The campaign against graft received a boost when a source book was launched on corruption prevention in the Public Service. The book is to be used in the Public Service Integrity Programme. The ceremony was led by the Head of the public service, Dr Sally Kosgei, at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi.

Parliament on 9th May closed the door on freedom of the Press when it passed the contentious Media Bill. The draconian law, which awaits the presidential assent, will punish vendors , media houses and journalists. Vendors who peddle newspapers, which are not bonded, will now pay Sh20,000 as fine or face a six months jail-term or both. Media houses will now be required to pay Sh1 million to publish newspapers. The bond was raised from Sh20,000 to Sh1 million.

Parliament's approval of a Bill allowing the government to control the media was condemned as draconian, unnecessary and an assault on free speech. Media owners, lawyers, the Kenya Union of Journalists and a cross section of Kenyans questioned the timing of the Bill. Most of the critics saw the Bill as an attempt to control media coverage of political events in an election year.

Although circumcising girls is now illegal in Kenya, there is no indication the ban is having any meaningful impact on the ground. On the contrary, reports from the media and gender organisations since last December indicate that many communities ignored the legislation.

Events of last few months have radically altered the face of politics in Kenya. The March 18th Kanu elections led to a massive realignment of Kenyan political scene and paved way for Moi's succession. The ruling party has never held elections since 1988, when they used the infamous Que. voting otherwise known us 'mlolongo'. The party has always used threats to silence critics and consolidate its power. Indeed there was even a commission that was formed in 1980's and which had powers to punish members of parliament over their utterances in parliament. Kanu became the supreme organ in the state defying the constitutional order.

A Kenyan law that allows the importation and manufacture of generic antiretroviral drugs took effect on May 1, BBC News reports. Last June, the Kenyan Parliament passed the Industrial Properties Bill 2001, a measure that allows Kenya to suspend drug patents during a national health emergency. The law stipulates that Kenya must give drug manufacturers six months' notice before licensing other companies to import or produce generic versions of patented drugs.

At least 47 schools are unlikely to re-open today due to havoc caused by the heavy rains. The schools, in western Kenya, have either been cut off completely due to floods or have had classrooms and dormitories submerged in water.

The V-Day is global movement set to raise funds and awareness to stop sexual violence that is being perpetrated against women and girls the world over. It is a concerted efforts to fight against the rape of women and girls, against incest, battery, female circumcision and sexual slavery.

Under the proposed media law, a vendor (in, say, Nyamira District) will have to establish (heaven knows how) that the publisher in Nairobi has, on that morning, posted two copies of the newspaper to the registrar before selling the newspaper or risk breaking the law and getting jailed or fined.

Environmental activists in Kenya have welcomed a court order temporarily blocking the Kenyan government's plans to excise some 70,000 hectares (170,000 acres) of the country's remaining forests, pending the hearing of a suit they have filed challenging the move.

Women's human rights activists in Kenya have urged the government to take action against recent threats by a controversial sect to forcibly circumcise women in central Kenya. On Wednesday, Kenyan newspapers reported that some members of the Mungiki sect, had issued an ultimatum to women aged between 13 and 65 in the Kiambaa and Kikuyu divisions, both in central Kenya, who had not undergone the ethnic Kikuyu traditional operation to submit to it.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank say there is no money for Kenya yet because it has not met all the conditions they set for it. Kenya must fulfil donor conditionalities before it can expect the release of funds, the Bretton Woods institutions insist.

President Moi once again censured the key donor agencies, accusing them of insincerity over aid. He said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund kept "shifting the goal posts" on the conditions they have set for funding. The President lamented that the bank and the IMF were still adamant in not releasing aid despite Kenya efforts to meet conditions set in the past decade.

The African Virtual University, a project established by the World Bank in 1997 to bridge the digital divide and knowledge gap between Africa and the rest of the world, has moved its operations from Washington DC to Kenya. AVU’s newly appointed chief executive officer, Cheick Modibo Diarra, was an adjunct professor of the school of engineering at Howard University in Washington, and the first Africa-born Unesco ‘goodwill ambassador’ for science and technology and enterprise. He says that the organisation’s goal is to provide quality and cost-effective education in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that Kenyan attorney general Amos Wako has reintroduced a repressive media bill in Parliament.

Women from the North Rift want State protection accorded to girls threatened with female genital mutilation. They were contributing views to the the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission session in Eldoret.

The cost of certain HIV/AIDS drugs has dropped in recent months, but shortages are placing many patients at risk, says a coalition of NGOs. Many pharmaceutical companies reduced their prices last year by between 50 and 98 percent for governments, international agencies and NGOs fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. However, the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines, which groups together several NGOs, has accused the drug companies of "giving with one hand and taking with the other".

Seventeen girls who fled their homes to escape circumcision have gone to court to block the rite.

Attorney-General, Amos Wako, was on 23rd April accused of harbouring mischief by re-introducing amendments to the Books and Newspapers Act contradicting his stance of encouraging the media to be self-regulating.

There was bitter reaction on 24th April to the probability of Parliament passing a Bill seeking to control the media. The Statutes Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2001 went through the crucial second reading, where MPs debated its advantages and disadvantages.