Kenya has been ranked among the countries with the highest defence budgets in Africa, thanks to two decades of a steady increase in military expenditure. It is ranked seventh behind Algeria, South Africa, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco, having surpassed Tunisia last year. The country spent Sh45.8 billion last year down from Sh47.7 billion the previous year but remained by far the highest in East Africa relative to its GDP, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), an independent research organisation. Algeria had the highest spending on defence at Sh736 billion followed by South Africa with Sh434 billion and Angola at Sh309 billion.

Kenya’s Ogiek community, the indigenous group of hunter-gatherers who were evicted from the Mau Forest three years ago, say they will no longer sit by and watch logging companies profit from the resources of their traditional home while they live in poverty in tented camps around the forest without even the most basic of services, like sanitation. Currently 100 saw millers are licensed to log 50,000 hectares of mature exotic and indigenous trees in the forest reserve – the largest in the country stretching across 400,000 hectares.

If there is such a thing as an African version of California's Silicon Valley, the country that is arguably leading the race to the future is Kenya. Household tech names such as Google, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia and Vodafone all have a presence here, and IBM recently chose Nairobi for its first African research lab. Kenyans enjoy faster broadband connections than their counterparts in Africa's economic powerhouse, South Africa. And the government plans to build a $7bn (£4.36bn), 5,000-acre technology city that is already being branded Africa's 'Silicon Savannah'.

The first ever Gay and Lesbian Awards of Kenya (GALA) have been announced by the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) to honor gay, lesbian, Trans, queer, intersex and bisexual (LGBTIQ) individuals and organizations for their contributions to Kenyan society. The awards are also to honor politicians, employers and others who are committed to advancing equality and social acceptance for LGBTIQ people in Kenya. Scheduled to be held on 15 December 2012, the awards are expected to run each year and will recognized exemplary service, courage and work on LGBTIQ issues in the country.

Violent protests have erupted in Kisumu, western Kenya, following the murder of a prominent local politician. A senior police officer, who requested anonymity, told the AFP news agency on Monday that three people 'died from either burning or suffocation after teargas was lobbed into a hardware shop they were hiding in'.

The country’s environmental watchdog has raised the red flag over the manner in which medical and electronic waste in the country is disposed. The National Environmental Management Authority in a report says poor disposal of used needles, syringes and other toxic waste on uncontrolled dumping sites have become a major threat to the public health.

Kingwa Kamencu broke down in tears as she spoke about the state of the nation’s roads during a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, last year. It was during that same conference last September that she announced her plans to run for president. The 28-year-old Kenyan woman had just returned to the country for holidays from Oxford University, where she recently obtained two master’s degrees on a Rhodes Scholarship, one in creative writing and the other in African studies.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has visited victims of the violence that followed Kenya's 2007 election. Fatou Bensouda says she was concerned about ICC witnesses being intimidated ahead of a criminal trial at The Hague in the Netherlands. In her first official visit to Kenya, Bensouda sat surrounded by some of the 350,000 people displaced by the deadly violence in 2007-2008, still living in a camp of tightly packed tents known as 'Pipeline Camp' in the Rift Valley, one of the hardest-hit areas.

The Kenyan government should ensure a speedy and transparent investigation of alleged police attacks on villagers in Kenya’s North Eastern province, Human Rights Watch said. Numerous witnesses have told Human Rights Watch that the police beat and mistreated villagers following attacks by suspected al-Shabaab supporters on Kenyan security officers. Officials implicated in abusing villagers should be brought to justice, Human Rights Watch said.

Politicians will be required to submit their campaign text messages for vetting at least 48 hours before they are sent. And the SMSs must only be sent to mobile phone users who have subscribed for them. These are some of the measures put in place by the Communications Commission of Kenya to curb the spread of hate messages via SMS.

Two of the four Kenyans charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, are planning to run for president and vice-president in the March 4 election. If they win, the implications for Kenya will be grave.

Presidential aspirants have embraced the digital platform as they step up campaigns ahead of the General Election. They are reaching out to voters directly through social media signalling their determination to use digital technology as a new frontier in consolidating their support among voters, reports the Daily Nation.

Kenya’s independence heroes and heroines marched on the tarpaulin of a stadium on Saturday, waving the national flag during celebrations to mark Heroes Day, buoyed by a landmark legal victory against Britain for compensation for pre-independence atrocities. The elderly Kenyans pressed for compensation against the British government for illegal detention and torture during the 1952 crackdown against the Mau Mau rebellion, whose leader, Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, is still buried at the Kamiti Maximum Prison.

Amid rising insecurity, a senior official in Kenya’s North Eastern Province has ordered all refugees and unregistered migrants from neighbouring Somalia to move to the under-resourced Dadaab refugee complex by 20 October or face forced relocation. Garissa County Commissioner Mohamed Maalim, who chairs the county’s security committee, said the order - publicly announced on 6 October - applied to all 'Somali refugees and aliens in towns and trading centres' in the region.

A historic court battle is looming that will hopefully clarify for Kenyans the meaning and scope of the fundamental freedoms of expression, the media and access to information as guaranteed in the new constitution and how these rights relate to the fight against corruption.

Hundreds of Kenyan girls, including some as young as three years old, filed a petition in the High Court to try to force the police to investigate and prosecute rape cases they say have been ignored. The group of more than 240 girls accuse police of demanding bribes to investigate rape, refusing to record rapes unless the victims produced witnesses, and claiming victims had consented.

Kenya is seeing a rapid rise in the number of mobile phone apps built by local designers - and both farmers and cash-strapped councils are reaping the benefits. In Nairobi, 'tech-incubators' are springing up, places designed to give young IT entrepreneurs the space - and sometimes a bit of cash - to develop their ideas.

Most Kenyans favour the International Criminal Court (ICC) trials but in an ironic twist, would vote for candidates facing crimes against humanity charges at the same court. This is according to an opinion poll by Gallup whose results were published by The Economist, an authoritative world affairs magazine. The survey also revealed that Kenyans voters would also vote for the candidate who would save the four from the trials during the March 2013 General Election.

Kenya's President Mwaki Kibaki late Tuesday shattered MPs' dream to award themselves a controversial bonus of more than $110,000 each as a send off when he declined to sanction the deal stating the country’s economy was unable to shoulder the extra financial burden. The Head of State refused to assent to the Finance Bill 2012, saying that the country could not afford the colossal perks that the MPs had awarded themselves in form of a severance package totalling $25m.

Kenyans have staged a protest in the capital Nairobi against a vote paving the way for members of parliament to be paid $110,000 send-off bonus, with money expected from tax increases. Demonstrators marched after parliament dismissed the majority of wage demands of striking public sector workers, including doctors and teachers - yet it approved the lucrative pay off which will cost the country $24.7m.