Chebitwey, Washington Akumu shortlisted for Telkom Kenya job

The current CEO of the Kenya Yearbook, Dennis Chebitwey and the former Safaricom Public Relations and Promotions manager Washington Akumu, are among those shortlisted for the corporate affairs head position at Telkom Kenya that was recently vacated by Angela Mumo.

They are joined on the shortlist by Nelly Githaka who used to be the sponsorships manager at Safaricom before leaving in 2010 and Tom Ogola who formerly worked under Angela Mumo before heading to Mabati Rolling Mills.

Mumo left the job for a similar position at Microsoft that had been advertised a couple of months ago.

Chebitwey is a veteran PR strategist who used to work at Gina Din Communications before leaving for the Kenya Yearbook position.

Akumu on the other hand came from the newsroom serving as the Business Editor at the Daily Nation before he took up the post at Safaricom.

Ogola has also been in PR. He worked at the Africa Practice agency handling such clients as GTV, Telkom Kenya and so on before he took a position as a Media & External Stakeholders Relations manager at Telkom.

He then moved to Mabati Rolling Mills and then on to a law firm before starting his own consultancy.

Nelly Githaka has worked for Safaricom and is currently the general manager of Emergency Plus Medical Services.

All these candidates are excellent choices for a post said to command upwards of Sh800,000 a month.

Chebitwey is an excellent PR guy not just in practice but in person. He can work his way through the labyrinth of government offices and parliament and has a keen understanding of lobbying legislators.

Akumu of course brings experience from Safaricom a much bigger entity than Telkom and also understands the news business.

Ogola has the advantage of having worked at Telkom before and having handled many of the duties that will be required of the position.

Githaka would seem to the dark horse in this race but undoubtedly she has her qualities if she was shortlisted along with such a calibre of individuals.

It will be hard to call this one but we see it coming down to Chebitwey because of his experience and inside knowledge of the workings of the government machinery (the government is a key stakeholder for Telkom) and Ogola because of his insider credentials.

Akumu and Githaka are excellent choices too who could be disadvantaged by their "outsider" status.

But at the end of the day it will come down to what exactly Telkom is looking for in the person it wants to hire.

KENYA-ETHIOPIA 400MW POWER PROJECT TAKES OFF

A 686Km high-voltage line to bring 400MW of power purchased from Ethiopia into the Kenyan national grid is set to take off with the signing today of the funding deal with the International Development Agency (IDA), the concessionary-lending arm of the World Bank Group.

The Sh54billion transmission line is part a regional strategy to pool power that will gradually include Uganda and then Tanzania.

The power will come from the controversial Gibe III dam in Ethiopia whose construction has not been without hitches as pressure-groups raised the spectre of adverse downstream effects of damming a river that feeds into Lake Turkana.

Ethiopia is estimated to have 45,000MW of power and first sought guarantee from Kenya that it would take up the power if the nation undertook to put up the HEP dam.

The African Development Bank has already given Sh30billion toward the project while the French Development Bank (ADB) through its infrastructure-arm Proparco and the Government of Kenya will also partially fund the project whose total cost is put at Sh94billion.

Two High-Voltage Direct Current converters will be put up at Suswa in Kenya and Wolayita Sodo in Ethiopia.

The project will be implemented by the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) and the Ehtiopia Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO).

Kenya will buy the power at 5 US cents per Kilowatt Hour which is much lower than most power producers sell their power to monopoly distributor Kenya Power. Lake Turkana Wind Project for example, proposes to sell power to Kenya Power at 7 US cent/Kwh.

The power will transmit at 600Kilovolts much higher than the beefed up 400Kv line being built from Mombasa to Nairobi to bring power from the likes of Rabai Power station, Kipevu III and the proposed 600MW coal-fired plant in Kilifi.

Indeed, Ketraco is embarking on a stabilization project of the national grid so that it can handle these high voltages.

The power will come in direct current form which is much cheaper to transmit over long distances and sees lower dissipation rates (wastage).

Two high-voltage DC converters will be built at Suswa and Sodo. The Sodo one will convert generating alternating current into direct current for transmission and at Suswa the DC will be converted to AC and injected into the national grid.

The route from Ethiopia, according to project documents will be:from Ethiopia into Kenya approximately 90 km West of Moyale town and traverses Marsabit, Samburu, Isiolo, Laikipia, Nyandarua and Nakuru. From Moyale the transmission line route runs adjacent to the Great North Highway (Marsabit – Moyale) in a southerly direction avoiding Marsabit National Park. From Marsabit area the route runs southwards at a maximum distance of 500 m parallel to the main Isiolo – Marsabit Highway to Laisamis.

At Laisamis Town the proposed RoW runs close to the road as it enters Losai game reserve keeping a range of about 400 m to 800 m off the road reserve then runs further on to Merille where it diverts slightly westwards running east of Matthews Range, 6 km east of the Lololokwe Mountain peak. It then runs through a stretch of fairly flat land covered by thorny shrubs and bushes, and then turns southwards to the Ngoborbit plateaus and ridges dropping altitude down into Laikipia.

In Laikipia, the proposed RoW continues through the extreme western section of Mpala Ranch which is covered by scattered thickets and bushes. Then it crosses Mutara River into Ndaragwa. The line runs on top ridge of Shamata and then sharply drops altitude to the flat plains of Olobolossat, 3.7 kilometres eastwards of Lake Ol Bolossat. It then traverses the Olkalou Settlement Scheme and cuts across Malewa River, climbing a steep hill then drops altitude to the flat land of Marangishu (karati) and on-wards to Kijabe after crossing the Nakuru – Nairobi highways into plains east of Mt. Longonot into the proposed Suswa Substation.

KENYA'S EVA CHEMGOREM WINS DSTV POSTER COMPETITION

Eutelsat.

DsTV and satellite services provider Eutelsat have announced the winners of the DsTV Eutelsat competition which featured students from across Africa with East Africa emerging the big winners.

Anthony Oyom of Uganda scooped best prize for his essay "A watchful eye from above the heaves" which could be both brilliant but also spooky (Big brother is watching) while Kenyan school girl Eva Chemgorem's poster with the more reassuring title, "Africa United through satellites" emerged top.

The students will get an opportunity to travel to France early next year and will also receive other prizes in country such as laptops and decoders.

Eutelsat operates several satellites across Europe, Middle East and Africa including Satellite 16A which covers sub-Saharan Africa.

DsTV with its 6million subscribers on the continent uses these satellites hence the competition's partnership.

DsTV and its new stablemate, digital terrestrial service GoTV are the twin prongs, the Naspers-owned Multichoice with its two content arms, MNET and Super Sport intend to use to extend dominance on the continent.

Chinese Star Times is also investing billions of shillings in a DVB-T2 network to get a slice of the estimated 4million TV market in Kenya.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN SAFARICOM'S EARNINGS THURSDAY

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.

The management of Safaricom, fresh off receiving its umpteenth trophy for being the top taxpayer in the country, and by extension most profitable company, face investors on Thursday, to give the half-term report of their operations and whether those operations resulted in a profit or loss.

The half-year earnings, under the International Financial Reporting Standards, are presented in a format known as the Statement of Income.

This is one of the reports that a company's management is expected to prepare for external entities such as shareholders/investors, regulatory authorities, the taxman, financiers etc.

CEO Bob Collymore and his Chief Financial Officer will be expected to tell us on Thursday, how much revenue they generated from their operations in the six months to September 30, 2012, how much it cost them to generate that revenue, and whether a profit or loss was made.

Last year at this time the company announced a precipitous 48 per cent drop in pre-tax profits from Sh10.4billion the previous year to Sh5.3billion on the back of falling voice revenues and surging costs of doing business - this was when inflation was mounting and the shilling was taking a battering on the currency markets.

This year BobCollymore will do the following:

He will paint the overall business environment Safaricom is operating in - this will include but will not be limited to:

1. The possibility of another slash in mobile termination rates across networks - this could see rivals especially Airtel unleash another round of tariff wars the likes of which, as the UK's Guardian observed, saw a drop in the country's overall inflation rate and also dropped the jaws of a few telecom executives. Newly-confirmed CCK boss Francis Wangusi, has shown a disturbingly (from the telecoms perspective) independent streak on this issue and looks to be raring to slash the MTRs.
2. Competition across Safaricom's various business units - voice, financial services and data. Some rivals have started offering free money transfer services and independent services are being launched continously including an upcoming one that is said to eliminate the need for third party applications to interface with M-PESA for mobile commerce and online transactions.
3. M-PESA has had some downtimes that will necessarily force people, especially businesses to have a second live mobile money service to reduce dependence on M-PESA. The issue of migration of servers from Germany to Kenya will need to be addressed but more importantly, the Central Bank of Kenya's patience might be tested to the limit especially as more and more of the nation's transactions pass through M-PESA - CBK may seek a permanent solution to these problems.
4. The 4G/LTE issue - a consortium of sorts has been announced, Ericsson has offered to build the country an LTE network for free - where is Safaricom in all this - Again Collymore should address it.
5. The counterfeit phones switch off and likely impact on full-year results and the upcoming switch off of unregistered SIM cards is also likely to feature.
6. Unclaimed Financial Assets and M-PESA - A major storyline that could emerge is how much M-PESA holds in unclaimed funds either from people who passed away, moved out of the country or changed networks. How much Safaricom expects to remit will be of interest both in unclaimed M-PESA funds and unclaimed dividends.

THE FINANCIALS

Since this is just the half-year, these results will not be audited and then again, the auditors work is only to give his opinion as to whether or not, the presented statements have been prepared in conformity with accepted accounting standards.

1. Revenues - Investors will want to see the revenues generated during the period under review and who these break down in terms of voice, SMS, M-PESA, data and devices. Voice has been growing but not as fast as in periods past so that will be an area investors will be keen on. Ditto SMS. M-PESA revenues will generate a lot of interest given the phenomenal growth of this service and also projections going forward. Data will be expected to show momentum but in the face of a shared LTE network being rolled out, the future growth of data will need to be scrutinized more closely.
2. Costs - It costs Safaricom a lot of money to generate its enormous revenues whether it is in putting up Base Stations (CAPEX), marketing and commissions, administration and staff costs, overheads including fuel for its base stations generators and vandalism. How well it is managing these costs and how they compare to revenues on a ratio basis will be important to see if the company is getting more efficient or not.
3. Profits - During the period under review, did the company's operations result in profits or losses and how does it compare to last year? The company will be expected to show a significant improvement in its earnings given that inflation has been dropping, the shilling has been stable, fuel prices have also been stable and MTRs have not changed.
4. Statement of Cash Flows - It is important to see what sort of working capital (Money to run its operations) that the company has. 
5. Ratios - Safaricom has indicated that it intends to lay some fibre to give it better control of its network operations. A good gearing ratio will show if the company can leverage and perhaps issue a cash call (Bond) to the market to raise the Sh4billion it needed for this effort. Currently, interest rates are falling so it might be opportune for the company to come to the market.
6. Units P&L - Several customer facing business units have Profit and Loss responsibilities - It would be important to see how each of these are faring in both generating the revenue but doing so efficiently by managing costs. Peter Arina's Consumer Business needs to show improving efficiency in managing its dealer network and reducing losses in commissions and reported activations and in this regard the average settlement period of accounts payable and receivables will be of interest, Sylvia Mulinge's Enterprise and the Marketing divisions will also need to show improving times in getting products to market as Safaricom's IT bureacracy is known to frustrate a lot of ideas brought to the company for new innovations and in particular Bob Collymore's stated zero-tolerance policy on corruption needs to be shown to be applying here - particularly a dropoff point for complaints and whistleblowers should be instituted to clamp down on this vice and save the company money wasted on padded supply contracts.

All the same the company could report impressive numbers but there remains much to be done in terms of efficiency but also in bringing new innovations to the market especially on the data side.

PETER WAHINYA: AIRTEL FREEZES ACCOUNTS OVER EQUITY BANK LOST FUNDS

The Airtel notice.

Airtel has been running a public notice featuring a Peter Wahinya in the Daily Nation for the last two months, cautioning the public not to deal with him on any Airtel issues.

It is enough to raise anyone's curiosity: what would impel Airtel to spend millions to put a guy's face in the papers?

Indeed, as they are asking at Wazua, how much money did Wahinya take from the company?

THE LOWDOWN

It can be confirmed that indeed, it is a case of money lost from the company.

It turns out, according to sources, that Wahinya, is accused of stealing millions from the company through its Equity Bank account by first transferring the funds from the account into other unsuspecting people's accounts before the money was routed to Wahinya's account.

Some conservative estimates place the money so embezzled at Sh26million.

It so happened that a customer, having notice the coming in and going out of unusually large amounts of funds in his account, raised the alarm.

He demanded to know where that money comes from before it goes out of his account as he did not recognize the transactions.

It is then that the trail was followed and the pictured gentleman's gig was up.

FROZEN ASSETS

As of now, as Wahinya tussles with his former employer, reportedly most of his assets have been frozen. His bank accounts have been frozen.

He is said to have grown a fleet of trucks that plied the Mombasa route -those have also been frozen.

He was also said to have built a few flats - those have also been seized.

It is not clear how the fellow, said to be in his late 20s, managed to pull of such a heist but from all appearances, it must have been done in complicity with a bank employee.

AIRTEL

As for Airtel, there is little incentive to warn the public of Wahinya's existence but according to sources, top brass at the mobile operator have decided to shame him relentlessly by booking the ads basically murder his character beyond salvation.

Meanwhile, expect the battle to take several fronts to court -- from Law Courts in the CBD for criminal related issues, to Milimani where, the Commercial Division of the High Court of Kenya, sits.

NOKIA DUPLICATE IMEIs COMPLICATE SAFARICOM (680K USERS), AIRTEL (130K) PHONE SWITCH OFFS

Safaricom, Airtel, Orange and yuMobile will starting Sunday 30, 2012 will begin exchanging blacklists of bogus handsets to be switched off in batches of 20,000.

Safaricom is targeting 680,000 users initially while Airtel has earmarked 130,000 at the outset. Figures for the other two are yet unavailable.

The figures are supposed to be much higher. Airtel for example is reckoned to have about 800,000 counterfeit phone users while Safaricom could go as high as 2million plus.

The game according to Safaricom insiders, has been complicated however, by handset-maker and vendor Nokia, still the dominant handheld device in Kenya.

Safaricom sources say Nokia a couple of years back made a mistake by releasing huge batches of handsets with idential IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers.

As such, many users on the operators network share IMEI numbers.

Airtel boss Shivan Bhargave is said to have protested to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) who allowed operators to hold off on switching off such phones.

However, those handsets showing a bunch of zeros (0000000) will be cut off without further debate.

To check your IMEI number dial *#06#. You can then send the IMEI number to 115, the common mobile operators database.

The process of switching off is expected to be rolling for about 10-15 hours with 20,000 users being switched off at a time.

It is not clear how the issue of the duplicate IMEIs will be handled.

"It is only Nokia with that problem," Safaricom sources said.

Coca-Cola to launch Coke Zero in Kenya next week

So Coca-Cola, after taking what it deemed a misinformed beating in the press about certain ingredients in its soft-drinks, convened bloggers in Nairobi to hammer in a few home truths.

Bloggers, a yet-untamed quantity capable of terrorizing a brand online, heard terms like caramelization, enzymatic browning, emulsification, food-grade carbohydrates, subject-matter experts and a bunch of other terms that brand managers use.

The whole session boiled down to this:

1. Coke is healthy.

2. Coke will launch a brand this week that carries absolutely no calories so if you are settling down to a long session with Bacardi Black or Myers, this would be the best choice for your Rum and Coke, thus spake Peter Njonjo, the GM Coca-Cola EA.

Peter Njonjo (middle)

The Beef

In July, a consumer body in the US released a report claiming that Coke sold in places like Kenya contained much higher levels of a cancer-causing substance called 4-MethylImidazole (4MI).

Whereas in California, only 4micrograms of the 4MI are allowed in a normal 12-ounce drink, and to carry a cancer warning for any drink containing above that level, in places like Brazil, Coke was found to have 267mcgs.

Here's how different countries stack up:

The Riposte

Njonjo of Coke reckons that when we talk about additives, preservatives and so on, it will be important to understand the role of each.

For instance, while emulsifiers and stabilizers help the manufacturing process of soda, other additives are simply colours - imagine for example, drinking a clear beverage that has the taste of Fanta Orange. The colour is part of branding.

The much publicised 4MI, is but an every day by-product of heating food-grade carbohydrates much in the same way sugar heated in a pan turns brown.

This process is called caramelization and produces dark yellowish-brown colours.

"As we continue heating, there is a possibility that we get a different product like 4-MI," Philip Ndemwa, a researcher at Kemri told the bloggers.

According to Ndemwa, 4-MI is always produced in processes like cooking meat (that is why it turns brown), making Tusker Lager batches achieve an even colour and so on.

Looking Ahead

So going forward, Coca Cola will launch Coke Zero in the market next week.

It will carry out an education campaign to sensitize people on healthy living and disabuse them of the notion that Coke has too much sugar.

It is all a matter of Energy Balance, Peter Njonjo says. The number of calories that a Coke product contains will be highlighted and will possibly be accompanied by healthy tips on a number of calories burning activities.

Further stakeholder engagement with media, academia and so on will continue.

It's bottling companies have now adopted state of the art bottling processes that put bottles through two Elecronic Bottle Inspections in the filling cycle to determine if any impurity might have gotten into the product.