Author: Cyrus

Kenya’s Chief of Defence Forces General Samson Jefwa Mwathethe has been accused by a widow in Karen of trying to grab her five acre piece of land. According to the sickly Beatrice Sosa Adongo, she is retired and sick at home but caretakers of her property were chased by General Samson Mwathethe while accompanied by 3 other individuals on Thursday last week. The general together with the unidentified individuals threatened the caretakers of the property and decided to take over with the help a clique of officers from Karen Police Station. According to Beatrice Adongo, the land was allocated to…

Two Kenya Airways (KQ) planes 5Y-KYR and 5Y-FFF collided and severely damaged each other just in front of the airline’s hangar at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The two planes were up for what is called C4 Check which is a major maintenance of the engine after a period of time. After the maintenance, the planes have to undergo what is called Engine Run which is throttling the engine to the take off level while brakes and chokes are on. KQ has not invested in an engine run bay at the maintenance bay so the maintenance team always use an…

Telkom Kenya Limited and Airtel Networks Kenya Limited, today announced the signing of a binding agreement that will see the shareholders of the companies enter into an agreement to merge their businesses in Kenya to operate under a joint venture company to be named Airtel-Telkom. Telkom Kenya called its employees for a town hall meeting this afternoon where the employees laughed off the new name, even going as far asking the current CEO, Mugo Kibati, why it had to be that way. From the town hall meeting, the employees sounded uninspired and unenthusiastic in the announcement. Despite denials and loud silence…

Kenyans have reacted angrily to a move by ethnic Somali legislators and businessmen to raise over Ksh 30 million for family members of two young Somalis who were also killed in the DusitD2 hotel attacks. Through social media, netizens have questioned why they decided to raise money for those of their ethnicities and not all those who perished while the source of all problems is Somalia. The fundraising was for the families of Abdalla Dahir (33) and Feisal Ahmed (31) who were both killed in the DusitD2 attack in January. Abdalla was a photographer while Feisal just started a family…

icolo.io, a provider of carrier neutral colocation services, has announced the commencement of construction of their second data centre, called NBO1, in Nairobi. This is the second icolo.io data centre in the country following the construction of the company’s first data centre in Mombasa. Construction of the NMO1 data centre started in November 2018 and is expected to be complete in August 2019. This new site will host more than 250 racks and accommodate IT power of 825kW. NBO1 will have over 624m2 of rack space in an architectural design which sits on a 4,400m2 area and supposed to be concurrently maintainable. This data…

Police and intelligence officers have this morning raided National Transport Services Authority (NTSA) offices in Upper Hill and arrested top executives led by Director of Registration and Licensing, Jacklin Githinji. According to sources inside, Jackline is the second officer to be arrested in twenty four hours after one Musembi who actually gave the vehicle used in Dusit terror attack fake registration details. The investigations on fake registration just happened after the attack with police officers previously ignoring complains of fake registration of vehicles. NTSA has made itself a law unto itself with no proper monitoring and reporting to board or…

Indian billionaire and Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal is in Kenya after to sign the deal which will see Bharti Airtel Kenya merge with Helios owned Telkom Kenya. According to sources in the know, Sunil arrived in Kenya on a private jet through JKIA and was quickly whisked into a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta who also sneaked into Nairobi through the Madaraka SGR Train Service. President Uhuru came back last night with police, special units and contractors providing coverage throughout the route while two choppers escorted the train to Nairobi from Mombasa. The 61 year old Indian billionaire…

President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to arrive in Kisumu, his first visit after what Raila Odinga and his supporters have called “The Handshake”. The visit by President Uhuru comes at a time when the economy of the country is not at a great state but the two leaders enjoys a goodwill from the region which is known to religiously support opposition leader, Raila Odinga. The region has historically been marginalised economically and starved off by successive governments because of religiously being an opposition zone. Former Prime Minister and current opposition leader Raila Odinga has now indicated that he is not…

Kisumu Governor Peter Anyang Nyongo is being urged by residents and suppliers in Kisumu County to crack whip on plundering officers particularly in procurement Department. According to sources within the county, the worst hit is Health Department where Caren Adwenya who is from Western Kenya but married to Paul Adoyo, Chief Officer in Migori County is embroiled in Corrupt deals. Caren and her conduits apparently forces suppliers to part with 10 percent of a tender payment before landing a contract. A few months ago, the lady was bought a car by a lady supplier who had been promised a contract,…

UN Environment boss and former Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim has been forced to resign tonight after a UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report criticised his management style including love for travel. In a mail sent to the organisation’s staff, Erik Solheim has clearly indicated that the report has made it almost impossible to effectively deliver his mandate and his decision to step down was shared by Secretary General Antonio Guterres who is expected to name a successor. Report snippets; The move comes two months after the OIOS report indicted Erik Solheim with having “no regard for abiding by the…

Pan-African Payments company, Cellulant, has built Africa’s first Augmented Reality (AR) powered try-on experiences in Facebook Messenger, Mula. As part of the roll-out programme, Huddah Monroe’s Huddah Cosmetics has been selected as the first social commerce merchant on Mula to launch the platform. “For Huddah lipsticks, for example, the AR technology switches on the camera on your cellphone and engages the buyer to try different shades before making a choice and concluding the purchase through Mula seamlessly,” reads a statement from Cellulant. The new offering will include Mula Shops, an online shopping experience for micro-merchants (or Hustle-preneurs) on social networking sites. Read: Githu Muigai and Michael…

Chief of Staff for Homa Bay County Government Mr. Eliud Otieno and Economic Advisor in the office of the governor Mrs. Ruth Aloo are on the wanted list after the swindled about Ksh. 6 million out of a total of Ksh. 100 during Lake Region Economic Block Conference (LREB) in Bomet last month. The duo who were in charge of the programmes, logistics and facilitations for the Homa Bay team on behalf of their cartel known as G- seven which comprises Maurice Aluoch and two others elbowed out Chief of Protocol John Apollo and Governor Cyprian Awiti’s personal assistant David…

The second class of startups to go through Google’s Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme graduated on Friday in Lagos. Over the course of the three month program, the 11 startups comprising the second Launchpad Accelerator Africa Class engaged with 48 mentors from nine countries – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, UAE, UK, USA. “They have received $110,000 (Ksh11 million) in equity-free funding from Google, and, collectively, the 33 founders, from six countries, have created 253 jobs and raised over $12 million (Ksh1.2 billion) before and during the program,” says Folagbade Olatunji-David, head of startup success and services, Launchpad Accelerator Africa, Google. Among the…

WebSummit 2018 opened in Lisbon with keynote speaker UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres and Tim Berners-Lee championing for freedoms online but also warning that we need to be vigilant so as not to allow hate-speech, oppression and human rights abuse to thrive on the web. Hosted by Paddy Cosgrave in the historic city of Lisbon, home to great explorers like Vasco Da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Bartolomew Diaz, Henry the Great among others, WebSummit clearly lived to its billing as it ignites the enthusiasm of the tech community with great focus on entrepreneurs. Starting off after remarks by co-founder and CEO…

European aerospace corporation Airbus has launched #Africa4Future Challenge in a bid to find and connect African aerospace startups with intrapreneurs at Airbus. The intrapreneurs will work with the startups to speed up innovation and scale their product/service across Africa, according to a statement sent to newsrooms from Airbus. The challenge targets startups who are actively working on automation and drones, electrification, blockchain, artificial intelligence, data analytics, material composites and manufacturing. Applications are open from October 30, 2018 to November 30, 2018 on the Airbus website.  Following review, ten applicants will be selected to join the six-month #Africa4Future acceleration program starting on January…