Friday, June 8, 2018

Governor Alfred Mutual dealt blow as election is nullified

Machakos County is headed for another election after the Court of Appeal nullified the August 2017 win of Governor Alfred Mutua.


 His competitor Wavinya Ndeti appealed High Court decision that upheld Mutua’s win.

Will Wavinya bounce back as court nullifies Governor Alfred Mutua's election ? 



Monday, May 28, 2018

Snakes-slither-their-way-to-global-health-talks




Snake bite, normally a low priority health issue, this week received top treatment at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. For the first time, the assembly -- the top decision-making body of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) -- recognised snakebite as a health issue of global concern.

Member states, at the annual meeting which ends today endorsed a 2017 resolution listing snake bite as a neglected tropical disease. “We are very excited about this development,” said the non governmental organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) soon after the resolution had been passed. “This is an opportunity to finally get serious about tackling snake bite,” said Julien Potet, policy adviser on neglected tropical diseases for MSF’s Access Campaign. About 20 health conditions fall in the WHO list of Neglected tropical diseases found in 149 countries and affecting more than one billion people, but attracting little financial or research attention. In 2012, the WHO published a roadmap targeting to eliminate 17 of these diseases by 2020.

Last week, Kenya was celebrated globally for eliminating guinea worm, one of the neglected diseases. The adoption of snake bite, while not a candidate for elimination, Potet says, will galvanise the world into mobilising resources to respond to an estimated 2.7 million snakepoisonings every year. According to WHO, snakes rank second to mosquitoes in the number of human deaths caused by animals globally. In the resolution, WHO says it has already developed a strategic roadmap for confronting snake poisoning to reduce an estimated 79,000 deaths caused by venomous snakes in 2016.

 The WHO Roadmap is estimated to cost about Sh1.6 billion up to the end of next year. WHO also estimated that about 400,000 people a year face permanent disabilities, including blindness, extensive scarring, restricted mobility and amputation following snake bite poisoning. Last year, MSF admitted 3,000 patients for snake bite mainly in Africa despite lack of good quality medicines, also called antivenin. The largest number of patients, MSF says, was from Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen. Other countries with significant number of cases admitted in MSF clinics were Tanzania, Kenya, Cameroon, Sudan and Sierra Leone. Many people who cannot afford quality medicines -- where they are available --MSF said, turn to local healers or substandard products. WHO has blamed the lack of quality antivenin to weak regulatory systems that allow the entry of unsafe and ineffective products into the markets. Such products, the health body says, enter the market with no pre-clinical or clinical evaluation before registration. For example, last year it took the efforts of several foreign institutions to establish that all antivenins sold in Kenya were ineffective.

 Researchers from the UK and Costa Rica, who roped in the Kenya Snake Bite Research & Intervention Centre, found the antivenins being stocked in Kenya were not meant for this market and hence ineffective. “The fact that none of the six anti-venoms is effective against all the East African snakepoisons was of greatest concern,” says the report appearing in the journal Plos: Neglected Tropical Diseases. However, it was only in March this year that the Pharmacy and Poisons Board moved to warn Kenyans of the presence of irregular antivenins in the local market. A study published last month (April) on snake bites in Kabarnet, Kakamega, Kapenguria and Makueni areas, estimated to have high rates of poisonous snake bites in Kenya, recorded poor availability of antivenins. A team from several local universities led by Mitchel Okumu, of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, says antivenin was rarely available in hospitals in the study areas. The study published in the Pan African Medical Journal and the latest on snakebites in Kenya attributed the lack of antivenin to delayed procurement and supply shortages. But even when the medicines are available, the team says, victims -- majority aged one to 15 -- are first likely be presented to local healers before going to hospital, if at all.

The investigators recorded 176 bites in all the study sites over the three-year study period. Most of the bites occurred in the one to 15-year age group. Puff adders, black spitting cobras, black mambas and the pretty-faced boomslang were the main snake species associated with the bites in the study area. Most of the bites, according to the report, are on the lower limbs, during the dry season and most likely in the evenings, with patients reaching the hospital two to six hours after the bite. “But it is not uncommon for victims to present themselves 24 hours later due to the long distances to hospitals in these areas,” says the study. www.rocketscience.co.ke


Friday, April 20, 2018

Arsene Wenger to step down as Arsenal manager at the end of the season.

Arsene Wenger is to leave Arsenal at the end of the season, ending a near 22-year reign as manager. ... Wenger, 68, won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, including the Double in 1998 and 2002.

What is your reaction to Arsenal's manager Arsène Wenger stepping down at the end of the season?


Sir Alex Ferguson: said "He is, without doubt, one of the greatest Premier League managers and I am proud to have been a rival, a colleague and a friend to such a great man."

Antonio Conte: "He’s had a great influence on football and we are talking about one of the best managers in the world.”



Saturday, April 7, 2018

Good news as Facebook to allow users 'unsend' their messages


Facebook announced on Friday that it will allow all users to pull back sent messages in the coming months.

But the questionable timing follows news that Mark Zuckerberg has already been deleting his private messages off the popular social media site.

"We have discussed this feature several times. And people using our secret message feature in the encrypted version of Messenger have the ability to set a timer — and have their messages automatically deleted," Facebook said in a statement to Business Insiders.  

"We will now be making a broader delete message feature available. This may take some time. And until this feature is ready, we will no longer be deleting any executives' messages. We should have done this sooner — and we're sorry that we did not."

Facebook received a lot of flack after some of Mark Zuckerberg's private messages were deleted off their servers.

Three sources claim old Facebook messages from Zuckerberg have disappeared from their inbox.

The recipients were not notified - raising concerns about what the Facebook CEO could be hiding.

Facebook claims the change was made after the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, when a mass data breach at the movie studio resulted in embarrassing email histories being leaked.

However, the lack of disclosure has angered some users, along with the absence of a similar tool to recall messages for normal users.

An email receipt of a message from 2010 seen by TechCrunch proves some messages from the Facebook CEO no longer appear in chat logs or Facebook files.

The removal of these messages was not disclosed publicly and users were not informed.

Although Zuckerberg may be CEO of the company, the ability to remove messages from Messenger - now used by 1.3 billion people - is not allowed under the company's terms of service.

Users can only delete messages from their own inbox and they would still appear in the inbox of the recipient.

The fact the the company is prepared to make exceptions makes a mockery of its statement that it wants to 'make the world more open and transparent', say experts.

Facebook claimed these messages were deleted due to concerns about corporate security.

"After Sony Pictures' emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives' communications," a spokesperson told MailOnline.

"These included limiting the retention period for Mark's messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages."

The Sony hack targeted the emails of Sony film executives, revealing the inner workings of the industry.

Other Facebook-owned companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp have functions that mean users can delete messages.  

Earlier this week the company was further embroiled in the scandal over user's private data.

It was revealed Facebook scans the contents of messages that people send each other on its Messenger app, blocking any content that contravenes its rules.

What users write in messages may also be read manually if it's flagged to moderators for breaching Facebook's community guidelines.

While the intentions behind the practice may be well-meaning, the news is likely to add to users' concerns over what the social network knows about them.

It follows revelations that the Trump-affiliated consulting firm obtained data on at least 50 million unsuspecting Facebook users.

This information was used to target voters in the US, based on psychological profiling, with political adverts spreading disinformation.

Facebook is also facing criticism for collecting years of data on call and text histories from Android users.  

CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the policy during a podcast interview with Vox's editor at large, Ezra Klein.

Zuckerberg told his host a story about receiving a phone call from staff at his Mountain View firm.

He was informed that their systems had blocked attempts to send inflammatory Messenger instant messages about ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

About the experience, the 33-year-old billionaire said: 'In that case, our systems detect what's going on.

"We stop those messages from going through."

The news has been met with mixed reactions on social media, with a number of users expressing concern.

Messenger says that it doesn't use data from messages it has scanned for the purposes of advertising, according to reports in Bloomberg.

The company told the website that it uses the same tools to prevent abuse in messages that are in place across Facebook as a whole.

Users are also able to flag posts or messages that they feel are in violation of the site's house rules.

This will either cause one of the social network's community operations team to manually review the content, or automated systems can also make decisions.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

HABENGA PETER OKONDO . KENYA'S GOOD HISTORY NEVER BE ARCHIVED WITHOUT HIS NAME FOR HIS IMMENSE CONTRIBUTIONS .


PETER HABENGA OKONDO’S GIGANTIC IMPACT TO NASCENT KENYA’S DEV’T MIGHT BE BURIED IN LATE BISHOP MUGE’S DEATH. HE WAS A SCAPEGOAT. EVERYTIME HIS NAME POPS UP IS JUST ABOUT THAT MYSTERIOUS DEATH. HE CONTRIBUTED QUITE A LOT FOR THIS COUNTRY AT NATIONAL LEVEL !

* Late Hon Peter Habenga Okondo, did not kill or involved in the death of outspoken Anglican Bishop Alexander Kipsang arap Muge’s death which remains a mystery to date.
* Late Okondo was a victim of bad politics of following blindly still prevalent even today 
……..Death threat Like all the Kanu boys of the time, Okondo took the war against those who were fighting for democracy personally,  to show how loyal he was to the regime for top positions he held then

 *   Kenya's good history should never archived without his name ....from constitutional making , governance , Commerce and Industry etc .....

* Bunyala should name one main Road and permanent landmarks after his name …Current MP should spearhead that .

 * Thro’ the MP ….we should organize a public event to remember him as a community .

On August 20, 1990, Kenya’s Labour Minister Peter Okondo did the unimaginable - he offered to resign during an era public officials were not known to quit. Okondo was bathing in criticism following the death of the then outspoken Anglican Bishop Alexander Kipsang arap Muge.

About three days before the bishop’s death, Okondo told Muge that he would not return home alive if he dared visit Western Kenya. The daredevil bishop took on the challenge, but true to Okondo’s threat, he did not return home alive. Some of those who were born at the time of Muge’s death now have their

Many Kenyans still remember him for his efforts in championing for democracy, fight against corruption, ethnicity and land grabbing. The clergyman was born in 1948 in Nandi County and became the first bishop of Eldoret Diocese. He joined a bandwagon of clerics who were critical of the excesses in government and as a result, became a marked man.

The fight for democracy intensified in the late 80s and early 90s when the call for a multi-party system of government reached fever pitch. Death threat Like all the Kanu boys of the time, Okondo took the war against those who were fighting for democracy personally, perhaps to show how loyal he was to the regime.

There has been speculation that Okondo did not mean it when he issued the death threat to Muge who perished in a road accident along the Eldoret-Turbo road after a visit to Busia.

 A former intelligence officer, James Lando Khwatenge, who worked with the Special Branch in Eldoret at the time, reportedly told the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) that the clergyman was killed by police officers who were sent directly from Nairobi to “finish” the outspoken bishop and to use an accident used for cover up. Khwatenge was widely quoted in the media as saying that the bishop’s death on August 14, 1990, was the final job on what police called Operation Shika Msumari.
 He said Kanu loyalists who wanted to assassinate Muge merely seized threats issued by the
former Labour minister against the bishop and used him as a scapegoat. TJRC listened to the former intelligence officer while conducting hearings on unresolved political murders since independence. The bishop was killed when a milk truck crashed into his car as he was returning home after visiting Busia. No evidence was, however, presented to show that his death was anything but an accident. The driver of the truck was charged with causing his death through reckless driving and sentenced to seven years in prison, but he died after serving only five years.

 The attorney general ordered an inquest in response to the public outcry over his death and widespread suggestions of foul play, but nothing came out of the inquiry. The clergyman was famous for fighting corruption, land grabbing, political assassinations, bureaucracy and other social ills and did not confine the fight for what he believed in to Kenya’s borders. Bishop Muge is also remembered over his open stand against homosexuality made on May 17, 1990 during a visit to the USA. He based his condemnation on classical understanding of the scriptures.
 * Additional Excerpts from The Standard sections felt gave
correct account .

Antony Muhuma
Bunyala Residence .

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Larry Madowo Lands BBC Job ...God is Good


Madowo set to  work for the UK government-owned media entity, BBC.

Madowo is set to join the BBC as Business Editor for Africa, a position that was recently advertised.

The new job comes a relief to Madowo, whose alleged frigid relationship with Nation Media Group’s management and editorial leadership forced him out, with Madowo citing lack of editorial independence at the media house.

Madowo’s woes began after covering Raila Odinga’s ‘swearing in’ ceremony at Uhuru Park on January 30th, defying a government directive to give the event a media blackout.

He was forced to stay in the office alongside anchor Ken Mijungu and the then Managing editor Linus Kaikai to avoid arrest by law enforcement officers.

Monday, April 2, 2018

BREAKING NEWS: South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is dead.


BREAKING NEWS: South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid stalwart and wife to Nelson Mandela when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, has died her personal assistant Zodwa Zwane said. She was 81.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

NTV's Larry Madowo bows out of Nation Media Group

NTV journalist Larry Madowo has announced his departure from the media house .
In a tweet, Larry stated: “I leave NTV as I came: humbled & grateful. The job was one of the great honours of my life.”
The journalist went on to convey his gratitude to the Nation Media Group (NMG) and his fans for their contributions to his career.
“Thanks to everyone who watched, and to Nation for the privilege of the opportunity. I’m proud of my amazing colleagues & everything we accomplished. Farewell, my friends. Stay woke,” the tweet conveyed.

NRM’s General Miguna Miguna’s Statement from Dubai International Airport, March 29, 2018


I am at the passenger waiting area at the Dubai International Airport. I have gone through basic tests which have confirmed that I was forcefully placed aboard EK722 Emirates Airline flight from Nairobi to Dubai that arrived this morning.
About 50 heavily armed thugs led by the uniformed Somali policeman who had commanded them on Monday, violently broke into the toilet I had been detained incommunicado in at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport, didn’t identify themselves, wrestled me to the ground, held onto and sat on me as a group of four different thugs injected substances to both my soles, arms, hands, both sides of my ribs and basically all over my body until I passed out.
Today, at around 5:25am, after the Emirates had landed and passengers were disembarking, I regained consciousness and asked a person seated next to me who also appeared like a flying squad officer, “where are we?” He told me that we were in Dubai.
Three burley men dressed in Air Emirates yellow reflector jackets approached me and rudely demanded that I disembark from the plane. The most obnoxious one introduced himself as “Njihia”, he claimed that a bunch of loose papers he held in his hands were my “documents.”
I explained to him that I wouldn’t go anywhere with him; that he didn’t have my valid Kenyan passport and that he is a criminal who had not only abducted, drugged and forcefully removed me from Kenya against my will and in violation of numerous court orders.
I told the Air Emirates crew that flying an unconscious and drugged man like me from Kenya to Dubai without any documents was a criminal act.
Despite their desperate attempts to force me to the police station and/immigration department at Dubai, I refused and demanded to see a medical doctor.
After much wrangling, I was granted access to a doctor who conducted basic medical tests and confirmed my story. Additional toxicology tests would require exiting the airport, which I can only do with my valid Kenyan passport - a document the despots illegality confiscated and destroyed in violation of Justice Kimaru’s order.
I have severe pain on the left side of my chest, my left wrist, my right elbow and my feet. I believe that the despots must have injected me with noxious substances.
Anyway, I have made it crystal clear to the United Arab Emirates immigration authorities that I cannot and will not fly anywhere with them except to Kenya.
I have refused to leave the international section of the airport.
I will and must return to Kenya as a Kenyan citizen by birth as various courts have ordered.
The Honourable Justice Odunga issued an order on March 28th that convicted Matiang’i, Kihalangwa and Boinett among others of criminal contempt and ordered that they appear before that court for sentencing today at 10:00am. Justice Odunga also ordered that I be released unconditionally and to attend court today at 10:00am.
I had planned to give a victim impact statement during Matiang’i’s, Kihalangwa’s and Boinett’s sentencing by Justice Odunga. I hope that I will be given a chance to do so soonest.
I am innocent man. My only crimes are that I swore Raila Odinga in as The People’s President on January 30, 2018; I head the National Revolutionary Movement (NRM) in order to bring electoral justice, end bad governance and accountability in governance and we are determined to remove the despots from their illegitimate positions of power!
As I return to Kenya either today or tomorrow, I strongly encourage all patriotic Kenyans to remain firm, focused and fearless in the face of an outlaw, authoritarian and illegitimate regime of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.
The despots must fall.
No retreat! No surrender!
Forward ever!
NRM General, Miguna Miguna
Dubai International Airport
March 29, 2018.

KENYA NEWS REPORT GLOBAL BRIEFING

Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Jason Miks.

March 27, 2018

The Awkward Truth About That Poke in the Eye for Putin

The US decision to join European allies in expelling dozens of Russian diplomats sends a pointed message to Moscow about Western unity. But such expulsions are also an outdated weapon – and one that could end up hurting the United States, suggests Steven Hall for The Cipher Brief.
“[W]henever we get into these expulsion battles with the Russians, we pay a significant price because they will in turn reciprocate by expelling American diplomats, and they will try to expel as many intelligence officers as they can identify,” Hall writes.
“Expelling diplomats is a good first step, but it is a little bit of fighting the war with very old weapons when the Russians have already moved on to the next generation—and that’s my biggest concern. Russia is defining this new form of warfare with hybrid warfare, attacking Western elections and at least attempting and setting the battlefield to conduct cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the US—and we’re responding by expelling diplomats, which is a Cold War era tactic.
“We need to find better ways to push back against specifically Vladimir Putin, for example keeping them out of the SWIFT international banking system for a specific period of time to show how serious this is. We need to have a conversation about perhaps removing Russia from international organizations where they value their participation greatly because it gives them a sense of being a great power.”

Did Kim Take the Family Playbook to the Dragon’s Lair?

The White House refused Tuesday to confirm reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un himself was a passenger on a mysterious armored train spotted in China. If he was, that could make things even more complicated for the Trump administration, suggests Charlie Campbell in TIME. After all, the Kims have played this game before.
“Owing to pressure from Trump, Beijing has been enforcing the sanctions comparatively strictly, slashing imports of North Korea coal and labor that form the regime’s main cash cow. But Beijing and Washington are only loosely aligned, and over the decades the Kim dynasty has been deft at exploiting the cracks between adversaries to further its goals,” Campbell writes.
“It’s too early to say that any meeting means a rapprochement between the historic allies, which have grown estranged over recent decades as China flourished under ‘reform and opening’ while North Korea festered in impoverished isolation. Xi may just be signaling to Trump and Moon that he will not be sidelined in any negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear program.
“But if Kim is ready to make concessions, then the fractures among nearby nations may widen.”

No, Repealing the Second Amendment Would Be a Bad Idea

The frustration of retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens over the Court’s gun rights decision in the landmark Heller case is understandable. But his call in a New York Times op-ed for the Second Amendment to be repealed is still a mistake, argues Noah Feldman for Bloomberg View.
“The First Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, has been around since 1791 without alteration. That very antiquity strengthens its protections -- all of them. Opening the Pandora’s box of changing our fundamental rights because of a Supreme Court decision we don’t like threatens the very structure of the Bill of Rights itself,” Feldman writes.
“James Madison understood this very well. He hoped for the Constitution to ultimately earn ‘veneration.’ Although he recognized that the Constitution had to allow for amendment, he also wanted to avoid the rush to change that would have come with further constitutional conventions, which he hoped to hold off.”
“If you believe that the Supreme Court has the legitimate authority to find the constitutional rights to abortion, gay marriage and freedom to burn the flag, then you had better acknowledge that the court also has the legitimacy to expand the Second Amendment -- even if you disagree with that judgment.”

Why the Arab World Suddenly Hearts Israel

The muted Arab reaction to President Trump’s announcement on recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital was just the latest example of a dramatic shift in the region, write Shai Feldman and Tamara Cofman Wittes for Foreign Policy. Israel is suddenly uncontroversial – and it’s not just a rising Iran that is uniting former foes.
“The recent 10-year, $15 billon agreement signed between Israeli and Egyptian companies for the sale of natural gas is a game-changer in Arab-Israeli politics. This agreement will allow Egypt to profit from liquefying and re-exporting the purchased gas to Europe and Africa, boosting its prospects as a regional energy hub and creating economic interdependence between two former enemies,” they write.
“No less significant are new opportunities for economic interdependence between Israel and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council rooted in Israel’s technological prowess and innovation economy…Just imagine the potential for civilian tech cooperation as Gulf states move to diversify their economies away from their complete dependence on oil and gas revenues to more service-based, technology-based, and knowledge-based economies.
“The growing advantages to Arab states of cooperation with Israel are further boosted by a parallel decline in Arab governments’ interest in the Palestinian issue. While these governments remain formally commitment to the Palestinian cause, they also show growing signs of fatigue regarding all matters Palestinian.”

China’s Big Lesson for America

In focusing on China’s trade practices – including announcing about $60 billion in tariffs – the Trump administration is missing the biggest lesson of China’s economic rise, suggests Steven Rattner in The New York Times. Beijing is making dramatic strides as it invests in its future – and the United States looks like it’s standing still.
“To be sure, China is a long way from overtaking the United States. Its gross domestic product per person is just $9,380, compared with $61,690 in the United States. Less visible than the sleek modern skyscrapers that now dominate China’s cityscapes are the 700 million people — about half of China’s population — who still live on $5.50 per day or less,” Rattner writes.
But “China continues to build airports, subway systems, renewable-energy facilities and the like at a torrid pace. Even its longstanding pollution problem is being addressed.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that we rewrite our Constitution to emulate China. And I certainly understand the loss of freedom and civil liberties under the Chinese system. But that doesn’t mitigate the need for us to get our government to perform the way it did in passing the New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.”

Trump’s “Favorite” Middle East Strongman Should Be Worried

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is bound to win the ongoing presidential election. But don’t be fooled, writes Alexia Underwood for Vox. A sluggish economy for young people and growing political repression are storing up trouble that could ultimately explode in revolution.
“While overall employment has decreased to about 11 percent, almost 80 percent of people without jobs are young people,” Underwood notes. “A 2016 Brookings Institution report argues that if the Egyptian government does not deal with youth unemployment soon, ‘it will likely face instability — and perhaps another uprising — in the years to come.’”
“Sisi’s popularity also took a hit when he made the highly controversial decision to cede two islands in the Red Sea, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia. The islands, located between the two countries, are uninhabited and had been controlled by Egypt for the past 60 years. Sisi was accused of ‘selling’ them to the Saudis in exchange for investment money and aid.”
“It remains to be seen if this growing discontent with Trump’s favorite Middle Eastern authoritarian leader will build, or fizzle out in the next few years. But if history is any indication, Sisi should be careful.”

 

Robert Godec the US Ambassodor to Kenya shown the door replaced by Sen Kyle McCarter.



President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated state Sen. Kyle McCarter of downstate Lebanon to be an ambassador to Kenya, citing the southern Illinois legislator’s long history with a charity with ties to the African nation.
“It is an honor to be asked to represent President Trump and our great nation in a country where I have lived and served for many years,” McCarter said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing about a closer relationship that will benefit both our nations.”
McCarter was first nominated last year by Illinois’ Republican congressional delegation. McCarter, along with his parents, founded Each One Feed One International, which helps orphaned and abandoned children, and also provides medical treatment for those with HIV and malaria.
McCarter began working with the charity in 1984. He and his wife Victoria lived and worked in Kenya for a year beginning in 1987 to help build a medical clinic. They resumed their work with the charity in 2011 and continue to do so.
In the congressional nomination letter, congressmen wrote of McCarter’s “extensive history in Kenya,” with experience negotiating with tribal chiefs and other dignitaries; experience working with USAID and other organizations and “heightened insight into the governmental operations and other political, economic and social realities of both Kenya and the larger region of East Africa.”
The congressmen also noted McCarter had identified ways to support Trump’s “Buy American” strategy in Kenya to help boost the American economy through Kenyan investment.
McCarter and his wife both are conversational in Swahili, the official language of Kenya.
The White House announced the nomination in a news release on Wednesday afternoon, noting McCarter “served as a field auditor, Missionary and International Director of Each One Feed One International, based in Lebanon, Illinois with an office in Mukothima, Kenya.”
According to the release, McCarter would be “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of American to the Republic of Kenya.”
The post requires Senate confirmation.
McCarter has served as a state senator since 2009, and did not seek re-election this year.
McCarter was not available by phone on Wednesday. According to his Facebook page, his father passed away on Saturday, with services pending in Oklahoma.
“It is bittersweet that I am now preparing for the funeral of my father who leaves a legacy of honoring God, serving others and saving the lives of thousands of children in Kenya,” he said in the statement.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Impasse as Kenya tries to deport Miguna Miguna again for refusing to apply for visa

A top Kenyan opposition politician has been denied entry into the country despite a court order setting aside his deportation and asking the government to allow him back.

Miguna Miguna, a staunch ally of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was deported to Canada on February 6 after playing a key role in a mock swearing-in staged by Odinga in January 2018.

A High Court subsequently overturned the deportation and ordered government to facilitate his return to the country. At the time of filing this report, Miguna had flatly refused to board a Dubai based flight after the authorities insisted he had to apply for a visa.
 I am a Kenyan, I'm not traveling with a Canadian passport, this is what I am traveling with. I'm a Kenyan by birth, I'm not going to get nobody's visa. "
Local media network, Ktn, said Miguna had been held up at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and refused entry into Kenya because he had refused to apply for a visa.

The channel said he arrived on his Canadian passport because his Kenyan passport had not been reinstated as ordered by the court.

In an interview, he insisted that he was a citizen of the country by virtue of birth and did not require a visa to enter the country. “They want to take me to Dubai, I don’t know why, so I’m not going, I have refused to go. They say they now want to remove me by force, well, they will have to kill me first.”
Asked whether he still had his Canadian passport, he responded: “I am a Kenyan, I’m not traveling with a Canadian passport, this is what I am traveling with (waving his national identity card.) I’m a Kenyan by birth, I’m not going to get nobody’s visa,” he stressed.

He has severely lashed out at Raila over a reconciliation deal reached with president Uhuru Kenyatta describing the move as a betrayal of the people’s trust. Under the deal, government is to withdraw charges against all those involved in Odinga’s inauguration.

Miguna’s lawyers had also confirmed that they will no longer pursue the court case once he is allowed back.

RAILA ODINGA'S TIME IS UP ,HE DESERVES RESPECT FOR WHAT HE DID & A STEADFAST HERITOR




You all watched Raila Odinga sprinting towards the exit door last night. He was attempting to save Miguna Miguna from deportation, in the end an exercise in futility. Raila Odinga turned 73 this year, and while he gyms everyday to keep fit and improve his immunity, the Raila Odinga we saw limbering full steam at JKIA last night is not the Raila Odinga of 1991.

The Raila Odinga of 1991 would have reached that door at the speed of light and blocked the security hooligans from passing the man-mountain through it. Age failed Raila Odinga last night, and I think I saw something like a bad knee too. If you ran a scan on his face after the door was slammed shut, you could see a fiery dragon struggling to withhold his fire from consuming those agents of human rights violations. He was visibly angry at his sense of helplessness.The Raila Odinga of 1983 would not have watched helplessly as Miguna Miguna was being dragged like a thieving Onyalobiro reptile through that rickety airport door. The revolutionary fire is going, and we need to cut him some slack.

The average age of a political revolutionary is 34 years. Joe Slovo rose to head Umkhonto we Sizwe at 35. Chris Hani led the ANC military wing at 21. Sam Nujoma was elected president of SWAPO at 29. Amilcar Cabral led the PAIGC to the bush at 38. Patrice Lumumba became president of MNC at 33. Ernesto Che Guevara launched the Cuban revolution at 29. Raila Odinga was first detained over his political activities at 36.

None of those guys I mention over there are currently involved in politics, other than Raila Odinga himselef. Joe Slovo died, I must have read somewhere, of cancer, at 68. Chris Hani was assassinated outside his house at 49. Sam Nujoma is currently 88 and is resting quietly in his Okahao village, North of Namibia. Cabral was assassinated at 48, Patrice Lumumba suffered the same fate at 35, while Che Guevara was also assassinated by the Bolivia president, at 39. If you look at that crop of revolutionaries up there, it takes a special breed of any man to push governments to the wall and still keep their lives intact; and for those who manage to avoid the assassin's bullet, they are left with a beaten body and a weary soul. Ask Kenneth Matiba.

The backbone of any political revolution rests with the youth. Young people have time on their side, they have the energy to bulldoze governments, have the panache to keep banging the door of change for as long as it takes; and the intelligence to innovate new ideas each time status quo catches up with new technology. The retirement age in the Kenya Defense Forces is pegged at 55, and for obvious reasons. At 55, your brain begins to freeze, new ideas become alien to you, and no country can entrust you with military hardware that requires tip-top shock absorption. At 55, the only thing you can control is an automatic doorknob, and only with an engineer's manual. When you attain the age of 40, the military begins to slowly pull you away from the infantry division, preparing you for lighter duties behind an office desk, as you wait for your discharge at 55, or your death, whichever comes first.

No 73 year-old human being, whether he's fitter than fiddle, or with blood cleaner than a whistle, can be entrusted to sustain a revolution, of whatever kind. My father is Raila Odinga's agemate, and even though he rides his bike to attend the Kamilando Welfare Group meetings, down there in Alwala, 10 kilometers weekly, I know the limits he can go and sprinting 100 kilometers to confront an enemy is not one of them.

This is someone who has never stood on neck-deep icy waters even a second of his life. His gonads have never been squeezed by anyone, the closest he has come to being tortured is when I came 10th in one of my end year exams and he almost thought someone had bewitched his child. Today, if a night-runner was to patrol my father's compound at night and kick his main door in bemusement, my father would rely on his sons to come out and confront the madman, because his heart cannot sustain a 400 meters sprint down the Jimo village meandering bends chasing after someone clearly having three set of lungs, and in an ogrish birth-suit.

Like my father, the young people of this country are the ones who should be defending Miguna Miguna. If Miguna Miguna is held up at Kenya's main port of entry, and security forces are using their brains as mjengo helmets, it is upon the young people of this country to rise up and defend the sovereignty of the people and the rule of all law.

A huffing 73 year-old limper cannot take any of the cops man-to-man, even if you were to give him an improvised sniper rifle, because he is challenged, in strength and in grit, and the best he can do is to make futile phone calls to the cockpit whose captain has left the plane on autopilot. If anyone was to attack my father's homestead today and bruise any of his goats, it is me who shall be blamed for aimlessly belching in Nairobi and failing to protect him from dangerous rogues. To whom much is given, much is expected.

You cannot be sitting on your couch insulting a 73 year-old struggler who have already done all he could with the little available to him. At 73, Raila Odinga qualifies for the government cash-for-the-elderly social protection programme given to all Kenyans who have attained the minimum age of 65. It is actually shameful that an under-35 year-old youth, with a clever mouth and panel-beaten English, would in his right senses choose to insult a 73 year-old veteran from the comfort of his living room, sipping a bootlegged bottle of scotch whiskey watching news powered by a screaming box of prepaid tokens.

You have said everything you ever wanted to say to old people not defending human rights in this country. This is your time to get out of your sinking couch, go out there and face the state machinery one-on-one. Until your name is written in the anals of this country's history as having constituted to the struggle for the expansion of the democratic space, kindly stick to your measly lane;

And stop bothering us with your infectious pettiness.

Gabriel O  FB PG .

Monday, March 26, 2018

National Resistance Movement 'general' Miguna Miguna jets to Kenya


The Barrister returns amidist a broken NASA and Uhuru - Raila Handshake . He is the cause of all the political events that took place in Kenya recently .

People are waiting see whether the lawyer will continue from where he left now that the processes is now at the negotiation table the way he envisaged.

He had said Raila to be sworn in first as a People's President before he would meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta, the task he undertook upon himself and swore Hon Raila at Uhuru Park on the famous 30th day , that saw other NASA principals shy away . They didn't attend , acts that have been condemned as Cowardise, and were meant to cripple the process they had agreed upon .

In sensing that the 3 principals; Kalonzo wiper boss, Wetangula Ford kenya Boss and Mudavadi ANC boss were nolonger keen with 2017 polls process rather the trio had embarked in strategising about 2022 ....Raila resorted in efforts to uniting the country as depicted in the famous HandShake . 

Friday, March 23, 2018

NYS enters commuter bus service in style .

Kibera, Githurai, Mwiki, Mukuru kwa Njenga, Dandora, Kariobangi and Kawangware benefit as National Youth Service (NYS) deploys 27 buses to help alleviate the commuter crisis in Nairobi occasioned by the ongoing heavy rains.

 NYS Director General Richard Ndubai said the decision to deploy the NYS buses was made to save commuters from the high fares that are charged by public commuter vehicles during the current season.

This is seen by many as one of the strategie to enter business as President Kenyatta had told NYS to diversify in their operations to survive in the market .

It is not clear if the NYS buses have been cleared to operate as Public Service Vehicles as per the law.


Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Kenya to test genetically-modified cotton in nine research stations .


30 days to submit your comments on genetically-modified cotton trial on nine research stations in Kenya.

 The National Environment Management Authority on Thursday issued a 30-day deadline for oral or written submission which will bar or allow Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Karlo) to proceed with trials in nine research stations across the country.

  Karlo is proposing to undertake national performance trials for bt-cotton at Mwea, Katumani,Kampi ya Mawe, Bura, Perkera, Kibos, Alupe, Kerio Valley and Matuga. “We have received Environmental Impact Assesment Study report for national bt-cotton trials in nine station, we invite public to submit their comments within one month,” said Nema in advertisement sponsored by Karlo.
t-cotton is any variety of cotton, genetically enhanced with Bt-genes to protect it against caterpillar pests, especially the African bollworm, which is the most destructive pest in cotton crops. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a beneficial bacteria that occurs naturally in the soil.

It has been used commercially for more than 30 years to control vegetable caterpillars through biochemical insecticides such as Dipel®, Xentari® and Thuricide®.

Kenya has a potential to produce 260,000 bales of cotton annually but currently, our production stands at 28,000, as we get about 572kg/hectare against a potential of 2,500kg/hectare.


WHY DID EUROPEANS WRITE A FAKE HISTORY ABOUT AFRICANS AND YET AFRICAN INVENTIONS WERE STOLEN ?

Look at first inventions that changed the world came out of Africa.................   Medicine , Mathematics, Speech ( language ) ...