Author: Francis Muli

The Huduma Namba card is set to replace the Kenya Revenue Authority PIN in new changes aimed at nabbing tax cheats. The government is proposing to amend the Tax Procedure Act in the New Huduma Namba Bill,2021 to make the biometric ID the key number for identifying tax payers. If the bill is adopted, children who have already registered with the Huduma Namba ID will be listed as taxpayers upon hitting 18 years, and will be required to start filing returns irrespective of their income or employment status. The amendment will also help KRA net in more taxpayers than the…

A third-year student from Kenyatta University has been charged with obtaining food and drinks from a city hotel using fake M-pesa messages. Emmanuel Bwire was arraigned at the Milimani law courts where he was charged with presenting fake M-pesa messages as proof of payment for food and drinks worth Sh189,000 from Hillpark Hotel in Nairobi. He committed the offenses between December 13 and 16 this year. During the period, the student is reported to have placed many orders on various days. In the first instance, the accused gave a transaction code to a waitress and a security guard who was…

Dubai-based airline, Emirates has suspended all Kenyan flights for the next 48 hours. Through a statement on their website, the airline said the suspension was in line with a directive from the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority “As per directive from Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), all air transport services with inbound and transit passenger movements to the emirate of Dubai from any point in the Republic of Kenya are temporarily suspended for 48 hours effective from December 20, 2021 at 10.30am (local time). Customers will not be accepted for travel on Emirates flights at Nairobi during this time. Outbound passenger…

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has appointed three Nigerian citizens to the board of the Bitcoin Trust Fund he founded with American rapper, Jay Z last year. Abubakar Nur Khalil, Obi Owusu, and Ojoma Ochai who were appointed to the board were recognized for their efforts in the promotion of bitcoin development in Africa. A South African, Carla Kirk-Cohen was selected along the Nigerians from a pool of 7,000 applicants. “They’ll now work towards defining the operating principles as they think about how to best distribute the 500 bitcoin towards development efforts,” Dorsey tweeted. Read: Kenya Lagging on Regulation Plans as Bigger…

In the last 24 hours, 1,372 people have tested positive for Covid-19 from a sample size of 5,635 tested. This brings the total number of positive cases to 263,707 and the cumulative tests to 2,930,320. The positivity rate is now 24.4 percent. 74 people have recovered from the disease. Out of those, 50 have been discharged from various health facilities countrywide while 24 have been discharged from the home based care and isolation program. Read: Kenya Announces 550 Covid-19 Cases, 7 Deaths in 24 Hours A total of 278 Covid-19 patients are currently admitted at the hospital while 4,996 are on…

National assembly Speaker, Justin muturi, has undergone a minor surgery to repair a fracture on his right shoulder and is now recuperating. According to the speaker, the fracture occured three weeks ago when he tried to pull a drawer at his office. His seat slid off the glass chair mat and he ended up hurting his right hand shoulder. Three weeks ago, just before the House went on recess, I had a minor accident in the office, I sought medical attention and was released to recuperate at home,” Muturi explained through tweets on his timeline. Read: Speaker Justin Muturi Claims To…

The death toll from the collapsed four storey building at Sunstar hotel in Gatanga, Murang’a has risen to six after five bodies were retrieved from the site and another person succumbed to injuries at the hospital. Eight workers comprising four plumbers, three masons and one hand are believed to have been trapped in the rubble when the building collapsed on Friday. During a visit to the site on Sunday, Roads and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, said that one person had succumbed to injuries in the hospital, bringing the fatalities to six. He added that rescue efforts would continue to…

Two suspects who were captured on CCTV vandalizing the Standard Gauge Railway Transformers are on the run, according to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). Detectives manning the SGR system remotely reportedly received a signal which led to the discovery of the duo who using spanners to vandalize a key power supply unit in Makindu. The thugs allegedly took off to the nearby thickets after spotting the beaming lights from the police car dispatched to arrest them. “Unbeknownst to the thugs, the transformers fitted with a round-the-clock surveillance system had already sent their images to our command centre. ” the…

Kitutu Chache MP, Richard Onyonka is lucky to be alive after he survived a poisoning incident on Friday. The MP had attended a rally in Ibacho, Masaba South where an unidentified man passed him a bottle of water. He took a swig at the bottle, but could not swallow the water as he claimed it tasted different. Onyonka is said to have started bleeding from his mouth, before he was rushed to the hospital. He was discharged after an overnight stay. Read: Wrangles in Ford Kenya Intensify as Wetang’ula Dismisses Eseli’s Notice for Delegates Conference The MP is a key alley…

The Malindi law court has overturned a ruling against Member of County Assembly for Mkomani ward in Lamu County, Yahya Ahmed. The MCA had been jailed for nine years and six months after he was charged with attempting to aid the escape of three people who had been convicted of drug trafficking. Judge Reuben Nyakundi delivered the ruling after an appeal was made at the courts. Ahmed was released on a Sh.300,000 bail. Read Also: Gov’t Restricts Sale Of Chloroquine Drug, Cautions Public Against Using It To Treat COVID-19 In his ruling, the judge said that he differed with the lower…

Facebook’s parent company, Meta reportedly acquired the trademark assets of a U.S regional bank, Meta Financial Group, in a $60 million deal. The company, formerly known as Facebook transitioned to Meta in October this year, effectively putting its social media brands WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, under the umbrella name. The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the Meta Brand reflects the company’s vision focusing on the Metaverse. This is an alternative digital world comprising shared digital spaces accessed through numerous devices. Read: Facebook to Rebrand to New Name that Aligns with Metaverse Strategy Meta has invested a lot in virtual…

Cyber threats in Kenya increased by 268.9 percent between July and September 2021, data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has shown. By the end of September, the number of threats had risen from 38.8 million in the previous quarter to 143 million. Cyberthreat advisories by the regulator also increased 183.3 percent to 73,578 compared to 26,000 in the previous year. However, overall investigated cases fell 53.3 percent to 247 in the quarter ended June 2021, down from 529 in the previous quarter. “The rise in cyber threat events detected was attributed to the significant increase in targeted attacks…

Meta has admitted that at least 50,000 user accounts might have been spied on by seven commercial “surveillance-for-hire” schemes located in 100 countries. Among the targeted accounts were those of journalists, government critics, human rights activists, and families of opposition. The tech giant investigated the matter for a month and identified the spying groups before removing them from Facebook. “These companies are part of a sprawling industry that provides intrusive software tools and surveillance services indiscriminately to any customer — regardless of who they target or the human rights abuses they might enable,”Meta’s director of threat disruption, David Agranovich, and…

Meta has announced the addition of some new features to the Ray Ban smart glasses which were launched mid-this year. Users will now be able to send and receive messages on Messenger right from their faces. According to a post by the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the latest features are just a tip of what to expect for the product. The glasses come with built-in mics, speakers, and assistant to send messages, have the messages read out to you, and launch audio calls from Facebook Messenger. Zuckerberg says the glasses will have even more updates by 2022. Ray Ban stories…

Self-proclaimed African Popstar Nadia Mukami has announced her intention to sue upcoming artists over what she terms as fake copyright claims on YouTube. Taking to Instagram, the youthful singer said an upcoming artiste had submitted a copyright claim against her song ‘Tesa’ which features Fena Gitu and Khaligraph Jones. “I am officially going to court! I am ready to spend all the money I have, all the coins i have made to ensure that no person in this music industry will ever send a malicious copyright strike again.” Nadia said on her account. According to Nadia, the song which was…