Author: Francis Muli

Twitter has announced that it is testing inserting ads into conversations. According to the company’s revenue product lead Bruce Falck, ads will be placed right under the first, thirdnor eighth reply under a tweet. “We’ll test different frequencies, layouts, contextually relevant ads, different insertion points, etc. And we’ll examine our learnings and figure out if it’s something we want to make permanent,” Falck said. “We’re excited about trying this out for our advertisers and we’re eager to explore how it could open the door for additional opportunities to reward Tweet authors and creators. More to come.” he said. Read: Twitter Users…

The cost of a litre of kerosene has dropped by the biggest margin of Ksh7.28 in the October 2021 fuel prices review. The price of super petrol, on the other hand, has dropped by Ksh5 per litrewhile the price of diesel has also dropped by an equal margin of Ksh5. Monthly Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows inflation rose to 6.91 per cent in September, from 6.57 per cent in August. The drop in fuel prices comes despite an increase in the landed cost of petrol and diesel, where that of petrol increased by 1.71 per cent from…

Safaricom and The National Hospital Insurance Fund have launched an NHIF mini-apppp within the M-Pesa Super App. The mini app will allow NHIF customers access to all the insurer’s services through the M-Pesa super app remotely. This means that users will not need visit NHIF offices physically or download a separate app. The mini app already offers payment and reconciliation services with procedure approvals set to be available soon. Read: Accredited Hospitals to Biometrically Register Obsolete NHIF Card Holders Seeking Services NHIF CEO Peter Kamunyo said NHIF is currently undertaking a digital transformation of all its processes. These include the registration…

The high court has declared the roll out of the Huduma Namba illegal, saying it contravened the data protection act. During the ruling on Thursday, Justice Jairus Ngaah said the state had failed to conduct a data protection impact assessment prior to rolling out the cards. “An order is hereby issued to bring into this honourable court to quash the government decision of November 18 2020 to roll out Huduma cards for being ultra vires of the data protection act 2019,” the court ruled. Read: Gov’t Distributing 3.8m Huduma Namba Cards, Urges Kenyans to Act on Prompt Messages The judge further…

Members of Parliament have expressed different opinions following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reaction to Kenya-Somalia Maritime Border ruling by the international court of justice (ICJ). In a ruling delivered on Tuesday, ICJ handed Mogadishu a huge chunk of the disputed tract of sea that is believed to be oil and gas-rich. President Uhuru Kenyatta rejected the court’s decision, stating that the state would not recognize the ruling. “At the outset, Kenya wishes to indicate that it rejects in totality and does not recognize the findings in the decision. The decision embodies a perpetuation of the ICJ’s jurisdictional overreach and raises a…

Uber drivers in Kenya can breathe a sigh of relief after a high court Justice Francis Tuiyott paved the way for a suit against the company. The judge has ruled that Uber Kenya Ltd, Uber International Holding BV and Uber Internatinal BV have links that cannot be severed and can be jointly sued. The story dates back to 2016 when 34 Kenyan uber drivers filed a suit against Uber Kenya after they claimed that the company had violated an online contract. According to the online contract, the drivers were expected to transport customers at a minimum of $0.54 per kilometre,…

Orbit Products Africa Limited (Opal), owned by Manu Chandaria kin Sachen Chandaria is set to sell its factory in Mlolongo to Mauritius-based Grit Real Estate Income Group for Ksh6 billion. This comes even as the company looks to clear a loan burden owed to creditors, with at least Ksh2.5 billion owed to the NCBA Bank. “This innovative sale and leaseback transaction is amongst the largest across the sub-continent, with the strategic partnership with Grit representing a significant long-term undertaking by Orbit and reaffirms our commitment to Kenya and the region,” said Mr Sachen in a statement. Even after buying the…

The price of super petrol in Kenya is set to drop by Ksh.10.49 if MPs adopt new proposals by the Finance and National Planning Committee. The committee led by Gladys Wanga proposes a slash of value-added tax (VAT) by half on diesel, petrol and kerosene, which will see buyers charged four per cent on VAT from the current eight percent. The committee also proposes that the petroleum development levy charged on the supply of petrol and diesel be reduced to Ksh2.90 from Ksh5.40 presently. If the proposals are adopted, supplier margins (profits made by oil marketing companies (OMCs)) will be…

Samsung has announced its ‘Galaxy Unpacked Part 2’ event to be held on Wednesday October 20. The company is expected to unveil varieties of its Galaxy series during the event. A message from Samsung hinted at personalization of the devices. “Our users are multifaceted and live life in so many colorful, interesting, and unique ways. As such, the technology they use every day should reflect their individuality.” Read: Samsung Unveils The Galaxy A42 5G- Here are the Specs “Join Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 on October 20 to see how Samsung is opening up new experiences for self-expression through technology.” the tech…

Mwananchi Credit has accused high net worth individuals and companies of borrowing monies with no intention of repaying loans. In a statement to newsrooms, the micro-financier revealed that it was battling court cases, as a result of failure by such borrowers to service their loans. “Mwananchi is one of the few Micro Finance Institutions that offer large sums of loans to single individuals. Because of this, a few wayward clients, most of them high net worth, have come to borrow monies from Mwananchi Credit with the sole intention of not repaying those monies. They have perfected the art of misusing…

The Communications Authority of Kenya is set to hand over 5G licenses to the first mobile network operators by December 2022. According to a new draft policy outlining the 5G implementation road map, the regulator is planning to commence the 5G trial networks in 3.5 giga-Hertz (GHz) next month. The CA is also planning a 5G summit in january 2022 with the implementation of 5G pilot projects slated to kick off in May. Players in the industry will be able to access 5G spectrum via auction from the regulator in august before mobile network operators are allowed to implement the…

Korean series ‘Squid Game’ is officially Netflix’s biggest ever series at launch. The company announced that it had amassed 111 million fans since September 17 “Squid Game has officially reached 111 million fans — making it our biggest series launch ever!” Netflix said on their Twitter handle. The series follows through the lives of individuals who are caught up in children’s games as they desperately attempt to free themselves from deep financial trouble. Read: Netflix Users on Android Get Feature to Stream Partially Downloaded Videos Netflix said Squid Game had broken Bridgerton’s 82 million record in the first 28 days of…

A secret company registered in the British Virgin Islands has been roped in the Ksh1 billion deal to buy Nairobi’s Fairview Hotel, Town Lodge and City Lodge Two Rivers. Revelations indicate that Jamison Valley Holdings will buy the hotels in collaboration with equity firm Actis. The two have formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) listed in Mauritius called Msafiri Limited. Msafiri has a company named Ukarimu real estate, which will buy the hotels. “Jamison does not intend to disclose any additional information, including details of its structure to any third parties other than those contained in the Commission’s Merger Inquiry…

There is no evidence to show Somalia submitted to Kenya’s use of latitude and longitude to determine maritime borders, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled. As a result, the ICJ ruled that there is no “de facto” maritime border between Kenya and Somalia, therefore setting a new border that cuts through the disputed area. However, most of the disputed maritime territory has been given to Somalia, setting the ground for a renewed dispute between the two nations. Kenya had argued that the border should run parallel to the equator just like in other nations bordering the Indian Ocean,…

Twitter is rolling out a ‘soft block’ feature that will allow users to remove followers without actually blocking them. The feature can be accessed through your Twitter profile by going to followers, clicking on the three dots next to a follower and then clicking the ‘Remove this follower’ option. The follower will be removed without a notification,  meaning they will not be aware that you have soft blocked them. Read: Twitter Direct Messages Get New Updates The difference between a soft block and normal blocking is that a follower who is soft blocked can still see your tweets and send you…