When the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Kenya on March 13 last year, nobody anticipated the adverse effects it would have on the social, economic and political way of life for millions of Kenyans.

Jobs were lost, businesses shut down, schools were closed, movement was restricted and the economy was shuttered.

However, most Kenyans, in their typical nature, had doubts.

At first, they doubted the existence of the disease in Kenya.

Lucia Wairimu, a shopkeeper at Fisheries estate in Bamburi, once told this writer that she would never wear a mask.

Why?

“Because the whole coronavirus thing is a hoax by the government. They just want to make money. If the thing was real, we would be dying like in the US and China,” said Wairimu.

True to her words, this writer never saw her in a mask until mask wearing was gazetted into law and not wearing one was criminalized.

Still, Wairimu only wore one whenever she saw police officers patrol or when she was alerted to their presence in the neighbourhood.

Dr Muiga Chokwe, a psychiatrist and psychologist, told this writer the government found it hard to make Kenyans adhere to the protocols it came up with to curb the spread of the virus because of the doubts Kenyans had.

“In Kenya, and most of Africa, you have to convince people that the virus is there and they need to take precaution,” said Dr Muinga.

The ‘doubting Thomas syndrome’ however is not helped by the behaviour of political leaders in the country.

Almost from the off, the political leaders, unable to resist the urge to see and talk to cheering crowds, started violating the very protocols they had been urging their followers and supporters to adhere to.

“The protocols that the Ministry of Health came up with had problems. We had to keep distance which was in complete contrast to the African way of life,” said Dr Muinga.

Most African cultures, the psychiatrist said, involve meeting, shaking hands, eating together, hugging, wrestling each other as part of fun games, among other things, he noted.

The Covid-19 stopped all these.

“Funerals, one of the most respected last rites a dead person is given in African cultures, were disrupted. Only a handful of people were allowed to attend,” said the doctor.

This was the most annoying and discouraging thing.

“It was bad. Imagine having to burry your father, mother, sister, brother without even viewing their body,” said Sila Kioko, a resident of Mombasa.

Kioko said funerals are the most revered ritual in African cultures.

“One would travel from the US to Kenya to burry their best friends, by all means but things changed” said Kioko.

But this ‘luxury’ was denied to many Kenyans, who had to bury their loved ones in the most painful of circumstance.

In April last year, Brenda Akinyi had to miss the burial of her mother Ursula Buluma, who died of Covid-19 complications and was buried only hours after her death, according to government protocols.

Akinyi was at the time in isolation at the Coast General Hospital.

She had to properly mourn her mother only after two weeks when she was allowed to leave the hospital.

“This is the disruption of normal life of African people I was talking about,” said Dr Muinga.

He however said that the hand washing protocol is difficult to achieve in many parts of the country because of the water scarcity.

In rural areas, he said, these protocols are non-existent.

“Nobody bothers about them. People live their normal lives and thankfully, nothing happens to them,” said Dr Muinga.

He noted that Covid seems to be more rampant in Europe and the US.

“The virulence of the virus in Africa seems to be less. Because the weather is warmer,” said Dr Muinga.

“If we were in Europe with this kind of behaviour, it would have been more disastrous.”

Muslims for Human Rights gender officer Topister Juma said that  Kenyans were at first divided between believing the virus was real and those who thought it was a hoax.

“Those who believed had panicked. This was a new thing,” said Juma.

She said that an expose by one of the TV stations convinced people the disease was not real and that senior government officials were only exaggerating figures to attract more donor funding so they could loot.

However, a second wave hit the country when most of the donor funding had stopped.

“This was when people started believing the disease was real. It was made more so because now senior figures in the country were succumbing to the disease,” said Juma.

The human rights defender argued that the disease exposed the social behaviour of most Kenyans faced with desperate situations.

According to her the pandemic made people realise one can do any job.

“Some thought they could never hawk goods but they found themselves hawking masks, sanitizers and even food, just to earn that shilling to feed their families. People realised they had skills they did not
know,” said Juma.

However, the pandemic also revealed the other sides of Kenyan couples.

Gender-based violence, child abuse and other vices increased because people were now living together properly due to the lockdown, curfews and cessation of movements.

“Many violations happened in the period between March to July,” said Juma.

The stress levels were going up because people lost their jobs and there was no way of earning a living, she explained.

Husbands turned violent towards wives, wives turned violent towards husbands, parents became too harsh on their children, making some run away from home.

“Children engaged in irresponsible behaviours like sex, other impregnating others while some even had to be forced to marry each other when they had not even hit adulthood,” said Juma.

She shifted the blame to  the government saying it did not consider measures to put in place to protect couples from GBC because they never anticipated such violence.

“It was not communicated what needed to be done. That was the time there were many cases of GBV,” she said.

Today, after almost 11 months of the pandemic in Kenya, Kenyans have relaxed again.

The protocols laid down by the government are no longer adhered to unless law enforcement officers are seen.

Most restrictions have been relaxed as the government looks to rebuild the economy, which had taken a battering.

Schools have reopened, movement no longer restricted and only the10pm-4am curfew remains.

According to Juma, traditional methods of taking care of diseases were embraced after the second wave of the Covid-19 hit the country.

“People were taking more ginger, garlic, lemons and were steaming to ensure they do not contract the virus. This is what our forefathers used to do and we abandoned them because of modernity,” said Juma.

The recent health workers’ strike, according to Juma, made people taking precautions because they knew they would not get any help in government hospitals should they get the virus.

“Private hospitals are out of reach of many Kenyans, so prevention became more essential than cure,” said the Muhuri gender officer.

So far, the country has now recorded a total of 99,308 positive Covid-19 cases, with the cumulative tests now standing at 1,130,707.

The number of deaths caused by Covid-17 currently is 1,734.

The total number of recoveries currently stands at  82,478.

Fast rising star B Classic Aka 006  has dropped #Nakuja featuring the multi-talented female star Sanaipei Tande. 

Watch Nakuja: https://youtu.be/Wyt_tej4dAs 

Speaking about the song, B Classic says, “Nakuja is about feeling and passion one feels when you’re around that one person and wishing you could talk, act differently.” He continued, “The song is about how the nerves often take over the conversations, how I want to come and take this pretty lady to see my boss because she is my everything.”

The Champion Studios signee is set to release six collaborations in the coming months featuring local and international acts and an EP towards the end of the year. 

The video was shot by Director O and audio produced by Toplayer for Champion Studios.

About B Classic

Born in Taveta as Dennis Manja, B Classic was raised by a guardian – a Somali Woman who took him in after being neglected by his mom at a tender age. He was taken in by a Somali woman who they later parted ways as he went to Mombasa to search for greener pastures.

Dennis later went to Mombasa in search of greener pastures; his first job was a herdsman for 10months without pay, later he was lucky to get a job at a hotel. While in Mombasa a friend saw potential in him and nudged him to pursue music which he eventually did and the rest is a compelling story of an artist making his way in the industry.

B-classic has graced notable stages across East Africa with top acts such as; Sudi Boy, Ally B, Jua Cali among many stars. B classic is a multi-talented artiste whose songwriting and arranging skills are evident in his works.

A section of Ugandan artists have come out to support one of their own and  besieged opposition leader Bobi Wine.

Taking to social media the artists led by veteran Ugandan female singer Juliana Kanyomozi shared some words of encouragement to Bobi Wine who is currently under house arrest praising his for his bravery.

"You have come a long way Bobi Wine, and yet you are still standing. You have inspired an entire generation. To say I'm proud of you is an understatement. I take my heart off for you. Big ythank you to Barbie Kyagulanyi for always being your rock. Continue to walk in your calling. Be safe" posted Juliana on her instagram page.

On his part singer and Tv presenter Tuff B posted "@Bobiwine you have stood up for an ideal , acted to improve the lot of others and stricked out against injustice which has not only given hope but inspired a generation . our children will carry a message and your name to a time we will not see. A strong man stands up for himself but a stronger man stands up for others. Allow me say am forever inspired but have nothing to give you in return but here i make a promise to follow your footprint".

Spice Diana is another artist who also came out to support Bobi Wine, stating "Courage is contagious, when a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened and Bobi Wine has instilled courage in all hearts of those that persue dreams. We are proud of you Bobi Wine for the brave stand you persued and have succeeded at, you have had the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Keep your head high, we love you".

Adding "Thank you For inspiring a whole generation. It has not been easy but you have taken a sacrifice for all of us. Thank you. Journey continues".

Ugandan security forces have prevented the pop star-turned-politician from leaving his house shortly after he returned from voting in Thursday’s presidential election.

On Tuesday, Bobi Wine took to twitter to reveal that he has been under house arrest with an 18 month-old-baby whose food has run out.

“Day Six under house arrest and we’re still stuck with an 18 months old baby who had paid a visit to her auntie (my wife ) be4 we were raided & besieged. The Dad has been denied access to her. We have run out of food and milk. No one is allowed to leave or come into our compound,” he said.

On Saturday, the Electoral Commission chairman Simon Mugenyi Byabakama declared incumbent President Museveni the winner of the January 14 election with 58.64 per cent of the votes cast, while Bobi Wine was trailing with 34.83 per cent.

Diamond Platnumz sidestepped a question about his paternity during a press conference held at the Wasafi headquarters on Tuesday morning.

A reporter from Mtanzania digital named Beatrice asked the music star to set the record straight concerning the issue which has been a topic of discussion for the last few days but he dodged it saying it was not the right forum.

"On behalf of my fellow journalists, I would like you to set the record straight on this  issue and give us the correct name to use in our reports since we have the obligation of informing the people" said the reporter.

On his part Diamond replied " My sister Beatrice, this is not the right forum to address that. Kila maneno yana mahala pake, tukisema tuzungumze maneno ya kitandani hapa si sehemu yake. Najua nikisema hilo swala kila kitu kitaelekea huko. Nitakuwa na interview yangu soon hapa (Wasafi) na nitaongelea hayo yetu".

Diamond had called for the press conference to announce the date for the Wasafi tunawasha music concert in Daresalaam slated for January 30.

On Friday , Diamond's mother Sandrah came out to reveal that Mzee Abdul Juma is not the singer's biological father, saying Mzee Abdul briefly raised Diamond only for him to walk out later leaving her to raise the child alone.

She later unleashed photos of a man with a striking resemblance with Diamond on instagram stating he is the real father to Diamond Platnumz.

"Diamond's dad is called Salum Iddy Nyange. Mzee Abdul is not the real father, he was just a step father " she said in an interview with Wasafi fm.

Adding "He refused Diamond's pregnancy since the first days, saying it was not his. He did not help us in any way since nursery school to secondary school. I have told him many times and so he already knows that,".

In an interview with one of the online media outlet in Tanzania, a furious Mzee Abdul criticized Sandrah for the revelation asking Diamond to drop his surname 'Abdul'.

"She should have said all this when he was still young and not now that the son has become porpular and made some money."

When Nissan made its first investment towards Africa’s growth sixty years ago with Datsun’s presence in Zimbabwe and the Nissan Motor Company Limited, opening its Rosslyn operations, it was the humble, but bold start of a journey.

With a firm belief in the opportunities that lie on the African continent, the group furthered its investments in 2000, when it purchased a 37 percent stake from Sanlam Group; opened an assembly facility in Egypt; and became the first overseas auto manufacturer to begin local assembly in Nigeria in 2014.

In 2019, Nissan continued its commitment to the continent, making a R3 billion investment announcement to facilitate the local production of the Nissan Navara pickup.

The bold investment spoke to the Navara rolling off the production line alongside the popular NP200 half-ton pickup, and NP300 one-ton Hardbody that are already produced at the South African plant.

The impact of the Navara production announcement has been substantial, extending from the Nissan facility to its people and the communities in which Nissan operates.

The modernised Rosslyn plant now has a new, flexible production line and additional facilities. R190 million has already been invested in re-skilling and training Nissan South Africa’s employees to expand their expertise in preparation for the Navara’s local production the company’s production trial engineers, for example, spent three months receiving virtual training (due to COVID-19 travel restrictions) from Nissan trainers in Japan on implementing the model in South Africa.

Nissan South Africa has also incubated eight new component manufacturers and related companies, from their BBBEE start-up programme, and identified a further 15 who can assist with components for the new Navara.

The installation of the necessary machinery, including robots, meanwhile, and new press machines, were completed during lock-down by highly skilled local engineers under the “virtual” online guidance of Japanese, technicians  sitting at home in their respective countries as everyone came to grips with the global pandemic.

Investing in an opportunity-filled market                                                        

This journey demonstrates just how critical Africa has been for Nissan, and today, the continent is one of the company’s fastest growing territories in terms of Total Industry Volume (TIV).

The company has a 20 percent market share in a number of Sub-Saharan markets and holds 4th position with nine percent market-share in South Africa.

As the operational hub for Regional Business Unit South, Nissan South Africa serves the Group’s key Sub-Saharan markets- South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Mauritius, Angola, Zimbabwe, which have been labelled as opportunity markets by the Group. Nissan believes the business will be able to achieve sustainable, profitable growth, and maximise their competitive advantage as a low-cost manufacturing base in these markets.

Geared for growth

The journey does not stop here. With its commitment to build the new Navara in South Africa, Nissan continues to show its commitment to the continent and is aligning with the Nissan Next Transformation Plan to increase its passenger/crossover market presence, and to become the LCV production hub for its regional markets.

In addition to this, Nissan has also entered automotive policy discussions with the Kenyan government, with the vision to invest in manufacturing plants in these countries.

Taking investment action a step further in Ghana, Nissan recently appointed long-time partner Japan Motors Trading Co. as to develop its new vehicle assembly facility in Accra, Ghana.

The first model to be assembled at the new facility will be the all-new Nissan Navara. This comes as a result of the 2018 memorandum of understanding between Nissan and the government of Ghana to lay the foundation for a sustainable automotive manufacturing industry in the country.

According to Nissan’s Africa Regional Business Unit, Managing Director, Mike Whitfield,  Nissan will continue to develop regional hubs.

“South Africa remains a pivotal market, first for the access that it grants Nissan to the continent and secondly as a light commercial vehicle hub for the Nissan group." he said .

Adding "We have a specific team working on potential opportunities in East, West, and Central Africa. This includes investigating options for local assembly, consolidating and strengthening our National Sales Companies in Sub-Sahara, and working with local governments to develop their industrial policies.”

By James Gachie

In Kenya, as in much of the rest of the East African region, customer satisfaction in the banking and insurance space is becoming increasingly dependent on the quality of engagement between consumers and brands, rather than based on the differentiation offered by products and services.

Customers are expecting interactions that are informed by insights into their preferences and behaviour, meaning that they are demanding customisation and context to significantly shape customer engagement.

According to a report by Capgemini, about 81% of consumers would be willing to pay more for a better Customer Experience (CX), as they have been left frustrated by organisations that do not listen to their feedback or reward their loyalty.

East African banks are responding to this by employing new data-driven personalisation strategies, allowing them to combine customisation and context. These strategies are cross-channel, leverage customer profiles, context, history and behaviour data to tailor experiences to a customer’s specific needs.

Big Data and data analytics play a pivotal role in personalisation strategies, whether it is in terms of CX, internal communications and/or other stakeholder communications. Data-driven customer engagements allow banks and insurance companies, as well as enterprises in other verticals, to address customer-specific needs.

Building profiles

These institutions typically build vast profiles of their customers based on data collected about their shopping and spending habits, employment and personal lifestyles. Armed with this data, enterprises can target customers with the right products and services.

Customer data profiles also allow organisations to personalise conversations and provide context within those customer interactions. In addition, financial institutions can set behavioural triggers, that collect data about when and how customers use their apps, visit their websites or enter a physical branch.

In this way, they can monitor the dynamic behaviour of their customers and identify behavioural outliers, as well as patterns and the context of interactions. Similarly, data is also key to identifying patterns among various customer demographic groups, enabling enterprises to determine the context for interaction with specific subsets of customers.

Thus, banking and insurance companies in the East African region are increasingly using a combination of data and analytics to inform their business-to-customer communication strategies, which – when coupled with technology-based communication channel solutions – allows them to engage with customers in real-time.

Omnichannel smart contact centre solutions give businesses the power to personalise customer interactions and offer intelligent recommendations on products and services. This is based on the historical context of interactions that inform the context of current engagements.

Empowering agents

Smart contact centres are, therefore, key to providing data on historical behaviour patterns to agents handling customer interactions, empowering the agents to make informed decisions when communicating with customers.

Also, deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) -driven chatbots in a smart contact centre allows enterprises to do high personalisation at a very large scale, giving organisations access to vast and unconstrained markets.

For example, this is especially important for institutions such as regional banks that could have a client base of 20-25 million. Chatbots are not bound by the same physical constraints as human contact centre agents and are thus able to provide hyper-personalisation at scale.

However, it is important to note that even as AI-powered chatbots are becoming ubiquitous across the world, with this trend also growing across the East African region, customers still have the option to request human engagement at any time during the interaction.

 In this modern era, businesses must realise that a solid CX strategy is one of their biggest assets, and customers are increasingly using technology as a means to communicate with brands. Organisations must, therefore, place a higher emphasis on digital communication channels in response to customer demands and in that way improve CX.

James Gachie, Senior Manager – SaaS Sales, at Infobip Kenya

Mombasa businessman- cum - politician Suleiman has called on Kenyans to support the local music industry.

In an opinion piece published on the Standard, Shahbal said the industry is currently facing alot of challenges with lack of support being one of them.

In a bid to understand the industry better, he had a meeting with Akothee and Tanasha who highlighted him more about the industry.

Below is a copy of his opinion titled 'Give music industry boost to create jobs' , which he has also published on facebook.

Kenyan Rapper Amstardaph has dropped the visuals to his new single - Pesa Kidogo, which is the first track off his debut mixtape title Fom Ni Gani.

Watch "Pesa Kidogo" here: https://youtu.be/xr5Z_-Jg7cg 

About The Song

"The song is about a phrase, “PESA KIDOGO” that went viral, about how people conduct themselves when they come about some money. They start acting in a way that they are not accustomed to. Mostly it is Gengetone artistes who do this type of songs so I decided to give a fresh spin with a trap version” - AmstarDaph.

About AmstarDaph

When a “strange” disease was discovered in Wuhan, China, the World never anticipated that the said disease would bring the world to a standstill.

But when the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic, it was evident that the world was about to take a break from its “busy schedule”.

One by one, countries started locking down their borders and putting restrictions on its citizens.

With borders closed, first casualties to suffer the effects of the newly declared pandemic were international airlines and the tourism sector.

Here in Kenya, as the government put up a strong face against fears of importation of the virus by guests arriving in the country, Kenyans remained prayerful that the virus will not make its way to the country.

On March 12, all fears were confirmed as the Kenya announced its first case.

The confirmation came with fairly restrictions but as the cases rose, stringent measures were put in place.

Effects on Kenya’s tourism industry

Kenya like most countries in the world suspended international air-travel, and due to the interlinking nature of sectors, freezing of international travel led to mass cancelations of hotel bookings.

Most of the industry players could not keep their businesses open and preferred shutting down thus rendering thousands of their employees jobless.

Some opted to downsizing its staff and remain with the most critical staff as a way of cutting down their cost.

Venant Ndambo, the proprietor of Keron tours and safaris had to send home his entire team of staff as he could not sustain the wage bill.

Ndambo said that their situation was worsened by the fact that they had to either refund their clients while few guests requested the postponement of the safaris instead of refund.

“For close to 10 years I have been in this business, we have withered all the challenges. But Coronavirus brought us to our knees and it will take years to rise to where we are,” he said.

Ndambo however said that 2021 looks promising and is hopeful that the government will complement tourist’s stakeholder’s efforts to ensure normalcy returns to the industry.

Several World class hotels such as Intercontinental hotel closed down their hotels and were even considering permanently closing business in Kenya.

Fairmont hotels also closed its Norfolk and Mara Safari club hotels and fired all their employees.

According to tourism minister Najib Balala, by July, the sector had lost some 81.8 billion shillings (about 770 million U.S. dollars) since March, which is about 50 percent of its average annual revenue.

The pandemic had literally grounded the industry to a halt, with over 2.3 million employees sent home, a majority on unpaid leave while the lucky ones on half-pay.

Kenya’s tourism sector is not only a major employer but also linked to others sectors such as energy, agriculture and manufacturing.

Suppliers of services and goods used within the tourism industry experienced low demand for services such as travel and food.

The reduction in tourism had a spatial unemployment effect because major tourism sites are at the coast of Kenya and a few other areas.

Journey to recovery

Some of the hotels have recalled their staffs, while some opted to permanently downsize its staffs meaning the hotels are operating on half of its staff.

However, the just concluded festive season came as a booster as most of the hotels recorded at least 65 percent bed occupancy.

The hotels have to adhere to the measures put in place by the ministry of government.

Hotels and tour companies have put in strategies to compliment government’s efforts in luring back international tourists.

The stakeholders are also packaging themselves to attract local tourists and guests from neighboring countries.

However, Sam Ikwaya of Kenya association of hotel keepers and caterers said the situation is still unpredictable due to the ongoing pandemic.

Ikwaya said the situation is also worse due to lockdown of Kenya’s source market such as United Kingdom.

He further said that the political temperature which are already high due to BBI and the oncoming general elections is also scaring tourists

“Investors are also afraid of pumping their money to the industry due to such uncertainties,” he said.

Ikwaya said that the political class needs to tone down the political temperature or the sector risks counting more loses.

He further noted that the  government needs to support investors and ease some of the business restrictions in order to attract more investors.