Author: Khusoko

The Communication Authority of Kenya on Tuesday launched the 2021 Kuza Awards, which will be the fourth edition of the annual event. This would have been the 5th edition, however, the 2020 awards were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The awards seek to recognise excellence in broadcasting in Kenya. “The theme for the Kuza Awards 2020 is Preserving Our Heritage through broadcasting: Kenya a heritage of splendour,” said CA Director-General, Mercy Wanjau. https://twitter.com/khusoko/status/1374238310386778112?s=20 The Kuza Awards are categorised into the regulatory award, people’s choice award and patriotic award. In the People’s Choice Awards, audiences can vote at no cost,…

Kenya National Assembly Thursday passed the supplementary budget to the tune of Ksh 80 billion for the current financial year 2020-21. The Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) recommended an overall increase of Ksh 80.7 billion (Ksh 19.1 billion in recurrent and Ksh 61.6 billion in development). This is Ksh 5.6 billion higher than the estimates that had been published by the National Treasury. The National Treasury has been slashed by Ksh 26.8Bn, which could be on account of either the reversal of the Ksh 26.5Bn bailout for Kenya Airways.  State Departments for Infrastructure and Transport have been slashed by Ksh…

Foreign investors have turned bullish on Kenya as the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) with NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 gaining by 3.0%, 0.5% and 2.6%, respectively, taking their YTD performance to gains of 9.8%, 3.3% and 8.8% for NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 respectively. The equities market performance was driven by gains recorded by large-cap stocks such as Co-operative Bank, Equity Group, Safaricom and KCB Group, which gained by 7.3%, 4.1%, 4.0% and 3.5%, respectively.  The gains were however weighed down by losses recorded by stocks such as EABL, Diamond Trust Bank (DTB-K) and Standard Chartered Bank, which…

 Residential rents declined 19 per cent Office rent dropped 11 per cent Africa’s office market will likely remain subdued in 2021, property consultancy Knight Frank said on Wednesday. In its H2 2020 Africa Residential and Office Dashboards, the consultancy said that prime office rents declined by 11% on average in the year to December 2020 across the cities tracked by Knight Frank. Occupancy rates in cities such as Nairobi were recorded at 72% on average while Kampala recorded an increase in vacancy levels to 23% from 17% a year earlier during the period under review. Majority of the markets remained…

Co-operative Bank Group on Thursday posted a 24.4% fall in 2020 net profit to Ksh 10.8 billion in FY2020 attributed to a 219.5% spike in loan loss provisions. Its subsidiary, Kingdom Bank returned a net loss of  Ksh 0.2 million compared to a loss of Ksh.1.1 billion FY2019. The lender’s loan book expanded 7.5% over FY2019 to Ksh 286.6 billion driven by an increase in personal lending. Customer deposits shot up 13.8% to Ksh 378.6Bn  driven by growth in customer numbers and aggressive deposit mobilization. The Board of Directors has recommended/approved the payment of Kshs.1.00 per ordinary share (2019-Kshs.1.00) to…

Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli is dead from heart complications at Mzena Hospital in Dar Es Salaam. He was 61. Vice President Samia Suluhu announced on Wednesday March 17, 2021 at 6 p.m. “With deep shock, we announce that today, March 17, 2021, at around 6pm, we lost our great leader and President of the United Republic of Tanzania, HE Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli due to heart complications at the Muzena Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Plans for the funeral are underway. Our country will be in mourning for 14 days and our flags will fly half mast,” she said. https://twitter.com/SuluhuSamia/status/1372312953609945093?s=19…