The Nokia 3.2 one of the latest smartphones launched into the Kenyan Market by telephony maker Nokia was unveiled yesterday at a Nairobi Hotel. The Smart phone which features an ARM Cortex-A53, 1800 MHz, Cores: 4 processor for seamless browsing speeds, 2 GB, 3 GB, 800 MHz of RAM, 16 GB, 32 GB storage space, 6.26 in, a-Si TFT, 720 x 1520 pixels, 24 bit of display, 4160 x 3120 pixels, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 30 fps of camera power, 4000 mAh, Li-Polymer battery for longer phone life. The phone will retail at Ksh13,999 at any authorized Nokia stores
Gopher Ogembo – Senior Business Manager East Africa at HMD Global showcases the Nokia 3.2 during the Launch. Images Courtesy Hill and Knowlton Limited.
Premises house the Pimp My Ride Garage along Kenyatta Avenue in Kenya’s Capital Nairobi were demolished early this week at the instructions of Nairobi City County Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko after a land dispute with the proprietor of the business premises involving land in the household neighbourhood Buru Buru which is also located within the city. This comes barely 2 years since the eviction of a previous landlord of the simmers night Club.
Photo credits Google.co.keImages Courtesy of Nairobi News.
Medical
bills are one of the most significant financial burdens facing Kenyans
in this modern era. This is partly due
to the nature of the health care system in Kenya. Every year, thousands
of Kenyans are pushed below the national poverty line due to direct
medical bills. This has led to a more significant concern that most
Kenyans are only an illness away from poverty.
Only
a small percentage of Kenyans have medical insurance, the massive
awareness and consumer education by NHIF notwithstanding.
Images Courtesy of Google
To get a clear understanding of how best one can manage their health care costs, we had the opportunity to sit down with
Mrs. Christine Mwelu, Medical Manager Kenindia Assurance, who gave her opinion as follows;
1.
Understanding that the medical insurance card is not a credit card
Some
if not most medical insurance card holders misuse their cards by
viewing it as more of a credit card. There are
simple ailments that in one way or another, only need over the counter
drugs, or home therapy, but one would shun that idea as ineffective and
go to the hospital and end up paying a higher fee than what you could
have paid over the counter. Such dependencies
are contributing factors inflating insurance premiums.
2.
Seeking the second opinion
In
the event that one is diagnosed with a particular ailment, it is
imperative to get a second opinion from different
doctors before eventually beginning your treatment program. This allows
one to affirm the first doctor’s opinion and reduces instances of
misdiagnosis.
Make good use of the NHIF enhanced benefit
In
the recent past the basic NHIF benefits were enhanced to cater for
surgical cases, CT Scans, MRI, dialysis and chemotherapy
treatment. The attending doctor fill a form and shares to NHIF offices
for approval. This packages are greatly reducing costs since it is cost
shared with your Insurance Company and curbs early depletion of limit.
Good choice of a health facility
Most of Kenyan medical facilities are in business and are out to make good money from your insurance cover. They escalate
costs to be settled via Insurance compared to cash payers.
The costs varies from one facility to another depending on hospital tiers but the attending Doctors are same who rotate.
Do not choose a facility due to the name, choose what you can afford even without insurance.
5.
Consider using generic drugs
Most
people perceive these drugs as inferior to the original brand named
versions. They are created to be the same as
already existing brand of medicine form of dosage, safety, strength,
administration route, quality, performance characteristics and intention
of use. They work just the same as existing brands but with cheaper
price tags. Use of generic drugs is something
we should consider as a country in a bid to lower healthcare costs and
costs of medication.
6.
Lifestyle change
Some
of the chronic diseases in the modern day are as a result of poor
lifestyle habits. Leading a healthy lifestyle
can prevent one from regular health facility visits that come as a
result of. Many people are always oblivious of how staying physically
active or even watching their diet could do to their health.
In a lucky turn of events a woman from Nyamira county in Kenya who engages in farming and participated in a promotion encouraging the use of quality seed by BAYER EAST AFRICA subsidiary DEKALB was the winner of a brand New Nissan pick up truck a few days ago
The Fertilizer variety used in the promotion. Images courtesy of oxygene.co.ke
Taking to the stage to convey a message of appreciation to the organizers of the promotion a more vocal sister of Beatrice Kerubo Onyiego; the winner of the promotion spoke of how she is the one who purchased the three bags of quality maize seed handing one of the bags to her smaller sister; and which it turns out contained the winning numbers
Beatrice Kerubo and Her Elder Sister at the Event. Images courtesy of oxygene.co.ke
KENYA May 22, 2019 In partnership with Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Liquid Telecom and Arm, and supported with initial funds from The Royal Foundation, Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya has opened a Conservation Tech Lab to research, test support and develop new technology-based solutions to conservation-challenges around the world.
The Technology lab aims to be a world-leading collaborative hub for
the testing, support and development of technologies. It is hoped that the
facility will help accelerate learning and embrace accessible, scalable
conservation solutions. These solutions will improve biodiversity conservation
and human well-being, locally and globally.
Start-up funding and additional technical assistance for the
Conservation Technology Lab has been provided by The Royal Foundation, global technology
leader Arm, and FFI. The work of the Lab is also being supported by the global
conservation technology community through WILDLABS.NET.
The Ol Pejeta Conservation Tech Lab will deliver technological
solutions and services that support biodiversity conservation and community
welfare and it is hoped will serve as a model for
global conservation efforts. Another objective is to provide an international
field laboratory for the development and testing of conservation-relevant
technological solutions. Finally, it will enable collaboration, learning and
knowledge exchange in order to stimulate innovation and scale impact.
Images Courtesy of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
The Conservation Tech Lab is already helping Ol Pejeta in the
advancement of remote sensing using the Internet of Things, monitoring cattle
movements using Sigfox, a Low Power Wide Area Network technology provided by
Liquid Telecom. This technology will soon be adapted to rhino tracking on Ol
Pejeta, which will make a significant difference to their security and data
collection. Sigfox technology allows for longer battery life than older radio
collars or GSM solutions, thus enabling much smaller devices that are less
intrusive to animals. Tapping into the latest advancements in data science,
Internet of Things, and Big Data Analytics, the Ol Pejeta Conservation Tech Lab
will also support real-time monitoring of all animals throughout the
conservancy and the wider landscape, helping to both protect endangered species
from poachers and improve overall wildlife management.
Liquid Telecom have also deployed and donated a high speed
internet link to the conservation lab, enabling researchers at the lab to
access the cloud for real time viewing of animal movements and use high
performance computing power to analyze animal behavior.
“This is a critical and exciting time for conservation globally
and we have only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible when it comes
to applying technology to wildlife protection. As the world’s first technology
hub dedicated to wildlife conservation, The Ol Pejeta Conservation Technology
Lab will play a central role in building technology-enabled responses that can
keep pace with the growing threats to global biodiversity.” said Joanna
Elliott, Senior Director of Conservation Partnerships at Fauna & Flora
International.
“Technology has the potential to truly transform wildlife
conservation across the world as well as Africa, providing a much safer and
brighter future for endangered species. The
Ol Pejeta Conservation Tech Lab will be a centre of excellence that will demonstrate
this potential to the world, showcasing affordable
and sophisticated solutions that can have a meaningful and sustained impact on the
region’s conservation efforts,” said Ben Roberts, Group CTIO at Liquid Telecom.
Being based on a leading wildlife conservancy, the Ol Pejeta Conservation
Tech Lab is able to quickly ascertain the effectiveness of new solutions, and
how best to adapt them to create a bigger impact within the relevant
demographic areas. We can combine cutting edge technology with cost-effective
and straight-forward solutions to ensure we have significant impact on the
challenges facing conservation.
“The technology is now available to protect
Africa’s wildlife and ensure we never see another needless loss to the world
like the recent death of our last male northern white rhino, Sudan. We hope Ol
Pejeta Conservancy will pioneer sustainable and practical technology-assisted wildlife
conservation and act as a role model to other conservancies” said William
Njoroge, Head of Technology, Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Nairobi, May 24, 2019) – Kenya’s
High Court on May 24, 2019 upheld laws criminalizing homosexual acts
between consenting adults, a step backward in the progress Kenya has
made toward equality in recent years, Human Rights Watch said today.
The court was addressing a petition filed in 2016 by three Kenyan
organizations that work to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender people. The groups said that the criminalization of
same-sex conduct under articles 162 and 165 of the penal code violates
the rights to equality, non-discrimination, human dignity, security,
privacy, and health, all protected under Kenya’s constitution.
“Kenya’s High Court has relegated people in same-sex relationships in
Kenya to second-class citizenship, based on the absurd claim that the
penal code is not discriminatory,” said Neela Ghoshal,
senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Rights cannot be
trampled upon in the name of social disapproval. The Court of Appeal
should revisit this ruling urgently.”
Kenya’s anti-homosexuality laws are a colonial relic,
first imposed by British colonizers in 1897. Article 162 punishes
“carnal knowledge against the order of nature” with up to 14 years in
prison, while article 165 makes “indecent practices between males”
liable to up to five years in prison.
The laws are rarely enforced – Human Rights Watch is aware of two
prosecutions against four people under article 162 in the last 10 years.
But they underpin a broad array of human rights abuses and contribute
to a climate of discrimination and violence. Police use the laws as a
pretext to harass and extort money or sex from LGBT people, or to deny
services to LGBT people who are victims of violence. Kenyan human rights and LGBT organizations report that the laws have been used to justifyemployment and housing discrimination, to expel or suspend students from schools, to censor artistic expression related to LGBT issues, and to prevent LGBT organizations from registering.
In 2016, Eric Gitari, an activist who was president of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC), filed a petition
challenging the laws. Two other organizations, the Gay and Lesbian
Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) and the Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western Kenya
Network (NYARWEK), along with individual petitioners who had been
personally affected by the laws, filed a second petition raising similar arguments. The High Court consolidated the two petitions and referred them to a three-judge bench.
The court today rejected the petitioners’ case that the laws violate
constitutional protections, stating that the provisions are not
discriminatory because they do not single out LGBT people, and that the
petitioners had not proved their rights had been violated under the
laws. The court also argued that the constitutional rights to privacy
and dignity are not absolute and should be read in the context of
article 45 of the constitution, which states that “Every adult has the
right to marry a person of the opposite sex.” The petition made no
mention of marriage, Human Rights Watch said.
The ruling flies in the face of several other Kenyan court decisions
that have upheld LGBT people’s fundamental rights. In 2015, the High
Court ruled in favor of NGLHRC in a case involving freedom of assembly
and association. The Non-Governmental Organizations Board (NGO Board), a
government agency, had refused to register NGLHRC, claiming that it was
promoting immorality. The court found that the NGO Board was
impermissibly discriminating on the basis of the presumed sexual
orientation and gender identity of NGLHRC’s personnel, in violation of
constitutional protections around non-discrimination. The Court of
Appeal upheld the ruling in March 2019, although the NGO Board has appealed to the Supreme Court.
After police arrested two people and subjected them to forced anal examinations in 2015, the Court of Appeal ruled in 2018
that carrying out these examinations on people charged with consensual
homosexual conduct violated the prohibition on torture and cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment.
On transgender issues too, Kenyan courts have moved the needle forward. In 2014, the High Court ruled in favor
of a transgender activist, Audrey Mbugua, on her right to have her
school certificate reissued with her female name, and with no gender
marker. Another 2014 ruling compelled the NGO Board to register Transgender Education and Advocacy (TEA), a non-governmental organization led by Mbugua.
Kenya’s failure to move forward on decriminalization of same-sex
relations violates its obligations under international law, Human Rights
Watch said. In its 1994 decision in Toonen v. Australia, the
UN Human Rights Committee – the body that interprets the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Kenya is a
state party – held that laws prohibiting consensual same-sex conduct
violate the rights to privacy and non-discrimination.
The Kenyan ruling is particularly disappointing in light of progress
elsewhere in Africa and around the world, Human Rights Watch said. In
January, Angola
issued a revised penal code that no longer punished so-called “vices
against nature.” Other African countries that have revoked
anti-homosexuality laws through penal code reform in recent years
include Seychelles, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Lesotho. Botswana’s High Court is scheduled to hear a case on March 15, on the constitutionality of laws that make same-sex intimacy a crime.
But 33 countries in Africa still have laws on the books that outlaw
consensual same-sex relations. One of them, Chad, criminalized same-sex
relations for the first time in 2017.
Meanwhile, courts around the world are striking down laws against
homosexual conduct, many of them, like Kenya’s, colonial legacies. India
decriminalized same-sex relations through a landmark court ruling in
2018, as did Trinidad & Tobago, while Belize’s Supreme Court struck down
its sodomy law in 2016. Palau, Nauru, and Northern Cyprus have
decriminalized homosexual conduct through legal reform in recent years.
Kenya’s government has adopted an ambivalent stance on LGBT rights. President Uhuru Kenyatta referred to homosexuality as “not acceptable” in a 2018 media interview, but has previously said he would not tolerate anti-LGBT “witch hunts” and other forms of violence. Kenya accepted a recommendation at the UN Human Rights Council in 2015 to adopt legislation prohibiting discrimination
on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, consistent
with constitutional guarantees of non-discrimination, but no such
legislation has been passed.
Activists said they would appeal the May 24 High Court ruling.
“Kenya has missed an opportunity to take a clear stance against
discrimination,” said Njeri Gateru, director of the National Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission. “I believe justice will eventually
prevail in Kenya, as in other parts of the world that have
decriminalized same-sex conduct, but in the meantime, ordinary LGBT
Kenyans will continue to pay the price for the state’s indifference to
inequality.”
In an internal MEMO to be effected on 31st December this year (2019) the CEO of Kenya National Airlines carrier Kenya Airways Sebastian Mikosz says that He will resign due to personal reasons
Kenya Airways CEO Sebastian Mikosz during a past event. Images courtesy of Standard Media Online.
DEKALB has today awarded one lucky farmer the grand prize of a Nissan pickup, following a countrywide marketing campaign that ran from March 8, 2019 – April 26, 2019. Beatrice Kerubo Onyiego from Manga, Nyamira County won a Nissan NP200.
DEKALB rolled out the campaign in
time for the long-rain season with the aim of sensitizing farmers on the
importance of authenticating their DEKALB purchase. A total of 45 farmers won
various other prizes during mini draws held earlier. To enter the competition,
all the farmer had to do was scratch, reveal the verification code on their
seed bag and send this via phone text message.
Beatrice Kerubo Onyiego from Manga, Nyamira County winner of the pick up track and Eric Bureau Bayer East Africa Managing Director Share a moment in the track. Images courtesy of oxygene.co.ke
The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate
Services (KEPHIS) seed certification service ensures only seed meeting the
acceptable standards of seed viability, vigour, purity and health are availed
in the market.
Speaking during the awards ceremony,
Bayer East Africa Managing Director Eric Bureau expressed his excitement at the
success of the campaign.
“The objective of this campaign was
not to only promote DEKALB and create awareness on our hybrid seed varieties,”
he remarked. “It was also meant to educate farmers on the importance of
purchasing their seed inputs from approved retailers and certifying their
purchases to ascertain their quality.” He added.
Maize is Kenya’s most important food
crop, it accounts for 51% of all staples grown in the country. DEKALB sought
the opportunity to promote its quality maize seed varieties and encourage farmers
to procure certified seeds. Addressing this huge challenge of counterfeit
seed in the market directly contributes to the country’s food security.
During her acceptance speech, an
ecstatic Beatrice Kerubo said, “This is a dream come true. I have always wanted
a pick-up and all I needed was to purchase certified maize seed. DEKALB has
made this possible.”
Food security is part of the
government’s Big Four agenda and is at the heart of Bayer’s Sustainability
Initiative. Bayer wants to ensure a safe supply of food, now and in the future,
the company considers the achievement of this objective inextricably linked to
sustainable agriculture.
A housing developer in Athi River area developing over 1400 units of housing in the locale also serving as a home of London Distillers – an institution that has called the locale home for over 3 decades is in a tussle with the alcohol beverage manufacturer over allegations that the toxic fumes emanating from the factory is affecting the tenants who number around 700 and who have already settled in the first completed phase of the project – Three more phases to be completed in the coming years.
Speaking during a routine inspection of the facility Parliament’s House Committee Chair on Environment and Natural Resource said the Committee will soon table a report that is fair and considerate to all the parties concerned in the dispute. Speculation is rife if a strategic environmental impact assessment was carried out by the property developer before the commencement of the development. A Previous Committee Chairman of Parliaments Environment and Natural Resources Committee Maara Mp Hon. Kareke Mbiuki has previously warned that the company would be closed down if it does not use the latest technology to curb pollution.
Athi River residents living close to London Distillers mount a protest in August 2018. Images Courtesy of kenyans.co.ke
Responding to an allegation that a number of Members of Parliament have bought into the scheme the committee Chair reaffirmed that it will get to the bottom of the matter and that they would not allow parliament to be a rubber stamp for involved in dubious activities.
As it stands the distiller seems to have the right of way considering it was the first to settle in the locale (Over 30 years ago) and the property developer has existed for less than a decade but the rising tenant numbers means the developer may be opting on using the numbers (1400 tenants in 1st and the 2nd phase and more tenants in the third phase) to force the factory out of the location.
The whistling African 
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