Author: David Indeje

The United Kingdom has announced £17m of support for East Africa to support initiatives that will mitigate climate change disasters. The support will go to countries most affected by extreme drought – Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia and in South Sudan which is suffering from widespread flooding for a third consecutive year. UK’s Minister for Africa Vicky Ford made the announcement while on a three-country visit to the region.  “For countries in East Africa, climate change is not a future problem – it is driving a humanitarian emergency right now. Catastrophic droughts and floods, paired with ongoing conflicts and poor governance…

Tanzania and Burundi have signed an agreement to construct a $900m railway line Tanzania’s finance ministry said on Sunday. The 282km line will link Uvinza with Gitega to boost regional trade. “The minister of finance in Burundi and I are starting to look for areas where we can raise money to implement this project” Mwigulu Nchemba, Tanzania’s finance minister said in the statement. “This project is important for Tanzania, Burundi and even Congo who use the Port of Dar es Salaam to transport cargo.” https://twitter.com/mwigulunchemba1/status/1482800015219245066?s=20 https://twitter.com/mwigulunchemba1/status/1482800088686673932?s=20 Tanzania commenced the construction of the first 1,219 km phase, connecting Dar es Salaam to…

Limuru Tea Company Ltd, one of Kenya’s agricultural firms engaged in the growing of green leaf tea has warned of weaker earnings for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2021. Similar to the previous fiscal year, the firm attributes this to lower green leaf volumes and the rising cost of production. “The company is expected to record a decline of more than 25 per cent in the net profits. The board is of the view that the estimated decrease in profits is mainly due to the lower green leaf volumes that were realized in 2021  compared to 2020,” the listed…

Kenya has fully vaccinated 17.5 per cent (4,763,682) of its adult population for Covid-19, while 6,198,816 have received at least one dose, the health ministry said on Sunday as per data on January 15th 2022. “As of January 15th 2022, a total of 11,082,457 vaccines have been administered across the country. Of these, 6,198,816 are partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated are 4,763,682,” the ministry said. “Another 30,245 are doses administered to those between 15 to 18 years while 89,714 are booster doses.” National Taskforce on Vaccine Deployment chief Willys Akhawale says the ministry targets to vaccinate a targeted population…

Amazon will be retiring Alexa Internet, Inc., its web traffic analysis company. In an announcement post, the Alexa.com team said the company stopped offering new subscriptions on December 8th, 2021, and will shut down the site on May 1st, 2022. “Twenty-five years ago, we founded Alexa Internet. After two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more,” reads the announcement. Alexa was founded in 1996 by…

The Council of Ministers of the  East African Community (EAC) Friday said Kenya and Uganda have reached an agreement to conduct testing for Covid-19 using the same antigen test to reduce the backlog of trucks.  https://twitter.com/cobbo3/status/1482109278664073216?s=20 https://twitter.com/_awori/status/1482303444274888704?s=20 https://twitter.com/davidmakali1/status/1479751375949082631?s=20 A statement issued by the EAC following a joint multi-sectoral virtual meeting of the ministers responsible for the community’s affairs, health and transport convened by the secretariat.   The development is different from the 14 days Covid-q9 testing period that had been agreed upon at the regional level and monitored through the Regional Electronic Cargo and Drivers Tracking System (RECDTS) launched in 2020.…