New emails reveal ‘panic’ inside the Home Office at the case of Ali Kololo, who was wrongly imprisoned for the 2011 murder of British tourist David Tebbutt
A Kenyan man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death over an attack on British tourists is suing the Metropolitan police over its role in the case.
Ali Kololo was imprisoned for more than a decade in what his lawyers called “appalling conditions” before being released when his conviction was quashed in 2023.
Continue reading...More governments seeking to keep millions of people offline amid conflicts, protests and political instability
Digital blackouts reached a record high in 2024 in Africa as more governments sought to keep millions of citizens off the internet than in any other period over the last decade.
A report released by the internet rights group Access Now and #KeepItOn, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide, found there were 21 shutdowns in 15 African countries, surpassing the existing record of 19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Continue reading...Teargas fired during protest at reduced rations after US aid freeze wipes out half of World Food Programme budget
Thousands of refugees clashed with police in a Kenyan refugee camp this week after receiving news that their food allocations would be cut because of funding problems.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, confirmed that four refugees and a local government official had been injured when police intervened to stop the protesters at the Kakuma refugee camp on Monday.
Continue reading...Campbell Scott, a senior director at Fico, was reported missing while in Nairobi for a three-day conference
Police searching for a British businessman missing in Kenya have recovered a body, found in a sack in scrubland about 60 miles from Nairobi, reports said.
Campbell Scott, 58, a senior director at the data analytics company Fico, went missing on 16 February after arriving in the Kenyan capital to attend a conference at the JW Marriott hotel.
Continue reading...The judgment has been welcomed as an important shift in perceptions by human rights and mental health groups
A Kenyan judge has declared as unconstitutional sections of the country’s laws that criminalise attempted suicide. In a landmark ruling on Thursday, Judge Lawrence Mugambi of the country’s high court stated that section 226 of the penal code contradicts the constitution by punishing those with mental health issues over which they may have little or no control.
While the constitution says in article 43 that a person has the right to the “highest attainable standard of health”, criminal law states that “any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour and is subject to imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both”, with the minimum age of prosecution for the offence set at eight years old.
Continue reading...Researchers say fossilised marks were apparently made in same place within days of each other about 1.5m years ago
About 1.5m years ago a big-toothed cousin of prehistoric humans walked quickly along a lakeside in Kenya, footprints marking the muddy ground. But they were not our only distant relative on the scene: treading the same ground was the early human Homo erectus.
Researchers say an analysis of fossilised footprints discovered in deposits of the Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, suggest the marks were made by two different species on the human family tree who were in the same place within hours or days of each other.
Continue reading...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.
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