The struggle for freedom from colonialism in Kenya was based on the wish to recover lands that had been forcibly acquired by the colonial settlers. After independence, freedom fighters were not given back their land. It remains a crying shame

Ruth Mumbi has been nominated for this years Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. The award is to recognise outstanding contributions made by human rights activists. Ruth is one of six nominees selected from a total of 90 nominations. Two of her fellow nominees are currently in prison.

Congratulations go to Ruth. Her work has included mobilisation of women around the new constitution in Kenya. She has also focused on the rights of women farmers and their communities in Kenya, facing threats from armed thugs in the process.

See below her Bio from the Front Line Defenders Website.

Ruth Mumbi – Kenya - is a passionate community mobiliser, and is the founder and current National Coordinator of Bunge la Wamama, a women's chapter of Bunge la Mwananchi a movement that conducts strong advocacy and campaigning on issues of social justice and accountability in different parts of Kenya.

She was born and still lives in Kiamaiko, a Nairobi slum and she began her involvement in community mobilisation initiatives in the late 1990s, when she was barely 16 years of age.

For more information:

The ghost of the disputed 2007 presidential election and its ensuing violence was omnipresent during Kenya’s 2013 elections, and the overarching message was peace at all costs. Some argue this posture rendered other issues secondary

President and his deputy, along with Joshua arap Sang, a former radio host, face trials before the ICC on charges of committing or contributing to the commission of crimes against humanity during Kenya

Civil society organisations working in Africa call to end intimidations and hate campaigns against civil society organisations in Kenya

The just concluded election in Kenya has been hailed for being peaceful. But there are serious allegations about the conduct of the polls, which are the basis of two cases before the Supreme Court.

The recent elections showed that tribe is not the main driver of politics in Kenya. But while progress has been made, the fight for democracy has yet to be won, with minority communities, women, the disabled and the Diaspora remaining largely underrepresented

Unlike the elections of 2007, the recent elections in Kenya avoided massive bloodshed and gave victory to the Jubilee Coalition. An analysis of the significance of the elections is given and it is argued that political power cannot be monopolized by one section of the capitalist class

Various technological measures required by law to protect the integrity of Kenya’s elections failed massively in the recent polls. But the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission proceeded with tallying the result. IEBC must explain to Kenyans what happened

There are rising fears that Mungiki is regrouping to possibly unleash another orgy of deadly violence should their preferred candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta, lose the presidential contest.

Days to the March 4 elections a gang purporting to act in the interest of Jubilee Coalition presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta threatens the Supreme Court president, who also complains of harassment by the all-powerful Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Francis Kimemia

Obama’s message to Kenyans centred on the upcoming elections was received well by politicians on the campaign trail. But what many seem to have missed is the fact that the message was loaded with conditional political promises that isolated a particular candidate

With political mobilization along ethnic lines going on in Kenya in the present campaigns, it looks likely that the winner of the closely contested presidential election on March 4 will be decided by the regions that do not have strong local parties

Besides the bitter political infighting, endemic culture of corruption and the ever-present fear of more tribal and political violence during the upcoming March 4 elections, Kenya’s war on terror has hurt many innocent people

With elections in March 2013 Antony Otieno Ong’ayo reflects on how ethnicity has become politicised in Kenya’s past violent elections and argues that the forthcoming election is a bridge between stagnation and a forward leap towards a middle-income country

Democratic election is a game of numbers and, as things stand, Kenyans in the diaspora who would have been the proverbial swing voters in the March 4 election have effectively been disenfranchised for political reasons

Police in Kenya say 42 officers are now known to have been killed in the deadliest attack on police in the country's history. The officers were chasing suspected cattle rustlers on Saturday when a gun battle broke out in the remote Samburu district. Some police were airlifted to hospitals in Nairobi for treatment but later died from their injuries.

Kenya was elected on Monday 12 November to one of the coveted seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council. There was no expressed opposition to Kenya in the 193-nation General Assembly, which decides the make-up of the 47-member council. Kenya was one of five countries nominated to fill five open seats on the Geneva-based council that are reserved for African states.

With just over one year left to achieve its target of having some 1.1 million men circumcised as part of HIV-prevention efforts, Kenyan male circumcision programmes are ramping up efforts to bring more men into clinics, compensating them for their time and encouraging them to bring friends in for the procedure.

During an interview at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Nairobi, David Kuria Mbote, Kenya’s first openly homosexual candidate for public office, stresses that his campaign will not be only about gay rights.It is, he said, about tearing down the structural barriers in healthcare, education, and the economy that harm all Kenyans. 'My county Kiambu is not the poorest county in Kenya, but those who are poor in Kiambu are really, really poor, and many times they cannot escape that cycle of poverty. What we want to do is create small projects, like rabbit farming for example, to help them break that cycle. Once they can do this they will be more able to work their way to a better life.'