Kenya’s Members of Parliament want a bigger salary. But the country is outraged by this demand. This week, protesters poured out into the streets of Nairobi to say No to the MPs’ greed

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, urges President Jacob Zuma not to sign the Protection of State Information Bill and to send it back to the National Assembly for further revisions that meet the standards of openness and transparency demanded by South Africa's Constitution

‘The City of Cape Town is heartless. They want us to get sick. They want to punish us for trying to do what’s best for our families, for our children. But we are not going anywhere’

Mass movement against education cuts, mass unemployment, pro-rich looting and obnoxious electoral laws

Statement delivered at the 53rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul, Gambia

Instead of tackling the underlying causes of restiveness and militancy, which are mass unemployment and collapse of education, the Jonathan regime has resorted to brute force

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court upholding the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as president of Kenya has been dismissed by a number of legal analysts as ‘shallow’, ‘unconvincing’ and based on questionable precedents. But petitioner Raila Odinga’s former aide defends it

There is a genuine concern that trade unions and its leadership have failed to protect workers and that trade unions are dens of corruption in Kenya. There is a need to revive a genuine trade union movement that protects workers’ rights and promotes workers’ solidarity

Whereas Kenya enjoys considerable media freedom, there are frequent reports of threats or harassment of journalists in connection with their work. Media owners violate the labour rights of journalists with impunity

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:

New European rules move the world closer to a global standard on transparency. Now other regions and countries must follow this example.

Police ministry agrees to pay damages after police brutality against Abahlali baseMjondolo members in 2006

We are concerned that the state continues to vilify our kind and actively violates and harasses our kin. As a result our community lives in fear of violence and abuse

Land grabbing is widely assumed to be happening only in the global South, but an in-depth analysis by a team of researchers shows that land grabbing is also expanding into Europe

On April 10, 2013, Sudanese security officers arrested Sharf Eldein Tia, the nephew of Jalila Khmais, the Nuba woman activist who was been detained for 10 months before she has been released last January.

Sharf Eldein arrived from Alliry area in Nuba mountains on April 3, 2013. Eyewitness informed us that he had been arrested by eight plainclothes men who identified themselves to be members of the Sudanese security. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Arry organization is extremely concerned about the safety of Sharf Eldein Tia. He is in danger of torture and ill treatment in detention. We call on the Sudanese authorities to immediately release Tia and reveal his whereabouts, or present charges against him.

Hugo Chávez’s implementation of the Bolivarian revolution inspired African American people as well as other oppressed people around the globe. They expressed their opposition to ‘the unconscionable low-intensity war that is being waged against the people and national sovereignty of Venezuela since the inception of the Chávez Frias administration.’

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

As the fate of over 66,000 Maasai families continues to hang in the balance over a government decision to declare village lands in Loliondo as a ‘Game Controlled Area’, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) urges the government of Tanzania to halt the decision.

Many prisoners, including women and children, are still held in custody most of them without charge.