BY DAVID ONJILI D espite the recent revelations that Treasury holds close to Sh8 billion from betting companies, the Sports ministry is broke. The upgrading of Nyayo National Stadium that was to be completed in June 2018 has stalled. Contractors are owed more than Sh400 million. But all is not gloom. The country did have its fair share of sporting glory in the month of September; this is despite being plunged into mourning with the demise of sprinter Nicholas Bett, which occurred in Nandi County on August 8 2018 in a road accident. Glowing tributes were paid to the runner…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY CYNTHIA WAIRIMU Do you ever look at your finger/toe nails and think, oh no? Have you ever been minding your own business walking about and then suddenly come across a person with well-manicured finger nails that made you question your own grooming and hygiene? You are not alone. The art of nail care has been around for years and it keeps getting better and crazier with every trend! So how well do you take care of your nails? Must you see a professional every time you chip a nail? Not necessarily. Sometimes the temptation to just bite them off…
BY FUAD ABDRAHMAN It is now nearly 50 years since the world come to know of a mobile phone Through the years, the mobile phone has undergone different stages of development, with the latest being the Smartphone which works like a computer. This new development now seems obvious; people are no longer impressed by how a gadget that can be carried in one’s pocket can carry such sophisticated functions. Unfortunately one fact is now clear, phones have stopped developing. All we have is the continuous repetition of the previous models. Designers and innovators have run out of ideas. With all…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA According to the World Bank, the worlds’ cities generated 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste in 2012, which amounts to 1.2 kilograms per person daily. With the world’s population continuing to grow, the solid waste generated is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025. The waste problem is a global dilemma. However, those living in developing regions, especially the urban poor, have been more affected than those in rich economies. For instance, the waste problem is a major headache in Africa, which is the second most polluted continent in the world. For decades, a large…
The industrial Internet of Things is starting to come of age, but are African organisations ready to use it to boost their global competitiveness? Reality is that many industrial companies in Africa are missing a critical building block for an Internet of Things strategy—a modern, robust, and integrated set of enterprise applications. That’s according to Mathew Kibbly, vice-president, Enterprise, Africa & Middle East at Sage. He says that a flexible, modern enterprise applications suite will give the business the ability to efficiently gather, analyse and act on the information it gathers from sensors and devices in the connected workplace. This is the…
BY PETER WANYONYI Listening to Hollywood’s clan of movie superstars gush over South African electric-car entrepreneur – and erratic showman – Elon Musk, one would think that the electric car is a brand new innovation in the transport sector. One would be wrong: electric cars have been manufactured since the 1890s, and outnumbered cars with an internal combustion engine (ICE) until Henry Ford’s Model T arrived in 1908. From then on, the lower cost and superior range of ICE cars quickly became a dominating factor. In 1912, a petrol-powered car cost $950 (Sh96, 000), while an equivalent electric car cost…
BY VICTOR ADAR Laptops and desktop computers aside, mobile phones too need virus protection. The work place of today is where the Smartphone is being used along laptops and desktop computers. That’s why Check Point, a network cybersecurity vendor, is making it easy for users by providing a data based breakdown of new and prevalent threats, as well as the ways of dealing with the risks. Threat intelligence drawn from the company’s ThreatCloud World Cyber Threat Map, which tracks how and where cyber attacks are taking place in real time has left people scratching the back of their heads with…
Digitalization and the rise of the platform economy are rapidly changing the ways firms do business. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), these changes affect most aspects of their daily operations, including their access to information, suppliers, clients, finance and logistics. They present major commercial opportunities – but also potentially fatal threats. Meanwhile, political and economic actors in many places are facing an unprecedented loss of trust. The current technological revolution, if not managed well, could worsen this loss of trust and add fuel to the existing backlash against trade. Released last month, the 2018 edition of the International Trade…
BY DAVID ONJILI There was a problem in coding computerized systems that was projected to create havoc in computers worldwide at the beginning of the year 2000. But the coming years left more and more people scratching the back of their heads after the transition from December 31 1999 to January 1 2000 that was thought would be rough just ended up being smooth. Alarms and anxiety that included programming corrections were the order of the day. It was all of the Millennium Bug, which should be fresh in our minds. How are Kenya’s small and medium sized companies taking…
This is an update on research conducted in 2016 whose analysis showed the market had an average rental yield of 7.0% with the residential sector recording average total returns of 7.9% p.a. (an average capital appreciation of 1.6% per annum and rental yield at 6.3%), whereas the office and retail sectors recorded average rental yields of 5.9% and 8.9%, respectively. We update those findings in light of the recent developments within the county where this year, the real estate market recorded average rental yields of 6.2%, with the residential sector recording average total returns to investors of 7.2% (rental yields…