Author: Cyrus

Tech logistics company Glovo has partnered with the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) in a road safety campaign to train all riders using its platform on road safety. The campaign, which aims to bolster road safety in Kenya, is part of Glovo’s strategy to ensure high road safety standards as well as compliance with public transport regulations amongst riders using the Glovo platform. READ: Kisumu Girls School Under Probe After Mysterious Death of Student Speaking during the partnership announcement William Benthall, the Glovo General Manager for Kenya said that the partnership underlines Glovo’s commitment to work with the government to…

Leading technology firm Cellulant has today announced the launch of Tingg, a consumer payment, commerce and financial services app. In Kenya, Tingg offers third-party service from utility payments for water, electricity, airtime and PayTv through partnerships with; KFC and Simbisa Group, (Pizza Inn, Chicken Inn and Creamy Inn) to offer Tingg Food, and with Go Beba to offer gas delivery under Tingg Assisted Shopping. Consumers can access Tingg by dialling *369# or download the app to also create and manage investment groups (chamas) and fundraisers (Changa) for weddings, funerals, education harambees. READ: M-kopa Used Ksh19 Million For Work Permits For Foreigners,…

Rwanda’s Mara Group launched two Android-based smartphones is called the first “Made in Africa” phones. Starting off with the flagship Mara X and basic Mara Z, the two phones feature fingerprint scanners, nano-SIM, and a standard 720×1440 pixel resolution screen on both. The Mara X relies on the Mediatek MT6739 processor while the Mara Z runs on the Qualcomm MSM8940 Snapdragon 435 chip. They will retail at Ksh 19,000 (175,750 Rwandan francs) for the Mara X and Ksh 13,000 (120,250 Rwandan francs) for the Mara Z. READ: Six Safaricom Staffers Arrested In Connection To Ksh70 Million Sacco Scam The launch of…

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is scheduled to be in Africa in the month of November, with visits scheduled for ghana, South Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Making the announcement on his Twitter handle, Jack tagged some three African tech brains who seems to be the people he is scheduled to meet. Headed to Africa for all of November! Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. Going to spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs, including @betelhem_dessie @noelkudu @GETNETASEFFA! pic.twitter.com/PcLCw8LZwr — jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 4, 2019 Betelhem Dessie, a young Ethiopian developer who is also the Founder and CEO of iCog- Anyone…

Local media house, Royal Media Services (RMS) which owns Citizen TV and other TV and radio stations has embarked on a process of discarding local productions which have lived past their sell-by date. According to sources within the leading media house, local productions which have been running longer than they should have been will be retired or left to run on the Viusasa platform. Some of the productions which are going to be affected are the likes of Inspekta Mwala, Papa Shirandula, Mother-In-Law, Machachari among others. Already Machachari has been replaced by Johari since the previous cast outgrew the production…

The battle for Kibra Constituency is emerging to be a fight between key individuals and camps which are positioning themselves inside the Presidency and State House. According to sources close to the Presidency and State House, President Uhuru Kenyatta, PS Karanja Kibicho, Muhoho Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are all actively involved in the by-election. The battle which is pitting some of the most powerful individuals in the country is proving to be so polarising that even Raila is now thinking twice and just looking for ways of working with whoever will win the seat. First, it is President…

Vodacom Tanzania is not able to properly respond to the allegations that it’s being used to infringe on the privacy of its clients, some who face risks of arrests, abduction, and execution by the bloodthirsty Tanzanian government. READ: Tanzanian Police Confirm Arrest Of Journalist Erick Kabendera According to the family of the recently abducted Tanzanian journalist, Eric Kabendera, the mobile services provider disabled the phone line of the journalist shortly before he was abducted by state operatives, mostly from the intelligence services who later handed him over to the police after public outcry. Jamani kuanzia Leo rasmi naacha kutumia vodacom ili…

Telkom Kenya has announced a partnership with Nairobi County Government and Meelin Media Limited to provide free public wireless internet in select parts of the city. READ  Telkom Courts SMEs With Cloud-based Voice Service, ‘Omniconnect’ According to Telkom Kenya, the initiative dubbed Link Kenya Project will see three internet hotspots deployed within the central business district, around Aga Khan Walk, Memorial Park, and Ambassador. READ: Carnivore Stampede Victim’s Family Still Seeking Justice Years After The Death Of Son Mark Karuu Each of the hotspots has a double-sided 55-inch LCD screen that will run paid advertisements to cater for the cost of…

Leading financial technology firm Cellulant has today announced a partnership with Adyen – a global payment company, to increase Adyen’s capability to offer its global merchants access to key local payment methods in major African markets. Adyen’s move into Africa highlights how its single payment platform can drive growth with one integration and no extra contracts. READ: Safaricom Launches Overdraft Facility For Mpesa Users, Fuliza With Cellulant processing over 12% of Africa’s digital payments, Adyen will have access to 40 mobile money operators, over 600 local & international merchants and over 120 banks in Africa with just a single integration to Cellulant’s…

Touted as one of the best smartphones of the year 2019, Huawei P30 Pro is now facing a bleak future as the phone giant deals with the ripple effects of US blacklisting it over espionage suspicions. Various news websites including Ubergizmo and Forbes are reporting that the smartphone is losing more than 90% in value on various e-commerce platforms. In the U.K., websites like musicmagpie have Samsung S10+ being traded in for £510 (Ksh 83,500) while Huawei P30 Pro now trades in for just £100 (Ksh 12,800). READ: Samsung Fined $340,000 For Hiring Internet Trolls to Bash HTC Launched at the…

Oracle has finally fired it’s controversial East Africa boss, Corine Mbiaketcha who has faced accusations of corruption and favouritism in the East Africa office. According to a recent communication sent out to staff, Corine is being removed and her position will now be handled by Andrew Sordam, the Vice President and Regional Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa. Corine Mbiaketcha has not only been involved in cases of fraud where she is known to give kickbacks to senior government officials who push through contracts, but she has also been accused of removing many Kenyans from the East Africa office and bring…

WhatsApp has announced that it is adding a layer of protection to the messaging platform’s users with a view of clamping down on those adding others to groups against their will with the aim of spreading propaganda, fake news or misinformation. According to the company, this will “help to limit abuse” and keep people’s phone numbers private. The app will also now have an invite system which makes it easy for a user to limit which invites he/she can receive from group admins or other users. This move comes on the wake of recent calls for limit to WhatsApp in…

Kenya’s Equity Bank has indicated that it is at an advanced stage of introducing Chinese financial services WeChat Pay and Alipay in the country. Kenyan-based regional financial institution Equity Bank plans to boost presence of WeChat Pay and Alipay in Africa, a banker said on Monday. Speaking to Xinua News Agency, the Managing Director of Finserve Africa, Jack Ngaresaid that they are continuing to make the Chinese financial services technologies available in four East African countries – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Finserve Africa is a wholly owned subsidiary of Equity Bank. According to Ngare, Finserve Africa is at advanced…

The wife of Deputy President William Ruto, mama Rachel Ruto, was involved in a Kenya Airways KQ 619 plane mishap at Mombasa International Airport on Friday night. According to sources at the airport, Rachel Ruto was scheduled to depart Mombasa to Nairobi aboard KQ 619 plane (22:10 hrs) which was later canceled and passengers put on Jambojet 8619. The JamboJet flight was also forced to turn back to Mombasa midflight because one of the engines failed. Passengers were told that the flight was canceled and only 20 passengers of the 70 on board managed to find hotel bookings for the…