Two promising young Kenyan artists Nadia Mukami and Masauti have team up in a new jam titled 'Lola'.

‘Lola’ is about a love triangle between two lovers who hustled together and acquired some wealth but the boyfriend betrayed their love by getting involved with another woman.

The song is Nadia's 6th studio single and she has featured Masauti who is also known for his melodious flow and a wide vocal range, to create this masterpiece.

Nadia who is currently in her early twenties rose to fame following the massive success of her hit songs “Yule Yule”, “African Lover” and "Si Rahisi"

Watch the video below

President Uhuru Kenyatta has welcomed the restructuring of the UN-Habitat and called on the established organs to re-engineer its processes to enable it deliver on its core mandate as the lead agency in urbanization and human settlements.

The President asked the established subsidiary organs, through the new governance structure, to strengthen the UN-Habitat’s organizational capacity and resource base to make it a centre of excellence and a global leader in the field of urbanization and human settlements development.

“This will also enable the UN-Habitat to effectively deliver on the double mandate entrusted to it as the designated focal point for sustainable urbanization and human settlements,” President Kenyatta said.

The Head of State was speaking today at the UN-Habitat’s headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi, where he officially opened the inaugural session of the UN-Habitat Assembly whose theme is ‘Innovation for a Better Quality of Life in Cities and Communities’.

The Assembly replaces the UN Governing Council following the endorsement of the resolution by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018. The resolution established a new governance structure which upgraded UN-Habitat’s status to a universal body and created a 36-member board. 

“This new structure is really intended to transform UN-Habitat’s governance, provide oversight and enhance UN-Habitat’s efficiency and effectiveness in delivering its mandate,” President Kenyatta said.

President Kenyatta challenged the UN agency to formulate strategies that will transform cities and human settlements into engines of economic growth and development in a sustainable manner.

He urged all stakeholders to support the work of the UN-Habitat, noting that the implementation of the New Urban Agenda has been slow partly because of financial and institutional constraints at the global body as well as member states’ insufficient capacity to interpret, implement and report on the progress of the urban agenda.

“I also urge member states to increase and honour their voluntary contributions to the UN-Habitat human settlements foundation, while at the same time encouraging those in a position to do so, to consider increasing non-earmarked funds to be part of the core budget of UN-Habitat,” he said.

The President assured of Kenya’s support to UN-Habitat and its activities as host to the global agency. 

“In addition, I commit that my Government will increase its contribution to UN-Habitat and Human settlements Foundation Gains Account from USD 70,000 to 100,000 USD during our next annual contribution,” the President said.

“Kenya will also participate in the pledging session where we will consider additional contributions,” the President said as he congratulated Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif on her appointment as the Executive Director of UN-Habitat.

Noting that in almost all parts of the world, societies are ill-prepared to plan effectively for the rapid urbanization that is taking place leading to the proliferation of slums and informal settlements, urbanization of poverty and increased environmental degradation, President Kenyatta called for collective international action informed by scientific research and technological innovations to address the challenges.

President Kenyatta also took the opportunity to outline the Kenya government’s efforts to implement the New Urban Agenda and related global urban agreements through the Big 4 Agenda.

“Kenya has outlined four key priorities (The BIG 4 agenda) for implementation over the next five years.  These include raising the share of the manufacturing sector to 15% of GDP; ensuring all citizens enjoy food security and nutrition; achieving universal health coverage and delivering at least 500,000 affordable housing units in major cities around the country by 2022,” President Kenyatta said. 

In support of the affordable housing agenda, President Kenyatta said the Government has facilitated the establishment of a mortgage liquidity facility in Kenya, the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC). The objective of this company is to support the development  of the primary and secondary mortgage markets by providing secure, long-term funding to mortgage lenders  and increasing the availability and affordability of mortgage loans to Kenyans.

The President said Kenya has also embarked on major infrastructural developments both on major highways and within major urban areas that have facilitated mobility, improved sanitation and access to services by citizens. 

In the area of research and technological advancement, President Kenyatta pointed out that Kenya has laid emphasis on innovation as an accelerator of the quality of life for its citizens through promotion and development of entrepreneurship education in all sectors of the economy. 

“The Kenya National Innovation Agency (KENIA) was established in 2013 to develop and manage the National Innovation System, and leverage entrepreneurship towards a self-sustaining economy,” the President said.

“To this end, the country has a number of business incubation centres that include Nailab, iHub, Strathmore University Business Incubation Centre and Kenyatta University’s Chandaria Incubation and Innovation Centre,” he added.

Other speakers included the President of the UN-Habitat Assembly Martha Delgado and Executive Director UN-Habitat Maimunah Mohd Sharif.

Africa’s biggest fashion market Thrift Social is celebrating its 4^th year anniversary with a Tie & Dye theme at the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi (Sunday 9^th June 2019).

An ode to the legacy of the fashion fad prevalent with the rise of counterculture of the 60s and 70s, the theme captures the spirit of the event’s humble ascent from its modest backyard market days, to reshaping Kenya’s creative art and fashion scene through its curatorial showcase.

The afternoon long market will be an immersive fashion experience striving to foster opportunities and possibilities within the Kenyan creative ecosystem.

The artist line up this year reflects a blend of sounds, starkly distinct but all denoting the market’s consistent focus on featuring innovative, progressive, and up and coming artistes.

British rapper-singer IAMDDB—the “Shade” hitmaker with a fierce blend of soulful hip hop, pounding trap and swirling urban jazz, will headline alongside an eclectic Kenyan lot including soulful R&B singer Karun, the Lianne Le Havas-esque vocal stunner Wanja Wohoro, to mood-setting DJs: Mix Master Lenny, TAIO and Shishi.

Coinciding with the 4^th year milestone will be an all curated Thrift Store and a Vitimbi fashion installation by one of the founders of Thrift Social - Oliver Asike.

Vitimbi is his first fashion brand that draws a lot of inspiration from the city’s street culture, government, middle class and low-income communities.

The stylist-cum-designer will through his Vitimbi installation introduce his fashion venture set to reimagine Kenya’s apparel scene to Thrifters onboard. 

His unique approach upcycles second hand clothing and recycled fabrics to make new garments.

The underlying vision is to transform Vitimbi into Africa’s first slow fashion streetwear brand through the continent’s long held narrative of sustainability.

About Thrift Social

Thrift Social event series was founded in 2015 by brother and sister combo cum style entrepreneurs, Oliver Asike and Velma Rossa as a platform for the exploration of fashion, visual art and music in a bid to inspire innovation in Kenya’s vibrant and multi–faceted creative industry.

The market invites fashion and style enthusiasts to shop from a curated selection of the city’s cutting edge vendors, attracting a plethora of creatives from fashion enterprises, designers, photographers, stylists, models, art directors and other fashion actors in the Kenyan fashion ecosystem.

2Manysiblings is a brother and sister team curating transitional African narratives.

The duo launched their Tumblr platform in 2013 (and subsequently to IG) that has seen their horizons grow from sharing their looks online to acting as muses for local photographers to now becoming the voice of Kenya’s youth. 

In 2016 they participated in the Yale’s Africa Salon and co-hosted a party with Everyday People. Oliver Asike has styled a host of top Kenyan artists including Sauti Sol, Fena and Elani while Velma has had stints working with the Ethical Fashion Initiative, Karen Walker and AFI fashion weeks.

The duo also toured the city with legendary American Hip Hop heavyweight Yasiin Bey during his maiden Nairobi visit.

IAMDDB is a UK rapper and singer from Manchester. Her music is a blend of soulful hip-hop, pounding trap and swirling urban jazz.

With over 20 Million streams on Spotify, she has sold out concerts and headlined tours across the UK and Europe and just recently supported Lauryn Hill on her European tour. A nominee for BBC’s Sound of 2018, her music video for “Shade” has so far garnered over 24 Million views on YouTube.

In 2018, IAMDDB starred in the new Tommy Hilfiger 90’s inspired jeans campaign.

Did you hear about the BIGGEST, BADDEST, FASTEST PSG LAN party in East Africa? Well we are here to tell you all about it.

The Junction Mall was the place to be on the 11^th and 12^th of May 2019. Gamers from all walks of life streamed in from midday into gamer heaven.

The rules were simple; bring your own computer or console and screen and enjoy 24hours of crazy speeds. In this case 1Gbps.

Please note at home you get about 20Mbps. We are talking 1000Mbps! Yes, you could have downloaded a 3GB movie in 3 seconds! Ok, enough technicalities.  Let’s get in it.

Gamer or not, there was a place for everyone! Young and young at heart, this was the place to be. From CHEZA, bringing in a showcase which included FIFA ’19 that people went gaga over.

To Game Changer giving us a taste of the latest Mortal Kombat which we still can’t stop buzzing about and we cannot wait to get our hands on it! Products from Logitech also featured in the Game Changer stand.

Masoko by Safaricom showed us what to get our mothers just at the touch of our fingers and NRG. Boy, NRG had us all dancing to their tune from their new NRG Play app. Have you downloaded it? But, the show stopper had to be DELL technologies! Alienware machines had everyone wishing they had a gaming PC at home. These gaming laptops cannot be described by words! Action is best!

With about a hundred gamers ready for the madness ahead, the mini tournaments were the perfect way to see who put in the time and who was a noob. Fornite being a popular game amongst gamers, we started off with a Fornite mini tournament.

We saw eighteen participants and of three rounds, one winner emerged. BlvckSpiderman. Don’t let the name fool you, at only 20 years old, this guy had the moves and was hard to beat…With bragging rights and goodies in his bag, BlvckSpiderman challenged PSG to host a purely Fortnite tournament. (Side note: Do you think Fortnite is a tournament PSG should host?) One thing that BlvckSpiderman should note is that there are a lot of young gamers who are eyeing his thrown. Till next time BlvckSpiderman!

The next tournament to go down was the Call of Duty – Black Ops 4. This one was hosted by Triadsyndicate. Having had to put his team together at the very last minute, the battle was on. At the end of the war, Triadsyndicate, Gatman, MysticAlpha, Timmon and SlicethEE came out unscathed. What a team! It was like watching Simon Cowell put together 1D for them to win the Grammy’s. Ok, maybe not but it was absolutely exciting! Congratulations to Triadsyndicate and team, you made us proud!

Here is where we took a little break for the gamers to refresh themselves!

We were back with the Master Builds. This was a competition held for those that build their own rigs! We saw three entries. Curious to know what they look like, follow us on our social media page @proseriesgaming. 

The League of Legends community was not left behind, with Ainzooalgown championing this tournament. What was amazing was the fact that Ainzooalgown got the international community involved. This saw several teams join in and participate in this very exciting 5v5 tournament.

After two intense hours of invasion, Ainzooalgown, Upendope, Dspartan, Hybrid and Highlandergtx took the bragging rights home! A great effort by our Kenyan team and special shout out to SMF Ainzooalgown for getting the international teams on-board. The final tournament was Rainbow Six Seige! This was held by Simba Ultimate’s MoJay.

This tactical game saw MysticAlpha, Fazar7, SlicethEE, Triadsydicate and Allmur walk out victorious! Not only with goodies but also bragging rights! All the winners of the day were awarded courtesy of DELL Technologies, Game Changer, Masoko and PSG!

Oh, I almost forgot there was challenge from CHEZA to PSG! With 1000KSH on the line, Dennis from PSG accepted this and was ready to wipe the floor with CHEZA’s Maina. The game to play: Mortal Kombat 11. After one round, Maina was ready to call it quits.

I bet you can guess what happened right? No? Well Dennis won the game. Maina could not take the ‘L’ so he challenged PSG again ‘Double or nothing’. GAMERS NEVER BACK DOWN FROM A CHALLENGE! So to see who won, follow us on our social media pages @proseriesgaming.

All in all, this was an awesome event. We would like to thank all our sponsors and partners for helping make this a reality. Until the next one, keep practising, keep gaming and #justgame!

Mombasa Based Bandari football club has retained the second position on the Sportpesa premier league table following their barren draw in their last home match this season against Sofapaka FC. 

The dockers will be travelling to Bungoma tonight where they will play the last premier league match away to Nzoia Sugar on Wednesday before the Sportpesa Shield Final against Kariobangi Sharks on June 1 at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani.

Sofapaka are currently in the third position with Gor Majia being in the first position.

"We were at least looking for a draw in today's match, to retain the second position" said Banadri Fc head coach Bernard Mwalala

Adding "I will be giving a chance to those players who have not played so far in the game against Nzoia Sugar on Wednesday as we prepare the first squad for the finals next weekend"

Veteran Citizen Tv Swahili news anchor Swaleh Mdoe is mourning the death of his father Mzee Ali Buki.

Speaking to one of the local radio stations, Mdoe revealed that his father who was suffering from throat cancer died today (Sunday) at around 12:40pm.

He also revealed that the late Mzee Buki had been hospitalised at a local hospital in Malindi and was discharged last Tuesday.

"Today at around 12:40 I was called by my aunt to inform me that my dad had passed away" said Mdoe.

The late Mzee Buki will be laid to rest in Malindi.

iWayAfrica Kenya can confirm the conclusion of an agreement that will merge the ISP operations of iWayAfrica Kenya and Echotel International Proprietary Limited (Echo) following approval of the transaction from the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK).

iWayAfrica Kenya provides fixed line services as well as a range of ICT services including wireless internet connectivity services, data storage, support and maintenance services, among others.

 South Africa-based Echo resells Internet connectivity, Virtual Private Network (VPN) and online security services.

It provides services via a multi-carrier converged network, to simplify the complexity of aggregating infrastructure to clients.

Ken Munyi, Country Manager at iWayAfrica Kenya said the deal is a natural fit for both organisations. “This is an exciting opportunity for iWayAfrica Kenya to strengthen and expand our service offering to customers”

Adding“ This is not only a positive development for customers, but also for staff and suppliers who can be assured of continuity as a strong, focused, industry-leading business.”

The Competition Authority of Kenya noted that the transaction qualifies as a merger as per Section 2 and 41 of the Competition Act No.12 of 2010 and would therefore have no negative effect on competition.

 “The transaction met the threshold for full merger analysis as provided in the Merger Threshold Guidelines,” according to the regulator.

The transaction forms part of a deal between Echo and Gondwana International Networks (GIN) announced in October 2018 which saw Echo merge with the internet service provider operations of GIN in markets across Africa.

GIN is a pan-African service provider with its main interests in the Telecommunications and ICT arenas and is the majority shareholder in iWayAfrica.

GIN CEO Mathew Welthagen said the timing of the deal aligned with GIN’s expansion phase of the business. “This is a definitive leap forward on our path to higher growth which will unlock even greater value for shareholders and customers and more opportunity for employees.”

About iWayAfrica

iWayAfrica is a subsidiary of Gondwana International Networks (GIN), a Pan-African communications service company and one of the largest VSAT Operators in Africa through its operating brands, Africa Online and iWayAfrica.

The Group has subsidiaries in 10 countries on the continent and offers services in an additional 34 countries via its distribution and channel partners.

About Gondwana International Networks

Gondwana International Networks is a Pan-African communications service company and one of the largest VSAT Operators in Africa through its operating brands, AfricaOnline and iWayAfrica.

The Group has subsidiaries in 10 countries on the continent and offers services in an additional 34 countries via its distributor channel partners. Its main interests are in the telecommunications and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) arenas.

King Kaka’s Eastlando Royalty rap competition winner Massud Marlik has finally dropped his debut single under popular artiste management label, Kaka Empire.

The 19 year old dancehall sensation is reminiscent of the legendary Shabba Ranks. 

Booty Energy, produced by Magix Enga has classy dancehall vibe with the perfect mix of Kenyan Kapuka.

Shot in Massud’s hood and directed by Johnson Kyalo, the video gives a dope angle of how it truly goes down at the hood. Giving the Odi wave a run for their money, Booty Energy is bound to be an instant banger

Massud Marlik has a unique tone and puts a great twist to his music through offering something different by mixing kapuka, odi and dancehall lyrics.

The graphic design student and part time restaurant cook has been performing at hood shows within Eastlando since completing high school.

This is what got him crowned winner at King Kaka’s Eastlando Royalty Eastlando King and Queen competition in November last year.

"At Kaka Empire we are all about giving back and creating opportunities for great talents, Massud is very talented and working on this project with him was fun. We are sure that the audience will love what he has to offer.” Dennis Njenga, CEO and Artist Manager, Kaka Empire on releasing Massud’s debut song.

Award winning media personality Janet Mbugua has petitioned the Members of Parliament to improve on the Menstrual Health Management (MHM) Policy in Kenya to ensure all women in Kenya are receiving adequate MHM services.

In a statement Mbugua demanded more action ahead of the Menstrual Health Management Day on Tuesday, May 28.

“Every day, women and girls who lack the income and access to afford sanitary products face significant barriers including insufficient education about MHM and inadequate access to quality, low-cost products.”

"There are girls who don’t have access to sanitary products, and as a result, they feel they have no option but to stay home while menstruating” she said

Adding “What’s worse, there are women and girls who are engaging in transnational sex in order to purchase sanitary products,"

Mbugua points out that the current government policy on MHM in Kenya is insufficient.

She noted, "This policy does not give much detail or information regarding how the government provides distribution and disposal of sanitary products or education on sexual reproductive health.

"What’s more, the policy is only directed towards girls enrolled in public schools"

"Extend your policy and ensure that all women in Kenya are receiving adequate MHM services, and follow up that policy with practice," reads her statement.

Boomplay, the largest music streaming and download service in Africa, hosted its first Music Forum on Tuesday, 21st of May, 2019 at Villa Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi on the themes ‘Focus on Digital Music Distribution and The Future is Streaming’.

Speaking at the forum, General Manager Boomplay Kenya, Martha Huro talked about changing trends in Production and Digital Distribution, weighing in on Boomplay’s current and future strategies.

She stated, “Over the past years, Kenyan artistes have been churning out unique sounds but with very low listenership from our people here and in other countries - this is obvious from our weekly and monthly data based Boomplay charts”

Adding “There’s so much work to be done on our part and we hope that by the way of education through forums like these, we are able to eventually get Kenyans to play songs by Kenyan artistes more.”

Huro proceeded to talk about Boomplay’s interest in helping to grow an industry that truly works and highlighted some issues faced by artistes, which affects the expected music release consistency.

Some of the issues highlighted are lack of finances and proper A&R, to which she announced that Boomplay would invest $1 Million US Dollars towards production and distribution of Kenyan Music.

In a statement, she said that ‘’this will help to facilitate collaborations between Kenyan artists and other African acts across different regions and prompt the consistency of music releases in Kenya.”

Amongst other key stakeholders in music business, the Boomplay Artistes Forum was well attended by artistes, music producers, promoters, distributors and Boomplay executives: CEO, Joe He, Head of International Content Acquisition and Partnerships, Phil Choi, Director of Content Admin & Customer Service, Dapo Asekun and Global Head of Public Relations, Ms. Tosin Sorinola & among others.

Speakers at the forum weighed in on topics ranging from What Makes a Good Producer [Eric Musyoka], Intellectual Property, Publishing and Legal Protection [David Katee- IP Lawyer] to the role of Music Labels [John Andrews – GM AI Records Universal Media Group and Sam Mutuku - Digital & Production Manager East Africa].

Kenyan artist, Nameless took on the artistes panel to discuss Music Piracy & Experience as a Kenyan artist, alongside fast-rising songstress Vivian, top gospel music acts, Evelyn Wanjiru & Bahati, with Pacho Entertainment honchos hit makers: Cedo & Naiboi.

The PR & Branding panel discussants, Anyiko Owoko [Founder Anyiko Public Relations] and Elizabeth Karuru [Head of Content Acquisition at Boomplay Kenya] discussed extensively, the importance of presenting a good brand image, as well as guides on how to package your music for digital distribution by ensuring elements such as artworks, promo pictures, metadata and others are of great quality.

The Nairobi edition of Boomplay Artistes Forum, which was hosted by Willy M Tuva, is the start to a series of industry events by Boomplay that will hold across Kenya and beyond the region.

All the forums will have a series of panel discussions integral to improving the music industry.

About Boomplay

 Boomplay (developed and owned by Transsnet Music Limited) is the fastest growing music app in Africa with a huge and expansive catalogue of over 5 million songs and thousands of videos. Boomplay currently has over 4.2 million users in Kenya and 46 million users globally as of April 2019, with a month on month growth of over 2 million users.

Users can stream songs and videos online free of charge, subscribe to one of the daily, weekly or monthly plans to save songs and videos to play whilst offline or purchase content to own it.

The Boomplay app, which won the “Best African App” at the 2017 “AppsAfrica Awards’’ is available on Android, iOS and Web. Boomplay aims to build the largest and most reliable digital music ecosystem for artistes and content creators in Africa.

In the last year, Boomplay has signed deals with label majors; Universal Music Group and Warner Music, giving its users access to an extensive catalogue of music globally.