Category Archives: Kenya

‘It’s mission impossible’: fear grows in Kenya over plan to deploy police to Haiti

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Deal to send hundreds of officers to Caribbean country amid spiraling gang violence is facing intense public and legal scrutiny

Haiti’s raging gang insurrection has prompted growing concern in Kenya over plans to deploy hundreds of paramilitary police officers from the East African country on a UN-backed multinational mission to counter the violence.

“If they come back in body bags, what will [Kenyan President William Ruto] tell the nation?” said Ekuru Aukot, leader of the opposition Thirdway Alliance, who last year filed a legal challenge against the deployment.

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Kenyan Del Monte farm seeks human rights manager after claims of violence

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Exclusive: new role created after Guardian uncovered allegations against company’s security guards

A vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya that supplies most British supermarkets is advertising for a human rights manager to address its “human rights challenges” in the wake of allegations of killings and violence by its security guards.

The job advert says the candidate will need to “develop a detailed action plan to address human rights challenges in the workplace and in surrounding communities”.

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‘I saw many people suffer’: former Del Monte Kenya guards speak of violence on pineapple farm

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Exclusive: Former guards tell of clashes on farm that is facing civil claims over allegations of killing, rape and beatings

Former security guards at a vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya have for the first time described violent clashes between guards and thieves at the plantation, which is facing civil claims over allegations of killing, rape and beatings by its guards.

This month Del Monte announced it would outsource its security operations at the farm to G4S, sacking its 214 in-house guards.

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Haiti crisis: gangs attack police stations as Caribbean leaders call for emergency meeting

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National palace guards set up security ring after gangs attack at least three police stations in Port-au-Prince

Police and palace guards worked on Saturday to retake some streets in Haiti’s capital after gangs launched massive attacks on at least three police stations.

Guards from the National Palace accompanied by an armored truck tried to set up a security perimeter around one of the three downtown stations after police fought off an attack by gangs late Friday.

Sporadic gunfire continued to be reported on Saturday. The unrelenting gang attacks have paralysed the country for more than a week and left it with dwindling supplies of basic goods. Haitian officials extended a state of emergency and nightly curfew on Thursday as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.

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Dramatic rise in women and girls being cut, new FGM data reveals

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Progress to prevent female genital mutilation needs to be ‘27 times faster’, says UN

The number of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) has increased by 15% in the past eight years according to new data.

Figures released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, show that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, compared with 200 million in 2016. The trend is towards girls being cut at a younger age, said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

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Kenya signs deal in attempt to rescue plan for deployment of 1,000 police officers to Haiti

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It’s not clear if the new agreement can circumvent the Kenyan high court’s earlier ruling that such a deployment is unconstitutional

Kenya and Haiti have a security deal to try to salvage a plan for Nairobi to deploy 1,000 police officers to the troubled Caribbean nation to help combat gang violence that has surged to unprecedented levels.

Kenya agreed in October to lead a UN-authorized international police force to Haiti, but the Kenyan high court in January ruled the plan unconstitutional, in part because of a lack of reciprocal agreements between the two countries.

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Woman who handed over British girl, 3, for FGM in Kenya given seven years

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Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006

A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.

Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas in 2006. The conviction was the first for assisting in such harm under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.

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Fresh Del Monte says it cannot be held liable after violence at Kenyan farm

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Civil claim relating to alleged killing, rape and attacks by guards at pineapple farm should be struck out, claim firm’s lawyers

Fresh Del Monte has claimed it should not be held liable for a civil lawsuit alleging killing, rape and violence by security guards at its Kenyan pineapple farm because it is domiciled in the Cayman Islands.

In the high court in Thika on Thursday, lawyers for the company’s Kenyan subsidiary, Del Monte Kenya, also applied to have a case against the farm struck out altogether.

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Del Monte Kenya representatives accused of seeking to cover up circumstances of men’s deaths

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Exclusive: Investigation uncovers claims Del Monte representatives offered bribes in attempt to persuade men to back company’s version of events

Representatives of Del Monte Kenya have been accused of offering bribes in an attempt to cover up the circumstances in which four men died after going to steal pineapples from its farm in December.

The men’s bodies were recovered from a river on the vast plantation near Thika on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year. The four were part of a group of men who it is claimed were chased by the farm’s security guards after going to steal pineapples on 21 December.

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Anti-FGM caravan embarks on 7,400-mile campaign to end cutting in Africa

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Activists will cross the continent visiting areas where the practice is prevalent to revive progress in protecting women and girls

African female genital mutilation survivors will lead thousands of campaigners in a two-year “caravan campaign” across the continent, calling for an end to the practice.

Organised by #FrontlineEndingFGM, a group of grassroots activists and organisations in Africa will cover about 7,400 miles (12,000km) across 20 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan and Cameroon.

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Kenya gas explosion kills at least three and injures hundreds

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More than 280 taken to hospital after truck blast on gas storage site that had unsuccessfully applied for permit to operate

A lorry loaded with liquid petroleum gas cylinders exploded and set off a late-night inferno that burned homes and warehouses in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, killing at least three people and injuring more than 280. The death toll is expected to increase.

At least 24 people were critically injured, the Kenya Red Cross said, after a huge fireball erupted from the gas depot. Some gas cylinders were thrown hundreds of metres, sparking several separate fires.

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Thousands march against femicide in Kenya after rise in killings

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Reports of at least a dozen cases of femicide since start of year prompt protests across the country

Protests against femicide have taken place across Kenya after a rise in killings this month.

Reports of at least a dozen cases of femicide since the start of the year have prompted public outrage, debate and demonstrations across the country, including in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa.

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Kenya high court rules against plan to deploy hundreds of police to Haiti

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Judge says UN-backed proposals to tackle gangs in Caribbean country contravene Kenya’s constitution

Kenya’s high court has ruled against a government plan to deploy hundreds of police to Haiti to lead a UN-backed multinational mission to fight escalating gang violence in the Caribbean country.

Enock Chacha Mwita, the judge who issued the ruling, said: “Any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police officers to Haiti … contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid.”

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Lions making fewer zebra kills due to ‘chain reaction’ involving invasive ants

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Hunting by Kenyan lions impeded in ‘ecological chain reaction’ as big-headed ants fail to stop elephants stripping acacia trees – the cats’ ambush cover

When a lion decides to chase down a zebra it seems as though nothing can stop it. But now researchers have discovered these enormous predators are being thwarted by a tiny foe: ants.

Scientists have found the spread of big-headed ants in east Africa sets off a situation leading to lions making fewer zebra kills.

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Kenya death cult leader charged after hundreds found dead in forest

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Self-proclaimed pastor arrested over deaths of more than 200 people, most of whom had died of hunger

A Kenyan court has charged a cult leader and dozens of suspected accomplices with manslaughter over the deaths of more than 200 people.

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 94 other suspects, including his wife, pleaded not guilty to 238 counts of manslaughter, according to court documents seen by AFP.

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World first: malaria vaccine rollout begins in Cameroon

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Another 19 African countries have plans to join the programme – bringing ‘more than just hope’ to a continent that suffers the vast majority of malaria deaths

The rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said to be a “transformative chapter in Africa’s public health history”.

The RTS,S vaccine – 662,000 doses of it – will be administered to children in the west African country, the first to be vaccinated after successful trials of the drug in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi between 2019 and 2021.

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Femicide in Kenya a national crisis, say rights groups

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At least four women have been murdered since the start of the year, leading to accusations of government inaction

Rights groups are calling for the Kenyan government to urgently investigate and prosecute cases of femicide, after the brutal murders of two women.

“This is a national crisis – we are not doing enough as a country to protect women,” said Audrey Mugeni, the co-founder of Femicide Count Kenya, an NGO that documents the number of women killed across the country each year.

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Suspected Kenyan cult leader to be charged with terrorism after 400 deaths

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Prosecutors say they intend to charge Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and dozens of other suspects with murder and terrorism

Kenyan prosecutors have said they intend to charge a suspected cult leader and dozens of other suspects with murder and terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers, after a court warned it may have to free him.

The self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in a case that shocked the world.

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Major human rights violations at Del Monte farm in Kenya, report finds

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Exclusive: summary sent to UK supermarkets describes conflict between pineapple thieves and Del Monte security staff

Major human rights violations are being committed at a vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya where there have been numerous deaths and violence, according to the conclusions of an unpublished report.

The findings, seen by the Guardian, are highly critical of Del Monte Kenya and include claims that the company’s employees are working with a cartel of thieves, providing them with intelligence. The report says the farm has serious problems with organised pineapple theft, losing crops to gangs at a large scale.

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Kenyan police investigate four suspected killings on Del Monte farm

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Bodies of men missing for several days were retrieved from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Kenyan police are investigating four suspected killings on a Del Monte pineapple farm after bodies were retrieved from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

It follows a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism into allegations of brutal assaults and killings by security guards at the farm in Thika, which is the single largest exporter of Kenyan produce to the world.

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