The user interface where customers use to get in touch with Maramoja Transport taxis. PHOTO | FILE
In Summary
The socially powered transport start-up operates through an
app on smartphones, where potential customers view all taxi drivers
within their vicinity through GPS before requesting services from one.
According
to Mr Eisen, Maramoja has built a network of 150 taxis and private hire
drivers around Nairobi and is still adding new drivers every day.
The
drivers have fixed charges regardless of the time of the day or weather
under which they are working. For instance, the drivers charge Sh350 to
Kilimani from the CBD and Sh700 for customers heading to Nairobi West
from the city centre.
Ruth Ireri (centre) with award sponsors from the Netherlands. The
teacher-turned-social entrepreneur, who Shalem Investments together with
her husband. PHOTO | COURTESY
In Summary
Apart from beer sellers and consumers, whose parties were
cut short as a new tax hit cheap liquor business in 2013, a group of
sorghum farmers in Meru were also hit hard.
The government’s
plan to encourage production of low-cost beer made Senator Keg the
second-most popular beer in Kenya with a market share of 15.3 per cent.
But with the new tax, farmers’ stores began swelling with sorghum.
To
augment their earnings, she is urging them to diversify into sunflower
farming with oil maker BIDCO providing the market. She is also
encouraging farmers to venture into bee keeping.
Shalem Investments, a Meru-based entity that brings together
7,000 sorghum farmers bore the brunt. The group had found a ready market
for the crop at the East African Breweries Limited (EABL).
From left- Ministry of Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne
Waiguru, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) director general
Zachary Mwangi, Planning Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti and KNBS
chairman Terry Ryan during the release of the 2015 Economic Survey
Report at KICC in Nairobi on April 29, 2015. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
In Summary
Increased mobile money transactions, high internet usage
and sound ICT policies are among the contributing factors to the robust
performance.
The sector has recorded positive growth for the
past five years with an output of Sh169.2 billion in the year 2010
compared to the current value output of Sh263.3 billion.
Lenders are offering varying interest rates for loans borrowed through
mobile phone platforms. These services are registering a phenomenal
growth. PHOTO | FILE
In Summary
In March, KCB launched a mobile phone-based loan product
where customers can repay loans at a fixed interest rate of between four
and 12 per cent.
According to Co-operative Bank’s retail
banking director, Mr Maurice Matumo, mobile banking loan application is
fully automated. They are applied for, appraised and disbursed via the
phone, he told Money.
To qualify for your maiden loan,
however, you must deposit money in your M-Shwari savings account. The
loan is payable within 30 days and attracts an interest rate of 7.5 per
cent. Defaulters risks being blacklisted.
Are you a little short on cash? Well, all you need is your handset and a good credit history.
With
the introduction of mobile banking, Kenya’s banking industry is
transforming and one can borrow as little as Sh50 via a mobile phone to
pay bus fare.
The team I was on argued that Kenya should rethink
conservation policy and develop a wider portfolio of economic
instruments in conservation.
While our team conceded that there
is a place for ideology in informing policy discourse, we were alarmed
by the absence of data-driven analysis to inform Kenya’s conservation
policy.
Policy discourse on conservation will benefit greatly from cross-disciplinary thinking.
On April 25, 2015, I
joined up with two friends to debate elephant conservation policy at an
event hosted by the Brookhouse School in Nairobi.
Our
side that argued that elephant conservation policy in Kenya was
wrong-headed and reform is required today. This debate was the
culmination of intense publicity under the catchphrase#Tweet4Elephants.
President Uhuru Kenyatta. The President has succumbed to populism and
short-term calculations. FILE PHOTO | SALTON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
Under the new system, the number of directors of
parastatals must be restricted to between seven and nine. Positions
would have tenures and individuals appointed to boards would have the
relevant experience and skills.
The Privatisation Commission of
Kenya is yet another example. Until the other day, it was just a
moribund agency waiting to be dissolved and replaced with the proposed
Government Invest Corporation. Where is the logic of appointing a new
chairman for such an entity?
The President had signed on to the
idea of collapsing Brand Kenya, Export Promotion Council, Kenya Tourist
Board, and Kenya Invest into one fully-funded agency. Yet each of these
entities has been given new directors with new contracts.
Just the other day, we celebrated the launch of what has been
christened the “Mwongozo code of leadership. This was at a State House
ceremony presided over by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Supporters of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir (portrait) celebrate his
re-election for another five years in office, on April 27, 2015, in
Khartoum. AFP PHOTO | ASHRAF SHAZLY
In Summary
Police in Khartoum are investigating the clashes, the ministry said.
Ethnic insurgents mounted a campaign against Bashir's Arab-dominated government in 2003, complaining of their marginalisation.
A man died after
being injured in clashes between two groups of university students in
the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Wednesday, the interior ministry said
in a statement.
