In The Headlines on August 1 2019; What You Need To Know

What you need to know today.

1. High court Stops Debate on Aukot’s “Punguza Mzigo” Bill
High Court Judge Justice James Makau on Wednesday stopped the 47 county assemblies across the country from debating and approving a Bill fronted by Thirdway Alliance Kenya party, popularly known as Punguza Mizigo.

The judge also stopped the party from presenting the Bill to the Speaker of the National Assembly, pending a case filed in court against it.

The judge said the orders will remain in force for 14 days as other parties named in the petition file their responses.

2. Dusit D2 Hotel Reopens
Dusitd2 Hotel on Riverside Drive in Westlands, Nairobi reopened its doors on Wednesday in a special ceremony attended by Tourism CS, Najib Balala.

The special event was marked by the hoisting of the Kenyan flag by icon athlete David Rudisha and head of the hotel chain. The flag was hoist alongside the flags of the Dusit International brand as well as that of Dusit D2.

The hotel began its operations yesterday after a six-month break after the terror attack that left 21 people dead. However, its doors to the public on Thursday (today).

Security has been beefed up at the shopping complex, “During the time of our closure, we have taken time to train our staff in various aspects including customer service in line with the global Dusit Hotels and Resorts. In order to reinforce the safety of our guests, we have also enhanced security measures right from the entrance of the 14 Riverside Complex,” reads a statement that had been released last month by the hotel.

3. Heineken Distributor Awarded Sh1.7bn By High Court
Maxam Ltd, the distributor of Heineken beer lager in Kenya, has been awarded Sh1.7 billion for loss of business after the contract was unfairly terminated by Heineken East Africa Import Company Ltd and Heineken International B.V. The firm’s distribution agreement was also reinstated by the court.

Delivering the ruling, James Aaron Makau said the two firms illegally and unfairly purported to unilaterally terminate the agreement.

4. Michael Joseph, Transport PS Sells Their Safaricom Shares
Safaricom’s founding chief executive Michael Joseph and Transport PS Esther Koimett have sold-off their shareholding in Safaricom.

In its annual report published on Wednesday, the telecommunications firm said Joseph and Esther, sold off all shares they held in the company in the course of the company’s financial year to March 2019.

The two both had 1.17 million shares and 517,600 shares respectively but these had come down to zero by end of its financial year in March this year.

5. More Than 100 EABL Staff Face Layoffs
Diageo, the parent company of East African Breweries (EABL) , is set to retrench more than 100 employees working at its business support centre in Nairobi.

In a statement, the Diageo Africa Business Service Centre (ABSC) announced its plans to shut down and its role outsourced to other markets. “The business services requirements and processes across Diageo Africa are changing and as such Diageo will be conducting a review of the centre to determine where best to locate technical services roles for Africa in either Europe or Asia,” read the statement.

The retrenchments  with which most will be concentrated in the human resource and finance desks will be done gradually and conclude in March next year. However, the firm said the changes will not affect the core functions of its local subsidiary EABL.

In the past one year alone, more than 2,000 high-quality jobs in Kenya have been lost in retrenchments implemented by companies including Bamburi Cement, Standard Chartered Bank (Kenya) and Britam. Telkom Kenya on Wednesday announced plans to layoff 575 emplyees amid the planned merger with Airtel. Stanbic Bank had also in the recent past drew a plan to lay off up to 200 employees.