away from the Grand Regency

Banking
- CFC/Stanbic merger/takeover formalized: As at June 1, the combined banking groups had assets of 78.3 billion shillings [$1.26 billion], deposits of 55 billion [$888 m] and loans of 38.9 billion [$627m]
- EABS Bank is now Ecobank Kenya
- Business Cubs: Bank of Africa will launch a small business Club for clients.
- Going international: building on the success of Safaricom’s M-Pesa, Vodafone will do money transfer between UK and Kenya challenging western union on phone transfers to India, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa (from Balancing Act Africa)

Investments
- Everyone lovers Safaricom; with 90% of the shares volumes since listing, the company has been added to the AIG index, NSE 20 and NASI indexes from July 1
- One month after Safaricom allocations, and despite paying an extra fee (30/= for a CDS statement) and making several trades, no new CDS statement has come in the mail

Media
- KTN joins the morning show club with Sunrise Live – coming a few months after Citizen TV and Nation (NTV) with their ‘breakfast shows’
- There’s a new relaunched Standard newspaper out today with new layout – but their byline For Fairness, Justice, and Prosperity is straight out of Superman



Energy
- Sweden/China joint oil search: Lundin Kenya has bought a share of the field assigned to China [Block 9, Kenya].

Travel
- Having moved to cut out travel agents, Kenya Airways will next offer hotel and car booking online at their website
- Rift Valley Railways (RVR) will raise freight charges up 14.5% and will charge a fuel surcharge based on average diesel cost and US$ exchange rate from 1st august

Other
- Kenya has no summer or winter, but the high court has a summer vacation from 1st to 8th August

Questions from the blogs
- A recap of the Kenya Re AGM
- Has tourism in the Mara recovered in 2008?
- Does EDGE or 3G after all?

Opportunities

Digital: KDN and the ICT Kenya Digital Village are offering free connectivity for digital villages and schools: the program targets rural cyber cafes and schools – who are willing to pay a set- up fee, and share some revenue earned with KDN

Investments
- The Barclays Bond closes tomorrow (9/7)
- KCB rights close on 18/7 – so far only NBK has offered loans for KCB rights (up to 90% finance)

Jobs
- EABL: logistics manager, governance improvement manager, group audit & risk manager, application support analyst, procurement managers (2). Apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com
- The electoral commission of Kenya: registrar of political parties, internal audit manager, finance officer. D/L is 23/7 by snail mail
- Captains of B1900 C and D at executive turbine. Apply through info@xturbine.co.ke
- Film commission of Kenya: head of programmes, hear of HR & administration, head of finance, Programmes manager, marketing assistant, legal assistant, ICT assistant, executive secretary. Apply to ceo@filmingkenya.com by 18/7
- Keroche: distributors, area sales representatives. Apply to director.marketing@keroche.com by 11/7
- National Oil Corp of Kenya: risk analysts, internal audit assistant, procurement analysts, supply analyst
- Executive director of the privatization commission which became operational in January 2008. Apply (through deloitte) to esd@deloitte.co.ke (22/7)
- Resources manager at the Rockefeller foundation. Apply (though KPMG) to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 11/7

and
Marie Stopes: deputy director of male circumcision project (africa) [location: zambia} and male circumcision partnership deputy project manager [location: zimbabwe] d/l is 19/7

Scholar/internships
- Rhodes Scholarships (2) for Kenyans. D/L is 31/8
- World Bank young professionals program. D/L is 15/7

Business Brief's: May 15

A glance at the weekend newspapers shows government departments putting up paid advertisements in the newspaper. These include the permanent secretary - Ministry of Finance setting the record straight on the country’s domestic debt position, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice on parliament’s recent amendment to curb powers of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and even the government spokesman (who’s the equivalent of a permanent secretary) on thetribal balance of the government (through an ad placed in all papers including the Nairobi star)

Of course its’ not just the government that has trouble getting their ‘facts’ out before the media – the Kenya land alliance on the Land Bill, former MP Basil Criticos claiming the government 'grabbed' his sisal farm, the National Bank of Kenya defending the government in the Criticos land sale etc.

With four major TV stations and a dozen newspapers and radio stations, the amount of stories churned out by the media is endless. But with politics dominating most of the media channels during this election year, it is easy for important facts to be addressed by interested parties – and the only way they can be assured that their story will be transmitted verbatim - no editing, slanting, filtering, or even buried by the media - to the public is by paying for an advertisement themselves - at a cost of about 70,000 shillings (about $1,000)

However, there’s a flip side to this. A media story is supposed to be balanced – and by placing a statement in the papers, they are telling their side of the story without challenge, or argument – and without an opposing view, a paid up statement is just an advertisement.

Election briefs

- The Electoral Commission of Kenya has enabled registered voters to check on the status of their vote eligibility online - just by entering a nation ID number or voter’s card number.

- Botswana residents living in Kenya have been invited to register to vote at the country's high commission in Nairobi this month. That’s something Kenyans in the Diaspora can pressure for their local embassies to do for them also in future.

There's a new magazine on the streets called ET - or Expression Today edited by David Makali that takes alook at happenings in the media industry.

- Nation: A look back at W. Kiboro’s tenure, the bungled staff retrenchment program that led to internet e-mail & rumours, how NMG got TV licence from a reluctant President Moi, challenges faced in launching the business daily and an indepth look at the problems they have faced with staff in Tanzania and a TV licence in Uganda
- Standard How KTN has slipped behind NTV in latest TV
rankings (from Steadman), why Katherine Kasavuli, Swaleh Mdoe, and Louis Otieno left and the staff revolt that followed, rumor of interest from Transcentury or foreign investors, a quote by Kwamchetsi Makokha on how the standard shareholders brought in dream team (including himself) to spruce it up for a sale. But once the paper was
turned round, they decided not to sell it anymore - and got rid of the dream team
got rid of the dream team.
- Royal media: management triumph over editorial desk has handciapped the Leader newspaper
- Kenya Times: Ruto takeover being rebuffed
- KISS newspaper - what it's outlook & potential
- KBC interference and cash flow problems
- Business magazine Market intelligence is no more
- Other media issues like poor staff pay at the Nation, how financial muscle (Uchumi, Samuel Gichuru & KCB) gets negative stories killed in the editorial room, and recap of the Artur raid saga.

It's a great read for 100/=