Kenya's cabinet ministers mentioned in the Ndung'u Report on Land have been asked to relinquish title deeds to the Government. They were also told to report to Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to beat the 30-day amnesty issued by the Commission's director or face prosecution. Among the ministers named in the report were Njenga Karume and Suleiman Shakombo. The issue was raised by Justice Minister, Martha Karua, at a Government of National Unity (GNU) Parliamentary Group Meeting chaired by President Kibaki.

About three decades ago, Kenya sent its first batch of soldiers to a war-torn country on a peacekeeping mission. The soldiers were sent to Chad under the auspices of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU), currently the African Union (AU). Since then, more than 14,000 Kenyan troops have served as peacekeepers, particularly with the United Nations, in Africa and beyond. With 1,356 soldiers currently abroad under UN command, Kenya is ranked the 13th contributor in the world in terms of size of troop deployments.

Thousands of politicians, water bureaucrats, corporate lobbyists, and NGO activists are converging on Mexico City on March 16 for the fourth World Water Forum. This jamboree aims to tackle perhaps the world's most pressing problem: how to ensure every person has access to enough clean water to live a decent life while ensuring sufficient supplies to water crops and maintain freshwater ecosystems.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai says people worried about the environment should rely less on government and more on themselves to protect the planet's limited resources. Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who won the Nobel prize in 2004, said people who recycle and plant trees have a bigger influence on the planet's health than elected leaders. Even nations with the best intentions fail to meet expectations, she said, citing the Kyoto international treaty as a prime example.

"Our small Cessna Caravan plane flew for two hours north of the capital Kinshasa towards the Equateur Province where our Congo Heartland is located," wrote AWF President Patrick Bergin on a recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. "Below us were seemingly endless dense tropical forests with scattered broad sleepy water-ways winding through the trees on their way to join the mighty Congo River. Occasionally the green canopy would be disturbed by a small clearing of felled trees and smoke where a farmer had decided to strike out on his own and hunt forest animals while growing a bit of maize on the limited fertility of forest soils." Using the latest technology, NASA, University of Maryland and USAID are assisting the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) to monitor these new clearings by overlaying satellite images of the forest canopy and of large fires detected from space on a map of the Congo Heartland.

Mismanagement, limited resources and environmental damage have combined to deny 1.1 billion people access to safe water, a UN report said Thursday (March 9). Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the hardest-hit areas, where ecological degradation, poor water management and a burgeoning population have led to water shortages exacerbating poverty, disease and drought, the report said. The report was compiled by 24 UN agencies, who say it is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the planet's freshwater supplies. Globally, diarrheal diseases and malaria kill around 3.1 million people a year.

Candidates from developing countries and countries with economies in transition are invited to apply for this programme. Candidates from other countries and international civil servants may apply on a self-financed basis. To qualify, candidates must be between 25 and 40 years old and have a background in law or sound working experience in environmental issues.

The Chief Engineer Marines, Aggrey Ojiambo, points at a spot at Port Bell Pier at Luzira marking the water level of Lake Victoria before the recession. The concrete slabs in the background show the extent to which the waters have dropped. A detailed analysis of the available hydrological evidence concludes that 55% of Uganda’s power problems are a result of excess water releases at the Nalubaale and Kiira dams. Jennifer Austin writes that only 45% of the drop can be blamed on low rainfall. There have been conflicting stories about the cause of the recent large drop of the water level of Lake Victoria with some officials brushing it off as an unfortunate consequence of drought, while others blame excessive water releases from hydropower production at the dams in Jinja, according to the Sunday Vision.

Three decades on, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is still a non-country in most senses. The guerrilla war against Morocco may have ended in ceasefire in 1991, but the diplomatic effort to settle its status is stalled. It has an elected president, prime minister and local representatives, but their legitimacy extends only as far as the Security Council allows it. On the ground, it is still little more than a collection of refugee camps, reliant on UN food aid and at the mercy of the harsh Saharan climate.

Years of secessionist trouble in Senegal’s southern Casamance region claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy last week, killed by an anti-tank landmine over a year after the signing of a hard-won peace deal. The child, Cherif Sane, died while out collecting cassava with two friends from farms in the forested region around his village Dijbelor Baraf, some 5 km south of Casamance’s main city, Ziguinchor.

African countries sharing the River Nile have launched a joint awareness campaign to protect the Nile waters. The Nile Basin water supports about 300 million people from 10 African countries: Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. The Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative, Mr Patrick Kahangire, said increasing public awareness on the Nile water resources will help harness the river's endowments and improve lives of the 300 million people who depend on it.

At the African Ministerial Conference on Hydro power and Sustainable Development (held in Johannesburg the week of March 6) the African Rivers Network (ARN) issued a cautionary to African governments that poorly planned hydro power will cost Africa more than it's worth. They further cautioned that when calculating the cost of building dams and hydro power plants the social, environmental and economic costs must be considered. Frank Muramuzi, coordinator of ARN said that hydro power is not necessarily the solution to Africa's water and energy needs. "There exists a range of options for Africa, other than hydro power that should be considered. Africa should develop its own approach – what works in the rest of the world may not necessarily work in Africa."

Cameroon's former water minister Alphonse Siyam Siwe was charged with corruption and remanded in jail on Saturday, a day after being sacked by President Paul Biya over the accusations, a prison source said. Siyam Siwe, 53, had been held in Cameroon's main prison of Kodengui in the capital overnight Friday, said the source who requested anonymity.

Pygmy chief Mbomba Bokenu says he may soon let loggers cut his people's forests, and all he expects in return are soap and a few bags of salt. "The Pygmies are suffering, we accept what we are given," said Bokenu, draped in brown civet-cat skins and holding a slender carved-wooden shield. "Our children live in dirt, they suffer from disease. Soap and salt is a lot to our people." The Pygmies, though, should expect - and demand - much more under proposed rules meant to ensure forest communities benefit from the wealth all around them.

A crack in the wall of Mohale dam in Lesotho, one of the world's highest rockfill dams, has sparked concern among neighbouring communities, according to a local NGO. Heavy rain in the mountain kingdom led to a sudden filling of the Mohale dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), creating a crack in one of the panels of the 145 m high wall. "An expert in dam construction from Europe is arriving in Lesotho next Monday to assess the damage ... at the moment it is hard to make any assessments ... because the dam is still filled to capacity. We are, however, hoping that the water level will go down in time to see how far the crack has gone," said Liphapang Potloane, chief executive of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), reports Alertnet.

The Seychelles has banned the cutting off of sharks' fins by foreign fishermen to curb a flourishing global trade that is threatening the survival of the sea predator and marine ecosystems. The United Nations estimates that 100 million sharks are killed every year world-wide, mostly for their fins which are a delicacy in East Asia where a bowl of shark fin soup can command high prices. Dozens of countries have banned the practice of slicing off of sharks' fins in the last few years. The Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) ban took effect this week and covers all foreign vessels fishing in the territorial waters of the Indian Ocean archipelago. The ban does not include domestic vessels, which the government says are few and controlled, or shark fishing where the whole shark is caught.

Slowly dragging its shell onto the beach, a turtle emerges from the ocean. It is midnight and the moon is casting its shadow over the remote, white-sandy coastline of Boa Vista - one of the ten islands that make up the West African island-nation of Cape Verde. The strong sea breeze does not seem to bother the turtle as it slowly, but determinedly, finds its way among the dunes in search of a safe spot to lay its eggs. Once found, a two-hour ritual then begins as the prehistoric sea creature meticulously digs a 30cm hole with its rear flippers. This exhausting exercise will provide a nest for more than 40 whitish, golfball-sized eggs.

This month's meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil will look at - among other things - how the effects of climate change are being addressed. The media can play an important role in stimulating discussion about the impacts and response to climate change in developing countries. But this survey of journalists and media practitioners in Honduras, Jamaica, Sri Lanka and Zambia shows that often the media have a poor understanding of the climate change debate and express little interest in it.

Africa's rivers face dramatic disruption that will leave a quarter of the continent severely short of water by the end of the century, according to a global warming study published on Friday (March 3). In the first detailed assessment of climate change on the continent's waterways researchers found that watercourses on the continent are highly sensitive to shifts in rainfall patterns. Even modest decreases in rain in western Africa will see rivers lose as much as 80% of their water, triggering a surge of what the scientists call "water refugees," according to the Mail and Guardian.

On or around Wednesday March 22, people in nearly 50 communities across the country will join together in public forums, "water walks," film showings and other events with a key message--keep water in public hands. KAIROS, Development and Peace, the Council of Canadians and CUPE all believe that equitable access to water is best accomplished when water and water services remain public, despite an increasing global trend towards commodification and privatization.