Category Archives: Kenya

Aid cuts have shaken HIV/Aids care to its core – and will mean millions more infections ahead

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Reports highlight devastating impact of slashed funding, especially in parts of Africa, that could lead to 3.3m new HIV infections by 2030

In Mozambique, a teenage rape victim sought care at a health clinic only to find it closed. In Zimbabwe, Aids-related deaths have risen for the first time in five years. In Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), patients with suspected HIV went undiagnosed due to test-kit stocks running out.

Stories of the devastating impact of US, British and wider European aid cuts on the fight against HIV – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa – continue to mount as 2025 comes to an end, and are set out in a series of reports released in the past week.

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UK’s biggest weapons firm BAE grounds ‘lifeline’ aircraft delivering food aid

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Exclusive: In the year they announced record profits, Britain’s arms maker has revoked licence to fly for planes taking supplies of food to starving people in South Sudan, Somalia and DRC

Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, has quietly scrapped support for a fleet of aircraft providing “life-saving” humanitarian aid to some of the world’s poorest countries.

The decision further reduces the distribution of vital aid to countries facing serious humanitarian crises, including South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

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Four dead as Kenyan security forces fire on crowds mourning Raila Odinga

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Thousands gather in Nairobi to pay respects to veteran opposition leader, prompting chaotic scenes at stadium

Four people have been killed in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, after security forces fired shots and teargas to disperse huge crowds at a stadium where the body of the opposition leader Raila Odinga was lying in state.

Odinga, a major figure in Kenyan politics for decades who was once a political prisoner and ran unsuccessfully for president five times, died on Wednesday aged 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment.

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Agnes Wanjiru’s niece urges Labour to extradite ex-soldier while still in power

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Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya

The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power.

On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process.

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Raila Odinga, towering Kenyan opposition figure, dies aged 80

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Odinga, who ran five times for presidency and had profound influence on Kenyan politics, has died in India

The veteran Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who ran five times for the presidency and had a profound influence on the country’s politics, has died aged 80 in India.

Odinga was in the southern city of Kochi for treatment. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that he had a cardiac arrest during a morning walk.

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Kenyan activists abducted after joining opposition rally in Uganda

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Pair had crossed border to support presidential campaign of reggae singer Bobi Wine

Two Kenyan activists have been abducted in Uganda after attending a presidential campaign event for Bobi Wine, the reggae musician turned politician.

Heavily armed security operatives detained Bob Njagi, the chair of Free Kenya, and Nicholas Oyoo, the movement’s secretary general, at a petrol station near Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.

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Kenya’s arrest warrant is milestone in Agnes Wanjiru case but lengthy UK process awaits

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After 13 years, warrant has been issued for UK suspect, but Robert James Purkiss would need to be extradited to face charges

In the spring of 2012, David Cameron was prime minister and British troops were still fighting in Afghanistan under the stewardship of the then defence secretary, Philip Hammond.

Before deploying, soldiers from the UK would be flown 3,000 miles south-west of Helmand province, to Kenya, for hot weather training. They would train at Batuk, the British army base that still operates today, close to Nanyuki, a poor market town in the east of the country.

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British soldier accused of murdering Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru named

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Arrest warrant issued for Robert James Purkiss, with Kenyan government seeking his extradition to face charges

The British soldier accused of murdering the Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru in 2012 has been named as Robert James Purkiss.

Purkiss, 38, was named in court documents at the high court in Nairobi this week, where a court issued a warrant for his arrest.

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Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests

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Research which began with conversations round a campfire and went on to examine 7m gene variants shows how people survive with little water and a meat-rich diet

A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.

Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science.

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Who was Agnes Wanjiru, Kenyan woman killed near army base in 2012?

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Relatives remember a dependable, kind and funny woman and remain traumatised by her death

Perhaps the Kenyan market town of Nanyuki’s greatest claim to fame was that it straddles the equator. But now it has become synonymous with something darker. It was here where Agnes Wanjiru was born and lived and where she was brutally killed.

Her family searched for her for months before her body was found stuffed into a septic tank at the same hotel where she had last been seen alive.

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Kenya seeks arrest of former British soldier over alleged murder of Agnes Wanjiru

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High court judge issues arrest warrant, saying a suspect has been charged in relation to 2012 death of 21-year-old

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a British national on suspicion of the murder of the Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru, who was found dead in the grounds of a hotel near an army base in 2012.

The high court judge Alexander Muteti issued the arrest warrant earlier on Tuesday in Kenya, with the prosecution telling the court a suspect had been charged with murder, and his extradition to Kenya was being sought.

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US destruction of contraceptives denies 1.4m African women and girls lifesaving care, NGO says

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Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF says

A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.

More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights.

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Family of Kenyan woman allegedly murdered by UK soldiers criticise defence secretary

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Niece of Agnes Wanjiru says she thinks John Healey is ‘taking us for a ride’

The niece of a Kenyan woman who was murdered more than a decade ago, allegedly by British soldiers, has said her family now believe the defence secretary “just made a promise for his political gain” when he met them in April.

John Healey told the family of Agnes Wanjiru of his “determination to see a resolution” in the case of her murder, pledging the UK’s full support for the investigation.

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Arrested Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi faces terror charges

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Mwangi accused of ‘facilitation of terrorist acts’ during last month’s protests against government of William Ruto

The Kenyan rights activist Boniface Mwangi is accused of “facilitation of terrorist acts” during protests that rocked the country last month, investigators said on Sunday, a day after he was arrested.

At least 19 people were killed during the 25 June demonstration against President William Ruto’s government, which was itself called to pay tribute to victims of police violence at another protest on the same date last year.

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‘Shoot them in the leg’: Kenyan president’s anti-protest rhetoric hardens as death toll rises

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William Ruto accuses protesters of terrorism and violence two days after 31 people killed in anti-government demonstrations

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has ordered police to shoot protesters targeting businesses in the legs, in a sharp intensification of his rhetoric days after 31 people were killed in nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

“They shouldn’t kill them but they should shoot their legs so they break and they can go to hospital on their way to court,” Ruto said in the capital, Nairobi.

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‘We won’t let them get away with this’: activists to sue Tanzania’s government over ‘sexual torture’

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Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire vow to hold authorities accountable as repression intensifies before October elections

Two east African activists say they plan to sue Tanzania’s government for illegal detention and torture over their treatment during a visit in support of an opposition politician in May.

Boniface Mwangi, from Kenya, and Agather Atuhaire, a Ugandan, sent shock waves around the region earlier this month when they gave an emotional press conference in which they alleged they had been sexually assaulted and, in Atuhaire’s case, smeared in excrement after their detention in Dar es Salaam. “[The authorities] take you through sexual torture,” Mwangi said at the time.

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At least 16 people killed and 400 injured in Kenyan protests

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Police clashed with people marching in Nairobi and other areas to honour those killed in protests last year

At least 16 people have been killed and 400 injured in Kenya as a nationwide demonstration to honour those killed during last year’s anti-government protests turned chaotic, with police clashing with protesters in different parts of the country.

Amnesty Kenya’s executive director, Irũngũ Houghton, said the death toll had been verified by the government-funded Kenya national commission on human rights. “Most were killed by police,” he said.

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Fears of unrest as Kenyans mark first anniversary of storming of parliament

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Rights activists plan to march countrywide in honour of those killed during anti-government protests

Kenyans plan to march countrywide on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the historic storming of parliament by protesters, to honour those killed during last year’s anti-government protests, but there are fears that the march could escalate into unrest.

Rights activists, family members of killed and missing protesters, and young Kenyans, who were the main drivers of last year’s protests, have mobilised online and offline, with opposition leaders terming the day a “people’s public holiday” and the government warning against attempts to disrupt public order.

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Female baboons with strong relationship to fathers found to live longer

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Study suggests role of male parents may be under-appreciated in some primate species

If male baboons were subject to the same kind of cultural commentary as humans, the phrase “deadbeat dads” might be called for, such is the primate’s relatively limited involvement in raising their young.

But a study suggests that even their little effort might go a long way, with female baboons who experience a stronger relationship with their fathers when young tending to live longer as adults.

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Kenyan police officer appears in court amid outrage over teacher’s death in custody

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James Mukhwana detained over death of Albert Ojwang, who was arrested after criticising police official online

A Kenyan police officer has appeared in court in connection with the death of a teacher in police custody in a case that has caused outrage and protests and brought renewed scrutiny on the country’s security forces.

Constable James Mukhwana is the first police officer to be arrested over the death of Albert Ojwang, a secondary school teacher who was arrested on 6 June in Homa Bay county, western Kenya, after criticising a senior police official on social media. After his arrest, Ojwang was driven about 200 miles (350km) to Nairobi, where he died two days later.

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