Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki named a close ally, former trade minister Uhuru Kenyatta, on Friday as finance minister of east Africa's biggest economy. Former finance minister Amos Kimunya stepped down last July over the controversial sale of a luxury hotel, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing. On Friday, Kibaki returned Kimunya to the cabinet as his new trade minister.

The maiden Kenya Film and Television awards would be taking place early this year. Stakeholders in the film industry said they are bent on witnessing the event being organized by the Kenya Film Commission. The annual event is to celebrate and recognize excellence in production of local Kenyan movies and stars. At the moment the Commission is receiving entries from prospective award winners.

Kenya's parliament is reconvening shortly, two months before it was due to end its recess to pass legislation setting up a poll violence tribunal. The court will seek to try the ringleaders of the unrest that broke out after the December 2007 elections. This was the recommendation of a commission of inquiry into the clashes.

As Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announces a national emergency and declares that 10 million people don’t have enough food to eat, results of an International Rescue Committee survey show that an alarming 22% of children under five are malnourished in one part of the country worst affected by the food crisis. The IRC’s survey in Kakuma division, Turkana north, found that almost 40% of local people were surviving on just one meal a day. Malnutrition rates among children under the age of five were 22% — that’s much higher than the 15% rate which the World Health Organization uses to determine an emergency situation.

Kenyan authorities have launched an investigation into the disappearance of $100m in oil imports as part of a corruption scandal that threatens to disrupt fuel supplies to east Africa. According to the Kenyan energy ministry, the oil was allegedly released – and sold – without the authorisation of the banks and trading houses that financed it.

Four Chinese contractors have become the latest casualties of a global purge on corruption in World Bank-funded projects with a huge impact on Kenya’s construction scene. Caught in a corruption muddle that was instigated by a construction tender award scandal in the Philippines are two Chinese companies — China Road and Bridge Corporation and China Wu Yi — that control a significant share of the Kenyan construction market.

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has signed a Shs 27.3 billion (US$ 350 million) deal with Qatar’s Afro-Asia Investment Corporation (AAIC) for the development of a high class airport hotel and a conference centre. Signing the deal at the KAA offices, Managing Director, George Muhoho, said the investment was in line with the ongoing expansion programme at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi.

June and Paul Nyangweso*, a married couple living in the Kuria district of Nyanza Province in western Kenya, both tested positive for HIV recently, but only June visits the hospital to collect her monthly supply of antiretroviral medication, which she brings home and shares with her husband. "I do not want people to know that I am sick, so we just use her drugs and wait until it is time for her to go for another round," Paul told IRIN/PlusNews at their home.

Thousands of Kenyans who fled their homes following a wave of violence triggered by the disputed general election last year are still languishing in temporary camps. More than 1,500 were killed and another 300,000 displaced in post-election clashes fought predominantly between members of Kenya's two main tribes - the Luo and the Kikuyu.

CLARION, a Governance and Human Rights NGO based in Nairobi, is seeking an individual to fill the position of a Programme Officer.

You will work as part of a Project Team and in collaboration with youth focused civil society organisations in Kenya you will mobilize young people nation-wide for human rights activism and grow a Youth Network linked to wider AI's Africa Youth Networks.

You will work as part of a Project Team and in collaboration with partner NGOs and CBOs lead on the design and delivery of campaigns and actions of the Kenya Growth Project, particularly initiatives to ensure active participation of people in Nairobi’s poor people’s settlements to secure housing rights by ending forced evictions as part of AI's Dignity Campaign.

As the holder of this new and high profile role at the Nairobi Office, you will be central in driving AI’s human rights and growth agenda in Kenya. You will be responsible for providing strategic and political advice to the movement and lead AI’s work in Kenya in conjunction with colleagues at the International Secretariat in London and the Regional Office in Kampala.

President Kibaki has been urged to convene a crisis meeting following a wave of corruption scandals in the country. Officials from the National Anti Corruption Steering Committee said the proposed meeting with all agencies tasked with fighting graft should provide leadership in resolving these scandals.

The Government requires Sh 32 billion to meet the shortfall caused by a poor harvest, among other things until the end of August. When making the appeal, at Kenyatta International Conference Centre, President Kibaki said an assessment from Kenya Food Security Steering Group indicates that Kenya requires Sh37 billion to meet all the needs of the current food emergency.

The International Peace Support Training Centre is pleased to announce the forthcoming lecture by Daniela Kroslak. Daniela Kroslak is the Africa Program Deputy Director at the International Crisis Group. She has experience as both a practitioner and a researcher in the field of peace and security and has previously worked in such positions as Political Analyst with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Program Officer with the United Nations Population Fund, and Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

Former African leaders will attend a peace conference in Nairobi, Kenya under the theme ‘The Kenya we want’ to discuss the political transformation of the country from an ‘ethnic-divisions-ridden state’ into a more tolerant democracy in the region as well as to learn from other countries’ experiences in order to strengthen on-going efforts in national reconciliation and inter-group harmony. Elsewhere, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is holding a three-day seminar on reforming the security sector by initiating dialogue between the policy makers, civil society organisations and international stakeholders and identifying the role of ECCAS in promoting security in the region. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, following a similar move by the African Union (AU), has suspended Guinea’s membership to the regional body, in accordance with the provision of the 2001 regional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, until the return to constitutional order in the country following a military takeover in December 2008. Still in peace and security related news, United States President elect Barack Obama is likely to face challenges in dealing with the United States African Command (Africom) because many African leaders perceive the command as an instrument meant to benefit the United States rather than being a ‘diplomatic, economic and humanitarian aid, aimed at the prevention of conflict’ as touted by U.S military and diplomatic officials.

With the aim of strengthening their effective participation in the AU, UNIFEM organised a consultative and planning forum for regional and sub-regional women’s networks and organisations to increase, among others, knowledge of AU policy and institutional frameworks and to enhance effective participation in policy formulation and implementation by these stakeholders. Meanwhile, the Women’s World Summit Foundation is calling for submission of nominations for its 16th annual edition of the prize for women’s creativity in rural life.

Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, will host the 12th ordinary session of the AU heads of State and Government under the theme ‘Infrastructure Development in Africa’. As African ministers adopted the continent’s Mining Vision 2050, regional economic communities have realised that well managed mineral and mining resources are essential for the continent’s economic growth and have begun to harmonise their mining regulations frameworks.

When Mary Muli and her husband failed to conceive a child, they followed the long-held tradition among the Kemba in Kenya's Eastern Province and brought another woman into their home to bear children for them. "We were married for 30 years when we realised we would die without children," Muli, 60, told IRIN/PlusNews from her home in Kitui District. "I brought Teresia to bear us children and to one day remain behind when we are all gone."

The declines in HIV prevalence and incidence seen in recent years in some countries may be largely due to differences in people’s susceptibility to the virus rather than behaviour change, according to a mathematical model based on a survey of Kenyan sex workers, published in the January 14th edition of AIDS.

Kenya teachers' plan to go on strike looks imminent as a scheduled talk between them and the education minister hit a snag. The minister Professor Sam Ongeri failed to convince leaders of the teachers' body - Kenya National Union for Teachers - on Tuesday to rescind their decision.