Author: Francis Muli

High Court judge John Mativo has quashed a decision by the Public Procurement Administrative and Review Board (PRAB) awarding UAP Life Assurance a multimillion-shilling tender for civil servants’ insurance. In the case filed by Britam and Pioneer Assurance, Mativo ruled that PPARB acted in excess of its powers by deciding that UAP’s bid was the best option. The judge added UAP was only an interested party in the initial appeal hence the PPARB was wrong to declare it the lowest evaluated bidder for the cover for more than 400,000 civil servants. Read: Ksh7 Billion Scandal Crumbling KBC “By purporting to…

The owners of the Solai dam that collapsed and killed 47 people in Nakuru in May, have been detained until Friday after being charged with 47 counts of manslaughter in a Naivasha court. The two, Perry Mansukh Kansagara and Vinoj Jaya Kumar will spend the night in police cells pending bond ruling tomorrow (Friday). Read: The Ksh7 Billion Scandal That Is Crumbling KBC Nakuru County Water Director Johnson Njuguna was also arraigned in court over the dam tragedy for neglect for failing to present an environmental impact assessment report of the killer dam. Prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki asked the court to …

Top managers at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) have revealed that they lost Ksh7 billion in the last financial year. Speaking to the Senate Committee for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Mr Samuel Otieno – who represented the managing director – revealed that the company was spending double of what it earned in the last financial year. Despite earning Ksh90 million a month, the corporation has been spending Ksh180 million monthly on recurrent expenditure. It was further revealed that the state broadcaster had not paid Ksh127 million for satellite operations. Read: Tuskys Shuts Down Two Nakuru Branches KBC has also defaulted…

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Chief Manager in charge of Port Operations has written to the Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) ordering for immediate use of container freight station (CFS) for home-use cargo imported through Mombasa port within the next two months. Under CFS, goods are packed into container(s) at the port of origin and unpacked at the port of destination at the carrier’s risk and expense. Also called pier to pier. “KPA stoppage of client’s nomination to the CFS starting today and further to the directive to have all Mombasa bound imported home-use cargo cleared at the port…

Rebecca Mueni Musau , the Kenyan woman linked to the robbery of Ksh140 million (Dh5 million) in Dubai a couple of months ago has been arrested in Namanga town at the Tanzania-Kenya border. Ksh13 million was recovered from Mueni’s house in Ruai. Confirming the incident, Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti  said the suspect was arrested while attempting to flee to Tanzania. Read: Ojamoong To Spend Two Days In Police Cells Mueni took the detectives to her home in Nairobi where police recovered Ksh.13 million. Mueni, Charles Karanja and one other suspect are wanted in Dubai over the Ksh140 million…

The Court has detained Governor Ojaamong and three others facing fraud charges until Friday pending bail ruling. The four will be remanded at Ethics and Anti Corruption Commision Police Station. Ojamoong’ and three Busia County ministers have been charged with seven counts of fraud. Read: Dpp Orders For the Arrest Of The Owner Of Patel Dam The ministers are Mr Bernard Yaite, Mr Allan Ekweny and Mr Samuel Ombui. The four were arraigned at the Anti-Corruption Court in Milimani, Nairobi, on Wednesday after being held in cells for more than four hours at the Integrity Centre. Do you have a…

Technological company Seven Seas Technologies (SST) owned by Mike Macharia is facing a dead end after years of dubious operations covered with false financial statements and fabricated PR stunts. Currently, the company is struggling to offset a tax burden worth millions it owes the Kenya Revenue Authority, even after winning a government tender worth Ksh4.7 billion in the Ministry of Health. Due to dwindling financial muscle of the company, it has been unable to deliver the multi-billion project that sought to centralise data centre at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Worse still, the company has been blacklisted from doing business with…

Kobo360, a Nigerian logistics startup has raised US$1.2 million (Ksh121 million) in pre-seed funding as it prepares to take part in the Y Combinator accelerator programme. Y Combinator is a new model for funding early stage startups based in Silcon Valley in the US. Having been accepted into the the programme, Kobo360 earns US$120,000 (Ksh12 million) in funding in return for seven per cent equity. Read: Facebook Bug Unblocked Blocked People Without User’s Consent The two-year old start-up (Kobo360) enables individuals and businesses to request or schedule pickup of packages and track the driver until its final destination. Kobo360 is also set…

Kenya Scholar-Athlete Project (KenSAP) has secured admissions for 179 Kenyan students to top-tier universities in North America through its program since inception, making it one of the largest scholarships in the region. KenSAP prides itself in securing admission at institutions such as Harvard (19 students), Yale (12 students) and Princeton (11 students) among others, all with full scholarships  from the universities, while attracting very little attention in Kenya beyond the campuses of the high schools from which it draws its students. Speaking about the program ahead of a planned fundraising event in Nairobi, KenSAP’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, John Manners…

Machakos County Commissioner Matilda Sakwa has been appointed the new National Youth Service (NYS) Director General, replacing Richard Ndubai who is facing graft charges. Mr Ndubai is among 47 suspects facing charges following the loss of Ksh9 billion at the NYS. Ndubai took over the helm of NYS on January 19, 2016. Last week, reports on social media insinuated that Mr Ndubai was forced out of a Dubai-bound flight. However, police refuted the claims. Read: Tuju Cancels Jubilee Parliamentary Group Meeting, Says Party Intact The Kenya Airports Police Unit (Kapu) commander Richard Mugwanja said the reports were fake, and that they had neither arrested Mr Ndubai…

Insurance service provider AAR  has introduced a plan that will allow individuals and retail clients to make monthly payments for health insurance instead of paying the full amount upfront. Previously, customers were required to make full payment of insurance premiums (annual) before they can be covered. Read: Kenyans Feel The Pinch As Kerosene Price Reaches All-Time High “The solution we are introducing fits well into the financial plan of many ordinary Kenyans.  We believe that this solution will not only make it convenient for our customers to purchase insurance, but also make it possible for many Kenyans to enjoy the…

More than five CEOs earned more the half the net profits of their companies in Kenya. This has been happening behind the curtains, with only BAT giving a detailed account of how it remunerates its top leadership. Sameer Africa’s CEO, Allan Walmsley, for instance, was paid Ksh25.9 million or nearly twice the company’s net earnings of Ksh13 million. On the other hand, Athi River Mining Chief Executive Pradeep Paunrana, was paid a total of Ksh114.7 million in the year ended December, even as the company returned a net loss of Ksh6.5 billion. Upon his exit from Kenya Airways (KQ), former CEO…

Kenya has been well represented in the World Cup Tournament in Moscow despite the National team, Harambee Stars, failing to book a ticket there. Its not just journalists and fans there, but also young visionary players who will take part in the Fifa Foundation Festival this week. The Fifa festival brings together 48 non-governmental organisations from 38 countries around the world that work to make a positive difference through football. It is an action packed 10-day programme which includes a football tournament in Red Square, Moscow, and the purpose of the event is to showcase the power of football to change lives.…

Kenya Power has announced suspension of their prepaid services on Tuesday between 10 pm and Wednesday 10 am for maintenance purposes. “During this period, all prepaid services which include buying tokens through paybill 888880 will not be available,” the company said in a statement shared to the public. “Other prepaid tokens buying outlets such as our banking halls and vendor outlets will also be affected,” it added. Read: ERC Scraps Off Monthly Standing Charges, Hikes Electricity Charges Consumers on the postpaid billing system will, however, not be affected and will continue making payments via 888888 or in banking halls. The…

Safaricom has fired all its regional coordinators for selling Mpesa agent phones worth Ksh44 million. According to insiders, the coordinators are accused of colluding with well-placed retailers to sell the phones at crazy discounts before the phones were entered into the inventory systems. The phones were meant to be given for free to Mpesa agents across the country for the newly introduced digital registration of Mpesa customers. Most of those shown the door had barely finished a year at the company, some of whom were hired without proper background check. Our efforts to speak to the company’s communication team bore no…