The Kwale district commissioner has warned non-governmental organisations in the area against misleading local farmers about the Sh9 billion titanium mining. Farmers are set to be compensated for their land in June and the project had almost reached implementation stage, but some NGOs were giving the farmers confusing information, according to the district commissioner. Local NGOs have warned that they would not rest until justice for the local community was done in the titanium mining deal.

Religious groups in Kenya want the state to disown illegally incurred external debts. They have started a campaign to ask the finance minister to open for public scrutiny the public debt register before this year's national budget. The country's debt amounts to Sh750 billion and the Government proposes to spend Sh112 billion (22 per cent of the entire budget) servicing it. Officials behind the campaign blame the debts for increasing poverty in the country. A motion in Parliament to have the public debt register made public and its content published was shot down by 80 MPs last year.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has agreed to support private and public sector players build capacity for ICT outsourcing in Kenya. IFC and the ICT Park (ICTPark.Com) - a consortium of local, regional, and global organisations working together to make Kenya ICT capital of Africa, have announced plans to start offering courses from April 10 to 25 in Nairobi.

Across Africa, the AIDS pandemic is creating chaos for hundreds of thousands of women forced to leave their land and homes when their husbands die. Campaigners say the best way to protect the growing number of these ‘AIDS Widows’ is to introduce and enforce laws which give women equal rights to inherit and own property. In Kenya, these rights continue to be denied. But there are signs that things might change. Whatever happens next, many believe that unless something as influential as a new constitution takes up the cause, the calamity surrounding women’s land rights, widows and AIDS is unlikely to go away.

The government of Kenya massively violated the rights of thousands of people it evicted from its forests recently, its own watchdog has said. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has criticised the evictions, saying neither the law nor internationally accepted regulations were followed. The victims were not given alternative settlement or access to basic necessities like food, shelter and healthcare. The commission is now compiling a report after a fact-finding mission to establish the extent of human rights violations in the evictions, including the one in Kipkurere Forest in Uasin Gishu two weeks ago.

Three Cabinet ministers in Kenya, separately told anti-corruption czar John Githongo of close links between President Kibaki and a businessman behind an Anglo Leasing type deal who is said to have paid the head of state's medical bills in Britain, according to a report by the Daily Nation. The businessman had reportedly helped the President during the election campaigns in 1997 and 2002, and are said to have helped to meet his medical expenses in the UK following his car crash in 2002 on the election trail.

After the deaths of 14 children in the last few months, health experts are now warning that Nairobi and several other districts could be on the verge of a measles outbreak. After the upsurge in cases and deaths caused by the highly infectious disease, the Government issued a red alert after three children died in Nairobi's Kayole estate last week. The children aged six, five and eight months died one after the other over a period of 10 days.

Makhan Singh is considered the father of the trade union movement in Kenya. In 1935, he formed the Labour Trade Union of Kenya, and in 1949, the East African Trade Union Congress. In this article, a foreword to ‘Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh’ by Zarina Patel, Steve Ouma and Makau Mutua remember Singh and what his life means for present-day political life in Kenya.

Makhan Singh is among a select pantheon of Indian settlers who not only made Africa home but also became leading anti-colonial freedom fighters. But what distinguished Singh from many legendary leaders – including even the great Mahatma Gandhi – was the conscious multiracialism of his politics. He refused to accept a trade union movement segregated by race and poisoned by the colonial apartheid that classified black Africans and Asians in a humiliating hierarchy. He demonstrated for the first time in colonized Kenya that Asians and black Africans were bound in the same fate and that their liberation was inextricably linked. In this powerful example, he properly argued that both colonialism and imperialism were the enemies of the people. That is why Singh’s enduring legacy to Kenya must continue to be the basis for construction of a society free of exploitation and racial animus.

Singh’s political work in the trade union movement was a response to the repressive colonial state generally, and the labor law regime in particulars. Under the colonial state – and its post-colonial successor – Kenya was imprisoned in labor laws that were designed to cheapen and exploit so-calledthe labour from the natives labor. This was the trend worldwide in the relationship between labor and capital. No wonder workers have been at the forefront of the human rights struggle over the centuries. This epic biography of Singh demonstrates how the struggle for the rights of workers was planted in Kenya. In it, Zarina Patel, an indefatigable Kenyan freedom fighter herself, has comprehensively analyzed how Singh created the building blocks and pillars of the trade union movement in Kenya.At the

The life of Makhan Singh is an object lesson on how class formation developed in Kenya. It is a powerful example of worker s solidarity based on both racial and class-consciousness. Even though Asians were economically stratified, the colonial state still considered them a single class. ButR realizing that the trade union by 1937 was still an exclusive Asian affair, Singh went set out to involve African workers in the labor movement. The African workers had organized isolated strikes in the past but Singh managed to convince them that a united non-racial approach was essential if the workers were to succeed in their demands. The cClass-consciousness was crucial in galvanizing and consolidating the struggle by labor against capital. In fact, Singh made trade unions very so formidable that the colonial administration devised ways to undermine and curtail their influence and powerregulating . For example, Ordinance No. 35 of 1939 required that all crafts organizations apply for registration that could be denied unless their dealings were considered “legitimate” by the state. Cancellation of registration under the ordinance was not subject to judicial review or appeal in a court of law.

Singh led workers to assert their right to strike, a key achievement in the struggle for labor and human rightsthe . By organizing and mobilizing workers to strike, Singh not only ensured the implementation of a cardinal right but also legitimized the right of workers to withdraw their labor as a of bargaining tooling. This effort contributed to ensuring full and universal respect for trade union rights in their broadest sense. This struggle and legacy reaffirmed that strike action s areis the most important and fundamental tool that the workers have against capital. Even so, the rigid control of trade unions that was maintained by the colonial colonial government persists to this dayuntil the end. Industrial confrontation arose not merely from traditional trade union activities, but also from the movement’s political role in the struggle for freedom from colonial domination, particularly after individual political leaders had been arrested and detained. This notwithstanding, the movement was able to grow both in numerical strength and power. That is how workers became the lone African voice in the colonial wilderness, challenging white supremacy, demanding independence, and defending the interests of the workers.

The legacy of Makhan Singh points to the centrality of trade unions as one of the major epicenters of democracy. Singh sought thatwanted workers to get organized on theirboth practical and strategic issues. The practical issues varied from housing, wages, working conditions, health, and and safety, among others. HoweverStrategically, he was conscious of the fact that political andcolonialism and crude capitalism were the key foundations for the privation of workers. imperialism That is why in 1950, Singh proposed a resolution urging complete independence and sovereignty of the East African territories as the only viable solution to suffering of the people. a legacy In tThis biography challenges, the trade unions in Kenya today. It should receive the challenge the awakening that forreminds workers that they must control and be central to the trade union movement if it is to succeed.organizing Indeed one of the major challenges toproblems in the trade Union union movement today is the chasm between the leadership of the trade union movement and the workers. Most unions are lead by individuals and oligarchicy groups whom which do not share the interests or the vision of the workers. This augurs very poorly for the future of democracy in Kenya. constitutions Kenyan workers must overthrow bumbling, corrupt, and compromised leaders if the legacy of Singh is to be kept alive.

Finally, we would like to congratulate Zarina Patel for her illuminating work on this towering Kenyan patriot. We know that writing a good book is a daunting task. But we believe that Patel has risen to this enormous challenge and written an account for the ages. This wonderful account also reminds us why it is critically important for Asians and Africans to tell their own stories. This is a book that every Kenyan – and particularly those still in school – must read.

* Steve Ouma is Deputy Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission; Makau Mutua is Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

* This article is the foreword to ‘Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh’, by Zarina Patel, Nairobi: Awaaz, 2006. For further details, contact Awaaz Magazine, P O Box 32843 00600, Nairobi, Tel: 0722 344900, 0733 741085, Alternative email: zand.graphics (at) gmail.com

* Please send comments to

At least 15 schoolgirls in Kenya were raped during a night-time protest march in the central district of Nyeri. Hundreds of pupils had stormed out of school in the middle of the night to go to the district commissioner's office to demand better conditions. The BBC's Wanyama wa Chebusiri in Nyeri says three of those attacked are critically ill in hospital. The victims say as they were marching a gang of local villagers attacked them, raping at least 15 girls in turn.

Kenyan students sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. Parents want secondary school students allowed to resit only subjects in which they fail instead of repeating a whole year. They say it is unfair of the Kenyan National Examination Council (Knec) to brand the students failures even when they had failed in one or two subjects in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). The secretary-general of the Kenya National Association of Parents said the current system of making students repeat Form Four was time wasting and demoralising to the candidates.

Women leaders in Kenya have vowed to seek top positions in all spheres. They unveiled the Kenya Women's Manifesto to guide them towards their goal. "We are prepared to take the risk of challenging the status quo and ready to face the complex challenges that accompany our aspiration to ascend to key positions of leadership, decision-making and development in a patriarchal society," said a statement issued to during a ceremony to launch the manifesto.

Cabinet ministers in Kenya will soon sign annual performance contracts as part of civil service reforms. They will be assessed on responses to questions in Parliament, involvement in House business, adherence to budget allocations and general efficiency in service delivery. A draft of the contract, which has been prepared by the Office of the President's Cabinet office, says each minister's performance will be reviewed at the end of every financial year - on June 30.

Modern equipment has been installed in major laboratories countrywide to help detect possible cases of the deadly avian flu in Kenya. "Equipment in Nyeri, Kabete, Mariakani, Eldoret and Kericho laboratories have been improved to help in diagnosing the virus," said Nyanza deputy veterinary officer David Wekesa. He advised the public to be alert and report any suspected cases of avian flu to the nearest veterinary offices.

A Dutch firm has filed a Sh2.7 billion claim against the Kenyan government over a contentious defence contract. At issue is a Sh3.2 billion military command facility in Nairobi, constructed and equipped over two years by Nedermar Technology BV of Netherlands. The facility was among 18 projects that were questioned by the Controller and Auditor-General. Former Ethics and Governance Permanent Secretary John Githongo ordered payments for some of them stopped.

Local online diarists are treading where professional journalists won't dare to shape public opinion on everything from politics, economics to sex. Is this the birth of new media in Africa as faceless authors take on hot subjects? Ben Singer reports on Kenyan blogs in this article from The Nation newspaper.

The Poverty Eradication Network (PEN) is introducing training courses for the not for profit sector. PEN has a wide range of proven interventions to strengthen your organisation: participatory organisational assessment; organisational development; governance strengthening; leadership and management training and mentoring; systems development for information technology, human resources, finance, administration and operational procedures; resource mobilisation and fund raising; and strategic planning.

The country is losing tonnes of an indigenous tree species to Europe where it is used in the manufacture of a cancer drug. As a result, conservationists in Tigoni, Kiambu, have launched a campaign to save Prunus Africana, locally known as Muiri. Tonnes of the tree's bark are exported to France and other European countries every year for the manufacture of drugs used in the treatment of prostate cancer.

The registration of a new party by politicians close to President Mwai Kibaki has sent a strong signal that he is keen to vie for a second term. However, the setting up of the National Rainbow Coalition-Kenya (Narc-Kenya) has sent mixed signals to coalition partners, Ford-Kenya and National party of Kenya (NPK), leaving them in a state of political limbo, as they were reportedly not consulted when the plan was mooted. It also casts doubt about a pre-election unwritten agreement within the national Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK), in which Kibaki was to go for a single term and leave the presidential ticket to Ford-Kenya come 2007.

Prof Olive Mwihaki Mugenda, 52, has been appointed the first woman Vice-Chancellor of a public university in Kenya. Prof Olive Mugenda, the new Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor, addressed the press after her appointment. Mugenda edged out three male professors to clinch the top position at Kenyatta University - one of Kenya's oldest universities - for a five-year term. Formerly in charge of finance and planning, she deputised her predecessor, Prof Everett Standa, who returns to his teaching post at Moi University, after his three-year term ended on Monday.

Amid the din of swinging cranes and the rattle of heavy trucks, Francis Ruwa weaves through the gang of casual workers who are busy offloading cargo from a ship on the quayside at the port of Mombasa. In his hand, he is carrying a bundle of pamphlets which he distributes to his colleagues as he moves on, occasionally making stopovers to exchange greetings and pass on a word of advice. Unless one pays attention, Ruwa could easily be mistaken for a salesman distributing promotional materials but he is on a campaign trail against HIV/Aids which has already claimed hundreds of employees at the prestigious state corporation.