World environment ministers began a week of meetings in Nairobi on Monday on how to balance economic development and increasingly open trade with environmental concerns. Much of the talk at the opening of the 22nd meeting of the Governing Council of the U.N. Environment Program, a biannual get-together, focused on how to build on the agreements and initiatives that came out of least year's World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

A section of women leaders in Kenya has accused members of the country's constitutional review team of trying to delay the review process "for personal gains" after commissioners called for the rewriting of the draft constitution.

The Government will establish a National Gender Commission to over see gender issues in the country, minister for gender, sports, culture and social services Najib Balala says.

A new variety of genetically superior eucalyptus trees has been introduced in Kenya, a move that could save Kenya's forests from further depletion. The trees are being introduced to rural farmers in an initiative spearheaded by the National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Program - an extension initiative funded by the Swedish International Development Agency.

Since she fled her war-torn homeland more than 10 years ago, Somali refugee Zahara Mohamed Ali has learned a brutal lesson: "When you are a refugee, you become subject to all kinds of violence. You can always be mistreated."

The Ministry of Health, listed among the most corrupt institutions in the country, will ensure corrupt staff are sacked and prosecuted, the Minister, Charity Ngilu, has warned.

Whereas the Government's move to implement free and compulsory universal primary education has been lauded as a sure way of ridding society of child labour and street children, experts are still sceptical. They argue that free and compulsory education alone is unlikely to stem the problem if it is addressed in the way in which it is being done at the moment.

High Court Judge Samuel Odhiambo Oguk has been formally charged with obtaining money by false pretences. Oguk appeared before Nairobi Chief Magistrate, Mr Boaz Olao, and entered a plea of not guilty immediately after particulars of the two-count indictment were read out to him.

Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o, planning a visit to Kenya after many years in exile, has called on Kenyans to strongly guard against a serious ailment called "Moism without Moi". Prof Ngugi says this in his message of gratitude to Kenyans for bringing the momentous change that has ended "Moi's reign of terror and set me and many others free from exile".

Competing food crises on the African continent, leading to over-stretched donor funding, have led to food rations being cut in Kenya's two main refugee camps. Over 220,000 people in Kenya's northern camps of Kakuma (in Turkana) and Dadaab (in Garissa) had their food rations cut from 2,120 kilocalories per day to about 1,600, Lara Melo, spokeswoman for the World Food Programme told IRIN on Thursday.

A survey conducted in Kenya by a corruption watchdog has found that ordinary Kenyans were forced to pay less money in bribes last year than in the previous year. The survey by Transparency International said that ordinary Kenyans had become emboldened and were beginning to challenge the culture of bribe-taking.

President Mwai Kibaki last week restructured his government, trimming the functions of his office and naming a special official to spearhead the war on corruption. A department has been set up in the Office of the President to deal specifically with the fight against corruption and advise the president on the cleanup campaign. Its head will be the Permanent Secretary in charge of Governance and Ethics. John Githongo, long-time columnist for The EastAfrican and executive director of Transparency International (Kenya Chapter), was appointed first holder of the office.

One hundred and fifty five under-age girls underwent female genital mutilation (FGM) in Marakwet District last month, a human rights report indicates. The report released by the Eldoret based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD) shows Kipyego division led with 58 girls reported to have undergone the rite.

The 27 December 2002 elections and the smooth handover of power that followed was historical in many ways, and was praised globally as an example of democratic maturity in an African country.

Ten forest officers have been sent packing as the Narc government intensifies war on corruption. Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife Minister Newton Kulundu said the suspended officers have been "destroying the very resource they are supposed to guard".

Experts on the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women have expressed optimism that the newly elected Government of Kenya would commit itself to countering the traditional forms of discrimination that persisted in that country, as the Committee considered Kenya's reports on compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

A fund has been launched in Kenya to put an electric fence around one of the east African nation's largest forest reserves to protect it from illegal loggers, poachers and general human encroachment.

The International Monetary Fund could resume lending to Kenya from July - almost three years after it suspended support to the country over concerns about corruption. Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane, director of the fund's Africa Department, said last Friday that he was confident the new government of President Mwai Kibaki would take measures to combat official graft.

The free primary education programme has received a boost from a United Nations agency. Unicef is to give $2.5 million for learning and teaching material for the lower classes in eight districts and in Nairobi. Some 450,000 pupils in Standards One to Three are expected to benefit from the grant.

The European Union has donated 170 million euros (Sh13.8 billion) to rehabilitate the country's dilapidated road network.The money will be used to rehabilitate the Sultan Hamud-Mtito Andei section of the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway and Mai Mahiu-Naivasha-Lanet road. Roads around Mt Kenya will also be upgraded under the five-year project.