Author: Francis Muli

Tullow Oil, the company leading oil exploration operations in Lokichar Oil Basin in Turkana, is mulling exiting operations in the country over uncertain future. According to reports by Reuters, the company in conjunction with Total have hired French bank Natixis to run the joint sale process for blocks 10BA, 10BB and 13 T in the South Lokichar Basin. Last year Tullow announced that it was willing to sell up to 20 percent of its 50 percent stake in the blocks. Reuters reports that the company is now willing to sell the entire stake after disappointing exploration results in Guyana and…

Activist Okiya Omtatah has filed a petition in the High Court seeking to oust the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) board over irregular and unconstitutional appointments that entail conflict of interest. In the suit seen by this writer, Omtatah accuses the executive of handpicking and appointing the CMA chairman Mr James Maina Ndegwa without subjecting him to a fair, open, competitive, merit based, and inclusive recruitment process. He also accuses James Maina Ndegwa of bearing conflict of interest while assuming office, for being a market player in the industry he regulates. “As Chairperson, he is a conflicted person to the extent…

All Kenya Airways (KQ) staffers that were declared redundant between July 2016 and last year did not pay taxes for their send-off packages, it has emerged. At least 10 Kenya Airways (KQ) staffers were sent packing last year, with several senior employees having left the company within the aforementioned period. During the period, former CEO Mbuvi Ngunze and former chairman Dennis Awori left the company, and are some of the beneficiaries of the scheme that was approved by the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development and the Head of the Civil Service. Other senior employees who left under…

Kenya returned at least 19 trucks carrying powdered and UHT milk to Uganda, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has revealed. In a move that could trigger trade wars between the two countries, with top officials in Uganda say that Kenya has not provided ‘substantial’ explanation. The milk valued at over Ksh27 million is said to have been seized by Kenyan police even after being cleared by the Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Bureau of Standards and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service. Read: President Uhuru Kenyatta Orders 16PC VAT On Milk Products Imported From Outside EAC In a counter mover, Uganda is…

The government through the Ministry of Trade and Industrialization and the National Treasury is in the final stages of establishing a Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Fund (MSME) by June this year. This was announced by Industrialization Principal Secretary Dr Francis Owino who said the fund will be accessible to traders operating in Biashara Centers to be set up across the country under new trade policy which awaits cabinet approval. The fund will majorly target the informal sector (Juakali) to ensure they specialize in mass production and manufacturing of goods that will be subject to a set of standards highlighted…

Earlier in life, for most people, if you ask them what they want to be in future, will tell you the ‘best’ careers such as doctors, engineers, surgeons, journalists or pilots. Ever heard of a student telling you that they want to be locticians in future? At that age, you might find that not even a single of your students (as a teacher) know what a loctician does. Well, this was the same case with Hadad Tondo, a Ugandan loctician living and working in Nairobi, solely depending on making dreadlocks for a living. Read: Kenya’s Female Bodybuilder Evelyn Owala Shines…

Pension obligations for the Kenyan government are ballooning at an alarming rate, now estimated at Ksh2.6 trillion or close to 30 percent of the GDP. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the current obligation do not match the savings, with the current taxes collected averaging Ksh1.5 trillion per year. In 2009, the government tried to delay the pension obligations by pushing the retirement age from 55 to 60, but this seems to have caught up with the government, with the cost of settling pensions raising by 600 percent in the last 15 years. Read: Embakasi Residents Block NSSF Officials…

At least 43 individuals without requisite Kenyan documentations have been arrested in two Eastleigh colleges, among them two are managers, one secretary, two teachers and thirty eight students. The individuals were running Atlas and Alison community colleges both based at 1st Avenue in Eastleigh. The operation was conducted by a multiagency team comprising of officers drawn from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, the General Service Unit and Techinical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) Kenyan intelligence believes that the students learn Swahili and English for terror-related purposes. Read: Pastor Turns In Suspected Al Shabaab Militant After Confession “The colleges have…

Several private hospitals are taking advantage of the sick and extorting money from them without concrete grounds. According to Whatsapp screenshots shared by Twitter handle @Owaahh, managers and doctors in the hospitals such as the Nairobi Women’s Hospital have been ordering unnecessary tests and admitting patients unnecessarily, to mint money ‘maximally’ from them. In one incident at Nairobi Women’s Hospital in Nakuru, one of the managers is urging the attendants to lock all discharges since “the numbers are bad”. In another screenshot, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) Eunice Munyingi tells someone that s/he is discharging patients too fast, and it…

Cytonn Investments company has launched the Cytonn Affordable Housing Investment Plan (CAHIP) that will help potential home owners save for their dream houses/homes. In partnership with its money market fund arm, the Cytonn Money Market Fund, the plan will enable housing savings that can yield up to 11 percent p.a and is targeting about 10,000 individuals. The new investment plan will be underpinned by the government’s Home ownership savings plans (HOSP), whereby individuals who opt for this plan are able to benefit from a reduction on their taxable income to a maximum of Ksh8,000 per month. Read: Cytonn Leverages On…

Delta Airlines has announced that it will pay its employees $1.6 billion (Ksh161billion) in profit-sharing bonuses. That means every eligible employee will receive a cheque next month for 16.6 percent of their annual salary, which is the equivalent of an additional two months’ pay. “Delta would be nothing without our 90,000 people. They deserve all the credit,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on LinkedIn. This is the sixth year in a row that the company has paid out more than $1 billion (ksh100 billion) to workers since 2012 after its merger with Northwest. Read: 130 Pilots Left KQ To Middle…

Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi has been arrested by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives. The 30-year old blogger was arrested at Westgate Mall alongside Emmanuel Nyamweya Ong’era, after he allegedly received a Ksh1 million bribe to pull down a libelous story from his website. According to the DCI, the money was a down payment of Ksh17.5 million they had earlier demanded as a precondition for pulling down libelous posts. “The exhibit money was recovered and the two suspects will be arraigned tomorrow,” tweeted the DCI. It is not yet clear who the alleged victims of extortion are. https://twitter.com/DCI_Kenya/status/1219238603760525312 Email your…

The government has been forced to cancel the Ksh12.5 billion police car tender that had been previously awarded to Toyota Kenya for the lease of 1290 vehicles. The tender had been announced in May 2019, a month after top government fell out with CMC Motors, the company that had allegedly won the tender. The Ministry of Security and Interior Affairs later cancelled the advert in September after claims that all the bidders had overpriced quotations. However, it was reported that the tender had been awarded to Toyota Kenya through the back door, prompting one of the bidders, CMC Motors, to…

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has given Kenyans up to July 1, 2020 to acquire the smart driving licences. The smart driver’s license was rolled out in 2018 by NTSA with an aim at instilling order on Kenyan roads. The new licences have a chip that holds driver information and a points system that is used to discipline drivers. The new licenses will be equipped with a digital wallet for paying fines. NTSA has also reported that it is working with the Police and the Judiciary to enable instant fines. Read: George Njao Appointed To Replace Francis Meja…

Police now say that Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali was ‘hiding’ in Kisumu, and is not missing as earlier reported. The National Assembly Chief Whip is said to have contacted his bodyguard Robert Wabuko yesterday at around 4.16 pm with his usual phone number, with detectives tracing his geo-location to Kisumu. “DCI officers established that at 1616 hours the said MP communicated to his body guard Robert Wabuko through his usual cellphone line and confirmed that he was safe in Kisumu,” said the police as quoted by the Standard. It is yet to be explained why the legislator is not…