Kenya’s ecosystems are on the edge – unable to continue providing water, plant materials and other basic human needs to its burgeoning population. Forests remain on less than two percent of Kenya’s land, under protected status as a national resource. In a country plagued by drought, the forests are critical for water conservation. They are also home to indigenous peoples that live by hunting game and gathering food plants, herbs, and honey within the forests.

Britain is concerned by the wanton destruction of forests worldwide. British High Commissioner to Kenya, Mr Edward Clay, said the consequences of the destruction was a "global issue". "We have an interest in the way other countries look at the environment. Its protection is very important," Mr Clay told Environment Minister Joseph Kamotho at Maji House, Nairobi.

An astonishing development is changing one of Africa's most remarkable land marks beyond recognition. The ice cap on Mt Kilimanjaro, one of the few places in the world where ice and snow can be seen on the Equator, is expected to disappear in the next 12 years. Staff writer Mildred Ngesa and photographer Blasto Ogindo recently visited the mountain on a fact finding mission.

The main reaction of the majority of Kenyans to the shocking report by Transparency International exposing the most corrupt public institutions was one of pleasure. It meant Kenyans were ready to take the devilish problem of corruption by its horns.

Corrupt United Nations staff in Nairobi extorted millions of pounds from refugees desperate for a fresh start in western countries including Britain, UN investigators have said. Three Kenyan employees of the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, are also charged with conspiring to send a death threat from Osama bin Laden to the US ambassador to Kenya.

The Kenyan government has contracted six foreign companies to supply 300 million condoms to the country over next three years in its war against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the East African Standard newspaper said on Saturday.

Ten schools which were closed last year due to insecurity in Kenya's Kerio Valley will re-open next month.The schools were closed following attacks by raiders from neighbouring districts.

Despite the criminalisation of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya in December 2001, many communities continue to carry out the traditional practice, and attitudes towards it in much of rural Kenya are changing only slowly, according to a local nongovernmental organisation.

As we prepare for the forthcoming General elections, we cannot ignore the increase of organisations which have come up offering to the general public civic education on the constitution. I wish to compliment them and urge them to go on even after true reforms. Constitutionalism should be infinite.

Three government departments have been ranked as the most corrupt in Kenya in a dramatic new national survey. Kenya Police top the bribery league followed by the Ministry of Public Works and the Immigration Department.

The Kenyan police and the ruling party have both rejected a new report stating that the police force is the most heavily bribed institution in Kenya, saying that it was an effort to discredit the government and its efforts to fight corruption.

The police are the first targets of an "aggressive war" on public corruption that has been launched in Kenya. Mr Swaleh Slim's anti-corruption police unit chose the graft-prone traffic police department as its first stop. Graft fighting experts will assess the magnitude of the problem in the police department before they move to other government departments perceived to be dens of corruption.

Elephant poaching has resumed in Kenya, senior Kenya Wildlife Service officials admit. At the same time, government officials say that the Kenya Wildlife Service, responsible for managing the country's wildlife, is in the red and is relying on government handouts to operate.

Fishmongers operating at Kenya's lake Turkana, part of the great Rift Valley lakes, are luring school children to drop out and engage in childlabour, local officials have confirmed.

President Moi has appointed a team of internationally-respected experts to combat corruption. In Tuesday's statement, he said: "The action that I and my Government have taken is a statement of our total commitment to address head-on corruption and the resultant ills that befall us."

Six out of every 10 Kenyans who are shot dead are victims of police, says a new report. But the statistic rises dramatically in 2001, when police shot dead nine out of every 10 victims.

An audit of funds collected by public primary schools was ordered by the President yesterday as debate raged over whether or not pupils should pay school fees. The audit, to be carried out by the Education Ministry, will lay bare how schools spend money collected from parents.

Parents in Mt Elgon District have defied the new law barring them from circumcising their daughters under 16 years of age, Western Provincial Medical Officer (PMO), Dr Jackson Songa said.

State minister for health, Capt. Mike Mukula has commended the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for supporting Sabiny elders in their campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

White Kenyans have been told to pay outstanding rates to Nairobi city council or face Zimbabwe-style land seizures. Mayor Dick Waweru accused white residents of the capital's three affluent suburbs - Karen, Langata and Muthaiga - of not paying £10m in rates for nearly a decade, despite using public services.