Author: Cyrus

Safaricom CEO, Michael Joseph announced at the Connected Government Summit in Diani that the company is to start deploying 4G network countrywide. The announcement is somewhat surprising considering that Safaricom has not fully deployed 3G with even many areas in Mombasa and even Nairobi still on EDGE. Speaking during the opening of the Connected Government Summit in Mombasa, the CEO said his firm will this year invest Sh23 billion to expand and upgrade its data infrastructure as it gears up to offer reliable services to all Kenyans.

Safaricom launched today what they billed as “end of the month offer” but it turning out to be End of The Month Chaos at most retail centers. It was a wise idea to sell the old stock at half or up to 80% cheaper but it was wrong to do that without preparations at all. I started my journey from Buruburu centre and asked for Blackberry 8900 and HTC Touch HD both which were available but the Supervisor at the centre, a Ms Susan, told me that Buruburu is a new shop and was not under the promotion.

Its been one hell of a Makmende week in Kenya with virtually Facebook and Twitter taken over by a new trending topic which if you are in then you are in but if you dont grasp an idea of what Makmende is then you will just not understand it. In every hood, street and ghetto there are victims and villains. Those growing in Kenyan urban centres had a guy who would kick-ass and bring all bullies to repent.

The Island nation of Madagascar has been connected to Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System, EASSy fibre optic cable that connects countries on Africa’s eastern coast to the rest of the world, Telecom Malagasy (Telma) said Saturday. The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is an initiative to connect countries of eastern Africa via a high bandwidth fibre optic cable system to the rest of the world. It is considered a milestone in the development of information infrastructure in the region.

Nokia Communication Manager for East and Southern Africa, Dorothy Ooko, is a very angry lady. She sent an email which borders in torture to the reader to this write claiming this and that. I wrote Nokia EA some mail back asking for information about some products they were intending to launch and also information about some research they were carrying out. Nobody got back to me and so I went for the jugular. I contacted Dorothy Ooko with a terse, you know I can sometimes hit below the belt, facebook message which I knew would provoke even Mwai Kibaki to…

Safaricom CEO, Michael Joseph has just confirmed that yes he might be retiring this year but no decision on the actual date or if at all he is going this year has been made yet. In a one line email responding to my question, Mr Joseph says that no decision has been made yet. Rich broke the news of the impending retirement in a podcast featuring an interview with Joseph. It will be interesting to watch who will succeed MJ as he is famously called in the blogosphere and forums.

Early this week, Ndung’u Wainaina the ICPC Executive Director claimed how the offices of his organisation was broken into, computers stolen and so they have lost important and incriminating evidence against post-elections violence perpetrators. I have not come to understand how this happened. But simple questions through email sent to Ndung’u Wainaina made him inform me that in fact he is suing me for asking those questions. Let me repeat the questions; Didnt the organization do any back-ups of the very important data? Backup does not mean that you do electronic only. You can even make many copies and store…

The PanAfrican Media Summit is happening in Nairobi. It is jointly organised by Africa Media Initiative and Nation Media group and it comes at a time when Nation is Celebrating 50 years since the first publication of the then “The Nation”. Key points from the discussions have basically been on how African media can tell the African story, how citizen journalism is making an impact and how “ethical” are citizen journalists. I retorted in a twitter post that African Media cannot tell African story when all we get are copy paste of stories from Reuters, AP, CNN, Aljazeera and news…

Orange Kenya has been on the media crying alot about not making money or being cheated out of the whole deal by the Kenyan government. What Orange Kenya is not talking about is its very pathetic customer care. I have had issues dealing with very very rude customer care agents. Its not the telecare agents but also the customer care or salespeople at its shops. Take the case where I went to buy an Iphone for a client of mine at Teleposta towers shop of Orange. First there was only a box of iphone on display at the shop and…

Rwanda’s mobile money transfer services are set for further expansion following Rwandatel’s intention to offer the service to their clientele. It follows in the footsteps of rival MTN Rwanda which was the first telecoms provider to offer the services. MTN announced that it had assisted its clients transfer Rwf 60 million ever since it launched the services in January this year.

I received the email from Wikileaks edito, Assang Julian on how the US Intelligence planned to destroy the Leak website. I thought this was some kind of spam or joke from all over like it always happens. Butcounter-checking the address and also the link revealed more. The Summary reads;

It’s happening today at International School of Kenya and it’s such an inspiring bit of Tech event where Microsoft is having the DigiGirlz forum. Its a place where inspiring stories are told. Should have heard these wonderful ladies talk; Njeri Rionge (Wanachi Group), Muthoni Masinde (University of Nairobi), Hital Muraj (Cisco Networking Academy), Wanja Muriithi (Impact Distribution), Catherine Adeya (ICT Consultant), Alice Munyua (ICANN) and Regina Mutoko (USIU). Despite the Kenya media giving the event a wide berth, it was a great opportunity to inpire young ladies. Hital Muraj was full of praise of Microsoft for such and undertaking. Microsoft’s…

In a blog post today, YouTube announced that it is now able to show ads in Mobile version of the video sharing website. The increased usage of high-end smartphones like the Nexus One,  iPhone, Nokia and Android is making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers. YouTube is launching ads on the home, search and browse pages of its American and Japanese mobile websites (m.youtube.com). This is a way for which advertisers expect to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms. At launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the…

Integrated Telecommunications solutions provider Telkom Kenya has moved to further raise the heat on the Kenyan mobile tariffs scene with the launch of three flexible tariff packages on its Orange Mobile . The three monthly prepaid tariff packages now branded as Bunda za Orange is geared at enhancing the Orange Niaje Tariff value by providing a range of benefits tailor made for specific consumers.

A local film production company has embarked on a grueling journey to retrace the steps of the Mau Mau freedom fighters struggle and their collaborative interaction with the Indian dukawallahs. The more than Kshs 25 million feature film is the debut production of Wide Angle Visions, a local film production company and will feature Kenyan actors Tony Njuguna and Mehul Savani alongside Bollywood film star of American descent Tom Alter. Titled Muigwithania, the film is set on the original Mau Mau strategic locations in Kabete on the outskirts of Nairobi. Speaking when he confirmed the commencement of the movie shoot,…