Author: Francis Muli

Equity Bank is on the spot for allegations of stealing from its customers using Equitel lines, and paying them off with ‘rude’ customer service. This was revealed yesterday by a Kenyan whose father was mishandled in the bank,and even slapped with a Ksh34,000 for ‘pestering’ them. According to Lydia Mathia, whose Facebook post has gone viral, the bank okayed withdrawal of his father’s Ksh34,000 in what looked like collusion between bank officials and cartels. Ms Mathia’s dad discovered that he could not use his Equitel pin in December, and decided to visit Limuru branch where he had the account. To…

The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) has okayed Cytonn Asset Management Ltd (CAML) bid to manage pension scheme funds. This was announced by the company management which indicates that there is a lot of untapped potential in the pension industry, where only 15 percent of Kenyans subscribe to. “Despite the retirement benefits assets under management growing to about Sh1.2 trillion as of June 2018, only 15 per cent of Kenyans belong to a registered pension scheme and there is a vast opportunity to increase this,” says Cytonn Asset Managers principal officer Maurice Oduor. This comes nine months after the Capital Markets Authority…

Former Senator Kyle McCarter is set to take over the mantle as the new US Ambassador to Kenya, the US has confirmed. Mr Godec is set to retire from the position after six years of service in Kenya representing the world’s superpower. In a tweet, Godec thanked his wife Lori for her support during his tenure in Kenya. “Congratulations Kyle McCarter on your confirmation by the U.S. Senate as the next U.S. Ambassador to Kenya! It’s been an honor & privilege to serve here for six years. Lori & I will forever cherish our friendships & memories of this beautiful country…

It has become a norm for African leaders to hide their countries’ wealth in offshore accounts, but this time it goes to an extend of buying property and investing in foreign countries. This is meant to hide stolen wealth. Just in case things fall apart and they are no longer in power, they run away to where their wealth is. The case is not different in Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame who has his wealth hidden in US in property bought in his children’s names. According to a website that reveals people’s wealth in US, the Truth People Search, Kagame’s son,…

Telkom Kenya has launched Free Zones for its pre-paid voice customers, where they will be able to make free calls, all day and all night, with no conditions. The company will have its pilot free zones in Nyanza region – Kisumu, Siaya, Homabay and South Nyanza. Other Free Zone areas include Machakos, Muranga, Nyahururu, Eldoret, Cherangany and Turbo – with more zones to be announced soon. “Our customers remain at the heart of what we do and we are always excited to give them a stronger value proposition. The introduction of the Telkom Free Zones targets to provide customers with more opportunity…

Nzoia Sugar Company Director Michael Kulundu was last evening allegedly kidnapped by unknown people who attacked him and left him for dead. It is reported that Kulundu was attacked by three assailants who had invited him for a ‘business’ meeting at Salmond  hotel near Kanduyi Trading Center. However, the three who were armed with guns attacked him and dumped him near Gulf Petrol station, a stone throw distance from the hotel where he was found in the morning. He was rushed to Bungoma West Hospital at Kanduyi by a well-wisher who found him in the trench. However, Bungoma hospital administrator Denis Sande said that…

Most cancer cases are detected at advanced stages, which makes treatment a bit hard hence the escalated cases of cancer deaths in the world. However, this could be a thing of the past if scientist succeed it trials of a new Breath Biopsy device is being trialled in the UK. The device is designed to detect cancer signs in molecules exhaled by patients. The trials being done at at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge will first focus on oesophageal and stomach cancers. The trials will later be extended to include those suspected to have prostate, kidney, bladder, liver and pancreatic cancers. According to…

The government will not allow form one students to be issued with admission letters directly from principals, but instead they should rely on letters issued through the National Education Management Information System (Nemis). Any student admitted through a letter not issued through Nemis will be deemed not to have joined form one. This was announced by the education cabinet secretary Amina Mohammed who cautioned principals against issuing admission letters to parents visiting their institutions. “Schools must admit students only through Nemis, no school should violate the ministry guidelines,” said the CS. The move is set to affect thousands of students who had…

The Scania Bus company is to blame for the delayed Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project, Kahawa Tungu can authoritatively report. According to a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Scania has been a bit slow to act on shipping in the large capacity buses that were to be used for the pilot project. This prompted the government to go calling on South Africa, ready to import MAN buses for the project. However, according to experts, the MAN buses were deemed not up to standard and received very little or no local support, further causing more delays. Scania got…

Huawei has launched Huawei Y5 lite, a smaller version of the Y5 prime that was launched in May 2018. The device boasts of a 5.45” 720p IPS LCD screen with 18:9 ratio, 3020mAh battery, 8 MP rear camera with LED flash + 5MP selfie camera, Dual-Sim 4G LTE and runs on Android 8.1 Oreo (Go Edition). “Huawei’s Y5 lite is a device designed for all those searching for a budget friendly yet powerful smartphone,” says the company in a statement. The phone also has a Quad-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6739 chipset processor and a 1GB RAM. Read: Emirates Develops App To Manage Aircraft Turnaround Time In Dubai The…

Uncertainty reigns in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the government decided to shut down internet and Short Message Services (SMS) after voting during the Presidential elections. According to reports from Congo, the ‘blackout’ was enforced to preserve public order after “fictitious results” were circulated on social media. It is reported that three presidential candidates (out of 21) hinted victory to their supporters before the final tally is revealed. The government has held that the country would remain offline until provisional results are published on January 6. The final tally will be published on January 15. The new president will be sworn…

The Immigration Department of Kenya is on the spot for blocking a Kenyan for asking a question perceived to be exposing their unreasonable requirements for a passport. The Kenyan using Twitter handle Bravin questioned why the Immigration Department would require parents’ identification cards before issuing Kenyans with the new e-passports. In order for a Kenyan to be issued with the new e-passport, the department requires from them original ID and a copy, original birth certificate and a copy, recommender ID copy, online filled forms, 3 invoices, 3 passport size photos and parents’ ID copies. However, to most Kenyans, it does not…

Uganda will now be able to export her sugar, sunflower and soya to Tanzania freely, following a top officials’ meeting from the two governments. In a statement, Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the products would be granted a preferential treatment after meeting East Africa Community (EAC) Rules of Origin. Uganda had been accused of importing the aforementioned products, repackaging them and then exporting the same to her neighbours. However, the verification also found that palm edible oils does not meet EAC Rules of Origin. This comes as Kenya and Tanzania seem to be engaging in ever escalating trade wars,…

Parents who had their children at Anestar Premier School Nakuru are not a happy lot after most of them had their children registered for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in other schools after they were considered ‘weak’ academically. According to the school, they had only 68 candidates who sat for the 2018 KCSE exam, but Kahawa Tungu can reveal that the school had a total of 138 candidates. The school deemed 70 candidates weak, and registered them with other schools, so as to avoid affecting their ‘good’ grades. According to our source, the ‘weak’ candidates were transported during their exams…

Airtel Subscribers are still counting loses incurred during the festive period after Airtel airtime vouchers failed to work. The service outage affected even airtime in customers’ phones and daily bundles, with some customers who spoke to Kahawa Tungu saying that they lost up to 100GB of data. “Consumer complains have gone on deaf ears , Airtel Kenya services went off from 1700 hrs 30-12 2018 yet no apologies from them , they only respond to a computer generated script. For my case I have lost 100GB of daily data  another 56GB  and the last one was probably 46GB as per …