Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Kenya to shut two camps with 410 000 refugees

Kenya to shut two camps with 410 000 refugees

KENYA has told the United Nations it will shut by June 2022 two camps holding over 430,000 refugees who fled from wars in the east and Horn of Africa, adding it planned to repatriate some and give others residency. The interior ministry made the announcement on Twitter about five weeks after ordering the closure of the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and giving the United Nations two weeks to present a plan to carry this out. Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi met on Thursday in Nairobi and a joint team will be formed…
Read More
Kenya extends nationwide curfew

Kenya extends nationwide curfew

KENYA'S President Uhuru Kenyatta has extended a nationwide overnight COVID-19 curfew for 60 days to battle a third wave of infections in East Africa’s wealthiest economy. Kenya, which has so far had at least 111,185 cases and 1,899 deaths, reported 829 new infections on Thursday, the highest daily number since last year. In a televised address, Kenyatta said the positive test rate hit 13% in March compared to January’s 2%. “Unfortunately, it is still rising,” he said. Lockdowns and other restrictions have stifled revenues and hampered growth. “Last year, fellow Kenyans, the Kenyan economy was projected to grow by 6.2%,…
Read More
Victory for Kenyan girls

Victory for Kenyan girls

DOMINIC KIRUI TRIBAL leaders in northern Kenya have pledged to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage in their communities, a step hailed by President Uhuru Kenyatta as "an important milestone" in boosting girls' rights. One in five women and girls aged between 15 and 49 in Kenya have undergone FGM, which usually involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and can cause serious health problems, the United Nations says. Kenya outlawed the widely condemned practice a decade ago, but it continues in some communities such as the semi-nomadic Samburu tribe, who see it as necessary…
Read More
Simeon Nyachae: the larger-than-life civil servant who made his mark on Kenya

Simeon Nyachae: the larger-than-life civil servant who made his mark on Kenya

SIMEON Nyachae, who passed away in early February at the age of 88, was among the men who shaped Kenya and made it one of Africa’s leading economies. For Kenya’s first 40 years of independence, he was highly visible in government and helped to craft an economy oriented to the private sector that also was favourable to both large and small-scale agriculture. DAVID K. LEONARD, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley Nyachae held senior leadership positions under all three of Kenya’s first presidents – Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki – from 1963 to 2007.…
Read More
Kenya extends night curfew to March to curb COVID-19 spread

Kenya extends night curfew to March to curb COVID-19 spread

KENYA is extending its nightly curfew to March 12 as part of measures aimed at taming the spread of COVID-19, President Uhuru Kenyatta's office has announced. In early November, Kenyatta extended the nightly curfew that was in place, and it had been due to expire on Sunday. It runs between 10 p.m and 4 a.m. A ban on political and roadside gatherings that could turn into super spreader events was also extended for another 60 days, as was a prohibition on overnight events and vigils, Kenyatta's office said in a statement. When the first coronavirus cases were confirmed in Kenya…
Read More
Young Kenyans have their say about politics, corruption and their sense of belonging

Young Kenyans have their say about politics, corruption and their sense of belonging

REFLECTING on the divisions and conflict that arose during Kenya’s contested 2017 elections, President Uhuru Kenyatta recently said: We were not in a good place as a country. ELISABETH KING, Associate Professor of International Education and Politics, New York University DANA BURDE, Associate Professor and Director of International Education, New York University DAPHNA HAREL, Associate Professor of Applied Statistics, New York University JENNIFER HILL, Director of PRIISM; Professor of Applied Statistics, New York University Uhuru and his main opponent in that election, Raila Odinga, closed ranks after the contest with a symbolic handshake and a pledge to reform the political…
Read More
Kenya’s president saves fig tree from Chinese-funded highway

Kenya’s president saves fig tree from Chinese-funded highway

KENYA’S President Uhuru Kenyatta has issued a decree to save a much-loved century-old fig tree from being cut down to make way for a Chinese-funded highway in the capital Nairobi. The presidential decree described the tree, the height of a four-storey building, as a "beacon of Kenya's cultural and ecological heritage." The fig tree is considered sacred among Kenya's most populous ethnic group, the Kikuyu. Motorcycle riders sit in the shade provided by the iconic, century-old fig tree during a protest to save it from being cut down to pave way for a Chinese-funded highway, in Westlands district of Nairobi,…
Read More
Kenya extends COVID-19 night curfew beyond Christmas and New Year’s Day

Kenya extends COVID-19 night curfew beyond Christmas and New Year’s Day

OMAR MOHAMMED KENYA’S President Uhuru Kenyatta has extended the country's nightly curfew to January 3 as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 after numbers surged in October. Kenyatta said that in October alone, the number of new confirmed coronavirus cases had risen by 15,000 and the East African nation reported about 300 deaths. "October has gone down as the most tragic month in our fight against COVID-19," Kenyatta said, adding that the rate of infections from tests carried out had shot up to 16% in the month, four times what it was a month earlier. The government…
Read More
Kenya extends COVID curfew for 2 months but reduces hours

Kenya extends COVID curfew for 2 months but reduces hours

DUNCAN MIRIRI  KENYA’S President Uhuru Kenyatta has extended for two months a nationwide curfew intended to curb the coronavirus but relaxed the starting time by two hours until 11 p.m. Kenyatta, who said the COVID-19 infections curve had been flattened, also lifted a ban on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars. The restrictions will be reviewed again in 60 days, he said. He also said the finance minister would extend tax relief measures unveiled in April until January 2021. Kenya has had 38,115 cases of the virus and 691 deaths since its first case on March 13. The…
Read More
Kenya High Court suspends move to dissolve parliament over lack of women

Kenya High Court suspends move to dissolve parliament over lack of women

NITA BHALLA KENYA’S High Court has suspended any move to dissolve parliament after the country's top judge said it was necessary as neither of the legislative houses had enough women lawmakers. Chief Justice David Maraga on Monday advised President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve parliament, saying lawmakers had failed to meet a 2010 constitutional provision which allows for one-third of seats to be occupied by women. The chief justice's move upset many male parliamentarians, including the speaker of the house, who said it was unlawful, ill-advised and premature and would plunge the East African nation into a constitutional crisis. Under Kenyan…
Read More