Author: David Indeje

The COVID-19 pandemic left Kenya battered and anguished in 2020 but containment and mitigation measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus helped to mitigate its impact. On February 11, the World Health Organization named the new disease as Covid-19. The first case of COVID-19 in Kenya was reported on March 13 when a 27-year-old lady, who had travelled from Ohio, Chicago, London en route to Kenya on March 5. On March 26, the country reported its first death, a 66-year-old man. He was also diabetic. He had arrived in Kenya on March 13 from South Africa…

Banks in Kenya will stop accepting Barclays cheques effective February 1. Consequently, Absa Kenya has asked  customers with Barclays cheques to replace them. “Please note that Barclays cheques will no longer be accepted by other banks effective 01.02.2021. Kindly plan replace your Barclays cheque book with an Absa cheque book to avoid any inconvenience,” the lender has told its customers. https://twitter.com/NicKanali/status/1350019477396725765?s=20 Barclays Kenya on 10 February 2020 officially rebranded to Absa Bank Kenya PLC following all necessary regulatory approvals. This follows the take over of the bank by the Absa group in 2018. In South Africa, Absa stopped issuing new cheques…

Myspace Properties, a real estate company, has announced a partnership with Doctors of Hearing at IncusEar Hearing & ENT Centre to transform and enhance lives of the deaf. The partnership will be spearheaded by Myspace Properties CEO Mwenda Thuraira and Dr Richard Mwangi, an audiology medic at Doctors of Hearing Healthcare. Richard Mwangi is an audiology guru at Doctors of Hearing Healthcare, offering a vast experience of 15 years, providing a full range of diagnostic audiological evaluations and treatment for hearing impaired. He is a correspondent in the American Journal of Otolaryngology, head and neck surgery and has authored several…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed its talks with Kenya to renew a 165 billion shilling (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) standby loan facility. Gerry Rice, IMF Director of Communications Department, said the lender’s mission in Kenya in late 2020, reached an agreement in many areas on implementation of the fiscal plan. “We are in discussions with the Kenyan authorities on the possibility of a program to support the next phase of their response to the crisis,” Rice said in a statement issued on Thursday evening. “We had a mission there toward the end of last year, and reached…

Kenya received $3.09 billion billion in remittances in 2020 supported by financial innovations that provided its diaspora community more convenient channels for their transactions, the central bank said on Friday. CBK said the remittance inflows were strongly buoyant in 2020, despite the devastation by COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the source countries. “Remittances rose to a record high of US$3,094 million in 2020, from US$2,796 million in 2019, an increase of 10.7 percent. In the month of December 2020 alone, remittances reached a historical peak of US$299 million,” the Central Bank said in a statement announcing the first-ever Diaspora Remittances Survey. The…

Kenyan citizens can travel visa-free and obtain a visa on arrival to 72 countries  out of 218 according to the 2021 Henley Passport Index and Global Mobility Report. This is a marginal improvement from 2020.  According to the report released on January 5, the Kenyan Passport maintained its position among the top 10 most powerful passports in Africa featuring at ranked9 within the continent and position 73 globally. Kenya was ranked behind Seychelles (28), Mauritius (31), South Africa (54), Botswana (62), Namibia (68), Lesotho (69), eSwatini (71) and Malawi (72). Tanzania was ranked 74, Tunisia (74), Zambia (74), Gambia (75)…