Although the Kenyan Constitution was amended in 1997 to guarantee equality between the sexes, in reality discrimination against women persisted in both the private and public spheres, says the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Expressing its concern in an alternative report to Twenty-Eighth Session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women entitled "Violence against Women in Kenya", OMCT said attempts to draft legislation ensuring equality for women had been thwarted, leaving women in Kenya with few laws specifically protecting their rights.

Senior officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are due to hold talks with the Kenyan government on Tuesday about resuming aid to the country. A spokesman for the Kenyan ministry of finance, Mohammed Lugh, said the IMF would meet President Mwai Kibaki to discuss an anti-corruption bill. Both the IMF and the World Bank have told Kenya it must pass laws to tackle economic crimes before lending can be resumed.

Kenya's new President Mwai Kibaki has named Dr. Newton Kulundu as Environment Minister and Professor Wangari Maathai as assistant minister. Maathai was elected to Parliament in Kenya on December 27 on the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) ticket. Maathai is a world-renowned environmentalist, who rose to fame for her spirited campaigns against government backed forest clearance.

The Government has moved to restore order in schools affected by congestion, advising parents to seek admission for their children elsewhere. Education, Science and Technology Minister, Prof George Saitoti said schools affected by a higher influx of admissions country-wide would "be de-congested".

President Mwai Kibaki is expected to unveil major changes in Government structure after the completion of the reorganisation of his ministries next week. The East African Standard has established that the President and his staff were putting final touches to the exercise which targets bloated ministries and departments as well as transferring "misplaced functions to their rightful areas".

The international medical NGO Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said last Friday that just one of Kenya's provincial hospitals was dispensing antiretrovirals (ARVs) to people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs). This was despite government funding allocated to five major hospitals last year to kick-start the national distribution of HIV/AIDS drugs.

To provide technical supervision and support to World Relief's HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and guide in the development of new strategic initiatives. The Africa Director will be resident in Nairobi, Kenya and report to the International Director of HIV/AIDS Programs.

Honey Care Africa, an IFC-supported small business whose supply chain has doubled the incomes of some of Kenya’s poorest people, is the winner of a prestigious United Nations sustainable development award. The firm has received the Equator Prize, a US$30,000 cash award honoring community-based poverty reduction initiatives in countries on or near the Equator, home to the world’s greatest concentrations of both biological wealth and human poverty.

Sitting in a small compound of mud-brick houses, and shacks made of shrub branches and plastic, 24-year-old Adey Hillow may not look much like a trend-setter, but she is actually at the cutting edge of some innovative technology. The wood-box solar cooker she is using to prepare lunch for her husband, infant and three other relatives holds the promise of saving forests by using simple sunlight - instead of scarce firewood - to prepare traditional African meals.

Kenya's new government began offering free primary-school education Monday, making good on a campaign pledge, but many parents were left angry and confused as schools seemed unable to handle the influx of children.

The old man of African politics, former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, was swept from power in largely peaceful elections held in Kenya on December 27, but as the euphoria died down, analysts pegged corruption and an end to human rights abuses as some of the most serious problems that would have to be overcome by the new government. Kenya's new leader Mwai Kibaki immediately promised sweeping reforms in the form of free primary education, better healthcare, a stronger economy and an end to corruption - but stressed his National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) party would not engage in a witch-hunt against Moi's displaced Kanu party, the party that ruled the country since its independence in 1963.

The worm has finally turned. In mid-December Kenya Telkom's monopoly, international internet connection company Jambonet decided to block a number of its ports claiming they "were being used to transmit VOIP traffic." The net result was a near two-day shutdown of internet services in Kenya a week before the elections. Private sector lobby groups TESPOK and the Cyber Cafe Operators Association of Kenya first protested and then decided to fight back.

Environmentalists want the Government to protect the environment and to reclaim thousands of hectares of forest land, demanding a tangible policy on environmental protection and the cessation of forest destruction for human settlement and timber products.

Would you like to be part of a dynamic, results oriented work team committed towards working with others to overcome poverty and suffering? Look no further because Oxfam GB is seeking someone like you for the position of Donor Reporting and Accounting Officer.

Two Bills which will clear the way for the resumption of donor aid will be brought before Parliament when it resumes, President Kibaki announced. The donor community had insisted that the two bills - The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Bill and the Public Service (code of Conduct and Ethics) - be passed by Parliament and implemented by the government as a condition for resumption of aid.

This paper examines the correlates of mistimed and unwanted childbearing in Kenya. The results show that unplanned childbearing in Kenya is associated with a number of factors, including urban/rural residence, region, ethnicity, maternal education, maternal age, marital status, birth order, length of preceding birth interval, family planning practice, fertility preference and unmet need for family planning.

A combination of bad weather and late delivery of seeds and fertiliser could condemn Lesotho to another disastrous harvest this year, World Food Programme officials say.

The Kenyan body politic is so severely affected by bribery and corruption that it is not realistic to expect it to ever recover without the application of drastic remedies. You can hardly find a public official on whom two people agree is clean. Everyone in public life is expected to be corrupt. Everything that anyone has got is seen as corruptly acquired. Public figures are believed to be corrupt and those who have property are thought to have acquired it corruptly.

The refusal of the publicly owned but state controlled Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) to broadcast paid adverts of a major opposition party, the National Rainbow Coalition, in the run up to the December 27 national elections, has been condemned by the organisation CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights.

With Kenya's elections just nine days away, an anti-corruption group accuses the government of financing political campaigns. The group, Transparency International, is calling for stricter control of government resources.