Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dr Willy Mutunga, the former Chief Justice of Kenya, has delivered the 4th ACME Annual Lecture. Theme is Media and Independence of the Judiciary. Mutunga is a lawyer, intellectual, reform activist, and has been the Commonwealth Special Envoy to the Maldives. According to the lecture organisers …
Read More »Kenyan marathon champion Sumgong gets four year drugs ban
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong has been suspended for four years for doping, Athletics Kenya said Tuesday. “Sumgong will serve the four-year ban as from (April 3) when she was provisionally suspended,” Athletics Kenya said in a statement. The 32-year-old tested positive for the …
Read More »Deadly heat from climate change may hit slums hardest
Miami, United States | AFP | With sheet metal roofs, concrete floors, poor ventilation and spotty electricity, crowded urban slums in Africa can expect to get even hotter and deadlier due to global warming, US researchers said Monday. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University analyzed three informal settlements in Nairobi, including the …
Read More »Kenya charges AFP photographer with ‘trespassing’ at dairy
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The chief photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in east Africa appeared in court Monday after 48 hours in police custody, charged with trespassing on a property belonging to the president’s family. Japanese photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba, 46, was arrested on Friday afternoon at a farm belonging to …
Read More »What’s next for Kenya?
Kenya in chaos: With broken institutions and a reeling opposition, what’s next for Kenya? ANALYSIS | Dominic Burbidge | I remember walking through the rubble of burnt out buildings some months after Kenya’s 2008 post-election violence. Houses owned by ethnic Kikuyu were razed to the ground in the city of Kisumu. …
Read More »Kenya’s contentious electoral amendments pass into law
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | A controversial set of amendments to Kenya’s electoral act became law on Thursday, just days after a divisive presidential poll boycotted by the opposition. The amendments, condemned by the opposition as well as Kenya’s foreign allies, were automatically gazetted after President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta failed to …
Read More »Raila Odinga: Veteran Kenyan opposition leader digs in heels
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Raila Odinga, Kenya’s veteran opposition leader and one-time prime minister, on Tuesday promised a campaign of civil disobedience and protest against a presidential election he boycotted last week, keeping alive his long-held dream of winning the nation’s top job. The 72-year-old has been a mainstay of …
Read More »Kenya’s Odinga rejects ‘sham’ election, pledges to fight on
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday rejected outright the result of last week’s “sham” election, vowing to fight on after the protest-hit poll that handed President Uhuru Kenyatta a landslide win. “This election must not stand. If allowed to stand, it will make a …
Read More »Uhuru Kenyatta: Re-elected, but at what cost?
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Uhuru Kenyatta, who won a second and final term in Kenya’s controversial election re-run, is the son of the country’s founding president and a man who epitomises the country’s elite. The 56-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and land, followed in …
Read More »Kenyatta says election victory ‘revalidates’ will of the people
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday said his victory in Kenya’s boycott-hit election re-run was a “revalidation” of the people’s will after a vote he won in August that was overturned by the courts. “On 8th August, 15 million Kenyans came out to vote. Of these, 8.4 …
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