NAIROBI: yu, the mobile phone brand of Essar Telecom Kenya, in partnership with Equity Bank have launched a cardless ATM withdrawal service for yuCash users to access their funds at any Equity Bank ATM countrywide.yuCash customers may now access their funds without necessarily going to yuCash outlets to make withdrawals. yuCash users are required to initiate the withdrawal transaction from their phones upon which they get an authorisation code that they can use at any Equity Bank ATMs without the need for an ATM card or ownership of an Equity Bank account.

Service accessible from any network

Commenting on the latest developments, yu’s country manager Madhur Taneja said: “yuCash presents a significant step towards delivering universal access to financial services through innovative mobile banking and payments services. Our partnerships with institutions that have a countrywide footprint are steps towards ensuring that we reach out to every consumer so that they are able to experience and enjoy our value added services.”

The yuCash money transfer service is differentiated from the other money transfer services offered in the market as it is accessible to any mobile subscriber on any network. The user has a free history check of up to 30 transactions.

yuCash recently partnered with Uchumi Supermarkets which allows the chain store to carry out yuCash registrations and cash in cash out transactions in all their outlets.

Source: http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/111/78/58109.html

POLICE in Kitengela yesterday raided an Islamic institution and arrested two Pakistanis and a Kenyan alleged to be in the centre of child trafficking syndicate.

A combined force of police officers, officials from the children’s department, Ministry of Education and provincial administration led by DO Samuel Mburu raided Noonkopir Mosque in Kitengela and arrested the three and took into custody 35 emaciated children.

Shera Hassan and his wife Rukia Hassan, are alleged to be the local contacts for human traffickers in Pakistan, Qatar and other Arabian countries. The children at the centre, believed to be a breeding ground, are aged between five and 15.

Mburu said most of the children were trafficked into the country from Ethiopia and Somalia and cannot speak in Kiswahili or English. They could not even tell where they came from as most of them were brought in when they were as young as three.

Those who could speak in Kiswahili claimed they were given one meal a day and they are forced to stay indoors most of the times. They had also been instructed not to talk to strangers.

Police also found a freash grave next to the centre, an indication that there may have been some deaths at the centre. Mburu said the suspects had no identification documents and their countries of origin also remained suspect. The DO said the three will appear in court today on charges of child trafficking.

Source: www.nairobistar.com

Lorraine Anyango | NATION Workers at the Busia Trailer Park Wellness centre receive medical supplies at the clinic after its launch last week.

Muhammad Bwire lives on the road. He spends up to seven days before getting to his destination, driving a 24-wheel truck from Kampala to Mombasa.

He has been on the road for seven years now.

“We only stop to fill up at petrol stations, drink alcohol and later buy girls,” says the 50-year-old driver.

Though he has a wife and five children, he has five to eight girlfriends in towns along the highway.

“When we are on the road, far away from home, it gets lonely. We need someone to talk to, and to entertain us. That is why we get women,” he said.

Mr Bwire has company. Many truck drivers are exposed to a lifestyle that comes with the risks of contracting HIV in Busia Town, at the border with Uganda. Busia and its environs has a prevalence rate of 7.4 per cent, against the national rate of 6.3 per cent.

Wellness Centre

It’s this population that a new 24-hour road-side clinic, Busia Wellness Centre, is now serving for free, in a bid to reduce the HIV prevalence rate.

The second one of its kind in Kenya after Malaba, the clinic was put up at a cost of Sh2.4 million by the International Organisation for Immigration (IOM) and the National Aids Control Council (NACC).

The organisations are also targeting the hard-to-reach population and vulnerable people such as police officers in remote areas, boda boda cyclists and prostitutes.

The clinic located at the heart of Busia Trailer Park comes in handy for neighbouring villagers who no longer need to walk long distances to a HIV clinic.

The centre brings services closer to people who need it by supplying drugs and providing information.

The health needs of mobile population, such as truck drivers and prostitutes are not being met in Kenya. Health clinics are not accessible for people who need to get the services in remote locations and those who work at odd hours.

The Busia Wellness Centre also provides free tuberculosis, malaria and HIV treatment. Nurses are available 24 hours a day and also offer HIV counselling.

The Busia town council embraced the centre and donated electricity and water supplies.

During its launch last week, Prof Alloys Orago, the director of the National AIDS Control Council said it was the beginning of partnership with IOM and the Kenya National AIDS/STI Control Programme (NASCOP).

He said they hoped to provide the entire northern transport corridor with free health clinics specifically designed for hard-to-reach population.

“We see the Busia Wellness Centre acting as a platform for a more comprehensive prevention approach,” He added.

He said that there was need to address such issues as condom availability and empowering prostitutes to negotiate safer sex adding that overcoming misconceptions surrounding HIV will be addressed.

“We must ensure that those providing clinic services and behavioural interventions are collaborating towards common objectives,” Mr Greg Irving, health programme officer at IOM said

He called for strengthened partnerships, accountability, coordination and financial commitment which would ultimately prevent new HIV infections.

The Busia Wellness Centre has already triggered a cross border meeting between Kenyan and Ugandan government officials.

The leaders will strengthen existing relationships and provide an opportunity to highlight common health care challenges between the two countries. Participants are also scheduled to agree on jointly managing identified challenges, and will work towards a common health care package.

During the launch, Mr Andrew O. Mondoh, PS Special Programmes said the clinic was specifically equipped to meet the needs of the cross border mobile Population and the area community.

“It is however, important for us as a community to work together in order to rid ourselves of the stigma that may be one of the major obstacles standing in our way to achieving this.”

He encouraged area residents to make use of the free health services offered at this clinic.

He said that despite the progress made, there were continuing and emerging challenges that needed to be addressed for the country to achieve its national goals as articulated in the Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan 2009/10-2012/13 and go beyond the universal access targets of 2010.

He said that the challenges included high new infection rates which was estimated at 166,000 annually in 2007 and risky behaviour.

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Drivers+only+stop+to+drink+and+buy+girls+/-/1056/1134718/-/pibjcr/-/index.html

A Coca-Cola processing plant. The market for soft drinks in Kenya is set for stiff competition following the re-entry of PepsiCo and SABMiller. Photo/REUTERS

Two international soft drinks manufacturing companies have set up local operations in a major shift tipped to shake up the industry currently in the tight grip of global giant Coca-Cola.

US multinational Pepsi Cola, and London based SABMiller are in the process of establishing a manufacturing presence in Nairobi even as market data points to a flattening market for soft drinks.

PepsiCo, which stopped bottling in Kenya under competitive pressure from Coca-Cola in the 1970s, is putting up a Sh2.4 billion plant off Thika and Baba Dogo roads while SABMiller has taken control of family owned Crown Foods, the bottlers of Keringet brand of drinking water.

PepsiCo has acquired 14 acres of land at Nairobi’s Ruaraka estate through SBC Kenya Ltd, a Franchise Bottler and Distributor of Pepsi products it bought in 2009, from where it will produce at least six of its brands.

“We have completed the excavation stage. We are now tendering after which we expect construction to start by April 15,” said Mr Butch Moldenhauer, the SBC Kenya general manager.

PepsiCo made a marketing re-entry into Kenya late last year relying on imports to serve the local market with its brands such as Pepsi Cola, Pepsi Diet, Mirinda, Evervess Soda Water and Seven Up. Importing the soft drinks is more expensive than having a local production unit.

“We have already recruited 120 Kenyans — engineers, architects and technicians — to handle the development phase. We expect to have about 300 employers on board once it is completed,” said Mr Moldenhauer.

SABMiller, mainly an alcoholic beverages maker whose Kenyan subsidiary Castle Brewing shut down in 2002, is reported to be targeting a re-launch of the upmarket Keringet bottled water besides going for a more mass market product.

PepsiCo will leverage on a market networking, including supply of coolers, it has been putting up since last year.

In the London and Johannesburg-listed SABMiller, Coke will be facing a familiar operator.

It has franchising deals with the Coca-Cola Company allowing it to bottle and distribute their brands like Fanta, Sprite, Coke and the Minute Maid range of juices.

The company also produces its own brands of Appletiser juices, sparkling mineral water, sport and energy drinks.

The Kenya toehold is seen as part of a process to revamp its newly acquired juice and bottled water arm whose current value is Sh934 million.

These revelations may further fuel speculation that the Molo-based Keringet plant may eventually diversify into other soft drinks and cheaper water products.

Kenya becomes the transnationals’ 12th African market, including its mother home of South Africa.

For Pepsi, the plant becomes the biggest statement by the firm – which used to be a major player in the Kenyan market before the 1970s where it lost its market share to Coca-Cola.

It also comes on the back of an emerging price war since December that has thrilled consumers.

A spot check by the Business Daily showed that a 500ml Coca-Cola plastic bottled soda was retailing at Sh45 down from Sh50 in quarter four of last year, a cut that may have been informed by a 25 per cent drop in Pepsi’s brand to Sh45.

The company has also dished out several fridges to retailers across the Nairobi city centre stocked with their products.

However, the company said it was not targeting Coca-Cola in its latest strategy arguing that the region’s rising middle class had created enough demand for its products and need for more choice.

“We have been testing the market since December last year with our range of brands where we have seen consumption grow eightfold in less than three months,” said Mr Moldenhauer. “It is the consumers who will decide who the winners or losers are after they taste our products”.

The company declined to divulge the volume of goods it has so far shipped into Kenya citing competition fears.

“We appreciate that there is a strong and well established competitor in the market but the response we have had so far is an indicator that the market is ready for our products,” said Mr Moldenhauer.

PepsiCo also has operations in Nigeria where it has operated for 50 years and has recently entered into Ghana and Tanzania from where most of the Kenyan market has been served.

The firm has also announced plans to build two plants in Zambia as it seeks to cut on logistics costs and gain space to wage a sustainable price war.

“We have been focusing mainly on the modern market that includes supermarket channels, some selected hotels, restaurants and clubs, as well as the petroleum outlets,” said Mr Moldenhauer. “But we intend to venture deep into the mass market in the course of the year.”

Coca-Cola has the largest variety of beverages, including Fanta, Sprite, and its flagship Coca-Cola.

The soft drinks business is capital intensive, a fact that has seen small challengers fail in their bid to wrest market share from the big players.

Kuguru Foods, which launched the Softa brand a few years ago to rival Coca-Cola’s Coke and Fanta drinks, has practically been overshadowed by the stiff competition from the cash-rich multinational.

Kevian Kenya Ltd that manufactures mainly juices is a new challenger that has introduced a cola brand in the market, priced at Sh38 in a move aimed at undercutting Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

The beverage market has seen increased competition, drawing in beer manufacturer East African Breweries Ltd which launched several flavours of the non-alcoholic malt drink, Alvaro, in April 2008.

The entry of EABL rattled Coca-Cola, which saw the move as a threat to its share of the non-alcoholic drinks market.

In November 2008, the firm introduced its own malt-based drink, Novida, in a move industry watchers read as a reaction to EABL’s assault.

The soft drinks market is estimated at about 17 million litres annually and PepsiCo is upbeat that the sector has great potential for growth after shrugging off a heavy battering from the global economic crisis, high power costs and water rationing in most of 2009.

Though carbonated drinks dominate the market, the fastest growth is expected from malt drinks where only Coca Cola and EABL are present.

The renewed interest in the soft drinks market comes at a time when the manufacturing sector is experiencing lower margins due to increased competition and high operational costs, with players resorting to price wars to drive up sales.

Source: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Pepsi+comeback+stirs+up+battle+of+soft+drink+titans/-/539550/1134208/-/7rbpjlz/-/index.html

Kenya’s most prominent asylum seekers last year were human rights activist Philo Ikonya (above), Bishop Gilbert Deya and Ms Zeituni Onyango, an aunt of US President Barack Obama. Photo/FILE

Fewer Kenyans sought asylum in the industrialised world in 2010 compared to previous years, mirroring the rest of Africa’s descending trend.

A UN statistical overview of asylum applications in 44 industrialised countries shows a continuing downward trend globally, bringing the figure down to nearly half the level at the start of the millennium.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report, “Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialised Countries 2010”, deals with new asylum claims and does not show how many individuals were granted refugee status.

According to the report, 358,800 asylum applications were lodged in industrialised countries last year – down five per cent from 2009, and some 42 per cent lower than the decade’s peak in 2001, when almost 620,000 asylum applications were made.

There were 538 Kenyans seeking asylum in USA and Canada in 2010 compared to 588 the previous year, marking a 9.3 per cent drop.

Kenya’s most prominent asylum seekers last year were human rights activist Philo Ikonya, Bishop Gilbert Deya and Ms Zeituni Onyango, an aunt of US President Barack Obama.

Ms Ikonya, a journalist and political activist, fled Kenya in 2009 and lives in exile in Oslo, Norway, while an immigration court granted Ms Onyango permission to stay in the US in May 2010.

Bishop Deya is still fighting court battles in Britain to avoid deportation to Kenya where he could faces charges of child trafficking.

In 2001, Britain rejected more than 800 Kenyan applications for political asylum, accepting only 90.

In 1999, Britain’s Home Office reported that the number of Kenyans seeking political asylum had increased from 605 in 1998 to 885 that year. This was the first increase since the introduction of a visa requirement for Kenyans in 1996.

The Home Office statistics also showed that large numbers of Kenyans were applying for asylum while already in Britain, which may partly explain why it has been difficult for Kenyan students to get permission to study in the UK.

But Kenya, being a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention, the 1967 Protocol and the 1969 Organisation of African Union Convention, also continues to offer protection to refugees and asylum seekers.

The Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA) took over the reception and registration of all asylum seekers from UNHCR on March 1, 2011.

Besides Kenya, downward trends in asylum applications were recorded in the African continent, with Zimbabwe and Nigeria posting drops of 69 and 29 per cent, respectively.

Somalia, which occupied the third spot in 2009, fell to sixth in 2010. Putting the latest numbers into the context of recent emergencies in Côte d’Ivoire and Libya, High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres noted:

“Overall, it’s still the developing world that is carrying the lion’s share of responsibility for hosting refugees.

“Despite their many other challenges, countries like Liberia, Tunisia and Egypt have kept their borders open to people in need. I call upon all countries to support them.”

In 2010, people from nearly 200 countries or territories submitted at least one asylum claim in one of the 44 countries presented in this report.

Slightly less than half of all asylum applications were from Asia (45 per cent). Africa was the second most important source continent, contributing 25 per cent of all claims, followed by Europe (19 per cent), and the Americas (8 per cent).

Europe was the only continent showing an increase as a source of asylum applications in 2010, recording a 19 per cent jump, with more people from Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia requesting refugee status in 2010 than in 2009. The country of origin of some 3,000 asylum-seekers was unknown.

“We need to study the root causes to see if the decline is because of fewer push factors in areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum,” said Mr Guterres.

The United States remained the largest asylum recipient for the fifth consecutive year, accounting for one out of every six asylum applications in the countries covered in the report.

The US saw an increase of 6,500 applications, partly due to a rise in the number of Chinese and Mexican asylum-seekers. France maintained second position, while Germany was third.

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Fewer+Kenyans+seeking+asylum+abroad+/-/1056/1134084/-/r33cg6z/-/index.html