Death-row convicts will soon have their sentences reduced to life imprisonment. Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi said he was working closely with the President's Office to commute to life all the death penalties. Said Mr Murungi: "We are committed to abolishing the death penalty. The death sentence is a violation of the right to life."

The Government is planning to have a third of top public university management positions occupied by women. Education minister Prof George Saitoti has directed the newly gazetted Public University Inspection Board to give its recommendations on the matter. "Currently our university managements are male-dominated and this situation is not tenable and there is need to change without delay," said Saitoti.

Learning Development Kenya (LDK) is a national non-governmental and non-sectarian development organization founded in June, 1998. Its mission is to respond to the needs of communities and its children, with a primary objective of improving the quality of life of those in need, as defined with words such as extreme poverty, destitution, oppression, deprivation and austerity.

Radio presenter/producer team Ann Mikia and Sammy Muraya from the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation’s (KBC) weekly HIV/AIDS program, 'A Stitch in Time', played a key role in the launch of a government HIV/AIDS program among public taxi drivers. In August 2004, Mikia and Muraya decided to tackle a difficult topic which was not being addressed by Kenya’s government AIDS program. The radio team focused on matatu touts (public minibus taxi drivers) and schoolgirls who exchange sex with the drivers for free rides or money.

Kenya last week became the first African country other than South Africa to plant genetically modified (GM) maize in open fields. The seeds, modified to resist insect pests called stem borers, were planted in the first in a series of confined field trials at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) station in Kiboko on Friday (27 May).

On January 10, 2005, the Sudanese witnessed the signing of a peace agreement after many years of war. It was a day that Sudanese living in Kenya had awaited for a long time, but many viewed it with trepidation. Having lived in Kenya for a long time, many have mixed reactions about going back home. Will they be foreigners in their own country, having adopted a new lifestyle in Kenya?

Some foreign companies in Africa are as guilty of corruption as the nations in which they invest, planning minister Anyang’ Nyong’o told an economic summit. The minister said that while African corporate dealings were becoming cleaner, the bribes were higher because of increased risk of getting caught. Global business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit said Africa was winning the war on graft, often cited as a major barrier to trade and investment in the continent.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in 2002 proposed that countries consider adopting a 10% target for energy supply from renewable energy sources. While this proposed target was not adopted by countries, a number of African energy policy makers and professionals felt it would be worthwhile to evaluate the viability of this target, and the benefits that could arise from its realization. This study was therefore initiated to investigate the viability of the target for Kenya. Two technologies were considered – Geothermal and Biomass-based cogeneration, for their potential contribution to electricity supply in Kenya. The study was based on the review of existing literature as well as survey data collection, and interviews with stakeholders.

For young people living in poverty in coastal Kenya, surfing the internet and learning how to use computers make most sense when these skills mean better economic opportunities and work-readiness. In recognition of this, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) announced on May 26 2005 that the winner of the APC Africa Hafkin Communications Prize for 2004-5 is the "Global Education Partnership - Wundanyi" in Kenya. Global Education Partnership - Wundanyi (GEP) is a not-for-profit organisation located in the Taita Taveta District of Kenya. It has created a 12-week comprehensive training programme that focuses on "entrepreneurship and work-readiness skills" for local youth from 15 to 24 years.

Women and girls were the main casualties of human rights abuses in Kenya in 2004, says a rights watchdog. "Women and girls continued to be subjected to violence in the home, in the community and in the custody of the State," states Amnesty International in its latest global report. Cases of torture, ill-treatment, excessive use of force and arbitrary shootings by police were reported in 2004, says the report launched in London this week. "Conditions in detention frequently amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Death sentences continued to be imposed." The rights watchdog says violence against women and girls is widespread despite efforts to increase public awareness by the authorities and civil society.

For many people, Kenya is defined by the endless grasslands of the Masai Mara, herds of wildebeest and accompanying predators. It may surprise them to know, then, that the country is also home to 1.7 million hectares of indigenous forest - and that this land is under threat. ”There is great loss of biodiversity, especially in forests where people are using (land) for settlement, agriculture or other activities,” Parkinson Ndonye, a senior researcher at the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), told IPS.

Urgent action to address inequality is required in Kenya if a future major internal conflict is to be avoided. A new report launched in Nairobi, Kenya and at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, demonstrates how inequalities between communities are increasing in this hitherto peaceful country and how government budget allocations are making the problems of minority and indigenous peoples intolerable.

A report by a human rights committee critical of the Government’s commitment to fight graft was due to be launched last week. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) report accuses the Government of losing the spirit to fight graft, despite repeated pledges to prioritise the eradication of the vice. The report by the public-funded commission, contained in its publication, Nguzo za Haki, concludes that rather than tackle re-emerging graft the Government is downplaying the problem.

A recent statement by Kenyan Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi that it was ”no longer necessary” for the country to establish a commission to investigate atrocities committed under previous governments was greeted with both outrage and delight. The promise to set up such a body, modeled on South Africa's internationally acclaimed inquiry into rights abuses that occurred during apartheid, was one of the key pledges made during the current head of state's campaign for office. President Mwai Kibaki and his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) were elected to power in December 2002.

A human rights groups has asked the government to investigate and prosecute police officers who shot and wounded 5 people during a food distribution exercise in Merti division of Isiolo district over the weekend. In a protest letter to the minister for Justice and constitutional affairs,the co-ordinator of the Hussein Fora Foundation Yussuf Huka Jillo accuses the police of using excessive force against un-armed innocent residents.

Kenyatta University will soon have all its eight open learning centres connected via the Internet. This will enable KU's lecturers to interact with students registered in various courses without necessarily travelling to the centres on a regular basis.

The EPA negotiations in the Eastern and Southern Africa region are lagging behind the set time frames. The European Commission is here to 'discuss how to put joint talks back on track', according to their briefing note. "But this proves that the time frames from the very beginning were completely unrealistic", says Peter Aoga from EcoNews Africa. "The EC wants to hammer through agreements in crucial areas such as agriculture, industrial goods and services, through an extremely rushed time schedule. The EC even goes beyond what has been agreed at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Negotiations on these critical issues must first be concluded in the Doha Round, before they should be considered in the EPAs".

A group of Kenyan and International civil society, including faith, youth and women grassroots organizations have come together in KENDREN (Kenyan Debt Relief Network) and Catholic Economic Justice – Africa to organize the Global Week of Action on Debt in Kenya from May 15h to 22nd 2005. The Global Week of Action on Debt is a follow-up of the recently concluded Global Week of Action on Trade and on education within the process of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) campaign.

On paper it was a mismatch equivalent to Barcelona versus Grimsby Town. Gor-Mahia FC, who lie second in Kenya's premier league and are the only Kenyan side ever to win the African Continental Cup, took on St Johns Sports, a team of young men from Korogocho, a Nairobi slum area. "This game was about depicting the power imbalance in the world, skewed against developing countries", said Peter Aoga from ECONEWS Africa, an NGO working on trade issues. "When we are involved in trade negotiations, we are inexperienced - we don't have the expertise. As much as the developed world says the grounds for negotiations are fair, they are not."

A book on corruption in Kenya has been launched. Authored by lawyer Peter Anassi, ‘Corruption in Africa: The Kenyan Experience’ dwells on graft in the public and private sectors and details how corrupt deals are executed. It specifically devotes itself to corruption in the police force, local authorities, Judiciary, lands office, immigration, Kenya Revenue Authority and other departments.