Author: Cyrus

A Kenyan startup and an American based advertising agency with local presence, TBWA, have launched a social media monitoring app in the market. The app which look to tap in to the yet to be exploited social media monitoring and management will help individuals and firms to properly track track sentiments online. The app has capability to track both Twitter and Facebook. Future versions of the same app will be able to monitor even the Google+, blogs, Pinterest, Foursquare and other social media platforms. The developers, African Laughter, are already working on version two of the PR Pro app. The mobile…

Kenya’s controversial first lady, Lucy Kibaki, has not been seen in Public for some time. This is making many who care and the general public worried about her state. Lucy was last seen in public almost two years ago. She has been spotted at the Gikonyos owned Karen Hospital sometime in 2012 and 2011. She was in one of the private wards according to state house and hospital sources. She has been under medical care. The nature of sickness of the first lady is not known but she was under close surveillance. Why Karen hospital? Dr Dan Gikonyo who has been the…

Four individuals – Japheth Muroko, Roni Achoki, Mark Ndung’u and Mike Mutembei Makarena – have gone to court seeking orders to stop Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) from switching off more than 2 million “fake phones” being used in the country. Others enjoined in the suite are Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) The individuals claim that members of public purchased the phones through licensed shops without knowing that the handsets are not genuine. They further claim that the average buyer of mobile handset has no capacity to know whether a mobile phone handset is genuine or not.…

SEACOM has made a commitment to provide KINU – a Tanzanian non-profit ICT innovation hub- with 30mb of free Internet capacity for a one year period. This will assist with improving the speed and quality of KINU’s Internet connectivity, which will in turn improve the efficiency of the start-up ICT enterprises they develop. ‘SEACOM has decided to support KINU and potentially other ICT innovation hubs throughout Southern and East Africa with Internet access because of its strong commitment to stimulating innovation, enterprise development and job creation within Africa’s ICT sector,’ says Anna Kahama-Rupia, managing director of SEACOM Tanzania. The KINU Hub…

I was alerted to this advert by a friend of mine. He even asked me to apply and said that I fit the bill. I have never been a snitch but it is good to try new opportunities. But the position is very interesting. Read; MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS Job Title      :  Blogger Terms         : Casual/Part Time Temporary Job Duration      : 3 Months The applicant must be competent to do the following: (i)  Monitor  Social Media and, (ii) Release daily Reports to the Media Monitoring Unit of the Department of Public communications NB:   Demonstrated experience is a requirement. Interested…

DSTV seems to be either having problems with their channel encryption services in Africa or they have just pulled a huge marketing stunt in the continent. All channels on the pay-TV service have suddenly been opened for everyone including those who are not subscribed to full bouquets. Users in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa have been tweeting how the service is free. Most of the tweeps are enjoying the free duration and most of them pray that the technical fault or whatever made the channels to be free, to continue longer. Error or sweet kindness….DSTV has forgotten we dint pay…

Engineer Philip Okundi exited Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) as chairman to pursue a political seat. To replace him, President Kibaki yesterday appointed Ben Gituku to replace him as the new Chairman of the regulator for a 3 year term. Mr Gituku has previously held board positions in KBC and Kenya Pipeline. His three-year appointment, effective September 14, was announced vide a Kenya Gazette notice dated September 19. Gituku is a professional marketer who was recently working as a newspaper distributor and realtor.

Facebook seems to be experimenting with a new feature according to Paul Bernal. Facebook is looking at users to identify friends who are not using their real names. Check the screen shot below; I don’t know what to make of this but Facebook once shut down the account of Salman Rushdie while thinking that the profile on Facebook was a fake one. What does Facebook privacy “real names” say? Read below; What do you think? More

Pakistan has blocked mobile phone service in major cities across the country as massive protests against the “Innocence of Muslims” video spread. The video that is said to insult the Prophet Muhammad and was produced in the United States. Pakistan telecoms officials say cellular service outage will affect 15 cities, including the capital, Islamabad. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had earlier today called for peaceful protests.  He also told a conference of religious leaders and politicians in Islamabad that Pakistan is demanding the United Nations and other international organizations ban “such hate speech, equal to the worst kind of anti-Semitism or other…

The Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agency (RURA) has fined MTN Rwanda and warned TIGO Rwanda for their persistently poor mobile telephone service. The agency made the announcement Thursday morning during a press conference, RNA has established. The Rwf. 3 million daily penalty, comes after the company was warned in March to reduce the number of call set up failures, abrupt call disconnections and the frequency of dropped calls. “The sanctions imposed on MTN are a result of the enforcement notice that was issued back in March,” said Francois Gatarayiha, the director general of RURA. “They tried to address the issues,…

Nigerian soccer star, Jon Obi Mikel removed his Twitter profile after racist attacked him for a mistake which cost Chelsea victory in the opening match of their Champions League defence against Juventus. While Chelsea first insisted that it was  just coincidental that Obi Mikel had deleted his profile, Mikel12Official, which he set up recently , the club has now admitted that they have informed the police after being made aware of the racist attacks. A statement from the club read: ”We’ve been made aware of racist tweets targeted at Mikel which are totally unacceptable, disgusting and abhorrent. We’ve informed the police and…

A former Uganda’s administrative capital’s Kampala mayor, Al Haji Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala, on Thursday stormed a mobile phone operator’s offices demanding all audio recordings containing caller tunes in his voice. Ssebaggala has taken MTN to court over ringtones which are in his voice. According to New Vision daily, Ssebaggala plan to use the recordings as evidence in a suit filed in Kampala on July 13th of which he has sued MTN claiming up to Ush 2 billion. Mr Ssebaggala claim that the operator infringed on his copyright by using his speeches as ringtones without his express permission. The ex-mayor is said…

At two simultaneous gala dinner events held last night, in Lagos and Nairobi, AfricaMagic and MultiChoice Africa presented their latest joint initiative THE AFRICAMAGIC VIEWERS’ CHOICE AWARDS. The announcement was made during a special episode of the popular AfricaMagic magazine show Jara, which is screened to DStv audiences in 47 countries across the continent. Created to celebrate African film and television talent, both in front of and behind the cameras, the Awards will feature several special categories in which viewers will decide the winners directly, alongside several categories. In total, 28 awards in 26 categories will be awarded ranging from acting and…

France Telecom, Orange, has appointed the following Chief Executive Officers in seven of its African and Middle Eastern subsidiaries: Brelotte Ba is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Orange Niger, succeeding Jean-Louis Branco; Michel Barré is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Orange Madagascar, succeeding Jean-Luc Bohé; Jean-Luc Bohé is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Orange Mali, succeeding Alioune Ndiaye; Didier Charvet is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Orange Tunisia, succeeding Thierry Marigny; Nathalie Clere is appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Mauritius Telecom, succeeding Jean-François Thomas; Alioune Ndiaye is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Sonatel in Senegal, succeeding Cheikh Tidiane Mbaye; and Jean-François Thomas is appointed Chief Executive…

East Africa’s Pay-Tv operator Zuku has unveiled a reward programme to its subscribers dubbed Zuku Hook Up. Under the programme, Zuku’s existing clients will earn loyalty points by referring friends, family and colleagues to subscribe to Zuku. The current subscribers will need to introduce a friend to Zuku products; either Zuku Satellite TV (which is available countrywide) or Zuku Triple play (which is available in certain areas within Nairobi) Once the friend signs up and pays for a Zuku product, then the existing subscriber will start earning points which will be accumulated in order to receive the reward of a…