Author: Cyrus

We have very interesting fellows here. Some has just created a Facebook chat of Uhuru Kenyatta / Ruto and its all about the visit to the Hague by the latter. You might like the parody. It makes the Nairobi’s cold weather disappear though. The parody was created using Farcebook. What do you think of the chat?

Safaricom released its financial results and it looks impressive. The firm made Ksh 7.6B ($94 Million) in profits and unlike early last year when the VAS chief told us at Mobile Web East Africa that data was not key to Safaricom’s growth, it has now become key. Safaricom’s clientele represents a market share of 76.7%.   It says that the number of 3G enabled sites has increased significantly to 829 in the period, and the Wimax network has grown to a total of 164 sites with both networks offering coverage to a large proportion of the Kenya population. The company was…

There is this Niko Na Safaricom campaign which Safaricom reportedly spent over Ksh 60 Million to make and alot more to run. Safaricom has praised the advert as something which was done from scratch and it being an “original composition”. That is not coming out as the truth since in 2009, Qantas Air (Australian national carrier) ran a similar advert called The spirit of Australia. The campaigns looks similar in every bit and it is very hard for Safaricom to convince anyone that their is an original concept. If at all Safaricom copy pasted, then this is going to be…

The African Network for Localisation (ANLoc) – Training sub-project is calling for participation in three of its upcoming software localisation training events. ANLoc’s mission is to empower Africans to participate in the digital age by removing the last inch limitations imposed on language usage by the limitation of technology. The Training sub-project addresses the need for local localisation skills and runs training courses for local African language practitioners to empower themselves in the software translation process.

AccessKenya Group says that launch of the free online traffic cameras service by the Group to help ease traffic logistics, has resulted in more than 13.5 million hits on the AccessKenya home portal www.home.co.ke in October, compared to the 3 million hits recorded in September this year. That I doubt, AccessKenya has been loosing rankings for the last one or so months that a website which was ranked almost 12th by Alexa in Kenya is now 29th.

Safaricom has unveiled a major brand campaign saying that they aim to cement Safaricom’s connection with the Kenyan market. Building on the existing Niko na Safaricom tagline which has resonated with the firm’s over 16 million subscribers and other Kenyans, is touted as biggest brand commercial ever executed in the country. The commercial, shot with a huge cast of Safaricom staff, who are members of the Safaricom Choir, and put together by the firm’s advertising agency Redsky, will be relayed through a fully integrated 360 degree execution that will see it on TV, radio, retail units, press, billboards, websites, cinema…

Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has activated 4 X 64 STM 64  (39,000 Mbps) on the KPLC fiber optic network on the Nairobi-Mombasa power transmission line. This was done at an annual cost of Kshs 194 Million to KDN. KDN received an acceptance certificate from its contractor Alcatel Lucent who activated the fiber optic cable from Mombasa and Nairobi. This allows KDN to give customers diverse routes through the KPLC’s fiber cable. KDN’s customers are now assured of round-the-clock connectivity and security against vandalism on the Nairobi to Mombasa route. Vincent Wang’ombe, KDN Chief Marketing Officer, said:  “This connection gives our…

Riding on the popularity of the Beat it by Michael Jackson, Weird Al Yankovic created Eat it. Both videos have gone viral and a third version of the concept with different content and done by Seedwell is Tweet it. It has also gone viral with even CNN and Aljazeera featuring the same. It’s such a funny creation and worth watching. Watch it

Commissions Commission of Kenya (CCK)  has signed an MoU with the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) and United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK) in support of the creation of a Web Portal for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to provide relevant content to persons involved in the disability field. This initiative is part of the Ksh35 million project that the Commission launched last year which involved setting up eight (8) school-based ICT centres for Persons with Disability across the country. A second MoU has been signed between the Commission and the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) in a project…

The Mobile Monday community is growing in the continent. MobileMonday (MoMo ) is the open networking organisation idea for mobile industry professionals meant to foster cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events. Tanzanians joined the over 63 worldwide MoMo chapters by calling for the launch of the MoMo Tanzania this Friday. I wonder why they had to put the official launch on a Friday since its a Monday event but atleast they are making some steps and we appreciate that.

The ANC Youth League would call for the closure of Twitter if the social network administrators did nothing to stop its president Julius Malema’s impersonators, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. “We will look at ways of stopping this… Even if it means going to the police,” Floyd Shivhambu said. A search of Malema on twitter reveals 12 users including Julius_Malema, JMalema, Julius_S_Malema and jujumalema. Read More from News24

Safaricom clients with lines on 0718, 0719 and some 0722 numbers have not been able to originate nor terminate calls after some cable cuts around Museum Hill area. The CEO has promised that the engineers are working round everything (not the clock) to get the problem rectified. The problem has been bad in Nairobi with minor disruptions upcountry. As a result of the cut-off, some subscribers were unable to originate or even terminate calls on their handsets. Also affected were M-PESA, top-up and other services. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to our esteemed customers and assure…

iPad is getting competition all round. Microsoft, RIM and Samsung all jumped into the Tablet bandwagon even after so much criticising Steve Jobs. Jobs said that tablets is the way to go and many of the competitors launching the products now said that they didnt believe that PC users needs something which is between PCs and netbooks. Anyway, they all are making their products and the good news to users in Kenya is that we might be getting Galaxy Tab in two weeks. We might be getting the device on our hands by 15th if Customs dont delay the clearing.…

The competition in the financial services sector is heating up and players in the information technology services and solution provision sector are also upping their game to enable them provide innovative management solutions. CompuLynx ltd, a Nairobi headquartered international IT solutions provider has sealed a strategic partnership deal with Bevertec CST Inc to provide payment  Transaction solutions locally on the latters behalf. Bevertec is a leading developer of electronic payment systems and transaction processing solutions, with a focus on the financial services industry. The partnership announced today will see CompuLynx acting as a channel partner and systems reseller for Bevertec in…

Wh­en you have an idea and you want to commercialise it, you need funding  to get it off the ground. You need the money to purchase equipment like computers, phones and others. You also need money to pay support staff since not many of the employees, unless very passionate, would want to volunteer foor you. There are a few places you might get funding from for your idea, especially in Kenya where commercial bank and formal institutions doesn’t have much faith in our innovations