The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kenya

  • Jonathan, wife storm Kenya games reserves

    Jonathan, wife storm Kenya games reserves

    Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan at the weekend stormed Kenya’s Maasai Mara Games Reserve in two chartered planes.

    One of the planes carried Kenya State security and the second was occupied by Jonathan, his wife Patience and two of their children.

    He is at the reserve for a three-day tour to witness the wildebeest migration.

    Jonathan was booked at the new Angama Mara Lodge at the Oloololo conservancy.

    The ex-president was received by Narok Governor Samuel Tunai.

    Tunai, who is also the Council of Governors tourism committee chairman, said more than 500,000 tourists from all over the world are expected to witness the spectacular crossing of wildebeest across the crocodile-infested Mara River.

    Jonathan, who refused to speak with reporters on his arrival to the reserve, according to Kenya media, is the second dignitary to visit the reserve in less than a fortnight after the King of Swasiland, Mswati III. The king was booked in the same lodge six days ago.

    The owner of the hotel, Nicky Fitzgerald, said this tourism peak season is different from the past as prominent personalities from across the world have been calling for bookings.

    “We have received Mr Jonathan, King Mswati III, a Chinese prominent family and we are expecting other royalties,” said Ms Fitzgerald.

    Ms Fitzgerald said United States (U.S.) President Barrack Obama’s visit last month was a boost for tourism in Kenya.

    The trooping in of world leaders to Kenya is expected to boost the tourism sector, which is recovering from travel advisories.

    Britain has withdrawn travel advisories against Kenya and America is expected to follow suit. “Starting of direct flights between Kenya and the U.S. as Obama promised would really promote trade and tourism,” said Ms Fitzgerald.

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  • Barack Obama arrives Kenya

    Barack Obama arrives Kenya

    President of the United States, Barack Obama, has just landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at Nairobi in Kenya.

    Obama is visiting Kenya, his home country for the first time since emerging as the number one citizen of the world.

    He touchdown on-board United States AirForce One at about 18:03 (GMT +1) at the JKIA, an international airport in Nairobi, the capital city in Kenya and the largest.

    The international airport and neighbouring environments have been abuzz with activity since the President announced intention to visit his family.

    Meanwhile, the preparation to receive the world’s most powerful man only had a minimal disruption to JKIA normal activities including flight scheduling.

  • Kenyan forces kill 24 Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia

    Twenty Four Al-Shabaab militants have been killed in an offensive by Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in Somalia, military spokesman, Col. David Obonyo, said Thursday.

    Obonyo said the terrorists were confronted when the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISON) forces captured Bardere Bridge where they recovered 25 AK-47 rifles.

    “AMISOM forces together with Somalia National Army (SNA) have captured the strategic Bardhere Bridge.

    “The capture of the bridge was a culmination of AMISOM operation ‘Juba Corridor’ which started on 14 July 2015.

    “The operation commenced from Fafadun and involved the liberation of a series of towns from Tarako, Jungal – bombarded by artillery a week ago and Tawakal,” he said.

    He said that four Somali soldiers were killed during the attack that occurred early Wednesday that also left two Kenyan soldiers wounded.

    “In the morning engagement at Tawakal before capturing the bridge, 24 Al Shabaab terrorists were killed, four others were injured and one technical vehicle was destroyed.
    “The AMISOM/SNA forces seized 25 AK-47 rifles, one PKM machine gun and assorted rounds of ammunition,” he said.

    He said the Bardhere Bridge was the main gateway into Gedo, adding that the Al Shabaab militia had predominantly used the bridge to move their fighters, weapons, ammunition and contraband goods into Gedo.

    “’The loss of the bridge is, therefore, a major operational milestone in the fight against Al Shabaab and plays an integral part in shaping up operations for the ultimate capture of Bardhere town,” he said.

    AMISOM forces have intensified offensive against Al Shabaab militants as they strive to secure Kenya and the region ahead of Friday’s arrival of US President Barack Obama

  • Al-Shabaab threatens to attack Kenya during Ramadan

    Somali terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, said on Thursday that it was planning to attack neighbouring Kenya during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins June 17.

    A senior al-Shabaab commander told newsmen on condition of anonymity that they were planning to give Kenyan non-believers a true taste of Jihad (the holy war) in the next few days and weeks.

    “Attacks were mainly planned in Kenya’s north-eastern province that borders Somalia,’’ he said.

    However, the group claimed it already infiltrated the region.

    “We will keep targeting and destroying Kenya’s education sector and business sector,’’ the al-Shabaab commander said.

    According to the commander, the terrorists are also threatening to attack Kenyan troops stationed in southern Somalia in coming weeks.

    Al-Shabaab has targeted Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan troops entered Somalia to help the government fight the group.

    Al-Shabaab killed 152 people at a university campus in Garissa in April and no fewer than 67 people at a Nairobi shopping mall in September 2013.

  • Digital Migration: Lesson from Kenya

    Kenyans are already complaining about the semblance of a Greek gift in their country’s migration from analogue to digital television.

    In protest, four of Kenya’s main private TV stations; KTN, Citizen, NTV and its subsidiary QTV went off air recently in most of the country due to a row over the switch from analogue to digital transmission. State-run broadcaster KBC and K24 TV, which is owned by the family of President Uhuru Kenyatta, have remained on air.

    The analogue signal for the four TV stations grouped under the African Digital Network Consortium was turned off by the authorities, leading the media houses to switch off their digital signals in protest.

    They argued that there is need for more time to import their own set-top boxes that would distribute their content.

    The Communications Authority of Kenya says 60 percent of the people have now acquired a set-top box to receive a digital signal, wondering why the media houses would be dragging their feet.

    Although the media houses asked for 100 days extension to comply, the Supreme Court rejected the TV stations’ request.

    The Kenyan authorities are acting ahead of the June 17, 2015 deadline by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the global migration from analogue to digital broadcast. They argued that there is the need to test-run the operations and fix any glitches ahead of the June deadline.

    It will be recalled that neighbouring Tanzania went ahead with its digital migration on 31 December 2013, the first country to do so of the five members of the East African Community.

    Already, two providers  Signet, owned by the Kenyan government and PANG, a Chinese firm- are already in operation.

    This for a moment is where I paused to think about the implication of such a provider(s) in Nigeria.

    If you take into cognizance, a heated political period like now in Nigeria; a time when despite our constitutional standpoint, people are still wary of the extent of independence of the INEC, you would begin to imagine what the composition of our service providers will be under the digital TV regime.

    As laudable and ample as the spectrum of the digital model, its disadvantage lies in the regulatory platforms which has the tendency to stifle the operations and independence of private owned broadcast stations over some political differentials.

    Whereas under the analogue system, every broadcaster establishes, manages and maintains its transmission infrastructure, the digital system is not like that, because channels give up their signal distribution function and simply hand over their content to a licensed signal distributor for onward transmission to the viewer.

    In Kenya, as we have clearly seen, the government is a joint provider with a Chinese firm, which many suspect has some faceless Kenyans as shareholders.

    At the few fora held in Nigeria on the transition to digital TV, little or no attention was paid on whether or not the digital system will not deter the freedom of information and media independence that Nigeria is still trying to sustain.

    As it is now, if Channels has a problem with its transmitter, TVC would still be on air. If NTA switches off its signal, AIT would still continue with its normal broadcast. However, under the digital system, all the channels cede their signal to, for example, Startimes, which has affiliation with NTA, a government-owned television station.

    Beyond this seeming challenge, the advantages of digital transition are enormous, especially going by its more efficient use of frequencies and lower cost of setting up a TV channel, among others.

  • FG condemns Kenya university carnage

    FG condemns Kenya university carnage

    The Federal Government has condemned what it termed the gruesome attack on a university campus in Garissa, Kenya by Al-Shabaab terrorists which claimed 147 lives.

    A statement issued by the Public Communications Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, said the Federal Government received the report of the attack with great shock.

    The Federal Government commensurate with the families of the victims and expressed solidarity to the Government and people of Kenya.

    “The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria vehemently condemns the act of horror unleashed on the innocent, defenceless who were in school in search of education for a better future.

    “It therefore extends its heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims. It expresses solidarity with the Government and people of Kenya at this period of national grief.

    “The Federal Government reiterates that terror and terrorism do not recognise national boundaries and have become a major threat to international peace and security”, the statement said.

    The Federal Government called for global action against terrorism anywhere in the world.

    “We call on the international community to ensure that the fight against terrorism anywhere in the world remains a global priority,” the Federal Government said.

  • Kenya’s tourism industry under threat

    Kenya’s tourism industry under threat

    Hoteliers from Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast region and sprawling game park reserves said tourists have started cancelling trips to the east African nation after Islamist gunmen last week killed 148 people at a university campus.

    Chilling survivor testimonies recounting how gunmen from Somalia’s al-Shabaab militant group hunted down and killed students has shocked Kenya and dealt a fresh blow to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s plans to boost the tourism sector.

    Meanwhile, Al Shebaab’s terror campaign is starting to have a deleterious economy-wide consequence. “The sell-off that’s driven the Kenyan shilling to the lowest against the dollar in more than three years is poised to extend after the country’s deadliest attack by Islamist militants in more than 16 years. The currency weakened to its lowest since Nov.16, 2011 after militants attacked a university on April 2, killing 147 people. With Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants threatening more violence, tourism, which has been in decline since the start of 2013, may shrink further, impacting the East African nation’s second-largest source of foreign exchange, according to Rich Management Ltd. The shilling has declined for four consecutive weeks.”

    A vital part of east Africa’s biggest economy, Kenya’s tourism industry has been in decline since 2013 when al-Shabaab stormed an upscale shopping mall in the capital Nairobi, killing 67 people during a bloody four-day siege.

    Since then, repeat al-Shabaab attacks and travel warnings issued by the likes of Britain, US and Australia emptied Kenya’s palm-fringed beaches and forced hotels to lay off staff.

    Hoteliers say the pre-dawn attack on a campus in Garissa, a remote town 200km from the Somalia border, far off the tourist trail, is likely to spark another wave of redundancies in the hospitality sector.

    “We were expecting tourists from UK, Germany, France, Australia and Asia continent but they cancelled their bookings when they learnt of the terror attack,” said Peter Kipeno, the owner of a luxury tented camp in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game park, nearly 600km from Garissa.

     

     

  • 15 killed in Kenya University attack

    A terror attack on Kenya’s North Eastern University has reportedly left at least 15 people dead while students were taken hostage.

    It was reported that no fewer than 65 people also sustained varying degrees of injuries after gunmen attacked the campus in Garissa.

    A Somali militant group, Al-Shabab with links to al-Qaeda has said it was freeing Muslims but holding Christians hostage.

    As at the time of filing this report, the number of students taken hostage is not clear as more than 500 students are unaccounted for.

  • Sameer Africa seeks new markets in Kenya

    Sameer Africa Ltd. plans to enter Rwanda in the next two years and is exploring the possibility of setting up a subsidiary in Nigeria as the Kenyan tiremaker offsets widening competition in its domestic market.

    Sameer wants to add to the 11 countries elsewhere in Africa where it sells products, Chief Executive Officer Allan Walmsley said in an interview Friday at company headquarters in the capital, Nairobi.

    “We are taking a very big interest in Rwanda despite the market being small,” Walmsley said Friday. “What we are seeing is good governance, and we are seeing the GDP growth of the country being sustainable.” Executives recently visited Nigeria to evaluate the “massive market” and its “very many challenges.”

    Sameer had a net loss in 2014 of 66.9 million shillings ($726,000) compared with year-earlier profit of 401.2 million shillings, as revenue dropped 13 per cent to 936.5 million shillings, the company has said. Earnings were hurt by “ever-increasing competition from subsidised tires imported from the East” as well as by civil or political unrest or currency shortages in some export markets, it said.

    The shares declined nine percent to 5.65 shillings, the biggest two-day decline since August 8. The company is valued at 1.57 billion shillings.

    The manufacturer is among Kenyan companies asking the government to impose a countervailing duty on products imported from China, though a tariff may be difficult to implement because of East Africa Community trade-bloc rules requiring coordinated policies with neighboring countries, Walmsley said.

    “Unfair competition” has caused Sameer Africa’s market share in Kenya to shrink to 16 percent from 54 percent, he said.

    China overtook India to become Kenya’s top source of imported goods at 14.8 percent of the total value in the first nine months of 2014, according to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

    The tiremaker said in July that it’s in negotiations to sell a stake in its manufacturing unit to an unidentified Asian investor.

    “Talks are ongoing,” and included a meeting in Dubai a week ago, though there’s no timeframe for a deal, Walmsley said. “We are not looking for a technical partner alone but one who also will contribute equity” to a possible 50-50 partnership, he said.

  • Old Mutual spends bulk of Africa war chest on UAP stake in Kenya

    Old Mutual Plc (OML), which earmarked 4.3 billion rand ($374 million) for acquisitions in Africa, increased its stake in Kenya’s UAP Holdings Ltd., meaning that the insurer has now spent more than half of that war chest.

    Old Mutual, which is expanding in Africa to profit from the continent’s fastest-growing economies, will now hold 60.7 percent of UAP after purchasing a further 37.3 percent stake for $155.5 million in cash, the London-based insurer said in a statement Monday. The transaction takes its investment in UAP this month to $253 million.

    “The majority stake we have secured in UAP, combined with the existing Old Mutual businesses in Kenya, will provide the Group with the scale and product breadth to capitalize on the significant growth expected in the region.”

    In Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, UAP has the third-biggest property and casualty market share, the second-ranked health insurance business, a large property investment portfolio and a fast-growing life insurance business, Old Mutual said. UAP also has operations in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This deal follows Old Mutual’s acquisition of microfinance company Faulu Kenya DTM Ltd.

    “Following the conclusion of this transaction, we will have invested nearly $300 million in the region since 2012,” Ralph Mupita, chief executive officer of Old Mutual Emerging Markets, said in the statement.

    Old Mutual rose in Johannesburg trading, climbing one percent to 35.37 rand