- BY MAINA WARURU The United Nations (UN) is calling on governments in the horn of Africa to take urgent measures to help pastoralists cope with negative impacts of climate change. The international body is asking governments to among others facilitate cross border movement of herders in pursuit of pastures and water, and take action to prevent conflict among pastoralists groups whose mobility is increasing as climate change continues to impact of their lifestyles. In a statement released last week by UN agencies operating under the auspices of “Security In Mobility”(SIM) the UN expressed concerns that unpredictable and extreme weather was increasing mobility of pastorali…

The United Nations children agency - UNICEF- has called on African governments to increase their investment in children saying that some 4.5 million children under the age of five continue to die of preventable causes each year in the continent. - The UN body in a statement released Wednesday to coincide with the annual celebrations of the Day of the African Child said that governments must do more to promote basic health, nutrition, education and general well-being of children by increasing their budget allocations to social services. Poor health, malnutrition and widespread poverty continued to afflict millions of children in Africa while millions of children continued missing on educat…

- AFLOTOXIN BY MAINA WARURU As Kenya grapples with losses of millions of kilos of maize due to aflotoxin infestation,scientists are offering what they say is a natural and safe solution to avoid future recurrence of the problem. Experts at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) , say they have identified strains of fungi native to Kenya that can effectively control the fungus strain that produces aflotoxin poison in poorly dried grains, as happened in Kenya this year, resulting in 2.3 million bags of maize being condemned as unfit for consumption this year. The experts say that introducing strains of A.flavus that do not produce aflotoxin drastically reduces stra…

- COCCONUT PEST BY MAINA WARURU Scientists at the International Institute of Research in tropical Agriculture (IITA) have found a biological method of controlling the coconut mite that is baled for losses of up to 60 %of coconut crop across Africa. The scientists say that they will soon begin introducing the a predatory mite called Neoseiulus baraki (NB)native to coconut fields in Africa on trial basis to asses effectiveness in controlling the Aceria guerreronis Keifer (AGK) an invasive and destructive mite that has led to huge losses of incomes and food to millions of farmers . The breakthrough comes after 4 years of search for a natural enemy of the mite in the tropical belts of S…

- BY MAINA WARURU Kenyan banks have defied harsh economic times and continue to post even as the rest of the Kenyan economy continues to register sluggish growth. All top Kenyan banks have been publishing their results for past nine months and the outlook is similar, profitability and growth have been sustained even despite worldwide economic recession. Leading the pack is the country’s most profitable bank for years now the Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK). The bank registered a profit of Ksh 6.9 billion up to September this year up from Ksh 6.6 billion realized over the same period last year. The bank mostly preferred by the upper income class and corporates saw its earnings…

Egyptian telecommunications infrastructure firm, Mobiserve, has opened an office in Kenya as it seeks to expand its operations throughout Africa. The ten-year-old company intends to use its Kenyan office to serve the region as it capitalizes on the fastest growing industry on the continent. - The company’s CEO Sameh Atalla said the firm will hire quality telecoms engineering services and satellite services to communication service providers and vendors. The company, he said hopes to employ up to 700 staff in the coming few years and 99% of whom will be local to support its services throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Mobiserve also offers maintenance and other technical services to bo…

The Sudanese National Election Commission has opened a voter registration centre in Nairobi, to help its citizens living there participate in presidential elections next year. - To qualify for the registration citizens should be 18 years and above, holders of valid Sudanese passport and have a valid permit to leave in Kenya. Additionally citizens with a dual citizenship and resident permit allowing them to leave in Kenya will be eligible to register. A statement published in local dailies from the embassy said that registration is opened until November 27. Registration hours are restricted to 10am to 5pm. The Sudanese embassy in Nairobi’s Ngong road area will host the registration c…

Kenya's largest mobile phone company - Safaricom limited - has partnered with Equity Bank limited to enable its clients buy laptops on loan and thus increase access of internet services to more Kenyans. - Under the partnership Safaricom subscribers will be getting soft loans from Equity bank, Kenya’s biggest financial institution, to buy the laptops from the GSM firm. According to Equity bank’s communication department, clients need a pay-slip and an account at the bank to apply for a loan which is approved in 24 hours. A letter is then given to the client to present to any Safaricom retail shop for the laptop. The laptop comes with a free internet modem loaded with f…

- BY MAINA WARURU Christmas has come early for tea farmers in Kenya after the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) released the highest ever pay-out to growers . Farmers are now laughing all the way to bank as the after the agency last week posted the cash to banks for onward transmission to over 30,000 small scale farmers who market their produce through the it. Farmers used to frugal spending have thrown caution to the winds-at least for now, as they engage in all manner of consumerism, impulse buying, waste, generosity and merry-making . Millions of shilling are being sunk into luxuries excess drinking and partying since mid-last week as evidenced in trading centres across centra…

Excitement is sweeping through eastern African country of Kenya following news that it may after all strike oil after many failed attempts in the past four years to join the league of Africa's producers of the black gold. Drilling started last week at a well in Isiolo in northern Kenya. - AfricaNews reporter said the well prospecting is being done in arid Merti area of Isiolo, a region said to be having the same geological formations as most Middle East and nearer home in Sudan. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is overseeing the drilling process. However, our reporter said already the government has cautioned citizens against being overly optimistic saying the area ma…

Public confidence in Kenya's securities market is waning amidst reduced activity at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). Some stock brokerage firms and investment banks are closing down while others are cutting down on staff and operations due to reduced business and a sharp decrease in revenues, AfricaNews reporter said. - The companies are implementing cost cutting measures as business dips, a stark contrast to four years ago when all registered stocks traders were expanding, opening branches across Kenya and others were opening filed offices across the capital Nairobi to serve multitudes of people buying stocks. Industry sources now indicate that income mainly derived from commission…

- BY MAINA WARURU The long awaited El nino started pounding most of Kenya late this week bring relief to farmers and the general populace that has been experiencing a range of difficulties brought about by a lengthy dry spell. Most parts of Kenya recorded heavy rains beginning Thursday according to media and metrological reports signaling that the predicted El nino rains were finally home. The Kenya metrological department had predicted El nino rains would hit most parts of Kenya beginning this month after nearly a year of a drought that had wrought suffering across the country. Nairobi, central Kenya, rift valley and the coast reported three days of heavy downpour as predicted j…

Fears of a resurgence of violence growing in Kenya's Rift Valley Province as the debate of possible prosecution of suspected planners of the 2007 post-election violence rages. - It is emerging that 90% of suspects in the controversial and now famous envelope currently in the hands of the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo are from one community. According to AfricaNews reporter, what is fuelling tensions even more is that the suspects are all prominent personalities in the government from the Kalenjin ethnicity which is the dominant group in the Rift Valley Province. There is growing tension and hatred between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu - the ethnic group tha…

An acute shortage of water resources has hit Kenya pushing the country into a crisis as water sources dry up in what experts say is a looming ecological disaster. The shortage has been complicated by drying up of water sources including rivers, lakes , dams ,wells and springs and worsened by a an ongoing 10 month drought. - The result is that, households in cities and villages are going without water for days as pastoralists clash and kill each other over few remaining water points in arid parts of the country. In cities including the capital Nairobi, women are queuing for hours in communal water points as village folk walk for hours in search of the precious commodity. Already the go…

Kenya has resolved to set up a local tribunal to try suspects implicated in the 2008 post election violence that killed more than 1000 people and saw some 350,000 others displaced from their homes. - The decision by the country’s parliament comes in the wake of findings of a commission appointed to unearth those who financed, planned, organized or incited that violence - the worst in the East African country’s history that emanated from the disputed presidential poll. The findings of the commission chaired by a local high court judge Philip Waki, contain a list of 10 prominent persons among them six cabinet ministers cited for investigation and prosecution for alleged crimes a…

The upcoming coronation of US president-elect Barack Obama provoked excitement and controversy in Kenya. Locals in his father's native Kogelo villa in western Kenya plan a major feast for his swearing-in. The government incurred the wrath of the people as it sponsors MPs to US to watch the event on TV. - Traditional elders of Kogelo village say the feast of 20th January - the inauguration day – would be used to showcase the Luo culture and market the region as a tourist attraction. AfricaNews’ correspondent said a 14-member committee has been instituted to plan the events leading to the inauguration including traditional dances, wrestling and a display of Luo material cultur…

A demand for scrap metal by China is fuelling an unprecedented rate of crime in Kenya and vandalism of key installations to meet a growing demand for raw material. Electricity, phone cables and railway lines have been vandalized as the Chinese importers continue to pay premium prices for metal. - State corporations have as a result lost millions of shillings in stolen cables and structures as thieves go for valued copper steel and aluminum metals all of which are in high demand in the rapidly expanding Chinese economy. But it is not only the big state corporations that are suffering abandoned houses in villages and town’s cattle dips, livestock inseminations centers and bus stops ha…

Kenya's tourism industry, the country's top foreign exchange earner stands to lose greatly from the ongoing global financial crisis, industry experts predict. The eastern African country tourism depends largely on Western visitors whose hemisphere had been hit by the financial hurricane. - The development could not have come at a worse time, sector players agree, considering the fact that Kenya, one of the leading destinations in Africa, was just entering its peak – September-January season - when the crisis set in. The tourism industry was just recovering from stagnation it suffered from the chaos that characterized the last election in January. The melee saw visitors fl…

- ENERGY BY MAINA WARURU Kenya will hold an a national energy conference next month to explore alternative sources of energy in view of rising costs of power and oil. The National Energy Conference will take place at the on October 7-9 and will bring together government officials , local and international players in power and oil sectors, NGOs, community groups and ordinary citizens. The conference the first of it’s kind in the country will seek to find new sources of cheaper energy, good and sustainable untilisation of available resources and brainstorm on the best ways to keep ever rising costs down. For the first time biofuels now being produced by small community gr…

Frustrated Kenyan youths are selling off personal belongings, foodstuff, clothes and kitchen utensils in order to raise some funds to buy illicit but cheap potent drink on the market. The trend is becoming rampant and everybody is worried and shocked. - Reporters say some of the jobless youth go to the extreme of vandalizing their houses, sell the doors, windows and roofing materials to rake in more money for their illicit drinking spree. The central Kenyan youths harvest farm produce and even milk their parents’ cows at dawn to sell to quench their thirst. Some even steal family beddings and baby napkins. Kamau wa Njoki, 26, from Kirinyaga in central Kenya recently shocked many…

- DAIRY SECTOR BY MAINA WARURU Frustrated by ever falling prices of tea and coffee in the international market, a rise in cost of fertilizers and other farm inputs peasant farmers in Kenya are increasingly turning to dairy farming to stay afloat. The farmers are finding it easier to rear dairy animals including dairy goats besides cattle , arguing that milk prices had increased over the years thanks to a resurgent dairy sector. The farmers also find it easier rearing cattle which mostly depends on fodder produced on the farm and relying less on commercial feeds which have since last seen a rise in prices . As a result many are now uprooting coffee and tea bushes to create spac…

Hardly a month after the Kenya parliament passed a law seeking to seriously curtail use of tobacco in the country, tobacco firms have gone to court and effectively frustrated enactment of the new rules. These firms have argued that the law had 'criminalised smoking', making it hard for them to operate. - The firms wanted the enactment of the laws put on hold, saying that the provisions of the rules were unrealistic and denied them their constitutional right to make a living. As as result the high court in Nairobi has suspended the law after an application by 2 firms mastermind Tobacco and multinational British American Tobacco (BAT) Kenya Limited until the matter is heard and d…

Libyan investors are stamping their authority in key investment segments in Kenya, giving traditional players like the Western countries and lately China a run for their money, in a trend and style never seen in Kenya before. But the Libyan business is increasingly being dogged by claims of grand corruption, favouritism and all manner of impropriety. - In a record 2 years 2 Libyan state firm have won no less than 5 state tenders, bought a petroleum firm divesting from the country and prime property located at the heart of Nairobi. Most controversial and stinking though is the recent purchase of the country's most prime hotel previously owned by a controversial businessman and which …

Kenya is set to have a third mobile phone operator this August , bring an end to a duopoly enjoyed by Safaricom Limited and Celtel Kenya for years. - The dominance of the two will come when the latest entrant into the market Econet Wireless International (ECI) enters the rolls out it's network in the country bringing to three the number of operators and ushering in much needed competition . The entry of ECI into market will also bring in new products experts say, away from the normal voice and data services offered by the pair who have dominated local seen over the past 8 years. Indications that the firm was ready to take the plunge became clear on Monday this week when it ann…

- Top among the reasons is poor rains being experienced in the country and a possibility of a looming drought ,post election violence in high producing  areas of rift valley, high prices of animal  feed and emergence of diseases caused by lack of personnel.The situation is also likely to impact locally where prices of dairy products are expected to rise owing to the a drop in production.The situation spells doom for an industry that has seen dramatic growth since 2004, when production increased tenfold with he revival of state owned giant milk processor Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC).Industry sources say that production is expected to fall this year to 5.1 billion litres a hug…

- They now say that the sustained climb in the retail pump prices, posed a threat to economic growth and would have adverse effects especially on the vulnerable groups in the society mainly the poor. The high prices are now being blamed for the rise in prices of essential commodities including food a situation that is worsened by the fact the country is only now emerging form January post poll, violence. While Kenya operates in a free market  economic and business environment, many now say that unregulated nature of the oil market made multinationals in the country adopt cartel-like behaviour making them hike prices even when thee were no reason for it. While internationa…

- Environmentalists fear that the move if implemented will impact negatively on 2 of the country’s main forest the Aberdares and Mt Kenya which are the main sources of water in the Kenya.The forests being tropical in nature are also seen as major sieve of carbon purifying air beyond the country, besides hosting some of the richest flora and fauna on the continent.Besides hosting a wide variety of wildlife and 2 game reserves the forests are a major magnet for rains in the Kenyan highlands of central Kenya the supply most of the food to the country.Confidential government reports indicate that, authorities here plan to settle thousands of displaced members of the Kikuyu community on the…