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Archive for November 1st, 2009

CAPITAL FM BLOG: TO BE SAVED OR NOT TO BE SAVED?

Posted by jambonewspot on November 1, 2009

Indeed, God is a forgiving God. I am happy that there is a new brother in the flock. And I honestly hope he is serious about his new life in Christ. I am talking about Maina Njenga. I dont know his baptism name, but I am hoping that this is not a case of looking to be villified by the masses.

We have seen it before, when the government pardons known criminals, or not, and then they eventually turn to God to prove their innocence to the public, or not. It leaves behind a trail of stinky rats, or not. I wonder what comes next? Just try and think of the ramifications.

Personally, between the negative and the positive, I have decided to focus on the better side of things. This might be naive of me, or not.

I would like to ask Mr Njenga to embrace the hard task ahead of him. I understand there are hundreds of thousands of Mungiki followers. They are not well known for the best of reasons. I really want to know how he will go about changing their hearts and minds to stop smoking paraphernalia, to stop taking blood-oaths, to stop cutting people’s throats, and getting money from other people’s sweat.

I wonder how he will ask them to accept the teachings of the bible and stop worshipping the mountain. I wonder how he will tell them to stop harrassing matatus and freight trailers? I wonder if he is going to change the name of the outfit and work with his flock to take away the terror they inflict in people’s hearts.

I wonder how he will convince those whose families and relatives came to harm, under the hands of his Mungiki army, to forgive him. I wonder how he will make peace with the past when it comes back to haunt him. I hope you are sincere Mr Njenga and that this will eventually change a lot of things in the country. May God give you strength. And even as I have trouble writing this because my doubts and lack of trust in most public figures nag me, I hope, to God, that this one is different.

I wonder, will he denounce his leadership of the outlawed sect? Or not?

 Laura Waubengo-Capital FM

 

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InterCon to to open second five-star hotel in Nairobi

Posted by jambonewspot on November 1, 2009

By WANGUI MAINA   Posted Monday, November 2 2009 at 00:00

Hotel Intercontinental, Nairobi. Photo File

The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) will on Monday morning announce its investments plans that will see it open a new five star hotel in a bid to capture the growing conference and business travellers market.

The new 182 room hotel, Crowne Plaza, will be opened next month in Nairobi’s growing Upper Hill and it comes at a time when the country is witnessing the recovery of the tourism industry.

This will be IHG second five starbrand in Kenya after the Inter Continental Hotel and it sets the stage for a control of conference and business travellers among city hotels, including Hilton, Serena and Sarova.

“We trust this market and we are here to stay because our Nairobi hotel has been doing well despite the economic downturn,” said Karl Hala, the group’s director of operations in Africa and the General Manger of the Nairobi hotel.

Boost presence

The five-star hotel is expected to help the group boost its presence in the country and tap into the Nairobi market that is first emerging as the regions hub for leisure, conference and business tourism.

Local tourism is showing strong signs of recovery after suffering from last years post-election violence and the financial crisis that pushed world travel to record lows.

Official data show that tourism earnings rose 10 per cent to Sh36.64 billion in the first half of the year and the sector is optimistic it could reach the 2007 highs of Sh65 billion with two million guests.

The 2007 boom was short-lived due to the post-election violence and the financial crisis that affected the world economy.

The change is attributed to increased marketing and efforts to reach out to new zones in the last eight months of the year— a campaign expected to continue in the industry’s recovery path.

As a result, players such as IHG are angling to get a larger piece of this market.

Globally, IHG owns Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, and InterContinental Hotels.

Crowne Plaza is part of the group’s expansion plans in the region where it has planned to open up to eight new units in coming months.

IHG has its sights set on moving to Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania, Senegal and South Africa.

Africa is currently the focus of many other hospitality groups who are looking at the potential of investing in the region.

For Fairmont group acquiring properties from Lonhro in 2005 was a step into moving into the region.

Since then it has refurbished three of the key properties – Norfolk, Mount Kenya Safari Club and Mara Safari – to Fairmont standards, it also acquired a property in Zanzibar.

IHG has had presence in the Kenyan market for 40 years, having celebrated its birthday over the weekend, under the InterContinental Hotel in Nairobi, which the Kenyan government has a 33.8 per cent stake.

The group though had to struggle last year following the slump in the sector that saw room occupancy slightly impacted.

However, business travel sustained the unit during the rough patch.

 www.businessdailyafrica.com

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U.S. banned Kenya’s attorney general: envoy

Posted by jambonewspot on November 1, 2009

By David Clarke

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s attorney general Amos Wako was the senior government official handed a travel ban by Washington last month, the U.S. envoy to Kenya said on Sunday.

There has been intense speculation in Kenya over who had been banned, with Wako high on most lists given that Washington has criticized him several times for not cracking down on corruption during his 18-year tenure.

Ending a culture of impunity in a country where corruption is almost endemic is seen by international donors has a crucial step toward avoiding a repeat of last year’s post-election violence at the next presidential election in 2012.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson announced the travel ban during a visit to Kenya last month and said Washington was considering similar action against three more prominent Kenyans. But he declined to name the official.

Ending the speculation, U.S. ambassador Michael Ranneberger directed readers of his Twitter page to The Standard newspaper, saying: “Still wondering which senior Kenyan official has been banned from the U.S. for obstructing reforms? The answer is:”

The front page of the Standard read: “U.S. ban: It’s Wako.”

Wako has been criticized for failing to prosecute the perpetrators of the post-election violence that killed at least 1,300 people, and for not nailing the architects of several audacious corruption scams worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Announcing the ban, Carson said the official in question had been “obstructive in the fight against corruption.”

Watchdog Transparency International ranks Kenya as the most corrupt nation in east Africa.

While President Mwai Kibaki has yet to respond to the U.S. ban, Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said on Wednesday Kenya regretted that Carson had arrived uninvited and then made “fairly unacceptable and reckless statements.”

Washington has been one of the most outspoken critics of Kenya’s coalition government for slow progress on reforms agreed as part of a deal to end the 2008 violence.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is also investigating people considered most responsible for funding and fuelling the clashes that followed a disputed presidential election in 2007.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is due to visit in Kenya on Thursday amid growing speculation he may soon take action against a few influential members of the government.

Source. www.reuters.com

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