Author: David Indeje

Global shipping line Hapag-Lloyd has entered the East African market with weekly sailings between China, South-East Asia, Kenya and Tanzania. The company will deploy seven 2,800 TEU vessels to the service in Kenya and Tanzania offering connections to Hapag-Lloyd’s global network. “The new East Africa Service 3 (EAS3) will offer direct weekly sailings between China, South-East Asia, Kenya and Tanzania with very competitive transit times. In addition, the EAS3 will offer excellent connections to Hapag-Lloyd’s global network via the hub ports of Singapore, Port Kelang and Shanghai,” the company said in a statement. Hapag-Lloyd entered the Sub-Sahara African market about…

Bharti Airtel’s Africa business reported a net profit of $154 million in the fourth quarter ended 31 March. This was an improvement from the KSh43.7 billion ($408 million) net profit posted in March 2020 on the back of strong growth in data and mobile money revenue, besides lower interest and tax expenses. Revenue for the quarter ended 31 March rose 15.4 per cent to $1.04 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Our performance has been strong Airtel Africa’s CEO, Raghunath Mandava, said in a statement adding that “With reported growth of 13.6 per cent in underlying revenue and…

Kenya’s Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has increased the price of super petrol by 3.56 shillings per liter while maintaining the price of Diesel and Kerosene. According to EPRA, the average landed cost of Super Petrol decreased by 0.57 per cent from 491.50 dollars per cubic meter in March 2021 to 488.69 dollars per cubic meter in April 2021. The landed cost of Diesel dropped by 1.03 per cent from 444.17 dollars per cubic meter to 439.60 dollars per cubic meter. That of Kerosene dropped by 2.01 per cent from 421.90 dollars per cubic meter to 430.40 dollars per…

Kenya’s High Court on Thursday declared as unconstitutional the the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), saying the entire process promoted by the BBI was “unconstitutional, null and void.” A five-judge Constitution bench, Judges Prof Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Teresia Matheka and Chacha Mwita was unanimous in upholding the sovereignty of the people. “Kenyans intended that the essence of constitutional order they were bequeathing themselves sin 2010 would only be changed in the exercise of primary constituent power that is through civic education, public participation, constitutional assembly plus a referendum and not through secondary constituent power which is through public…

Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator reported lower-than-expected earnings in the fiscal year 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It said its core earnings for the full year declined 6.9 per cent to 96.16 billion shillings attributed to a decline in revenue from financial services and calls in the year ended March 31, from 101.5 billion shillings a year earlier.  “The Covid-19 pandemic brought about socio-economic challenges that disrupted our customers, strained the consumer wallet and businesses across the country. We were not spared either,” said Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO. The telco’s service revenue recorded a marginal decline of 0.3% to…

Kenya has suspended flights to and from Somalia effective May 11 for three months. The move dents the newly restored diplomatic ties announced a few days ago. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority in a notice to Airmen (NOTAM) without giving a reason, stated that all flights are suspended with the exception of medical and United Nations humanitarian flights. https://twitter.com/samirasawlani/status/1392010618123718657?s=19 On the other hand, Somalia issued a notice reaffirming an earlier ban on flights carrying khat from Kenya. “Carrying Mirra to Somalia is still prohibited and the policy of the Federal Government of Somalia did not change regarding the transportation…