Author: Muindi

Estonian taxi-hailing firm Bolt, says it has raised $711 million in a new round of funding led by Sequoia Capital and Fidelity. The investment was also backed by Whale Rock, Owl Rock and some of Bolt’s existing investors. Bolt is now valued at about $8.4 billion up from nearly $4.8 billion. In an emailed statement, Bolt says part of the funds will be used to accelerate the expansion of its new and existing mobility and delivery products across Eastern African markets.   “We continue to scale up our operations for the benefit of our customers and the communities in which we…

Power supply in Kenya was restored in parts of Nairobi, Mt. Kenya, North Rift, South Nyanza, Central Rift and Western Kenya after a four-hour nationwide blackout Tuesday. Kenya Power had earlier announced that the outage had been caused by a high voltage transmission line broke. https://twitter.com/KenyaPower/status/1480863397981872128?s=20 https://twitter.com/KenyaPower/status/1480890814108737543?s=20 https://twitter.com/KenyaPower_Care/status/1480903315307253762?s=20 The power outage elicited mixed reactions from a section of Kenyans who demanded that the public utility company which transmits, distributes and retails electricity to customers resolve the issue. This is because this was the third countrywide power blackout in four years -May 9, 2020, and January 9, 2018. According to Kenya…

Kenya is experiencing a national power outage after a high voltage transmission line connecting broke on Tuesday. “We have lost power supply due to collapsed towers on Kiambere – Embakasi high voltage transmission power line at 10:45 a.m.(0745 GMT) this morning,” Kenya Power said in a statement on its Twitter account. “Our engineers are working to restore electricity supply as the repairs are being undertaken. https://twitter.com/KenyaPower/status/1480821421324517380?s=20 https://twitter.com/JamalGaddafi/status/1480831932669833220?s=20 Kenya Power is state-controlled and it is the sole electricity distributor and the bulk of its power comes from Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen).  Kenya Power’s core business is transmission, distribution and retail…

Garden City Business Park is now at 93% occupancy following the CCI Group of companies leased office space at the business park. British private equity investor Actis, the developer of the Garden City Residences, Mall, and Business Park is set to bank $ 2 million from rent annually once fully occupied. The two tenants, CCI Group of companies, a leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider, and nutrition supplements distributer Max International represents the largest combined commercial lease transactions in Nairobi’s office market space during the pandemic. CCI and Max International combined are occupying 60% of Garden City Business Park’s almost…

Kenya Railways says it has successfully run the first trial train with cargo from Mombasa to Malaba, providing a stable and efficient regional logistics channel for goods for the Great Lakes Region. The cargo destined for Malaba was loaded at the Mombasa port and transported via the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) before being transhipped onto the Metre Gauge Railway (MGR) line at the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (NICD). “Our clients will now enjoy seamless transportation of cargo from the Port of Mombasa to Malaba and onward to the East African region in a safe, reliable and cost-effective way,” Kenya Railways…

The world’s second-largest mining company, BHP Group (BHP), has invested $40 million in Tanzania’s nickel project owned by UK-based private company Kabanga Nickel. It was initially owned by Canadian miner Barrick Gold and the commodities group Glencore.  Under the deal, BHP will invest $40m to accelerate the development of the Kabanga deposit and a further $10m in the hydrometallurgy refining process.  Subject to certain conditions and milestones being achieved, BHP will invest a further $50m, ( an 8.9 per cent equity) giving it an 18 per cent stake in Kabanga Nickel. That will value the project at about $650m. In…