Building of second seaport set to begin

By Ernest Ndunda

The construction of Kenya’s second seaport will begin before the end of the year in Lamu, the Government has announced.

Transport minister Ali Mwakwere said the logistics for construction of the port had been completed. Mwakwere was speaking during the presentations of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Golf Day awards at the Nyali Golf and Country Club on Saturday. He said a railway line would be constructed from Lamu to Juba in Southern Sudan to facilitate cargo transport from the port.

There will also be a highway to serve Eastern and North Eastern provinces through Juba, he said. The minister said the railway line and highway would also serve southern Ethiopia.

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KMC factory back in business

By Tom Mogusu and Benson Kathuri

After 15 years, Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) finally bounced back to life yesterday, bringing a ray of hope to the ailing livestock sub-sector.

The company’s revival has been viewed as a fulfillment of a promise by the Government to uplift the standards of living in the arid and semi-arid areas, where livestock farming is the main source of income.

The meat processing factory was opened by the Minister for Livestock Development, Joseph Munyao, closing a long chapter on one of the worst cases of mismanagement of state corporations.

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NSE electronic trading date set

By Benson Kathuri

Electronic trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) will commence in September, NSE chairman Jimnah Mbaru said yesterday.

"The automated trading system is designed to electronically match buy and sell orders in a transparent process," Mbaru said during a workshop organised to review progress of the Sh100m project in Nairobi.

Currently, stockbrokers must present themselves on the trading floor where they shout their orders.

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State injects Sh675m in Uchumi rescue plan


By Tom Mogusu

The Government will inject Sh675m into the insolvent Uchumi Supermarkets, Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi has said.

Kituyi said President Kibaki had sanctioned release of the funds "because Uchumi is not any other company but a national brand which has strategic importance to Kenya."

A further Sh300m would be pumped in by large shareholders in an effort to rescue the company. The minister said the Government’s rescue plan would come in the form of a loan "which will be repaid when the company starts making profits."

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Merali firm takes lead in race for fibre optic link

By Noel Wandera


Holding the record of being the one individual to have anticipated, planned for and reaped the mobile telephony windfall, businessman Naushad Merali is at it again.

He is laying the ground work for a carefully crafted plan that should leave him with the lion’s share of the impending optic fibre connectivity boom expected to get underway at the beginning of 2008.

The Standard can reveal that Kenya Data Network (KDN) — a company associated with Mr Merali — has secured the services of an Indian telecommunication company FLAG, to connect Kenya to the global optic fibre network from the North.

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Safaricom puts up Sh110m satellite station in Nairobi

By Noel Wandera


Mobile service provider, Safaricom, has put up a Sh110 million satellite ground station in Nairobi’s Kasarani area to route its local and international telephone traffic.

The routing facility is also in preparation for the issuance of an international backbone traffic licence next month by Communication Commission of Kenya. The licence will enable Safaricom to operate independently from its parent company, Telkom Kenya.

Industry players will view the strategic changes as preparation for divestiture by the Government in the leading mobile phone company, which it holds 51 per cent stake through Telkom Kenya. The Government had hinted at off loading a nine per cent stake of Safaricom to UK’s Vodafone for Sh7.2 billion.

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East African Portland pitches camp in Sudan
By Kenneth Kwama

The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has pitched camp in Southern Sudan after it was granted a licence by the regional government to open a warehouse in Juba.

The giant cement manufacturer has started operations in the region, which is expected to grow its turnover. Mr Zakayo Ole Mapelu, the EAPCC managing director said construction of the warehouse was finalised last week and that the company was making arrangements to ship goods to the new facility.

EAPCC now joins other exporters from Uganda and Egypt in competition for market share in the vast region.

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David Maillu: The man who treads where angels dread

By Nicholas Asego

Fame sits well with David Maillu, one of Kenya’s more remarkable writers, a celebrity in his own right.

Many things have been said about him, but for many people separating the truth from fiction is quite difficult. Yet a chat with one of Kenya’s most celebrated and controversial writers reveals a strikingly down to earth and soft-spoken person.

With over 70 works in poetry, philosophy, politics, prose and short stories published, Maillu is probably the most published writer on the African continent.

Long before he started writing, Maillu, whose only formal education was at Machakos Technical School where he went up to Standard Eight, was a good storyteller. He cherished folktales and writing to him was merely an option to developing his storytelling talents.

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The Kenyan government targets to increase the country's fixed line tele-density by over 1,000% in urban areas.

Monday, 05 June 2006
By Michael Ouma

NAIROBI — The Kenyan government targets to increase the country's fixed line tele-density by over 1,000% in urban areas.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, Mr Bitange Ndemo, said government would increase the density from the current 1.97 lines per 100 inhabitants to a whopping 20 lines per 100 by 2015.

Ndemo made the revelations when he launched a new wireless service in Nairobi last week.

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Activity flares up in Uganda’s oil circuit

By Edris Kisambira

KAMPALA –– Fresh discoveries of oil by one of the four companies prospecting for oil in the Albertine basin of Uganda has increased prospecting and drilling activity.

“We have an active exploration schedule for the remainder of 2006,” Mr. Simon Potter, the chief executive officer and managing director of Hardman Resources Limited told an investor’s conference in London last Tuesday.

In the same breath, Heritage Oil and Gas Limited of Calgary, Canada announced in March that it would commence drilling the Kingfisher-1 exploration well in its Block 3A permit but Hardman’s discovery is bound to add impetus into their activities.

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New airport, city, railway in Rwanda investment bid

Monday, 29 May 2006
By Geoffrey Kamali

KIGALI— The Rwanda government, seeking to attract foreign investment, last week offered meticulously packaged opportunities to potential investors, promising them a return on their money.

The packages at the third Rwanda International Investment Conference, involved a set of highly ambitious plans, expected to catapult the country to greater economic heights within the next 50 years.

Prominent among the presentations reeling on generic power point screens was a projection of the expansion of Kigali City in 50 years.

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Kenya turns to Addis for power

Monday, 12 June 2006
By Michael Ouma

NAIROBI - Kenya is turning to Ethiopia for hydro electric power.

In his Madaraka Day speech on June 1, President Mwai Kibaki announced that his government was turning to its Horn of Africa neighbour in a strategy designed to address the country’s power shortage.

A power importation expert at the energy ministry separately told Business Week that Ethiopia is Kenya’s natural choice for several reasons.

“Ethiopia is our neighbour, we have historical connections and in terms of potential for hydro-electric power generation in Africa, it is only second to the DRC.”

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Shoprite eyes Uchumi assets

Monday, 12 June 2006
By Vahid Oloro

NAIROBI - South African giant supermarket chain, Shoprite, is eyeing to consolidate its grip on East African market by acquiring assets of the collapsed Uchumi Supermarket.

Reports last week said officials from Shoprite's headquarters in South Africa were in the country to launch the bid.

Uchumi closed down its operations on June 1 following a checkered period of poor performance resulting into hundreds of millions of shilling in losses and a mounting debt burden.

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Rwanda becomes EASSy new home

Monday, 12 June 2006
By Geoffrey Kamali

KIGALI–– Rwanda has been selected to house the headquarters of the multi-million dollar Eastern Africa Submarine Cable Project (EASSy).

The project, which has of recent been dogged by controversy over its ownership, has a membership of 23 countries in the region.

Dr. Shem Ochoudho, the outgoing executive director of Rwanda Information Technology Agency (RITA), told Business Week that Rwanda would also chair a select committee to manage the project.

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Where the name ‘local’ takes on a different meaning

By Peter Thatiah

Every international boundary has its own unique border problems. To the inhabitants of the southern coastal frontier of Kenya, most of whom pay certain taxes to the neighbouring country, the whole edifice gains an all new meaning altogether.

The laidback region, inhabited by a diverse community, is the more easygoing of the two countries.

Vanga town in Msambweni constituency sits at the southernmost tip of the country, bordering Tanzania on the Indian Ocean. Dating back to half a millennia since its establishment and boasting a population of 5,000, the town that once was one of Kenya’s chief seaports is well ahead of its better days.

The heterogeneous society, a sizeable percentage of whom are Tanzanians, lives off fishing and cross-border trade. Deep in the coconut country to the south and west, a traditional Mijikenda community does not care whether they are in Kenya or Tanzania. They still live in communal compounds like their ancestors did, as the concept of land ownership is yet to be adapted by these forgotten people.

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Why Uchumi’s comeback plan fell apart

By Michael Omondi

When Uchumi Supermarkets announced last Thursday that it had closed shop, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were left counting heavy financial losses.

In this group were creditors and suppliers who had either failed to read the giant writings on the wall or had stayed in too late to make a quick exit. The hardest hit were, however, the thousands of investors who gave the retail chain hundreds of millions of shillings only eight months ago.

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Progress made by Govt in service delivery

Full speech by President Mwai Kibaki on the occasion of Madaraka Day celebrations held at Nyayo National Stadium yesterday.


"Fellow Kenyans,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On this occasion of the 43rd anniversary of Madaraka Day, I wish to begin by conveying my greetings to all Kenyans and our well-wishers wherever they are.

We commemorate this day because it marks the first important step in removing the yoke of colonialism and taking over the responsibility of managing the affairs of our nation. As we celebrate this occasion, let each one of us remember the solemn responsibility that rests upon us of serving this country loyally and selflessly. Let us also bear in mind our duty to build Kenya through honest hard work which is the key to prosperity, security and happiness for all of us.

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Free Aids drugs

By NZAU MUSAU

IN an unprecedented move yesterday, President Mwai Kibaki announced a waiver on anti-retroviral drugs in government hospitals and health centres during his Madaraka Day address to the nation.

The waiver, which takes effect immediately, means that HIV/Aids patients will no longer pay the Shs 100 charged for ARVs but will instead receive them free of charge like malaria and tuberculosis patients.

In addition the President announced that the government was improving conditions of all hospitals countrywide, providing them with necessary drugs and qualified medical personnel to enable them serve Kenyans well.

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Uchumi chain folds up

By MWANIKI WAHOME
Uchumi Supermarkets chain is tottering on the brink of collapse barely six months after floating its shares in a successful rights issue that fetched Sh 1.2 billion, and which many hoped would turnaround its fortunes.

Yesterday, crestfallen Chief Executive John Masterten-Smith raised the red flag when he admitted that the restructuring programme that was being undertaken had failed to bear fruit as fast as was initially anticipated..

Consequently, the chain closed all its corporate stores indefinitely pending resolution of its financial standing due to cash flow problems. The board, he said, had noted that the superstore chain was facing insolvency and the closure was meant to stem further losses.

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