Details of Kenya Airways & Safaricom Fly with Bonga Points Deal

The pact will allow customers to trade 28,000 Bonga Points for a one way ticket and 40,000 points for a return ticket on any domestic route. 

National Carrier Kenya Airways has partnered with the leading integrated communications service provider, Safaricom Limited to launch a platform that will allow its customers to pay for tickets using loyalty Bonga points.

The partnership, dubbed “Fly with Bonga Points”, will see customers with 28,000 Bonga points and more on their Safaricom lines buy tickets for local Kenya Airways flights on either   Economy or Business classes.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership, the Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr.  Titus Naikuni, and Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer, Bob Collymore, said the new proposition follows the success registered in the sale of Kenya Airways tickets through Safaricom’s Mpesa services.

Launch Of BebaPay by Google & Equity Bank + Press Release

Tech giant Google has teamed up with East Africa's largest bank, Equity Bank to launch BebaPay, a payment card that seeks to make it convenient and easier to pay for bus travel in Kenya.

The NFC-enabled electronic payment card is expected to revolutionize the Kenyan public transport.  NFC standing for Near Field Communication technology, means payment can take place offline even when there is no power or network connectivity.

The launch is a form of re-branding since in May 2012 the card was introduced in Nairobi and was available for free from beba agents. 

Below is the Press Release

Nairobi, 30th May 2013: Equity and Google today announced BebaPay, Kenya’s newest cashless innovation to make payments easy and more convenient for consumers and merchants. With BebaPay, bus passengers can sign up for a card and top up for free at Equity agents. Customers can also top up their cards via mobile money. BebaPay helps to overcome the problem of using cash and receiving the correct change when paying for public transport on the bus or "matatu".  BebaPay is the first payments system of its kind for Kenya.

Transport Observatory Project to ease movement goods within EA

Transport Observatory Project (TOP), an online portal that helps reduce the cost and time of moving cargo across borders within the East African region was launched on Thursday at the Nyali Beach Hotel, Mombasa.

The platform will gather information for truck drivers, and will help them monitor key performance indicators such as transit times for trucks, cargo dwell time at the port to a host of other issues.

Syokimau Railway Station to be Commissioned on Tuesday

The New Syokimau  Railway Station
Image Courtesy of transport.go.ke

President Mwai Kibaki will on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 commission the Syokimau Railway Station along Mombasa Road, marking another milestone in efforts to realize various projects envisaged under the Vision 2030 Economic Blueprint.

The contractor, El Noor General Contractor Ltd handed over the 400 million-shilling station to the Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) earlier this week, and it will be officially open to the public from Tuesday.

Nairobi rail transport: Syokimau Station

The proposed station
source: vision2030.go.ke

The 2.2 kilometre railway line that connects the newly built Syokimau station with the old Embakasi line is complete. It has cost Ksh 200 million and is expected to be fully operational by the end of July. This comes after the last extension of the Kenya-Uganda railway line [Kisumu-Butere] by the British colonialist back in the 30s.

The Syokimau station will be the first of 10 similar hubs that Kenya Railways plans to construct in partnership with private investors. The other 6.5 kilometre rail line will connect Embakasi to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and construction will start July 2013.

Nairobi commuter rail system is expected to interlink satellite towns which include Kikuyu, Kiserian and Ngong and later converge at the Central Business District.

Unfortunately, the construction of the railroad will have the residents of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums evicted.

Other reforms that the government is opting to take in line with vision 2030 include the replacement of the 14 seater matatus with higher capacity public service buses and a mobile taxi service that work without parking areas.