Author: Wycliffe Nyamasege

Kenya has recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 from a sample size of 2,463 tested in the last 24 hours. In a statement on Sunday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said Kenya’s positivity rate stands at 0.5 per cent, a drop from 1.0 per cent recorded on Saturday. From the new cases, nine are Kenyans while two are foreigners. Total confirmed positive cases are now 254,951 and cumulative tests so far conducted are 2,827,102. At the same time, 15 patients have recovered from the disease with eight from the Home-Based Isolation and Care program while seven are from various health facilities…

David Omwoyo, the Media Council of Kenya CEO has gotten the board’s nod to continue serving for a further five years. In a statement to newsrooms on Sunday, MCK Board Chairman Maina Muiruri said the board has renewed Omwoyo’s term as CEO for a second and final term, until July 2027. “The extension of Mr Omwoyo’s contract has been made in accordance with the State Corporations Advisory Committee (SCAC) guidelines which require that a decision on the CEO’s contract should be made at least six months to the expiry of the current term to allow for smooth transition,” the chairman announced.…

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has decried intimidation from police officers ahead of the scheduled tour of Deputy President William Ruto in the county. In a social media post on Sunday morning, Waiguru claimed her team was being harassed by the county’s DCIO. The governor allied to Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party said the police boss had summoned her aides with threats to arrest them. https://twitter.com/AnneWaiguru/status/1464843743891238919?s=20 Ruto is expected in the county as part of efforts to popularise the UDA party and his presidential bid in the Mount Kenya region. Read: Trouble In UDA As Kirinyaga Woman Rep Wangui Ngirici…

Traders at Gikomba Market are counting losses after goods of unknown value were gutted in a mysterious fire on Sunday morning. This is the second fire to be reported at the popular market this month and the fifth this year. The cause of the fire is yet to be established but traders allege a human hand in the perennial fires. The fire broke out in the wee hours of Sunday morning despite the heavy rains experienced in Nairobi last night. https://twitter.com/ThikaTowntoday/status/1464839998432235529?s=20 The other fire incident was reported three weeks ago — on November 8. The inferno broke out two days…

A scrap metal dealer responsible for the vandalism of railway gauge blocks, occasioning the delay of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) services on Monday, November 22, has been arrested. According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Michael Mbevi was arrested on Saturday morning at his scrap metal store in Kinyambu, Mtito-Andei, as he loaded the gauge blocks into a lorry destined for the lucrative scrap metal market. Also arrested at the store in the 11am raid, was the Lorry’s driver Nicodemus Kyove who attempted to escape arrest. https://twitter.com/DCI_Kenya/status/1464605044553232389?s=20 The two, DCI said, were nailed following a tip-off from a member…

A suspect who impersonated a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) personnel in an attempt to con a woman Sh400,000 has been arrested in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. KDF said Isaac Serem was arrested at Soy area on Friday, November 26, for suspicion of recruitment fraud. The suspect, while in possession of a fake KDF calling letter, was attempting to con the female victim on the pretext of securing her daughter a slot in the just concluded KDF countrywide recruitment exercise. At the time of arrest, Serem was donning military fatigues associated with the military. Read: KDF Captain Robert Mutai Arraigned Over…

A suspect who escaped from police custody in Kiambu five months ago has been arrested. John Muturi Keneya alias Francis Limo Ngugi was arrested on Thursday in Namanga town, Kajiado County, by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations after a tip-off from a member of the public. The suspected capital offender had been arrested in June for murder, rape and robbery with violence. According to the DCI, Keneya is the main suspect in the murder of his wife who died after being stabbed in the chest in August last year. He had been remanded by the Kiambu High Court…

Over one million Kenyans have so far applied for Kazi Mtaani phase three jobs just a week after the exercise was launched. In an update on Friday, Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said a total of 1,028,904 Kenyans have so far registered on the Kazi Mtaani Management System portal. Nairobi County leads with 166,000 registrations, Kiambu 70,600 and Nakuru 53,500. According to the PS, on average 128,600 youths register on the portal per day. https://twitter.com/PSCharlesHinga/status/1464130489015586816?s=20 The exercise kicked off last Friday. However, interested candidates experienced challenges applying due to what the PS described as unprecedented traffic on the portal.…

Kirinyaga Woman Representative Purity Ngirici says she is now weighing her options in politics after betrayal by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party. The MP claims that she played a key role in building the party associated with Deputy President William Ruto and she now regrets investing her resources in the outfit. She claims the party has openly shown that it will support her rival, Anne Waiguru, in the Kirinyaga Gubernatorial contest in 2022. The Kirinyaga Governor decamped to UDA from Jubilee a month ago. The warm reception the county chief received from Ruto and his men is what has irked…

Public Universities with a low number of graduates being absorbed into the job market could in the coming years experience reduced funding from the state if a new formula based on performance is adopted. The formula has been proposed by the Universities Fund, a government body that guides the allocation of State funds to public universities. The board proposes five performance indicators in the review. These include absorption of an institution’s graduates in the job market, research and training on financial management for top officials. In the current formula, public varsities receive funding based on the number of students and…

Former Nairobi County Governor Mike Sonko has been summoned by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to testify against besieged High Court Judge Said Juma Chitembwe. In a letter seen by this writer, Sonko has been directed to appear before the commission on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, at 9am to give his testimony in the graft probe against Justice Chitembwe. The former county chief is one of the petitioners who want Chitembwe removed from office over impropriety and gross misconduct. The judge was adversely mentioned in secretly-recorded videos published by Sonko on social media in the past few days. Read: JSC…

Chief Justice Martha Koome has criticized protests by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party over her role in the Technical Working Committee for Election Preparedness. UDA Secretary General Veronica Maina had written a letter to the CJ on Wednesday asking her to resign from the committee over conflict of interest. Maina said that the involvement of Koome in the committee is likely to interfere with free and fair elections during the 2022 polls. But responding to UDA on Thursday, Koome indicated she won’t leave the committee. She dismissed Maina’s claims saying the committee is not made up of politicians who…

Mama Hawa Obama, an aunt to former United States President Barack Obama has passed on. The sister to Barack’s father, Barack Obama Snr, died on Wednesday night. The deceased’s son Razick Amuna confirmed the news saying Hawa died aged 80. She died shortly before 1am at her home in Kokal village, Oyugis, Homa Bay County. She had been ailing after suffering a stroke more than two years ago. Mama Hawa died five days after being discharged from Rachuonyo District Hospital where she had been admitted for about nine days. The family said she will be interred on Thursday afternoon in…

Nick Mwendwa, the suspended President of the Football Kenya Federation (FKF), can now breathe easy after the state failed to prefer graft charges against him. The prosecution told the court on Thursday that it wished to close the case for now. “We seek to close the file as we proceed with investigations at our own pace before we prefer charges against him,” the prosecution said. The prosecution had been granted seven days by the court to prefer charges against Mwendwa after a request to detain him for 14 days was declined. Following the new development, Senior Resident Magistrate Wandia Nyamu…

Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has filed a petition seeking removal of High Court Judge Said Juma Chitembwe over graft links. Sonko filed the petition at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) offices at Reinsurance Plaza, Nairobi, on Wednesday. Chitembwe is among judges implicated in secretly-recorded videos published by Sonko on social media in the past few days. Some of the videos show the events leading to Sonko’s impeachment and Justice Chitembwe’s alleged involvement in fraudulent dealings in his chambers. In one of the clips, Justice Chitembwe’s alleged brother Amana Saidi Jirani confidently confesses to being the bona fide proxy to…