Howzit MSN, one of Africa’s largest portals with 3.3 million unique browsers per month, is set to launch dedicated versions of its site for Nigeria and Kenya.

Howzit MSN, operated by Kagiso Media in partnership with Microsoft, is the South African version of the popular Microsoft MSN portal. The site plans to expand into East and West Africa to bring users in those markets local news that is tailored to their needs.

The Kenyan and Nigerian MSN portals will be first, with the official launch happening on 1 July.

Initially, these portals will offer dedicated news, entertainment, sports and lifestyle channels as well as property and careers content.

Further channels will be added to the mix as the new portals evolve. The content will be produced and curated by MSN’s African editorial team, led by Kate Hodges, African Editor in Cape Town.

MSN Africa will be placing a heavy emphasis on mobile access to the news and will create mobile versions of the sites that can be accessed from feature phones as well as smartphones. This will allow it to serve continent across multi screens meeting the demand for many people who are getting online for the first time through their phones.

Says Marcus Stephens, GM of Howzit MSN: “There is a growing hunger for localised content across Africa as undersea cables, mobile broadband and falling Internet access costs bring more people online. We aim to address this need with the same formula of locally relevant, easy to digest content that we offer our audience in South Africa.”

“We want to be as local in content, look and feel as possible. The many readers we already have in Nigeria and Kenya are sure to be delighted when they go online on 1 July and are greeted by fully local content rather than the American version of the site they are used to seeing. This is just the start for our business in Africa – we aim to bring more content to this market and to launch in other countries over the next few months.”

Epson has announced the introduction of the new compact dot matrix printer, LX-350.

The new printer will be retailing at Shs 14, 000 and is targeted at customers who are keen on maximum productivity but at a lower cost. The LX-350 printers are ideal for commercial, industrial and logistic applications.

The LX-350 printers are energy efficient; this makes the range more economical to run, with power consumption of just over 1 watt in sleep mode and 24-27 watt when powered on.

The LX-350 has a compact size and weight, fits neatly on a desk and is ideal where space may be limited. This printer has flexible connectivity options for swift and simple integration with existing systems offering Parallel, Serial and USB interfaces as standard.

Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni is not happy with the Nation Media Group owned Daily Monitor and KFM as well as the Red Pepper. The president has ordered the search for a letter published by the Daily Monitor, KFM, Red Pepper among others detailing the existence of a plot to have Brigadier Muhoozi (Museveni’s son) succeed the Ugandan dictator.

The letter written by the coordinator of security services and the army, General David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza or General Tinye read as follows;

Fellow Ugandans

The country is witnessing a lot of violence, disruption of social life and general apprehension of the people of Uganda. The population is beginning to feel unsure about the future and generally insecure. This is a complete reversal of the feeling and belief, which our people had when they defeated dictatorship.

Therefore, this is a call to all those involved in the management of public affairs to reflect and pull back a little to make sure they fully understand where the country is going, current forces at play and the challenges that face us. Let us not destroy all that has been achieved over years.
This is therefore, a statement against the creeping lawlessness, impunity, primitive arrogance and insensitive behaviour, which are increasingly being exhibited by some actors who manage the affairs of the state. The violence against the population by those permitted by the law to protect the people must stop.

Politicians using the coercive organs of the state to enrich themselves must stop. Those unguided and also misguided actions are resulting in so much anarchy and indiscipline in the country, murders, mob justice, land grabbing by the rich, sickening robberies of government money and assets sugar-coated as “corruption” and other social ills. Politicians can fight their political wars but should leave the people of Uganda in peace.

The poor people who are being beaten and flogged, women undressed in front of their children and cameras, are the ones whose poor parents fought the war of liberation. They are the people who housed us, gave us food, provided us with intelligence and offered their all to create a better future. Nobody has a right to abuse them. Our women must not be stripped and beaten and whoever does it will become the new enemy.

The poor people of Uganda should be treated humanely and should not be flogged on the streets. While the rich are cleaning streets so that their big cars don’t step on the rubbish, our poor masses are sleeping on empty stomachs, sleeping in open spaces without houses, sleeping in and actually eating the rubbish being swept off the streets. Yes, development is good but development must be planned, it must not be anti-people and fascist methods must never be used against our people and in any case, that situation is not sustainable and it never has been.

These actions can lead to very serious insecurity and destabilization of the whole country. Therefore, those involved should watch out. They must remember that Uganda has passed through a lot, achieved a lot and can still take care of its own should need arise. Let us all work together to reverse this trend. Uganda belongs to all of us and let us own it and be happy in it. Restraint please.

Gen. David Sejusa (aka Tinyefuza) MP, Coordinator Security Services

 Now Museveni has deployed many security officers in the offices of Red Pepper and The Monitor searching for the letter desk by desk. It is very ironic that the search is being conducted at the said media houses while the original letter is with the targeted recipient and not the media houses. The media houses just have the details of the letter.

Top Nation Media Group bosses have indicated to me that “the monitor will probably be shut down for good. The President is determined to see the scrutiny end.”

Kenyans are creative. They have found a way of importing decoders from Arab and European Pay-TV providers allowing them to watch English Premier League games for as little as $120 per year.

For you to watch EPL matches in Kenya, you need to have a DSTV premium package which costs $82 per month. Other smart ways of watching the extremely popular EPL games is through the illegal cable TV installers, common in most towns in Kenya and charges just Ksh 1,000 per month and Ksh 2,000 for one time installation.

One popular provider from Middle East available locally is Abu Dhabi Sports which is provided through the Abu Dhabi TV Network. Other providers like Australian FOXTEL are also being used by some Kenyans who travel to Australia and import the decoders to Kenya. But non beats Abu Dhabi Sports in quality of channels offered.

All in all, the quality of coverage and analysis cannot be compared to Supersport. DSTV is still the best. They just need to check on their pricings. Multichoice still has the exclusive rights to the EPL matches in the region. It will be interesting to know what they will do to stop Kenyans from accessing the EPL content through the illegal ways.

As part of their commemoration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) MultiChoice Africa and Eutelsat Communications have announced the return of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards for 2013.  The awards inspire innovative thinking among secondary and high school students in Africa, to create awareness on how science and technology can be applied to everyday life, and to showcase the many ways that satellites already impact on the development of the African continent.

The 2013 awards are aligned with the objective of WTISD, namely to raise awareness of the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and in particular satellites, on society.

“The new edition of the Star Awards challenge high school student from over 42 African countries to propose how they would use the satellites in space to address three community, country or African continental priorities” says Nico Meyer, Chief Executive of MultiChoice Africa.

The annual awards, which grew from 800 entries in 2011 to over 1000 last year take the form of a competition open to 14-19 year-old students to write an essay or design a poster on the specified topic. Country winners, besides winning exciting country prizes, will go on to compete against each other for the overall continental awards.  Like their 2011 and 2012 counterparts, this year’s overall essay and poster winners will win a once in a lifetime trip for two to the Eutelsat facilities in Paris, with the essay winner traveling onwards to witness a live rocket launch.  Runners up will win a trip to South Africa as guests of MultiChoice Africa. Schools attended by the overall winners will also receive a DStv installation, including dish, television, state-of-the-art PVR decoder and free access to the DStv Education Bouquet.

The 2012 best essay winner, Oyom Anthony from Uganda, won a trip to Paris and French Guiana.

Students can enter the awards by collecting an entry form and other resources from their nearest MultiChoice office or download a copy at www.dstvstarawards.com. Entries for the awards close on 19 September 2013.

Radio diva Caroline Mutoko has filed a police report complaining about various anonymous bloggers linking her with Senator Mutula Kilonzo’s death. The Radio Africa employee is reported by the Star (owned by Radio Africa) as having filed a complaint with the Serious Crime division of the Criminal Intelligence Department wanting the said bloggers immediately prosecuted.

The cyber crime unit which is under the serious crimes division is a tool which relies on almost criminal methods to arrest and prosecute bloggers without obtaining warrants nor getting any court orders.

Caroline Mutoko claim that on 28th April, she was in office till 4pm when she went home to collect her daughter, proceeded to ABC place, and then spent all night at home. The Star report further claim that Caroline Mutoko went to visit Carol Radull’s dad on 19th April (I guess it should be 29th April) at MP Shah hospital.

Caroline is reported to as referring to anonymous bloggers as “cyber terrorists and criminals are allowed free reign in Kenya.”

Kenya Police through the CID is using the obscure Section 29 (B) of the Kenya Information and Communication Act Cap 411A to arrest and detain bloggers without any proper justification nor linkage to the said crime committed.

I have been 3 times arrested and detained without proper justification. One of the cases has been thrown out and two are still in court. The charge sheets are always written as “……annoying so and so” without even the police offering justification on when annoyance became a crime. The police always annoy me when they prefer charges of annoyance on me. They don’t seem to realise that they annoy me nor offer to prosecute themselves.

The officer in charge of Cyber Crime is a Mr Kariuki who seem to be very ignorant of the law. He NEVER is confident to offer reason for the blatant misuse of the law in his arrests and detentions.

Anyway, I understand Caroline Mutoko’s anger.

88mph, an early stage startup fund and 3 month accelerator program has opened applications for Nairobi. The program assists start-ups by giving them investment of up to a 100k, access to business networks and the know how to quickly grow their businesses.

Through the program, 88mph looks to fund strong teams and web-mobile ideas that have the ability to scale across English speaking Africa.

Apart from funding, the 88mph team in Nairobi looks to add more value for the startups:

• A partnership with Google has enabled the right space and internet resources to build tech companies, as well as access to Google’s experienced web professionals who can mentor the startups.
• A host of highly experienced local Kenyans and global mentors have been added to the already top-notch 88mph mentor network.
• Furthermore, “Entrepreneurs-in-residence” – experienced entrepreneurs, specialized in sales, programming & web design – are being brought in from across the world to work side by side with the local startupsduring the 3-month acceleration.
• Finally, 88mph arranges a demo day, where the startups will get access to a group of investors and showcase what they’ve achieved so far.

Last year 88mph invested in 6 web-mobile startups in Nairobi. The 3-month program to accelerate the growth of the startups in Nairobi last year saw one startup end up with confirmed follow on funding.

‘I’ve seen a wealth of talent infused in Nairobi within the past couple of years,” says Carey Eaton, co-Founder, One Africa Media and CEO, Cheki Africa Media.”88mph and the ecosystem brewing here are making a very significant contribution to building technology companies in the region to another level, building the next great wave of web and mobile businesses that solve African problems. I’m looking forward to following these startups closely throughout the program.”

The fact that 274 million mobile web subscribers in Africa are on Edge or 3G has created a huge demand for local applications and services catering to the young and growing middle classes of Africa. 88mph claims to have invested over $750,000 into 23 early stage start-ups in Africa.

More information about the funding;

• Application deadline is midnight July 15th, 2013

• Startups can apply now on 88mph.ac

• 88mph invests up to $100k per startup

• Equity will depend on the startup company valuations, which could range from $100k to $1mil

• Altogether 8 – 15 teams will receive an investment and get accepted into the 3-month program

• The teams will be notified if they have been accepted to the program by August 1st, 2013

• Program starts on August 26^th at the 88mph Garage in Narobi, Kenya

• Startups in the program will have access to tech hubs in Cape Town, as well as to 88mph’s partner tech hubs across Africa

Zuku has reviewed the subscription rates for its DTH TV services. The provider has upped the rates by an average of 25% over the previous rates. Zuku has also added a new subscription package called  “Zuku Poa” which is now available for Kes 799 per month from June 1^st 2013.

The new subscription rates are as below

Below are the details of the new package Zuku Poa bouquet. The package is targeted at Movie and Sports lovers and possibly single people (as there are no kids channels included).

Below is the full analysis.

Below is the letter from the Managing Director to Zuku subscribers.

BlackBerry has announced that the much acclaimed BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will be soon available to iPhone and Android users.

This is going to be a great challenge to the apps which are doing well in the iOS and Android platforms like Whatsapp, WeChat, Viber and others. Whatsapp is currently the market leader in the two platforms outside BlackBerry. Whatsapp is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Series 40, Symbian S60 and BlackBerry 7 and 10.

Whatsapp currently handles more than 20 billion messages everyday sent by more than 200 million registered users. Whatsapp claim to have more users than Twitter.

BBM will be available to version 6 and above on iOS and version 4 and above on Android users by September 2013. More than 51 million BlackBerry users are on BBM every single day. On BBM, users love the secret PIN which can be shared with those you wish to communicate with.

Airtel Kenya has announced the introduction of a new range of daily bundles starting today. The bundles dubbed Airtel Tosha seeks to enable customers to get much more on voice calls, SMS and data at low daily subscription rates designed to fit their unique individual needs.

Knowing that customers have different communication needs that may vary by the day, Airtel Tosha offers them the freedom to choose their own tailor-made bundle to maximize on their communication plans.

Airtel Tosha bundles will ensure that its prepaid customers in Kenya get more value while spending less on voice calls, SMS and Data depending on their needs during the 18 hour daily availability of the product.

Customers may subscribe to the Airtel Tosha bundles by simply dialing *767# from their Airtel phones and choosing their preferred bundle.

YouTube has finally announced that it is launching a pilot partner program in which users will be able to pay for subscription to channels like Ultimate Fighting Championship and Sesame Street.

With subscriptions starting at $0.99, YouTube will let viewers test out a channel for free for 14 days. Once they sign up, subscribers can watch the paid channels on all platforms using the same ID, i.e. phones, tablets, PCs and connected televisions.

Through a blog post, Google announced that it looks to help content creators get paid for their videos.

“Today, there are more than 1 million channels generating revenue on YouTube, and one of the most frequent requests we hear from these creators behind them is for more flexibility in monetizing and distributing content,” the blog post read.

YouTube named out only Sesame Street and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as launch partners. The company also revealed that it plans to roll out subscription options for “qualifying” content creators in the next few weeks.

It is however not clear how much of the subscription fees will be shared with the content creators. It is very unlikely that Google will let content creators have the whole amount.

Microsoft troubled web-based email service, Hotmail, which was introduced to the world more than a decade and half ago, has been officially retired by the software giant. All the users of the service have been migrated to Outlook.com.

According to Microsoft, the migration to Outlook.Com involved moving more than 150 million gigabits of data. Hotmail email account owners will however be able to keep their old @Hotmail addresses. Microsoft has also announced that all settings on Hotmail mobile and Web apps will automatically be updated.

Through Outlook.Com, Microsoft hopes to fully integrate its mailing service with the newly launched touch-focused Windows 8. Currently outlook.com has more than 400 million users trailing the likes of Yahoo and Google in numbers.

Two Kenyan budding app developing teams – Tokelezea and Easy Parking – emerged winners in the just concluded Ericsson “Apps for African City Life” awards. They were recently feted by the company.

The five software developers – two from Tokelezea and three from Easy Parking – were each handed an “ASUS Transformer Pad” tablet. The Tokelezea app was voted the second prize while Easy Parking took the third position.

At the ceremony, Ericsson Kenya managing director Robert Rudin said that the company is set to have more significant impact in both Kenya and the region by developing solutions that can improve people’s everyday life.

Tokelezea is an app that helps people find fun things to do around them like places to go, events to attend and cinema listings. Users can also find out what their friends are up to. The app, developed by Nick Hargreaves Onyango and Dennis Munene, enables users to search and also interact and share content around the places and events.

Easy Parking is a mobile application intended to help motorists locate available parking areas easily. With the help of sensors installed in the parking lots, a user will be able to locate available parking lots. This will reduce time spent trying to look for a parking spot and eventually reduce fuel consumption. The app was developed by Thomas Kioko, Phoebe Mutua and Trevor Maingi.

The overall winners of the competition was Senegal’s Team Shinsekai who developed an app that aims to support environmental sanitation and hygiene development in cities.

The ‘Apps for African City Life’ competition is part of the global 2013 Ericsson Application Awards (EAA 2013) – an ongoing annual competition for application developers worldwide, organized by Ericsson.

There is a strong competition between Safaricom and Airtel Kenya in delivering the best bundle for Samsung Galaxy S4. Safaricom launched a Galaxy S4 pre-order link where the device would cost Ksh  57,999. To get Safaricom to preserved for you a piece, you need to part with Ksh 15,000 while ordering through this link.

Now Airtel has announced that they will be stocking the Samsung Galaxy S4 in 140 stores in Africa with Airtel Kenya having them in selected stores nationally.

The phone does not impress much but since Kenyan market is young and it is all euphoria which determine the uptake, Samsung Galaxy S4 will have many lining up to buy a unit.

Through Airtel Kenya, you will need to pay only Ksh 52,999 when you pre-order through this link using Airtel Money as mode of payment or pay in other ways and buy it at Ksh 56,999.

According to multiple sources at Samsung East Africa, the recommended retail price at Samsung is Ksh 64,999 but with the operator subsidy, the device is cheaper. I guess Safaricom and Airtel will look for ways of making sure that they retain you on their respective networks if you will buy the device in their shops.

You can also pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S4 from Airtel Kenya by paying through Pesapal through this link http://airtels4.pesapal.com. Customers opting to purchase their Samsung S4 handsets from Airtel Kenya will also receive 21GB data free to go with it while those purchasing it from Safaricom will get 4.5GB bundle of data.

Step 1: Open iTunes on your computer, scroll down and choose your country.

REMEMBER: Sign out if you are currently logged into an iTunes account.

Step 2: At the right sidebar you will find a section called “Top Free Apps” right click on any free App from these Apps and try to download it.

Step 3: Now iTunes will inform you by a message to write your login information then tap on “Create Apple ID”.

Step 4: iTunes will inform you by the welcome note then tap on Continue.

Step 5: Now You have to Agree the the terms and conditions on iTunes.

Step 6: fill out your personal information, and Keep in mind that your password should at least contain 8 characters including a number and an uppercase letter and lowercase letter.

Step 7: After filling out your information click the “Continue” button and select“None” for payment method and continue filling your information.

Step 8: Enjoy your Apple ID, That’s it.

Credit

MultiChoice Kenya has today launched the GOtv services in Eldoret covering most parts of the Uasin Gishu County. Eldoret joins Kisumu, Mombasa and Nairobi in the digital terrestrial TV availability.

Safaricom is reacting to our expose yesterday. The company has now sent out an email to all Call Centre Staff to go and pick new headsets and replace the cheap ones.

Such changes are what we would love to see. Kudos to Safaricom for responding to these needs. We just hope that they will properly reward the staff members impaired by the cheap headsets.

A lady by the name of Diana who is the Call Centre Transport Manager sent out this email

India’s Bharti Airtel is set to Warid Telecom Uganda after entering an agreement with Warid Group. After this acquisition, Airtel Uganda will strengthen its position as the second largest mobile operators in  Uganda with around 7.5 million subscribers and 40% market share after MTN. The agreement is subject to approvals from relevant state authorities.

Bharti Airtel Uganda has around 4.6 million subscribers while Warid Telecom has 2.9 million.

Regarding the agreement, Manoj Kohli, MD and CEO (International), Bharti Airtel said, “This happens to be the first in-market acquisition in Bharti Airtel’s history. We believe this market consolidation offers great synergies by bringing together the best of Airtel and Warid to better serve customers in Uganda.”

Bharti Airtel with over 62 million subscribers in Africa, has footprints in 17 countries in the continent.

General Electric Company and Safaricom have signed a KES 100 million deal that will see GE supplying Safaricom with 48 GE Durathon batteries which will capacitate the Safaricom network to run efficiently during power outages.

Durathon Battery technology is one of the first batteries in the world to be designed specifically for Charge Discharge Cycling (CDC) telecom applications. By using batteries as the primary energy source in a continuous charge-discharge-cycling (CDC) operating mode, fuel costs and emissions can be substantially reduced and overall system efficiency dramatically improved.

LEST YOU FORGET: Another Chilling Letter From a Safaricom Call Centre Staff

The Batteries are ideal for back-up applications in urban centres where space is at a premium. They are designed to run at 48V and constructed from abundantly available materials, individual Durathon Battery modules are inherently less attractive to thieves looking to run consumer electronics or recoup material reclamation.

Telecom operators in Africa are starting to power cell phone towers with next-generation batteries. The low-maintenance batteries last twice as long as ordinary lead-acid batteries and can work for 20 years. They are also non-toxic and fully recyclable.

Aiming to speed and simplify external innovation connections, Procter & Gamble (P&G) through their P&G’s Connect+Develop program (C+D) has launched a new website (www.pgconnectdevelop.com), linking innovators directly to top Company needs, and P&G business leaders directly to external innovation submissions.

In the spirit of C+D, P&G developed the website in collaboration with other external partners to enable user submissions to directly feed into the business category leaders. This will allow P&G to review needs for strategic fit or scalability across the business.

The website lets innovators link directly to P&G’s posted needs, which are organized by business area and searchable by topic. Innovators also can access a full description of every need, including scale and success criteria. On the back-end, the site links P&G innovation managers with submissions, letting them search by topic or work area, share internally, and track progress.

P&G launched its Connect+Develop program more than 10 years ago.

The website serves as P&G’s “open front door to the world,” allowing any innovator anywhere to share their innovations with the Company. According to P&G, the site includes translations in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese. It receives about 20 submissions every weekday – or more than 4,000 a year – from all over the world.

P&G encourages our consumers here in Kenya and throughout the East African region to log on and share their innovations.

I have been getting complaints from users of various communication services. I got this from one Nokia phone user. The guy is basically highlighting what most people who visit such care centres go through. Since Nokia know that they are losing the market, they never give a f$%^# about what you think of them.

Read for yourself and judge.

Hi Robert,

Good Afternoon.

Ever seeked the services of the Nokia Care Center (at Hilton Hotel Ground Floor on Mama Ngina Street)? I was there on Monday, and I asked this lady at the service counter a simple question: How much would you charge me to back-up my Nokia Phone contacts to my Flashdisk? Just then as I was asking her I received a phone call; I picked it and told my caller I’ll return his call later. I continued my query to the lady and she responded that she would need to ask the technicians at the back office.

She went back there, opened my phone battery backside purporting she was looking for the memory card, all this while my phone was On, and without asking for my permission to open my phone. She came back and told me that was not possible, but then I looked at my phone which is a dual-sim, one SIM card was not reading. at first I thought she’d removed the SIM Card, but it was there. So I removed it, put it back, but still not reading sim 2 which was my main access line. I switched SIM cards on both slots and realized slot 2 was not reading.

So I asked the lady: Did you open my phone while it was On, she said NO. She lied. She just said she opened my phone and brought it back to me while still On. My phone would asked her for my SIM 2 PIN. The sim slot 2 wasn’t reading the SIM. The minute she realized her mistake, she started being overbearing in her speech and couldn’t let me talk. Feeling disrespected I requested to talk to the Branch Manager. A lady came over and assumed to be in-charge. I talked her thru my ordeal with her colleague/staff, but it fell on deaf ears & pointless. All she did was support her all the way.

Feeling discontent and angry at the disrespectful manner I was treated I left cause it could get worse than it was. I couldn’t make calls and couldn’t receive any. I missed a dinner date as my new found lady friend couldn’t raise me on phone. She sent me a text message which I never received in that space of time as we were yet to agree on where in Westlands we would do dinner. I’m not sure suing Nokia for my headache is something I should consider, but all I know is Never I’m I spending my hard earned money on a Nokia Experience.

What makes me so mad I’d that this Nokia Care Center Branch Manager – the least she could do is have my phone checked and resolve the malfunction the customer care lady caused, by, without permission opening up my Nokia phone and lying about it. Now I can’t afford to buy another phone at the current state I’m in, and since I’ve been so loyal to Nokia, I’m not sure it’s a better option, considering this is the after-sales service I’ll experience.

I narrated my yesterday bad experience to our Office Taxi Driver today, and to my surprise he had a response to it: he had a similar experience at the same Nokia Care Service Center, having spent more money to repair his boss’s expensive phone than it actually cost. Now, I realized they tampered with my phone to get repair business money from me – not happening! Not even after fantasizing about the new Lumnia 920.

Please post this, as I don’t want someone else to go thru what I was put thru.

Thank you.

Jonathan.
+254727570276
Sent from my iPad

What do you think? This is real.

After blogging about the Safaricom call-centre staff retired and sacked because they developed ENT problems, I got more from some current employees at Safaricom. I received over 13 emails with all manner of complaints. The one which stood out is this one.

Hi Robert,

I joined Safaricom in 2009 as customer care representative. We had been promised confirmation once we are through with 3 months probation which was later pushed to six and before we knew it we were given the bad news. We will be signing contracts every six months which is performance based. We later found out the idea of not to confirm us was a cost cutting strategy as you will find out later.

Employment in Kenya is hard to come by so we decided to just accept the conditions. I want us to compare a permanent agent and contract one. Permanent agents earns a basic salary of between Ksh 55,000 and Ksh 60,000. We, the contract ones get 40,200. We are given Ksh 1,000 airtime while permanent get Ksh 3,000 every month. The medical cover we have as contract is Ksh 60,000 and in patient is Ksh 150,0000 per year which does not cover any member of our family while the permanent staff is Ksh 250,000 for out-patient and in-patient is 1.5 million. This basically means if I get sick it’s ok I go to Nairobi hospital but if its my kid I take him to a city council hospital. No dental or optical for contract staff. And we are all agents doing the same job.

As contract staff, you cannot move to any other department regardless of how qualified you are. That basically means you stagnate there answering calls for ever. In the call center, people do swap shifts but as a contract staff you cannot swap with a permanent staff. Why? Mind you we are doing the same job. They refused to have contacts staff join the pension scheme. So they waste you for 2 or 3 years, then they dismiss you with nothing. Remember your contact is 6 months making it very hard to even access loans. Basically contract staff are treated like shit because getting rid of them is like a finger snap. Basically contract staff live like paupers working for blue chip company.

Now, that aside they have now started another very bad and immoral practice. They know it’s illegal to employee someone on renewable contract basis for more than one year. So they are now targeting older contract staff. One minor mistake and your contact is revoked. You can imagine being on contacts since 2009 and in 2013 you are dismissed just like that. You have basically wasted your 4-years.

What do you think Alai. Is this proper?

I must say that Safaricom is really doing lots of things wrong. The sad fact is that the CEO and top directors would rather appear in music videos and pop champagne. Nobody want to face the reality and help these young people.

yuMobile, through its mobile money service, yuCash has today unveiled an exciting offer to all subscribers.

In the promotion, any subscriber who tops up airtime via yuCash will earn 200% bonus airtime, which they can use for yu to yu calls, SMS and for data browsing.

The offer is valid from 18th April for 90 days and is applicable for yuCash airtime top-ups made from Kes.20 up to Kes.250. Subscriber can check the amount of bonus and the validity, simply by *159#.

Samsung’s newest phone from the galaxy serious, Samsung Galaxy S4, will go on sale in Kenya by May 15th. The phone will retail for around Ksh 65,000 but the black market with one year warranty will cost Ksh 60,000 or thereabout. Samsung has a 2 year warranty on most of its mobile devices sold locally.

Samsung has an African launch on Wednesday in Cape Town, South Africa.

Galaxy S4 is for Samsung lovers but the real power and beauty in the Android mobile platform is the HTC One. The One X and One X+ have a superior build and UI than the Samsung series. Samsung has all the money for marketing in the world but the Galaxy series look and feels cheap just after few days of use.

Watch this video

Some pundits have declared that HTC One is “the most beautiful Android phone ever made.”

HTC One is a gorgeous 4.7-inch phone made from all metal and glass. The design is impeccable, and it runs the latest version of Google’s Android operating system.

A group of 20 former and current Safaricom customer care agents, some “retired” because they could not use headsets anymore, are now taking legal action against Safaricom. The agents who have sought redress from almost every institution and have been blocked by Safaricom killing their story through intimidation, arm-twisting and bribery. The list of those they have told their story to reads like a who-is-who in the Kenyan media.

Safaricom has relied on cheap headsets at its Customer Care facility located along Mombasa road. Now most of current and former call-centre staff are suffering from Acoustic Shock syndrome. This is a medical disorder experienced by people exposed to unbalanced sound which becomes traumatic. Read about the disorder here.

What is scary is that Safaricom chose to retire them due to the illness caused by working at Safaricom and they were given a very unfair retirement package of 2 months salary for every year worked and no medical cover. You would expect Safaricom to at least provide life cover to such persons since working at Safaricom impaired them in one way or the other. The above illness is just one of the many medical complications being experienced by Safaricom call-centre staff. Most are Ear Nose and Throat related ailments.

Listen to this recording from one of the staff hearing sessions

According to the doctors’ reports, most the call centre staff were to be re-deployed away from receiving calls but the company instead chose to retire them in October 2012 without compensation. Safaricom arrogantly claims that they are not the cause of the former staff’s condition and yet their doctors (approved by the company) did indicate that the medical complications experienced by the former staff was as a result of prolonged use of the cheap headsets.

Safaricom then bribed some Ministry of Labour officials and then recommended that the staff go to the ministry for assessment before retirement. I have communications and medical reports of around 17 former and current Safaricom customer care officials who feel used and abused by the most profitable company in East and Central Africa. Some who are still working at Safaricom fear for their jobs since Safaricom does not tolerate them communicating even with lawyers.

Safaricom again totally avoided written communication with the aggrieved staff so that they could not be held responsible.

Safaricom’s Director of Resources wrote this letter to one of the employees

From: Joseph Ogutu
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 5:25 PM
To: Medical Incapacity
Subject: RE-DEPLOYMENT PROCEDURE

Dear All,

I refer to the meeting held with the CEO and myself to address the concerns you were having regarding the newly implemented Re-deployment Procedure.

As you are aware, the purpose of the Re-deployment Procedure is to set the company standard to address matters of occupational illness and occupational injury. As agreed at the meeting, I wish to confirm that the company will offer you, over and above any statutory payment stipulated in your employment contract, the following one time ex-gratia package in special consideration and goodwill;

i. Two months’ salary for every year worked or 6 months’ salary whichever is higher

ii. Medical cover up to 31st December 2012
Additionally, following your request to review the start date of the re-deployment period from 17th May 2012 to 1st June 2012, I wish to confirm the request as granted. To this end, the Re-deployment period will be in force until 31st August 2012.

I urge you to continue visiting the intranet for any job vacancies arising and which you may be interested making applications for. Selection and placement will follow the normal recruitment process as stipulated in the Recruitment Policy.

Please note that Individual letters will be issued to you and a copy retained in your personal file.

Regards,
Joseph Ogutu
Director Resources

Calls and SMS to Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore, have not been answered. We hope that the company will come out and address the problems. Declaring billions in profits while they continue to destroy lives is just not right.

Reports reaching us from Mombasa indicate that the Education PS has banned the LIVE BROADCAST of the Butere Girls play, Shackles of Doom. The play which is currently being staged in Mombasa shows the kind of society we live in where now every government appointment and nomination is dominated by one ethnic group.

This is a problem which few want to address. Nobody wants to talk about tribalism openly because the National Cohesion and Integration Commission believe that anyone who point out such in the society should be charged with hate speech.

Here is the video of part of the play.

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Kenyan government spokesman is angered by the existence of Facebook pages impersonating the First family and state house. Through Facebook postings, Muthui Kariuki, is asking Kenyans to ignore the many Facebook pages  which have been created for the children of Uhuru Kenyatta.

In another Facebook post, the government spokesman added;

Facebook currently has hundreds of pages and accounts impersonating all manner of people. I would like to caution Kenyans that they do not share their personal details with any organization purporting to offer jobs unless they can provide a fixed address, land-line number and proper registration details. One such page ‘K24 Peace’ has been using the Presidential Standard and tweeked covers copied from the statehouse page. I ask Kenyans to be careful.

The Kenyan government is in a dilemma how to handle the many Facebook pages opened to impersonate various state organs and personnel.

State House has made great entry onto social media scene since when Uhuru was sworn in as President. The Presidency is now using Facebook and Twitter to share news and happenings with Kenyans.

Orange Kenya has reduced its off-net mobile calling and SMS rates starting at midnight tonight.

The new tarrif offer, dubbed Tujuane, reduces the off-net calling rates to KSh 3 per minute down from KSh 4 per minute. Orange mobile customers will also enjoy a 50 percent reduction on on-net and off-net SMS rates, down to KSh 1 from KSh 2. The cost of Orange-to-Orange calls remains consistent at KSh. 2 per minute and this includes calls from Orange Mobile to the company’s fixed line network.

Customers that are currently subscribed to bundled offerings on Orange will still the benefits of the new Tujuane tariffs. When not subscribed to a bundle offer, they will automatically roll onto this new pricing plan.

Tujuane, which is valid till May 31, 2013, is available 24-hours at no subscription fee making it attractive to entry level users who, typically, have less disposable income.

As additional value, Tujuane comes with free access to Facebook Zero as well as to Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia.

Nokia and Airtel have announced a partnership agreement across Africa to drive closer collaboration and deliver increased consumer value. The agreement, which incorporates areas such as the provision of Nokia Life services, Xpress Browser and Nokia Store Operator Billing for purchases from Nokia Store in key countries, makes it easier and more cost effective for Airtel subscribers to access a range of value adding services.

A key part of the agreement is the provision of Nokia Life services, already available in Nigeria and launching in Kenya this month. The services, which are delivered as richly formatted SMS messages, bring relevant, timely and personalised information to consumers at a far lower cost than other sources. Information is customized and designed to meet basic needs in areas such as education, agriculture, healthcare, livelihood and even spirituality. The content brings real benefits, such as information for expectant mothers in rural areas who may not have regular access to clinics or pre-natal care.

Since its launch in India, Nokia Life has been experienced by more than 95 million people in 18 local languages including those in Nigeria. Nokia and Airtel looks to extend the Nokia Life experience to the East African market, starting with Kenya.

Airtel and Nokia have also partnered to offer integrated billing solutions for Nokia Store in both Nigeria and Kenya. Customers will be able to download top local and global paid apps and games from Nokia Store and pay for their downloads as part of their monthly mobile phone bills or have the amount deducted from their pre-paid balance. Payment for the downloads will be in local currency.

The two providers will also collaborate in the provision of Nokia Xpress Browser for Airtel customers in Nigeria and Kenya. Xpress Browser is Nokia’s cloud-based platform for delivering a better internet experience on a number of mobile devices, including the new Asha range. The cloud-acceleration technology compresses information by up to 90% to increase download speeds, reduce data costs and render pages in a format specially designed for mobile phones.

As many African consumers will experience the internet for the first time from their mobile phone, the customised Nokia Xpress Browser is a valuable tool for Airtel subscribers in Kenya and Nigeria, whether they are seeking basic information, running their small business, or using social media to stay in touch.