Author: Francis Muli

The Jubilee Party Twitter account has been hacked, with two users posting information on “how to make money online” from an undisclosed location. The tweet with a video promises users an opportunity to make over $300 (Ksh30,000) a day. https://youtu.be/JBshlksyImY The hackers have gone ahead to retweet the message with the same account, tagging several account which Kahawa Tungu could not independently identify the owners. Read: Jubilee Party Cries Foul Over DP Ruto’s NTV Interview With Mark Masai By the time of going to press, the tweet had more than 22,000 comments in two hours, most of which are tags…

African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga has left the country for Zimbabwe to open a meeting of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) at the Victoria Falls. “Hon. Odinga will lay out his vision for Project preparation, Resource Mobilisation and Financing Mechanisms for infrastructure development in Africa,” reads a statement sent to newsrooms by Odinga’s spokesperson Dennis Onyango. Read: ‘Raila Is Not Retiring From Politics,’ Oburu Odinga Declares “He will also share his thoughts on attainment of smart and Integrated Infrastructure Development, among other matters.” This will be Odinga’s first high profile assignment after he was appointed African…

Ugandan police have established that the cruise boat that capsized in Lake Victoria was overloaded with revelers, even as death toll rises to 29. It has been reported that some of the rescuers have died. One of the revelers on board says that there were more than 90 people on board In a video circulating online, the video shows revelers in merry-making and drinking in a seemingly overloaded boat. However unconfirmed, reports indicate that the boat had at least 100 revelers on board. The boat had been grounded for months, before it was taken back to the waters when the…

Three senior Chinese officials and four Kenyans have been arrested by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives in connection to the multimillion SGR ticket scandal. The seven were arrested on Friday in Mombasa after the Chinese officials tried to bribe DCI sleuths with Ksh500,000 to stop investigations. The seven are being held at Port police station in Mombasa and will be arraigned in court on Monday. Read: Chinese Investor Unable To Prove Ownership Of Sh2 Billion Land Next To State House The three Chinese officials include the officer in-charge of transport at the Mombasa terminal, security officer and a translator. The suspects…

The police have impound a gun consignment of 1,000 automatic riffles worth Ksh300 million from Belgium at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The riffles had been imported by a local dealer, whose licence had been revoked by the Firearms Licencing Board (FLB). The guns, FN Scar riffles, belonged to Sailesh Mistry of CatEyes Ltd. The board was however disbanded by interior CS Fred Matiang’i, consequently revoking the licences of 21 gun dealers in the country. Read: Police Chief Inspector Kills Junior Colleague In Unclear Circumstances in Kiambu Kenya Defence Force (KDF) commando unit, the Special Forces (SF) is the only…

29 people have been reported dead after a boat capsized in Lake Victoria on Saturday evening. 40 others were rescued, according to the Ugandan police, while several remain missing. The accident involved a boat which was occupied by revelers, in Mpatta Sub-county in Mukono District, Uganda. “The Uganda Police Force Marine Unit rescued over 40 people alive in Lake Victoria. Ten died. The rescue mission is still on to find others,” police spokesman Emilian Kayima said. The cause of the accident is yet to be established. Read: Police Chief Inspector Kills Junior Colleague In Unclear Circumstances in Kiambu This comes barely two months after…

Najib Balala. IMAGE/ COURTESY Cabinet Secretary for tourism Najib Balala is on the US wanted list over links to the Akasha drug barons, Baktash Akasha and his brother Ibrahim Akasha. Balala is believed to be among the more than 10 prominent Kenyans that the US Department of Justice is investigating over allegations of taking bribes from the notorious Akasha drug family. According to reports by the Daily Nation, other officials on the US wanted list are an outspoken Rift Valley MP, a prosecutor, two High Court judges, two magistrates, and a senior criminal investigations officer. The two brothers pleaded guilty to seven drug…

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has pledged USD78 million (Ksh7.8 billion) to four companies in Kenya and the wider East-African region to advance their services. Among the companies that will benefit include Telkom Kenya, BCS Group, the Medical Credit Fund and the Novastar II. The loans will be disbursed in Kenyan Shillings, to minimize the risk of currency volatility for the Bank’s counterparts. Telkom Kenya will receive EUR 35 million (Ksh4.1 billion) to increase its 3G and 4G coverage and invest in its Fibre-To-The-Building network. On the other hand, BCS Group will benefit from a USD 18 million (Ksh1.8 billion) loan to…

More complaints have been raised about mistreatment and exploitation of employees at an Israeli company, H-Young, owned by Israeli Joseph and Hannah Schwartzman. The latest to share his ordeal is Harish Bisht, of Indian origin, who served the company as a security manager at Olkaria. Bisht landed the job while on a business visa on April 21.Three months later, he was issued with temporary permit which would expire on October 28. Being a man of the people, it was easy for Bisht to bond with the local community, the Maasais. Unknown to him, the Maasis were perceived as enemies of…

Kenya Power’s profits have shrinked  by 63.7 percent to Ksh1.92 billion in the financial year ended June 2018 due to increased operational costs. The company had issued a profit warning last month. The company says that transmission and distribution costs went up as a result of maintenance activities on expanded network. Power purchase costs, excluding fuel and foreign exchange costs, increased by Ksh2.59 billion to Ksh52.79 billion. Read: Kenya Power To Pay KenGen Ksh1 Billion Fine For Delayed Payments “This is attributable to an increase in units purchased from geothermal sources in the year by 602 GWh or 13.5 per cent…

Standard Chartered Kenya has recorded a net profit of Ksh6.3 billion in nine months for the period ended September 30, a 34 per cent growth. The lender attributes the growth to higher revenue from government securities, fees and commissions and a fall in provision for bad loans. Bad loans were reduced by half, from Ksh3.73 billion last year to Ksh1.88 billion this year. Income from government securities were recorded at Ksh9.5 billion, a 15 per cent growth. However, outstanding stock of securities went down by Ksh10 billion to Ksh115.5 billion. Interest income from customer loans reduced to Ksh9.9 billion. Interest…

Taxi hailing firm Uber has launched a bodaboda service in Nairobi, uberBODA, that will allow commuters to hire a boda-boda using the Uber app. This becomes the second taxi-hailing service to introduce bodaboda service, after Taxify. The move has been preceded by the launch of  uberBODA in Kampala, Uganda earlier in March of this year. Under the service, riders will be able to use uberBODA in all neighbourhoods of Nairobi except the Central Business District (CBD) where boda-boda operations were recently banned by the county government. “With uberBODA, we provide the same seamless door to door Uber experience passengers are…

Troubled songstress has been ordered to fly back home in Tanzania for specialised treatment by the Tanzanian Music Foundation (TAMUFO). According to Tanzania’s local media reports, TAMUFO secretary, Stella Joel, said the foundation will accord the singer all the help she needs. “As an agency mandated to look into the welfare of musicians in Tanzania, we have decided to seriously look into her claims. In that viral video, she accuses her former manager, Nathan, of very bad things. Her claims paint a bad picture of our industry,” said Ms Joel. Read: Pastor Ng’ang’a Confirms That “Demon Possessed” Woman Is Singer Rose…

Kenya Power will have to part with Ksh1 billion in fines for delaying Kenya Electricity Generating Company’s (KenGen) payments of Ksh21.88 billion past the 40-day grace period. The payments are for the financial year ended June 2018. “Interest income from Kenya Power relates to interest penalties charged due to late payments invoices. Interest on late payments accrues after 40 days,” reads KenGen’s 2017/18 financial year report in part. According to the report, only Ksh7.44 billion of the Ksh21.88 billion debt had not breached the payment window as per the agreement signed by the two companies, by the time they were closing the…

Kenya and Mozambique have agreed to do away with the visa on arrival rule for diplomats and nationals of the two countries. This will allow nationals of the two countries to travel across the two nations without a visa. This was agreed upon in a meeting of the two presidents, President Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya) and Filipe Nyusi (mozambique). “I am happy that together with my brother Hon Nyusi, we have agreed to allow free movement of people under the newly penned visa agreement to facilitate trade and tourism and private sector investment,” said President Uhuru. Read: South Africa Scraps Short-term Visa…