Author: Cyrus

With all the claims of financial problems, Orange Kenya is trying to re-assure its clients that it still got game through the launch of new services. Orange Kenya has strength in data and whenever it had been encouraged to exploit it, the retort of its very ignorant top echelons has bee that “we need to have people to use voice and give them data as a value added service”. We hear such foolish retorts a lot but we just don’t know how to help them since they are so used to not making money. The mobile solutions services provider today introduced Orange…

The President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, has announced that Kenya has discovered oil in Turkana. The announcement has sparked celebrations among Kenyans with those on social media taking over conversation on Twitter and Facebook and making them relevant to the Turkana Oil find. With the announcement, Turkana was one of the top 10 global trending topics before different hashtags were adopted for the Turkana oil find conversations. #TurkanaOil has gained momentum and is trending worldwide now.

Samsung announced at the Samsung Africa Forum in Cape Town that it is collaborating with SES satellites to drive digital broadcasting via satellite in sub-Saharan Africa. Samsung will introduce an innovative LED television with an in-built free-to-air satellite receiver, the Samsung LED TV Free Satellite. The LED TV will be distributed in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon from August 2012. The in-built satellite receiver will enable consumers to receive 30 French and 30 English free-to-air television channels without the need for an additional equipment apart from the usual Ku-Band dish. Before the launch,…

Airtel Kenya has finally heeded calls by data users to bring back the one month unlimited data package. The package was removed when the company launched what it dubbed “Airtel Kenya 3.75G”. The package which was previously available for Ksh 3,250, will now be available for Ksh 2,999 reflecting an 8% reduction in the price. It is not clear if the unlimited bundles will still be throttles though Airtel Kenya previously throttled the bundles at 512Kbps.

Bloggers are reporting that Google’s Sub-Saharan Africa lead, Joe Mucheru, has decided to demote himself and be the country lead in Kenya. Joe is reported as having indicated that at regional level he could not bring as much change as he would want to. Joe will be taking over from Google Kenya’s recently sacked country lead, Olga Arara-Kimani. Mucheru’s position as Sub-Saharan Africa lead will be handled by Meir Brand who is based in Israel. Brand will also be overseeing operations in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria. I doubt if much will change. Things might even get worse…

Kenya’s Business Daily is reporting that Orange Kenya Deputy CEO, Jane Karuku, has resigned from the company. The newspaper is also quoting Orange Kenya’s CEO saying that he is not going to replace Jane as the position has been scrapped. If the reports by East African is anything to go by, I believe that Orange Kenya might be doing some serious cost cutting. I doubt it Jane resigned willingly. He might have been faced with a sack and decided to bolt out. I have always believed that the privatisation of Telkom Kenya was wrong and maintain that the French have…

Eight secondary schools in Africa have now received the PC as a Service solution, a cloud-computing solution that provides schools with a low-maintenance, easy-to-use model that is optimized for mobile broadband networks.  The deployment is part of Connect To Learn’s initiative in the Millennium Village clusters in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In addition, more than 500 scholarships will be distributed in 2012 thanks to Connect To Learn partners including Ericsson, the Sanchez-Palm Girls Scholarship Fund, SpinMaster, JM Eagle and a number of individual contributors. Scholarships cover tuition, boarding and other school-related expenses. Elaine Weidman, Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate…

Priority actions for reducing the environmental and health impacts of growing levels of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste), alongside promoting the sector’s potential for green jobs and economic development, were today agreed by representatives from 18 African states, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and academia. The actions were agreed on the final day of the Pan-African Forum on E-Waste, which was held at the Nairobi headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The forum was organized by the Secretariat of the Basel Convention and UNEP, with support from the Government of Kenya, and private sector companies…

According to the latest Statcounter stats, Windows 7 is now the dominant operating system in Kenya having overtaken Windows XP in January. This development is going to be a great plus for Microsoft which has been trying so hard to market the Windows 7 and convince the majority who still loved the most stable OS from Microsoft, WIiXP. Windows 7 currently commands 44.75% while Windows XP comes second with a market-share of 41.88%. In other stats, Firefox is still the most dominant browser commanding an impressive 53.8% while IE’s influence has dropped to just 21.24% of the market while Google’s…

#GNigeria events are events where Google invites the developer community and those who use Google products and are interesting in using it as a tool for building their business. In one word, I think the Google events are purely a marketing event. Does that make is a worthless program to attend? No way. On the first day there were some announcements. Previously Google had allowed those who are Google App customers to have access to Google talk to SMS. On the first day of GNigeria, the product was launched for everyone. Folks who are using Globacom, Airtel, MTN, Visafone and Starcomms can…

M-Pesa is celebrating 5 years since its launch in Kenya (launched on 6th March 2007). The service has grown with leaps and bounds with the service now handling an average of close to $10 Billion in one single year. The number of Safaricom clients registered and actively using the service is now around 15 Million while more than 10 Million Tanzanians are using it with thousand others using the service in South Africa and Afghanistan. The sad part of this is that M-Pesa is still too foreign and none of the Kenyan leaders are thinking of the value M-Pesa is…

After a more than 12 year relationship, Gina Din Corporate Communications (GDCC) has decided not to pitch for the Safaricom PR account sending the giant communications services provider’s top brass into a spin. Through a statement, the company has announced that it will not be pitching for the account. GDCC’s founder and owner, Gina Dina Kariuki, said: “Although our current business relationship may be over, we have developed personal relationships and a strong brand affiliation with the Safaricom team during our tenure as their communications agency. We part ways in the very best of circumstances, with nothing but satisfaction and pride…

Samsung Electronics East Africa has today unveiled its first premium brand shop in Kenya. The shop situated at the Junction Mall along Ngong Road, has a product experience zone with the full range of Samsung Smart phones, Tablets, Note, Visual Display, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Digital Appliances, Mobile Communications, laptops and other accessories. Through the experience, Samsung looks to provide the consumer with an easily accessible location in which to discover the full spectrum of its offerings. And as part of the premium brand shop launch, Samsung will be offering a discount sale of 5 per cent for the Galaxy Tab…

Corporate Data and Internet Solutions Provider, AccessKenya Group, announced a Sh109M after tax profit for the 2011 financial year. This is surprise turnaround from the Sh8M loss reported in 2010. The company’s revenue grew by just under 2% to stand at Sh 1.73 billion. With the entry of the well heeled giant like Safaricom in the corporate data and managed services, this fete is an impressive achievement by Access Kenya. Not much has been revealed on how the company managed to keep its expenditures down but it is suspected that the company might have negotiated with its suppliers for lower…

Hacker group “Anonymous Operations” has today released the first version of its desktop operating system. The OS will be called “Anonymous-OS” and is based on the open-source Linux OS Ubuntu 11.10. It relies on the open-source Mate UI according to The Hacker News. The OS comes with Anonymous-approved tools pre-installed. You will definitely get the DDOS and other hacking tools like  Anonymous HOIC, John the Ripper, SQL Poison and more. The Anonymous-OS is free and available immediately for download. Caution is definitely advised.