly due to expansion of the Kenya Airways network,” the airline’s chairman Michael Joseph said. In the year under review, KQ launched new routes…

TikTok and its Chinese twin app, Douyin app are ranking globally on mobile apps with the highest revenue generated for the month of April. According to Sensor Tower, ByteDance’s  TikTok together with Douyin, which caters to the Chinese market, had 315 million downloads globally, up from 187 million this time in 2019. The ranking was based on their in-app purchases and revealed a tenfold increase with the companies garnering $78 million (ksh8.4 billion) in revenue. 86.6 percent of Douyin’s revenue came from China with 8.2 percent from the US. This places the meme making apps ahead of older names like…

MultiChoice Nigeria has announced the return of Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) Reunion Show starring the housemates of the Pepper Dem Season on Monday, June 1. The show will air on Africa Magic Urban (DStv Channel 153) at 22:00 EAT and Africa Magic Family (DStv Channel 154 and GOtv Channel 2) at 22:30 EAT. The show will let viewers in on the lives of the BBNaija alumni seven months after the show’s finale. “This is no spoiler alert but there will be laughter, tears and confrontations as the ex-housemates along with Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, the show’s host, revisit the events that rocked Biggie’s house…

Ride hailing company, Bolt has raised 100 million euros from London based Investment firm, Naya Capital Management. The deal values the company, the biggest Uber rival, at 1.7 billion Euros. Bolt said the funding would boost its efforts in grabbing market share especially during this COVID-19 pandemic period where its rivals Uber, Lyft and Ola have had to cut thousands of jobs to sustain themselves. “In the next 12 to 18 months, we have an opportunity to win market share,” Said Markus Villig, Bolt Founder and CEO. “Even though the crisis has temporarily changed how we move, the long term…