Cabinet ministers, MPs, judges and other top public servants have until the end of June to declare their wealth or face prosecution. Anti-corruption declaration forms were being processed and should be available to all government departments and organisations mid-next month, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi said.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) announced last week that it is to coordinate the African activities of a new international effort to promote research and development into drugs for diseases that impact the poor. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) — an initiative spearheaded by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) — will facilitate collaboration between research institutes, non-governmental organisations and pharmaceutical companies in both rich and poor countries in a bid to develop drugs against diseases currently ignored by market-driven drug development.

A government-appointed Task Force on a possible Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Kenya is likely to face controversy over former president Daniel arap Moi, says Task Force chairman Professor Makau Mutua. "I think there are strong currents in the country that suggest perhaps that the former president Mr Daniel arap Moi, if he is implicated, should be treated somewhat differently as a former head of state," said Makau, a lawyer and head of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

For the first time, Kenya has not featured on a list of countries considered hostile to journalists, issued to coincide with World Press Freedom day last month. No journalist has been killed nor imprisoned over the past year. But some media experts think these changes are superficially rooted in the recent political transformations in the country since last year's change of government. They see no legal backing for press freedom as such.

The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to rid the country of corruption. Corruption distorts policy making and derails priorities setting, the Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, John Githongo said. The new reform initiatives by Government were geared towards rekindling donor trust, Githongo said.

Major human rights groups in Kenya have warned that the ongoing constitutional review process is being undermined by powerful political interests to deny Kenyans the changes they wanted when they voted in the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) last year.

What happens to gender relations in communities that diversify into non-traditional, high-value export commodities? What are the gendered effects of new crops on household land, labour and income? How is new horticultural wealth negotiated between men and women?

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has expressed alarm over the deteriorating state of sanitation in the Dadaab refugee camp, northeastern Kenya, where thousands of Somali refugees have been affected by floods.

The Kenyan people provided to the African continent and the world an example of peaceful, democratic transition when President Mwai Kibaki, who will open the IPI World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya (1 to 4 June 2003), won a landslide victory in the December 2002 general elections. As Kenya turns a new page, prominent politicians, experts, and leading members of the world's media community will gather in Nairobi to discuss current issues related to the challenges facing Africa and the world, including a very timely subject, "Reporting on Regions of Conflict". In this session, panelists will discuss, amongst other things, recent experiences in Iraq, where news organisations had in place both journalists "embedded" with U.S. and British troops and free roaming or "unilateral" reporters who operated under very different circumstances.

The approach of the new Kenyan administration to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the country is a breath of fresh air compared to the previous government, Stephen Lewis, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told a press briefing last week after a visit to the country where he met with President Mwai Kibaki and other senior government officials.

It is now mandatory for public officers, including the President and MPs, to declare their wealth. This follows the signing into law of two anti-graft Bills by President Kibaki. They include the Public Officer Ethics Bill, which requires public officers to declare their wealth and that of their spouses, upon taking office.

The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has received over 2,000 corruption-related cases to date. Assistant Minister Njeru Githae said the Anti-Corruption Police Unit (ACPU) has been "overwhelmed" by the many cases and that there was an urgent need to revamp the unit.

Buoyed by good market prices, maize farmers in Uasin Gishu are turning to planting passion fruits, which they say are also cheaper to maintain. Already, officers from the National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme, implementing a new bottom-up approach towards sustainable agriculture in the district, are at select focal areas in the district encouraging farmers to develop home-grown solutions to some of their problems. Funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) the new extension approach allows the full participation of the beneficiaries and encourages farmers to form interest groups to address any emerging problems.

The Government is making arrangements to repatriate Sh160 billion stashed in the secret foreign accounts of 10 Kenyans. Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi said most of this money was stolen from public coffers. Kiraitu noted that this money is more than what the country collects annually in taxes.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has welcomed plans by the Kenyan government to allow refugees to live outside camps. Home Affairs Minister Moody Awori said the government was considering the possibility of relocating some of the estimated 230,000 refugees from neighbouring countries to reside outside the camps, where they are currently living under difficult conditions.

Korogocho means heap of scrap in Kikuyu and the slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, lives up to its sorry name. Scrawny chickens peck and barefoot children play in the debris of plastic and refuse. People scavenging through the piles of rubbish on the city dump bring back faded umbrellas, discarded toilet brushes and scraps of metal to resell. About 160,000 people live in this warren of low shacks cobbled together with bits of tin and slabs of mud. Few have electricity or fuel to cook with, but the biggest problem is water and sanitation. Nairobi is a scarce water city – like a host of others in Africa including Addis Ababa, Dakar and Lusaka.

Three of six communicable diseases reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to have broken out in Africa since January affected countries in the Great Lakes region. According to statistics published by the WHO regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo (ROC), outbreaks of Ebola were reported in the ROC; malaria in Burundi; and cholera in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Tanzania.

Five senior Kenyan government officials appeared in court on Thursday to be charged with corruption for allegedly making fraudulent bank deposits resulting in the loss of more than $14-million of public funds. President Mwai Kibaki, whose opposition coalition swept to power in December after 24 years of rule by Daniel arap Moi, has vowed to wipe out the corruption blamed for a steep decline in one of Africa's most promising economies.

Based in Nairobi and reporting to the Director General's Personal Assistant, the Executive Secretary will provide confidential administrative and secretarial support to the Director General's office.

Since it was established in 1967 under a charter from the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, children have come to Arap Moi Children's Home from all over the Nakuru region of western Kenya. Some are placed at the home by the Children's Department in the Ministry of Home Affairs or by the Ministry of Health. Other children are abandoned in hospitals or recovered from the streets by police and later brought to the home. "The community knows we are here, and knows we can help," says Mrs Justine "Mama" Oduya, the home's director and regional coordinator of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, Nakuru branch.