Author: Kaluka wanjala

In the world of premium foldable smartphones, Samsung and Huawei are the dominant players. Samsung has a number of foldable devices on the market with the latest ones being the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4. Both these phones are available for Ksh  Ksh 142,000 and Ksh 256,000 respectively. You can buy both devices from Jumia.  The latest foldable device to make its way to Kenya is the Huawei Mate XS 2. This phone was unveiled to a global audience back in May and it is now available on pre-order in the country. You can pre-order…

Xiaomi has updated its entry level smartphone series with the introduction of yet another smartphone. This phone is currently available on Jumia for Ksh 10,400. Previous entry level smartphones from Xiaomi have been available in Kenya for just under Ksh 10,000 and I was hoping that would be the case with the Redmi A1+. You can get the Redmi A1+’s predecessor, the Xiaomi Redmi 9A which you can get in Kenya for around Ksh 12,000 on Jumia.  Back to the Redmi A1+, it did launch in Kenya at a great time when no other competitor has launched a phone within…

iiDENTIFii has raised US$15 million growth capital. The round was led by African investment company Arise whose cornerstone investors include Rabobank Partnerships, Norfund, NorFinance and FMO. This is, to date, the largest African Series A in the identity verification space. iiDENTIFii is a world leader in biometric authentication. Its advanced face authentication technology securely authenticates users via their cellphones or PCs within seconds. iiDENTIFii operates across several industry verticals and is used by the largest pan-African banks, insurers and mining houses for both customer and employee authentication. Its customers include Standard Bank, ABSA Bank, and Investec Bank. Investors in the…

Vivo has confirmed that it will be launching the vivo V25 5G in Kenya next month. According to the company, the new vivo V25 5G will follow the V series’ heritage of capturing exquisite moments with its superior camera capabilities and cutting-edge imaging technology. The phone has a 6.44 inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 2404 pixels and 90Hz refresh rate. It will be powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage space.  Out of the box, the vivo V25 5G runs Android 12. It is not clear…

Safaricom has announced that from next month, Fuliza daily maintenance fee for amounts between Ksh 100 and 1000 will be reduced by 40%. There is no fee charged for those who overdrafting anything below Ksh 100 but those who overdraft Ksh 101 to Ksh 500 will be charged a daily maintenance fee of Ksh 3. This is down from the current Ksh 5 charged each day. For those seeking amounts between Ksh 501 to 1000, the fee is Ksh 6 per day.  Fuliza has always come under attack from being expensive and exploitative. Even though Safaricom has argued that it…

Kenya Power plans to replace all petrol and diesel-powered vehicles and motorbikes on its fleet with electric powered ones. The company says this is one of its key steps towards embracing clean energy as the country is moving to that direction too.  Being the main power distributor in the country, it makes sense for Kenya Power to make this move as that might encourage others to follow suit and in the end Kenya Power stands to make more money. If a significant portion of the population embraces electric mobility, they will need to charge their e-vehicles every so often and…

Yesterday, Tecno unveiled yet another smartphone, the Tecno Pova Neo 2. The phone is not available in Kenya yet but I expect it to make its way over here in the coming months.  One of the stand out features of the Pova Neo 2 is the 7,000 mAh battery it comes with. This is quite big for an entry level phone and should be good enough to last for up to 2 days. Tecno Pova devices are known to target the low end segment of the market. We don’t get to hear much about them but they are quite a…

The Redmi Note 11 Pro is one of the latest smartphones from Xiaomi to launch in Kenya. You can get the phone from Jumia from Ksh 34,500. The phone was launched in Kenya a few months back and should be on your list if you are looking for a phone within this range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxshpZjhYkI&t=28s I have the Redmi Note 11 Pro in for review and before I get to that, I thought I should highlight some of the top 5 things I love and you should consider if you are thinking of getting this phone.  The Redmi Note 11 Pro…

For the year ending June 2022, Safaricom’s fixed data market share dropped by 2.4% to 34.3% according to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). Even as its market share dropped, Safaricom still added 44,723 connections during that period taking its total to 314,120 connections.  Zuku saw its market share drop by 1.7% to 27.9% even though it added 38,606 new connections. The total connections by Zuku so far stand at 255,906.  Jamii Telecommunications Limited (Faiba) on the other hand added 61,810 new users taking its total user base to 200,079. Out of all the fixed data providers, JTL…

Over the last few years, there has been debate on the separation of M-Pesa from Safaricom’s core business. The arguments for both sides have been valid but Safaricom hasn’t been keen to embrace this. There are those who have argued that M-Pesa is way too big and important to Kenya’s economy for it to be under the control of Safaricom. There was even discussion in senate pushing for this separation arguing that if it happens, Safaricom will be under the Communication Authority while M-Pesa will be under the CBK. The discussion also made it clear that separating M-Pesa from Safaricom…