The Kenyan Communications Appeals Tribunal has attacked the monopoly granted to Telkom Kenya to provide the Internet gateway to the country. Announcing its conclusions last Thursday, the Tribunal ruled that the Kenyan Communications regulator had acted against the provisions of the Kenya Communications Act 1998, which outlaws any form of monopoly, when it had refused to licence Fast Lane Limited to provide an alternative Internet backbone to Telkom's Jambonet. The ruling should result in more licenses being issued, bringing the cost of Internet services down and follows Telkom's announcement last week that it was increasing its Internet charges by up to 75%.

Africa Democracy Forum

The ADF is seeking a full-time co-ordinator to help facilitate networking efforts among African democracy activists. The position's duties will include the development of a database of ADF members and the organising of meetings and training programs.

International Rescue Committee

The Senior Education Specialist is responsible for managing all aspects of IRC's multi-country education program, which seeks to expand access to quality basic education and to strengthen civil society and government capacity to address the education needs of vulnerable groups of children, including those affected by HIV/AIDS.

Kenya's population growth rate is likely to rise substantially because fewer Kenyans are using contraception. Unless the Government provides funds for a campaign to push for greater use of birth control methods, the population - currently growing at 2.5 per cent - would increase significantly.

Even without attending an Aids lesson in a classroom, receiving at least a primary school education can halve young people's risk of contracting HIV. A recent report published by Global Campaign for Education (GCE) titled Learning How to Survive says as long as millions of children are still excluded from school, these vital Aids prevention programmes are unlikely to work as fast and as well as we need them to.

The Islamic Teachers Training College in Mombasa has opened its doors to women. Since it was established, the institution has only been offering training to men. Board of Governors chairman Sheikh Khalfan Abdallah Mazrui said intake for female students will start in September. He said the institution has a capacity for between 30 and 40 women.

Kenyan’s are about to start paying more for electronic mail access following a decision by JamboNet, the sole Internet backbone provider, to raise its tariffs by up to 40 per cent. The new structure takes effect on September 1, 2004, and dictates that ISPs pay JamboNet more for speeds above 512 kilobytes (Kbps).

Kenyan President Kibaki has urged leaders in the community and at all levels to provide credible role models for the youth to emulate. The President said proper socialisation of the youth was not the responsibility of parents and teachers alone, adding that community leaders had a role to play.

Following one of the largest migrations seen in the region in recent times, much of the livestock in northern Kenya is at risk from perishing following overcrowding and a shortage of water. The Isiolo District is hosting an additional 100,000 livestock, and 50,000 are reliant on a single water pan at Fororsa. Shared by both animals and humans, the water has become contaminated from overuse and poor maintenance. It is estimated that it will run out in a month's time

Ms Jane Kiragu, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee, has been suspended following a marathon meeting on Monday with the Committee's chairman, Rev Mutava Musyimi. Her appointment, ten days earlier, had provoked spirited protests from a section of the 34-member strong committee, who viewed it as unilateral and a Government scheme to infiltrate and influence its work.

Japan, Kenya's third largest bilateral donor, has joined calls for President Kibaki to sack government officials linked to corruption. The Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr Takuji Hanatani said that he believed 'President Kibaki should demonstrate his political determination by asking those ministers implicated to step aside until investigations are completed.'

Poor, pregnant and malnourished. These are the three adjectives that best describe Kache Nyoka, a mother of five, who is caught up in the drought that has ravaged Kilifi District in Kenya's Coast Province. Sitting next to the ramshackle mud-and-thatch hut that she calls home, Kache is in deep thought, agonising over what to do about her seven-year old daughter who has been sent away from school because the family cannot afford the ten shillings (US $0.13) that every pupil must contribute to pay the cook hired by the school to prepare meals for the pupils.

Kenya's new Minister of Information and Communication, Hon. Raphael Tuju, has announced his support for the liberalisation and advancement of ICT policy in Kenya. Speaking after a week-long ICT policy advocacy workshop in Nairobi the minister noted that "In Kenya, I do realise that we have problems with our telephony connectivity and the snail’s pace in connectivity, as well as the high costs of international calls". The workshop, organised by the Association for Progressive Communications, brought together a range of stakeholders from a total of eight African countries.

A special report by the UK Newspaper, The Independent, this week highlighted the potential legal confrontation between the descendents of Kenya's colonial families and the nomadic Masai tribe over the incompatibility of ecotourism and the Masai's right to graze freely. The area relies on tourism for 70% of its income, but a prolonged drought in Laikipia has raised emotions even higher. Furthermore, the paper reports that the matter will come to a head on 15th August when the Masai will claim that a 100-year old land lease signed by their chief, Olonana Ole Mbatiany, and Sir Donald Stewart of the British East Africa protectorate, will expire. If the land does not revert to the Masai, they plan to take their case to the International Court of Justice.

President Kibaki announced on Monday that his government would not protect anybody found guilty of corruption. But he emphasised that the fight against the vice must not be out of hearsay. "The institutions of government responsible for fighting corruption are investigating the alleged corruption, and anyone who has evidence is encouraged to forward the evidence to enable us to facilitate and conclude the investigations," he said. The President said he was aware of his obligations, and would not waver on his crusade against graft.

Operations of the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee launched by President Mwai Kibaki last week have not taken off due to a lack of budgetary allocation. Twice in the last week, scheduled meetings for the committee members have been postponed at the last minute, both times via SMS. The committee has now delayed the next meeting till August 11th.

Lecturers at Moi University want the Government to order fresh elections for the Senate and faculty deans. The lecturers sought the intervention of the Ministry of Education, saying their calls to the university's administration to call the elections had failed. "The senate should have been dissolved by now and elections held for members as well as deans of all 160 faculties," they said. They claimed the elections have not been held for the past 20 years and those holding the posts of deans were appointees of the Vice-Chancellor.

Six thousand new teachers are to be employed by next month, the Kenyan Government announced this week. Five thousand will be hired for primary schools, with the remaining 1,000 going to secondary schools. More teachers are needed to tackle the shortage caused by free primary education last year which has seen pupil numbers increase by 1.4 million to 7.3 million. Unions immediately termed the number to be hired as a drop in the ocean and said there was a shortage of more than 60,000 teachers.

Assistant Minister Alicen Chelaite has raised the alarm over increasing cases of pregnancies in five primary schools in Nakuru, where 28 girls have dropped out. Chelaite, of Gender, Sports and Culture, said she was shocked that some parents and teachers in the schools, located in the sisal growing area, were covering up the cases.

This paper addresses the gender element within Kenya's current PRSP document. The authors - the African Women's Development & Communication Network (FEMNET) - argue that there is no detailed cognisance of the gendered dimensions of the proposed policies, or anticipation of gender implications of the outcomes in reference to the different poverty dimensions. FEMNET attributes this to an inadequate exposure to gender issues. In order to address this the authors argue for appropriate tools that would show expected outcomes of addressing gender equality.