Author: David Indeje

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday dampened hopes for a full economic recovery, saying to ‘avert a national health crisis due to rising infections, cessation of all movement in and out of four counties was reintroduced to slow the spread of the virus. According to the head of state in his televised address, the positivity rate in the country was at its highest since the pandemic, the death rate is devastating by all measures, and the stress the pandemic is placing on our health system is unparalleled. “This wave is expected to peak in the next 30 days with more…

Social networking site Facebook is going to charge its users Value-Added Tax (VAT) starting 1st April 2021 on the sale of advertisements on its platform in Kenya starting 1st April 2021. “This applies to advertisers whose ‘Sold To’ country on their business or personal address is set to Kenya and who haven’t confirmed that they’re advertising for business purposes,” Facebook announced on the VAT. Similarly, Google said it will implement a 16% VAT Tax for Apps on Google Play and Android effective April 8. “Google is now responsible for determining, charging, and remitting 16% VAT for Google Play Store paid…

Kenya’s Court of Appeal has stayed the execution of an order from the High Court that required Safaricom to pull down 141 streaming websites that were airing content pirated from Multichoice Ltd. The order had been issued on 26th November 2020 to Safaricom PLC, and Jamii Telecom Limited under section 35(D) (2) of the Copyright (Amendment Act) 2019 pending the hearing and determination of the case filed by Multichoice. However, Safaricom filed an appeal seeking a stay of execution of the ruling and order issued by the High Court. The appellate judges, Justices Hannah Okwengu, Fatuma Sichale and Jamila Mohammed…

East Africa’s investment firm Centum says it expects the coronavirus pandemic and lower disposal of investments to hit profit for the financial year ending March 31 2021. The company says its earnings would be at least 25% lower than the net profit recorded a year ago. In a statement Wednesday, Centum attributed the expected decline to the absence of gains on disposal for the year compared to the previous financial year when they registered KSh12.5 billion gains on disposal of investments. “Our private equity business segment holds investments in various sectors, some of which were significantly affected by the Covid-19…

Kenya’s COVID-19 positivity rate Tuesday surged to 22.1 per cent after 1,127 more people tested positive in the last 24 hours from a sample size of 5,390. Consequently, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) raised the red flag over a shortage of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients. According to the Ministry of Health, 25 patients succumbed to the virus: three were reported in the last 24 hours while 22 were reported on diverse dates. The total number of fatalities is now at 2048.  210 people have however recovered from COVID-19 pushing the total number of…

First listed lender to withhold dividends Posts 44% Profit After Tax, Ksh 4.2 billion Absa Bank Kenya on Tuesday posted an 8% pre-provision profit growth of Ksh 17.9 billion which was described as ‘decent growth’ from Ksh 16.3 billion in 2019  amid the economic downturn that was precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Yusuf K. Omari, Chief Financial Officer said for the financial results for the full year ended December 2020, it posted a 44 per cent  Profit After Tax equivalent to Ksh 4.2 billion from KSh7.47 billion a year earlier. It attributed the decline to high loan provisions and…