The latest edition contains the following: Missing files: fertile grounds for corruption; E-procurement: a means to fight corruption; Professional body to address corruption in supplies; E-government and access to information and Corruption news. Subscribe online at http://www.tikenya.org/newsletter.asp or by sending an email to [email protected]

Public university lecturers want a salary increment of more than 2,000 per cent. Under the new demand, professors want their monthly pay raised from about Sh40,000 to Sh895,000 while ordinary lecturers want Sh232,000, up from the current Sh12,000. Assistant lecturers, on the other hand, want Sh120,000. The University Academic Staff Union, (Uasu), representing about 6,000 members, says the lecturers want the new demands effected immediately.

Perhaps it's true after all that prophets are readily dismissed, if not crucified as felons within their backyards. It's certainly true in Kenya, where a battle is afoot regarding the remains of "Field Marshall" Dedan Kimathi, a hero of Kenya's war of independence and a leader within Africa's inaugural guerrilla movement, the Mau Mau. But while Kimathi's body, currently buried in an unmarked grave within the grounds of a penitentiary, may yet find a more respectful home, his story only hints at the larger re-evaluation of the Mau Mau and their era.

President Mwai Kibaki had to contend with an unflattering CIA report about his nine-month-old administration when he arrived in the U.S. last week. The Central Intelligence Agency says Kenya's potential for growth is being constrained by massive corruption. The re-emergence of graft in the new government, which came to power on an anti-corruption platform, is seen as threatening the stability of the country and scaring off potential investors.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed deep concern over the criminal charges that have been brought against an editor from the "East African Standard", Kenya's oldest newspaper. The organisation is also concerned about the apparent pressure tactics used by Kenyan police to try to force the journalist and two of his colleagues to reveal their sources for an article in the newspaper's 28 September edition. On that date, the paper published leaked excerpts of confessions to the police by a suspected murderer of Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, who headed a key committee at Kenya's Constitutional Review Conference. The article reported that some of the suspects had accused a prominent politician in President Kibaki's governing coalition of having masterminded the murder.

Mitch Odero, a veteran Kenyan journalist, remembers vividly how he used to be locked up behind bars for publishing investigative reports which exposed the government. As an editor of one of the local daily newspapers in 1994, he was continuously picked up by police, harassed and tortured for trying to “malign” the KANU government.

Uncertainty hangs over the country's highest courts as a two-week quit ultimatum set for corrupt judges begins. The deadline has been reiterated by Constitutional and Justice Affairs assistant minister Robinson Githae, who warned that judges who ignored it would face tribunals.

Over 1,500 doctors have threatened to go on strike this Friday over the failure by the ministries of Health and Education to pay their allowances. The doctors are drawn from the College of Health Services, University of Nairobi and the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).

A committee investigating the Kenyan judiciary Tuesday told the BBC half of Kenya's judges and nearly a third of its magistrates are corrupt. The committee, led by a judge, has been gathering evidence against five of the country's nine judges in the court of appeals, Kenya's highest court, and against 18 of the 36 in Kenya's high court.

Current statistics reveal that an estimated 29 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV/AIDS. About 58 percent of those infected are women. Gender experts have often maintained that traditions and cultural stereotypes are a major stumbling block in the fight against the pandemic.

As a result of the relocation to Nairobi and the restructuring of our Head Office, ACORD is looking for an experienced English and French or Portuguese speaking Human Resource Manager to be based in our Nairobi office.

President Mwai Kibaki has became the first Kenyan leader to declare his wealth to parliament together with members of his cabinet. Local and international journalists trooped to State House to record the historic event which saw the president personally hand over a list of his properties to house Speaker Francis ole Kaparo.

Assistant minister Robinson Githae has accused the Judiciary of being a stumbling block in the war against corruption. The assistant minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs said a report of the committee on corruption in the Judiciary, chaired by Justice Aaron Ringera, was ready and would be made public next month.

Kwani?(www.kwani.org) welcomes you to the long awaited launch of Binyavanga Wainaina's "Discovering Home" and Kwani?, a collection of short fiction, cartoons, photoessays, reportage and satire including Yvonne A. Owuor's 2003 Caine Prize Award-winning "Weight of Whispers". Click on the link for more details.

Nine months after sweeping to power on a wave of public euphoria, Kenya's new government has become ensnared in a web of corruption allegations, bitter infighting and, as of last week, a murky murder mystery. Last Sunday gunmen burst into the living room of Dr Odhiambo Mbai, a respected university don. They shot him four times and, as he bled to death, stole away on a public bus. The killing rocked Kenya and deepened tensions within President Mwai Kibaki's government. The politics professor was a key figure in efforts to re-write the constitution and dilute the presidency's wide powers. Angry colleagues claim he was the victim of a political assassination.

A lobby group, the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines, is demanding that the government provide affordable or free antiretrovirals (ARV) for Kenyans. "What we want to see is an expanded programme to treat as many people as possible," said Gitura Mwaura, Chairman of the coalition. "We believe the government has the resources, and can do something," he said. "Its priorities need to change."

Thousands of experts gathered in Nairobi on Sunday for a council of war on Africa's battle against Aids, a combat characterised by a relentlessly spreading pandemic but also by some good news at last about funds and access to drugs. Some 8 000 doctors, researchers, policymakers and grassroots campaigners were registered for the 13th International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (Icasa), a major forum held every two years.

A Kenyan drugs company plans to start making anti-retroviral drugs to treat Aids sufferers next month, becoming the first African company outside South Africa to do so, the company said on Wednesday. Activists hope for a breakthrough in fighting the epidemic by producing the life-prolonging drugs in Africa, where only a tiny minority can afford the imported versions.

The Kenyan delegation played a critical role in the collapse of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun, Mexico. NGO and media sources in the UK say it was the decision of Trade minister Mukhisa Kituyi to walk out of the talks, following the refusal of the EU to back down on some of its key demands, after days of tough talking, which finally signalled the end of the talks.

The decision by the Government to ask Aids patients to pay for drugs at public hospitals has been condemned. The move will deny the majority of more than 200,000 people living with Aids access to the life-prolonging drugs commonly called anti-retrovirals, the Kenya Network of Women with Aids executive director, Ms Asunta Wagura, said.