Last year a friend went to Twitter asking for Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) to deliver. By delivering she was asking guys at the BAKE HQ (Kachwanya, Wamathai, Mwirigi, Gicheru and Bankelele among others) to deliver oven-fresh bread, chicken legs or cakes which I am sure they will never do even if they are exiled for a year in an open plan kitchen with all the ingredients, safe for Rayhab.

But here is their vindication, creating local content is no child’s play, regardless of it all this guys have put their careers on the line to do it and help others too!

BAKE has announced the dates for its third annual Kenyan Blog Awards seeking to reward active bloggers with awesome content.  To open doors for more content creators, they have launched  two new categories, a “Best Health Blog” category and a “Best County Blog” category raising the total number of categories from the current 15 to 17.

They have also opened submissions for blogs you think are great (like TechMoran.com for the tech category) from today January 10th²⁰¹⁴ to February 10th²⁰¹⁴ .

Please hurry and nominate us here.

The judges, who comprise of seasoned bloggers and media experts will from February 12th 2014 to February 28th 2014 choose the 5 blogs that advance to the next round in all 17 categories. The top five blogs will then be voted through an online platform that will be opened on March 1st²⁰¹⁴ and it will close on April 30th 2014. The winners will be announced at a gala event on May 3rd 2014.

James Wamathai, the Sec Gen of BAKE told TechMoran that even if a blog won last year, they are still allowed to be nominated.

“We seek bloggers that post on a regular basis, have great and useful content, are creative and innovative. These awards represent BAKE’s efforts in the promotion of quality content creation.”

BAKE will however be limiting votes to one time per category.

BAKE,  a community of online content creators in Kenya seeks to empower online content creation and improve the quality of content created on the web. The community, of which we are members had its inaugural BAKE Blog Awards in 2012 where it rewarded bloggers in 14 categories. Over 300 blogs were submitted and 10,000 people voted.

The second edition of the awards were held earlier in 2013 and over 500 blogs were submitted and 50,000 people voted for the bloggers in 15 categories. You voted TechMoran as the Best Technology Blog last year, this year please vote for us as the ‘Blog of the Year’.

Images credit:Bake.or.ke and Wamathai.com

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)  announced that the applications to participate in the 2.3 GHz spectrum allocation auction are to be submitted not later than by 7 February.

The commission will be offering 30 MHz of unpaired spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band for commercial assignment on a national basis in the country. As a result of consulting stakeholders of the industry, NCC will allocate this spectrum in one unpaired block of 30 MHz, adjoining a 10MHz guard band with the adjacent 2.4 GHz band of 2360 – 2390 MHz – Spectrum on offer and 2390 – 2400 MHz – Guard Band

“The proposed licensing of 2.3 GHz spectrum has been influenced by the need to provide Retail Service Providers (ISPs and others users) with the requisite wholesale wireless access and bandwidth to provide service to their subscribers in consonance with the National Broadband Plan of 2013,” says the regulator.

The spectrum is offered by the Commission on a technology neutral basis. For roll-out of services, the NCC intends to follow the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendation setting aside spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band for the provision of wireless broadband services.

The Reserve Price for the 30 MHz of unpaired spectrum for a 10 year license has been set at $23 million.

After the auction NCC will give a 10 year spectrum license and Wholesale Wireless Access Service License (WWASL). The WWASL Operational License will attract an additional fee of One Hundred and Fifty Five Million Naira  (N155,000,000.00 / $) for the winner that does not currently hold a Unified Access Service License (UASL).

The Auction will take place during the week commencing 17th February, 2014.

Kenyan leading artiste, Jaguar, was recently at the Industrial Area prison shooting a video for his latest track, Kioo. While there he joined the inmates for lunch which comprised of Ugali and beans served in metal bowls. This is the same prison whereby 20 prisoners died last year from a cholera outbreak.

The artiste is known to have immense influence and this was one of the instances it may have come to play. The artiste mingled freely with the inmates and donated toilet paper and soap. He also bailed out some inmates and even took one to hospital for medical attention at Metropolitan Hospital. Its an awesome video and Jaguar is making a mark in the country as a unique artiste and one to watch out for, good going homeboy!!!

According to sources, the singer paid a total of Kshs.58, 000 in bail, thus allowing the inmates to spend the New Year with their family. Jaguar’s latest video has been shot in different locations in Kenya, Dubai as well as the Industrial Area prison. The video also features controversial socialite Pendo, you already know then that she is the light girl in a white dress with stripes, and is said to have made a tidy some from featuring in the video.

The other girl in the video, is Amina Amaru a model who is trying her hand at being a video girl. Word on the street is that musicians are all clamoring for a chance to feature her in their music video and why not she is very pretty and has a banging body!

As part of its 2013 Investment plan worth $70 million, MTN has completed the roll-out of  115 new coverage sites and upgraded the capacity of another 406 Network sites bringing the total number to 1,220 Network sites.

The new coverage areas rolled-out in 2013 are  in the central region, Northen region, Eastern region and the Western region. The firm has also upgraded almost all its Network sites in Kampala from 2G to 3G and all the planned new 3G locations out of Kampala have been completed bringing the total number of 3G locations to more than 400 sites.

“MTN Uganda is ahead of target on its rollout plans and nearly all of the planned 406 sites earmarked for upgrade by end of 2013 have been completed,” reiterated Rami Farah, MTN Uganda’s Chief Technical Officer.

See the press statement below for details.

Samsung electronics has revealed its 85 inch Bendable TV prototype this week in Las Vegas. Well the TV can be flat or curved with a touch of a button, a button on it remote control, of course and with the help of embedded electrical motors.

It is believed that the curved screen can enhance the viewing experience;in that owners will be able to determine how bent the screens should be taking into how many people were watching them and how far away they were sitting.

Another plus for this gadget is that the TV can be left flat against the wall when not in use, however critics say that the bending effect is small; hard to know the truth.

Samsung said such a design delivered the “most immersive viewing experience” possible. the 85-inch bendable TV’s true purpose appears to be its ability to provide a live, side-by-side comparison of picture quality on a flat and a curved screen.

The 85 inch TV is set to hit the USA markets in the course of the second half of this year, the price is yet to be revealed.

AccessKenya Group, the leading Corporate Internet and IT Solutions Provider will be connecting with five new counties to its expanding fibre and wireless network in the first quarter of 2014.

In line for connection are Kisii, Narok, and Bungoma counties alongside Nyahururu and Kitale towns in Transzoia and and Laikipia counties respectively, and which will kick off the concerted effort to connect up to 15 counties this year.

Mid last year the company said that they have strategic growth plans into the counties; Jonathan Somen, the Group Managing Director,  added seven new counties which are Kakamega, Kericho, Machakos, Murang’a, Kiambu,  Embu and Meru counties.

“We are committed to delivering localized ICT solutions to every county. AccessKenya appreciates that each county has unique ICT needs so we plan to work with county governments and ICT managers to tailor make and deliver scalable IT solutions,” said Somen.

Among its milestones in 2013, AccessKenya that seeks to be the preferred one-stop ICT solutions provider for county governments in Kenya won the Machakos County business, a major triumph given the county’s prominence of hosting Konza Technopolis.

In a statement issued at the time, Somen explained that presence in Machakos would allow the company to deploy its expansive expertise and service to the strategic County Government as it crafts its own ICT policies and lays a foundation towards actualize

Nigerian-based African-focused Under35CEO, a top business and entrepreneurial blog for young/aspiring entrepreneurs has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise  $7,000 to empower youth in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Set to begin with over 60 teenagers in the first quarter of this year, in 3 states in Nigeria [Osun, Ibadan and Lagos state], in Nigeria, the team aims to raise the funds to cover the cost of programing, traveling expenses, training kits, website design/hosting, venues, accommodation and many more.

Yinka Brand, the Editor and Co-founder of Under35CEO, said the project dubbed Empower-A-Teen [EAT], a social development project aims at empowering teenagers in Nigeria and Africa as they determine the future of Africa.

EAT will empower the teenagers via skill acquisitions, scholarship, talent, leadership and entrepreneurial development programmes.

“More than half of the entire world’s population is under 25-years-old and …“In a few years, 1 out of every 4 under25-years-olds will be in Africa.” By this, we see a big need to empower the African teens starting from Nigeria”, says Yinka. ”We believe they are the change Africa seeks and we are committed to empowering them.”

The project has Programmes such as After School Skill Aquisition Programme (ASSAP)- ASSAP for skill acquisition and training in areas like programming,Interior designing, shoe-making, photography,fashion designing & tailoring, carpentary & woodwork, bead & jewellery making, bakery, make-up, among others.

It also has LaunchIT-  a one-day programme that helps aspiring teen entrepreneurs turn their passions and ideas into viable businesses with paying customers, Entrepreneurship is Cool programme which brings Nigeria’s top young entrepreneurs to secondary schools to inspire and help them launch their dream business during a half-day, one of its kind conference.

Others include School-leavers Apprenticeship Programme (SAPP), SHINE -a one year talent development/internship programme for secondary school graduates that would give them the opportunity to learn the art and science of making of making successful web products, LEAD- is a leadership development program for teenagers designed to inspire and challenge them to develop their leadership competences. There will also be LEAD annual all Africa teen conference. And a scholarship.

He says the programmes aims to make African teens productive and responsible members of society, be elf-reliant, acquire working experience, skills and help them achieve their personal goals,  empower an African teen who will in turn who empower other teenagers and commit to Africa’s advancement and reduce unemployment, hunger and eradicate abject poverty in Africa.

Nigeria’s Channels TV , has won the the prestigious “Best Station of The Year Award” for 2013 from the The Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Media Merit Award Trust.

The award, announced late last year is the eighth time that Channels TV has been recognised by the Nigeria Media Merit Award Trust, a national platform set to build  media excellence in the country.

Channels TV Executive Chairman, Mr John Momoh, said the award is a hign of their devotion to quality even if it was not the first time they were winning an award.

“We strive to provide a true, news-led independent voice in Nigeria and we are very happy that this has been recognised again. We are committed to continuing to serve Nigeria and its people with balanced news and entertainment.”

Channels TV is one of Nigeria’s 13 independent, free-to-air broadcasters says it is working with its peers to support the long-term growth of a strong and dynamic, commercially lucrative, digital content publishing industry spanning all genres of television including quality news and current affairs programming for Nigeria’s over 160 million people and the Nigerian Diaspora.