Joint admissions board (JAB) to be disbanded.

The Joint admissions board- JAB, will be disbanded, as the Ministry of education has sought kshs.100 million to carry out reforms in the admissions body. Currently, JAB is responsible for admissions to all the country’s public universities and university colleges. JAB will now be replaced by the Kenya Universities Admissions and Placement board, which will also incorporate private universities, and admission of students through the self sponsored program, more commonly known as parallel degree program.

JAB had come under criticism for admitting students to courses they had not selected in the first place. This year, the admissions body changed the admission criteria, and incorporated a student’s overall mark, in addition to the weighted cluster points. This means that if two students both get As in all

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Is Kenya being shaped to be Africa’s new tax haven?

There is now mounting evidence that elite financial interests are planning to create a new tax haven - to add another node to the global spider web. This time it is on the African continent. If successful, this hub will be a key mechanism to extract wealth from some of the world's poorest countries.

Until now, there has not been a major tax haven in mainland Africa. Attempts have been made in the past to create one - always at the behest of huge, western financial institutions, be it Barclays' attempts in Ghana or the bungled attempts in Botswana - but we may now be looking at the most serious

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Foreign investors buy up majority shares at NSE.

Foreign investors are taking up majority of the shares at the NSE, a new report shows. They have bought up shares worth about kshs.650 billion shillings. This happened mostly as local investors sold off their shares, fearing that a post election violence could occur and lead to huge losses. Among those who have liquidated their shares include industrialist Chris Kirubi, who exited from Kenya Power

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How to stay safe on public wi-fi hotspots

With the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in Kenya increasing, it's getting easier to connect your laptop, smartphone or tablet to a public wireless broadband connection. But due to our eagerness to check emails while sipping coffee at Java, or while taking a ride on a Rongai Matatu with wi-fi (true story), we often forget about the substantial security and privacy-risks presented by insecure connections. Here’s how you can protect your privacy while using public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Connection type
It's always a good idea to understand what type of W-Fi connection you're accessing, so you can better adjust your online behaviour. The most insecure network type is an unencrypted network, which basically leaves your data completely exposed. An unencrypted network will also mean someone

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Meet Boaz Kosgey, who wants to build a helicopter.

Young Kenyans seem to be on the roll- at least the ones that are not on facebook or twitter busy hurling insults against one another. There is Peter Mbiria who is building a robotic car. Another is Boaz Kosgey, a budding young innovator from Uasin Gishu county. He is building a helicopter from scratch, or at least from scattered waste materials. He has so far spent kshs.30,000 on his helicopter, which is 75 percent complete. He has used a motor cycle engine to power the helicopter.  'I only do it in the afternoons or evenings' so, 'it doesn't affect my day to day work.' He told a reporter from NTV.  He hopes to fly the helicopter by the end of this year.

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Meet Peter Mbiria, an amazing Kenyan innovator.

As far as innovation goes, most Kenyans wouldn't praise their own. They look up to amazing discoveries in the West, or in China and japan and other Asian nations. However, a number of Kenyans are already changing that perception, with new innovations everyday. Meet PeterMbiria, who is developing a robotics car, assembled from scratch matrials bought from Ngara and other scrap electroncis sites.

Amazingly, Peter got a C+ in KCSE, but he says that he would have gotten an A+ if the exams were

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China beats US, UK, as new source of inspiration for Kenyans.

China has beaten the US and UK as Kenya’s new source of inspiration. According to a survey carried out by Consumer Insight, many Kenyans now look up to the world’s second largest economy for business, political, and social inspiration. China has grown by double digits in the last 30 years or so, a growth that has seen the country lift over 300 million people from extreme poverty. The new Chinese President, Xi Ping, has coined a new term, ‘The Chinese dream’, in a bid to lift China to the next level of growth. Goldman Sachs, a leading Global investment bank, predicts that China will

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Konza Techno City- Does it have what it takes to succeed?

Unless you have landed from space, then you might have heard about Konza techno- city, which will be located in Machakos, about 50 km from the Nairobi city centre. However, here are the ingredients to make the technology succeed. But question is, are they there?

1. Right Talent.

Talent is abundant in Kenya, as there are many talented Kenyan IT specialists and programmers. Kenyan Universities continue to churn thousands of graduates, so, this talent will always be there.

2. Access to Capital.

Are there enough sources of capital to fund promising ventures? This is where things go wrong. The

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Safaricom to move MPESA servers from Germany.

Safaricom will move MPESA servers from Germany to Kenya, in a bid to increase the capacity of the service. Safaricom seeks to upgrade MPESA to a new platform that will enable consumers make many more payments instantly. Currently, the servers handle about 200 to 300 transactions per second. Huawei technologies of China has been contracted to carry out the upgrade. Safaricom is moving rapidly to generate new revenue streams, away from the traditional voice services, which is stagnating. It will also be a vendor of the Samsung galaxy 4, to tap into the growing market of middle class Kenyans who want sophisticated smartphones.

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Vast majority of Job candidates lie in interviews- New study shows.

81 percent of people lie in about themselves in job interviews, a new study by the University of Massachusetts shows. The more extroverted candidates were more apt t tell lies and untruths. When the job requirements were more technical, deception decreased, because applicants ere trying to compensate for their lack of job required skills. On average, job candidates tell about 2 lies per a 15 minute interview.

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OLX moves to increase market share in Classifieds industry.

Olx is moving fast to gain the lucrative share of the online classifieds market. The website has presence in 94 countries, and is available in 42 languages. It gets over 100 million unique visitors a month. The nascent online classifieds industry is shared by among others, N-Soko of Nation Media Group, Buy rent Kenya, cheki.co.ke. The classifieds websites make money from online adverts, and by charging premium amounts for special listings of featured products.

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