Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Wednesday 21st January

Below are other major stories of the day:

Regulator bars importation of TV decoders by 3 stations over misleading advert 

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has today said that it would liaise with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to stop the importation of new TV decoders by three media houses – Nation Media Group, Standard Group and Royal Media Services. The move is part the industry regulator’s reaction to the advertisements carried via NTV, QTV, KTN and Citizen TV which has been calling on viewers not to purchase decoders from GOtv and StarTimes.

The three media houses – working under the African Digital Network (ADN) consortium – have been through the infomercials, which were stopped yesterday via a court order – been advising viewers not to buy GOtv and StarTimes decoders but instead wait for new decoders which would distribute their free-to-air (FTA) content.

Five Nairobi-based PSV saccos to phase out cash, go cashless by February 1

Five PSV Saccos with 250 vehicles plying Nairobi’s Jogoo road route have tied with technology company Fibre Space to use its cashlight fare system ‘MY1963’ to end cash payments for matatu fares, with ROG SACCO leading the way, saying it will refuse to accept cash fares from February 1st.

The move to enforce the cash light fare system is being driven by revenue losses that owners say amount to over 30 per cent of their daily earnings. The owners claim the government’s relaxation on the implementation of the cash light system has pushed them to self implement, in a campaign that is now targeting over 100,000 passengers on one of the busiest roads in Nairobi, putting paid to claims that SACCOs are not ready to embrace fare payment technology.

DEMO Africa 2015 set for a return to Lagos in September 

Preparations for the 2015 edition of DEMO Africa have begun with Lagos successfully bidding to host the global event for the second year running. The event dates have been confirmed as September 24 – 25 at the Eko Hotel and Suites.

This presents another chance for 40 more start-ups from across Africa to showcase their innovations on the DEMO Africa platform. The launch of new innovations is expected to prompt the attending audience of potential investors, IT buyer and consumers towards actions that will gain Africa further traction in the global start-up scene.

Safaricom selects Nokia to help expand its network infrastructure

Safaricom, selected Nokia Networks as one of its partners to modernize and expand its 2G and 3G network infrastructure and to help launch the first LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network in Kenya.

The deal, at a glance, involves the following: Core modernization with its ATCA-based Liquid Core portfolio for Mobile Softswitch (MSS) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), supply of compact Single RAN Advanced platform based on the high-capacity, scalable and energy-efficient Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, supply and expansion of its Subscriber Data Management solution and implementation of its cloud-ready OSS systemNetAct.

Kenya’s controversial new security law leverages technology

Some of the most economically developed nations in the world have for some time used technology for surveillance and intelligence-gathering to combat terrorism. Now, Kenya, has been hit with terrorist attacks in the recent past, aims to enhance security via recent controversial legislation that includes key technology elements.

The Security Laws (Amendment) Act 2014 was hurriedly passed in Kenya’s National Assembly, with lawmakers citing the urgency to have laws that will help security agencies to fight an increase in crime and terrorism.

An amendment act seeks to add or change existing laws. There are sections of the law that aims to promote the use of technology to fight crime that are expected to elevate Kenya to another level among its peers in Africa. Eight clauses of the security act, however, have been challenged in court and will be reviewed by the Supreme Court.