Author: Francis Muli

Kenyans are missing out on income opportunities from YouTube, the company has said. According to Head of YouTube Music Business and Partnership in Sub-Saharan Africa Addy Awofisayo, Kenya leads in the consumption of content, but creators have not fully exploited income opportunities on the platform. Addy said there were a number of factors contributing to this, but the biggest issue was lack of sufficient knowledge on positioning brands and content for maximum revenue generation. “One of the problems I have noticed is artistes not surrounded by the right team. You see a talented artiste with a manager who is not…

Former students of Garissa University are suing the government for compensation. The 14 ex-students were victims in the terror attack at the Garissa University college in 2015. They want the court to rule that the government failed to take the necessary precautions to prevent the attack. The victims who were injured in the attack, are being supported by lobby group, Kituo cha Sheria. They also want the court to determine that the government failed to support escape and rescue efforts, and as a result, the jihadist group Al-Shabaab injured them. The April 3, 2015 attack left 148 people dead, most…

Tesla Boss Elon Musk is backing out of his plan to buy Twitter. In a notice sent to Twitter executives, Musk said he was terminating the $44 billion deal as a result of multiple breaches of the agreement Musk first announced his intention to buy Twitter in April after launching a hostile takeover. However, the mogul never got around to finalize as Twitter had not been truthful in its claims about the actual number of spammers and bots on the platform. Mr Musk said he had backed out because Twitter failed to provide enough information on the number of spam…

Borrowers from digital lending apps are set to pay more after a directive to effect excise tax on loans from August this year. The Digital Lenders Association said all its members who are licensed under the new digital lending regulations and those seeking to obtain operating licenses will be required to remit excise tax to the Kenya Revenue (KRA) Authority on behalf of its borrowers. “The proposed change affects all digital loans from 1st of July as we will be required to effect excise tax which is a percentage of fees levied on borrowers for services rendered by the lenders,”…

TikTok is facing multiple lawsuits after children lost their lives while doing a challenge on the app. The parents who filed the lawsuits said their seven children lost their lives while attempting a ‘blackout challenge’ that they discovered on TikTok last year. According to the lawsuits, the ‘blackout challenge’ encouraged users to choke themselves with belts, or anything similar until they passed out. All the children who lost their lives were reportedly under 15 years old. TikTok is accused of not taking action even though it was aware of the problem. Read: US Resurfaces TikTok Data Invasion Concerns, Urges Apple, Google…

Twitter has started testing a new co-tweets feature that allows users to collaborate on one tweet. The feature allows two user accounts to co-create and be tagged in a single tweet. The feature is currently being tested with a number of users after Twitter announced its development this year. “We’re continuing to explore new ways for people to collaborate on Twitter,” explains Twitter spokesperson Joseph J. Nuñez in a statement to The Verge. “We’re testing CoTweets for a limited time to learn how people and brands may use this feature to grow and reach new audiences, and strengthen their collaborations…

Safaricom announced interest-free loans on its M-Pesa platform this week. Faraja loans will allow subscribers to purchase items from Sh20 to a maximum of Sh100,000 and pay later. The service will be supported by Equity Bank, and will be available at selected merchants such as Naivas, Good Life Pharmacy and Citi Walk. The telco will not charge interest on the loans, however, the usual M-Pesa transaction charges will be applicable. Users will also be required to pay back the credited amount within 30 days. “You will only be required to repay the outstanding facility amount as advanced to you by…

The National Police Service is set to roll out a mobile application app to help women facing danger. The app will allow women who find themselves in precarious situations to click, live stream, chat or shake their phones to raise an alarm to the nearest police station. Officers at the station will then be able to pinpoint the exact scene where the signals are picked from before dispatching help. The initiative is as a result of efforts between NPS, Crown Trust, UN Women with plans to bring Safaricom onboard. According to the head of Election Security Secretariat at the National…

Apple has announced a new feature that will offer additional security to a group of people deemed to be at risk of ‘highly targeted attacks’. The ‘Lockdown mode’ feature can be activated by all users, but the company has developed it with the intention of offering protection to private companies, journalists, activists and government employees who may be at risk of state-sponsored attacks. “Lockdown Mode is a groundbreaking capability that reflects our unwavering commitment to protecting users from even the rarest, most sophisticated attacks. While the vast majority of users will never be the victims of highly targeted cyberattacks, we…

Digital taxi drivers can breathe a sigh of relief after the government lowered commission fees paid to the apps. The drivers will now be required to pay a maximum of 18 percent in commissions to the apps which include Uber and Bolt. “The commission which shall be paid by a transport network driver or a transport network owner to the transport network company, which shall not exceed eighteen per cent of the total earnings of the trip,” the new law says. According to the rules published by Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, the 18 percent cap also applies…

The High court has frozen bank accounts belonging to companies suspected to be involved in money laundering schemes by foreign nationals. A total of Sh7 billion was frozen from 56 accounts belonging to seven companies. Among the companies are Nigeria Fintech company, Flutterwave which provides merchant services, Boxtrip travel and tours limited, Bagtrip travel limited, Elivalat fintech limited, Adguru technology limited, Hupesi solutions, Cruz ride auto limited and an individual going by the name Simon Ngige. According to the Asset Recovery Agency, the seven entities used the 56 bank accounts to launder money under the guise of providing merchant services.…

Taxi-hailing app, Bolt, has launched its African hub in Kenya, joining a growing list of tech firms that are setting up base locally. The Estonian-based company’s local offices will be based at Riverside Drive and will host top managers who will oversee operations in the region. Bolt currently has a presence in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Tunisia. “Its strategic location in the region and the available infrastructure has enabled us to grow tremendously in the East African Market and we believe we can leverage this to still achieve more across the entire continent,” Bolt regional director…

Instagram and Facebook users around the globe have reported multiple challenges sending messages through the apps. The app allows users to send messages across the two Meta-owned apps on Messenger, although they can still be sent independently. According to outage monitor, Down detector, Instagram users are facing challenges whereby their messages are disappearing after they hit the send button. Some people have complained that they cannot view their messages, while others have said they are not able to reply. Read: Instagram Responses on Stories Will No Longer Be Sent to DMs There has been a spike in Instagram down reports since…

Internet usage in Kenya has tripled in the past seven years, a report by the Kenya Media Establishment Survey has shown. The survey which was conducted between April 20 and May 20 2022 showed that Radio is the most consumed media outlet in Kenya, followed by television, internet and print in that order. The poll, which was conducted by Ipsos showed that out of 34 million people surveyed, 27.3 million listen to radio, 25.5 million watch TV, 16.1 million have access to the internet and 6.2 million use print media. The usage in internet shows that it has tripled from…

A user on Facebook recently recounted the events surrounding a horrific accident involving a motorbike and a vehicle on Mombasa road. The bodaboda rider had a lady passenger who was rushing to do her errands. They got involved in an accident along Mombasa road. The lady was hauled off the motorbike where she landed on the road injured and unconscious. A good Samaritan approached the scene upon which the bodaboda rider fled. The lady was left in the hands of the good Samaritan who then rallied for support and got the lady to Penda medical facility. Read: Here are 10…

Popular Netflix Show, Stranger things, has been trending on social media since the release of its latest season. On July 1, the video-streaming company released the last two episodes of Stranger things 4 to an expectant audience, causing the app to crash. According to Downdetector, a website that records down times experienced on apps and websites, Netflix users started experiencing issues with the platform at around 3 a.m. ET. Online publication, Variety, reported that at least 13,000 people issued complaints at the top of the hour. Read: Netflix to help Produce Three Local Movies, Invest Sh33 million to Support Kenya’s Movies…