Women's groups in Kenya have started a week-long "sex strike", in an attempt to press the country's leaders to resolve rifts and work together. Ten non-governmental organisations urged women across the nation to boycott sex with their husbands and partners along with a statement calling for reforms in government and action on promoting women's rights. Rukia Subow, chairwoman of the Women's Development Organisation, said the group believed the boycott would persuade men to press the government to make peace.

The Women's Refugee Commission and the SEEP Network are holding a four-day highly participatory workshop designed to bring practitioners from throughout the region to learn new techniques, share experiences, and collect tools designed to improve practice on the ground. Participants should be able and willing to read the Minimum Standards for Economic Recovery after Crisis. A participatory discussion will be held before the workshops on the scope and concepts presented in the aforementioned publication.

Kenya has been challenged to exploit the opportunities found within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in an effort cushion the country from the imminent challenges posed by the ongoing global recession, Kenya’s Trade Minister Amos Kimunya said last week.

cc Disillusionment with the failure of the 2008 peace deal is the only point of consensus in Kenya, writes Kwamchetsi Makokha, with Kenyans using their shared sense of despondency to hide their frustrations with the decision to force two ideologically parallel political systems to work together for five years. Outlining the demise of the country’s institutions from the judiciary to parliament, Makokha argues that ‘unless the international community forcefully reengages with Kenya and progressive civil society finds a way to engage the middle class to reflect more on their role in rescuing the country, the future looks bleak’. While those who wish to ‘provide leadership face innumerable risks and palpable threats’, the absence of individuals with ‘unquestionable moral authority in the public sphere… feeds the despondency that has come to characterise Kenya’, Makokha concludes.

Though confessing that she was originally unconvinced about the call for a seven-day sex fast from the G10 women's coalition, Wandia Njoya discusses her surprise at the chauvinistic and hyper-masculined reaction to the fast from much of Kenyan society. Given that the majority of Kenyan men clearly do not expect sex from their wives every single day, Njoya considers what really informs the sexist outpouring of discontent, concluding that it is ultimately about power and domination. Essentially reflecting the absence of effective leadership on the national political stage, Njoya laments the inability of ordinary men to offer an alternative model of manhood to one which has simply exploited Kenya's people, resources and environment. Stressing that Kenya's men need to grow up for the greater good of the country, Njoya salutes the G10 for exposing the deep flaws of Kenyan masculinity.

cc Following the Kenyan Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) allegations of Agricultural Minister William Ruto's role in a maize scandal, Joachim Omolo Ouko discusses the internal mudslinging and internecine feuding within Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party. Ruto's problems with the party stem from his criticisms of Raila last year, Ouko notes, compelling the prime minister to seek a means of fixing the rift developing with the ODM, particularly as his own son is instead now alleged to be involved in the scandal.

cc Following a community hall meeting held to commemorate Haiti’s revolutionary history and spirit, Wangui Kimari affirms that Kenyans and Haitians must connect with one another’s suffering and inspire each other in the struggle for social justice. While discussing Haiti, it became evident to Kimari and participants of this meeting that Kenyans share Haitians’ struggles. The agendas, policies, and governing forces responsible for creating injustice in Haiti are simultaneously compromising the livelihoods of Kenyans. Through the expression of solidarity, and awareness of persistent global inequality, social change may prevail.

When stock is taken of the Kenyan coalition government’s first year in office no marks will be awarded to its handling of extra-judicial killings in the country. Human rights activists claim that the police have murdered about 500 people in the past 16 months. The government, constituted after a mediation process between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s parties following a disputed presidential poll in December 2007, has dithered on its pledge that it would address the killings.

Fears are being expressed that another poor rainy season could lead to a 'severe' humanitarian crisis in Kenya. The Kenya meteorological department is predicting the long rains will be poorly distributed and too little. It follows an appeal from the government for food aid for up to ten million people.

cc Following the director of Kenya's largest referral hospital's blocking of an operation for a transsexual person, Audrey Mbugua argues that the director's actions constitute a basic infringement of a person's human rights. Denouncing the insistence on a 'no objection letter' from the 25-year-old individual's parents as 'insane and barbaric', Mgubua underlines that one does not have to be transsexual to understand the injustices transsexuals face. With anecdotal reports indicating a 97 per cent success rate for male-to-female reassignments and gender-identity disorder well-established within international psychological knowledge, Mgubua emphasises the underlying ignorance informing the director's actions.

Police are investigating the death of a human rights activist and university lecturer Bantu Mwaura, whose body was found outside his gate at Sunlight estate in Nairobi’s Lang’ata area, on Monday morning. Sources said that family members of Bantu, who was also a renowned thespian, director, poet and storyteller, had reported him missing on Friday. Bantu was a respected poet whose work in English, Kiswahili and Gikuyu has been published in several journals.

The accused, Constance Rukia, was taken to court on Monday and charged with assault causing bodily harm (under section 251 of the Penal Code). The case will be mentioned on Monday April 27 at the Chief Magistrate’s Court. So far, COVAW and KHRC are the only organizations that have officially agreed to watch brief for the case and several activists have written statements of support on internet listservs in reaction to the hate crime that happened last week. We would like to see a bigger show of solidarity particularly from within civil society

The Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands is tasked with addressing the ‘unique challenges’ facing its area of responsibility. These challenges have their roots deep in Kenya’s past, and specifically in the creation of the Northern Frontier District by the colonial regime.

Cut Off My Tongue explores the truths that shape us as Kenyans - our beliefs, the way we behave and why. It is no ordinary reading of poetry, but a spirited invocation to Africans to colonize and mold their own history. It is a show about land, about tribe, about personal discovery, about identity and relationships. The show makes you think and laugh at the same time. It rants, sweats, breaks into song and dance!

Michela Wrong’s latest book “It’s Our Turn to Eat: the Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower” has stirred controversy in Kenya. Through the struggles of anti-corruption whistleblower John Githongo, Wrong examines how corruption has plagued the country. Transparency Watch spoke with Wrong about the themes behind her book: identity, history, cynicism and integrity.

The gay community in Kenya is demanding justice, protection and that government takes into serious account, increasing threats and attacks of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) people in that country. This comes come after a brutal attack of a lesbian in one of Nairobi’s prominent nightclubs, Madhouse, by a woman unknown to the victim, violence which the country’s gay community says was clearly motivated by homophobia.

Kenya's president has vowed to punish the perpetrators of an outbreak of violence that left at least 29 people dead in a central town on Monday. Mwai Kibaki described the killings in Karatina as "heinous crimes" and "a matter of great concern" to Kenya.

The in solidarity with Minority Women In Action are profoundly concerned about the increasing violence, discrimination and violation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, intersexes and queer (LGBTIQ) individuals' rights in Kenya. In particular we vehemently condemn the unjust and unconstitutional acts occasioned against Ms Faith Onyimbo on the early morning of Saturday 18 April 2009 at Florida 1000 on Nairobi's Koinange Street.

Since coming to power in 2002, President Kibaki has gazetted the creation of 124 new districts and there are rumours of a possible 15 more being created. Experts speculate the objective is to pre-empt the intended constitutional boundaries review. The ad hoc creation of new districts is a continuation of the government’s political manipulation of local development which in turn undermines the impact of the extensive resources channelled to through the districts and decentralised structures.

The killing of Oscar Foundation Director Kamau King'ara and his deputy, Paul Oulu, brings nearer the surface a war on Mungiki that has gone on in the underground for many months and now opens a new, dangerous front with the targeting of civil society leadership. Kamau and Oulu were gunned down by unknown people near the University of Nairobi hostels in broad daylight on March 6, 2009. On that day, Kamau had led a demonstration against extra-judicial executions.