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April 02, 2012
11:04
GOOGLE GIVES iHUB SH28MILLION
» ‎ NairobiTech

Search-advertising giant Google has announced a Sh28million funding to iHub and KENET the former an innovation hub and the latter an organization that provides internet access for tertiary institutions.

iHub will use the money to expand its work with application developers who in turn may come up with innovations that enrich the Android platform.

KENET on the other hand will continue to "connect educational institutions with a private, affordable high speed Internet."

Both of course fit into Google's mission: - To organize the the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

In these parts of the world, information is either still snaking its way from print and handwritten materials to electronic format or has not even been documented yet.

A simple search of things associated with our cultures will yield little on the net whether on Wikipedia or on the web in general.

Applications, especially mobile applications such as those developed at iHub, tend to increase human interaction and therefore generate content. Google wants to organize that content.

Academic halls of course are a logical fit for Google as this is where information is of necessity, exchanged.
March 26, 2012
15:23
TULLOW STRIKES OIL IN KENYA
» ‎ NairobiTech

Tullow Oil has confirmed that it struck oil in its Turkana Block 10BB. The discovery was made last year but the company had said it would give a briefing on the progress in May.

The confirmation was done by President Mwai Kibaki. The Ministry of Energy will at 4PM give an press briefing on the same.

Even better, this is light crude oil as compared to Uganda's heavy crude that is usually solid at room temperature.

Tullow is the same company that discovered oil in Uganda.

In stunning fashion, the fortunes of once vast and desolate wasteland thas is Turkana seem to be changing by the day.

In the same county, Africa's largest wind farm project is to be built to generate 300MW of power that will be transmitted to the national grid.

Geothermal potential is being explored with indications that we could get substantial energy there.

The massive LAPSSET project is set to pass there with rail, road and pipeline.

Tullow Oil shares were boosted by the announcement in London.

Tullow's exploration director Angus McCoss said:"This is an excellent start to our major exploration campaign in the East African rift basins of Kenya and Ethiopia. to make such a good oil discovery in our first well is beyond our expectations and bodes well for the material programme ahead of us."
12:04
THE BIG ONE: KQ - TITUS NAIKUNI TO EXIT KENYA AIRWAYS
» ‎ NairobiTech

Titus Naikuni.
Titus Naikuni, the 6 foot 3 inch tall CEO of Kenya Airways is set to leave the company sometime this year, it has emerged. Reports indicate he could be headed for a career in politics with some pundits mentioning the Kajiado governorship as a possible next stop.

Naikuni, CEO since February 2003, reportedly will be succeeded by Mbuvi Ngunze, the current Chief Operations Officer who joined KQ in August last year.

Timelines are not clear but quite likely, Naikuni will steer the company's ongoing Sh21billion rights issue before making an official announcement.

Like Michael Joseph when he headed Safaricom or James Mwangi at Equity Bank, Naikuni is viewed as virtually synonymous with Kenya Airways and it is hard to imagine the airline without him at the helm.

But Ngunze comes with impressive credentials and the management team is quite vibrant. Ngunze is a Lafarge alumni having held various senior positions at Bamburi and Lafarge group.

As CEO Titus Naikuni has never been known to suffer fools gladly or have the patience for them. It is only until recently that Naikuni has eased up and relaxed somewhat and seems not to take things as seriously as he did before.

A member of the dream team of technocrats as PS Transport between 1999-2001, Naikuni served with among others Martin Oduor-Otieno, currently CEO KCB Group, Mwaghazi Mwachofi, the current Finance Director of the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance in Geneva, Richard Leakey, Shem Migot-Adholla and Wilfred Mwangi.

Naikuni's departure comes at a time when the company has launched a 10-year business plan that will see it treble its fleet with an emphasis on Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Boeing 777s for its long-haul fleet along with 737s and Embraer 190s.

It will also seek to raise over US$3billion for purchase of aircraft beginning with the Sh21billion rights issue that will cater for deposits for its first Dreamliners set to be delivered over 2013/2014.

Boeing requires deposits for planes to be made 24-month ahead of delivery time.

Government and KLM have committed to taking up their rights amounting to 49 per cent while institutional investors are also said to have expressed strong interest.

A successful rights issue will also shore up the airline's balance sheet allowing it to leverage it for borrowing from banks.

The airline is also said to be set to launch a regional airline, Jambo Jet, which will cater to a changing market that now features an increasing number of travelling businessmen as opposed to the tourists who have previously formed the bulk of its business regionally.

A cargo business has also been started as the airline seeks to capitalize on the flow of goods from the Far East into the African continent as well as Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's emergence as the busiest cargo airport in Africa after surpassing Cairo and Johannesburg.

KQ for those who know it has a simple business plan. It uses its regional flights to bring passengers from all over the continent and loads them onto long haul jets that take it to far flung destinations like Bangkok, Gouangzhou and the like. It then does the reverse bringing in travellers from around the globe and putting them in 737s and Embraers that take them into African capitals.

The airline plans to build the most extensive network on the continent making it the undisputed leader and use Dreamliners to take them to any part of the world.

For instance when its workers went on strike some time back, operations in West Africa, Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire and the like were severely disrupted given KQ's grip on international air travel in the region.

Titus Naikuni is known for his biting remarks and sarcastic wit particularly when shooting down reporters' questions when he feels they are ill-informed or ambigous.

One time a reporter asked him when Pride Center, its training and simulation facility would open yet it was already operational.

"Pride Center is already open, in fact it is old, it needs paint."

Naikuni, 59, sits on several boards including Maersk Kenya, AccessKenya, East Africa Portland Cement and Magadi Soda.

One thing he was yet to do was to reform the corporate culture at the airline. Like Safaricom and KCB, some feel it is now time for a major restructuring of the airline to streamline the way it does business and align its personnel skills to better support its growth strategy.
March 14, 2012
13:51
KDN, TELKOM KENYA, KPLC CABLE CUTS DOWN INTERNET IN KENYA
» ‎ NairobiTech

Fiberr cables
A road contractor has cut underground fiber cables belonging to Kenya Data Networks and Telkom Kenya near Jomvu seriously affecting internet services in Kenya. To make matters worse, KPLC dark fiber that many ISPs and telecoms use between Nairobi and Mombasa was also cut near Mombasa when alleged scrap metal vultures vandalized a pylon.

The result is that internet services have been intermittent as carriers scramble to seek alternative routes.

Currently, big carriers like Safaricom are relying on the government-owned National Optic Fiber Internet Backbone (NOFBI).

Telkom Kenya has already reportedly come back on line and KDN is said to have told clients it expects to be back up in about two hours time.

Players have renewed their calls for a bill imposing stiff penalties on vandals and careless road contractors who cut crucial infrastructure like telecommunication and power lines.

As soon as it is passed, telcos are said to be waiting to swoop down on contractors with a vengeance.

The disruption comes at a time when the country's outbound traffic is being channelled through Seacom because TEAMS was cut by a ship's anchor at the coast and is undergoing repair while Eassy is being repaired for a cut near Djibouti.
March 13, 2012
10:44
MOBICOM MEN WIN CMC BATTLE: MUTHOKA KICKED OUT
» ‎ NairobiTech

Peter Muthoka and Bill Lay
For Peter Muthoka, high noon came at 11am, at the CMC Industrial Area premises boardroom. At last it appears, the threat by Paul Ndung'u, the chairman of Mobicom, that he would finish Muthoka had come to pass. By 12 noon Monday 12, 2012, Muthoka had finally been kicked out of the CMC board.
When it came down to it, the Andy Forwarders man found only John Kivai in his corner. His last remaining ally, Richard Kemoli, balked just before the board meeting was called to order.

In case you've not been following it, CMC has been involved in bitter boardroom wrangles that kicked off with a coup early last year that jettisoned CEO Martin Forsters (40-years at the helm) and long-serving chairman Jeremiah Kiereini carried out by newly muscled shareholders Peter Muthoka and his allies Paul Ndungu and Joel Kibe.

Months down the line, Muthoka was himself toppled in another boardroom coup and replaced by Joel Kibe, CEO of Mobicom.

Since then, allegations and counterallegations, boardroom and courtroom drama galore and sensational revelations of impropriety, kickbacks, corruption and secret offshore accounts have dominated CMCs coverage in the press.

Its share is suspended from trading on the NSE and authorities had ordered the constitution of a new interim board with an independent chairman.

On Monday, the board met to nominate the new interim board.
Word has it that Kemoli, who also chairs the Bamburi Cement board, was told in no uncertain terms outside the boardroom that his neck was also on the chopping block - he could either resign gracefully, or be thrown out in the bloodbath that was to follow. The votes were already marshalled, and the die was cast.
Significant is that in the grand scheme of things, Charles Njonjo (whose business interests typically revolved around the triumvirate of Njonjo, Jeremiah Kiereini and PK Jani) now chose to ally himself with the Mobicom men, Paul Ndung'u and Joel Kibe, as they made their final assault to take over the ailing auto-dealer.
Till then, Kiereini, and by extension Njonjo, were thought to be in Muthoka's corner. Ashok Shah, the supremo at APA Insurance (now Apollo Group), was seen as a wildcard and in the event that Muthoka had managed to call the extra-ordinary general meeting he had attempted to last year, Shah would have been the one to tip scales in Muthoka's favour.
Muthoka at that time wanted Billy Lay, current MD, Andy Hamilton, Paul Ndung'u and Joel Kibe voted out of the board and in their place three new members including one Mark ole Karbolo (currently embattled chairman of East Africa Portland Cement - Are all these guys embroiled in drama?) appointed.
That move was defeated through the courts and the Capital Markets Authority.
During a series of meetings held between CMC and CMA, on February 11 and 12, it was agreed that a new interim board of three Capital Markets Authority-appointed directors and seven CMC nominated directors would be constituted.
CMA appointed Susan Wakhungu of Human Performance Dynamics - she was involved in the restructuring of Safaricom into the current Safaricom 2.0, Zehranabu Janmohammed - of Archer and Wilcock Advocates and wife to TPS Serena boss Mahmud Janmohammed (she also sits on the Standard Group Board). Also appointed was Dr. Joshua Okumbe, CEO Centre for Corporate Governance.
THE COUP
When it came to the CMC side of the bargain, Muthoka miscalculated. First, he thought he would have Kemoli in his corner bringing his votes to three. Then in the agenda, he expected that the three CMA appointed directors would join in in the selection of the seven CMC side directors.
But Bill Lay and his side had other ideas. They decided to start with the nomination of the directors first meaning the current 10 directors of CMC would vote. Kemoli was first axed when he was appraised of the situation and hastily scribbled a note on a piece of paper to the board announcing his resignation.
Going into the meeting, a list that excluded Muthoka and his partner at Andy Forwarders, John Kivai, was proposed.
Ashok Shah of APA seconded it. The matter was put to vote and Muthoka and Kivai lost 7-2.
They stormed out with Muthoka threatening that it was not over yet and he would see them in court.
ANALYSIS
At the end of the day, if Muthoka knew what was good for him, he should have quit this battle a long time ago and walked away with the hundreds of millions he has made from CMC.
He however bet wrong. His trump card was that along with Johnstone Muthama, they are the main financiers of Kalonzo Musyoka's quest to become president.
But hoping to become president and being a sitting president are worlds apart.
You see, Muthoka was indirectly fighting a sitting president.
Paul Ndungu and Joel Kibe, are business associates, some say frontmen, for Jimmy Kibaki and by extension the first family's business interests.
At every turn, Muthoka has pulled seemingly spine-bending blows to his adversaries, the tide has inevitably turned.

INVESTIGATIONS
With regard to three off-shore accounts, the CID and the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) are investigating. Likely to come under their cross hairs are the Jaguar and Nissan Diesel Brands which are said to have been paying kickbacks into these accounts.
JG Kiereini, the late PK Jani, and Charles Njonjo, former CEO Martin Forster and the late former company secretary of CMC will also be in the spotlight.
Muthoka's case will now be investigated by the CMA to ascertain his culpability in CMCs lost billions.
March 09, 2012
17:38
THE BIG ONE: SAFARICOM PUTS GINA DIN PR ACCOUNT INTO PLAY
» ‎ NairobiTech

Gina Din Kariuki, Managing Director, GDCC
Gina Din CC decade-long grip on possibly the most lucrative public relations account is under threat after Safaricom decided to open it up to bids this month.

Not only will the reported Sh7-8million retainer-per-month contract be floated but apparently it will be broken up EABL style with possibly different firms handling different publicity roles like corporate, Safaricom foundation, events etc.

PR firms in town are currently filling out the forms to pitch for the lucrative contracts next month as the telecoms giant continues to shake up the way it does business.

GDCC is said to be preparing its pitch with stiff competition expected to come from the likes of Ogilvy, Africa Practice, Tell-EM, Hill and Knowlton, Apex, Silver Bullet, Energy Source, Yolanda Tavares and so on.

Ogilvy has lately become the 800-pound gorilla in the room bagging such accounts as KCB and Kenya Airways from GDCC along with the numerous others it runs from Orange to Barclays and so on.

Hill and Knowlton, like Ogilvy now a part of Scangroup, has also snagged LG from GDCC.

The pitch comes at a pivotal time for Safaricom as it will also mark Victoria Kaigai's entry into Safaricom as the Head of Communications at a time when the department has seen the departures of Washington Akumu and Wachira Kang'aru (who left to take up a posting as Business Editor at Daily Nation) as well as Gina Din's seconded staff to the green giant, Cedric Lumiti (who left for Hill and Knowlton) and Soshe Oyalo (events - who is now at Multichoice). Another Gina Din veteran who worked closely with Safaricom in the past, Rodgers Wabito, also left for Hill and Knowlton last year while Francis Ochieng who has lately handled Safaricom's account for Gina Din has also left for Ogilvy.

In other words, the Safaricom communication and external is essentially starting on a clean slate and will probably be one of Nzioka Waita's (Director Corporate, Legal and External Affairs) major tasks as Safaricom 2.0 era completes its first year.

There could be positives and negatives given that much of the institutional memory so to speak is gone particularly as relates to media relations.

Positive is that Safaricom could use this to completely re-orient its communications function and redesign the way it manages communication about itself amongst its various publics.

This could involve developing a PR strategy from scratch designed to fit in and support the new corporate structure and also mainstream new media more fully into this function.

In particular, communications could develop its own vision and mission aligned to the corporate one but more importantly, it may be time to introduce segmented communication given that already the company has stated its intention to carry out segmented and targeted marketing for its different products which may appeal to different demographics.

This will involve having to ask themselves who their audience is and what sort of communication they relate to and what sort of media they expose themselves to and at what times.

It will not do to have mishaps like the Valentine's day one.

It will also be perhaps a chance to properly position Maryann Michuki's digital and social media section to support the whole organization rather than act as a branch of Customer Support.

Essentially, a few folks should have been trained to do what that section does for Customer Support and left to run their show while Digital Media concentrates on introducing support functionality for other divisions such as Marketing, Events, Corporate Communications, CSR, Investor Relations, CEOs office etc etc.

It will also be time to roll out a social media policy and strategy throughout the corporation so that for example an employee say who happens to be friends with a non-employee on a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter, knows how to answer probing questions or respond to statements without compromising the organization's strategy.

The negative could be the loss of so much institutional memory at once. One of the main reasons GDCC was successful in using ex-reporters was their familiarity with news desks as well as the country's correspondence network.

Anyone can hold an event in Nairobi and get decent press for it but try doing it up country. Some of the newsroom veterans in PR Houses are adept at one trick; having a point man in major towns. This is usually a correspondent who can be relied upon to mobilize journalists for an event, know the police and probably carry out some logistic work on the ground. They are crucial to getting an event off the ground in a place like say a school in Kakamega or Kisumu and getting it coverage in the press.

The other issue is that by working with the company, many of the PR guys already knew Safaricom's products and services well and could do a beyond-the-press-release explanation.

So a new agency will have a steep learning curve although with the movement of personnel around the industry chances are that a person who handled Safaricom before may happen to work for that agency.

With a new HOD Comms who has to show performance and has the pressure to deliver, whichever agency gets any of these contracts will feel the full heat of to perform to unimaginable expectations.

I can bet a million bucks people at an agency will come to dread the sound of Victoria Kaigai at the other end of the line before too long.

That said, is it a good idea to split up the contract?

That is debatable although some companies seem to be going for it with KCB said to be considering it.

While of course it will force each agency to focus on an area and deliver, the question may arise as to singularity of the communications message when different entities handle different aspects of the same organization.

This goes back to Communications: They will have to come up with a full-scale communications strategy within which the functions of these different agencies will have to be aligned. The strategy itself will have to fit within the role of the Division of Corporate, Legal and External Affairs under the Safaricom 2.0 structure meaning the rationale for forming the division in the first place will have to be looked at and the communication strategy aligned with that - the assumption of course is that the division has also defined its role within the Vision and Mission Statement of Safaricom.

EABL which has separate agencies cannot claim to have suffered from it but also cannot say its communication message has been amplified by it.

It took a tepid performance last year for the company to publicly acknowledge it was adversely affected by the so-called Mututho rules when it could have sounded the warning earlier.

Agencies begin to pitch next month.
March 06, 2012
15:15
AIRTEL 3G SERVERS DISABLE CALLS?
» ‎ NairobiTech

Airtel calls could not go through for much of this morning although some calls from other networks and international calls were able to terminate on Airtel. Calling from Airtel however, was another matter.

All signs point the problem to the newly deployed Airtel 3G network.

The reason calls could not be made apparently was because of problems within the Mobile Switching Centre - this is the modern day equivalent of the old telephone switches (PTSN) - which apparently could not route calls properly.

Typically, the (VLR) Visitor Location Register, a table of active mobile users that have been detected by the network that day, and the Home Location Register (HLR), the database of all Airtel SIM card users should have the same information since the VLR is linked to the switching centre which regularly updates the HLR.

But for some reason, while signalling seems to have been working okay, the forwarding plane which in some networks is a table that has the addresses that the router needs to look up and forward the signal/message to was not.

By around 2PM it seems the problem had largely been dealt with.

That being said, it can only lead to one conclusion: That the problem was occasioned by the deployment of a 3G Core Network when the company announced its 3G rollout.

Because it cannot arbitrarily migrate to 3G when so many Airtel users are on 2G/GSM handsets, Airtel must have decided to support 2G in its 3G core network.

Many Mobile Switching Centres (MSS) allow for implementation of GSM.

Ericsson which is the company involved in this particular case, runs what it calls a MSC_S, from where it runs the control and bearer functionalities of the switching centre.

It is here where it must have implemented support for Airtel's 2G/GSM.

Most likely, this was a configuration issue - growing pains so to speak.

Of concern however is that it is here that also billing functions take place and with such downtimes and general confusion, subscribers who didn't complete calls could have been accidentally billed and others not billed.
March 05, 2012
15:16
KENYA BANKERS DENY WEAKENING SHILLING
» ‎ NairobiTech

KBA chair Etemesi, CBK governor Ndung'u (r)
Kenyan bankers led by Stanchart CEO Richard Etemesi feel MPs who sit on committees like the one investigating the fall of the Kenya shilling should be well versed in such matters. Clearly they don't think the likes of Adan Keynan grasp the dynamics of banking and hence the damaging report they released on last year's free fall of the local currency is not well informed.

Electronic manipulation of the shilling for speculative gain and hoarding were dismissed as implausible.
Etemesi, the chairman of the Kenya Banker's Association, used KBA's 13th floor boardroom at International House to convene fellow industry chiefs to rebut the report which is set to be tabled in parliament tomorrow.
Among other things, the Report on the Decline of the Kenya Shilling, alleges massive upsurge in commercial banks borrowing from the Central Bank of Kenya to cash in on government securities.
It says three things caused the shilling's woes, economic factors and failures of certain human beings and institutions.
It zeroes in on human beings and institutions as more to blame.
Human being number 1 is identified as CBK governor Professor Njuguna Ndungu. The MPs chew him up.
He is accused of being asleep on the job, failure to act in time, and generally having a poor working relationship with commercial banks.
It calls for his sacking and recommends and tribunal to be set up by President Kibaki to investigate the man.
Ndungu and the Monetary Policy Committee are portrayed as toothless and need to be granted legislative spine.
The Bank Supervision Department is said to have failed.
Treasury is said to have failed to act when CBK wilted and is asked to grow a pair and act quickly and decisively in future.
Commercial banks were said to have borrowed money at lower rates from CBK and used it to make money from high interest rate government securities.
The report hits at banks for misbehaviour on the forex markets and calls for stiffer fines (Sh20million or 50 per cent of the value of "irregular" transactions") to be imposed on them.
Etemesi, KCB's Martin Oduor-Otieno, NIC's James Macharia, KBA's Habil Olaka, and the CEOs of I&M and Consolidated Bank took issue with the reports findings.
For starters they said the Sh600billion figure is taken out of context. It was cumulative and not an amount they just borrowed at once.
In any case, they pointed out, CBK's core capital is only Sh5billion therefore it cannot lend out 120 times the equivalent of its capital.
Moreover, the banks themselves have a combined core capital of Sh259billion meaning they cannot be in Sh600billion debt...that would mean they are insolvent.
In any case, Etemesi added, what banks borrow is made against their holdings of government securities.
The borrowing, he said, is overnight and has to be repaid the following day. Therefore, banks could not have borrowed overnight to lend out money for 91-day Treasury Bills.
In any case, the average figures in 2011, showed that while commercial banks borrowed an average of Sh4billion from the CBK Discount Window, they borrowed more, Sh12billion amongst themselves a day on the Interbank market.
That said, the Sh600billion cumulative was still way higher than what they took in 2010.
The bankers said this is because liquidity was tight in 2011 necessitating them to latch onto the discount window.
They ruled out arbitrage on the Discount Window and the Interbank where potentially a bank could borrow from CBK at a low rate and lend on the overnight interbank market at a higher rate.
That is illegal Etemesi said.
On hoarding forex, the bankers said their own customers decided to keep the cash in foreign currencies when they realized the shilling was under pressure.
The report will be tabled in parliament tomorrow.
February 23, 2012
18:35
AIRTEL TO LAUNCH 3G IN KENYA TOMORROW
» ‎ NairobiTech

After what seems like ages, Airtel is finally going to unveil its 3G network in Kenya at the Crowne Plaza Hotel tomorrow.

Staff have been running up and down doing testing and checking reports in the run-up to the long-delayed event.

As we've mentioned before, Airtel has not been good at capitalizing on opportunities that come its way. Since Safaricom raised its tariffs, subscribers have flocked to Airtel but unfortunately, many have ended turning right back.

In recent times for example, new subscribers or returning ones have not been able to get their SIM swaps because of issues with their AUC (Authentification Centre) - basically, old number that have since left the network have not been removed filling up the system and leaving no space for new subscribers.

Gladly, this has been sorted out now, albeit in the short term.

That being said, Airtel launching a 3G system is a big, big step that need not be gainsaid.

Not only does it mean that handsets on their system will now access the net faster and hence make the whole experience cheaper, but also folks will be pretty excited about their 3G modems when they introduce them and the kind of deals they will come with.

Say what you will about Airtel, but the prices Kenyans pay for voice and SMS today are largely due to them.

If a similar shakeup is seen in data, it may well tip the market.

But despite that, Airtel seriously need to deal with a lot of issues if at all they are to have a viable business in this country.

For starters, they must modernize their systems to state of the art, robust, and high capacity network systems that are easy to manage and easily yield business intelligence data and visualizations that support business decision making.

It is not feasible that Airtel in 2012, is still using some of the systems that Kencell developed almost 10 years ago.

Some of these systems have reached end of life, others have so many add-ons and workarounds that they are barely recognizable to the people who designed them in the first place.

A company as big as Airtel should have a serious Enterprise Resource Platform (ERP), Customer Relations Management (CRM) and a serious BI (Business Intelligence) module and even a SMMP (Social Media Management Program) that can serve as an early warning system to a problem that subscribers are experiencing and alert management to deploy resources toward the problem.

Safaricom and Orange have already taken this path. Orange which decided to reduce suppliers for its voice, SMS and CDMA platforms and gave it to ZTE, plans to do the same for its other services.

Airtel on the other hand has too many suppliers, to many outsourced parties, and every time there is a problem, it becomes a matter of passing the buck from this supplier to that.

All in all, congratulations for launching 3G Airtel.
February 14, 2012
9:59
TOP KENYAN FACEBOOK PAGES
» ‎ NairobiTech

Mwalimu King'angi aka Churchill (Daniel Dambuki) can claim to be the King of Facebook in Kenya. While his official Daniel "Churchill" Ndambuki is second to NTV in terms of fans, he also has the Mwalimu King'angi Facebook page which also ranks in the top ten in the country. Combined then, he is just behind the full power of the Nation Media Group with its NTV, Easy FM and Daily Nation brands coming in the top 10.

Uhuru Kenyatta ranks first among politicians with Martha Karua running a close second. Also with over 100,000 fans in Maina Kageni who is said to make more than Sh400,000 a month from Facebook.

According to statistics from socialbakers, Facebook penetration in Kenya is 3.26%compared to the country's population and 32.67% in relation to number of Internet users. This means there is a lot of unexploited potential among existing internet users even as hordes of teens come online daily.

The total number of FB users in Kenya is reaching 1305340 and grew by more than 132800 in the last 6 months.

In the last one week, Uhuru Kenyatta's page has been the fastest growing adding over 5000 fans followed by Martha Karua at about 3000.
Safaricom, Mwalimu Kingangi and KTN Kenya follow in third, fourth and fifth place.
Yesterday, Safaricom added the most fans to its site, 353, followed by Uhuru 350 and Martha 319. {"dataSourceUrl":"//docs.google.com/spreadsheet/tq?key=0AitPW1P-_cjCdDBNcEhQT3FFdDI5Mk5Qc1l3RGlxYkE&transpose=0&headers=0&range=A2%3AB16&gid=0&pub=1","options":{"series":{"0":{"color":"#cc0000"}},"booleanRole":"certainty","title":"Top Kenyan Facebook Pages","animation":{"duration":500},"vAxis":{"format":""},"useFirstColumnAsDomain":true,"hAxis":{"viewWindowMode":"pretty","format":"","viewWindow":{}},"isStacked":false,"width":600,"height":371},"state":{},"view":["{"columns":[0,1]}","{"columns":[0,1]}","{"columns":[0,1]}"],"chartType":"BarChart","chartName":"Chart 1"}
February 06, 2012
14:37
Data Journalism boot camp comes to Nairobi
» ‎ NairobiTech

[&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://storify.com/jgmbugua/nairobi-data-journalism-boot-camp" target="_blank"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;View the story "Nairobi Data Journalism boot camp" on Storify&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;]
The training kicked off with a background on the Kenya Open Data Initiative before BBC Newsnight investigative reporter took participants through an Excel crash course ending with Pivot tables. The idea is that contained in the mountains of government data online are potential stories, scandals even that journalists using the right analytical tools can spot by for example visualizing data into tables, graphs and maps.
There followed sessions on data scraping. Government information is sometimes posted in PDF format making it difficult to work with. Sometimes this is deliberate and all one can do is to manually enter the data into tables to with it. A case in point is the national budget which is in word tables and rarely put online. One would have to scan such a document with Optical Character Recognition software. Tedious to say the least.
Next was a session on Google Refine for cleaning data. Sometimes there will be double posting of data from counties or double spellings of one particular county e.g. Tharaka, Tharaka Nithi, Nithi may all appear on the same table.
Google Fusion was next for merging of different tables and columns as well as for visualizing data.
Participants were then split into groups and tasked with coming up with story ideas or applications that utilized the information learnt.
There were great ideas all around. One group sought to link lack of toilets in schools with academic performance while another wanted to track fish farming in Kenya.
Yet another group wanted to promote domestic tourism by marketing counties. Different groups also sought to map crime and accident hot spots in the country.
Follow up to complete the projects will be carried out. Participants got certificates at the end of the training.
February 03, 2012
16:33
NOKIA CEO STEPHEN ELOP IN KENYA NEXT WEEK
» ‎ NairobiTech

Nokia global head Stephen Elop will be in the country next week in what will be a first. No CEO of the Finnish giant has been here before. This comes at a time when the handset vendor has downgraded its regional hub in Nairobi into a sales office moving other responsibilities to Jo'Burg.

It also comes at a time when at the top of the food chain, Samsung is increasingly asserting its dominance with the Galaxy line and rivals like Sony Ericsson and Research In Motion also seeking to increase their share of the pie. The iPhone 4S is also on sale through Orange although we are yet to see how they handle marketing for this latest iteration.

Nokia regional head Ken Oyolla who had announced his resignation before being made the global head of activations will no doubt welcome the opportunity to host Elop. Oyolla has been regional sales manager for Nokia before and together with Samsung's Amit Patel (formerly of Motorola) know the market trends as well as anyone in the business.

Elop used to be an executive with Microsoft and has steered Nokia toward Windows Mobile as it belatedly abandons Symbian.
January 27, 2012
17:59
OLGA ARARA OUT IN GOOGLE MOCALITY SAGA
» ‎ NairobiTech

The Google Mocality saga has drawn its first casualties. Kenya country lead for Google, Olga Arara-Kimani formerly of Safaricom has been let go by the company. Also axed is a technical guy in Zurich. Company officials contacted said they will issue a statement once investigations are complete. The statement will come from Nelson Mattos, he of, "mortified" fame. It is not clear how Olga was picked for the fall but as one observer noted, sometimes a sacrificial lamb has to be found for the brand name to weather the storm.

It is unfortunate as the Google getting businesses online that ended up causing so much mayhem was one of the first major projects Olga oversaw.
January 16, 2012
16:07
GOOGLE- (minus)? MOCALITY SEES EVIL IN KBO DEBACLE
» ‎ NairobiTech

Google deserve to take the beating they are getting. Not because of the initial scandal where Mocality, an online business directory firm, called them out for using its database to telemarket its services under false pretense, but because of continuing to exhibit arrogance.

Stefan Magdalinski went to town with the allegations here: (Google, what were you thinking?) and clearly exhibited more tenacity and innovation than Google's staff or its alleged contract workers, Iridium Interactive, accused on Likechapaa and Tech Mtaa of being behind the fiasco.

Juliet Gateri, Business Manager, at Iridium, has denied any involvement.

Back to Google. They get a minus Google-, for one, allowing such a thing to happen, and two, for a weak and uninspiring response.

It is known that during a crisis in which you or your brand is adversely mentioned, you should seize charge and take control of the information flow. Basically, be the source of any new information regarding the issue.

Beyond a one paragraph apology that has been carried by the world press, Google has been quiet.

Bloggers have had a field day tearing into the search advertising giant while business and tech writers are busy researching pieces that will throw new light on the episode.

Businesses that had been contacted or have been part of the Kenya Businesses Online initiative, probably have a negative feeling about the initiative now and;

Government officials particularly the Ministry of Information and Communication, the Communications Commission of Kenya and Kenya ICT Board probably have more questions for Google than before.

Truth be told, confidence in the firm is not at an all time high here.

And yet, despite the feeling that only half or even less of the story has been told, the firm does not seem to be contributing to clarify the situation.

Neither has it demonstrated a social media action plan to engage inaccurate information appearing on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and so on.

In our opinion, it makes no commercial sense for Google to be engaged in soliciting business that generates Sh2000 per year.

Actually, Nairobitech was of the opinion that another player, KENIC, the Kenya Network Information Centre, the body charged with registering local domain names, should shed light on this matter as it seems more within its ambit.

David Wambua, CEO, KeNIC promised on KICTANet that a thorough statement would forthcoming:

"Allow me to clarify that it is true that KeNIC does not deal directly with Registrants (end users) but does so through our accredited registrars which Google is not a part of.

Following the recent events, KeNIC will also be preparing a comprehensive statement that will shed more light to the issues that you have requested clarification on in the course of this week."
Google on the other hand, has made no such promises.

From a local perspective, the company has dropped the ball on this one.

From work we have done as consultants, we believe the correct way to handle this would have been as follows:

1. Seize the initiative - Even a simple search on their website, will show Google that the conversation regarding this issue is being driven by bloggers, the social media and the mainstream media. Google has not positioned itself to be the authoritative source of information as this story builds. They could, after of course cutting off the practice and apologizing to Mocality as well as initiating a settlement with the firm behind the scenes, issued a general statement.

Basically, Google needs to come up with a go-to person on this issue. Ideally, if they have a team working on the crisis (including their local agency who can bring in fresh ideas), they should identify for example someone who will deal with the mainstream press (local and foreign).

Dorothy Ooko, Comms for Google EA, ideally should be left to deal with local journalists and bloggers since she is quite familiar with them, is familiar with the industry and can establish rapport to control what is appearing on the blogs. Right now, everyone feels Google is too quiet.

Take for example this response on the Kenya ICT Action Network (Kictanet) by a lister.

"Google PR team are misjudging our intelligence with such a flimsy statement. Even a kid can read in between the lines."

Olga Arara, who is country head for Google, should issue periodic statements on what is happening with the investigations and what action Google has taken.

The EMEA head who said he was "mortified" by the revelations, and clearly whose name I can't recall, can deal with the BBCs and Guardians of this world.

2. Google must begin engaging on social media and the blogosphere in general. They are letting the conversation be ran from out there instead of inserting themselves in the middle, quickly rebutting any inaccuracies that are posted and generally setting up listening posts to see what is being said. (This is Google, finding stuff about themselves on the net shouldn't be too hard). Dorothy Ooko is on Twitter and so is Joe Mucheru, as well as the Google Localization manager Gikunda. They should be engaging. [And btw, Google should understand that we have no familiarity nor rapport with their regional, continental or global communications teams]. We will relate better to statements or information coming from the country or regional office not Dubai or London or California. The local teams have familiarity and have interacted with many of the journalists, bloggers, posters and government officials and can take conversations offline to explain the situation off-record.

The Google Africa blog should also be updated with this information. Right now there is no reference to this issue. There is a redeeming quality in saying you are sorry and letting people get the bad news from you not from others. You are telling them," Hey, we are sorry this happened, we are dealing with it." But without that, and with a posting about taking Ghanaian businesses online on the same page, one might be tempted to ask, "Do they know what is about to hit them or Is Mocality in Ghana?"

3. Internally, I expect Google to explain the situation thoroughly to its staff so that there is no confusion and since staff are locals who interact with the rest of us, it would be prudent to establish a semblance of a common line. Not a gag order but to set the record straight. I'm sure a social media policy exists

3. At some point, I would expect that Google would be pay a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Information and Communication, CCK, KICT Board as well as their partners at Safaricom to explain to them what happened, how they addressed it and to assure them that utmost care will be taken that nothing similar will take place.

Google has been working with a lot of government agencies to get their data online and some of them have expressed opposition. Give them no reason to fortify their position.

4. Going forward, I would expect that they will probably hold a sit down with tech journalists and bloggers say for a half day and go through all the issues that might be raised. The idea is that when you answer all the questions that have been asked, you effectively put an end to the story. Secondly, so many issues may be covered that one dominant angle appearing is almost impossible.

The company should establish a social media strategy here and in the region because clearly they have none.

If need be, they can ask Nairobitech to design them one.
January 09, 2012
12:01
China TV (CCTV) to launch in Nairobi on Wednesday
» ‎ NairobiTech

There's a media blackout to this event. It is only open to Reuters and AP. China Central TV (CCTV) which has assembled a news team from raiding local media houses for talent launches in Nairobi on Wednesday.
Nairobi will be the African headquarters for the pan-African broadcaster that will run news 24/7.
Among the talent sourced locally are Beatrice Marshall, Samuel Kantai, Peter Wakaba, Terry Ann Chebet, Robert Soi and so on. Jemimah Mungai, a radio veteran will be the Managing Editor.
The station will broadcast from Westlands. No word on whether it has plans to ride on the digital signal that another Chinese company is putting together as the second licensed digital signal distributor after KBC subsidiary, Signet.
Perhaps after poaching people from local outlets, CCTV do not want to ask for coverage or frankly, they couldn't give a damn.
The only issue, is for you to get watched people have to know you are on air. Let's see how this pans out. Properly done, it could make for an independent station during an election year or Chinese mandarins interested in contracts may curtail such independence. The jury is out.
11:42
Airtel can't handle success? Ericsson system overload!
» ‎ NairobiTech

Not too many things have gone right for Airtel ever since its first incarnation as Celtel around 2004. Incidentally, this is the time Michael Joseph, former CEO Safaricom, says he realized his company was headed for big things.
In recent times, and especially since Safaricom adjusted its calling rates upwards, Airtel has been receiving subscribers in droves. The only problem, it doesn't seem prepared.
For some time the company's subscribers have been having problems loading airtime and customer service which has been outsourced, is crap.
CCK reported Airtel adding about 550,000 subscribers from July to September just behind the 590K Safaricom did over the same period.
In October the company added about 520,0000, in November just about 500,000 and in December about 408,000.
The problem that Airtel is experiencing can be directly attributed to Ericsson.
Basically, the MINSAT (Mobile Intelligent Network Service Administration Tool) is full and the company is having issues with its SDP (Service Delivery Platform) most likely with Times Ten Database.
Ericsson normally deployes their MINSAT with Sybase 10 database although I'm told the folks at Airtel are using Oracle and DB2 for business services (currently handled by IBM).
Ericsson is likely not getting the funds it needs from Airtel as the company continues to assess whether to invest more in a market that has burnt holes into its budget.
These network problems are made all the more glaring by rival Nokia Siemens which has announced the launch of LiquidNet which is says will unleash frozen network capacity into a reservoir of resources. "This enables your broadband network to instantly adapt to unpredictable changes in end-user demand. We can help you release huge chunks of your unused network resources – up to 80%, in fact, of your baseband radio network capacity."
If Airtel want to put up a fight for this market, they need to put their network into shape. And that long promised 3G seems to be taking forever to deploy despite getting the license before Orange. The latter has already rolled out.
January 06, 2012
17:23
CORRUPT KEBS DIVVIES THE LOOT! JEVIC, MANG'ELI LIVE ON
» ‎ NairobiTech

Kioko Mang'eli still eats Kenya Bureau of Standards long after he was booted out of the MD's job courtesy of current MD Evah Oduor. The two apparently are not just as thick as thieves, they are thieves. Their company JEVIC, will continue to inspect and verify second hand motor vehicles prior to shipment from Japan, Singapore, UAE, UK and South Africa despite the fact that it had lost out in an earlier tender.

Quality Inspection Services of Japan had won the inspection tender scoring 96 per cent while Jevic in which Mang'eli, current MD Evah Oduor, and people close to the PM have an interest, came in a distant second with 85 per cent.

Mang'eli who was kicked out for opposing the entry of maize that was said to be associated with top figures in government, was said to be close to Oduor.

Despite the fact that the board approved QIS be given the Sh1.18billion contract at a full board meeting on October 31, 2011, Ms Oduor who had chaired the tender committee that ranked QIS first, cancelled the tender on November 1.

This was the third time the tender was being cancelled.

QIS is not an innocent bystander though, the current PS of Industrialization, Karanja Kibicho, is said to have an interest in the company.

To smooth things over, and keep everyone happy, it would appear, Oduor and co. decided to give three companies the contract essentially divvying the loot.

M/S Auto of Japan is the third company. Star Tech has yet to establish if it is another Kenyan outfit masquerading as Japanese.

The fat cats have conveniently given the companies rights in all the major sources of vehicles imported to Kenya.

Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Centre (Jevic) and Quality Inspection Service of Japan(QISJ) have been competing for the lucrative tender. When Oduor backtracked against giving QISJ the tender she went ahead to give Jevic more time to continue undertaking the inspection even though their contract had expired.

Kibicho had openly opposed eligibility of Jevic's participation in the tendering process on grounds it contravened the procurement Act.This had to do with unsolicited communication from Jevic to the managing director KEBS, the procurement department and the minister for Industrialisation which was in total contravention of section 38(1)(a) of the procurement Act. The Public Procurement Oversight Authority also recommended action be taken against the company for interfering with the procurement process of the first tender. But Oduor did not take any disciplinary action against Jevic and it went ahead to be allowed in the subsequent procurement processes saying the PS was interfering with the process which is against the procurement act.Jevic has in the meantime enjoyed extensions to its expired contract.
January 05, 2012
16:42
TEAMS TO UPGRADE DOCKING STATION
» ‎ NairobiTech

Joel Tanui, the former Telkom Kenya man, now GM, TEAMS (East Africa Marine Systems) is confident. By 7AM Saturday, the cable will be up and running. A scheduled maintenance will see the cable down for 12 hours at the most, the GM says. Work begins Friday 6, 2012 at 10PM.

"We are doing some maintenance work at the docking station," Tanui said.

The docking station is where the 4500KM cable from Fujairah, Dubai, terminates in Mombasa and capacity is then availed to operators who have leased or purchased it.

Incidentally, the TEAMS docking station is in the same premises, separated by steel doors on a corridor, with that of the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) cable ran by the Western Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).

No word from the players as to whether they will seek to shift over.

Jonathan Somen of AccessKenya is however confident he can carry all his traffic on the capacity he leases on Seacom, the Aga Khan/Cyril Ramaphosa backed cable.

Safaricom on the other hand says it might be affected with some customers experiencing slow or degraded speeds.

TKL said they will assess the likely effect.
October 26, 2011
18:01
IBM INKS DEAL WITH KENYA REFINERIES
» ‎ NairobiTech

Big Blue clearly didn't come here to sleep. It keeps inking them. Let's tick them. Airtel, Safaricom, Central Bank of Kenya and now, The Kenya Petroleum Refineries.

IBM has announced that it has signed with KPRL to provide a solution to increase productivity and efficiency of the companies operations.

This system called Maximo asset management software, "will allow KPRL to manage, measure and track the life cycle of its oil processing equipment such as pipes, heat exchangers, pumps, valves, boilers, furnaces, compressors, tanks and turbines."

No mention of blackouts though. KPRL has typically wrought havoc on the petroleum market especially around Christmas with its breakdowns which it attributes to power failures from fellow Energy parastatal Kenya Power.

Apparently, the catalysts that kick in the process of refining Super/Petrol take up to six days to bring the process back online.

Of course IBM has also been providing servers to CBK through Symphony for sometime though the last contract was based on the four day cheque clearance system.

With the introduction of cheque truncation, no word yet on what system the reserve bank is using.

And Airtel are currently overworking IBM Kenya's business services team. Tasked with offering business support services to Airtel Africa, the Kenyan team has been especially under pressure given the cut throat competition in the market.

Basically, the former Airtel business intelligence team was ported over to IBM just like IT went to Nokia Siemens.

But things have been hectic with all the departments from sales and marketing to different directors making different requests and terming them all urgent.

Things have eased somewhat with Safaricom increasing their tariffs forcing people to make more of their calls on Airtel. As a result, revenues are looking up.

Enter Safaricom and M-PESA. IBM runs M-PESA operations on behalf of Vodafone after it took over from the company that developed the platform for Vodafone in the first place, Sagentia.

Despite the company issuing two white papers on how money transfer services should be run it seems the platform is yet to get there.

The outage the other day was blamed on lack of connectivity between Safaricom and its M-PESA data center in Germany.

IBM, we were told were working full out to solve the problem.

Indeed they did.

Looking forward it is likely that Big Blue will eye more and more of the business services opportunities that will arise in the region particularly in e-government.

The company is among those slated to take up space on the proposed ICT City in Konza along with Samsung and a host of other companies and universities.
October 25, 2011
17:55
Muthoka to boot Mobicom? AndyForwarders calls CMC EGM
» ‎ NairobiTech

Mobicom's Paul Ndung'u (left)
It seems the battle over CMC motors is just beginning. Now Andy Forwarders CEO Peter Muthoka has called for an Extra-ordinary General Meeting of CMC shareholders with the agenda being to remove a number of directors including: Paul Ndung'u and Joel Kibe (chairman) both men associated with Mobicom, Andrew Hamilton, and Billy Lay (current MD).

At the EGM to be held at Bomas of Kenya on Monday 21, November, Andy Forwarders will seek to have Mark Ole Karbolo who has chaired East Africa Portland Cement, Professor Francis Mwihuri Njeru of JKUAT and Peter Mbuthia Gachuhi of law firm Kaplan & Stratton to replace them.

Apparently, Muthoka wants Ashok Shah of APA Insurance who is sitting on 12.5 per cent shareholding to back him and probably some proxies of some of the guys who may not like the Mobicom duo.

Muthoka has about 24 per cent shareholding putting him in prime position to stage this move.

Nothing is known of his recent woes. Just recently, one of his bank accounts at Family Bank was to be frozen with Sh180million as investigations continue. We will update on what happened on that front but for now the battle lines are set.
October 19, 2011
17:19
NOKIA WINDOWS PHONES TO BE SHOWN NEXT WEEK
» ‎ NairobiTech

It's confirmed. Nokia and Microsoft will show the first Windows Phone from the Finnish giant next week. After taking a battering from Apple and Samsung with fast rising Sony Ericsson also eating into the smartphone segment, Nokia is looking to rebound with its Windows based phones. On Tuesday, Nokia staff here refused to say anything regarding the Windows phone. "Stephen Elop (Nokia CEO) sent each of of us an email warning us not to say anything," a senior local manager said.

One man Elop cannot gag though is his former boss at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer. Speaking on a wide range of issues, Ballmer today confirmed that Nokia will indeed show some Windows phones next week.
Timing will be key. Apple is still riding the momentum of its iPhone 4S which has already done 4million devices sold over the weekend of the launch. Samsung after waiting for a respectable period since Steve Jobs death has now released the Samsung Galaxy Nexus running on Google's Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS.
So Nokia's announcement along with the heft of Microsoft whose Windows platform still runs 75 per cent of the computers used in the world is likely to be a big deal.
On why you might want to buy Windows phones instead of an Apple iPhone, Ballmer told Forbes that, "Your information is front and center, not a sea of icons."
October 17, 2011
14:49
Blackberry offers free Apps to compensate users
» ‎ NairobiTech
From Me 2 U
We took part in a conference call with Patrick Spence, Managing Director Global Sales and Regional Marketing at RIM.

RIM is offering free premium apps to its customers to compensate them for the recent outage.

Spence says the Apps are worth about USD100 (Sh10,000). He says a switch failed and the backup switch did not kick in leading to massive backlog.

RIM it seems moves 22 terabytes of data on its network every month.

"That caused a situation where we had to catch up," Spence told conference participants made up of ICT journalists from South Africa and Kenya.

The Apps will be available from this week to December.

Spence says the Apps chosen were picked based on downloading trends.

Apps available include:
- SIMS 3 - Electronic Arts
- Bejeweled - Electronic Arts
- N.O.V.A. - Gameloft
- Texas Hold’em Poker 2 - Gameloft
- Bubble Bash 2 - Gameloft
- Photo Editor Ultimate - Ice Cold Apps
- DriveSafe.ly Pro - iSpeech.org
- iSpeech Translator Pro - iSpeech.org
- Drive Safe.ly Enterprise - iSpeech.org
- Nobex Radio™ Premium - Nobex
- Shazam Encore - Shazam
- Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant - Vlingo
October 03, 2011
11:35
Where's the Tandaa shortlist? Kenya ICT Board asks for time
» ‎ NairobiTech

Scribes, bloggers, developers et al this year have an eagle eye trained on the process of awarding the Tandaa applications development grants particularly for integrity and transparency.

While the Board said it would issue the list of shortlisted applicants by end of September, yesterday it said it would do so by October 10.

No explanation were given in this one line response from Kaburo Kobia, the project manager of local digital content when asked for the update.

"We are a week behind the review. We will announce on Oct 10."

However, the board went ahead and updated its Tandaa website:

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Digital-Content-Grant--Update-on-shortlist.html?soid=1102964298642&aid=vQ4uU9QugiA

Greetings! ,

The review of proposals received for the Tandaa Digital Content Grant is still on going. We had hoped to announced the shortlist at the end of September, but we are yet to complete the review of the 795 proposals received.

The good news is that we are only a few days away from completing the review of the first phase of the Call for Proposals.

As such, we will announce the shortlist in a week's time on October 10.

We appreciate your patience. We are committed to ensuring that every proposal is reviewed adequately.
The following response was also posted on Twitter.

the shortlist will be realised in a weeks time .please keep checking our website and newsletters

Verdict

Being late by a week is fine and understandable but the Board must be cognizant of the apprehension and suspicion that some developers already have about the process. In particular, it has been accused of either engaging in favouritism or not being transparent in how it chooses its judges for these contests. Complaints have been made that the same clique of people is seeing playing different roles at different times from judges, to speakers to award recipients. This should not happen in a field that thrives on disorder and randomness and innovation.

You cannot have an IT industry that is ordered and sequenced and mid wifed by the same people like say the legal profession where young lawyers learn at the knees of the older counsel.

IT is an industry that by its very nature is disruptive! It is an industry where you stop for lunch, you become someone else's lunch.

You sleep like Infoseek, Yahoo comes along and dethrones you. You sleep like Yahoo, Google snaps you up. Like Nokia, Apple and so on. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on form the next wave of innovators.

In short, what we expect is freshness and disruption. We don't want to see the same people pitching different apps as if there aren't any more innovators out there.

For its sake and for the sake of the Tandaa Grants, which incidentally, are public funds, should be quick to announce the short list of applicants and the list of those who will judge entries to determine final winners.
September 30, 2011
12:19
TELKOM KENYA COULD LOSE FIBER DEAL
» ‎ NairobiTech

TKL CEO Ghossein
There is a cable that runs the length and breadth of this country; the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) and it is owned by the Government of Kenya. It goes to the remotest of locations where private cable operators like Kenya Data Networks and Jamii Telecom would not venture.

It is run by Telkom Kenya but it carries very little traffic simply because it is unreliable and has too much downtime. Right now, efforts are underway to change the way it is managed and even suggestions of splitting management of different sections and handing it to different players has been floated.

Telkom Kenya which got the deal to run the cable mostly because when it was laid it used to terminate at TKL's offices in different towns as the company was then state-owned.

TKL was to avail the capacity to other operators at a given costs as government wanted it to be affordable.

That however has proved to be unsustainable as TKL claims the money it gets is not enough for it to operate and maintain NOGBI.

Government is pissed. Language coming from top officers in the Ministry of Information and Communication suggests Telkom may just get the boot.

TKL claims it has come to an understanding with other operators where they will share the maintenance costs and TKL will run and maintain the cable and also sign Service Level Agreements but the government is not buying it.

Telkom insiders claim government misunderstands the issue but government claims TKL have messed up and it is time to figure out how to throw them out.

"They are messing. They have messed. I think we'll have to take it (NOFBI) away from them," a source at the Ministry said.

Watchers of all this unfold like Safaricom say they have no strong feelings about the issue. "Between KDN, Kenya Power and Jamii there is enough cable in the country," one Safaricom exec said. "What Mickhael (Telkom CEO) should do is just tell the government, pay me nothing, just give me the cable, let me run it and I'll even pay you."

AccessKenya on the other hand prefers a sort of consortium to be formed to run NOFBI.

Either way, this is an important resource that should not be wasted. Particularly, when counties come into place, some of them could decide to build fiber to home and connect to NOFBI bringing high speed internet access to their citizens.

Not only would this promote growth, it would also thwart telecoms efforts to charge an arm and a leg for data access on the maddeningly, unscrupulous premise that; "We have to recover our costs."

Of course you have to recover your cost of investment but who said it should happen in two years? Should apartment rents be charged at Sh200,000 so that the building owner can recoup his investment? What happens after he recoups? Is he or the telecom going to offer the service for free or at cost since they have recouped their costs?

Nairobitech thinks NOFBI should be placed in the hands of the entity that safeguards such a utility best and promotes last mile projects best.
September 28, 2011
17:59
Dorothy Ooko to Google EA? Nokia's spokesperson says Sayonara.
» ‎ NairobiTech

Ooko at the iHub
Is Dorothy Ooko leaving Nokia for Google? The Nokia spokesperson for East, Central and Southern Africa and the public face of the handset vendor for many years wrote us an email yesterday saying she was moving on but did not say to where.

Here's the text of the email:

Dear friends, partners and collaborators,
One of my greatest passions is the continent of Africa and being able to provide services that transform the lives of its people. I am glad to have been able to do this at Nokia.
However after almost 5 years at Nokia it is time for me to move on. I am still privileged that l will be able to continue doing what l am passionate about in a different company and serving the people of Africa.
Thank you all for all your support and cooperation while at Nokia. I sincerely hope we will continue to work together as l turn the page to begin another chapter in my life.
My number will remain the same. I will send you an update of my work email once I have it.
Many thanks and kind regards
The Google AngleContacted by phone, Dorothy would not say where she was moving to promising to update us in about a week or two's time."I'm not saying anything," Ooko told us when we tried to get her to confirm on phone that she was indeed moving to Google.But Nairobitech can almost authoritatively conclude that it is Google she is moving to.For starters, the company has been looking for a Communications Officer for the last year or so. A number of PR types and Business/ICT scribes have been interviewed and given regrets by the Google Africa Comms, Julia Taylor.Secondly, we spotted Dorothy at the Google G Kenya 2011 event two weeks ago. That is very strange given that Google is trying to grow its Android Apps store at the same time Nokia is trying to grow Ovi Store.She was quite keen to know how the press sessions could have been improved but we didn't pick up on it then.She says she has been serving notice and had to wait for GM Ken Oyolla to come back to the country to inform his staff before she made public her departure.Nairobitech learnt that Ooko will still be in the technology field and since Google has been looking hard for a Comms Officer and Dorothy fits the bill/ She is also fluent in French and knows the region like the back of her hand, it seems like an effortless transition.She will be one of several additions Google has made at its Kenyan office including the appointment of Olga Arara from Safaricom as country head.For those interested, Oooko's position at Nokia is open and they are searching for a replacement. Break out your CVs.We welcome Dorothy to Google and congratulate her on the move.
September 27, 2011
18:02
WATCH WHAT U POST: CCK GOES NSA
» ‎ NairobiTech

Small mencan play, talk and sound big online. They may have to ease back. The government is putting together what is by all accounts a cyber-prowling team with mandate to monitor the online space for cyber-attacks (hackers), personal attacks, child pornography and "Material that is offensive with regard to the law." Pause there: Mzalendo Kibunjia has been talking about holding people responsible for what they say online either on Facebook, Twitter and the like and the response has mainly been to scoff at him.

Well we can tell you that as we speak, a team is quietly being assembled and trained within the inner confines of the Communications Commission of Kenya headquarters on Waiyaki Way. The equipment and systems to carry out the monitoring is being shipped in and CCK is working with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to train the cyber-defenders and install the systems. \

The official name of the team is the Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) and it is expected to start work by December, well ahead of the coming general elections.

Besides monitoring irresponsible comments and hackers online it will also monitor electronic transactions.

Right now there are four guys deployed to form the core of the team but it will be expanded.
September 26, 2011
17:51
Okia Chinaman! Counterfeit Nokia's seized
» ‎ NairobiTech

Over 11,000 fake Nokia items have been seized in shops in the CBD. The Anti-Counterfeit Agency, ACA, along with Nokia staff, raided Sky Building along Luthuli Avenue, Nairobi for dealing with fake Nokia products. A Chinese owner was found at his residence where he assembles parts to make fake Nokia products.

Specifically, the raid netted 2071 counterfeit Nokia handsets (enclosed in boxes complete accessories), 330 separate earpieces and 9084 pieces of batteries.

Kenya Bureau of Standards staff and Kenya Police also took part in the raid. It is expected that these raids will continue. If they anywhere as diligent and concerted as those carried out by the Music Copyright Society of Kenya or Microsoft, then we could see these fake items begin to disappear from shops. But the impending switching off of bogus handsets from mobile telephone networks is expected to deal the back-breaking blow of this industry.

ACA seems to have found some footing at last after dithering about for sometime.
September 22, 2011
11:12
Oceanic oils raided for illegal telecoms activity
» ‎ NairobiTech

It turns out, that the Safaricom/CCK/Orange sting operation was targeted at an illegal Gateways services provider. The culprit can now be identified as Oceanic Oils of Jubilee House, CBD. Equipment was confiscated from the premises where Oceanic is accused of setting up intelligent SIM servers in the name of GSM Gateways or simply put Gateways. These Gateways have the capacity to transit and terminate international minutes to any telecom network. In the industry, these servers have also been referred to SIM boxes.

The providers of these boxes are now providing very advanced features such as SIM Allocation and SIM Protection. The boxes also include SIM cards storage capacity with capability to store up to 416 SIM cards which can be increased to about 496 SIMs. They do not discriminate on prepaid or postpaid SIM cards, since the boxes can select the most appropriate SIM card according to how it has been programmed such as credit availability, type of service, country, and operator targeted for termination.
To perform this business; one needs a Gateway Licence from CCK. In this case of raid, Oceanic Oil has been terminating international traffic without the requisite licence from CCK. This action contravenes the regulations.
The motivation of this activity is to avoid paying the licence fee to the commission hence denying the commission its rightful licence fees. Besides the licence fees, the government also loses tax money that they would have otherwise collected from the operators. Besides these losses, the quality of these calls terminated are of poor quality this affecting quality of service provided by the operators.
Pictures of the raid will be uploaded soon.
9:29
SWAT TEAM CCK, SAFARICOM: ITS GOING DOWN
» ‎ NairobiTech

A fake phones seller in the CBD is about to be hit in the next 15 minutes by an assorted team of Government agents, CCK, Safaricom and Orange. The agreed time for the operation as of last night is 9:30AM. The owner of the shop (we cannot reveal the name or location at this time in order not to tip them off) is said to be a notorious seller of counterfeit handsets. CCK has issued a deadline for telecom operators to switch off all those using these "grey" handsets and Safaricom says that by looking at its database, it has about 800,000 such users. The Anti-Counterfeit Agency, which is likely to be part of this morning's sting operation, has claimed in the past it needs to be trained before it can carry out raids. Blogger Robert Alai was on their case recently telling them they needed no training to walk down Tom Mboya street and see the number of counterfeit dealers operating there.
Not so said the ACA. We need a complainant. Apparently, unless a handset vendor complains to them that their phones are being counterfeited, the ACA has no powers under the current law to act creatively and proactively. It is a reactionary body.
Today is expected to be one of many sting operations to come.
To check if your phone is genuine, get your IMEI number by pressing *#06# on your mobile phone.
September 20, 2011
16:19
CMC saga - Mobicom men gun for Muthoka
» ‎ NairobiTech

Ousted CMC Chair Peter Muthoka
Is Peter Muthoka's gig up? After barely warming the seat he took over from Jeremiah Kiereini as CMC Chairman, Muthoka was muscled out and by all indications flung out into the streets. Joel Kibe, CEO of Mobicom replaced him as chair. His MD, Bill Lay, formerly of General Motors, even called a press conference the other day and basically called Muthoka an embezzler who was hitting the firm for millions in opaque transactions. Muthoka is also the MD of Andy Forwarders, a logistics firm (think DHL, Transami, Siginon Freight etc). Andy Forwarders has exclusive contract to handle CMC's logistics including shipping imports, clearing and forwarding (and that includes the Passat's the government bought).

After getting the mighty boot from the other directors, followed by the damaging press conference, Muthoka hit back with press ads where he promised the matter would not end there.

Basically, besides milking CMC through exclusive contracts that he had given himself, Muthoka is also accused of overcharging CMC in clearance fees at the Port. Bill Lay claimed that when he was MD at GM, Muthoka used to charge him a third of what he charges CMC basically implying Andy Forwarders was inflating the bills.

Muthoka claimed he gives CMC serious business by buying trucks for his business from the firm. CMC is the vendor of heavy commercial vehicles like Nissan Diesel (UD). But according to management, Muthoka was buying the trucks at under quoted prices.

His logistics contract was cancelled.

Muthoka says he will not take it lying down although he hasn't been taking phone calls. By any measure, the man has formidable resourcefulness. CMC was not his only contract, otherwise he would not have shaken President Kibaki's hand at KICC when Kenya Revenue Authority was was issuing certificates and trophies for best taxpayers in the country.

He also does business with Safaricom and EABL. For starters, it seems he is a good man to do a favour for. Reports claim the man routinely hands over brand new Range Rovers to win business. It is said that at Treasury one lady found herself the proud owner of the said vehicle after the Passat deal was inked. Two guys at one of the two companies named above also received Range Rovers while at one of them, a briefcase full of cash was enough to secure business.

At EABL both DHL and Transami were booted and Andy Forwarders given the logistics contract.

At the last meeting where he ran out of aces, Muthoka is said to have threatened Bill Lay.

Enter Mobicom: Unfortunately for Muthoka, in this latest battle he seems to have come up against a formidable and implacable foe. The Mobicom duo; chairman Paul Ndung'u and chief executive Joel Kibe. Mobicom has an interesting story behind it but the long and short of it is that Ndung'u has promised to deal with Muthoka completely. To finish him. This puts Muthoka, who is said to also do business for Moi in some places, in a sticky situation. The forces ranged against him may call upon influence from highest echelons in the land. Mobicome has also made a lot of money first as the biggest Safaricom dealer for about 10 years (it's now a Super dealer for Orange) as well as running SMS lottos like Shinda Smart which raked in hundreds of millions.

Given that Muthoka is not that well liked by those who've met and dealt with him, many palms must be rubbing with glee across the business world. So the question must be asked, Is Peter Muthoka's gig up? It may perhaps, be early to draw the curtains but one thing is for sure; It is unlikely that Andy Forwarders will make the cut for best taxpayers in its category this year.
15:18
Internet Governance Forum comes to Kenya
» ‎ NairobiTech
So you already know that Kenya is now one of the hosts of the internet's root servers. These are servers that hold the basic lists of top level domains. Connected together, these servers form the internet. The root server based near YMCA was set up by the ICANN. Anyway, the Sixth Annual Internet GovernanceForum (IGF) conference is scheduled to take place in Nairobi Kenya from 27-30September 2011 at the United Nations Office in Gigiri, Nairobi (UNON). The issues to be discussed include:

Whatrole are mobile networks playing in providing Internet access to citizens andwhat needs to be put in place to promote mobile Internet and enhance localcontent development? Cybersecurity and Privacy: What policies are required to increase and improveco-operation in this area to ensure that strategies are consistent withpolicies that protect society while advancing innovation, growth anddevelopment?· CloudComputing: What is cloud computing and what are the critical issues indetermining the pace and level of development of the cloud?· Otherthematic areas such the concept of creation of “Knowledge Societies” incyberspace, content generation, guarding Internet freedom, preservinglinguistic diversity, particularly promotion of multilingualism in cyberspaceas a commitment toward supporting the Universal Declaration on CulturalDiversity adopted in 2010 and the Recommendation on the Promotion and Use ofMultilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace adopted in 2005.

Activities on these dates:
- 26^th September 2011- High level Ministerial Meeting at UNON
Cocktail &Launch of GSMA Report at Tribe Hotel
- 27^th September 2011 – Opening Session at UNON
- 28^th September 2011- Business Round Table at Tribe Hotel (2-4)
-Cloud Computing Research at UNON
- 29^th September 2011 –IHUB Visit
- 30^th September 2011- Public Lecture at KICC (9-12)
Khweza consulting of Nairobi is making the arrangements for scribes wishing to attend.
August 15, 2011
9:17
SEO:Search Engine Optimization - Google vs. FB, Twitter
» ‎ NairobiTech

There is a global industry built around this line: Google does not smile. The industry is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

In basic terms, if you are a news site, a marketing site, a website or whatever site online, your presence depends on how easily people can find you.

To find things online, most people, turn to Google and Google turns to its humongous index of web pages and returns results based on its rankings.

Depending on the words a person types in Google Search, Google decides which pages are most relevant and gives the results in terms of relevance.

The more relevant the page, the higher up in the results it shows.

Because websites want to be ranked high, they in turn engage in what is called Search Engine Optimization i.e. they optimize themselves for Google and other search engines.

They do this by employing the use of KEY WORDS that Google looks for.

Hence the saying: Google does not smile. If you are a newssite, writing snazzy, funny or catchy headlines takes you nowhere with Google unless you include keywords.

It is for this reason that newspapers carry different headlines online for the same story in the print edition.

Additionally, it is important to note that Google only reads the first six words and anything after is ignored - it therefore makes sense for you to put important information at the beginning.

However, there is also evidence that SEO may not be the main deal in times to come.

The Entry of Facebook and Twitter into the picture is changing all this. Increasingly, people are coming onto websites not from Google but from Facebook after reading friends updates and following the links or from Twitter.

It then makes sense for you to have an interesting update to your website if you want people to share and read it.

Looking at the Kenyan landscape, there is much yet to be done in the way of optimizing websites and increasing their presence online.

According to Alexa.com, the only Kenyan website among the top ten sites visited by Kenyans is Daily Nation's Nation.co.ke, which comes in at number 10. The 15-year old website comes behind such relative newcomers as Google, Facebook, youtube, Gmail and others.

Of course the site has built a community over the years including in the diaspora that religiously visits it but NMG has also been first out of the gate in adopting technologies as they come.

It implemented a Facebook page and got into Twitter ahead of such venerable names as The Economist which is belatedly making a push into social media to drive traffic to its site.

AS a result, the Nation's updates on Facebook draw hundreds of comments indicating an engagement with its readers that only serves to solidify its relationship with them.

In fact it may be said that the one chink in the Nation's armour has been its slowness in implementing a properly focused mobile website. The largest online newspaper site, The New York Times and the number two and three respectively, The Daily Mail and The Guardian, all have mobile formatted sites that fit on the screen of the small devices.

Conventional sites tend to have frames and heavy graphics that are not optimal for the phone.

In any case, for web designers and PR agencies that need to shape their clients image online and marketing departments, it shall serve to keep all the above in mind to foster better client engagement.
April 12, 2011
10:44
CHANNEL 2.0? Safaricom TV
» ‎ NairobiTech

Tech stuff happening here and there.....

Safaricom is already in its 2.0 phase and Bob Collymore is in New York for the Africa Investor Conference...he will be back there next month on an investor road trip when he and maybe Les Baillie will meet the likes of Morgan Stanley and other investment banks and hedge funds that invest in Safaricom.

Anyway, the main news is that Safaricom could be seriously considering entering the TV arena.

I posted here that Airtel is considering bring its Digital TV to Kenya to take on Naspers Group owned DsTV.

As we migrate from Analog to Digital TV the game will change of course because Multi-Choice, the Naspers subsidiary that runs DsTV will also be looking to enter the terrestrial TV transmission field. As we speak, the company is looking for a suitable name as DsTV denotes satellite transmission.

Airtel has said it will offer a cheaper content to compete with Multi-Choice's two content generators; Entertainment Media Network (MNET) and Supersport but given that we are still waiting for them to roll out 3G, that might be ambitious.

Enter Safaricom. Details are scanty but it all has to do with data and content which Safaricom wants to parlay into profits much in the same way it did with voice in its first decade.

What seems likely for now is that like media owners, Safaricom will apply for a digital channel and probably partner with one of two digital signal distributors, Signet a KBC subsidiary and another yet to be named licensee.

Digital TV is not just in Safaricom's interest to invest in, it is also a potentially dangerous opponent in the data field for one reason.

The technology we will adopt for digital TV (DVB-T2 or digital video broadcast generation 2) converts each frequency into 18 digital channels.

However, some of those channels, I believe they are two, are reserved for data transmission/internet.

With a TV set in almost every urban household these days, and the mandatory migration to DVB-T2, it means then that the perennial and vexing question of how to economically bridge the last mile to households will have been solved in one fell swoop.

Should another content provider/ISP seek to exploit this channel, they could be in every household and become the preferred internet service provider.

And then Safaricom 2.0 could become derailed.
January 14, 2011
14:24
CARTEL BUST! EVERY MAN A KhZ. NDEMO VS MEDIA MOGULS
» ‎ NairobiTech

AS has often been the case in Bitange Ndemo's stellar reign at the Ministry of Information, foes are never in short supply.

Whether it is telecom operators opposing regulations, media presenters raising ruckus over amendments to communications laws or sub-marine cable entrepreneurs fighting to get him out of office, Bitange Ndemo has always faced them down.

Enter his latest battle; this one pitting him against a familiar foe/nemesis - Media Moguls.

The issue this time revolves around the migration of TV broadcasting from using analog signals to digital ones. More specifically DVB-T2 (digital video broadcasting terrestrial - 2nd generation).

Media owners claim they are being screwed and have even gone to the extent of organizing for a meeting with Information Minister Samuel Poghisio to push their case against what they see as high handedness on Ndemo's part.

They claim that they have been submitting digital signals from their broadcasts for the trial phase of DVB in Kenya for free, only for those same signals to be resold to Kenyans through SMART TV.

They argue that SMART TV is reaping commercial benefits from their content.

That seems fair enough and in fact the media owners, as is their prerogative, have gone ahead and discontinued provision of these signals to the state broadcaster KBC - the sole licensed digital signal distributor in the country.

AHEM.

Enter Bitange Ndemo - "They don't want to see the future," says the PS.

In fact, the reason behind the media owners resistance, is not the publicly stated content dispute.

It has to do with, says the PS, selfishness and a need to monopolize frequencies in this country which Ndemo says he has refused to assent to.

You see, under the new DVB-T2 format, one analog frequency such as the one KTN, Kiss TV or NTV may be holding can yield up to 18 digital channels (four of them HD channels).

The only problem is that media owners, many of whom were irregularly allocated the frequencies in the first place, want to migrate with the frequencies to the digital world and the gazillion digital channels that come with them.

So each frequency owner could end up owning more than 15 digital channels to then peddle or speculate with.

NO WAY!!! Ndemo says.

Digital channels, will be allocated according to content. If you have content for five channels, you will get five channels.

If you have content for only one channel, that is what you get.

Every man who can come up with content, can have a channel pure and simple.

The Oligarchs are not happy. And so the battle continues!

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