http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1326407570.html

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 31 – The Court of Appeal has now suspended the vetting of judges and magistrates until an appeal lodged by a law student is heard and determined.

Justices Emmanuel O’kubasu, Alnashir Visram and David Maranga have directed that the appeal be heard and determined within 21 days.

The student, Dennis Mogambi had appealed against a High Court order that threw out a case he filed challenging to the legality of the vetting process.

Mogambi argues that if allowed to proceed, the process will be unfair to the judicial officers since the officers will not have a right of appeal to decisions reached by the vetting board.

He also objects to the board starting vetting, claiming that the judicial officers will not have enough time to prepare their case or defend themselves against any accusations or positions.

The board is chaired by Sharad Rao.  The last member to be sworn into office two weeks ago was South African judge Albert Sach.

Read related story here

and also here

Other members are; Meuledi Iseme, Justus Maithya, Ngotho Kairuki, Abdirashid Abdullahi, Roselyne Odede,  Zambian Fredrick Chomba and Ghanaian CJ Georginah Woods.

The board will vet judges and magistrates who were in office as at August 27, 2010 to determine their suitability to continue in office.

You can also read a blog on vetting of judges here

The board was established by the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Act 2011 that received Presidential assent on March 21 last year.

Source: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2012/01/court-now-blocks-vetting-of-judges/

KISUMU, 19 December 2011 (PlusNews) – For the past five years, Achieng*, a 35-year-old widow and mother of six, has sold fish on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria; like many women in the fish trade, Achieng often has to have sex with fishermen in order to get the best catch of the day, a system known in the local Luo language as ‘jaboya’.

“When you are a woman and you want to get into the business of selling fish, you must be ready to lose your pride and use your body for bargaining,” she told IRIN/PlusNews. “Being ready to give sex as and when it is needed by the fishermen… it guarantees your survival here on the beach.”

‘Jaboya’ has long been associated with the high levels of HIV infection in Kenya’s western Nyanza Province, where HIV prevalence is over 14.9 percent, double the national average of 7.4 percent. It is even higher among fishing communities. The Kenya HIV Prevention Response and Modes of Transmission Analysis 2009 reported that HIV prevalence among fishing communities stands at 30 percent, while an estimated 25 percent of all new infections in Nyanza are attributed to this group.

An estimated 27,000 women are involved in the fish trade in Nyanza either directly or indirectly, according to the Ministry of Fisheries.

Achieng says she is aware of the risks, but the immediate needs of her family override any concern she may have about contracting HIV.

“You know you can get HIV… but then you remember you have a family that needs to be provided for, and you say, let me die providing for them,” she said.

According to Charles Okal, the provincial AIDS and sexually transmitted infections coordinator for Nyanza, while efforts to reach out to fishing communities with HIV prevention messages have begun to show results, the continued poverty of women means they remain vulnerable to ‘jaboya’.

“Fish trade that goes along with sex-for-fish continues to be one of the greatest challenges in the prevention of HIV in Nyanza… There are still challenges which involve the economic and social vulnerabilities of the women involved in the trade,” he said.

Economic empowerment

A recent donation of six boats to women’s groups in Nyanza by the US Peace Corps shows some of the ways ‘jaboya’ can be addressed; the women are able to fish for themselves, eliminating dependence on fishermen.

“When you have nothing, those who have something must tell you to bend over backwards for them. Now we have boats and we will no longer be at anybody’s mercy,” Millicent Onyango, one of the beneficiaries of the US Peace Corps’ “No Sex for Fish” project.

According to Okeyo Owuor, director of the Victoria Institute for Research on Environment and Development, which is part of the initiative, empowering women economically is key to ending the dangerous fish-for-sex trade. “These women need fish but they don’t own any boat. This means they have to play along with whoever has the boat and these are men who will demand for sex before giving any fish. But when you empower them to own the boat, then they have the ultimate power to say no to sexual demands,” he said.

“Six boats might look small but many such initiatives can make an impact in ending the sex-for-fish trade if replicated over time. It is important to start from somewhere,” he added.

Many of the women trading in fish across Lake Victoria’s landing sites have formed groups to help them save money to buy their own fishing equipment.

“We want to help ourselves by putting some of our savings aside so that when we have enough, we can buy our own boats and nets and help each other. So we will have nearly all women who are at the beaches own a boat either individually, or as a group,” said Lillian Rajula, the leader of one such group.

According to Nyanza AIDS coordinator Okal, economic programmes must go hand in hand with other HIV prevention methods like the promotion of voluntary medical male circumcision, condom use and behaviour change communication.

“Apart from the need to empower the women, behaviour change communication targeting men is important so that they look at the women as business partners and not sex partners; these kind of efforts are ongoing and are being embraced, albeit slowly,” he said.

*Not her real name
Source: http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94497

The African life and death of an American priest: A recounting of how a Minnesota man died mysteriously in Kenya after challenging the government.

It’s daring, in some ways, that Christopher Goffard starts his book in Kenya. “You Will See Fire: A Search for Justice in Kenya” tells the story of John Kaiser, a Minnesotan and former Marine who spent most of his life in rural Kenya as a priest. Most writers wouldn’t resist so many bridges of familiarity, but Goffard dares us to think differently.

“Shoulder-to-shoulder on the porches lounged gaunt, long-limbed Masai men, sinewy, sandaled, with shaven scalps, the ropy skin of their stretched and punctured earlobes bright with beads,” Goffard writes.

“An American, rich by definition, who insisted on a life of hard physical labor in the sun. … Only witch doctors live alone, people said.”

It’s funny, and savvy, to invert our expectations: The Masai may contort their ears to hold big beads, but this book takes place on their turf, where the single and celibate mzungu, or white man, is the strange one.

It’s precisely from his foreignness that Kaiser derives a — wholly secular — power. He fails in his attempts, over decades, to persuade the church to speak out against abuses in the regime of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi — foiled in large part by divisions among African and foreign church leaders over the power and purpose of criticism raised by a mzungu.

Kaiser sees a chance to pursue justice himself when Moi sets up a (sham) commission to investigate mass evictions in rural Kenya.

Kaiser had watched the evictions happen; he collected testimonies and documents from the swindled peasants, which he presents to the commission. He builds a chain of culpability leading to Moi himself — a move so daring it’s stricken from the formal record of the commission and prohibited from inclusion in the local press.

Still, the testimony turns him into a hero, which further emboldens him, even as he fears for his life. “They’ll say it was suicide,” he tells a friend visiting shortly before his death. “Don’t believe it.”

Kaiser’s eventual shooting death in 2000, is investigated by a joint Kenya-FBI team, which rules it a suicide. But Charles Mbuthi Gathenji, a Kenyan human rights lawyer whose father was also killed by the regime, refuses to let the case drop. He persists, and seven years after Kaiser’s death, a Kenyan judge overturns the FBI findings, calling it murder.

Yet questions remain, including about Kaiser’s lifelong mental health.

In places, the book drags a bit — the lengthy historical background could be pared without risking the integrity of the story — but when Goffard’s working in pure story, he soars. The book is best when it hews to the mystery of John Kaiser and his death, itself a prism for the story of what really happened under the brutal dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/135699243.html

KDF jets supported by artillery fire from naval gunships fire destroyed the two Al Shabaab training camps at around noon on Sunday. The camps are said to have been used only by foreign Muslim extremists to train Al Shabaab fighters. Earlier in the day, there was heavy artillery fire around the town of Burgavo as the navy targeted suspected Al Shabaab positions.

NAKURU, Kenya, Oct 7 – Dira, that is the word sex workers at Salgaa in Nakuru County call their regular clients who also assist in paying rent, shop for food and perform other ‘husband’ duties.

“Such clients have identified only one person (sex worker) whom they deal with when they come,” explains a sex worker at the centre.

Salgaa is a popular township on the Nakuru- Eldoret highway, infamous for its nightlife as it is a busy road for transporters.

The sex workers here target truck drivers.

Although illegal in Kenya, sex work still thrives in most parts of the country and according to the sex workers we talked to, most of their clients do not like to use condoms.

“If they use condoms, they pay less and sometimes you are hard pressed for money so you go without it,” says another sex worker.

This leaves them (sex workers) vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies leading to abortion diseases like HIV/AIDS.

And as the world population is projected to hit the seven billion mark in October according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), we are here to find out how sex workers protect themselves against unplanned pregnancies.

We talked to five sex workers in the area on condition of anonymity on how they protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies as they engage clients.

“We normally use various family planning methods but the most accessible are pills and injections,” says one of them.

Unfortunately, they are not able to access all the family planning methods they may want because they are not available in the nearest public health facility which is Rongai Health Centre.

“They tell us there are other available methods but they don’t have them. Sometimes you want Norplant or a coil but it is not available and you have to go to Nakuru which is about 25 kilometres away,” they say.

Zachary Keyah, a Program Coordinator at a non governmental organisation known as Family Aids Initiative Response (FAIR-APHIA II) in Nakuru says supply of family planning has not been consistent in government health facilities in the county.

“The assumption is that health centres in the country have all the family planning methods but the reality is that they don’t,” he states.

“Sometimes you will go to that health centre, in the service charter it is a sub district hospital but you find the supplies are for a health centre and it has only one clinical officer and this affects service provision including family planning,” Keyah adds.

He gives the example of Rongai Health Centre which he says was upgraded to a sub district hospital because of the many accidents that occur on the highway but continues to receive the supplies of a health centre.

Director of Public Health Dr Shahnaaz Shariff acknowledges that there is a problem with access to some family planning methods in public health facilities.

“Yes we have a problem with access to long term and permanent methods of family planning in public health facilities, but we are working on that,” he says.

Apart from spacing children, medics say family planning is important because it contributes towards improving the quality of life of a mother. This, they argue, is one way of achieving the Millennium Development Goal on improving maternal health.

It is recommended that women should space their children by at least three years to give them time to heal.

In Kenya the uptake of family planning is at 41 percent nationally, which Dr Shariff terms as very low. He attributes this to myths and misconceptions about their use.

Limited access to preferred family planning methods is another issue that has led some women to do away with it.

“The major issues the sex workers face is the attitude of the service providers. They become judgmental if they know one is a sex worker,” Keyah says, a point emphasised by one sex worker who accuses the health providers of asking “irrelevant” questions like whether one is married.

The sex worker says minimal information on family planning also hinders their uptake and calls on the government to create more awareness on the subject and involve local communities and most at risk groups like them (sex workers).

Source: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2011/10/sex-work-thrives-on-major-highway/

By Sophie Akinyi

Conceiving is a beautiful feeling especially in a society where lack of it is considered a curse. Women who are unable to conceive find it rough living in this society as they are always mocked and ridiculed. For the ones who are lucky to conceive though, a lot of anxiety is expressed.

Many Kenyan women especially first time moms` harbor fears concerning childbirth. This is as a result of stories heard from fellow women who have given birth naturally. Currently, there is a rising number of Caesarean Sections (CS) being performed in hospitals. Women who go for it are
mostly carried away by the `fear` factor and low self esteem.

Fear is the notable reason since women who have given birth may sometimes narrate their ordeals in the hands or ruthless midwives. This would without a doubt make any expectant woman scared. Many a times these women are insulted, neglected and beaten when it gets to extremes. Thinking of how vulnerable and delicate a woman gets during this state, it is no doubt a woman would think of a Caesarean Section.

It is not every woman`s wish to deliver  Caesarean Section, some prefer to give birth naturally saying it helps in dealing with pain there and then. Today, expectant women experience some sort of medical intervention which might land them in theater and not labor room. Some women confess that they felt ready to give birth naturally, but along the way, they were told their conditions had changed and they have to go through CS. Sometimes, this intervention is warranted; however, there are certain hospitals which have turned the practice into a money-making business.

Before, Caesarean Section was only warranted in certain circumstances; these included: if a woman had contracted pelvis (small or inadequate), cord prolapsed (cord slips off first before the baby), abnormal lie (eg.transverse-across, breech-baby presents with legs or hands, pre-eclampsia (where there is high blood pressure accompanied with protein in urine and A.P.H (condition where mother starts bleeding before she goes into
labor but the pregnancy is full term. Apart from HIV positive patients who are encouraged to go through the procedure as a preventive measure against infecting their newborns, women are at liberty to decide the mode of delivery they want. In some hospitals, women are advised to go for CS even without being explained to the underlying disadvantages. What some of these hospitals are interested in is money.

This sudden rush for `quick` money has made some women lose their lives due to doctor`s carelessness. There have been reported cases of forgotten pieces of cloth and instrument inside these women`s womb which in turn lead to their death. Sorry as this situation might sound, many
women still find themselves in theater rooms willing or unwillingly.

At the end of the day, what people are interested in is having kids, this means that there should be healthy guidelines on when a CS or even induction should and shouldn`t be done. This would reduce the number of deaths among other postnatal complications.
Expectant women should also hang around people who encourage them and above all, trust their body`s abilities to deliver healthy kids safely.

There should however be a healthy guideline on when a CS should be done so as to reduce complications resulting from it. Women have lost their hands on unscrupulous quacks that most of the time are too hasty leaving behind towels inside wombs of their patients.

This has led to loss of life among other complications.

President Kibaki has directed a State funeral be held in honor of the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai.

Protocol for state funeral requires that a platoon- traditionally constituted by 36 soldiers in ceremonial uniform and regalia- accompanies the casket as it is drawn during burial. The head of state can also declare a day or days of mourning.

The casket that will be bearing the remains of Prof. Wangari Maathai will be draped in the Kenyan flag, and most likely placed on a stately carriage and escorted by a military platoon like the Late Vice-President Michael Wamalwa burial.

For the late Prof. Wangari we should expect a little more based on that she was an international public figure. The world will be watching so Kenya has to put its best foot forward.

The Head of State in this case has also declared two days of national mourning on Thursday and Friday during which flags will be flown at half-mast. No dates have been set yet for the ceremony.

It is a great loss. It is painful she did not live to enjoy the fruits of the new constitution,” that is how retired cleric Timothy Njoya said of Prof Wangari Maathai’s death. Njoya, a proponent of the second liberation, said he knew Maathai as a selfless person who would always sacrifice herself for the benefit of Kenyans.

Prof Maathai succumbed to ovarian cancer at 11pm on Sunday night, just over a year since she was diagnosed with the disease, in July 2010. Lucy Wanjohi, her personal assistant, said the former Tetu MP was in and out of hospital two weeks prior to her demise, as her health deteriorated. “She was so selfless that she gave herself to be beaten, intimidated and injured by the Kanu administration,” Njoya said.

President Kibaki said Maathai would be remembered for both her environmental and political crusades that led to reforms in the country. “With the passing on of Prof Maathai, the country and the world has not only lost a renowned environmentalist and but also a great human rights crusader,” said the president in a statement sent to newsrooms, “Indeed in 2004, the late Professor was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her contribution in environmental conservation, good governance, human rights and democracy.”

In politics, Prof Maathai, the president said, will be remembered for the role she played in agitating for political reforms that paved the way for the country’s second liberation. Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka were among Kenyans who expressed their shock upon learning of Maathai’s death. “The world has truly lost a hero. Her work in humanitarian and environmental aspects are incomparable” said the PM in his facebook page.

Kalonzo said the loss of Prof Maathai, Kenya’s first Nobel Prize laureate, was one of the saddest and most disturbing in recent times. ” Maathai will be remembered for her unrivalled fortitude, unwavering principles and sincere love for fellow mankind among other attributes found only in one of a kind once in a generation,” said the VP. “I worked in the Environment ministry with Prof Maathai and do remember her as an exceptional lady with an epic regard for excellence.”

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Prof.Wangari Maathai. “Wangari Maathai will be remembered as a committed champion of the environment, sustainable development, women’s rights, and democracy. Her contribution to all these causes will forever be celebrated and honoured.

Wangari was a courageous leader. Her energy and life-long dedication to improve the lives and livelihoods of people will continue to inspire generations of young people around the world,” Annan said, “Her award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, the first to be bestowed upon an African woman, rightly underscored the important nexus in her work between sustainable development, peace and human security”.

UNEP Executive director Achim Steiner said Wangari would be remembered for her conservation efforts. “Wangari Maathai was a force of nature. While others deployed their power and life force to damage, degrade and extract short term profit from the environment, she used hers to stand in their way, mobilize communities and to argue for conservation and sustainable development over destruction,” he said.

Former Kabete MP Paul Muite recalls how the fallen heroine worked tirelessly to rescue Karura Forest from the hands of land grabbers. “She would go the extra mile and although she encountered many challenges, this did not deter her fight,” he said. “She was a true fighter. It’s a very sad event in Kenya, Wangare often reminds me of a verse in the Bible about a prophet not recognised at home but only appreciated outside her home, because this is what happened to Maathai; she was recognised by the international community.”

Wanuri Kahiu, a filmmaker who did a one-hour documentary about the Nobel Laurete, said she admired the environmentalist. “It was intimidating; I was really scared because I really wanted more than anything to be able to tell a beautiful story about Wangari Maathai. Something that will inspire people the same way I was inspired when I read her book,” Wanuri said. Her other Sci-fi film was dedicated to Wangare Maathai. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, during the launch of the Sci-fi film, said Wangari deserved the Nobel Prize because it had taken her (Maathai’s) concept a notch higher.

A long time friend and fellow professor at the University of Nairobi, Vertistine Mbaya, said Maathai showed the world how important it is to have and demonstrate courage. “The values she had for justice and civil liberties and what she believed in were the obligations of civil society and government,” Mbaya said. “She also demonstrated the importance of recognising the contributions that women can make and allowing them the open space to do so.”

In a statement, the Green Belt Movement executive director Prof Karanja Njoroge described Maathai’s departure as untimely and a great loss to all who knew her, as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine or those who admired her determination to make the world a peaceful, healthy and better place.

Forestry and Wildlife minister Noah Wekesa said Prof Maathai will be remembered for her efforts in the protection of trees and environment. “We will greatly miss her at the ministry. Her work through the Green Belt Movement will be remembered. She became a great advocate for better, equitable and just natural resource management. Her life’s work was recognised many times all over the world and she received awards,” said the minister.

Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara said Prof Maathai was more respected and acknowledged internationally than in her own country. He said the government should have used Maathai’s knowledge and contacts to its advantage. Eldoret North MP William Ruto said he knew Maathai as a very sober politician.

In Parliament, Ruto said Maathai was not swayed by partisan interests but she voted on principle. “She was always objective. She voted with her conscience and her debating was also national,” Ruto said of Maathai. “Her love for the environment will ever be remembered.” Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairperson Rukia Subow said Maathai’s demise was a great loss to the women of this country. “We have lost a leader. A nationalist and an environmentalist,” she said. “May God rest her soul in peace.”

Filmmaker Mohinder Dhillon in a statement said he remembers how Maathai could dare make her way into Karura forest despite the presence of heavy security officers during the Moi era. “I recall one day when she bulldozed forest guards in Mt Kenya forest as she made her way to plant trees,” said Dhillon who also witnessed an incident where Maathai was brutally beaten up by security officers as she attempted to plant trees in Karura. “The government should continue to kick out these land grabbers as the best way to honour her,” he said.

Former Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairperson Zipporah Kittony also offered her condolences. Gichugu MP Martha Karua said she was saddened by Maathai’s death. “It deeply saddens me that Wangari Maathai, who was my role model and a great national and international heroine, has passed on. May we truly honour her life and legacy by carrying on her environmental and human rights activism. Wangari, we shall miss you.”

Dr Isaac Kalua of the Green Africa Foundation eulogised Maathai, saying: “For decades, Professor Maathai inspired many into taking care of the environment and her demise is indeed a great loss to all of us whom she mentored and knew her as a no-nonsense heroine when it came to making a decision that the world must be green and better place for current and future generation. She fought battles that many could not dare fight, and came out victorious.”

Rest in peace Prof Wangari Maathai.

Source: http://www.kimmediagroup.com/component/content/article/7-diaspora-news/284-tribute-to-a-fallen-hero-prof-wangari-maathai.html