A least one person has been confirmed dead following an outbreak of Cholera in the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab, situated in the Northern part of Kenya. Scores of others are being treated for the same. The United nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said the highly contagious disease might have been brought into the camp by the new arrival refugees, who have been fleeing famine and war in their country. - The agency did not release the number of the hospitalised, although the statement indicated that the number was above thirty, and could rise. The outbreak of Cholera has been blamed on the current heavy rains that have been pounding the area for the past three weeks.…

The Kenyan Police on Tuesday raided a house in the suburbs of Nairobi and recovered an assortment of weapons which could provide leads to the two blasts that rocked the city on Monday in which one person died and scores of others injured. - They also arrested three suspect s in connection of the discovery. The arms consisted of 13 hand grenades, an SMG (Sub Machine Gun), an assault rifle, an AK47 assault rifle, several pistols and over seven hundred rounds of assorted ammunition. Speaking at the scene of the incident, the Kenyan police boss, Mathews Iteere, said that the discovery was as a result of several hours of investigations, backed by intelligence reports. He did not reveal the nam…

Security has been heightened around the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and its environs, following the threats issued by the al-Shabaab terror group of revenge attacks, as the Kenyan troops advanced deep into the Somali territory. Al-Shabaab issued a warning of retaliatory attacks against Kenya, following the latter's decision to send troops into the neighbouring Somalia to hunt down and eliminate the Islamist group that has been accused of masterminding kidnappings and cross-border attacks. - Following the threats, the Kenyan government on Tuesday published emergency telephone contacts to the members of the public to report anything that may be of security concern. Tyhge Nairobi Police B…

Kenyans and the world at large woke up to the shocking news of the passing on of Nobel Laureate Waangari Maathai. The first African woman to win the coveted global award, Waangari will be remembered for her zeal and zest in championing for human rights and her environmental conservation efforts. - Her death was announced early Monday, although it is understood that she passed away on Sunday night at around 10:00 PM Kenyan time. According to the statement from the Green Belt Movement, a non-governmental organisation that she formed and led since the late seventies, Wangari succumbed to cancer-related complications. She died at the age of 71. Nairobi hospital spokesperson, where she had…

A massive security operation was launched on Tuesday after what was suspected to be an explosive ordinance was found outside the Kenyan Prime Minister's office. Security sources pointed an accusing finger at the Somali-based al-Shabaab terror group. - A police officer at the scene of the incident told AfricaNews that the device, which is suspected to be a hand grenade, was capable of killing many people and injuring scores of others at the ever busy office. Prime Minister Raila Odinga was in his office when the device was found. He was holding a meeting with the Kenyan Chief Justice at the time. However, they were evacuated to an unknown destination, as the police cordoned off t…

The Kenyan athletic fraternity has been thrown into mourning after the sudden death of one of the east African and world celebrated athletic stars. Samuel Wamau Wanjiru, 24, was until his death on Monday, the reigning Olympic Champion. He was also the London and Chicago Marathons Champion. - Wanjiru died in the wee hours of Monday when he fell from the first floor balcony of his house located in Nyahururu, 94 miles North West of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. His death has been received with shock from the athletics fraternity. Former world marathon star, Paul Tergat described it as “sad and shocking.” Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga expressed shock and grief upon hearing it …

The Kenyan security apparatus is on high alert over what the police commissioner has termed as eminent attacks from the Somali terror group Al-shabaab. Speaking in Nairobi amid heightened security along the Kenya-Somalia border, the commissioner, Mathew Iteere, called on Kenyans to be extra careful while in social places and public vehicles' terminal. - Late last week, the war between the Al-Shabaab on one side and the joint forces of the Africa Union peacekeepers and the Somali Transitional Government spilled over into the Kenyan territory that saw one Kenyan killed from the mortars and bombs from the Somali side. It is alleged that the Al-Shabaab ventured into the Kenyan border tow…

A suspected grenade attack ripped through the side of a Kampala-bound bus, killing three people and injuring scores of others in the heart of Kenya's capital Nairobi on Monday evening. One of the people killed was the man suspected to have been the bearer of the explosive ordinances. - He died on the spot, while two others died while undergoing treatment at the MP Shah and Kenyatta National hospitals where they had been rushed to after the blast. The explosion came a few hours after the Ugandan intelligence issued an alert over impending Al-Qaeda attacks. The blast occurred during a security undertaking by the bus company's (Kampala Coach) security check on the passengers as the…

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has named six suspects that he intends to indict for the Post election violence that rocked Kenya after the announcement of the December 2007 general election. The six- five politicians and a journalist are said to bear the greatest responsibility for the violence. - They are Deputy Prime-Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgei, former Higher Education Minister William Ruto, Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura, former Police Commissioner Major-General Hussein Ali and a journalist who works with a local vernacular FM station Joshua Sang. While releasing the list of the …

The Foreign Minister of Kenya Moses Wetangula and his permanent secretary have resigned over scandal involving the purchase of properties by the Kenyan Government in Japan, Nigeria and Pakistan. He told the press on Wednesday his decision was necessary to pave way for successful investigations. - Maintaining his innocence, Wetangula said "For the sake of Sirisia, (his constituency) Kenya, friends, PNU (Party of National Unity) and family, I have decided to step aside to give government room for investigations". The east African country lost millions of dollars in the purchase of properties including land and houses meant for ambassadors and diplomats from Kenya abroad. According…

Scores of refugees were hurt in clashes pitting Somali refugees against their Sudanese counterparts in the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab. The fight in the two refugee communities erupted after the mutilated body of a Somali child was found dumped in the Sudanese section of the Hagadera camp. - Hagadera is one of the three camps that make up the larger Dadaab refugee Camp. Others are Ifo and Dagahaley. Confirming the incident, the District Commissioner for Fafi, Rashid Khator, under whom the camp falls administratively, said the clashes began with the discovery of a mutilated trunk of a Somali child, a short distance from where Sudan nationals are camped in Hagaldera. Witnesses…

The Kenyan parliament passed a law seeking to reintroduce price controls on selected goods, two decades after the free market policy was embraced in the East African largest economy. The law was premised what some of the legislators termed as the continued exploitation of Kenyans by a cartel of business buccaneers. - However, this law is subject on the presidential accent for it to take effect. The Price Control (Essential Goods) Bill 2009, was unanimously passed despite Kenyan Trade Minister Amos Kimunya's warning against it. If President Mwai Kibaki assents to the Bill, it would give the Government the power to fix retail and wholesale prices of maize flour, wheat flour, cooking f…

United States vice president Joe Biden has promised Kenya major development assistance when the east African nation implements far reaching reforms. He said among the list of request from the Obama-led administration is for the African country's political authorities to pass a new constitution. - "Putting in place a new constitution and strengthening your democratic institutions will further open the door to major American development programmes, such as the Millennium Challenge and will bring about re-investment by American corporations and international organizations," Biden said. Biden's message affirms President Obama's support for the proposed draft constitu…

The ICC has approved Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's application to investigate the suspects implicated in the post election violence that rocked Kenya after the disputed December 2007general elections. He said the ICC will do its part but the Kenyans will be in the lead, adding that there would be "no impunity for those most responsible". - "The ICC will work for and with the Kenyans," Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement. Last November, the ICC Chief Prosecutor asked judges to approve an investigation into the 2007-08 violence, but the decision was differed after the court broke for the Christmas holidays. He later said in March that Kenyan political lead…

Kenya is one of the 100 countries selected by the World Health Organisation as the beneficiaries of the new H1N1 vaccine. The East African country was one of the 100 developing countries put on the WHO list that will receive the first batch of the vaccine; MF59-adjuvanted cell-culture based A (H1N1). - The vaccine has recorded remarkable success in fighting the world’s latest epidemic, which has so far killed over 4,500 people world-wide. Currently, five drug manufacturing companies including GlaxoSmithkline which has a branch in Kenya are manufacturing the vaccine on patent. Others are AstraZeneca, MedImmune Unit, Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis. Early on Monday, the Kenyan Min…

The Chief Mediator of Kenya's power-sharing deal Kofi Annan arrived in Kenya. He called on Grand Coalition Government to listen and respond to the people's voices that are calling for reforms. Annan touched on the new constitution deadline, reforms in the Police force and the electoral reforms. - He added that Coalition leaders must listen to the voice of the people, which is pro-reforms, hence Kenya must have a new constitution in 18 months or before the next cycle of elections, and they must unlock the requisite political will to make things move. He insisted that all these should be achieved before the 2012 general election to avoid the repeat of violence like witnessed after th…

The International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Moreno O'campo has proposed a three pronged approach to deal with the perpetrators of the post election violence that rocked Kenya after the announcement of the presidential election results on 30th December 2007. - Speaking at a meeting with Kenya's Lands Minister James Orengo at the IC C headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, O'campo routed for the creation of special courts to try those who committed the atrocities, as the ICC will deal only with those who bore the greatest responsibility of the violence. He also added that the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission be used as an avenue to deliver justice through cr…

Panic gripped the political class of Kenya when news broke that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan handed over the envelope containing the list of perpetrators of the post election violence to the International Criminal Court. The Prosecutor of the ICC Luis Moreno O'Campo is keeping the list. - President Mwai Kibaki summoned an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister and the Mediation Team at the State House on Thursday. The Lands Minister, James Orengo, who was addressing the press in his office, then had to cut short his speech to rush to the meeting. Orengo was part of the Mediation Team that agreed to the terms contained in the agreement that ended the post election violence. …

Kenya's president Mwai Kibaki and his controversial First Lady Lucy Kibaki on Tuesday ordered for eight top-of-the-range custom made cars to be returned to the dealers, as a means of austerity measures announced by the Minister of Finance on the purchasing of fuel guzzlers in 2009 budget statement. - The minister had proposed that ministers and other senior government officials should return to the use of cost effective 1800cc vehicles. According to a statement released by the Presidential Press Service, the president had made the decision to return the cars as a way of tightening the belts with the rest of Kenyans in the current hard economic hardships. "Following the instructi…

The Kenyan military and police forces have been implicated in gross human rights abuses in the North Eastern Province. They are alleged to have tortured, wounded at least 1,200 people and raped women, according to a report from the Geneva-based Human Rights Watch. But the police rubbished it. - Human Rights Watch in its 51-page report said the security forces beat and tortured hundreds of civilians in several communities during an October 2008 disarmament operation in Kenya’s northeastern Mandera districts. The international human rights body released the report on Monday at Nairobi's Sarova Stanley Hotel. It called on the Kenyan government to establish an independent inquiry w…

The United States of America has sent weapons and ammunition to the beleaguered Somali's Transitional Government to help it fight off the fast advancing Al-Shabaab militia that is threatening to overrun the troubled Horn of African state. The sent ammunition were approved by the United Nations. - This decision by the Obama administration was the first direct intervention by the US since 1993, when several US soldiers were killed in Somalia. This follows a plea by the country's embattled president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed to the world to his government fight the Al-KAeda linked militia. Meanwhile, the Kenyan military and other security organs have been put on red alert, as Kenya moves…

A Kenyan military helicopter crashed on Tuesday and injured three senior army officers as it patrolled the volatile Kenya-Somali border. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the plane was shot down by enemy fire from the Somali side. However, the Kenyan Department of Defense has denied it. - A loud bang suspected to be from a riffle was heard before the plane came down, according to an eye witness report. Two pilots and a senior military officer, identified only as Colonel Muteti, who is in charge of the Northern region, were injured when the Hughes-MD500 chopper, popularly known within the military circles as 'YY' came down. The incident took place at the Hulugho division in Ijara di…

A fan of the English football club Arsenal in Kenya has committed suicide after his team lost to Manchester United in the UEFA Champions league. The incident happened in Nairobi's Pipeline estate on Tuesday night. The fan, Suleiman Omondi, was upset at the loss of his favourite team to the rivals at home. - He had reportedly threatened to hang himself but no one took him seriously. But neighbouirs woke up to a rude shock, when they found Omondi's body, clad in an 'Arsenal' T-Shirt, dangling from the roof of his veranda. Neighbours told 'Africa News' that Omondi might have betted on either his car or house. The English soccer clubs enjoy a massive following ke…

Students drawn from different universities, on Tuesday staged peaceful protests in the Western town of Nakuru, in Kenya. In the past where such protests drew violent confrontations between students and the Kenyan anti-riot police, this time round, the police offered security to the protesters. - The police, who were riding on horseback, ensured the safety of the students as they vented out the frustrations on the establishment, which they accused of killing their colleague, and extra judicial killings. In Nairobi, students drawn from the University of Nairobi and the Kenya Polytechnic University began their protest march from their respective grounds and walked over to the office of the …

Students drawn from different universities and other middle class polytechnics in Kenya have served notice to protest on Tuesday, following the death of two human rights activists in the country by unknown assailants and a University of Nairobi student who was shot dead by the country's police. - The student, Godwin Ogaro, was killed by a bullet shot by the police as he and his colleagues protested the killings of the human rights activists, Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulo. There are fears of transport being paralyzed across the country, as fears of violent confrontations between students and the police raise. So far, the police have declared the demonstrations illegal. Howeve…

The killings of two human rights activists by unknown assailants have drawn round criticism by local and international human rights organisations. Kamau Kingara, and John Paul Oulo, were shot dead in Nairobi, along State House Road, while on their way to meet their colleagues at Ufungamano House. - Many local and international organisations have called on the Director on Government Communication, Dr Alfred Mutua to resign or be sacked, for threatening the two activists of undisclosed action, just a few hours before they were killed. Dr Mutua had alleged that the Oscar Foundation, which was founded by Kamau Kingara, was a front for the outlawed quasi religious and proscribed group Mungiki.…

Striking teachers in Kenya risk losing their jobs permanently if they do not rescind their decision, the government warned on Monday. Also, the salaries of all primary school teachers have been withheld with immediate effect "to ascertain the names of those participating in the ongoing strike." - Gabriel Longoboini, the Chief Executive Officer of the Teachers Service Commission - the government body that employs teachers – said in a statement that the directive is to ensure smooth learning in public schools. The nationwide strike action is in its second week. Longoboini ordered all the teachers living in houses owned by public schools to vacate immediately. He also called …

Kenya public school teachers began a nationwide strike action on Monday hampering learning. The teachers are protesting the government's failure to implement their salary increment agreed upon over 10 years back. AfricaNews reporter saw a number of students and pupils returning home on Monday. - Attempts by Kenya's Education Minister Professor Sam Ongeri to avert the impending strike came to naught on Sunday. The officials of the giant Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) snubbed him. Our correspondent said the officials are said to be in a secret hiding place planning the way forward. Speaking to AfricaNews on phone, the chairman of KNUT, George Wesonga said the government&…

President Kibaki of Kenya early on Wednesday ordered the country's Attorney General and the Information Minister to look at the contentious clauses in the recently passed Communication Act, with the aim of reaching a compromise, as opposition to the law mounts. He signed the bill earlier on. - According to a statement faxed to various media houses, the president said that he had listened to the issues raised by the media stakeholders, hence his decision to have the clauses looked at afresh. The two main clauses that have put the government one one side, and the media, civil rights organizations and the religious groups on the other at loggerheads are section 88 and 46. The forme…

Two more Members of Parliament of Kenya have succumbed to pay tax barely four days after another MP voluntarily offered to have his salary and allowances taxed. They are Jeremiah Kioni of Ndaragwa and Francis Nyamu of Tetu constituencies. The MPs earlier this month objected moves to tax them. - All the three MPs have written to the Clerk of Kenya's National Assembly to that effect. The recent two hail from President Mwai Kibaki's native district of Nyeri. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Kenneth Marende has appealed to the MPs to pay tax as a philanthropic gesture. He thanked the three MPs for offering to help Kenyans shoulder the burden of paying tax. This…

A Member of Parliament from the Eastern Province of Kenya has broken ranks with his colleagues and offered to have his salary and perks taxed. This follows a week after Kenyan Members of Parliament arm-twisted the minister of finance into dropping plans to tax their hefty salaries and allowances. - The Kangundo MP, Johnstone Muthama, last Friday disclosed to a shocked nation that he would like to pay tax just like his fellow Kenyans. He added that he is tired of walking around with his head down from shame. He will start paying his taxes as from the end of November and has notified the clerk of the Kenya's national assembly and the Kenya Revenue Authorities (KRA) of his intent. This is …

American tennis ace Serena Williams on Friday opened a school named after her in the dusty Eastern province district of Makueni in Kenya. The Serena Williams Secondary school is located at Matooni in the semi-arid Ukambani region. Serena described the occasion as her moment of joy to help deprived society. - Present during the function was the Kenyan Education Minister Professor Sam Ongeri and local leaders and administrators. The minister thanked the tennis star for her generosity, and urged other donors to join in the efforts to better the education facilities and standards in the country. The school was constructed through the funds provided by Serena, together with Hewlett Packard (a …