In one of the many backyard taverns selling chang'aa (illicit brew) in the Korogocho informal settlement of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, two women desperately try to get patrons to listen to their lecture about HIV; many are too drunk to care, but others are more attentive.

The number of children dying before their fifth birthday in Kenya has risen in the past 10 years, according to health specialists. One in nine children dies before the age of five. "For every 1,000 children born, 121 die, compared with 97 in 1990," Shahnaz Sharif, the senior deputy director of medical services in Kenya's health ministry, told IRIN.

If the political class strategy of denial, disparage and diverting public attention manages to kill the implementation of Waki the report, this will heighten public distrust for Kenya's criminal justice system and reinforce the culture of political impunity. We must resist vigorously the grand impunity of the political class and our government. Support full implementation of Waki report by signing this petition and forwarding this petition link to your friends.

The report by Waki Commission is unprecedented in many ways, in that for the first time in Kenyan history; sexual crimes have not only been acknowledged but also given the prominence that they deserve. The report makes grave revelations regarding sexual crimes by indicating that they were “under-reported, under-investigated and insufficiently addressed.”

We note the rare unity of the political class in dismissing the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence as inadequate and flawed. We also note the dismissive attitude of the police force towards the findings of the investigation, as well as the faultfinding by the Attorney General.

While the ODM rejects the Waki Report (Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence), the Kenyans for Peace through Truth and Justice (KPTJ) issue a strongly worded statement urging full implementation of the recommendations.

Kenya will have to find new sources of funding to keep more than 200,000 people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment after the country's latest bid for support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was rejected, a senior government official said. "We are too dependent on donor funding for programmes like these [related to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis], which are vital to the health of our people - we must start becoming more self-reliant," Danson Mungatana, Assistant Minister for Medical services, said on 27 October.

Five months after a specialised facility for multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients was established at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, the lack of isolation wards is raising concerns. "This is not the best place; TB is a highly infectious disease,” Catherine Koskei, a matron working at the facility, told IRIN. “The patients need to be restricted.”

Five years after the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in Kenya, the enrolment of girls in schools continues to lag behind in Garissa, in Kenya's North Eastern region. Most communities living in the North Eastern region are nomadic and semi-nomadic, and depend on livestock for their livelihood.

Some four years after delegates met at Bomas to discuss Kenya’s constitutional review, the country’s National Youth Convention descended upon the very same location for the purpose of discussing Kenyan youth’s role and opportunities within the Kenyan state. As in other African countries, the NYC argues, young people in Kenya constitute a majority and deserve greater scope for influencing the direction of their nation and setting the agendas it follows.

On both occasions when Mary Atieno* gave birth in her home district of Suba, western Kenya, she knew that going to one of the health centres would be safer, but she was too afraid that the routine HIV test might reveal that she was HIV-positive. "I normally just deliver at home with the help of traditional birth attendants, because when you go to these modern government hospitals they put you through certain tests which reveal even your HIV status," Atieno told IRIN/PlusNews.

Almost 14,000 people in northern Kenya have been displaced by flash floods that occurred last week, and are in need of urgent supplies such as food, shelter and clean water, the United Nations humanitarian wing has reported. Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters in Geneva that at least three people were killed and 6,000 uprooted from their homes in the district of Mandera in north-east Kenya, when the River Daua burst its banks on 14 October.

More than 150 delegates from 71 countries are convening today at a United Nations conference in Nairobi to explore the roles of national bodies set up to protect or promote human rights in relation to the judiciary, law enforcement and monitoring of detention centres. During the three-day meeting, national human rights institutions will also report on activities undertaken as part of the Dignity and Justice for Detainees Initiative.

Kenya has received $144.4 million in credit from the International Development Association for the Transparency and Communications Infrastructure Project (TCIP). Kenya ICT Board chief executive officer, Paul Kukubo, told the media on Friday that part of the funds $7 million (Sh525 million) will subsidise bandwidth costs for local Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) entrepreneurs.

Dear Comrades,

I am still disturbed over how President Kibaki’s and Prime Minister Raila's unpatriotic and selfish hunger for power-at-all-costs can be rewarded by honorary doctorate degrees conferred by the University of Nairobi!

In old England, honorary degrees were awarded to, amongst others, subjects who showed conspicuous merit or who had done extraordinary good service to the state or the university. However, in the politics of honorary degrees it has increasingly become an open secret that honorary degrees are now political goods for trade, as I suspect is the present case.

A degree honoris causa is literally conferred “for the sake of honour”. What honour can Kibaki and Raila possibly claim from the 1200 dead; the 350,000 IDPs and the billions of property pillaged as a result of their self-serving political machinations?

What claim to public honour can Kibaki stake when the Kriegler report confirmed plausible questions over the legitimacy of his presidency; following the scary indictment of the Waki report that post elections killings were planned at the State House and further in light of allegations that neither is Raila innocent for some of the crimes spawning in the post election period?

What honour does the University of Nairobi find in these two acting in characteristic selfishness, when “other forces” (read) Chinkororo, Mungiki, Baghdad boys etc threatened to share or snatch power from their hands, by quickly moving to put out the fire they started through signing the "negative peace accord"?

What honour can Kenyans find in the grand coalition government’s failure to resettle thousands of IDPs who are stuck in IDP camps? What honour can the President and Prime Minister claim from there pussy footing in resolving agenda no. 4 issues: historical injustices, unemployment, land problems, poverty, resource redistribution etc? What honour can the two claim when they have already started flip-flopping in the implementation of Kriegler and Waki reports?

Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister, Kenyans will give you honorary degrees in any field you want if you can give us a democratic and just constitution; if you can resolve issues of agenda no. 4 in the peace accord; and if you can implement Kriegler and Waki reports to the letter.

I firmly believe Kenya is a civilized country where no institution worth its salt should award such covetous honours as doctorate degrees to anyone for the reckless and barbaric behaviour of engineering fights, killings, rapes, looting, displacements among other evils for selfish ambition; otherwise all of us will begin fantasising about methods of fast tracking ourselves to such honours.

The first honorary degree ever awarded, to Lionel Woodville by Oxford University, made him a doctor of canon law in a blatant bid to win the favour of a powerful man. Is it now sadly the case then that Prof. Magoha likewise awarded the honorary degrees to Kibaki and Raila as negotiation for the renewal of his term as the Vice Chancellor of University of Nairobi?

George Nyongesa
Bunge la Mwananchi

A Special Tribunal for Kenya… or a date with the International Court of Justice in The Hague for post-election violence suspects — that is one of the far-reaching recommendations of the Waki Commission. And among those that could find themselves before either tribunal as early as June, next year, are people — including some Cabinet ministers — named as nised or participated in the violence.

CREAW is a non-governmental, non-partisan, membership organization whose goal is to transform society by empowering women and expanding frontiers for women’s rights and freedoms. CREAW aims at setting standards in upholding human rights and empowering society through civic education, legal advocacy and women’s rights awareness.CREAW is recruiting for the position of Legal Officer. Deadline for application: 31ST October 2008.

CREAW is inviting applications from individuals for the position of Project Officer. The ideal candidate will have at least three to five years of directly related experience in sexual and gender based violence and how to handle the survivors. The candidate must be a dynamic, creative, self-motivated, strategic and original thinker with commitment to women’s human rights she/he will also engage her/his time in projects work, which include project implementation and coordination, monitoring, evaluation report writing and resource mobilization. Deadline for application: 31st October 2008.

The Regional Manager manages and oversees Internews Network media development programs and projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is a geographic sub component of the Africa, Middle East, Health and Humanitarian Media Program Management Unit (PMU). Responsibilities for this position include direct line management of the Country Directors, Resident Journalism Advisors and Africa Program Associate (Nairobi-based), direct donor correspondence, as well as donor identification and communication with the Program Vice President and other key staff on development opportunities.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/403/KNCHR_l.jpgLawrence M. Mute’s presentation draws upon Kenya’s experiences as documented by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) in the course of its work monitoring the 2005 Constitutional Referendum and the 2007 General Elections. It explains the basis upon which the national commission is persuaded that it is feasible and legally allowable for hate speech legislation to be enacted in Kenya in a manner that does not violate the constitutional right of Kenyans to the freedom of expression. It outlines the key elements that should be included in hate speech legislation and the manner in which those elements should be framed in order, on one hand, to protect Kenyans against hate speech while, on the other hand, to ensure that their right to express themselves is not undermined.