Partnership

Nairobi Wednesday 9 July 2014, KNA by Abigael Chirchir/Albert Bwana

KCB, Safaricom unveils deal to help grow SMEs

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Safaricom have launched a one-stop solution platform to meet the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  

The one-stop solution dubbed ‘Biashar@Smart’ will enable more than one million registered Micro and SMEs to scale up their growth while nurturing enterprise through smart tips on cost management, loyalty programmes and preferential business opportunities.

Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary, Adan Mohammed lauded KCB and Safaricom for the launching ‘Biashar@smart’ saying the initiative will make SMEs thrive. 

Mohamed said SMEs play a key in the growth of the economy “SMEs employ up to 80 percent of people living in Kenya. They account for 92 percent of all new jobs that are created and contribute up to 45 percent of the Gross Domestic Product,” said Mohammed.

The Cabinet Secretary added “these statistics can only get better through the successful implementation of Biashar@smart.”

KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara said ‘Biashar@smart’ will transform SMEs employs 7.5 million people and accounts for 80 percent of the employment market while contributing over 92 percent of new jobs created annually according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said through the partnership with KCB they are also going to facilitate capacity building initiatives, preferential propositions and loyalty programmes that will transform how SMEs do business.

“We will soon launch Biashara tips and Biashara Club which will open up networking and new business opportunities for SMEs,” said Collymore.

ENDS/Boniface Muoka

Education

Nairobi, Wednesday August 19th 2014, KNA by Albert Bwana/ Wangari Ndirangu

Government to build 60 mentorship institutions in 60 constituencies

Cabinet Secretary for Education Jacob Kaimenyi has led a consultative meeting on a new program for mentorship technical training institutions (TTI) and vocational colleges in 60 constituencies.

Speaking at the Kenyatta international convention centre during a meeting with members of parliament (MPs) this morning Kaimenyi said that the government will set up mentoring institutions to monitor and advise the TTIs.

The Cabinet secretary also added that the focus of the project is to increase the access of equity mentorship training in Kenya targeting the enrolment of students who will range from 48,000 to 52,000 since they did not attain the  cut marks to  join university.

Kaimenyi also added that the Ministry of Education will partner with the constituencies in order to facilitate the tendering process to cater for the construction of the institutions.

The  CS said that Ministry of Education will fund the construction  to a tune of 40 million while the constituencies will donate10 million and the County Development Fund to 10 million for the establishment of institutions.

“The project is a government project and the government will incur  for the expenditures, hence MPs should support it” said Kaimenyi.

Meanwhile the MPs argued that the procurement tenders are supposed to be given at local constituency level and not in national level as the government claims.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Joyce Laboso urged the MPs and the government to partner together in mentoring institutions in the 60 constituencies 

Ends…

Court

Nairobi, Wednesday August 6^th, KNA By Albert Bwana

Narok Mp Reinstated by the Supreme Court

 

The Narok East Member Parliament Ken Aramat  Kilokwe has been reinstated today by the Supreme Court ruling, in a petition filed from his challenger Haron Lempaka.

 

The verdict was given by a three bench judges consisting of Philip Tunei, Ibrahim Mohammed and Jacton Ojwang . The bench ruled that the court of appeal had no mandate to order a recount of votes to be done in a lower court.

 

The court was told that during the election Aramat garnered 5615 against Lempaka who scored 5061 votes during the 4^thmarch 2013 general elections.

 

Judge Tunei said that the  Supreme Court declared that the petitioner was out of time bound and owing to the fact that he never argued that there was any kind of malpractice in the election process.

 

The hearing of the case started at the Nakuru High Court and it proceeded to the Supreme Court.  

 

            Speaking to the media after the ruling, Aramat told his opponents to accept the verdict, join him to work together to bring development to Narok East.

 

“It has been a long journey for Narok East constituents who supported me and I urge those who lost the petition to join me and we will work together to develop our constituency,” said Aramat.

 

End……………….MANGERA

 

Court

Nairobi, Wednesday August 6^th, KNA By Albert Bwana

Narok Mp Reinstated by the Supreme Court

 

The Narok East Member Parliament Ken Aramat  Kilokwe has been reinstated today by the Supreme Court ruling, in a petition filed from his challenger Haron Lempaka.

 

The verdict was given by a three bench judges consisting of Philip Tunei, Ibrahim Mohammed and Jacton Ojwang . The bench ruled that the court of appeal had no mandate to order a recount of votes to be done in a lower court.

 

The court was told that during the election Aramat garnered 5615 against Lempaka who scored 5061 votes during the 4^thmarch 2013 general elections.

 

Judge Tunei said that the  Supreme Court declared that the petitioner was out of time bound and owing to the fact that he never argued that there was any kind of malpractice in the election process.

 

The hearing of the case started at the Nakuru High Court and it proceeded to the Supreme Court.  

 

            Speaking to the media after the ruling, Aramat told his opponents to accept the verdict, join him to work together to bring development to Narok East.

 

“It has been a long journey for Narok East constituents who supported me and I urge those who lost the petition to join me and we will work together to develop our constituency,” said Aramat.

 

End……………….MANGERA

 

Education

Nairobi, September 4th 2014, KNA by Albert Bwana

US Ambassador dedicates Mathare School for Girls (MSG)

The United states Ambassador to Kenya, Robert Godec performed a ceremonial cutting ribbon at Mathare for the shining hope for communities (SHOFCO) that is to empower the community.

Speaking during the ceremonial Godec thanked the well wishers who helped to set up the Mathare School for Girls (MSG) adding that this will ease the area residents take their children to school.

The US ambassador said that He will partner with America with the aid of empowering SHOFCO through sponsorship in Mathare slums residents through setting up hospitals and schools that will change their lives.

“One of the most important thing is people believing in themselves in order to make it in life “ , Said Godec.

Godec also lauded the sponsors who initiated SHOFCO adding that in order to develop we have to come together and build the nation through giving back to the society.

The Mathare Member of Parliament Steve Kariuki thanked the Ambassador for helping the MSG shs.2.6 million that enhanced its set up.

“Our people are hardworking and determined but what they luck is the opportunity”, said Kariuki.

Kariuki also added that he will seek more sponsors to support the children of Mathare in order for them to make it in life.

SHOFCO links free school for girls to holistic community services for all which was founded by Kennedy Odede who grew up in Kibera slums.

SHOFCO estimates to reach over 70,000 program beneficiaries in this year.

Ends…

Cost Of Electricity To Reduce By 30 Percent 

Posted on 11:38 am, September 17, 2014 by KNA

The government is set to reduce the cost of electricity by 30 percent by injecting an additional 70 megawatts into the national grid , Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has said.

He said the reduction in the cost of electricity would also be achieved through the implementation of a new power distribution schedule that will see big consumers pay lower rates for using power during off peak hours.

Speaking in his office on Tuesday, Chirchir said his ministry would encourage millers to pass the benefits of the reduced tariffs to consumers who have suffered high food prices due to high energy costs.

“The rationalization programme would see big consumers enjoy a tariff reduction of up to 40 percent. This benefit should be passed on to consumers,” said Chirchir.

The cabinet secretary further said that at least 6,065 primary schools that have been not connected with electricity will have power by the end of this year.

He said this development is expected to improve the reading culture among the country’s children.

By Albert Bwana

Diverse health for quality services, Ministry of Health urged 

Posted on 1:42 pm, September 24, 2014 by KNA

The  East African healthcare has urged the Ministry of health to develop centers with the aim of reducing the cost of health by matching its supplies with that of the  local healthcare industry.

Speaking on Tuesday during the conference in Nairobi, Dr. Amit Thakker the CEO of Kenya Healthcare Federation said that the medical expertise is becoming more  expensive to import hence more countries are growing keen on medical tourism.

“The East African healthcare market needs to develop competence and increase professional capacity by investing more in local talent. This will encourage and grow the confidence of the population in their own doctors,” said Thakker.

“This is not just a matter of paying our own home grown professionals well, though remuneration is a factor, but we must also build the health sector capacity in terms of facilities and equipment, he said.

He reiterated that there is still a negative attitude towards the developing private sector by senior specialists and high level civil servants in the Ministries of Health and the government in several African countries.

Speaking during the same meeting, Dr. Samuel Owere from the Ministry of Health said that Kenya imports health facilities from India that assist to treat patients suffering from various diseases more so cancer and non-communicable diseases.

“Health tourism can be strengthened by increasing human resource capacity in numbers and sharing of information,” said Owere.

He observed that the health tourism is a complex issue; hence the health sector cannot drive the agenda alone unless the government intervenes.

By  Albert Bwana

Diverse health for quality services, Ministry of Health urged 

Posted on 1:42 pm, September 24, 2014 by KNA

The  East African healthcare has urged the Ministry of health to develop centers with the aim of reducing the cost of health by matching its supplies with that of the  local healthcare industry.

Speaking on Tuesday during the conference in Nairobi, Dr. Amit Thakker the CEO of Kenya Healthcare Federation said that the medical expertise is becoming more  expensive to import hence more countries are growing keen on medical tourism.

“The East African healthcare market needs to develop competence and increase professional capacity by investing more in local talent. This will encourage and grow the confidence of the population in their own doctors,” said Thakker.

“This is not just a matter of paying our own home grown professionals well, though remuneration is a factor, but we must also build the health sector capacity in terms of facilities and equipment, he said.

He reiterated that there is still a negative attitude towards the developing private sector by senior specialists and high level civil servants in the Ministries of Health and the government in several African countries.

Speaking during the same meeting, Dr. Samuel Owere from the Ministry of Health said that Kenya imports health facilities from India that assist to treat patients suffering from various diseases more so cancer and non-communicable diseases.

“Health tourism can be strengthened by increasing human resource capacity in numbers and sharing of information,” said Owere.

He observed that the health tourism is a complex issue; hence the health sector cannot drive the agenda alone unless the government intervenes.

By  Albert Bwana

Energy And ICT Sector To Investigate Thin Sim Technology. 

Posted on 1:10 pm, September 25, 2014 by KNA

The Energy and ICT Sector Parliamentary Committee have asked the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) not to allow Equity bank to operate thin sim till it completes investigations on the security of customers using the technology.

Speaking at the Parliament media centre the chair committee Jamleck Kamau said that the committee is to deliberate on the issue of thin sim technology that has been licensed and approved.

“We came up with a sub-committee to look into issues that apparently have not been solved in terms of security of customers who will be using the banking money transfer,” said Jamleck.

Kamau also pointed out that since CAK has its approval the only thing that the committee can do is to hire an independent expert to investigate the matter.

“We are warning CAK not to allow Equity bank to operate the thin sim and if it does so before investigations are done it will face the law,” said Kamau.

Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo, who is a representative in the committee, said that in their last meeting the agreement was to guarantee the safety of thin sim particularly on money transfer via phone and messages received.

“Whenever you have a dominant player, more often than not, they have no problem setting rules and as we recognize the need to playing equality within the sector , we believe that any kind of competition must not compromise safety and integrity any existing systems’” said Nicholas.

“If it is true that the introduction of thin sim has the potential to manipulate data, how then do those who will be affected by infringement of their privacy be compensated,” said Nicholas.

Rarieda MP added that the committee found it unanimous in the deployment of thin sim as it is risky for CAK to have gone ahead in issuing a license to Equity bank.

By Albert Bwana

Labour CS Issues Temporary Ban On Exportation of Domestic Workers 

Posted on 12:55 pm, September 30, 2014 by KNA

The Ministry of Labour has issued a temporary ban on recruitment of Kenyan domestic workers to foreign countries and further revoked certificates for all foreign employment recruiting agencies.

Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi has temporarily outlawed the export and ordered for vetting and fresh registrations of the recruiting agencies in a move aimed at protecting and safeguarding the welfare and dignity of Kenyan migrant workers.

The ban will affect at least 930 recruiting agencies, majority of whom send workers to the Middle East where cases of mistreatment of Kenyan workers has been on the rise with some being allegedly killed by their employers and some left stranded in foreign lands.

Announcing the ban on Monday, Kambi said many cases of mistreatment of Kenyans working abroad has been reported with some not placed on jobs they had been promised, while some of the recruiting agencies have failed to follow the rules and regulations regarding labour and foreign employment.

“Cases of mistreatment of Kenyan workers particularly house helps in the Middle East have been on the rise and continue to attract international and local attention,” said Kambi.

He further said that the vulnerability of migrant workers to exploitation and abuse in the workplace is compounded by the fact that many of them often fear seeking redress from the authorities.

Kazungu said that the freeze will affect workers to the Middle East and the Gulf Region where cases of mistreatment have been reported.

The Director of Employment Edith Okoki said that, vetting of the recruiting agencies will be stringent adding that measures will be put in place to bar quacks from engaging in the recruitments.

“We need people whom we can trace with their genuine offices and who conduct their recruitment in a credible way,” said Okoki.

She also pointed out that the agencies have to follow the mechanisms that will protect the Kenyan citizens through them passing on embassies for their genuine approval.

The Labour Principal Secretary Ali Noor said that at least 80,000 Kenyans are working abroad and that the government is working on rules and regulations to safeguard foreign employment.

He added that the new rules to be published will put in place institutional and policy frameworks to streamline the sector, and that the employing countries will sign agreements with the government to ensure genuine process that will give Kenyans a decent living.

“The ministry is drafting regulations which will regulate foreign recruitment, we shall have labour agreements signed between our embassies and the countries and we shall take the recruits into induction trainings of not less than two weeks” he said.

He regretted that Kenyans continue to suffer in foreign lands because rogue agencies have been allowed to operate and cited a case where more than 20 Kenyan women are held hostage in Lebanon after they failed to secure employment.

By  Albert Bwana

kwft

KWFT

By Albert Bwana

KENYA WOMEN HOLDINGS TO SELL SHARES IN KWFT TO MEMBERS

Kenya Women Holding (KWH) is set to offload 25 percent of its stake in Kenya Women Micro-Finance Bank to its more than 600,000 members countrywide.  

This has been approved and is in compliance with Central Bank of Kenya’s regulation that KWH reduces its share holding in the bank to 25 per cent. Kenya Women Holding currently holds a 55 percent stake in the bank, which has an asset base of Sh23 billion and net worth Sh4 billion in equity.

“This is also in fulfillment of a promise that we made to our members in 1992 that if we work hard and grow, then they will have an opportunity to own the company,” said Dr. Jennifer Riria, the Group CEO of Kenya Women Holding.

According to Dr. Riria, the move has also been approved by the members at the Annual General Meeting held in Nairobi on Saturday and will be sold by the end of the year. However, they are yet to determine the value per share.

Kenya Women Microfinance Bank, popularly known as KWFT, was started as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kenya Women Holding. This has been reduced to 55 percent. 25 percent stake is jointly owned by Norwegian Microfinance Initiative (NMI) and Incofin of Belgium.

 The staff has a stake through the Employee Share Ownership Program (ESOP) vehicle while past directors have a small stake too.

According to Mwangi Githaiga, the Managing Director of KWFT, the bank has a presence in 45 counties and is in the process of setting shop in the remaining two – Mandera and Garissa. 

KWFT operates in rural, remote and poor urban areas and has an extensive countrywide network with 236 offices in 45 out of 47 counties. 70% of KWFT clientele are in rural areas and 25% in urban

 Offences

Nairobi, Wednesday  July 23rd , 2014 KNA by Edwin and Albert.

Minor offences lead to court cases

Several Nairobians have been charged with minor offences at city hall court, Nairobi.

A man was charged selling oranges along the streets of Thika Road and throwing litter everywhere. Mr. John Kamau was arraigned before the magistrate and was fined ksh. 3000 for both offences.

At the same courts, several people were charged with numerous offences from selling porridge without a license, Matatus picking passengers along the street, working without a health certificate, loitering on the streets at odd hours of the night, operating a barbershop without a licence, hawking in town and operating in a restaurant without medical certificate.

By laws are found under the local government act of 2007. The bylaws are classified into different offences and they are: food and sanitation where selling or hawking is done without a medical certificate, licensing ;operating a business without a license from the city council, market and trade places; disturbance of business and not paying of cess tax

In the bylaws they indicate imprisonment for the minor offences a minimum of one month and penalty of 2000/=. Physical planning indicates that building with approved plans and changing residential areas to commercial areas leads to imprisonment of 6 months or a fine of 100,000/=

The public health act deals with premises where summons are issued to check areas to see if the standards required are met. James Ochieng, law clerk at the court said, “If one is ordered to appear before the court and fails to, then a warrant of arrest is issued and if he or she abides there are summons.”

Ends……

Education

Nairobi, Wednesday 23rd July 2014 by Albert Bwana

1st Ever National Open University to be opened

 The ministry of Education is in the process of finalizing structures that will enable accreditation of the 1st ever university to offer lessons and examinations on line by the end of this year.

The National Open University of Kenya (NOUK) will highly depend on technology to offer services to students and other clients.

The Open University will enable students to access lessons and learning materials as well as instructions from lecturers online

Speaking during the National Open University of Kenya (NOUK) workshop for finalizing the accreditation documents the Principal Secretary in the ministry of Education Dr Belio Kipsang said that the accreditation memo has been signed by the cabinet secretaries in the ministry of Education and the ministry of Information, communication and technology.

            Kipsang said that the university would increase access to education and make it affordable to Kenyans from across the country and this region in general. He further added that parents will no longer need to rent hostels for their children hence reduce on cost.

            “Once an idea has come no one can stop it, I am privileged to be in a generation of good things such as the new constitution” Kipsang said.

             Chairman of the Technical Accreditation committee Prof Peter Kinyanjui said that using the Open and Distance learning method enables one to take maximum advantage of the computer technology in learning.

              Prof Kinyanjui noted that the workshop is expected to define and finalize on the whole process and that he hoped that the 1st programmes would be offered by September this year.

             Technological Committee Expert Dr Henry Ronoh said that technology will make it possible for students to learn at their own pace. He said the mode of study will enable disabled students to learn without many issues

ENDS……