Other News (non political)

New Celtel Service
Me2U service allows a Celtel subscriber to share airtime with another Celtel user. I.e. you can transfer credit, already in your phone of any amount (from 50 to 10,000 shillings) to another celtel user. (Unlike with Safaricom, where you have to buy new airtime/Credit, in order to send it so eomeone else). This is a new way of money transfer, it can also be a new way of fleecing as many corporate customers get credit sent to their phones, and have no choice but to talk till hey drop, but now they can offload some of their excess airtime to friends and relatives, or even sell them at discounts to other people.

Ringera hiring staff
In the papers of April 19th, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) has advertised for at least 38 job openings. These include auditors, valuers, engineers, researchers, and legal assistants, but with the bulk being administrative positions. Deadline is May 5th.

Broadband Kenya
In the space of a week, two companies have introduced broadband services.
(1 Access Kenya: Launched Broadband Max incorporates a 64k uplink and 128k downlink at the same price targeted at corporate customers and access guarantees. AK say deregulation of the market place has brought about extra bandwidth
(2) Telkom Kenya: Launched Broadband Access via “optic fibre” for voice and data services and can be used for broadband internet access, VOIP, Cable TV, video conferencing, distance learning and high speed data transfer. It is available in Nairobi only

Kenya Airways strike?
The problem is that there are two competing union – one who the airline is negotiating with, and the other who have declared a strike effective 20th April (both claim to represent all Kenya airways workers except pilots i.e. engineers, ground handling, staff, baggage checkers, others)

Triple A Sues
Triple A sued Kenya Pipeline for 685 million shillings. This is more fallout from one of the 40 corrupt deals cited by Sir Edward Clay and which got the previous MD and Chairman fired from Kenya Pipeline and raised questions of the origin and competence of (finance firm) Triple A. KPC got into a controversial agreement with Triple A to finance a debt of Kshs 2 billion, with the money to be borrowed from Standard Chartered Bank. Triple A would have repaid among others Export Development Corporation (Canada) 1.2 billion at 0.88% per month, Japan Board for International Cooperation 398 million at 0.88% per month over 3 years, JFE Engineering 11.4 million at 0.91%, and Engineering Consultants 136 million over 3 years.