The first Kenyan photojournalist to win the CNN Multichoice Journalist Award has been banned by social networking site Facebook. Boniface Mwangi who won the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Year 2008 is starting up a new Facebook profile after his was deleted last week due to his radical status updates. Commenting on the issue he said, “I was removed from Facebook due to controversial updates calling for political change and the youth to stop hero worshiping tribal leaders who have messed up our country.” One of his last comments before his profile was deleted was “Kenyans elect criminals to parliament all you need is money to get elected.” He had over 1,500 friends.

The Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, home to 270,000 Somali refugees, is the world's largest. Created 18 years ago as a stopgap, new fighting is driving thousands of additional refugees into the already overcrowded, overstretched camp.

As Kenya commemorates Madaraka Day, the Partnership for Change calls for the full implementation of the National Accord, and pledges to play its role in making the Accord a reality.

cc Reflecting on Kenyan society's unquestioning acceptance of the police's right to intimidate and even kill those labelled as 'Mungiki', Wangari Maathai considers the dubious culture of impunity around harassing those supposedly in league with the Mungiki sect. With the pervasive demonisation of the Mungiki militia group providing an effective cover for the killing of members of the Kikuyu community – Mungiki and non-Mungiki alike – ordinary citizens are reluctant to speak out, both for fear of being accused of supporting the sect and of the reactions of Mungiki militia to criticism. Calling on the political and religious leadership of the Kikuyu community to face up to the challenge in its midst, Maathai urges the country to heal the growing rift between the community and other Kenyans.

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative would be will be organising a side event in collaboration with Eastern Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders project and African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF) at United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG) on Extrajudicial Killings in Kenya and Police Reforms in East Africa on the same the day the UN Special rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston is to present a report on Kenya on 3 June 2009 from 2:00 -4:00 PM in room number 25.

In September of 2008, 1300 delegates from all the eight provinces of Kenya created the National Youth Movement at the National Youth Convention. 14 Key resolutions were passed and has been actively recruiting and implementing them through members across the country and at the national level. The National Youth Movement is active and will deliver results as per to the aspirations of the young people who legitimately formed it.

When Nora Adhiambo, 21, started working as a housekeeper for a family in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, she expected to cook, clean and look after their young children; not that she would have to regularly have sex with her employer. "He would force me to have sex with him; every time he would sleep with me without a condom and this went on for two years," she told IRIN/PlusNews. "He threw me out when I told him I was pregnant; I realised later that I had not only left that house with a pregnancy but also HIV."

A Non Governmental Organization in Kenya's Nyanza province is set to launch a sexual identity and human rights debate project on Tuesday.Kenya Female Advisory Organization (KEFEADO)’s executive director Dolphin Oketch says the debate will open space for dialogue on sexuality. Oketch says there has been silence on homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality and transsexual practices in Kenyan schools, families and the society that must be addressed.

Prof Philip Alston, a UN human rights official, on Thursday released his final report in which he accuses top police officials of running death squads and describes Kenyan courts as “slow and corrupt”. Describing the state of Kenyan justice system is “terrible”, Prof Alston said: “Investigation, prosecution and judicial processes are slow and corrupt.”

Following a concerted campaign, the Kenyan government has published amendments to the Communications Act, which will delete a controversial clause that allows the government to raid broadcasting stations, report the Africa Free Media Foundation, the Media Institute and local news reports.

A senior Catholic bishop has denounced homosexuality, stating that it is against both African culture and biblical teaching.Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu, who is also the chairman of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, made the remarks while addressing an international seminar on the role of universities in peace building at the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) last week. The conference was organised by CUEA’s Centre for Social Justice and Ethics.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has for the first time bought food from small-scale farmers in Kenya under a new initiative aimed at boosting agriculture by connecting farmers to markets. Under ‘Purchase for Progress’ (P4P), WFP has a committed policy to buy from low-income farmers, allowing them to invest profits to boost production and increase food security, according to a news release issued by the agency.

Kenyan authorities Wednesday sacked the Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), Umuro Wario, citing graft. But insiders were quick to point out that Wario was a victim of boardroom politics. Wario’s sacking was effected by the Fund’s Board on 11 May, as various arms of government continued with investigations into allegations of mismanagement.

cc The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has urged the ACHPR to adopt a resolution to address the Kenyan government on its obligations to protect and promote the rights of all people and its duty to hold violators to account through criminal prosecution. The criminalisation of peaceful demonstrations and the rise in extra-judicial killings are evidence of the government’s failure to act on recommendations made by commissions of inquiry into the presidential elections and post election violence, say KHRC. The body also wants ACHPR to send a fact-finding mission to Kenya including special rapporteurs on human rights and human rights defenders, women, freedom of information and refugees; and to ‘address and inform the AU summit on the factual situation and risks in Kenya’.

The Storymoja Blog has been off schedule for a while, due to the unfortunate illness of one of the editors. We are back now, with a few changes. The blog stories will go up every Monday.Please send in your stories before each Friday at 4pm. This will allow the editors to read, choose and edit the stories that will go up on the blog on Monday. All stories on the blog will be considered for nomination to the Story of the Week. The editors will make their comments and all readers will have a chance to vote for the story of their choice. The story with the most votes will be awarded the STORY OF THE WEEK crown and will be posted on
both the blog front as well as the Storymoja website.

The much anticipated lawsuit against the British government for the atrocities committed against freedom fighters in Kenya during the colonial period will be filed next month. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has instructed London-based solicitors, Leigh Day & Co to commence the process. If successful, it would lead to the compensation of the surviving freedom fighters.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the second edition of its annual conference on critical themes in the history of Africa. The conference is part of CODESRIA’s initiative aimed at achieving the triple objective of promoting the study of the history of Africa, mobilising support for the discipline of history in African higher education, and networking African historians both for these purposes and also as a worthy cause in its own right.

cc As Kenyans struggle to find meaning in the protracted troubles surrounding their body politic, Njonjo Mue challenges the nation’s youth to join an army of ordinary people to fight the good fight and to defend Kenyans’ freedom, dignity, heritage and their children’s future by engaging in brutal self-appraisal and refusing to permit decay. Mue’s article is a call to arms, for men to leave the bars long enough to know what their children will eat for supper, for women to cease their escapism and confront the problems facing Kenya’s communities, and for all Kenyans to individually take responsibility for the future of their country.

Mike Rainy writes to thank Pambazuka for its and to forward us an update from Pakuo, who attended a community meeting about the issue at the end of April.

This is a workshop for UN, international and local NGO staff working on economic and gender-based violence programs (enterprise development, vocational training, skills development, micro-finance, agriculture, cash and food for work programs, etc) with displaced and returning populations.