Parents with children in public primary schools had paid Sh2.64 million in "school fees" by early last year, despite a Government directive that made primary education free and compulsory. The directive was effected early last year but some schools continued to charge fees. The questionable payments were detected by an audit firm commissioned by the Government to establish the impact of a donor funded book project. Carried out in 25 districts countrywide to establish how the project was working, it discovered that nearly a quarter of the country's 18,000 schools had been charging fees. Parents were being forced to pay the money to the district education boards to finance "mysterious" projects.

The World Council of Churches has condemned the rising cases of child abuse in Kenya. "The Church, together with parents, must act together to shield future generations from the consequences (of child abuse)," said Dr Samwel Kobia, the body's secretary general. He told churches, as the voice of conscience in the society, to employ their moral and spiritual resources in eliminating rampant violence against children.

Some of Africa’s largest employers and most successful companies were represented at a seminar aimed at developing Africa’s skills base. The Strategic Skills Seminar for Africa 2004 took place in Nairobi Kenya on 23-24 March 2004. The event was aimed at strengthening the framework of human resources in Africa addressing the “retain” factor as the “attract” factor is tackled in the well-known Africa’s brain drain syndrome.

The Kenyan Government has decided to enforce the demolition of dozen of thousand of structures (shacks, schools, churches, community centres, clinics, shops, etc.) in few days time and with no proper notice, thus causing the forced eviction of over 354 000 people from Kibera, Korogocho, Kahawa Soweto, Kamae, Kware, Kamwanya, Kanguku, Kandutu, City Cotton, Mutumba, Kareru, Kirigu, Muria-Mbogo, Mutego, Njiku and others of the most populated among the 168 Nairobi slums. Other evictions are also expected to happen in the whole country. We remind all that doing so, the Kenya Government badly violates the legal obligations stated by the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2, 7, 11, 12, 13 e 15) signed by Kenya on 3rd January 1976, as well as the Habitat Agenda and the Agenda 21, which provide for the obligation to find alternative solutions when evictions are unavoidable. Click now on the link below to read an appeal.

Public university dons could call a fresh strike if the Government refuses to renegotiate their salary terms. A national delegates conference at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Juja, told the lecturers' union to push for higher salaries than those published in a recent Memorandum of Agreement. The University Academic Staff Union members want the new package effected immediately and backdated to last July. If this is not done, they threatened to convene a meeting to discuss possible industrial action.

The World Health Organisation will provide financial support to the Kenya Government's proposed national health insurance scheme to ensure its success. Outgoing WHO Africa Regional Director, Dr Ebrahim Malick said the Government had in the last one year put in place health sector policies that had attracted donor support.

The Kenyan government plans to continue to lobby the U.S. government to try to gain additional money for its donor-funded antiretroviral drug distribution program, the Financial Times reports. Kenyan Health Minister Charity Ngilu in February said that the government hopes to provide free antiretroviral drugs to 140,000 HIV-positive individuals by 2005. She also said that the government has adopted the World Health Organisation's 3 by 5 Initiative to combat HIV/AIDS.

Kenya has urged other African countries to adopt a spirit of compromise in negotiations aimed at ending the impasse on the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. "Without sacrificing the principles and fundamental issues that we stand for, we cannot be successful negotiators unless we have some negotiating room," Kenya's Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi told reporters in Nairobi. He was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of government officials and private sector representatives from 12 African countries to discuss how to revive deadlocked world trade liberalisation talks.

The Ministry of Education loses between four to six of the 235,000 teachers daily through HIV/Aids. Permanent Secretary Prof Karega Mutahi said there was a large number of teachers already infected and that many others are bed-ridden. This has affected teaching and student performance in both primary and secondary schools, he added. "Sick teachers have to be on the payroll which means that the already stressed education system must carry a large proportion of unproductive persons. That means that work is piled up on those not sick," he said.

Kenya received crucial international support for its opposition to uncontrolled trade in ivory when the Standing Committee for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) recently shot down proposals by South Africa, Namibia and Botswana to sell off 60 tonnes of stockpiled elephant ivory. The three countries had hoped they would be given permission to sell the ivory legally by CITES 50th Standing Committee that concluded a weeklong session in Geneva recently. But the sale was held up until a list of conditions is met.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kiraitu Murungi says the Government and the Electoral Commission of Kenya were in the process of enacting the law to encourage accountability and provide funding for political parties. He made the remarks at the United States International University during a two-day international conference on the role of the media in the fight against corruption. The Bill would also cater for party nominations to be conducted by the ECK to ensure effective leadership in political parties. This, Mr Murungi said, would prepare the parties as governments "in waiting".

EcoNews Africa (ENA) is a medium-sized sub-regional NGO headquartered in Nairobi with a mission to enable African civil society to be actively involved in decision-making on sustainable development by promoting timely information flows at all levels. We focus on governance in the areas of trade, environment and information. We seek to recruit an Executive Director with vision, innovative ideas and proven leadership skills to head ENA’s team of professional staff and partners to realize this mission.

Despite constituting some 30 percent of Kenya’s 30 million population, Muslims are seriously underrepresented in government and decision making structures and are suffering multiple discrimination and exclusion as a result. The national constitutional review process offers a ‘ray of light’ for the future, but a new era of accountability, participation and practical action is required from current and future governments in order to bring about real and lasting change and equality.

No other place on Earth boasts such a wide variety of wild animals so close to a bustling metropolis. Lions, giraffes, and ostriches roam freely against a backdrop of skyscrapers and jets landing at Kenya's international airport. But because of people moving in and fences going up in areas around the Nairobi National Park, zebras and wildebeest - and the lions who stalk them - may soon have no way of migrating to southern grasslands during the rainy season and back into the park, where water is plentiful during the dry season. Now the government and wildlife foundations are paying the Maasai, the famed warrior tribe of central Kenya, to not farm or fence in some land as a way to keep the migration corridor clear.

Communities who depend on plant and wildlife resources for their livelihood often contribute to stresses on vulnerable natural resources. An approach known as community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) sees management of human and natural resources as part of the same equation: when communities are able to increase their incomes through improved agricultural practices and alternative economic activity, precious natural resources are sustained.

The Commowealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has singled out Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as vehicles for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the chief executive officer of CTO, said bridging the digital divide and building an information based society is the most effective way of enhancing the realisation of the millennium goals — reducing the alarming global poverty levels by a half by the year 2015.

Rights groups in Kenya observed International Women's Day by unveiling a plan to significantly reduce sexual violence in the country within two years. The plan, titled "Towards Stopping Sexual Violence in Kenya", was launched on March 8 by a coalition of 16 women's rights organisations know as the Medico-Legal Network on Gender-Based Violence in Kenya and includes tightening legislation on sexual violence.

A proposed Refugees Bill envisages to accord refugees a right to employment in Kenya, Vice-President Moody Awori said. Awori said if the Bill is enacted into law, refugees will be guaranteed access to housing, health care and education. The V-P was speaking in Kericho during the opening of an international conference on debt burden cancellation and the plight of refugees in developing countries. The V-P said solutions to the refugee crisis lay in the restoration of peace and stability in war-torn countries.

The Kenyan government has withdrawn from the national conference which has been drawing up a new constitution. The announcement follows a decision by delegates to adopt a draft document reducing the president's powers. Those closest to President Mwai Kibaki say creating a powerful prime minister in competition with the president would be "both nonsensical and dangerous".
Related Link:
Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance Statement on walkout
http://kenyasocialist.org/statements/walk%20out%20on%20constitution.htm

The implementation of the new national social health scheme begins next month in three districts. National Hospital Insurance Fund chief executive A.M. Hassan said the new scheme was part of the Government's efforts to ensure that all Kenyans had access to quality and affordable healthcare. Under the proposed changes, each unemployed family member would be required to contribute Sh400 yearly while income earners continue to pay on monthly basis. Mr Hassan said the Government would subsidise the poor and disadvantaged. Previously, only people in formal employment were beneficiaries of the health scheme which currently has a membership of 1.8 million.