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Regulator sets tough conditions for mobile firms

BDTAXAWARD2210EDAILY NATION BY NATION REPORTER

Monday,April 1,2014

Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore is facing hard options, following last Friday’s approval of his company’s quest to acquire rival yuMobile’s assets under tough conditions.

Mr Collymore has to carefully weigh the possible impact of some of the set conditions on Safaricom’s business against any advantages the firm may derive from taking over yuMobile’s assets.

Telecoms sector regulator the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) on Friday set 13 conditions that Safaricom, Airtel and Essar’s yuMobile must meet to complete the planned takeover of assets – key among them the opening up Safaricom’s M-Pesa agency network to rival operators.

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Counties bag Sh2.6b for ICT

world bankTHE STANDARD By Standard Reporter
Friday March 28, 2014

World Bank has approved $30 million (Sh2.6b) for ICT applications to support Nairobi and other counties enhance accountability in their revenue management. The bank’s directors approved the funds to be channeled through the Kenya Transparency and Communications Infrastructure Project (KTCIP) yesterday.

World Bank Country Director for Kenya, Diarietou Gaye, said the funds would help counties develop master plans for use of Information and Communication Technologies ( ICT) to increase their accountability in the management of their resources.

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IT experts offer counties answers to revenue leaks

msaDAILY NATION By OKUTTAH MARK

Friday March 28,2014

As counties seek lasting solutions to seal corruption loopholes to increase revenue collection, IT experts seem to have found the answer.

Experts say the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution can help counties like Nairobi save Sh100 million every month, money that is paid out to ghost workers as salaries and help streamline revenue collection.

Agnes Gathaiya, the director of Large Enterprise SAP Africa region, said if counties use ERP solutions, they will not only enhance their revenue collections, but will also make it easier and faster to make decisions.

The ERP will enable interaction of all offices and functions of the county in a single computer system, serving all the needs of county officials and citizens.

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Safaricom’s plan to buy yuMobile assets hits a snag

yumobileBUSINESS DAILY By OKUTTAH MARK

Thursday March 27,2014

A cloud of uncertainty was yesterday left hanging over Safaricom’s plan to acquire rival yuMobile’s assets after it emerged that the market regulator had not approved the deal nearly three weeks after the application was made.

Safaricom, which is Kenya’s leading telecoms operator with nearly 67 per cent of market share, was reported to have said that the transaction had become less attractive because ‘fundamentals of deal had changed significantly’.

Safaricom on Wednesday confirmed that doubts were creeping in on its bid to acquire the fourth mobile operator’s assets citing the the Communications Authority of Kenya’s (CAK) apparent reluctance to support the deal.

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Taxman’s system caves in under pressure

ea KRA tax JPGDAILY NATION By Ramenya Gibendi

Tuesday March 25,2014

The Kenya Revenue Authority’s attempt to computerise tax collection has suffered yet another setback after the much hyped iTax system failed to handle the large number of users.

The authority admitted that iTax could not cope with traffic, forcing it to revert to the manual system as it battles to increase the online capacity.

“The unavailability of the system has been caused by heightened workload because everybody is trying to use it at the same time, thus making it fail to cope,” the deputy commissioner for ICT services, Ezekiel Saina, told journalists at the KRA offices last week.

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Optic cables linking counties set to be laid down

netCABLESNETDAILY NATION By NATION REPORTER

Friday March 21,2014

The second phase of connecting counties with government-owned fibre cable commences next month, a state official has said.

ICT Authority chief executive Victor Kyalo on Thursday said systems were in place to finalise the Sh6.2 billion National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) currently supervised by Telkom Kenya.

“We have done designs and everything; we have even applied for way leave fees and the digging up will start next month,” he said. Mr Kyalo spoke at a meeting with stakeholders during the National ICT Master Plan public forum at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi.

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Construction at Konza City to start in three months time

konzaDAILY NATION By SANDRA CHAO

Friday March 21,2014

Construction at Konza City, Kenya’s pioneer technopolis, is expected to start in the next three months.

The chairman of the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (Kotda) John Ngumi said companies are waiting for an ongoing survey to be completed to start construction of infrastructure.

“The survey is supposed to take 20 weeks, but we hope it will be shorter to enable the teams working on the water systems, power and fibre optic cables to move in,” Mr Ngumi said.

University of Nairobi Enterprise Services (Unes) was awarded a Sh30 million contract to map out infrastructure lines and lease plots using GPS technology, setting the stage for implementation of the first phase.

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Court blocks fresh laptop tender award

DNLaptop1806cDAILY NATION By PAUL OGEMBA

Thursday March 20,2014

The primary school laptop project suffered yet another setback on Wednesday.

The High Court stopped the Education ministry from proceeding to award the tender afresh.

Justice Weldon Korir issued the orders following an urgent application to stop the process by Indian firm Olive Telecommunications PVT Ltd, whose Sh24 billion tender to supply the laptops was cancelled last week by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.

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Banks falling behind schedule for secure ATM cards switch

fraudBUSINESS DAILY By John Gachiri

Wednesday March 19,2014

A large fraction of bank customers face the risk of remaining in the high ATM and credit card fraud zone in the next couple of months with the lenders unlikely to meet the March 31 deadline for migration to the more secure chip-based cards.

The Business Daily on Tuesday found that only about 40 per cent of the estimated 11.5 million card users had been issued with the new cards barely 12 days to the deadline.

This means the majority will continue to use the magnetic stripe cards that have been blamed for rampant fraud in Kenya’s vibrant financial services market.   

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Ministry switches all operations to digital platform to save costs

FredMatiang27ipxTHE STANDARD BY JAMES MBAKA

Monday March 17,2014

Kenya: The ministry of Information Communication and Technology has rolled out a major initiative to drive all its operations on digital platforms in a bid to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability. ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i the move would significantly cut on paperwork costs and soon do away with manual filing system. The new initiative will also reduce by half the rent for space hired for storage of all government files by the end of next year.

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15,000 farmers sign up to use agency’s web portal

famerDAILY NATION By Nation Correspondent

Monday March 17,2014

More than 15,000 farmers are using an online database to boost their yields, an agency said on Sunday.

Since it was formed in 2009 by the Kenya National Library Services, the e-resource centre known as the National Farmers Information Service (Nafis) has grown from 1,000 hits to the current 15,000 daily visitors from across the country.

Most use their internet enabled mobile phones to browse.

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Jacob Kaimenyi now defends team of experts who awarded cancelled laptops tender

DnLAPTOPs1204rdpxDAILY NATION BY NATION REPORTER

Friday March 14,2014

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi on Thursday pledged an audit of the award of the cancelled schools laptops tender while defending the process at the same time.

It also emerged that at least six committees of experts from the public and private sectors worked on the multi-billion shilling tender.

Prof Kaimenyi and PS Belio Kispsang are under pressure to explain how the procurement was bungled leading to the cancellation by a review board.

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Auditor installs software to stop fraudulent deals

BdAuditorGeneral2408b.JPGDAILY NATION By NATION REPORTER

Thursday March 14,2014

The Auditor General has installed a Sh100m software to help track irregular transactions in public institutions.

The audit vault software will monitor real time transactions and alert the auditors about any irregular transactions.

It will enable continuous auditing of government transactions as the Auditor General’s office strives to ensure public finances are spent well.

“The Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) is the underlying and the only financial system that drives all national and county governments’ accounting systems,” auditor general Edward Ouko said on Wednesday in a statement.

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Blow for Uhuru as firm picked to supply laptops is rejected

DnLAPTOPs1204rdpxDAILY NATION By ISAAC ONGIRI

Wednesday March 12,2014

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s pet project — the schools laptop scheme — suffered a major setback when the procurement authority rejected the Indian company that had been awarded the Sh24 billion tender.

The government was instead given 45 days within which to re-evaluate bids by computer firms HPU of the Netherlands and Haier of China and award a new supply tender.

It is the latest setback in a project which formed one of the pillars of President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto’s 2013 campaigns. The two distinguished themselves as “digital” as opposed to the Raila Odinga- and Kalonzo Musyoka-led Cord ticket which they described as “analogue”.

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From price battles to buy-outs, telcom sector abuzz with activity

yumobileDAILY NATION By MUTHOKI MUMO

Tuesday March 11,2014

Kenya’s telecommunication industry is at a crossroads in its journey to maturity and decisions made by the regulator and operators in the coming months will have profound implications on the future of the sector.

Safaricom and Airtel are currently awaiting regulatory go-ahead to split rival yuMobile’s assets as the Essar-owned telecom prepares to exit a market that has become difficult to win.

At the same time, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) is mulling over an application for a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licence from Kenya’s largest bank by customer base, Equity.

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Can mobile phones be used for voting?

walubengoDAILY NATION By John Walubengo

Tuesday March 11,2014

It is one year down the line since the IEBC electronic results transmission system crumbled at the hour of need. It is less than four years before we call upon IEBC to stage its act again – perhaps better than last time. So it is not too early to start thinking about automating the next general elections.

Indeed at the recent cabinet retreat in Nanyuki, the cabinet secretary for ICT, Dr. Matiang'i did mention that the government would be keen to support IEBC in fully automating the electoral process. What failed electronically last year is actually a small component of what would otherwise be termed a fully automated electoral process.

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France Telecom shopping for new partners in Kenya

telkom-CEOBUSINESS DAILY  By OKUTTAH MARK

Monday March 10,2014

France Telecom, the company that owns the majority stake in Telkom Kenya, said on Friday that it was reviewing its Kenyan operation with a view to taking new partners on board to stave off a financial crisis.

The company, which trades as Orange, said that the review plan also includes the Uganda operation and that it had hired Lazard consultants to execute the task.

“The group has recently started a strategic review with regards to our activities in Uganda and Kenya,” France Telecom’s press officer Tom Wright told the Business Daily in an email.

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How to engage government for a robust local ICT sector

ictwomenDAILY NATION By Mbugua Njihia

Friday March 7,2014

In the last decade having been thrust into the innards of various technology based businesses, it has become apparent that a key factor in maintaining industry frameworks and sustainable profitability is the constant engagement of industry publics to ensure big picture alignment.

These publics range from suppliers, customers, competitors and most importantly government.

As we shift to a knowledge-based society, we become a prime market for solutions that help achieve this objective. These solutions can be home-grown or from outside our borders.

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Get ready to vote on the net, says Minister

voterigDAILY NATION By MUTHOKI MUMO

Friday March 7,2014

Kenyans may vote via the Internet at the next elections.

In presentations made during a Cabinet retreat in Nanyuki on Thursday, Information Communication Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said his ministry was establishing a digital registry collating citizen’s biographical data as well as their assets.

Once the National Digital Registry Services is in place, various government agencies, including Immigration and the electoral commission, will use it.

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Building ban near Konza technocity suspended

KonzapxDAILY NATION By NATION REPORTER

Thursday March 6,2014

The government has lifted a suspension on all construction in the area surrounding the planned Konza Technocity, paving the way for investors to begin property development.

In a statement on Wednesday, director of physical planning Augustine Masinde said a ban on property development on the land, which covers a 10-kilometre radius around the planned Konza City had been withdrawn. Sections of this land span Machakos, Makueni and Kajiado counties.

In June 2012, the government declared this space a special planning area for an initial period of six months amid fears that unplanned development would dim the allure of Konza to potential investors.

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