Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Wednesday August 12th, 2015

Health secretary James Macharia.
The war on market dominance intensifies as more and more organisations and Government officials give varying opinions on the regulations. The question that still remains: Who will be the ultimate winner? …This and more in today’s wrap up.

Safaricom dominance splits Uhuru’s ministers

Health secretary James Macharia has differed with his counterpart in the Information and Communications ministry Fred Matiang’i over regulations meant to declare Safaricom dominant.Mr Macharia said Safaricom acquired its market leadership through innovation and investment and as such it is wrong to come up with regulations aimed at bringing it down merely because it is a market leader, without first establishing whether it is abusing its market dominance.

Requests for Twitter account information from Kenya government tumbles

Since 2012, Twitter has been publishing the Twitter Transparency report a biannual transparency report covering government requests and copyright notices. Twitter released the Half year 2015 report, which also included announcements of expansion of the service to include two new sections: trademark notices and email privacy practices. In the report, Twitter revealed it received a 52 per cent increase in the number of requests by for account information by governments. In the period, Twitter received 4,363 requests for information from law enforcement authorities. During the same period, copyright notices increased 11-percent, and removal requests increased 26-percent.

Orange seeks to partner with start-ups in an App Developers Challenge

Kenyan startups can now submit their app development ideas for the Orange API AMEA (African, Middle East and Asian Countries) Developer Challenge. This competition will see startups submit their proposals that must demonstrate the use of existing Orange APIs (SMS, USSD and Operator billing) in the apps’ development. Startups from 14 African and Middle East countries including Kenya, Tunisia, Jordan, Mali, Botswana and Guinea Bissau will participate. They will also compete with startups from France who are renowned for unique designs and development of new services for users in their region.

Airtel, UP Magazine partner to launch ‘Design Thinking’ awards

Airtel has partnered with UP Magazine to launch a first of its kind award ceremony dubbed ‘Design Thinking’ (DXD – Disruption by Design). The award looks to reward key change ­makers in Kenyan society who use solution based thinking to overcome challenges and succeed. Popularly known as ‘Design Thinking’, the award looks to reward innovative elements in Kenyan society.

Startups in Kenya remain perennial award winning entities

Half a decade ago, start-ups were just a simple business idea waiting to be hatched into an actual revenue generating enterprise. No one cared much about a simple idea not making money yet. Today though, the scene has changed, Sillicon valley is the reason behind the awakened business industry for nurturing simple ideas into great business structures recording huge amounts of revenue today.