A Kenyan journalist living in Nairobi.
He is interested in News corresponding and news writing.
54 subjects with 30 messages.
Maina
Egyptian telecoms firm moves to Kenya
Egyptian telecommunications infrastructure firm, Mobiserve, has opened an office in Kenya as it seeks to expand its operations throughout Africa. The ten-year-old company intends to use its Kenyan office to serve the region as it capitalizes on the fastest growing industry on the continent. - The company’s CEO Sameh Atalla said the firm will hire quality telecoms engineering services and satellite services to communication service providers and vendors.
The company, he said hopes to employ up to 700 staff in the coming few years and 99% of whom will be local to support its services throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Mobiserve also offers maintenance and other technical services to bo…Sudanese in Kenya to vote in polls
The Sudanese National Election Commission has opened a voter registration centre in Nairobi, to help its citizens living there participate in presidential elections next year. - To qualify for the registration citizens should be 18 years and above, holders of valid Sudanese passport and have a valid permit to leave in Kenya. Additionally citizens with a dual citizenship and resident permit allowing them to leave in Kenya will be eligible to register.
A statement published in local dailies from the embassy said that registration is opened until November 27. Registration hours are restricted to 10am to 5pm. The Sudanese embassy in Nairobi’s Ngong road area will host the registration c…Kenya: Safaricom helps clients to buy laptops
Kenya's largest mobile phone company - Safaricom limited - has partnered with Equity Bank limited to enable its clients buy laptops on loan and thus increase access of internet services to more Kenyans. - Under the partnership Safaricom subscribers will be getting soft loans from Equity bank, Kenya’s biggest financial institution, to buy the laptops from the GSM firm.
According to Equity bank’s communication department, clients need a pay-slip and an account at the bank to apply for a loan which is approved in 24 hours. A letter is then given to the client to present to any Safaricom retail shop for the laptop.
The laptop comes with a free internet modem loaded with free 4…Oil drilling excites Kenya
Excitement is sweeping through eastern African country of Kenya following news that it may after all strike oil after many failed attempts in the past four years to join the league of Africa's producers of the black gold. Drilling started last week at a well in Isiolo in northern Kenya. - AfricaNews reporter said the well prospecting is being done in arid Merti area of Isiolo, a region said to be having the same geological formations as most Middle East and nearer home in Sudan. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is overseeing the drilling process.
However, our reporter said already the government has cautioned citizens against being overly optimistic saying the area may hav…Kenya: Stock market faces collapse
Public confidence in Kenya's securities market is waning amidst reduced activity at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). Some stock brokerage firms and investment banks are closing down while others are cutting down on staff and operations due to reduced business and a sharp decrease in revenues, AfricaNews reporter said. - The companies are implementing cost cutting measures as business dips, a stark contrast to four years ago when all registered stocks traders were expanding, opening branches across Kenya and others were opening filed offices across the capital Nairobi to serve multitudes of people buying stocks.
Industry sources now indicate that income mainly derived from commissions cha…Renewed clashes loom in Kenya
Fears of a resurgence of violence growing in Kenya's Rift Valley Province as the debate of possible prosecution of suspected planners of the 2007 post-election violence rages. - It is emerging that 90% of suspects in the controversial and now famous envelope currently in the hands of the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo are from one community.
According to AfricaNews reporter, what is fuelling tensions even more is that the suspects are all prominent personalities in the government from the Kalenjin ethnicity which is the dominant group in the Rift Valley Province. There is growing tension and hatred between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu - the ethnic group that suf…Kenya: Crisis looms as water sources dry up
An acute shortage of water resources has hit Kenya pushing the country into a crisis as water sources dry up in what experts say is a looming ecological disaster. The shortage has been complicated by drying up of water sources including rivers, lakes , dams ,wells and springs and worsened by a an ongoing 10 month drought. - The result is that, households in cities and villages are going without water for days as pastoralists clash and kill each other over few remaining water points in arid parts of the country.
In cities including the capital Nairobi, women are queuing for hours in communal water points as village folk walk for hours in search of the precious commodity.
Already the go…Kenya: Tribunal to try violence suspects
Kenya has resolved to set up a local tribunal to try suspects implicated in the 2008 post election violence that killed more than 1000 people and saw some 350,000 others displaced from their homes. - The decision by the country’s parliament comes in the wake of findings of a commission appointed to unearth those who financed, planned, organized or incited that violence - the worst in the East African country’s history that emanated from the disputed presidential poll.
The findings of the commission chaired by a local high court judge Philip Waki, contain a list of 10 prominent persons among them six cabinet ministers cited for investigation and prosecution for alleged crimes a…Kenya: Obama inauguration fever erupts
The upcoming coronation of US president-elect Barack Obama provoked excitement and controversy in Kenya. Locals in his father's native Kogelo villa in western Kenya plan a major feast for his swearing-in. The government incurred the wrath of the people as it sponsors MPs to US to watch the event on TV. - Traditional elders of Kogelo village say the feast of 20th January - the inauguration day – would be used to showcase the Luo culture and market the region as a tourist attraction. AfricaNews’ correspondent said a 14-member committee has been instituted to plan the events leading to the inauguration including traditional dances, wrestling and a display of Luo material culture and…Crime worsens in Kenya
A demand for scrap metal by China is fuelling an unprecedented rate of crime in Kenya and vandalism of key installations to meet a growing demand for raw material. Electricity, phone cables and railway lines have been vandalized as the Chinese importers continue to pay premium prices for metal. - State corporations have as a result lost millions of shillings in stolen cables and structures as thieves go for valued copper steel and aluminum metals all of which are in high demand in the rapidly expanding Chinese economy.
But it is not only the big state corporations that are suffering abandoned houses in villages and town’s cattle dips, livestock inseminations centers and bus stops ha…Kenya: Tourism sector faces collapse
Kenya's tourism industry, the country's top foreign exchange earner stands to lose greatly from the ongoing global financial crisis, industry experts predict. The eastern African country tourism depends largely on Western visitors whose hemisphere had been hit by the financial hurricane. - The development could not have come at a worse time, sector players agree, considering the fact that Kenya, one of the leading destinations in Africa, was just entering its peak – September-January season - when the crisis set in. The tourism industry was just recovering from stagnation it suffered from the chaos that characterized the last election in January.
The melee saw visitors flee in drov…Kenya youths craze for illegal drink
Frustrated Kenyan youths are selling off personal belongings, foodstuff, clothes and kitchen utensils in order to raise some funds to buy illicit but cheap potent drink on the market. The trend is becoming rampant and everybody is worried and shocked. - Reporters say some of the jobless youth go to the extreme of vandalizing their houses, sell the doors, windows and roofing materials to rake in more money for their illicit drinking spree.
The central Kenyan youths harvest farm produce and even milk their parents’ cows at dawn to sell to quench their thirst. Some even steal family beddings and baby napkins.
Kamau wa Njoki, 26, from Kirinyaga in central Kenya recently shocked many…Kenyan firms challenge new smoking laws
Hardly a month after the Kenya parliament passed a law seeking to seriously curtail use of tobacco in the country, tobacco firms have gone to court and effectively frustrated enactment of the new rules. These firms have argued that the law had 'criminalised smoking', making it hard for them to operate. - The firms wanted the enactment of the laws put on hold, saying that the provisions of the rules were unrealistic and denied them their constitutional right to make a living.
As as result the high court in Nairobi has suspended the law after an application by 2 firms mastermind Tobacco and multinational British American Tobacco (BAT) Kenya Limited until the matter is heard and determined,…Libyans are taking over Kenya's key sectors
Libyan investors are stamping their authority in key investment segments in Kenya, giving traditional players like the Western countries and lately China a run for their money, in a trend and style never seen in Kenya before. But the Libyan business is increasingly being dogged by claims of grand corruption, favouritism and all manner of impropriety. - In a record 2 years 2 Libyan state firm have won no less than 5 state tenders, bought a petroleum firm divesting from the country and prime property located at the heart of Nairobi.
Most controversial and stinking though is the recent purchase of the country's most prime hotel previously owned by a controversial businessman and which was r…Kenya telecom gets ready for third provider
Kenya is set to have a third mobile phone operator this August , bring an end to a duopoly enjoyed by Safaricom Limited and Celtel Kenya for years. - The dominance of the two will come when the latest entrant into the market Econet Wireless International (ECI) enters the rolls out it's network in the country bringing to three the number of operators and ushering in much needed competition .
The entry of ECI into market will also bring in new products experts say, away from the normal voice and data services offered by the pair who have dominated local seen over the past 8 years.
Indications that the firm was ready to take the plunge became clear on Monday this week when it announce…
