Mexico is suing Google for ignoring repeated requests not to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America on Google Maps for US users, President Claudia Sheinbaum says. She did not say where the lawsuit had been filed. Google did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment. On Thursday, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to officially rename the Gulf for federal agencies. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office in January. He argued the change was justified because the US “do most of the work there, and it’s ours”. However Sheinbaum’s…
Author: Oki Bin Oki
Suppliers owed hundreds of billions of shillings by the government will be paid before the end of the year, President William Ruto has announced. Ruto said Sh230 billion of debts owed to suppliers have been verified by the Pending Bills Verification Committee. Of these, the government will pay Sh150 billion. He pointed out that 90 per cent of the funds will be paid to micro, small and medium enterprises. Speaking when he hosted the leadership of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry from across the country at State House Nairobi on Friday, President Ruto regretted that pending bills…
The government announced it had finalised the agreement to lease four sugar factories to private millers in a bid to revitalise the struggling sugar industry. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe revealed that the government competitively procured four private millers to take over the operation of the four sugar factories for 30 years. West Kenya Sugar Company took over Nzoia Sugar Company, while Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries Ltd would handle Chemelil Sugar Company. Sony Sugar Company was leased to Busia Sugar Industry, and West Valley Sugar Company Ltd would handle Muhoroni Sugar Company. Kagwe explained that the move was necessary…
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) disciplinary committee has summoned Nominated Senator Gloria Owoba over her conduct that contravenes the party’s Code of Conduct. A statement signed by the Committee’s chairperson Charles Njenga, indicated she had gone against the party rules. UDA highlighted three instances of Orwoba’s misconduct, including attending the welcoming of former Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and his home-coming ceremony at Gusii stadium. Further, the party also took issue with her interview by Spice FM on April 22, 2025, where she poked holes into the labour mobility program; a critical pillar in President…
Sweden’s new national security adviser quit hours after taking up the role as sensitive pictures of him on the dating app Grindr were sent anonymously to the government. Tobias Thyberg, who took up the job on Thursday and resigned on Friday morning, had omitted the information during security background checks, the government said. “These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he told newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Thyberg had been due to be in Norway on Friday with the prime minister for a meeting…
Vladimir Putin has led Russia’s Victory Day commemorations with a parade in Red Square and heightened security after days of Ukrainian strikes targeting the capital. China’s Xi Jinping joined Putin as the Russian president told thousands of soldiers and more than 20 international leaders that Russia remembered the lessons of World War Two. Putin used his speech to tie the war to today’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and said all of Russia was behind what he called the “special military operation” – now well into its fourth year. For the first time, a column of trucks carrying various combat drones…
Police are hunting for a gang of about 12 who ambushed and robbed a businessman of Sh7 million moments after he had withdrawn the money from a bank along the busy Mama Ngina Street in Nairobi. He had walked from Absa Bank where he withdrew the cash and was delivering the same to a forex bureau near there when he was confronted by a gang at about 9.47 am. Security cameras captured the drama showing the group running towards their target to cause confusion as the one who grabbed the money jumped onto a waiting van and sped off. The…
Businessman Philip Aroko was Friday presented in court hours after the High Court issued an order compelling the Inspector General of Police to produce him. Aroko was presented at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Court at 3pm on Friday where police made a miscellaneous application to hold him pending probe into the murder of Kaspul MP Charles Were. The dramatic appearance followed mounting pressure from Aroko’s legal team, who had demanded answers over his whereabouts after he was reportedly held incommunicado since his arrest on Wednesday night. The prosecution revealed that preliminary investigations had uncovered a web of connections linking…
The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Law Courts Friday dismissed an application filed by five suspects seeking to challenge its jurisdiction in a case connected to the murder of Kasipul Member of Parliament Charles Were. Magistrate Irene Gichobi stated that the suspects are still under investigation, and there is no legal basis preventing the court from handling the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ (DCI) miscellaneous application. The DCI was seeking to detain the four individuals for 30 days to allow for further investigations. The suspects include the MP’s bodyguard, his driver, and a neighbour from his rural home. “The application by…
The High Court declined to refer cases of abductions and enforced disappearances in Kenya to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Instead, Justice Lawrence Mugambi ruled that national institutions are still capable of handling such matters. The court determined that cases involving deaths or injuries resulting from police actions while in custody, and carried out by officers on duty, fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA). The court emphasised that no other investigative body or entity within the National Police Service is authorized to handle these matters. Justice Mugambi pointed to the parallel investigations conducted by…
James Foley, the film director behind two of the Fifty Shades of Grey films, has died aged 71. Foley also directed three Madonna music videos in the 1980s – Papa Don’t Preach, Live to Tell and True Blue. A spokesman for the director said he died “peacefully in his sleep earlier this week” at his home in Los Angeles following a “years-long struggle” with brain cancer. Foley also directed 12 episodes of House of Cards, the Kevin Spacey-starring thriller which was one of Netflix’s earliest original hits. Although his representative noted Foley’s diagnosis of brain cancer, his official cause of…
Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed seven agreements aimed at deepening bilateral cooperation between the two nations. This comes a few months after the two countries signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in January. The signing of MoUs was witnessed by President William Ruto and His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE at State House Nairobi. These agreements cover cooperation in military affairs, economic development, energy, transport, Customs, the establishment of a joint business council, and railway development. In the…
The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is offering a reward of up to Ksh.1.29 billion for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Abdullahi Banati or any other individual responsible for the January 5, 2020, terrorist attack on U.S. and Kenyan personnel at the Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya. In a statement, the department explained that the incident led to the death of two US contractors and a US service member while injuring two other US soldiers and a third contractor. A Kenyan soldier was also wounded during the attack. The US Department appealed to the…
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said he intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years. Gates said he would accelerate his giving via his foundation, with plans to end its operations in 2045. “People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” he wrote in a blog post Thursday. Mr Gates, 69, said his eponymous foundation has already given $100bn (£75bn) towards health and development projects, and that he expects it will spend another $200bn, depending on markets…
The US and the UK have reached a deal over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries. US President Donald Trump’s blanket 10% tariffs on imports from countries around the world remains in place and still applies to most UK goods entering the US. But the deal has reduced or removed tariffs on some of the UK’s exports, including cars, steel and aluminium. Here’s an at-a-glance look at what’s in the deal. This isn’t a trade deal US President Donald Trump declared on social media this announcement would be a “major trade deal” – it’s not. He does not…