Senators upheld five of 11 charges in unprecedented vote while Rigathi Gachagua was treated for chest pains
Kenya’s senate impeached the deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, while he was in hospital on a day of high political drama in Nairobi.
Senators upheld five out of 11 charges against Gachagua in a vote late on Thursday, making him the first deputy president in the country to be ejected from office through impeachment.
Continue reading...Defence secretary to meet family of woman allegedly killed by soldier, as ITV airs documentary alleging fresh abuses
The army is to launch an inquiry into the behaviour of British troops posted to a military base in Kenya, after multiple allegations of serious abuses committed by soldiers, including rape and murder.
The inquiry is to examine the conduct of military personnel posted to the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK). It is where the soldier alleged to have murdered a Kenyan woman, Agnes Wanjiru, was posted at the time of her death in 2012.
Continue reading...Anger had been growing at police chief Gilbert Masengeli after abductions of Jamil and Aslam Longton and Bob Njagi
Three Kenyans who were abducted last month after taking part in an anti-government protest have resurfaced, amid anger directed at a police chief who belatedly honoured a court summons in relation to the disappearances shortly after they were found.
Bob Njagi, and brothers Aslam and Jamil Longton were found in Kiambu county, north of Nairobi, Faith Odhiambo, the president of the Law Society of Kenya, said in the early hours of Friday.
Continue reading...Mourners in Uganda pay respects to Olympic athlete whose death prompted renewed calls for more protection for women in sport
Thousands of mourners in Uganda paid their respects on Saturday to Rebecca Cheptegei, the Olympic athlete who died last week in Kenya after her partner set her on fire. The military funeral took place in a remote town near the Kenyan border.
Military officers played a prominent role in the funeral because Cheptegei held the rank of sergeant in Uganda’s army, said military spokesperson Brig Felix Kulayigye, adding that she deserved a “gun salute that befits her rank”.
Continue reading...Dickson Ndiema Marangach, the former partner of the Uganda runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who had been accused of killing her by dousing her in petrol and setting her on fire, died on Monday from burns sustained during the attack.
Cheptegei, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in the 1 September attack and died four days later. Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 7.50pm local time on Monday, said Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya, where Cheptegei was also treated and died. “He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told Reuters.
Continue reading...Inquiry ramps up into blaze that killed 17 boys in dormitory, as president declares three days of national mourning
Kenyan police stepped up their investigation on Saturday into a fire at a boarding school that killed 17 boys, as the president announced three days of national mourning.
Detectives said DNA testing was due to begin to identify the remains of the children who died in the blaze.
Continue reading...Several dead after blaze engulfs dormitory housing more than 150 children aged 10 to 14
At least 18 boys have been killed and 27 more were taken to hospital after a fire raged through the dormitory of a boarding school in central Kenya in the early hours of Friday.
Kenya’s vice-president, Rigathi Gachagua, gave the toll at the scene at the Hillside Endarasha academy, a primary school in the town of Endarasha, where the fire broke out at about midnight engulfing rooms where more than 150 children were sleeping.
Continue reading...The family of a Ugandan athlete who died in Kenya after allegedly being set on fire by her former boyfriend has called for justice and legal action against the culprit.
“I have a lot of grief because I’ve lost my daughter. I seek your help so that this person who has killed my daughter can be prosecuted,” Joseph Cheptegei, the father of Rebecca Cheptegei, told reporters at the hospital where she died.
Continue reading...Youthful, growing cities expected to create wealth and opportunities but stretch public and utility services
Six African cities will have more than 10 million people by 2035, with the continent’s booming young population making it the world’s fastest urbanising region, according to a report.
Angola’s capital, Luanda, and Tanzania’s commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, will join the metropolises of Cairo, Kinshasa, Lagos and Greater Johannesburg with populations of more than 10 million, the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a report on African cities.
Continue reading...Head of Africa CDC Jean Kaseya urges international community to support rollout of testing and vaccinations
African health officials have appealed to the international community not to impose travel bans on countries dealing with an outbreak of mpox, but instead to support the continent in rolling out testing and vaccinations.
There have been about 1,400 new cases and 24 deaths linked to a new variant of mpox over the past week, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Continue reading...Man accused of murdering and dismembering 42 women named as one of 13 detainees on the run in Nairobi
A Kenyan man who police claim has confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women has escaped from a Nairobi police cell, along with a dozen other detainees, police have said.
Collins Jumaisi, 33, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, was arrested in July after the discovery of mutilated bodies in a dump in a slum in the Kenyan capital.
Continue reading...Africa has the youngest population of any continent, and recent protests in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda suggest growing youth disillusionment. Will they be able to turn discontent into action?
The youth-led protests that have broken out in several African countries over the past weeks should, say observers, serve as warnings that a disillusioned generation blame the elders of the ruling political classes for missed economic opportunities.
From mid-June to early August, young people in Kenya hit the streets protesting against what they described as runaway corruption and high taxes levied by President William Ruto’s regime. In Uganda, what was shaping up as protests against the government in July were nipped in the bud by police after President Yoweri Museveni’s warning that those thinking of such protests “were playing with fire”. Nigeria saw short-lived protests against the poor handling of the economy by President Bola Tinubu’s government.
Continue reading...Eldoret forced to remove statues of runners deemed a poorly done ‘joke’ on eve of event to confer city status on town
Authorities in a Kenyan town known for its athletics prowess rushed to remove statues of runners on Wednesday night that some people had deemed shoddy, on the eve of an event to confer city status on the municipality.
The Rift Valley town of Eldoret, home to many great runners, had earlier this week put up a number of thematic pieces of art to showcase its agricultural and sports heritage. The sculptures included statues of athletes and one of a maize cob next to a wheat stalk.
Continue reading...Dozens are reported as having gone missing since demonstrations began, and some have turned up dead
One mid-morning in June, Emmanuel Kamau prepared to leave his home for work as a bus conductor in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
It was the second week of nationwide protests against proposed tax increases, and demonstrations were expected to disrupt the transport network. But as a casual worker who got jobs on an irregular basis, the 24-year-old decided to take a chance to try to earn some money to put food on the table.
Continue reading...A demonstration against the president about the cost of living crisis has spread, after youth groups saw protests across the continent force a change in the law
A protest organised by unions and youth groups about the cost of living crisis on Nigeria’s Democracy Day in June passed off quietly, drawing just a few hundred people in the country’s biggest city, Lagos, and the capital, Abuja.
Then things started to kick off in Kenya. Young Kenyans angry at the prospect of increased levies on essential foodstuffs occupied parliament in Nairobi amid violence that claimed more than 20 lives. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, was forced to withdraw his finance bill and dissolved his cabinet.
Continue reading...Police in Kampala stop and detain anti-corruption demonstrators after earlier round-up of opposition MPs
Scores of demonstrators have been arrested in the Uganda capital, Kampala, for taking part in a banned rally that has drawn inspiration from the youth-led anti-government protests that have roiled neighbouring Kenya for a month now.
Police stopped and detained people from among small groups of protesters who were marching and shouting anti-corruption slogans in different parts of the city.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: President William Ruto’s unpopular finance bill has sparked a wave of protests – that have been met with brutality and yet more discord in the country
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Anti-government protests are expected to escalate in Kenya after a month of demonstrations that erupted again across the country on Tuesday calling for the president, William Ruto, to resign. In response to police hostility, protesters set fires, threw stones and chanted “Ruto must go” and “Stop killing us”. The demonstrations were met with police firing teargas and water cannon at those involved and the press. One man was shot dead and his body carried through the streets to a nearby police station.
King’s speech | Keir Starmer has set out a government agenda that he claims can counter the “snake oil charm of populism” in a king’s speech pledging change to people’s lives including rights at work, cheaper energy and secure housing.
Israel-Gaza war | The US military-built pier for carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza will be dismantled and brought home, ending a mission that has been fraught with repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other supplies could get to starving Palestinians.
Europe | Labour’s proposed foreign policy and security pact with the EU sounds “quite promising”, the head of the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee has said, adding that the British government should use the next weeks and months to come up with proposals that are “as concrete as possible”.
US election 2024 | JD Vance formally accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination on Wednesday with a deliberate, and at times divisive, pitch to re-elect Donald Trump in November.
Environment | The Labour government must oversee a massive ramping up of renewable energy generation in this parliament or the UK will breach its international obligations under the Paris agreement, the government’s climate watchdog has said.
Continue reading...Suspect was ‘in the process of luring another victim’ when he was arrested in Nairobi, police say
Kenyan police say they have arrested a suspected serial killer who has confessed to murdering 42 women including his wife and dumping their dismembered bodies in a Nairobi rubbish tip.
Since Friday, nine butchered bodies trussed up in plastic bags have been pulled from the dump site in the Mukuru slum area in the south of the capital.
Continue reading...Police have been scouring site in Mukuru since mutilated corpses of at least six women were found on Friday
Kenyan police said that they had found more bags filled with dismembered female body parts on Saturday, the latest macabre discovery at a rubbish dump that has horrified and angered the country.
Detectives have been scouring the site in the Nairobi slum of Mukuru since the mutilated corpses of at least six women were found on Friday in sacks floating in a sea of garbage.
Continue reading...Only foreign minister spared as William Ruto tries to quell violence triggered by planned tax rises
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has fired his entire cabinet apart from his foreign minister, bowing to pressure after nationwide protests that have created the biggest crisis of his two-year presidency.
The youth-led protests against planned tax rises began peacefully but turned violent. A least 39 people were killed in clashes with police last month. Some demonstrators briefly stormed parliament before Ruto abandoned the new taxes.
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