By Chris Wamalwa in USA

Kenyans in the Diaspora who acquired citizenship of other countries before the promulgation of the New Constitution must apply to regain Kenyan citizenship.

The Constitution Implementation Commission Mr Charles Nyachae told a meeting attended by Kenyans living in Canada that majority of them assume that they regain citizenship due to the Dual Citizenship clause

“According to the constitution, the moment you acquired citizenship of another country (before August 2010), the operational piece of the constitution kicked in and you automatically lost your Kenyan citizenship making you a “foreigner” in your own country,” said Nyachae, chairman of CIC.

Nyachae urged those in the Diaspora to apply to re-gain your Kenyan citizenship.

He also disclosed that it will be a crime for any Kenyan not to disclose, within three months, to the Kenyan government that they have acquired citizenship of another country.

The CIC chairman said one will be liable to a jail time if they are caught in Kenya and a fine of up to Sh5 million.

“We urge Kenyans living in Canada to take a keener interest in some of these developments because a criminal record for instance can mess up somebodyfs life,” said Mr Simon Nabukwesi, Kenyan High Commissioner to Canada.

Majority of Kenyans living abroad who acquired citizenship of the countries where they are settled before the “dual citizenship” kicked in have always assumed that they can go back to Kenya and run for elective government positions.

Many have shown interest in running for parliament, senate and even county positions.

“The reality is that such persons do not qualify as the law says you lost your Kenyan citizenship. You must first apply to re-gain your Kenyan citizenship and then wait for a period of 10 years before you can run for elective government position in Kenya,” said Ben Ondoro, chairman of Kenyan Community in Ontario (KCO).

The meeting between CIC and Diaspora was organized by the Kenyan High Commissioner to Canada Mr Simon Nabukwesi in collaboration with the Kenyan community in Ontario (KCO).@

The CIC delegation included Chairman Charles Nyachae, Dr Florence Omosa, Mr Philemon Mwaisaka and Prof Peter Wanyande.

Source: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000056112&cid=4&ttl=Dual%20citizenship%20shocker%20for%20Diaspora

A Kenyan woman was among two people were hospitalized after a motorcycle and car collided Sunday afternoon at a busy South Elgin intersection.

South Elgin police said the crash took place at 12:13 p.m. when a Toyota headed northbound on Randall Road attempted to turn left onto Silver Glen Road and collided with a southbound Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The driver of the Toyota, Margaret Mwangi, 56, of the 600 block of West Streamwood Boulevard in Streamwood, was cited for failure to yield while on a left turn.

Donald Deavilla, 54, of the 24000 block of Woodland Avenue in Cary, was identified as the motorcycle’s driver.

Both were transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Elgin. A report of their condition was not immediately available Sunday.

Source: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120408/news/704089816/

Dr. Nkrumah wrote in his diary: "Things will not go well for Ghana"

A diary belonging to Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, which dates from the mid-1960s, and has been at the centre of a long legal battle between an American businessman and an African scholar from Kenya, will soon be returning home.

An American, New York businessman Robert Shulman is battling Vincent Mbirika, a Kenyan-born, New York-based scholar and amateur investigator, who doggedly tracked down and succeeded in retrieving the diary from the American who had it in his possession for many years.

The Kenyan, who describes himself as Africa’s “Indiana Jones” has convinced the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania in the US that the diary rightly belongs to Ghana and to the Nkrumah family and should be returned to Africa.

The judge ruled that the diary, which offers a rare look into the public and personal life of the great Pan-Africanist, was among the possessions of Dr Nkrumah when he died in Romania in 1972. The judge has ordered that the diary should be handed over to the Ghanaian ambassador in Washington for onward conveyance to Ghana.

Mbirika invited Sadick Abubakar, a Ghanaian living in Washington and a director of the United African Congress, a US advocacy group for African expatriates, to help in contacting Nkrumah’s relatives back home to provide the necessary backings.

The diary has travelled around the world over the last 40 years from Ghana to Guinea to Romania and America. Shulman has been keeping the diary for many years now and with the latest ruling Ghanaians will now have a feel of what their founding father wrote about his career.

The diary entries start from the mid-1960s, when the Osagyefo was president, and run to the late 1960s when he had been deposed and was living in exile in Guinea as a guest of President Sekou Toure.

One entry, from 1966, the year Nkrumah was ousted by the military, mentions the purchase of military equipment from the Soviet Union. In another entry, from 1968, when Nkrumah was living in Guinea, the former president instructs his wife, Fathia, to “take care” of their children – Gamal Gorkeh, Sekou, and Samia (who is now an MP in Ghana and chairperson of the Convention People’s Party founded by her father).

Possibly the most compelling entry in the diary (which is about the size of a small paperback and has a bookmark with the colours of Ghana’s flag stuffed in its pages), is one where Nkrumah, who had been Ghana’s head of state since independence from Britain in 1957, reflects on the abrupt end of his presidency. It makes clear that Nkrumah was worried about Ghana and Africa’s future. He wrote: “Things will not go well for Ghana” and said his “vision” for Ghana would now be “lost”.

Source: http://www.citifmonline.com/index.php?id=1.852988

Judith (right) escorted by Customs personnel to a courtroom yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here yesterday postponed the trial of a Kenyan  woman charged with trafficking in 3,747.63 grams of syabu as she would be  undergoing surgery at a hospital here.

Justice Dato’ Abdul Rahman Sebli deferred the trial of Judith Achieng Odoyo,  30, to June 27 to 29 and July 16 to 18, this year upon the request of her  assigned counsel Ram Singh.

When applying for postponement, Singh informed the court that Odoyo was due  to be admitted into the Likas Women’s and Children’s Hospital to undergo a  surgery.

“She has been diagnosed with fibroid and her operation is due tomorrow  (today),” Singh said, adding that the accused should be admitted before 12.30pm  to enable the hospital authority to prepare her for the surgery.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Radzi Shah Abdul Razak told the court that he  had no objection to the application to enable the accused to be admitted into  the hospital.

The court however issued an order for Singh to tender a letter from the  hospital to confirm the matter.

Singh duly tendered the letter confirming that the accused needed to be  admitted to the hospital as she had been planned for elective surgery (today) to  the court during its proceedings in the afternoon.

Odoyo from Kenya, allegedly trafficked the drug at the passenger examination  special unit at Terminal 1 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA)  about 8.45am on September 1.

She is charged under Section 39B (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952  which provides for the mandatory death sentence by hanging upon conviction.

The prosecution would be calling 10 witnesses to testify against Odoyo during  the trial.

The accused has been remanded in custody ever since the date of her arrest  since drug trafficking is a non-bailable offence.

Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/04/10/kenyans-drug-trafficking-trial-postponed/#ixzz1rjeikDjn

Father Kevin Reynolds was accused of raping a woman in Kenya

Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE has rejected a claim that the woman at the centre of the Fr Kevin Reynolds controversy did not understand the questions she was being asked during the making of the programme.

A family member of Veneranda Mudi — the woman who claimed she had been raped and had a child by the priest in Kenya — said she did not understand what she was being asked.

However, RTE sources have rejected this outright, saying that expert translators were used at all stages, and each translation was verified a number of times.

They also said that there was “no doubt” among the investigative team that she fully understood what she was being asked.

A Mudi family source last night said the whole issue has “brought shame” on them.

They claimed she “misinterpreted” the questions which were being asked of her by the Prime Time Investigates team and did not fully realise their implications.

Last May, the Prime Time programme falsely accused Galway priest Fr Kevin Reynolds of fathering a child in Kenya with Veneranda 30 years ago.

Fr Reynolds strongly denied the allegation from the outset, but the programme was aired and Fr Reynolds temporarily stepped aside from ministry.

After a DNA test confirmed he was not the father, RTE apologised to the priest and accepted the allegations were baseless and untrue. Fr Reynolds was awarded undisclosed damages by the High Court and received an apology.

Last night a Mudi family member said the rumours that Veneranda’s daughter Sheila was fathered by a white man began when she was a baby because her skin tone was much lighter than her mother’s.

“There were rumours (locally) and that grew into something people believed,” he said last night.

“She didn’t know what she was saying, she wasn’t lying. She didn’t understand about the Irish priest. We’re sorry and we want everything to end.”

He said Veneranda is “not happy” with what has happened — but she also blames herself and her lack of education as she doesn’t speak English.

“She is also blaming herself for not going to school, she didn’t understand everything.

“To the Irish people and the priest, we’re very sorry for the whole thing,” he said, adding that they are “ashamed” by what has happened. “The priest is a very good guy and we are very sorry for the whole thing.”

But a well placed source said last night that Veneranda was interviewed by the RTE team a number of times and verified her story each time.

It was also translated and checked a number of times, they said.

RESPOND

RTE is due to respond next week to a report which was carried out by the BAI on the orders of Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte.

Yesterday the broadcaster said it was “disappointed” that the report was leaked “and prejudices the response of the programme-makers as named individuals”. “If fair regulatory procedures are to apply, RTÉ and the production team must be allowed to make submissions to the BAI in response to the report, within the process,” a statement said.

Last week RTE announced the managing director of RTE at the time the programme was aired, Ed Mulhall, is to retire, while Ken O’Shea resigned from his post as editor of current affairs and will be transferred to an assignment in television.

Executive producer Brian Pairceir and reporter Aoife Kavanagh are currently not involved in any on-air programming. RTE has also axed the award-winning series.

. “Things were poorly done,” the family member said, adding that it was a poor investigation. “They should be ashamed of themselves. I’d like to know the person who started this story.” An RTE spokesman last night said that they were precluded from commenting on the production of the programme until the BAI investigation was completed.

Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rte-claim-priest-accuser-understood-questioning-3076810.html

We met Peggoty Mutai in Paris in March of 2012. She was one of 15 scientists whose research projects were selected by the “L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science” programme, earning them an International Fellowship. A PhD student in Chemistry, Peggoty Mutai plans to find new treatments for parasitic worms.

How did you become a scientist?

I grew up in Kenya, in a small town called Kericho. It was exciting running around. I was interested in nature. When I went to school, I was excited by science experiments. So I wanted to do something about chemistry. A high percentage of children in Kenya suffer from worms. Growing up, we were never tested. We grew up with them. Children cannot achieve their full potential this way. There are dewormings nowadays : all children from a school are given medicine against worms. This results in less abstention from school. But what happens when it stops working, when worms develop resistance ? In Kenya, many people are using traditional medicine with plants.

What is your research on?

We study the effect of these plants. To test them, we have been using so far an inefficient system, analyzing sheep feces. The focus of my work is on taking proteins (*) from worms and putting them in… yeast! Everything is done in the lab now. When we get good compounds, we can test them on the sheep. It is more efficient.

Are you collaborating with other scientists?

You cannot be good at everything, science is about a team collaborating towards a common goal.
Do you have a message for the women of Africa? I am a woman in science. Science has a lot to offer to women, opportunities. All women practice science at some point in their life, e.g. cooking is a science! Science is challenging -nothing is easy in life- but it is interesting. Women should not fear it or run away from it.

How long until you and your colleagues find a cure for worms?

It could take three or thirty years. That’s why it’s called research!

Source: http://education.starafrica.com/en/detail-news/view/peggoty-mutai-a-kenyan-researcher-again-227188.html

Wanjiru Kamau will never forget the shock of arriving in Corvallis, Ore., from Kenya—moving as a 20-year-old student to a foreign land.

Ms. Kamau grew up in rural Kenya on a small farm, working the land with her mother and two sisters. Her father died when she was a baby. Pushed by her mother to pursue an education, she worked hard at her studies and was eventually offered a chance to attend college in the U.S. in 1960.

“I wasn’t scared to come to the U.S., because my mother taught me to be strong,” says Ms. Kamau. As a girl, she learned to farm, cut trees, slaughter goats and help run the finances for her family’s 15-acre farm, while also walking miles to and from the local schoolhouse each day.

Ms. Kamau eventually earned degrees from San Jose State University and Pennsylvania State University. She spent several decades back in Kenya working at the University of Nairobi and raising four children. She returned to the U.S. in 1988 to pursue a Ph.D. and later worked as an adjunct professor at Penn State.

She also met many African immigrants who struggled to adjust to their new lives. Many were refugees, bewildered, illiterate, and unsure of how to find housing or register their children for school.

“I had to help them,” says Ms. Kamau. “I asked myself, ‘Why did I get all of this education if not to help people?’ “

So in 2000, Ms. Kamau resigned from Penn State, withdrew $10,000 from her retirement account, and moved to Washington, D.C., to start a nonprofit organization called African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation. The organization provides African immigrants such assistance as mental-health services, English classes, tutoring and cultural clubs for children, and help resolving conflicts in domestic-violence disputes.

“People come to us injured in some way, and we help anyone with any problem,” says Ms. Kamau, who adds that she received two calls just that day from women having problems with their violent husbands, and another from someone needing help filing asylum papers. “My phone rings off the hook at all hours,” she says.

Since 2000, Ms. Kamau’s foundation has provided help to more than 6,000 immigrants from 45 African countries and has given cultural training to more than 2,500 school counselors, caregivers, and others who work with African immigrants.

Ms. Kamau has no official employees, but she does hire consultants. She works more than 10 hours a day—fielding requests from immigrants, fund raising and planning for her organization’s annual conference.

“There are times when money is tight, and I’m up at 3 a.m., that I feel I can’t keep up this pace,” says Ms. Kamau, who swims and eats a vegetarian diet to stay healthy. “But then I see a child’s smile, and I get energized to keep going.”

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203833004577251524178931452.html?mod=googlenews_wsj