Author: Cyrus

There is a gene in myself which does not and will never allow for fraudulent people and ideas to rule my life. I will stand up and tell you there and then that you are wrong when I feel that you are wrong. I have told my dad, siblings, teacher, bosses and even friends. That is the mantra which I live by. So it really does not surprise me that twats and conniving whores really see me as a troll. Lets start from where this is coming from. I was summoned by the Kenyan Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over tweets I supposedly…

Safaricom is expected to launch a revamped Kenya Live portal on Wednesday night. The portal which will now be named “Niko Na Safaricom” Live has been a a platform where Safaricom engages with Kenyan musicians and entertainers. Through the platform, Safaricom subscribers can also download wallpapers, mp3s, customized SMS alerts & ringtones as well as get Facebook and Twitter alerts. Through Safaricom Live (Niko na Safaricom), the provider also organizes live music shows throughout the country.

Though they were not able to admit this before, it looks like OLX is completing the take-over of the Dealfish Kenya operations. Already Peter Ndiangui who we exclusively reported as joining Dealfish as the country manager, has now become the OLX Kenya country manager. South Africa’s Naspers is shutting down Dealfish in Nigeria and Kenya and replacing them with OLX.

GOtv has announced a reduction on its monthly subscription and hardware prices. Effective today, the new price structure will be as follows; GOtv bouquet monthly subscription will be KES 599.00 (was KES 720.00) and the bundle offer, Decoder + 3 months GOtv bouquet KES 4,900.00  (was KES 5,500.00). Announcing this new pricing, GOtv General Manager, Mr Felix Kyengo, said; “Our aim is to deliver great digital television entertainment on the advanced DVB-T2 network using our exciting new brand GOtv we are offering an affordable digital pay television service with exciting local and international channels in great picture and sound quality…

Orange has now activated the free Wikipedia access for Kenyan mobile subscribers. Through the services, any subscriber with an Orange Kenya SIM and mobile internet enabled phone will be able to access Wikipedia through their mobile browser without attracting any data charges. he access will be free as long as you stay within the Wikipedia pages. Orange has 70 million subscribers in Africa and the Middle East where the “Free Wikipedia” access is targeted. Free access to Wikipedia will be possible to all the languages the online encyclopedia is available in. In Kenya, the most widely used languages are English…

Safaricom has partnered with Google to drive the adoption of Google+ locally. The Google+ promotion will see Safaricom enable direct connection to Google plus through USSD. The dominant mobile services provider has now enabled Google plus access through the *544# USSD code. Google has been using the local media, celebrities and techies to drive the growth of the social network locally. It is not clear what the aggressive marketing drive has achieved but even during the London 2012 Olympics, Google partnered with Brand Kenya to enable hangouts from the Kenya House in London. For Safaricom, the benefit will be the…

A group of Kenyan innovators are planning to launch a Near Field Communications (NFC) enabled pre-paid card in the Kenyan market in the next few days. Coming hot on the heels of the Google Beba card, the NFC pre-paid card would be used to collect redeem change from supermarket tills and pay for transit fares to selected bus companies without the need to have cash. The pre-paid card will also be used to redeem change in selected supermarkets solving the problem of unavailability of coins at the tills in most of the supermarkets. The change which would have otherwise been…

Last week it was revealed that tens of thousands of Twitter users have bought followers. The services exchanging followers for cash give their clients nothing but bots. So when you buy “followers”, you are probably buying just fake fans. Which might not help you in any meaningful way except inflate the number of your followers making you look credible. Fake followers go for as little as $9 for 1000 followers. Apart from the fake followers, many of us have Twitter followers whose accounts are dormant. They have not logged in for a very long time and so they do not…

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) plans to will punish operators for sending out unsolicited messages and caller ring-back tunes. UCC Executive Director Godfrey Mutaabazi has revealed that the regulator has warned all operators in the country to desist from spamming subscribers with unsolicited messages. The directive is targeted at curbing the malpractices common among the Premium SMS Services Providers (PRSPs). Ugandans have been complaining of being subscribed to services they do not ask for while huge amounts are amounts are being deducted from subscribers’ accounts for the messages received. According to a UCC Consumer Complaint report released last week, Warid Telecom, Airtel…

IBM is looking to have its first research lab in Africa located in Kenya. The lab will be used to conduct basic and applied research focused on solving problems relevant to Africa and contribute to the building of a science and technology base for the continent. With this IBM makes Nairobi its 12th global lab joining other labs in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Switzerland and the United States. IBM president Ginni Rometty met with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to mark the announcement. The lab will explore 3 key research areas, according to IBM. They are; next generation public…

Mhhh. I dont know what to make of this report of corruption at Strathmore University through its Scholarship programs. Read and make your own assumptions. Corruption at Strathmore University Sports Department //

BlackBerry will be holding a BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam  developer meet-up on Friday 17th August at the Ole Sereni Hotel from 10am- 5.30pm. Through the event, the smartphone maker which is losing influence globally is aiming to provide Kenyan developers with an opportunity to learn more about the capabilities of BlackBerry 10. The full-day event will provide insights about the BlackBerry 10 experience, architecture and tools to enable Kenyan developers become partners who create apps for the new BlackBerry platform. Registration for the BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam is open with limited spaces left.  There is no registration fee to attend. For more…

So this incident took place at NPC Valley road [youtube The explanation given by the church yesterday during the service was as follows: The wedding went on well without interruptions till when they asked if there were any objections to this wedding. That is when a lady with a kid stood up and went to the front. The presiding pastor called both sides to the office so that they could have a talk. During the talk, the lady produced a letter written by a lawyer in 2010 and letter from an Assistant Chief reading ‘ this lady has a child…

Kenya’s Nation Media Group is getting into the financial services. The company has sent out invites for the launch of a new money transfer service NationHela targeting Kenyans in the diaspora. Through the service, Kenyans in the Diaspora will be able to send money straight to a recipient’s NationHela account that can be accessed via a prepaid Visa card and their mobile phone. NMG promises that “NationHela is simpler, more convenient and cheaper than leading money transfer services.” The service is being launched in a partnership between Nation Media Group and Diamond Trust Bank. Digging further, I have found this link http://www.nationhela.com/?pg=tarrifs.…

During an exclusive IT Transformation seminar event today, entitled “Cloud Transforms IT – BIG Data Transforms Business”, EMC shared insights on the importance of IT infrastructure transformation for organizations in Kenya. The EMC –led industry event took place this morning at the Serena Hotel, Nairobi with over 150 delegates participating. Cloud computing transforms IT, delivering the maximum possible IT efficiency and making it possible to store, manage and analyse business and end-user information even as this continues to grow at a rate faster than Moore’s Law*. As a result, and in order to meet the service-level demands required by businesses…