A programme to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission that will involve free provision of the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine to the 150,000 infected pregnant mothers and their infants in provincial and district hospitals has been launched.

When 56-year old Rhoda Gichiku speaks, she does it with authority.From outside, her Kathangu village in Embu, some 130 kilometres northeast of Nairobi would pass as any other African village, desperate, struggling and failing to harness local resources. But Kathangu's women have a different story - and it is the story of how some 26 women have joined hands in an Avocado soap-making project, a grassroots' initiative that is changing their lives.

Parliament has reversed an amendment to the Industrial Property Act curbing imports of generic HIV/AIDS drugs, the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines (KCAEM) announced last Thursday.

In a 12 August 2002 letter to President Daniel arap Moi, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed outrage over the six-month jail sentence handed down to Njehu Gatabaki, opposition member of parliament and the publisher and editor-in-chief of "Finance" magazine. The case stems from a December 1997 report in "Finance", titled "Moi ordered Molo Massacre," alleging that the president was responsible for ethnic clashes that plagued parts of Rift Valley Province in the early 1990s.

The British Commonwealth Education Fund (BCEF) is to donate US $920,000 to promote early education initiatives in Kenya.

Youth and Students from different parts of the world will congregate in Nairobi between 9th and 13th June 2003 at the II International Youth and Students Conference on HIVAIDS (IYSCA). The Conference will bring together youth and student-based CBOs, researchers, NGOs and Associations, Donors, Governments, Academic institutions and the corporate sector.

Recent revelations to the effect that Kenya will lose approximately 25,000 teachers to HIV/Aids within the next 10 years spells doom for the country's education sector. This is a sector that is currently suffering from a shortage of staff as a result of sporadic teacher recruitment.

Food for the Hungry International (FHI), a non-profit relief and development organisation of Christian conviction is seeking a Programmes Director to provide overall management and coordination for FHI Title II food security, small scale relief, and child development programmes in northern Kenya.

The number of HIV/Aids orphans in the country has reached the 1.1 million mark, Public Health Minister, Prof. Sam Ongeri, has said. This makes Kenya the third worst hit country in the world, he added.

Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi has sacked his Environment Minister, Joseph Kamotho. He is one of a number of leading Kanu officials who had criticised Mr Moi's attempts to hand-pick his successor as Kanu's candidate in presidential elections due in December.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN has condemned the custodial sentence handed down to Christopher Mwoki Kyandi on 24 July on charges of "publishing false news". The editor of the scandal magazine The Truth was given a nine-month prison sentence on the basis of a sex-related article published in early July which caused a furore in the capital Nairobi.

In many developing countries governments, donors, NGOs and academics have promoted the use of fuel-efficient stoves in order to reduce health effects, environmental degradation and household expenditure on traditional fuels. In Kenya and Ethiopia such programmes have been very successful. Why have programmes elsewhere had only limited success? What are the potential poverty alleviation impacts of household biomass stove programmes? How can production and uptake be boosted?

The race to replace President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya has taken a new twist with the announcement of a new alliance within his ruling party to push for a democratic vote to choose the party's next presidential candidate.

A self-help group comprising low-income Kenyans last week disbursed Sh4 million to pay school fees in Central, Nairobi and Rift Valley provinces.

Pressure is mounting on the Kenyan government to re-amend the Industrial Property Act to allow for the importation of generic anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs) into the country, as parliament prepares to go into recess until October at the end of this week.

Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi is being offered a lavish retirement package when he leaves office.

The International Centre for Insect Physiology (ICIPE) in Kenya is to lead efforts to construct a US$1.9 million plant that will manufacture an anti-mosquito pesticide. Although the chemical has been widely available for the past 50 years, manufacturing costs have until now been prohibitive to most developing countries.

Kenya aims to follow Zimbabwe's example with the introduction of its new media law and stiff controls on the political opposition. Journalists and rights activists alike are equally worried.

Another malaria outbreak could hit the country by the end of the year, the Ministry of Health has warned. This comes in the wake of predictions that East Africa will experience El Nino.

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to express our serious concern at the imprisonment of journalist Christopher Mwoki Kyandi.