Author: Cyrus

Veteran teacher and newspaper columnist, Betty Caplan, died on Sunday in London. Betty succumbed to terminal lung cancer which she was diagnosed with last month and given just 1 month to live. Betty was a long time columnist in the Daily Nation and recently wrote a piece for The Star while she was based in Istanbul Turkey. She also did a piece for The Guardian. Apart from The Standard, Star and Daily Nation, she also previously contributed articles for the Guardian, New Statesman, T.E.S, the Financial Times, The East African, Guardian Weekly (all UK) and in Africa the Times of Zambia.…

People wonder why First Lady Margaret Kenyatta is so passionate about #BeyondZero campaign. Many thought it was just a PR campaign for President Uhuru. The sad truth is that the First Lady lost one of her children during birth some 20 years ago. The second-born baby girl after Jomo Kenyatta died immediately she was born. The now First Lady was traumatised then and took some counselling to ever recover. That is why she has a passion to help mothers not lose their kids when giving birth.

The Vice President of Tanzania, Dr Mohammed Khalib Bilali has today survived an helicopter accident while he was inspecting the havoc caused by the heavy rain currently pounding the city. The VP was accompanied by Dar-es-salaam Regional Commissioner Mr Said Meck Sadick and Regional Police Commander Mr Suleiman Kova and others. None was seriously injured and they later continued inspecting the rain-damaged infrastructure after another Police Helicopter was brought to pick them up. MORE

Pay Television Company StarTimes Media has cut the cost of its top Premium television bouquet. The bouquet with access to over 76 local and international channels will now retails at just Ksh 1,499 per month from 1,999 reflecting a 25% saving for subscribers ahead of the Easter celebrations. The Company is giving its subscribers an early Easter gift encompassing access to 13 Premium Pay Television channels at no cost for seven days. StarTimes subscribers will from the 11th to 17th April be able to enjoy exclusive entertainment. The move seems to be a reaction to the recent problem of subscribers now having…

Standard Group CEO is a man under siege. He has decided to officially play to the tunes of his masters at State House. He has thrown media objectivity aside to force editors and journalists to suck up to the people at the House on the Hill. Any staff who is not comfortable with the move or dare ask him questions he feels uncomfortable are promptly shown the door. Sam Shollei is killing the Standard Group in a way that didn’t happen even when Moi was President. Already he has force the Mohammed Ali to edit the Jicho Pevu expose on…

APA Insurance has today presented Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) with a KSh1.47 billion compensation cheque. This final cheque fully settles the claim from the August 7, 2013 fire at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The JKIA Fire gutted parts of the regional travel hub in 2013. This brings the total compensation for the inferno by the insurer, which gutted the international arrivals terminal at JKIA, to KSh1.97 billion.  In December 2013, APA presented to KAA an interim KSh500 million payout to facilitate the reconstruction of the new arrivals terminal at JKIA, East and Central Africa’s busiest airport. The presentation of…

The aunt of USA President Barack Obama who has been sick for sometime, Zeituni Obama, has died in USA. According to family sources, Zeituni died this night in Boston. Mama Sarah Obama is really devastated by the news of the death of her daughter. Former PM Raila Odinga recently visited Zeituni in Boston hospital and shared the picture below. Zeituni who is a Muslim might just be buried in USA but Mama Sarah Obama wants her brought home. Zeituni is the half aunt of US President Barack Obama. She is famously referred to as Aunti Zeituni in Obama’s memoir Dreams from…

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto are reported to be taking the leadership in stride. The so called dynamic duo are said to have stuck to their old phone number. President Uhuru can still be found on 0722-208997 while William Ruto is on 0722-517997. The two might not be able to pick up everyone’s calls but the President is said to be a keen reader of all SMS messages he is sent. The security of their communication has been enhanced but the two are not ditching their old cellphone numbers soon.

KBC has a restaurant inside the Kijabe Street compound called Abondoz. It is owned and managed by the Abondoz group which also run a similar restaurant in Luther Plaza along Nyerere Road. KBC staff who have been exclusively taking their morning tea and lunch meals from the restaurant have complained of food poisoning that they thought that something is very wrong with the restaurant. One staff member discovered that water served during meals is from the main toilet. A KBC journalist secretly photographed one Abondoz waitress collecting water in jugs ready to serve to patrons. Now the KBC staff are…

Microsoft partnered with Digital Publishing firm Kagiso Media to launch its MSN portal in Africa. Barely an year later, the tech giant has shown that the African market is not as enticing as they thought and so they are making a full about-turn and fully exiting the market. Howzit MSN for Kenya and Nigeria are already in the process of being shut down while the South Africa property will be offline by June. Microsoft thought that it would use the HowZit MSN portals in Africa to penetrate the online advertising and search market so dominated by Google. Microsoft launched its…

According to Daily News, British terrorist, Samantha Lewthwaite might be planning more attacks in Kenya targeting US and Western installations to avenge the death of Makaburi, her mentor. Abubakara Shariff Ahmed, also known as Makaburi (meaning graveyard), is said to be the person who recruited Samantha Lewthwaite, 29, to al-Shabaab. Makaburi was shot dead by unidentified gunmen wearing white robes while he was leaving Shanzu Law Courts within the Shimo La Tewa Prison facilities. Already al-Shabaab sympathisers have identified the 5 star Swahili Beach hotel in Diani as the CIA operation base in Mombasa and might be planning to attack…

26-year old Kenyan-born professional boxer plying his trade in UK, Erick The Eagle Ochieng’ was fighting Paddy Gallagher in a  Prize Fighter quarter final bout in East London’s Bethnal Green arena. He collapsed after winning the fight forcing the organisers to have his challenger Paddy Gallagher replace him in the semi-final bout against Mark Doughlas. Mark Douglas lasted only 31 seconds with Gallagher who later lost to Johnny Coyle on points in the final bout. Ochieng’ left Kenya to fight for United Kingdom in professional boxing. Ochieng’ has fought 19 times winning 15 and losing 4 with no knockout defeat. He has…

Kiss TV has a show called Live on Blast. The hosts are Model Aqua Bonsu’s brother Kwame Bonsu and Yvonne Chege. They are always backed up by DJ Hypnotiq (one of the best DJs in the country). So Yvonne and Kwame have chemistry on set but also in real life. They are so attracted to each other. Things got heated this past week that they decided to satisfy the Omieri and Nam Lolwe in the parking lot. They just didn’t realise that they provided free movie to the poor G4S guards who are always manning Lion Place 24/7. Now everyone…

The son of the late Wahome Mutahi “Whispers,” Patrick Mutahi Wahome was last night arrested and detained in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Patrick was to attend a conference in the country controlled by dictators. He never made an entry into the country as the intelligence of the regime already knew that he was someone who might give them trouble. He was arrested at the Bole International Airport over unspecified charges. Patrick is an author a fact which might have alerted the radars of the Addis Ababa despots to detain him. There is no free media in Ethiopia with any…

Kenya Airways’ budget wing JamboJet is charging everyone who books their flight a Ksh 100 which is called Kenya Railways Fee. I don’t know which tax this is but it might be those taxes introduced to fund the Standard Gauge Railways through the back door. Meanwhile, President Uhuru is tomorrow expected to receive the first Boeing  787 Dreamliner plane. The aircraft is expected to touch down at 8AM at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Tansport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau and Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni are expected to be present during the reception.