Tanzania and Suriname last evening pledged their support for Kenya's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council during the election scheduled for June next year.

The assurances were delivered to President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi by Tanzania's Foreign Affairs Minister Palamagamba Kabudi and the President of Suriname Desire Delano Bouterse.

Mr Kabudi who paid President Kenyatta a courtesy visit as a special envoy of President John Pombe Magufuli, said Tanzania has full confidence in the ability of Kenya to represent the African continent in the security council.

“We have confidence in Kenya, that you will champion the African voice and will strongly advocate the continent’s position in the UN body,” Mr Kabudi said.

The special envoy, who was accompanied by Tanzania’s ambassador to Kenya Dr Batilda Salha Buriani, acknowledged Kenya’s leading role in the push for a united and progressive Africa.

On the maritime border dispute with Somalia, the special envoy said Tanzania supports Kenya's stand on the need to pursue the option of an out of court settlement.

In a separate meeting, President Bouterse, who is in the country on a private visit, assured President Kenyatta of his country's support for Kenya's UNSC bid.

The Suriname leader, who was accompanied by First Lady Ingrid Waldring Bouterse, thanked President Kenyatta for his visionary leadership saying Kenya is an emerging regional economic giant.

Besides Suriname's support for Kenya's UNSC bid, the two leaders discussed opportunities for deepening bilateral ties between the two countries through trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges.

Presidents Kenyatta and Bouterse identified environmental conservation, blue economy and the Big 4 Agenda priority sectors of health, manufacturing, food security and housing as areas of mutual interest between Kenya and the South American nation.

"Mr President, I am glad our two ministers (for foreign affairs) have initiated conversations that I believe will go along way in strengthening our relations in these sectors,” the Suriname President told his host.

President Kenyatta welcomed the Suriname leader to the country and urged him to fully explore Kenya's hospitality saying the visit was a vote of confidence for Kenya as a top tourist destination in the world.

He thanked President Bouterse for Suriname's endorsement of Kenya's UNSC bid saying, "our position and belief is that this seat is not for Kenya but for all of us who share the same vision. That we may present a united voice and make a difference."

The two leaders also discussed the importance of the upcoming African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) conference to be held in Nairobi early next month saying the meeting will help deepen relations between the Caribbean and the African continent.

President Kenyatta last evening also received and held discussions with Hon Awut Deng Acuil, a special envoy of President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, at State House, Nairobi.

Hon Acuil, who is also his country's Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, briefed the President on the challenges being faced by his country in the ongoing implementation of the 2018 peace agreement.

The President reassured the special envoy of Kenya's commitment to continue supporting efforts towards the full implementation of the peace pact.

He urged the South Sudanese leaders to speed up the implementation of the agreement saying the 18 months of ceasefire experienced since the agreement came into being was a sign of a bright future for the country.

Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua attended the meetings.

One of Kenya's largest hotel chains the Sarova Group of hotels has won big in the Haute Grandeur Global hotels after three of it's hotels won in four categories each.

Sarova Whitesands Beach resort and spa Mombasa won the Best Family Resort, Best Resort Spa, Beast Beach Resort and Best Resort hotel categories with the Sarova Mara Game camp winning the Best game lodge, Best safari lodge and the Best lodge categories.

The Sarova stanley hotel won Best city hotel, Best historical hotel, Best conference venue hotel and the best luxury hotel categories.

Other hotels from Africa who also won the awards includes Soul Rainbows end in South Africa, So Mauritus from Mauritius Radisson Blu hotel Zambia, Radisson Blu hotel and convention centre Kigali, Rwanda and the Salt of Palmar hotel Mauritus.

The Haute Grandeur Global Hotel Awards was established as an independent and unbiased initiative to honour the very highest achievements from across the global hotel industry in 2014, recognising exceptional contributions by outstanding hotels with Marinique De Wet as CEO at the helm. 

This prestigious Awards system is exclusive to the Haute Grandeur brand, and considered without equal because of its method. Unbiased results are guaranteed by placing emphasis on quality feedback from guests, rather than quantity of votes by a panel of judges or general public

The world’s first Financial Prosperity Barometer investigated the concept of prosperity across multiple markets and global regions. The report focused on the relationship between financial services and prosperity in high-growth markets and discovered myriad views on what defines prosperity and financial inclusion.

The report targeted Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to gather insights from these high-growth African markets and to establish the limitations of financial inclusion, the value of financial services, and the key characteristics that define prosperity.

Surprisingly, Kenya (88%), Nigeria (94%) and South Africa (70%) had an overwhelmingly positive view on how their household situation would change over the next year. Most considered themselves to be prosperous, even though their income was less than what is seen to be the average.

The research by PayU, the fintech and e-payments division of Prosus, found that Kenyans considered education (44%) and health (45%) as more important indicators of prosperity than being wealthy (38).

They also included a loving family (37%) and a well-paying job (35%) in their top five characteristics of a prosperous person.

In Nigeria, wealth (48%) was at the top of the list with a well-paying job (31%) at the bottom, while in South Africa, the top drivers of prosperity were health (45%), education (44%) and a well-paying job (41%).

When asked what the word ‘prosperity’ meant to them, South Africans opted for savings, not having to worry about money, and being happy in their lives as their top three.

Nigeria opted for being able to afford anything they wanted, being able to help the less fortunate, and being happy with their lives. In Kenya, the top three were savings, good health and being able to afford whatever you want.

The striking insight is that in countries considered poorer by international standards, the values of health and happiness are emphasized over wealth and money.

PayU’s Financial Prosperity Barometer: Perceptions of prosperity in high-growth markets also identified interesting trends around how these countries perceived financial services.

In Nigeria, a significant percentage believe that financial services help people plan for their future prosperity (85%) and that the more people have access to financial services, the more prosperous the country would be (72%).

That said, only 52% agreed that people could not be prosperous if they didn’t have access to financial services.

For the Kenyans, 92% believed that financial services helped people plan for their future prosperity and 77% agreed that the more access to financial services, the better.

South Africans dipped the scale considerably with only 63% believing that access to financial services would make the country more prosperous. But all three countries identified the need for their governments to do more to improve access to financial services – the average of 80% significantly higher than most other countries.

The study identified that Africa showed the highest preference for using mobile money providers for managing their money, a fact borne out by the impressive growth of money mobile services in the sub-Saharan Africa region.

These countries came in at a much lower rate of use for traditional banking (36%) particularly for saving and growing their money and managing their finances. The adoption of mobile money services has transformed access to financial services and perceptions of prosperity in the region.

Corrie Bakker, Head of Strategy & Business Development, PayU Africa, commented on the findings: “The results point to an Africa that’s positive about the impact of financial services on the prosperity of their country and their lives. The emotional benefits of financial services were easier to identify than the practical ones, with many giving security and peace of mind the highest value.

The report also highlights how differently prosperity is defined across the different regions, and yet how similar people’s goals remain when it comes to family, health and wellbeing.

"Prosperity is driven by more than money, it’s defined by access to services, the health of the people who matter, and their access to stable jobs. Technology lies at the heart of building a truly prosperous continent and is already changing the way Africa banks, manages finances and engages with money.” said Bakker

To find out more about the Barometer, visit the website for the full report: https://corporate.payu.com/FinancialProsperityBarometer. 

“Investments in gender equality are critical to realizing demographic dividend, but we need to ensure that women have the tools to overcome the barriers they face,”  First Lady of Rwanda, Jeannette Kagame told participants at a panel at the Global Gender Summit in Kigali on Monday.

The panel, made up of First Ladies Kagame, Margaret Kenyatta, ministers and development experts, observed that too many women and girls still face barriers to basic rights, particularly access to labour market opportunities.

Rwanda’s First Lady recalled the role women played following the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, where a number of families were wiped out, with women in many cases being the ones catering for families.

“What a man can do, a woman can do just as well,” she added.

She described the Summit as an important platform to highlight issues of women equality.

Rwanda has implemented gender several inclusive programs, which has enhanced economic equality in a country where women political participation has grown to 61% percent.

First Lady Kenyatta called for the removal of institutional barriers to accelerate women’s economic empowerment, “It has become urgent for Africa to translate its demographic dividend into viable potential.”

“This is the spirit of Africa’s vision to accelerate its path to sustainable socio-economic development. Our collective commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ is a new chapter in our struggle towards achieving gender equality.”

The panel heard that impediments to gender equality include lack of access to credit, low representation in decision making positions, lack of control over productive land and lack of financial control to make spending decisions on education and health.

Minister of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and Family Jamila El Moussali of Morocco shared experiences from Morocco where policies have been introduced to increase women's political and economic participation.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, called on stakeholders to come together to leverage each other’s strengths “translate women dreams into reality. History will judge us if we don’t work together to take action now.”

The African Development Bank and the government of Rwanda are hosting the Global Gender Summit from 25 to 27 November in Kigali.

The Summit is being organised by the Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs) Working Group on gender for the first time in Africa.

Meanwhile the African Development Bank (AfDB) has committed to explore new avenues of directly supporting efforts aimed at empowering Kenyan women and girls.

It is now clear that the power and influence of African music can no longer be avoided.

African music and musicians are currently on the up taking over even the western market this has made some of the A- listers around the world  sample African music and also work with African artists a good example is Wizkid from Nigeria who has collaborated with multiple international artists including Drake and Beyonce. 

Some international record companies have now also found a market in Africa due to this emerging trend, a good example is the UK-based record company Beggars Group with reports that 20% of its revenue comes from emerging markets, licensing music for the first time in Nigeria,Uganda and Angola according to the IFPI report.

American news based pay television channel CNN has also come up with a list of  Africa biggest music stars, in the list Tanzanian super star Diamond Platnumz is the only one from East Africa with most of the artists from Nigeria.

Among those in the list is Burna Boy who was recently nominated for the Best World Music Grammy, also in the list is three times  Grammy Awards winner Angelique Kidjo,. Yemi Alade, Mr Eazi, Tiwa Savage and Wizkid are also on the list. South African singer, Sho Madjozi who won the 2019 BET New International Act is also in the list together with Busiswa Gqulu .Mwila Musonda aka Slapdee from  Zambia also made it to the list.

The second edition of African Crossroads kicked off in Mombasa yesterday with a panel discussion led by Dr. Njoki Ngumi.

Themed “Sense The City”, the gathering brings together 170 participants from 30 different countries for the first three days and will be open to the general public on the final day (Saturday November 23rd). 

The events of the Open Day will be held in 2 locations, Swahili Pot and Little Theatre.

The first event which starts at 2pm at the Little Theatre Club is titled: “The Future of Work in African Cities”.

The panelists include angel investors, Hon. Munyoki Kyalo (former CEC Mombasa County) and other movers and shakers.

At the same location, from 2PM, the public are invited to enjoy the following incredible features:

• The Listening Room, a music installation from Lagos, Nigeria 
• The Food Carousel - This explores food sustainability, availability and security, including Kenya’s Greenobi solar cooker, Makueni County‘s Mango Festival, fish product distribution in Namibia, and more. 
• Product Innovation - This will explore cutting edge thinking and products in animal conservation, gaming, education and more! 

At the second location, Swahilipot Hub, the audience are warmly invited to visit the art installations “A.Polis Forum | Part 1”, “Mujejeje”, “To Revolutionary Type Love”, and “Kitenga Series” will be open for viewing.

Swahili Pot is also hosting a virtual reality showcase of 4 VR films set in and about Africa!

After this family event, adults over 18 who have tickets (200 KES) are invited to the closing party, which will be held between 6 and 10 PM at the Little Theatre auditorium. There will be snacks on sale, a cash bar, live music and DJ performances! 

The public are invited to visit the African Crossroads Facebook page for details on how to register for their free ticket which will allow them to access to all exciting events throughout the afternoon into the evening! 400 tickets are available, so register soon. 

The African Crossroads, hosted and organized by Hivos, is a retreat where African creatives and the tech community convene annually to exchange ideas and debate on subjects that enrich Africa’s development agenda.

The 2019 edition is a partnership with Mombasa’s Swahili Pot Hub, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kenyan music producer Magix Enga has made good his threat of ensuring that the 'UNO' video by Harmonize is removed from you tube.

Magix Enga had earlier complained that Harmonize has stolen his beat, the beat he created for  ‘Dundaing’ .

You tube has today removed the video from its platform as one of its policy of dealing with copyright claims.

Taking to instagram, Magix Enda warned anyone sampling his beats.

“1 week imeisha and the song Uno is no longer on YouTube. Don’t sample Magix Enga beats. I repeat don’t! Like I said I’m not going to allow this to happen, not in 254,” he posted.

Harmonize's management responded to the move stating that their legal team is working on the issue.

“We have received a statement from Youtube that someone from Kenya, has e-mailed to claim ownership of our favorite song Uno. We take this opportunity to ask our fans to be patient, while this matter is handled, we have already engaged our legal team on this. In addition, we believe our song will be back soon," reads a statement fro the management.

It remains to be seen how the issue will unfold, the video had already attracted over 1 million views on you tube since it was released.