Kenya

Principals in secondary schools in Kenya have sent a Save Our Soul appeal to the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB) as a result of the prohibitive cost of living in the country.

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Their SOS is contained in a letter to the Ministry of Education requesting that schools be supplied with enough grains at affordable prices. This disclosure was made by the Chairperson of the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association(KSSHA),Indimuli Kahi, during a news briefing.

Kahi stated that the intervention would go a long way to salvage the worrisome situation in the schools, saying,''As it stands, various learning institutions are unable to run effectively due to the cash constraints that have pushed their budgets beyond limits.''

Read-Helplessness in the Face of Dirt

-Legalizing Crime and Criminality

-Landlords and Tenants Associations, Crime and Criminality

-Law Enforcement: The Reactionary Approach

-Government Workers-A Subject of Debate

A senior Police Officer in Kenya has recounted how he was defrauded of Ksh 597, 100 by syndicate via sim card swap.
 Commanding Police Division (OCPD), Peter Mwanzo, testified against one of the members of the syndicate , one Gideon Mark before a magistrate’s court in Milimani, Nairobi, where the latter was accused of stealing Ksh597,100 in a sim-swap fraud.

Read-Helplessness in the Face of Dirt                                                           -Legalizing Crime and Criminality

He stated that  at about  6.45 pm he received a phone call from a private number but he did not pick up although the caller kept bugging his phone. He put the phone in flight mode to avoid further disturbance.
He deactivated the flight mode at 6.50pm, but his mobile phone failed to pick up the signal. Mwanzo rechecked his phone at 9 pm but it had not yet picked network.

-Landlords and Tenants Associations, Crime and Criminality
Mwanzo stated that after the problem persisted, he visited a sim card outlet in the neighbourhood to get assistance. The attendant, he narrated, informed him that his sim card had failed and advised him to do a replacement.
The senior police officer continues :
“She could not tell how I lost the sim card but I did the replacement and it was reactivated. Upon turning on my phone, I was surprised by the messages that started coming in.

-Law Enforcement: The Reactionary Approach

"I tried to purchase airtime and send money but the transaction failed and got a message that I had exceeded my limits,” the senior police officer told the court.
“I was shocked that I had even registered a loan and a mobile money account. I had never applied for any loan or registered with the subscriber,” Mwanzo recalled.
He told the court that he does not know how and where the fraudsters obtained his private information to carry out the bank transactions.

-Government Workers-A Subject of Debate
The statements indicated that the money was moved in four batches. The police boss noted that although the scammers were in Donholm, Nairobi, the money that was stolen from his account was withdrawn by a third party in Bomet.
Mwanzo  requested his mobile money and bank account statements to confirm the alleged transactions.

“To my surprise, on that night, I had transacted from a bank account to mobile money about Ksh597,100,” he stated.
“Someone used my sim card remotely. This is madness and it seemed easy for the third party to use my sim card.” the senior police officer lamented.

Thousands of residents of Nairobi have relocated from the capital city ahead of the government move to enforce COVID 19 measures to curb the third wave of the pandemic.
 In  December 2020, there was a similar occurrence, a few days before President Uhuru Kenyatta revised Covid-19 measures during the second Covid-19 wave. The President, however, reduced curfew hours from 9 pm - 5 am to 10 pm - 4 am.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi has warned that Kenya was recording an increase in the number of COVID 19 cases.
"Nairobi's contribution to the positivity is staggering and stands at close to 57.7 percent and that is very high and disheartening. As we have repeatedly said, it would be irresponsible for us to sit back and watch the situation deteriorate further. 
"Unless this trend is arrested, we may have no alternative but to take more stringent measures as necessary to protect the lives of our people," Mwangangi stated.

The Ministry of Health in Kenya has earmarked 7.5 million masks for distribution to schools and those in the informal settlements.

The distribution shall be done through the Ministry of Education.
According to the Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha who made this disclosure, priority would be given to schools with a higher enrollment rate, those in informal settlements, special schools, and schools located in pockets of poverty.
Magoha also disclosed that pupils in  Grade 4 to Grade 8 and secondary students will receive 2.25 million masks.
“The distribution will be cascaded to the regional and county levels. We have tasked the field officers to utilize the outlined criteria to select schools to benefit from the masks, which will be distributed as we receive them from the Ministry of Health,” the cabinet secretary stated.

Kenyans have condemned  officers of the Isebania police station for detaining  a 12 year old girl who reported a case of rape.

The girl had gone to the police station  to report, her father, a police officer, who had lured her into his bedroom and defiled her at their home in Nyabohanse town.

Informed sources disclosed that the officers at the police station had to detain the girl, to cover up evidence of defilement and protect  their colleague from the consequence of his action..

The girl, a  Standard Five pupil at a private school, recounted how she had approached her father for school fees, but rather than getting the money her father defiled her.

Over 300,00 trained and registered Teachers in Kenya are without jobs.

According to well informed sources in the Education Ministry, schools in the country are short of 96, 00 Teachers, with with primary schools  having  about 10 million pupils being short of 38,054 tutors and Secondary schools, with about 2.8 million students, have vacancies for 58,291 teachers.

Following Government aggressive campaigns to achieve 100 per cent transition from primary school, there has been a high enrollment rate coupled with  the fact  that 9,472 women and 6,950 men applied for government teaching positions but were not employed.

 6,872 of  the applicants posses  Bachelor of Education while   1,596  had diplomas. Certificate holders seeking jobs in primary and pre-school schools accounted for  5,686.

A  300 level law undergraduate has become the first female chairperson of the University of Nairobi Students Association.

Ms Ann Mwangi emerged after polling 24 votes to beat her  challengers, Samuel Ayoma whoe scored eight votes Ertiman Oile  scored 4 votes .

The process was facilitated through the electoral college and was presided over by Prof. Mohamed Jamaa.

Ms Mwangi will take over from Mr Antony Manyara who has been the chairman of the association since 2018.

The Police in Kenya has appointed six women as County Police Commanders.

Dr. Interior CabiThe six female county police commanders are Naomi Ichami (Bomet), Leah Ngutu (Kirinyaga), Catherine Mugwe (Nyamira), Lydia Ligami (Kitui), Beatrice Gachago (Kajiado) and Esther Seroney (Homa Bay)

Kenyan are expressing reservations over the plans of government to introduce a single uniform for all student in the country.

They insist that the action ogf government would encourage corruption, politcal patronage and favoritism.

Ghana and Tnazania are among the few countries in Africa that have implemented the policy, where students in all public schools wear the same uniform,  that is only differentiated by badges.

Not long ago the Principal Secretary of Education, Dr. Bell Kipsang amde government's intention known at a forum at the Moi University owned Rivatex company.

"As we move towards having the same uniform and fabric in all our schools, we want Rivatex to prepare so that they are able to play a role in the manufacture of the uniforms that will be required" Dr Kipsang  disclosed.

Kenyans  have risen against the plan of Government to enforce the wearing of identical uniforms by students in all the schools in the country.

They insist that the policy will encourage corruption and favoritism.

Ghana and Tanzania  are among the few countries in Africa with  policies where students in all public schools wear same uniform that are only differentiated by school badges.

Busia Governor, Sospeter Ojaamong and three County Ministers  were on Wednesday arraigned before the Milimani, Nairobi, Anti-Corruption Court on a 7 count charge of corruption.

Before now the accused persons had been detained at the Integrity Centre -the headquarters of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

 Others arraigned alongside the Governor are Mr Bernard Yaite, Mr Allan Ekweny and Mr Samuel Ombui, who are County Ministers.

Charges against them include defrauding the County of Sh 8 million.

Other charges are abuse of office, conspiracy to commit an economic crime and engaging in a project without proper planning.

Also, they were charged for  willful failure to comply with the law relating to management of public funds and fraudulent acquisition of public property.

The accused persons peladed not guilty to the charges.

As the Kenyan Government intensifies its clampdown on contraband products, traders have increased the prices of local sugar.

 A kilo of sugar  in western Kenya now sells for between Sh10 and Sh20.

Consumers now avoid brands from factories that have links with  the controversial importation of sugar. A 50kg bag of Sony sugar now goes for Sh5,500, up from Sh4,300.

 The Government had two weeks ago, seized a consignment of contraband sugar  in a warehouse in Eastleigh, Nairobi.