Author: Cyrus

Airtel Kenya today donated 25 computers to facilitate e-learning for students at Nyamira Girls Secondary School in Bondo District. The Company will also fund the rehabilitation of infrastructure at the school as part of its program to enhance learning amongst students in Kenya. Airtel is working in collaboration with the Camara Foundation, a volunteer organization dedicated to using technology to deliver education more effectively in African communities to provide the computer hardware while Airtel will pay for the computers and improvement of the school’s computer labs to ensure connectivity and access to the learning materials by the students in safe and comfortable…

KENIC has indicated that it will be running a one month promotion of the .KE domains starting 19th March to 19th April. During the promotion, all .KE domains will be discounted by 50% to registrars. This means that the domains will be sold at Ksh 1,000 from the usual Ksh 2,000 offered to registrars. During the period of the promotion, KENIC will also be holding meetings with key stakeholders to try to understand their needs and views. Though pricing was just one of the concerns, KENIC has indicated that it is willing to listen and that is why it is…

With the arrival of 3 sub-marine cables, Kenyans thought that their days of poor internet connections is gone. That has been true to an extent. Only that now the country is experiencing persistent cable cuts affecting business in the country. AccessKenya is the latest victim with its main link cut on Monday and a day later they lost SEACOM backup link. Kindly note that all our three connections btwn Nrbi & Mombasa have been cut.We suspect sabotage.We will keep you informed.Apologies! — AccessKenya Group (@accesskenyacom) March 14, 2012 The company was relying on SEACOM link from Mombasa with the…

Safaricom has launched a vigorous subscriber registration exercise countrywide. The exercise that  will kick off tomorrow (14th February) targets customers who are yet to register their voice or data SIM cards. Subscribers need only to dial *232# to check whether their lines are registered or not. The service is free of charge. Commenting on the subscriber registration drive, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said: “I would like to especially appeal to our voice and data customers who have PrePay modems, iPhones, iPads and Tablets to register their lines during this campaign to avoid future disconnection. We have now made it easier for…

The regional “Apps for Africa 2012” competition, sponsored by Ericsson in partnership with former joint venture Sony Ericsson (now Sony) and Google, has given top honors to an app combining social elements, mobile money, and an event scheduler. The winning idea from AfroSilicone, ‘Funkies’, allows users to stay up to date with what’s happening, where it’s happening and why it’s happening. Technically speaking, ‘Funkies’ is an app that notifies the user of upcoming events while allowing him/her to reserve a ticket for the said event via mobile money partners, and even share details of the event via social networks like Facebook. John…

Kony 2012 is not even one week old in the internet. The video was unlashed some 6 days ago and has now been viewed more than 115 million times. The video has beat others by Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and others to be the world’s most viral video of all time. There has been mixed reactions about the producers and NGO behind the video but that is besides the point. Going through some statistics of the video by video metrics firm Visible Measures, you realise that Kony 2012 has been a phenomenon. A release from Visible measures reads in part:…

Kenyans on Twitter (#KOT) are such a great lot. They will do anything to push a cause they believe in. They have helped the sick in hospital, raised money for the hungry or just disciplined politicians and other leaders through Tweets. On Friday, the country was rocked by suspected grenade attacks killing six and injuring over 70 at the busy Machakos Country Bus station in Nairobi. After the attack, details started filtering in through Twitter and Facebook with the international media and agencies relying on the platforms for details. In their coverage of the attacks, CNN used the by-line “Violence…

It looks like South Africa will be hosting the third annual Samsung Africa Forum. The expo, which is an event to showcase all Samsung innovations relevant for the African continent, will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre between 22 – 25 March. Samsung will be expected to showcase next innovations in mobile phones, washing machines and air conditioners among other devices. Samsung Africa Forum 2011 photos http://on.fb.me/xwgj6J The 2010 version of the forum was held in South Africa while the 2011 was in Kenya. This is the second time South Africa will be hosting the event. Samsung thought of…

A Kenyan was yesterday arrested for insulting a politician on Facebook. David Ndung’u, a photographer, was arrested in Kikuyu town after eluding law authorities for several weeks according to The Star newspaper. It is alleged that David Ndung’u insulted his area MP, Lewiis Nguyai, on Facebook through a status post which reads, “Cal him Nguyai… nawa dais HE is called… NGUI INO… coz he is useless as a dog is… don’t apologize 4 telling the truth… tell him 2 go 2 hell 4 we are ….” ‘Ngui Ino’ is a Kikuyu translation for that dog. The Kikuyu MP allegedly printed…

Apple has today taken the veil off its new new iPad. The third generation tablet will be simply referred to as New iPad. Major improvements on the new iPad includes a new Retina display, a new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad comes with Wi-Fi + 4G offering the ability to support connections of up to 73Mbps worldwide. It will also comes with a battery which can support up to 10 hour battery life. The iPad 2 will be discounted by…

Huawei and Mobicom Kenya Ltd., Kenya’s largest and most seasoned telecommunications distributor, have today announced a partnership deal for the distribution of Huawei devices. Through the partnership, Huawei will leverage on Mobicom’s enhanced distribution network to spread its tentacles in the Kenyan market. Huawei CEO in Kenya, Wind Li, said: “We’re excited with this partnership with Mobicom which is the first in a series of strategic efforts to create additional touch points for our consumers to engage and interact with our emerging brands all over Kenya. The Huawei G3512 demonstrates our ongoing commitment to innovating high quality devices that utilize…

After our leak about the impending launch of the WhosWho directory, Naspers finally did it. They have launched the directory platform in Kenya. They are running a similar platform in South Africa. WhosWho is a free directory for all Kenyan professionals who are 18 years and above. Through the directory, you can create a presence and manage your reputation online. I would be so hard to imagine how WhosWho is going to compete with LinkedIn but it seems that Naspers has a content team which is already adding members to the directory. Even my own profile was added onto the…

PERFORM, the international digital sports media group has today announced the official launch of the much rumoured Goal.Com Nigeria edition. The news of the impending launch was broken early February by Complete Sports Nigeria.  With Goal.Com page impression around 15%, Goal could not ignore Nigeria any more. Goal.Com mobile advert sales in Nigeria will be handled through InMobi while ByteSide will handle advertising sales for the full website.  70th Precinct will assist PERFORM with the distribution of Goal.com content across various OEM and communication partners. Goal.com mobile services are already available via Airtel and Etisalat in Nigeria. The statement by the Chief Editor…

By John Ward for Nairobi Law Monthly In September 1988, Julie Ward, a young woman enjoying her holiday, disappeared in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Game Reserve. Immediately, Jonathan Moi was rumoured to have been involved in Julie’s death. The first information concerning Jonathan, the son of Kenya’s former President Daniel Moi, came from a Swiss TV crew working in the park. They had offered their five radio-equipped vehicles to assist in the search for the missing tourist. Senior warden Simon ole Makallah abruptly told them to mind their own business. The crew had heard rumours about Jonathan being seen with a…

When Erik wrote this, I thought for myself, WTF!! What in the world are people at iHub thinking? Is there stagnation in thoughts and creativity at the countries celebrated innovation hub? Why would a group which is supposed to have periodic revolutionary thoughts on where to take iHub next look so stuck in primitive ways of doing things? Or has iHub achieved its unannounced aim of first pretending to do what it was not created for then now deviating from it to do what the intention of Erik and the so-called advisory team was? iHub Advisory Board How does iHub…