On March 22, 1991, a visibly shaken and angered President George H.W. Bush said he was sickened and "outraged" by what he saw on television. That was the beating of black motorist Rodney King by a swarm of LAPD cops. A year later following the acquittal of four LAPD cops by a Simi Valley jury with no blacks on it, Bush ordered then Attorney General William Barr to begin the process of slapping federal civil rights charges on the four officers.

He issued a terse statement saying "the verdict has left us all with a deep sense of personal frustration and anguish." He backed this up with a televised address on May 1 in which he strongly signaled that civil rights charges would be brought against the officers.

Bush had the authority to order a prosecution, via a string federal criminal civil rights laws specifically authorize the prosecution of police officers, who blatantly violate the law by using deadly or excessive force against civilians, when there is a "compelling public interest" to do so. In the case of King, the compelling public interest was that the state trial was flawed in the racially skewed jury composition, and that there was a need to confront the corrosive violation of civil rights by a law enforcement agency. More specifically, the statute on "compelling public interest" makes plain that the alleged violation must involve "egregious conduct, including that which . . . causes loss of life," and where "the result in the prior prosecution was manifestly inadequate in light of the federal interest involved."

With the Ferguson grand jury deciding not to bring charges against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the slaying of Michael Brown, President Obama now finds himself faced with the same decision Bush Sr. had to make 22 years ago. The call has repeatedly gone out for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to bring civil rights charges against Wilson. He would not have moved as quickly as he did to assign a phalanx of FBI agents to the case, secure an independent autopsy of Brown's death, and personally travel to the city to review procedures with civil rights attorneys and investigators without the personal approval of Obama. Obama, as Bush did on King, has spoken out on various aspects of the Brown case and has almost certainly kept a close watch on developments.

But can and will he do what Bush Sr. did and order Holder to go forward with charges?

There's the compelling federal interest. Brown was not detained or charged with a crime when the fatal encounter with Wilson occurred. Multiple eyewitnesses say he was shot with his hands up. An independent autopsy has confirmed that Brown was shot after an alleged scuffle with Wilson.

Though there was no apparent racial motive in Wilson confronting Brown, his action clearly violated Brown's right to exercise his freedom of movement, and his rights. This civil right was violated the moment Wilson presumed that a young black man walking in a public thoroughfare had committed a crime. The safeguard of that right must be a fundamental concern of federal prosecutors.

The Brown case also strongly points to systemic issues of excessive force by police. The obvious excessive force that was used was the slaying of Brown. This strikes to the heart of another basic right of citizens, namely the freedom from undue harm. His killing once more raised deeply troubling questions about the power of the law to protect citizens from their unimpeded right to life and safety. Federal prosecutors play a major role in ensuring that where there's the suspicion that an individual's rights might have been violated solely because of their race and gender, that the power of federal law is brought to bear to ensure that right is protected.

The charge that Wilson abused his power as an officer in killing Brown under the color of law is the linchpin of federal prosecutions against local police officers. This is the same rationale that federal prosecutors used to bring civil rights charges against the four LAPD officers that beat King. The crucial legal point was that they acted in an official capacity when they violated King's rights. As in the King case, there are crucial federal interests in ensuring the rights of individuals to be free from undue harm because of their color, age, and being in a public area merely because someone perceives they shouldn't be there and then acts on that perception with no cause other than that belief or perception.

Bush Sr. was deeply concerned that the King beating had caused an even deeper, volatile and dangerous rift between police and African-Americans. The riots after the cops were acquitted underscored that. This was enough of a compelling interest to force Bush to act. Obama will have to consider the same. As Bush Sr. did, he can and should follow his example and green light a prosecution of Wilson.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour heard weekly on the nationally network broadcast Hutchinson Newsmaker Network.

Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

BOSTON---Bishop Joseph Kalema, founder of the Danbury, Connecticut based Joseph Kalema Ministries Inc., and an associate teacher with Morris Cerrulo World Evangelism, in conjunction with a New York based bishop and many Boston area pastors are set to lead in a massive revival conference to be held from May 21-24 at the Woburn Boston Hilton Hotel in Woburn.
 

The convention will bring together other major US and Africa based clergymen including Pastor Nicholas Wafula, a renowned East African evangelist who  co-founded the Deliverance church of Uganda  in the late 60s before he was  forced to lead the church from the underground 10 years later to escape Christian persecution by former Uganda dictator, Idi Amin, Dr. Archbishop Joseph A. Alexander, founder of the New Covenant Christian Worldwide Ministries (NCCM) based in the Bronx, NY, Dr. Larry Hrovat of Faith of The Nations Ministries, and Pastor Laban  Jjumba of Deliverance Church Uganda and Director of Intercessors for Uganda/Africa among many others.

Themed “Acquire the Fire, Lift Jesus Higher”, the highly anticipated convention has been put together by Bishop Joseph & Rev. Catherine Kalema of the Joseph Kalema Ministries in partnership with the New Covenant Christian Ministries Worldwide, multiple pastors from the community churches in New England as well as individual well wishers.  

The free entry convention is expected to draw hundreds of worshippers from the New England region as well as others from far flung states eager for a dose of good news following depressing world reports of escalating wars in multiple parts of the world especially against Christian believers.

Also lined up to lead in  expected powerful praise and worship sessions are  Michael and Brenda Soldan, popular praise and worship leaders  from the House of Grace Ministries in Danbury, CT as well as praise & worship teams from participating community churches.

Speaking to church pastors who attended the first of the two scheduled event planning meetings at the Woburn Hilton Hotel, Bishop Kalema said that things have not been going well in the body of Christ in the region and the World at large.
 
He said that there are multiple challenges in the “Body of Christ” organized through community churches and such challenges can only be addressed when people return to God.

“God has put a burden in me to hold this conference that will help to solve some of the issues we are facing as a church,” said the bishop, who also oversees the Dominion Life Church and School of Ministry in Bethel of Greater Danbury, Connecticut.

Accompanied by his wife, Rev. Catherine Kalema, the bishop urged all Christians from all walks of life to attend the event.

“We are blessed to have very powerful men and women of God dedicate their precious time to come and bless during this convention. This will be a historic moment in New England and we expect many miracles to take place.”

“People will be restored, revived, gifts within them stirred up as they acquire the fire of Jesus Christ and lift Jesus higher,” he added. 

He urged believers who plan to attend the convention to sign up for free using an online sign up form to make the planning easy and convenient to all involved.  (To sign up, click here >>>)

During the  first planning meeting where an impromptu fundraiser to finance the convention took place, over 30 church leaders showed up, expressing solidarity with Bishop Kalema to make the event a reality.

“It is the mandate of every pastor, leader and believer is to keep the hope of a good life alive as they stay focused to God’s promises and not allow ourselves to be swallowed by the influence of the evil spirits whose goal is to weaken us so that we may not lead ourselves and our people to victory in keeping God’s True Word,” added the bishop quoting from the book of NUMBERS: 30:1-2.

Several pastors present at the meeting voiced their total support to make the unique convention a big success that it should be.

“We will support you in whatever means possible to make this event take place,” said Rev. Jared Mlongecha, pastor of the International Gospel Church, an east African community church based in Chelsea, MA.

“This is a good vision you have and we will do our part to support it because this is doing the Lords work,” said Rev. John Baker Katende, pastor of the Community Global Evangelical church in Burlington.

Venerable Peter Gachathi of St. Paul’s Community in Lawrence and Chairperson of Kenyan American Pastors’ Fellowship challenged those present to act on their promises to make support the event is as “it was a noble cause for the Kingdom of God”.

Organizers invited other willing individuals and pastors of African community churches and other Communities in Boston who would like to join the effort to make the convention a success to contact them, or attend the second planning meeting to be held this Saturday (February 28) because “this is not the work of a man but the of the Holy Ghost for God’s Kingdom”.

The meeting was attended by many other pastors from different community churches and denominations in the New England area.

The meeting is scheduled to at 10.am at the Woburn Hilton Hotel located at 2 Forbes Drive, Woburn starting at 10am.

Fore more information, contact Bishop Joseph Kalema at: 203-297-0003

To sign up for the convention, click here >>

More than 400 members of the Kenyan community in Lowell and elsewhere raised over $27,000 Sunday in burial funds for the late Beatrice Muchai, a mother of two who passed away last week at the Lowell General Hospital following a short illness.
 

The Kenyans, joined by friends from other communities jam-packed the St. Stephens church where the event took place, forcing church leaders to scramble and bring in extra seats from the basement to cater for the unexpectedly high number of guests, an action that nevertheless still left many more standing in the back isles.

Coming from all backgrounds, including the young, the old, the clergy, entrepreneurs, churches and more, the mourners donated handsomely in solidarity with the family of the late Kenyan.

 The late Muchai had been a resident of Lowell since 2003 when she emigrated from Kenya until this month when she passed on due to complications from Pneumonia, family sources disclosed.

Several friends and family members speaking during the memorial praised the deceased for her humility hard work, and love of her family.

“I met Beatrice when she joined our company and went out of her way to help us look for good staff for a new house we had just started in Haverhill. She was my good friend and I will miss her a lot,” said a teary Jeninna Brown, manager of the Fidelity House, a Human Services company with operations around the Merrimack Valley region.

“Beatrice attended our Sunday services and Thursday morning bible study on a regular basis. I can still see her favorite seating spot. That seat will now remain empty. She was an exceptional church member and we are saddened by her sudden loss,” said Rev. Samuel Kimohu, pastor of the St. Stephens church during remarks before the fundraiser kicked off.

The family of the late Beatrice Muchai gathers at the front of the church for a family prayer led by Rev. Charles Kihiko of Calvary Evangelical church in Dracut (with Mic).AJABU PHOTO/H.MAINA

“When we are alive, let us consider giving time to God like Beatrice did even if we have such busy schedules,” added the pastor.

Beatrice Ngaruiya, a cousin of the deceased eulogized the late mother of two, saying that she loved and served her family well in all the 53 years that God gave in this world. 

“It is God who gave us Beatrice and it is God who has taken.”

Leading in the brief memorial sermon titled “To die is to gain”, Rev. Dr. Mumbui Karimi from the neighboring Presbyterian Neema church sought to comfort the mourning family and friends of the late Muchai, saying that human beings should not be so much afraid of death as it brings a better life for those who believe in the word and promises of God.

“When we come to trying moments in life, when things get so difficult, be like Apostle Paul and say that those things can be turned around and used for the furtherance of the gospel of God,” Dr. Karimi said, quoting from the book of Philippians 1: 19-26.

He added that among good things that come with death include a new, better and glorified body, a better home in Heaven that cannot be destroyed by forces of nature, better inheritance from the heavenly father as opposed to problems laden properties inherited from earthly fathers, better fellowship with other saints in heaven, and everlasting joy as you dwell with Christ forever.

Thanking Kenyans and friends for their generous contributions and words of encouragement, the chairperson of the funeral organizing committee, Salome Njoroge said that the money raised was beyond the expectations of the family.

“Thank you so much for hearing God’s word that encourages is to go and cry with those who are crying.”

She said that very many Kenyans, even those who did not personally know the late Muchai responded to the call that resulted to the large amount of donation.

She also thanked the Kenyan community pastors through the Kenyan American Pastors Fellowship for supporting the family during the trying moment. Salome also thanked Rev. Kimohu for providing the organizing committee with guidance on how to approach the mourning and funeral planning process.

“When Beatrice dies and we met for the first time, we did not know where to start. Rev. Kimohu came in and really guided us on how to proceed.”
 
Among other speakers at the event included Rev. Joseph Waiyaki, the Secretary of the Kenyan American Pastor’s Fellowship. Rev. Waiyaki thanked Kenyans and friends for attended the memorial in large numbers, and asked them to continue praying for the unity of Kenyan pastors and churches in the region.

The fundraiser was coordinated by Stephen Njoroge Kanyoni, an elder at the NEEMA church.

A wake was held last night for the late Beatrice at the Morse Bayliss Funeral home, pending the repatriation of the body to its final resting place at Kambugu village in Embu County, Kenya, accompanied by some members of the family.

And in a post event interview, Rev. Kimohu,  pastor of the St. Stephens church where the late Beatrice used to worship and the venue of the event, praised Kenyans who  responded in a big way to the very short notice for funds in aid on the passed on Kenyan mother.

“We haven’t seen this kind of action where Kenyans from such diverse backgrounds all walks of life come together to help one of their own who is in such a need as they did on Sunday. I hope this event helps us turn the page to big and better things when our community is so united,” he added while thanking all and sundry for their moral support and financial donations.

LOWELL, MA-- In what was clearly a historic gathering and display of raw talent in the African Diaspora community in USA, several local music artists poured their hearts and souls out to entertain hundreds of guests during the Merrimack Valley Ebola Intervention Concert held on Sunday, January 25th, with over $7,000 raised and dozens of medical supplies donated.

The epic event that drew many Africans and friends from all over New England took place at CCF Ministries in Lowell, with donations scheduled to be shipped to victims of the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in various West African countries.

The artists who donated their talents free of charge for the charitable cause included Zenzo Matoga of United Night of Worship, Lukus Simari, Uganda’s David Makumbi, Kenya’s Wangari Fahari, Pastor Ruth Choate of New England Pentecostal Ministries based in Pelham, NH as well as the NEP choir.

 During the event, over $7,000 was raised and a huge stock of medical supplies was donated by various organizations like Lowell General Hospital, Lowell Health Alliance, and Mt. Hope Christian Center.

The donations  are set to be shipped to specific regions in affected countries in  West Africa in the coming weeks through MSF, a humanitarian organization that  is currently at the forefront  of fighting the deadly  epidemic that has claimed over 8,000 lives to date,  leaving thousands more weakened and  ailing.

Wangari Fahari and husband, Paul Thibeault

“This was great. I have never seen anything like it. It is amazing how the body of Christ came together and made the day a great success,” said Rev. Raffoul Najem, pastor of CCF Ministries, and chairman of the event’s organizing committee.

So outstanding was the quality of the entertainment that guests responded with standing ovations and thunderous applause as each of the performers delivered two hits each.

However, an exception to the two song rule took place as the charged up crowd demanded an extra song from Lukus Simari, who together with a musical partner, David Makumbi, brought the crowd to their feet with a high energy performance delivered hip hop style.

Eager and willing to contribute their talents to the charitable cause, the artists’ performances helped set a perfect stage for the African community and friends who came from far and wide to unite and do something tangible as a community.

First on stage soon after opening prayers delivered by Rev. Jeremiah Menyongai of the Christ Jubilee International Ministries was the CCF Ministries’ worship band.

Then, Wangari Fahari, a youthful Kenyan female artist who specializes in world acoustic and Afro-Jazz music, took to the stage.

 Once under the tutorship of the late Miriam Makeba, the legendary African soul queen, Wangari performed two Swahili hits, among them a recent self-composition specifically for the Ebola crisis event.

Pastor Ruth Choate,extreme left, together with the Citywide church choir

Backed by her guitar strumming husband Paul Thibeault, Wangari’s sweet melodies moved the diverse multi- cultural crowd.

Half way into her second Jazz hit “Imacule” in a cry for the suffering Ebola victims, the crowd started clapping along to the soulful hit despite the Swahili ethnic language lyrics not understood by all present.

Wangari was followed by Pastor Ruth Choate, wife of Bishop Stanley Choate, a concert organizing committee member from New Eng;and Pentecostal Ministries.

Pastor Choate performed a moving gospel worship hit that also brought the crowd on its feet in appreciation.

The pastor later was to return on stage as a member of the NEP choir complete with a band that performed two highly uplifting hits.

CCF Church band

However, it was the duet performance by Lukus Simari and Uganda’s David Makumbi that marked the highlight of the event.

Backing one another in the performance, Simari and Makumbi lit up the hall, drawing all to their feet.
Children, men and women, including the older folks danced vigorously to Simari’s “Loving You” hit and “Baba,” a Swahili production best loved by the east African community.

Simari’s performance resonated so much that the audience instantly demanded him to do another song.

When he got back up on stage, the man did not disappoint. He belted out another popular hit single “I Know Who I Am” driving the crowd into a wild delirium. He thanked the largely African community crowd for the support.

“Africa has been home to me. It was an honor to help raise money and awareness with my gift of music. 
That’s what you do with gifts. You give them,” Simari, who toured Kenya and Uganda last year for several performances, told Ajabu Africa News in a post event interview. 

Zenzo Matoga

Closing out the concert performances, Zenzo Matoga, another renowned youthful gospel musician in the region and founder of the popular United Night of Worship, ushered the crowd into worship mode with two worship hits.

During the event, a highly entertaining auction session was conducted by Rev. Raffoul Najem, assisted by his daughter Jennifer, in an effort to add to the needed funds. They successfully sold several paintings and crafts items donated by well-wishers for the cause.

Thanking all who responded to the call and attended the concert in aid of Ebola victims in West Africa, Bishop Stanley Choate said that it was a good thing to see Africans in the Merrimack region come together.

Pastor Wilmot Dennis from Emmanuel Temple of Hope Ministries closed the event with a benediction.

Among  guests present included many from the west African community of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, east Africans from Kenya, Malawi , Uganda  as well as south Africans from Zimbabwe.

L to R: Bishop Stanley Choate, pastor Ruth Choate, Rev. Jeremiah Menyongai, pastor Faimata Menyongai ( partially hidden, Pastor Wilmot Dennis (black suit) together with other pastors and guests enjoy the music.

“It was great to see east Africans coming out in big numbers to support West Africans during to respond to the Ebola crisis. This is very encouraging since if there is an unfortunate crisis in east Africa, even West Africans will come out to support. I congratulate those who put together this event that has bought us so much together,” said Jennie Morris, a Liberian national from Lowell.

“This is what we Africans in this area should be doing. We should make it an annual event since even if there is no crisis, some people are always suffering somewhere and they could use a little help from us Africans in USA,” she added.

Also present were many African Americans from the Merrimack Valley region, local American friends, as well as guests from other countries including Lebanon.

The concert was initiated by Ajabu Africa Media that networks members of different African Diaspora communities in the region and supported by several local churches, business organizations, individuals and well wishers from all over New England.

BOSTON - The Massachusetts Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth today released new recommendations aimed at supporting LGBTQ youth across Massachusetts. The annual policy recommendations report is intended to provide the Commonwealth’s policymakers with a roadmap to better meet the needs of LGBTQ youth in the coming fiscal year (FY16). The report was released at the annual swearing-in ceremony of commission members at the Massachusetts State House. Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg took part in the ceremony. House Speaker Robert DeLeo sent a letter of support and congratulations to be read on his behalf. Attorney General Maura Healey swore in the 48 members of the Commission.
 

“I appreciate the opportunity to join today's important ceremony and will welcome future conversations about ways to make the Commonwealth and our communities better for LGBTQ youth and all our children,” said Lt. Governor Polito.

“Administering the oath of office for such an important commission is a tremendous honor for me,” said Attorney General Healey said. “Emphasizing diversity, inclusion, and a deep respect for one another, this commission is crucial to promoting the health and safety of our LGBTQ youth in our schools and communities.”

“Each year our Swearing-In Ceremony is both a celebration of the completion of our annual policy recommendations and a day to bring together community stakeholders, elected officials, and loved ones to welcome new Commission members to this important and challenging work,” said Julian Dormitzer, Commission Chairperson. “We are thrilled to have support from such a broad range of political leaders, and are honored to have an important champion of LGBTQ rights, Attorney General Maura Healey, swearing us in.” 

The Commission’s recommendations address 15 state agencies and the Massachusetts Legislature. The Commission outlined several core recommendations for the agencies in its report, including:

·      Adopting data collection practices that will allow agencies to receive data on gender identity and sexual orientation;

·      Identifying and strengthening LGBTQ-affirming resources, internally and externally, including dedicated staff hours to address relevant issues;

·      Developing stronger guidance, best-practices and model policies for working with LGBTQ youth; and

·      Expanding agency non-discrimination policies to include gender identity.

“Thanks to all of the members of the LGBTQ Youth Commission for their service. Their work with a variety of state agencies addressing concerns such as preventing homelessness, discrimination, harassment and suicide among LGBTQ youth has never been more critical,” said Senate President Stanley Rosenberg. “I look forward to working with members of the Commission as they pursue policies and programs to help these young people.”

The report also identifies more than 60 agency-specific recommendations with the goal of better supporting LGBTQ youth in every city and town in Massachusetts. The Commission will work over the next year in partnership with the Baker-Polito Administration and the Legislature to advocate for resources in the FY16 budget that will help fund the implementation of some recommendations.

Among the Commission’s priority legislation for the current session is “An Act Relative to Gender Identity and Non Discrimination,” a bill that would add gender identity to existing Massachusetts civil rights laws for public accommodations, which currently allow for the exclusion of transgender people. Public accommodations include any place that is open to the public and offers a good or service. These spaces are common areas of vital importance to most people’s daily lives, such as grocery stores, medical offices, public transportation, hotels, restaurants, public parks, areas of entertainment and more. In 2011, Massachusetts added “gender identity” as a protected characteristic to Massachusetts’ employment, housing, credit and public education anti-discrimination laws and to Massachusetts’ hate crimes law. The Commission on LGBTQ Youth argues that the addition of public accommodations will fill a glaring gap in the state’s civil rights protections for transgender citizens. 

To read the Commission’s report visit mass.gov/cgly.

BOSTON, Mass.,_Praising African immigrants in the city of Worcester near Boston as very successful in business and in community giving, newly elected Massachusetts State Treasurer, Deborah B. Goldberg urged the entire African community in the Commonwealth to find ways to unite for a show of strength in numbers, then get proactively  involved in applying for various offices within their localities, if they wish to share more of the available State resources for their current and future generations.

During an interview with Ajabu Africa News on the heels of an Ethnic Media Round table Conference held recently at her office at the State House in Boston, Treasurer Goldberg said that the African Immigrant  community if fairly new in the area and has not been visible when decisions are made at various levels as witnessed with other communities of color especially the Chinese and the Spanish.

Governor Charlie Baker last week visited and toured one of Action for Boston Community Developments (ABCD) 12 IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites in the Greater Boston area to discuss with organizers, tax prep volunteers and individuals the benefits of doubling the earned income tax credit (EITC) would have on the budgets of low-income working families. 

Along with his Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal, Governor Baker filed House Bill 62 expanding the EITC from 15% to 30% of the federal level over two years, directly impacting over 400,000 Massachusetts residents.The proposal would increase the EITC to $1,874 for eligible working families and increase disposable income by $196 million. 

"Providing relief to Massachusetts working families through the earned income tax credit has proven to be one of the most historically effective programs for supporting low-income workers and spurring economic growth,"said Governor Baker.Increasing reinvestment in our workers would directly benefit more than 400,000 individuals and their families across the Commonwealth who need an extra hand to make ends meet and support their families.

Governor Baker toured ABCD's facility on the Boston Common where accountants and accounting students volunteer their time to provide free tax preparation services for low to moderate-income working families.Governor Baker met with ABCD leadership, a site volunteer and several individuals and families who would directly benefit from the EITC expansion. 

ABCD applauds Governor Baker's action in filing legislation to double the Earned Income Tax Credit for poor working individuals and families in Massachusetts, said John J. Drew, ABCD President/CEO.

Many of those who benefit from EITC work two or three jobs, but can't get above the poverty level of $24,250 in annual earnings for a family of four.EITC makes a difference for hard-working residents who struggle to pay for rent,heat and food and helps narrow the ongoing, painful gap between rich and poor." 

About Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD): 

ABCD has provided tax preparation services to low and moderate-income working individuals and families for more than 25 years. It is part of the Boston Tax Help Coalition and national Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in Massachusetts.

Last year ABCD's EITC program served almost 5,000 families at sites in all of Boston neighborhoods, bringing more than $7.8 million into inner-city, low-income households. Along with tax preparation, ABCD also provides EITC customers with comprehensive financial counseling and financial literacy programs for youth and families.

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday met and held talks with a delegation of the US Senate and the Congress.

BOSTON--Newly appointed Kenyan envoy to the US, His Excellency Robinson Njeru Githae will visit Kenyans in Boston on Sunday April 19 where he will lead in issuing of new the new generation Kenyan ID cards, renewal for expired passports as well as attend prayers for Kenyan marathon runners.

According to an official communication from the Embassy in Washington D.C, the envoy will be in Boston to attend the Boston Kenyan Festival on Sunday April 19^th, at the Lodge of Elks in Lowell, and then lead Kenyans as they cheer their marathon runners at the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street the following day, Monday April 20.

"As Kenyans, we should be working towards one goal which is to promote the Kenyan culture and pride. As the embassy, we also propose that we carry out the ID registration at the venue," said the Ambassador while confirming his attendance.

As a result, Kenyans in the entire New England region have been urged to set aside the day in order to take advantage of the presence of the Ambassador and his entourage from D.C to get their national ID registration right within their background instead of waiting to take a long and expensive trip to Washington for the same.

However, according to embassy officials, Kenyans with expired passports will need to complete and print out the passport renewal application online at the  Kenya embassy website,purchase the required renewal fee money order,a self addressed envelope with a return  postage stamp, two passport size pictures.

These documents will then be collected by the Embassy staff during the event at the Elks Lodge for onward processing.

"We are looking forward to a big turnout  so we can serve as many Kenyans as possible since we were not able to issue a lot of IDs when we visited Boston last year," said an embassy official while speaking to Ajabu Africa.

Following the confirmation of attendance, many leaders of different Kenyan groups in Boston have vowed to turn the page and mobilize their followers so that they can benefit from the rare exercise that transcends any pre-existing differences.

Since January this year, leaders of different Kenyan groups have held 3 productive meetings at the St. Pauls Community church in Lawrence to discuss and find ways of mending divisions among nationals in the region that came to an unfortunate crescendo during  the recent visit by president Uhuru Kenyatta. 

More meetings have been slated to take place after the visit by the Ambassador since, according to convernors, the process is long and requires a lot of patience.

But in the meantime, all leaders in the region that have the interests of their followers in New England at heart have expressed desire to work as one community  and attend the event when the new ambassador comes into town.

"We all would like to make sure that every Kenyan who needs a new ID card or passport to get this important information and make advance preparations to be there. It is also very important that we all unite and welcome our Ambassador with the honor he deserves during this first visit to Boston,” said Venerable Peter Gachathi, chairman of the Kenyan American Pastors Fellowship (KAPF)."

"This is a very important exercise. We will support it and make sure that our members and everyone in our community benefit," said father Samuel Mathenge, the newly appointed priest of the Kenyan Catholic Community & Friends in Boston.

According to organizers, in addition to the very crucial consular services to be offered at the event, Kenyans will also enjoy entertainment and speeches from very important local leaders who have expressed the desire to work with the Kenyan community to improve common issues that they care about, especially at improving opportunities for their current and future generations.

"People need to have these documents updated in order to carry out various government processes. We will also have a chance to celebrate our Kenyan culture through a big lunch of traditional Nyama Choma & Ugali, performances by several cultural groups representing various Kenyan tribes, arts and crafts as well as a display of successful businesses by local Kenyan entrepreneurs," said a statement from the New England Kenyan Association officials, who are working hand in hand with many other Kenyan groups to make the event a success.

Organizers urged Kenyans and local US business entrepreneurs who would like to show case their products and services at the event to contact organizers for sponsorship information.

The visit to Boston will the envoy’s maiden trip to the region that boats a large population of Kenyan nationals, many of whom have an increased number of Kenyan American children that are now coming of age.

"This is a very good thing that the Embassy is doing. Many of our children who came here without IDs are having a hard time purchasing stuff and accessing government services in Kenya without proof of their Kenyan citizenship.They need these IDs as soon as possible," said Anthony Mbatia from Nashua, New Hampshire, one of the event organizers.

"As a relatively new Kenyan in this area, I am happy that the Ambassador has found it fit to take his time off his busy schedule and attend this event with us. We need to get together proudly as Kenyans from different backgrounds and at least enjoy one day of Kenyan fun," said Edward Otieno Yongo, another event organizer.

Other Kenyans who spoke to Ajabu Africa said that they are very interested to know firsthand from the ambassador about the process of dual citizenship registration for Kenyan children born in USA since the amalgamation of the new Kenyan constitution that allows for dual citizenship.

And to clear some misinformation within the Kenyan community in Boston, the event was not initiated by the Kenyan Embassy, but is wholly organized by members of the Kenyan Community as the second annual celebration following the inaugural event last year at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in downtown Boston.

Ambassador Githae graciously accepted to attend as an invited guest speaker as he was already bound to be in Boston for the Boston Marathon event the next day.

With the Ambassador attendance and his offer to bring staff to conduct new generation ID registrations, organizers moved the event to the Elks Lodge in Lowell to allow as many Kenyans as possible be able to get the consular services in an easy to reach location, far much cheaper and convenient than travelling to Boston or Washington D.C for the same.

As such, the Embassy is not footing any costs associated with hosting the event but organizers are relying on the usual ticket sales and sponsorships from business entrepreneurs employed by various hosts of Kenyan events held in hotels or private halls.

Last Tickets to the event are going for $25 per adult and $10 per child 12- 17 years if purchased online or at local churches before April 15, or $40 and $20 respectively at the door.

Tickets will be available at most local churches, and at the following store locations:

1. Marions International ( Sammy Mpesa Store) 288 West 6^th St, Lowell, MA
2. Salon D Afrique (Kathys Hair Salon) 293 West 6^th St, Lowell
3. Ajabu Media/Tim Kihiko Properties 297 West 6^th Street, Lowell

More outlets will be announced as soon as they become available.

However, Kenyans are encouraged to utilize the online platform more for the purchase before April 15 to enable organizers do better planning as well as avoid a higher fee at the door. 
 
To purchase online, click here-https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-boston-kenyan-festival-new-generation-ids-registration-tickets-16367218792

 

More info visit : www.KenyaEmbassy.com

There is good news for Kenyans before US President Barrack Obama, son of a Kenyan man, sets foot in the country for the first time as leader of the world’s super power nation.
 

Ahead of the visit in July, it emerged his administration has planned $553 million (Sh 50 billion) in aid to Kenya this year.

The Obama administration has asked the US congress for the $553 million funding in the 2015/2016 budget, according to new policy document that show the aid is partly in response to devolution and to foster public participation in government affairs.

The US State Department in its data site, ForeignAssistance.gov says the administration has requested this amount in the 2015 budget proposal, making Kenya the 8th highest recipient of US funding in the world.

Despite perceived misunderstanding between Nairobi and Washington, Kenya has consistently remained among the ten major recipients of US foreign aid for the last decade.

The latest budgetary allocation to Kenya comes on the back of reports that Obama will tour Kenya, his father's homeland in July, the first visit to the country as US President.

The first US African American President will be in Nairobi for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) between July 24 and 26. Obama will also hold bilateral talks with President Kenyatta, State House, has since announced.
 

As part of preparations for the visit, Mr Kenyatta met a five-member delegation of the US Senate and US Congress on Friday. The delegation headed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York) met the President at State House, Nairobi, where they discussed the war against terror, regional security, trade and investment issues.

While the USAID Kenya Country Development Co-operation Strategy 2014-2018 is long on democracy, equity, and rule of law, a closer look at where the money will be directed to paints a different picture altogether.

Of the US $553 million, 67 per cent will go to HIV and Aids programmes as the trend has been in the last decade. In 2013 for example, of the US$497.5 million (Sh46 billion) US aid to Kenya, US$355.5 million (Sh33 billion) went to health and of this US$290 million (Sh27 billion) went to HIV programmes.

According to the US government data portal called Dashboard only US$38 million went to democracy, while a similar amount was channelled to economic development. US$10 million (Sh930 million) went to education.

Around the same time, the US changed its HIV funding policy largely starving advocacy and preventive programmes in favour of projects providing biomedicals. This include condoms, anti-retrovirals, and HIV testing kits, drug injecting needles, male circumcision tools and services with much of this money going to foreign pharmaceutical companies.

This led to groups such as Internews, which was responsible for training of journalists on HIV and health reporting, drastically cutting back their operations in Kenya.
 

For the new funding, the strategy includes an increased recruitment, funding and strengthening of civil society, mobilising unemployed youth, women and other so called marginalised groups such as gays to engage both the national and county governments.

The new strategy could be what Obama will be trying to sell to the Uhuru government in private meetings with the latter, which has shown little tolerance for civil society.

In 2013, there was a proposal in Parliament to come up with a Public Benefits Organisations Act (2013), a move largely seen as a Government effort to wield more control over civil society. The law however did materialise.

The USAid Kenya Country Development Co-operation Strategy 2014-2018 reports it will engage the one-million member Youth Bunge network to promote "youth-owned, youth-led, and youth-managed" initiatives that support devolution.

"USAid Kenya will also seek to establish a youth action fund to provide grants to youth 'bunges' in support of key constitutional reforms and youth-identified social issues," says the strategy document which was prepared in May.

Lowell, Mass--Close to 100 Kenyan nationals joined by Lowell mayor, Rodney Eliot held a candle light vigil Sunday in honor of the 148 students slain recently by Al-Shabab terrorists at the Garissa University in North eastern Kenya.

The event took place at the JFK Plaza next to Lowell City hall with several Kenyan and Ugandan clergymen in attendance to lead in prayers.

Grim faced men and women listened attentively as speaker after speaker lambasted the heinous crime committed upon their fellow citizens in the motherland in the name of religion.

According to most speakers, the majority of most Christians and Muslims in Kenya and east Africa have co-existed together in harmony for many years, only for the peace to be robbed by the recent string of terror attacks.

The Kenyans urged the government to figure out how to plug the apparent security lapses that led to the extremely high death count, barely one year after 67 Kenyans perished at the hands of Al-Shabab in eerily similar circumstances at the West gate Mall.

"I am here to stand with Kenyans in Lowell and back in the motherland at this most difficult time. We in the city of Lowell wish all those who lost their loved ones a quick healing and peace," said Mayor Eliot.

"It's very unfortunate that the money to finance these killings is coming from right here in USA. Out government should do everything possible to stop this as we cannot bear to lose any more of our children," said one woman speaking on behalf of Kenyan mothers.

Several Kenyan community clergymen present to show solidarity with the victims of the attack included the chairman of the Kenyan American Pastors Fellowship (KAPF), Arch Deacon Peter Gachathi, Bishop Joshua Wambua of the Rapture Harvest Ministries International, Rev. Dr. Francis Gikonyo of the Kenyan Anglican church and also the New England Kenyan Welfare Association ( Nekwa) Rev. Joseph Waiyaki , Secretary of KAPF and member of Nekwa, Arch Deacon Samuel Kimohu of St. Stephens church, Rev. Carl- Phillip Kihato as well as an Imam representing the Muslim Kenyan Community in Boston.

Rev. John Baker Katende and Pastor Frank Mwebesa of the Ugandan community Global Evangelical church in Boston also attended on behalf of Uganda, Kenya's neighbor to the west that has also suffered several terrorist attacks from Al Shabab.

Tony Mithiga, a Kenyan student in Boston led the Kenyans present in observing a moment of silence before the names of the 148 students who died in the attack were led by several young Kenyans.

It ended with a candle lighting ceremony and prayers by Rev. Jpseph Waiyaki as Kenyans memorialized the unprecedented deaths.

The event was organized by several Kenyans including Sam Mwaura of Samrack, David Ikanyi, Bishop Wambua and several members of the New England Kenyan Diaspora Council.

Peter Thuo Karugu served as the master of ceremonies.

Another vigil combining the Garissa Attacks and the one year anniversary of the Chibok High School girls abducted by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria will take place this evening at the Boston Commons starting 5pm.
 
The event has been organized by African students at Harvard, MIT, BU and Northeastern Universities as well as the Nigerian Association of Greater Lowell in partnership with the New England Kenyan Welfare Association.

According to organizers, the exact venue of the vigil is at the Boston Commons towards the State House end near the Brewer Fountain which is located right by the Park Street T Greenline T-stop.  It can also be easily accessed via the Orange Line to Downtown Crossing, walk up Winter St, or via the Green or Red Line to Park St.

FULL EVENT PICS COMING SOON....

BOSTON---The planned Kenyan National ID registrations at Sunday's Boston Kenyan Festival in Lowell will not attract an entry fee and will be carried out in a separate, independent room next to the cultural celebration venue.(Click here for ID requirements or scroll to the end of this page). Pass ports will not be renewed on sunday as that function is carried out online at the embassy website.

The clarification came from the Kenya Embassy officials at Washington D.C in response to reports of confusion among some in the Kenyan Community in Boston worried that the Kenya government was charging an entry fee to access the vital consular services.

However, the new generation ID registrations will still take place at the Lowell Lodge of Elks located at 40 Old Ferry Street (Behind JJ Boomers) in Lowell from 12 noon to about 11pm at night on Sunday, as the 2^nd Annual Boston Kenyan Festival concurrently takes place next door.

According to the embassy officials, H.E Robinson Njeru Githae, the Kenyan envoy to the US will be at the site to open and officiate the crucial service at 12 noon before joining Kenyans and other guests who will be attending the cultural celebration from 2pm.

Among other dignitaries expected to join the ambassador is Lowell Mayor, Rodney Eliot accompanied by several Lowell city councilors.

In addition to the entry fee clarification, the government officials also said that they will focus on taking applications for the new generation ID cards, a manual process that involves taking of fingerprints, as well as dual citizenship applications.

"We shall only be carrying out national ID registration exercise and dual citizenship applications for Kenyans on Sunday at the Lodge of Elks from 12 noon to 11pm at no entry fee to interested Kenyans.Those wishing to renew their Kenyan passports cannot do so on Sunday. Passports renewal applications can only be done online at the Kenyaembassy.com website," the statement clarified.

The officials urged Kenyans in the region to come out in large numbers on Sunday to take advantage of the services brought closer home at a convenient and easy to reach location through the commendable efforts of the New England Kenyan Welfare Association (Nekwa).

Praising the Kenyan association for the initiative to celebrate the Kenyan Culture and pride in Boston, embassy officials said that they were looking forward to supporting and working with the organization to continue improving many neglected aspects of the Kenyan welfare in the New England community in line with the newly launched Kenya Diaspora Policy that emphasizes more on the need for organized groups in the Diaspora as vehicles for community advancement.

During the Sunday event, Nekwa has lined up several traditional groups from different Kenyan tribes to entertain guests in a display of the cultural diversity in Kenya.

In addition to the cultural dancers, several local youthful musicians including Donald Sheii and Wangari Fahari  will entertain fans, as well as a several other poets and performers expected.

However, a key ingredient at the cultural festival will be the baby sitting available  provided by Nekwa in order to enable as many parents as possible have free time to take advantage of the consular services from the embassy with as little  disruption as possible from  children accompanying them.

According to Nekwa officials,Bouncing Castles and other kid's games will be at hand to keep the kids busy and thorough entertained in the expansive green backyard provided for free by the Elks Lodge host under the watchful eyes of adults socializing nearby with Kenyan patriotic music in the background.

"It has been 30 years since Kenyans settled in this region. We have never had a chance to come together to really celebrate our culture and identity as Kenyans and this is a good start. We urge all Kenyans in the region to come out in big numbers like we always do during other very important situations and help celebrate and build pride of who we are as a  community," said a statement released by Nekwa.

And due to the massive interest that the event has created, Nekwa officials decided to extend the deadline for ticket sales to this Saturday at 5.00pm in order to allow more Kenyans buy tickets and still give organizers an extra day to make final seating and food arrangements.

According to the event program, lunch will be strictly served between 2.30pm and 4pm with late arrivals and door ticket buyers running a risk of missing out on available Kenyan cuisine of Barbequed goat meat, Ugali, Samosa, Bajia and more.

The tickets are going for $25 for an adult and $10 for children 11- 17 years old if purchased online or from several individual and store outlets before Saturday April 18 at 5pm. Children  10 years and under will have free entrance.

To Reserve an Adult Ticket, Click Here >>>
To Reserve a youth Ticket, Click Here >>>

To purchase tickets from churches, store fronts and individuals event supporters, choose from the list below.

Lowell:
Mercy Anampiu
Janet Koome
Eagle Christian Ministries International
PCEA Imani Church-
Marion's International
Salon D'Afrique

Worcester:
St. John's Anglican Church

Malden
Harrison Maina
PEFA Church-
Johnstone Irungu

Lawrence:
St. Pauls Community church Lawrence:Njuguna

Needed for National ID Application
Application Fee: $50
2 passport size pictures
Birth Certificate
Letter from your sub chief (have your people scan and text to you via smart phone for download in USA)
Lost ID- US or Kenya Police Affidavit

NATIONAL ID REQUIREMENTS
 

1.Each applicant has to appear in person with a dully filled REG.136D form.
2.Applications for National ID's will be accepted ONLY on Tuesdays and Thursdays ( Summer 9:30 am - 4:00 pm : Winter 9:30 am - 3:00 pm )
3.The processing of ID's will take approximately 4 to 6 weeks from the date of application.
4.All applicants are required to bring (3) 35mm x 45mm (3.5 cm x 4.5 cm) size photos taken on a white background.

5. Please note that holders of first generation (big ID) are considered first time applicants and should fulfill all the requirements as indicated below under section I.

REQUIREMENTS

I. FIRST TIME APPLICANTS AND HOLDERS OF 1ST GENERATION IDENTITY CARD

• Duly filled form Reg.136A (availed at the Embassy)
• Copy of Birth Certificate of the applicant
• Copy of Valid Kenyan passport of the applicant
• Copy of Kenyan passport and/or Identity Card of either parent of the applicant

• The original 1st generation Identity card (Requirement for holders of 1st generation Identity card)

OR :

• Copy of Certificate of Registration
• Copy of Naturalization Certificate
• Copy of Valid Kenyan passport of the applicant
• The original 1st generation Identity card (Requirement for holders of 1st generation Identity card)

II. REPLACEMENT OF LOST/ DUPLICATE/ MUTILATED IDENTITY CARD: FEE $50

• Copy of a police report or a notarized affidavit stating how you lost your Identity Card (for lost cases only)

AFFIDAVIT

• Copy of the applicant's valid Kenyan passport
• Copy of Birth Certificate of the applicant
• Copy of the applicant's Identity Card (if available)
• Original Identity Card ( for duplicate or mutilated applications)

III. CHANGE OF PARTICULARS

• Original Identity Card of applicant.
• Proof of marriage i.e. Copy of marriage certificate
• Copies of the couples IDs
• Please note for married ladies who wish to change their names both husband and wife need to be present during the application process.

NOTE

All applicants must submit the following :

1) A Money Order/Cashier's Check of US$50 (Payable to Embassy of the Republic of Kenya)
2) All applicants are required to print and complete form REG. 136D
3) A prepaid, self-addressed United States Postal Service (USPS) Express overnight or Priority mail with delivery confirmation return envelope must be submitted will all applications. 

FORM

- REG. 136D

- AFFIDAVIT(for lost cases only)

BOSTON---During a recent ethnic media sitdown at the State House in Boston, Governor Charlie Baker called on meaningful immigration reform to help weed our massive driver license fraud in the state that can cause security problems by bad elements in immigrant communities.

He said that such reform can help Massachusetts solve many problems faced by the State when enforcing the law one side, and law abiding members of immigrant communities who are working hard to contribute to the well being of the commonwealth on the other.

He urged members of the immigrant communities to implore mayors and other leaders in their vicinities to press the Federal Government to enact the much overdue reforms.

The Governor also said that the State will make business procurement procedures easier to follow so that minorities and people of color can participate more in the massive business opportunities offered by the Bay State government.

The Governor pledged to work with all minorities and communities of color throughout the state to improve on all issues that they care about for their current and future generations including access to quality education, health, business opportunities and more.

The sitdown was held at the governor's office on Thursday, March 26.

Watch a more from Video clip below

LOWELL, Mass.__Recently, Kenyans in Boston were in the news for allegedly causing a serious shortage of goat meat in the Lowell area, a revelation that came to light following a dramatic escape of one goat from the Dennis Oliveira Piggery in Tewksbury.

The popular farm has served Kenyans and other immigrant communities with their beloved ethnic delicacies for more than 30 years since the pioneering immigrants landed.

As the Lowell police department got sucked into hunting  the goat,regular locals were warned  not to approach the goat should they sight it near their backyards, a popular twitter hash tag,#TheLowellGoat emerged,eliciting the a heated debate and consequent media reports accusing Kenyan nationals of eating too much barbequed goat meat,populary known asNyama Choma.

But to make up to Kenyans for the not too way off allegations, Dennis, the farm owner is throwing in a  whole goat to add to the several purchased for feasting during Sundays Kenyan cultural festival at the Lowell Lodge of Elks.

"I gave the goat that took off to some guy out there when they captured found it. Now I want to give one goat to Kenyans to enjoy during the Kenyan festival on Sunday because Kenyans have been very good customers to me for many years," he told Ajabu Africa News during an interview at his farm.
 
He added that he was honored to see that many Kenyans did not desert him after his farm was shut down by authorities for over 6 months  for several  citations, but come back in big numbers  to purchase goat meat, beef as well as poultry when the farm was re-opened recently.

In a clear testimony to the love and special relationship the farmer has with the Kenyan community, he allowed a group of Kenyan goat meat lovers to erect a special structure within the farm where they meet every Saturday night to roast goat meat over an open fire as they socialize the African way.

The corrugated iron sheet structure comes in handy as it allows Kenyans to meet all year round, regardless of the harsh New England weather.

The Oliveira farm, located at 199 Marston Street in Tewksbury attracts hundreds of customers from many east African,West African, Middle eastern and south American immigrant communities who love to feast on farm raised goats and poultry as a reminder to their motherlands.

"Kenyans are good people. They love their goat meat. I am wishing them well during the cultural festival and hope they enjoy the extra goat I am providing as my appreciations," he added.

Dennis also sought to inform other Kenyans and immigrants from other communities who may not be aware that the farm is now reopened that he is back in business, more than before.

"Come on down. We will take care of you very well out here for whatever you need. I got a lot of goats, sheep, chicken pig, cows and many other animals you may need for your events."

However, the man remained non committal when invite to attend the Boston Kenyan Festival, citing a tight schedule previously arranged for the particular day.

Thanking Dennis for his generosity, Willie Mbugua (Uncle Willie) said that the farmers goodwill gesture to the Kenyan community is a thing that others need to replicate.

"Dennis has done the right thing as we have been his customers for many years.I hope this can be replicated by other businessmen and individuals as we seek to build much needed  harmony and pride in our community," said Mbugua, a member of the New England Kenyan Welfare Association (Nekwa) that is hosting the cultural festival, and one of the pioneer Kenyan immigrants to settle in Lowell, discovering the Oliveira farm in the process over 25 years ago.

The organization is still seeking for donors to sponsor a kids bouncing castle for tomorrow’s event as well as a Kenyan public notary who may want to provide services notary services during the ID registrations that will be going on concurrently nearby the festival venue.

Extended Ticket Sales End Saturday April 18 at 5pm.

To Reserve an Adult Ticket,Click Here >>>
To Reserve a youth Ticket,Click Here >>>

BOSTON--- About 10 Kenyan members of Parliament will be attending the Boston Kenyan Festival slated for tomorrow Sunday, April 19 at the Lowell Lodge of Elks starting 2pm.

According to sources privacy to the matter, the lawmakers are excited that Kenyans have now initiated a very important cultural festival in a foreign land and will therefore join Ambassador Robinson Githae and other Kenyans at celebrating the milestone that is in its second year running.

Among the MPs who have confirmed their presence are:  Hon Agostino Neto (Ndhiwa), Hon. Victor Munyaka (Machakos), Hon. Dan Wanyama (Webuye), Hon. Ursula Ng'eny (Uasin Gishu), Hon. Paul Otuoma ( Funyula). Several others have expressed desire to attend but have not yet confirmed as they work on their schedules.

After the festival, the lawmakers will join the sports world to cheer Kenyan runners at the Boston marathon finish line on Monday which is also Patriots day, a public holiday  in the state of Massachusetts.

In addition to the members of parliament, Jamaica based Kenyan Reggae artiste, Karizman Kariz will be flying in from Kingston to attend the festival.

Karizman was among the first artistes to volunteer to perform at the inaugural Boston Kenyan festival last year at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Note : Extended advance sale for tickets to the cultural festival that includes food and entertainment are still selling at $25 per adult.

Cheaper advance ticket sales end today at 5pm Eastern Standard Time.

Kenyans interested in attending the unique event are urged to purchase the advance tickets in order to avoid inconveniences of paying at the door at a higher price of $40 and $20 respectively in order to enable organizers do a better job.

To Reserve an Adult Ticket,Click Here >>>
To Reserve a youth Ticket,Click Here >>>

To purchase tickets from churches, store fronts and individuals event supporters, choose from the list below.

Lowell:
Mercy Anampiu
Janet Koome
Eagle Christian Ministries International
PCEA Imani Church-
Marion's International- 288 West 6th St, Lowell
Salon D'Afrique- 295 West 6th St, Lowell.


Worcester:
St. John's Anglican Church

Malden
Harrison Maina
PEFA Church-
Johnstone Irungu

Lawrence:
St. Pauls Community church Lawrence:Njuguna
 

BOSTON--A company linking Kenyans in the Diaspora and prime investment properties has arrived in Boston to meet with potential investors at the Boston Kenyan Festival in Lowell.

Owned by a former Kenyan Diaspora member who has since relocated back home, in conjunction with  two other partners,the company, known as Diaspora Properties Link Kenya  Ltd (DPL) boasts of strong links with major investment companies in Kenya as well as bank financiers who have easier lending conditions.

"Our mission is to make the process of buying a property for any Kenyan in the Diaspora an easy, convenient, transparent and confidential to avoid disappointments and losses. As a Kenyan who lived in the Diaspora for over 10 years, I know firsthand of the hardships involved, and so we put together a great solution through this company with other partners," said Edward Wanjohi, the company CEO during an interview with Ajabu Africa.

Among the banks that the company is working with include Family Bank and Gulf African Bank, although customers who may prefer other banks are not turned away.

He said that the company offers properties to anyone in the range of KES 100,000 to 30millon (exchange rate of about $90) so that all can find a spot to fit in.

He added that his company does not take cash payments from clients but rather links them with the banks and property sellers as a way to avoid unnecessary loss of funds.

"The good thing is, the banks will finance 70 to 80% of all loans you qualify for."

In addition to investment properties such as plots and fully built apartments, Wanjohi said that his company offers car rental services and a cheap life insurance cover through Jubilee insurance company for Kenyans in the Diaspora that helps when they lose a loved one.

He added that Diaspora Link Properties also links Kenyans with cheap and highly affordable health insurance in Kenya for Kenyans abroad who have been forced to keep sending large sums of money to help ailing relatives in the era of large hospital bills.

"This health insurance will take the burden off your back from constantly sending money to pay hospital bills. People should contact us to get the information about it for their own benefit," he said.

Wanjohi, who landed in Boston from Dallas for the Boston Kenyan festival said that his company has a network of agents across many states in the US to make it easy for interested customers to apply for any product of interest once they review them on the company's new website, http://www.diasporapropertylinkkenya.com/.

He said that he was looking forward to meeting with Kenyans in Boston during the cultural festival to be held today in Lowell and tomorrow after the Boston marathon. 

"I came here to support Kenyans in Boston during this unique event and have a chance to inform people about our products," added the father of two whose family still resides in Kansas City.

The businessman also said he can be reached on the phone at 785-969-2807 to answer any questions people might have, and will be taking questions at the Boston Kenyan festival later today.

More info,visit:http://www.diasporapropertylinkkenya.com/.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s aircraft en route to Dubai was forced to turn back following increased fighting in Yemen.

BOSTON---The new Kenyan envoy to USA, Robinson Githae met Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker during a courtesy call where the governor pledged to work with local authorities to help establish a Kenyan Community Center in the region.

The developments took place Tuesday in Charlie Baker's State House office on Beacon Hill, a day after the Ambassador attended the Boston Marathon and the Boston Kenyan Festival held last Sunday in Lowell.

During the visit, the envoy told the governor that the Kenyan community in Boston is growing rapidly and is becoming successful in the business and educational fields, and as such, would need more assistance from the governor's office to achieve some common community goals.

"The Kenyan community in Boston has increased rapidly with an estimated number of about 20,000.The community is asking if there is something the governor can do to help them establish a cultural and community center," Githae told Charlie Baker.

In response, the governor said that he would liaise with local authorities in the Lowell area to explore ways of making the request a reality as that is more of a local issue.

"This is largely a local issue. However, we can liaise with the local authorities in Lowell if that is where most of the Kenyans reside and see what can be done about it."

The governor praised the two Kenyans from Worcester, Raphael Bibiu and Mike Chege who recently won the 2015 Massachusetts Small Business of the Year Award as founders of the Ace Medical Services Inc.

"That is very impressive.I am looking forward to attending the award ceremony," he said.

The governor congratulated Kenyans on their good performance at the Boston Marathon where a Kenyan took the women's division title with their male compatriots scooping number 3 through 6 of the top ten winners.

Governor Baker also praised the work that the New England Kenyan Welfare Association (Nekwa) was doing to enrich the life of Kenyans in Boston while far from home, as well as bringing to the attention of authorities issues of critical importance for possible solutions.

He promised to visit the growing Kenyan small businesses in the near future in his effort to promote the growth of small businesses among minority and communities of color.

The governor also thanked Ambassador Githae for paying the courtesy call before the two exchanged gifts depicting the cultures of their respective countries.

During the visit, Ambassador Githae was accompanied by the first counselor at the Embassy,Jane Mugweh and Harrison Maina, the Vice President of the New England Kenyan Welfare Association (Nekwa).

In the days immediately before Loretta Lynch's confirmation as Attorney General, one of her advisors noted that she felt that law enforcement is good for minority communities. He went further and said that she feels strongly that police and minority communities have much more in common than differences.This is probably an accurate read on Lynch's feeling about police-minority community relations. Now her feeling and believe is going to be sorely tested with the Baltimore turmoil.

It began the instant that an unarmed, non-resisting Freddy Gray died after a fatal spinal cord injury sustained during his arrest by Baltimore police. This touched off days of protests, some violence, and frantic efforts by Baltimore's hard pressed black police commission and mayor to get a handle on the turmoil. It didn't take long for civil rights leaders to make the now inevitable call for a full Justice Department probe into Gray's death. It agreed. This shoved the ball into Lynch's court. The likelihood is that it won't leave there particularly if Baltimore city officials decline to bring charges against any of the officer’s involved in Gray's death.

But even if they do, it still won't address the bigger question that Lynch almost certainly will have to deal with if not in Baltimore sooner than later somewhere else. That's the overuse of excessive force and what the feds should do about it.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder took much heat on this from conservatives who screamed that he should keep hands off all police abuse issues. This was a matter solely for local authorities. Holder also took much heat from some civil rights activists who screamed that the Justice Department should step in hard with probes and indictments in police abuse cases. Both sides were even more troubled when Holder's Justice Department issued a scathing report on the blatant corruption and serial misconduct of the Ferguson police department in the aftermath of the slaying by former Ferguson officer Darren Wilson of Michael Brown. But the department let Wilson off the hook by finding there was no grounds to indict him on civil rights charges. The issue of just how far the Justice Department could and should go in these cases was left dangling when Holder left.

So what will Lynch do in Baltimore and beyond? She'll have to look at the Baltimore case and decide that if the locals take no action against the officers in the Gray case whether there's any "compelling federal interest" in a prosecution of them, namely that the government believes that the officer's conduct constitutes a federal offense, and that there is enough evidence that the government can obtain a conviction.

There's the strong suspicion that Gray's death was caused by his physical manhandling by police during the arrest. And while there was no apparent racial motive in their confronting and arresting Gray that is not a hard and fast requirement for a civil right prosecution. The issue is whether a civilian or a suspect's rights were violated. The safeguard of that right must be a fundamental concern of federal prosecutors.

The Gray case, as in other cases involving police use of deadly force against mostly unarmed blacks, again raises the deeply troubling question about the power of the law to protect citizen from his or her unimpeded right to life and safety. Federal prosecutors play a major role in insuring that where there's the suspicion that an individual's rights might have been violated because of their race and gender that the power of federal law is brought to bear to insure that right is protected.

This was the rationale that federal prosecutors used in the Rodney King beating case to bring civil rights charge against the four LAPD officers that beat King. The linchpin was that they acted in an official capacity when they violated King's rights.

The Justice Department scrupulously tries to avoid the prosecution of a police officer. It goes to great lengths to shield itself from the charge that it's bowing to media or public pressure to prosecute. This is why the percentage of civil rights prosecutions it authorizes is infinitesimally low. Yet in Gray's death there may well be crucial federal interests in insuring the rights of individuals to be free from undue harm because of their color, or being in a public area merely because someone perceives they shouldn't be in and then acts on that perception with no cause other than that belief or perception.

The other option is for Lynch to follow Holder's lead and aggressively institute a pattern and practice action against Baltimore. That means aggressively monitoring the policies and practices of the department in relation to policing in minority communities. Holder also took heat for this from the right. But it had to be done. Baltimore has given Lynch her first chance to weigh in handily on the nation's most intractable and deadly issue. That's the wanton police slaying of unarmed blacks.

Baltimore then is her first big test.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour heard weekly on the nationally network broadcast Hutchinson Newsmaker Network.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: twitter.com/earlhutchinson

LOS ANGELES – In April 2006, millions of people took to the streets nationwide to protest a bill that sought to criminalize undocumented immigrants and anyone who assisted them. But the numbers of African Americans and African immigrants who joined the protests were very low.

For two black ministers in the Bay Area, this presented an opportunity.

That same year, Phillip Lawson, who is African American, and Kelvin Sauls, a black South African immigrant, founded the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

BAJI's founders "believed that blacks and immigration rights activists should be working together to fight racism and support immigration reform and they wondered, 'Where are the black voices?''' said Gerald Lenoir, the first BAJI executive director, in an interview with New America Media.

Those voices are now being heard in cities throughout the country as BAJI and some civil rights groups representing African immigrants join with immigration rights advocates. They are calling for a broader social justice movement and, more recently,speaking out on issues related to police violence in black communities.

Some leading members of this emerging coalition met last week at Engagement and Mobilization of African Immigrants, a forum hosted by the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at the University of Southern California.

Tia Oso, a representative of BAJI, told the gathering that her organization is building alliances to help the undocumented. She also noted that BAJI's current executive director – Opal Tometi, a first-generation Nigerian-American, is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, an organization that has grown in the wake of the 2014 police-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Furguson, Missouri.

"The agenda is about fundamentally changing the system and we're not going to compromise on that," said Oso, an Arizona native and the daughter of a Nigerian.

The effect of police violence

Others on the panel, a leader of an African immigrant organization and representatives from two California-based organizations that work on immigration issues, said recent violence involving police is galvanizing support for a broader social justice movement.

The recent spate of videos showing deaths resulting from police encounters are eye-openers for much of the country, said Cathy Cha, program director for immigrant rights and integration at the San Francisco-based Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

"Driving while black, running while black...everyone can see it," she said.

There is also a history of friction between police and African immigrants, said Amaha Kassa, executive director of the New York-based African Communities Together. Kassa said some encounters are well known, among them, the 1999 death of unarmed immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was shot 41 times by plainclothes officers in the Bronx.

Other incidents are not so well known, said Kassa, citing the teen son of Ghanaian immigrants, who fell to his death from a rooftop after running from police earlier this month in the Bronx. He said there was more news coverage this month when the daughter of Somali immigrants in Minnesota and the North Carolina-educated son of a Nigerian immigrant were both admitted to all eight of America's Ivy League universities.

"We have to tell all of our stories, and not all of them are examples of the American dream," said Kassa.

Kassa said the academic achievement of African immigrants and first-generation Africans in the U.S. ranks among the highest in the nation. However, he said they face employment discrimination when they graduate and "get the worst return on education."

A growing population

The African immigrant population has become more active on immigration issues as that population has grown, Kassa said. A Pew Research Center study released earlier this month found that the African immigrant population grew from 570,000 in 2000 to 1.4 million in 2013, an increase of 137 percent.

Some came on work visas, others on student visas, some united with their family in the U.S. and some are undocumented. However, a sizeable portion of African immigrants are not in any of those categories. They came to the U.S. under a visa program designed to diversify the country's immigrant population.

Recent failed immigration reform legislation in Congress called for the elimination of the "diversity visa" program. African immigrant activists are advocating for immigration policies that include an extension of the program. They also support the objectives of the broader immigration rights movement,among them, initiatives to get more states to make undocumented immigrants eligible for driver's licenses. Currently, undocumented residents in 10 states can legally obtain licenses.

From access to a driver's license for the undocumented, to advocating reform that would provide a "fairer" path to citizenship, the African immigrant population shares "common ground" with other immigrant communities in the U.S., said forum speaker Reshma Shamasunder, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center.

A chartered airplane carrying the former US President Bill Clinton made an unscheduled stop in Tanzania due to one of the engine's malfunction. Mr Clinton was due to land in the country last evening accompanied by his daughter,Chelsea, as part of his nine-day visit of Africa.

From Kenya,he isscheduled to go to Liberia and Morocco. It is understood that the former President's plane developed problems withthe engine on its way from Iringa, a city in central Tanzania, to Lake Manaya in northern Tanzania.

Clinton's spokesman Matt McKenna said the President's journey continued a short time later after the repairs were fixed. "Because of the airline's protocols, they landed and quickly repaired the engine," McKenna said adding,

"The aircraft was on the ground for less than 45 minutes before it embarked on its journey." Clinton, 68, will be in the country for three days touring projects that their family foundation has funded to address hunger, economic development,health care, climate change and wildlife conservation.

Clinton's visit comes ahead of US Secretary of State John Kerry visit,and two months before President Barrack Obama's.

Today, Chelsea will be at the Mbagathi District Hospital to witness the work of the Clinton Health Access Initiative that educates families on the use of Zinc/ORS in treating diarrhea. Foundation projects Later on, she will join her father at Farasi Lane Primary School for a conversation of 'No Ceilings, the Full Participation Project'.

Tomorrow, the two will be at the Moi International Sport Centre, Kasarani amphitheatre where they will address participants of the women and girls leadership training.

The two will then head to Savelberg Retreat Centre in Nairobi Adams Arcadewhere they will witness hearing aid get fitted to individuals in need of hearing assistance. Starkey Hearing Foundation, a member of Clinton Global Foundation, conducts hearing missions around the world to bring the gift of hearing.

Kenyans living in the United States washed their dirty linen in public last week during a diaspora meeting that President Uhuru Kenyatta was expected to attend.

A question by one of the participants during the diaspora gathering in Los Angeles, California, revealed deep-seated tribal fissures among Kenyans in the US, and underlined sentiments that Kenyans may have exported their bad habits abroad.

The fissures have reportedly permeated every aspect of social life in the US, which has one of the highest concentration of Kenyans in the diaspora.

Johnson Kinyua, who introduced himself during the meeting as "a Kasisi and an adjunct lecturer" opened a can of worms when he challenged organisers of the meeting to explain why those chosen to represent the diaspora at the meeting comprised people from one community.

"That desk up there is well represented," said Kinyua referring to the high table.

"It is very diverse, but I noted that the people who spoke today on behalf of the diaspora, there was no woman. All of them were also from one tribe. I think we need to recognise the diversity that is in the United States," he said.

Seated at the high table at the time was Kenya ambassador to the US, Robinson Githae, Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore and ICT Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i. Also in attendance at the event was renowned academic Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who had been expected to attend the meeting, did not make it to the US after his plane returned home under unclear circumstances.

Sentiments in the wake of the shame at the diaspora gathering revealed the divisions between Kenyans in the US.

"I found it a bit embarrassing watching the Government get called out by a Kenyan in Diaspora, for what many saw as shameful tribalism.Diaspora must embrace diversity and be a guide to the motherland on what makes up the fabric of Kenya, that indeed, this garment has all the stitches that represent the tribes that make up our great country," said Mukurima Muriuki, a Kenyan living in the United States on his twitter handle.

Another Kenyan said: "Kenyans are not one in the US" and that tribal feelings in the country were similar, if not worse than those experienced at home.

"Tribalism is extremely serious in the diaspora.Kenyan churches and fellowships here identify with respective tribes. Parties and get-togethers the same...Kenyans per se only get together for convenience.

"And with Githae, (the ambassador) around we particularly have an indecisive ambassador. He has no discernment. If we can get cohesion and unity in the US then definitely we cannot help fight tribalism back home," said the Kenyan who lives in San Antonio, Texas.
 

Citizen Diaspora wrote: "The tribalism in the diaspora has always been there but it was strengthened during the 2007 Kenya election and Obama's 2008 elections. US has the worst cases of imported tribalism."

Anna Irungu, who lives in Seattle, alluded to the possibility that the diaspora meeting in Los Angeles may have been given wide berth by other communities. "Our local priest who pastors our church that's predominantly one tribe and himself from a different minority commented that there cannot be ill feelings where all are invited but only a certain community responds to that call..." she wrote.

Githae shifted blame to organisers of the meeting for failure to take into account tribal and gender balance.

"It is the associations themselves that chose the speakers, and since they sent the names to us, it is when the names came when we realised that they had chosen only men. On the issue of one tribe, it is good to speak up. I think that question can be directed to the association and ask them why when they were told to choose their representatives, they did so...It is not me. I am blameless," he said.

Striking the right balance between what vehicles to use to accumulate savings for college, the effect of such savings on any available scholarships and the right school to choose, has never been an easy task, especially for recently arrived immigrants in USA.

However, most analysts and financial advisors everywhere agree on one thing-access to the right information in this complicated field makes the entire difference.

"If you get the right information, and act on it, chances for your children to attain the best ivy league education in the USA go up significantly, if you stay in the darkness, and rely on your own limited understanding, you could find yourself struggling through paying through college, and limit opportunities in life for your children," said Douglas Eze, a highly successful financial advisor, entrepreneur and wealth creation coach while speaking to AjabuAfrica.com.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Eze is bound to impart his wealth of knowledge and experience to parents from various minority communities in the Boston region when he attends a free entry college planning seminar at the Christ Jubilee International Ministries on Saturday, May 2^nd, starting at 11.30am.

"During my 15 years so far in the financial services industry, I have noted that among most of the minority groups throughout USA, nobody is teaching the money rules or the rules to the money game. When you are planning for college, you need to understand what you are trying to do, what college you are trying to go to. You need to find out if that college will provide financial help for your child, and how much it will cost. You need to understand what vehicle you are using to save your money for college, and whether that vehicle will affect your child’s potential financial aid," added Eze, founder and CEO of Largo Financial Services and a father of two.

According to Eze, the realization made him commit to take a leading role during the college planning seminar organized to take place in Lowell next month that will bring together many members of the African, Latino, Brazilian and other communities represented in the Mill city.

Licensed as a financial advisor in over 30 States, Eze revealed that his company works with major US financial services companies to offer clients the right products that fit their financial needs.

"We will teach you concepts that American families have been using for years. We will also give $500 scholarship rewards points  to each child whose parents will attend this very important seminar and $1000 points will be added on their birthday until they enter college.Thats how serious we take it," emphasized the married father of two.

Originally from Nigeria, Eze added that he was happy to work with many African churches and pastors in New England to help them and their members gain access to the crucial and liberating financial information.

In addition to college funding, the seminar will also provide crucial information on life insurance and burial planning, an area that has been a snag in the African immigrant community in USA, with most qualified individuals going through life with no life insurance, even though they have no problem purchasing coverage for other needs especially car insurance, health insurance as well as electronics insurance.

With over $6 million in premium sales a year by his company, Eze believes he can also teach a few willing individuals how to get involved in replicating his business and in the process help other people with their financial needs while making a ton of money for themselves.

He revealed that he bumped upon the business at 23 years old while working at an I-Hop restaurant as a student.

"I used to see people come to the restaurant in big cars while talking of 6 figure incomes they were making. So, when one lady gave me a business card to call if I wanted to make some extra money, I did not hesitate. I knew that I did not come to America to wipe tables, and before I knew it, I was into the financial services industry making a lot of money and educating folks along the process," he said.

He urged parents and interested individuals to come out in large numbers on May 2^nd for the event so they can gather tips that will help them get better financially.

Staying true to his desire to educate as many people as possible on the financial services arena, Eze has authored a book titled "Creating Generational Wealth" and has recorded multiple videos available on you tube.

The seminar has been organized by Joshua Mwanza, a financial services representative with American Classic Agency in the Boston region, in conjunction with Christ Jubilee International Ministries.

"We are very blessed to have a man like Ezes caliber coming to share with us real secrets to wealth creation right here in our own backyard. This is an opportunity of a life time to all. I hope people will avail themselves to gain great secrets to the money game while earning free scholarship credits for their children," Mwanza told Ajabu Africa.

 Interested participants are urged to register in advance for their attendance by going to the Facebook event page, click to join and then click on the Eventbrite link to reserve a seat  Or contact Joshua Mwanza for more information at: 978-590-0330.

Find out  more on Facebook here >>>>>

 

Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has said Kenya will not allow the practice of homosexuality saying the practice is against Christianity and human nature

The Deputy President has assured the religious community of the government support in opposing the introduction of same sex relations in the Kenyan society.

"We will stand with religious leaders to defend our faith and believes. We will not allow homosexuality in our society as it violates our religious and cultural believes."

Mr. Ruto was speaking during a church service at Jesus Winner Ministry in Kasarani where he was accompanied by his wife Rachel.

Early last week a court ordered the Attorney General and the National Council of NGOs to register a gay's organization arguing that the constitution protected the rights of minorities such as homosexuals.

"There's no room for homosexuality in this country.That one I can assure you", Mr Ruto assured the cheering congregation. "When we say this we are not saying so as to get votes but to protect what we all believe is not right," he added.

"All this leaders will not have come or expected to come if the country was headed in the wrong direction" he said.

Mr. Ruto assured Kenyans of the governments' commitment to unite Kenyans and fight tribalism and tribal leadership.

The US Monday pledged to help Kenya secure its borders against Al-Shabaab and other terrorists.

CHELSEA, Mass.,--Born and raised in a small Tanzanian fishing village of Kagunga, right on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, Rev. Jared Mlongecha, pastor of the International Gospel Church in Chelsea near Boston is a troubled man due to the recent developments taking place the tiny village where he grew up.

In response, the pastor is inviting Africans and friends in the area for a breakfast prayer meeting this Saturday over the growing humanitarian crisis engulfing Burundi, and threatening to spill over into the entire Great Lakes region of east Africa.

According to Rev. Mlongecha, he has become dumbfounded at the recent political turmoil in neighboring Burundi that has forced over 80,000 refugees to flee and pack into the tiny village of Kagunga.

Citing reports on the ground from fellow clergymen in Kagunga, Mlongecha said that the situation is deteriorating daily as more thousands upon thousands continue to flee the violence that has rocked the tiny country since a failed coup took place several weeks ago.

"I feel very sad with what is going on in my rural village back in Tanzania.Based on the report from the local Pastors on the ground, the refugee's arrival by the day is in thousands and their condition is catastrophic. Some of the local churches have opened their doors to shelter many of these refugees but they are having a hard time to cope.The UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) and other relief organizations currently working to alleviate the problem have been overwhelmed by the volume of the refugees. And if the political conditions continue to worsen Burundi,the whole region will be affected," he told Ajabu Africa News during a telephone interview.

Rev. Mlongecha said that the entire Great Lakes region of eastern Africa has been rocked by incredible political crisis for over two decades with the recent fresh crisis in Burundi has caused over 150,000 Burundians to flee to the neighboring countries of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

He said that his village can hardly cope with the influx of refugees.

He called on east Africans in the Boston region to join him at his church this Saturday morning for prayers and deliberations on what they can afford to do to help alleviate the suffering, even as other aid organizations struggle to keep up.

"I would like to invite you for a morning of Prayer for Burundi and the whole Region of the Great Lakes. I believe that if we the people of God will take matters of the NATIONS in our hands through prayer,God will intervene," he said quoting from the book of 11 Chronicles7:14.

The pastor added that the meeting will start at 9.30am at the church located at 85 Crescent Avenue, Chelsea, 02150.

He urged concerned Africans and well wishers to turn out in large numbers for the breakfast prayers since "an urgent need requires an urgent response."

The crisis was caused by the declaration of Burundi president, Pierre Nkuruzinza that he would seek for a third term in office instead of the two specified in the constitution.

The president, who has been in power for two 5 year terms already, has been quoted widely as saying that he has a right to run for another term as his first term was never by popular vote but rather was by a direct appointment by the Parliament. However, opposition figures have vehemently opposed the president's argument, leading to clashes between opposition activists and rebel forces on one side and the royal troops on the other.

A coup plotted by rebel troops 3 weeks ago when the president had travelled for a meeting in Tanzania failed badly, leading to the arrest of the leader, Major General Godefroid Niyombare.

However, clashes have continued unabated to date leading to the current humanitarian crisis.

To reach Rev. Mlongecha for more information, call: 781-284-0510.

Kenyans abroad have snubbed an invitation by the electoral commission to take part in a survey that would make it possible for them to vote in 2017.

The nation has been shocked to see a viral video of black teenagers being chased and slammed into the ground by a white policeman after a pool party in McKinney, Texas.

According toTwitchy, someone posting from DJ Reign's account noted that he wasn't near the event when it took place and that he didn't make the fliers. In addition, posts noted that he was paid to deejay the event and nothing more. There have been conflicting reports as to how many guests were in attendance, but many outlets put the number as high as 70 teens.

Police

Video shows McKinney, Texas, Police Cpl. Eric Casebolt holding his gun as teens at the pool party run June 5, 2015.  

YOUTUBE

Around 7:15 p.m. Friday, police arrived after receiving calls regarding teens "actively fighting" near the Craig Ranch Community North Pool.BuzzFeed News reports that some teens and adults began fighting after adults made racist comments, reportedly telling the black kids to "return to Section 8 housing."

In a YouTube video, party organizer Rhodes said that white residents began arguing with teens, including calling the teens racial slurs and telling them to leave the pool. Rhodes said that as she was defending the teens' rights to attend the pool party,two women approached her.She said one of the women smacked her, "and that is when both of the women attacked me."

Brandon Brooks, a white teen who lives in the McKinney area, recorded the footage that has gone viral of the officer slamming a teen to the ground and pulling his gun. According to the video description that accompanied the footage, Brooks wrote: "A fight between a mom and a girl broke out and when the cops showed up everyone ran, including the people who didn't do anything. So the cops just started putting everyone on the ground and in handcuffs for no reason. This kind of force is uncalled for especially on children and innocent bystanders."

Brooks later told BuzzFeed, "Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic. [The cop] didn't even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible."

The Officer

Cpl. Eric Casebolt in video footage June 5, 2015 

YOUTUBE

The officer who is shown on the video pulling his gun on the teens has been identified as 40-year-old McKinney Police Cpl. Eric Casebolt. He is a veteran of the Navy and has been an officer in McKinney for 10 years, according toFox 4 News. Heavy reports that Casebolt is a patrol supervisor and is vice president of the local police union. He teaches a self-defense course and was named Officer of the Year in 2008, according to Heavy.

The Aftermath

Since the video went viral, Cpl. Casebolt has been suspended pending an investigation into his actions, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has released a statement condemning the officer's use of force.

"While we don't know all the facts about the party, the crowd, or whether a fight broke out, what we do know is that the police response, as seen on the video, appears to be a textbook case of overuse of force," the statement reads.

"A well-trained police department would have responded more cautiously, with less hostility and using sophisticated crowd-control methods that favor de-escalation not escalation. Without question, guns were not needed and in fact risked turning a group of partying teenagers into a violent encounter that could have turned deadly," the statement continues.

Several McKinney residents have taken to social media to dispute the reporting of the story. According to one McKinney resident, who asked that the "true story" of what happened get out, a DJ was blasting obscene music in a public area and carloads of teens where arriving in the neighborhood without permission to go to the pool. When the teens were confronted, according to the resident's post, they began climbing the pool fence and arguing with a security guard. When residents confronted the teens, the residents say, it was they who were attacked with racial slurs and physically assaulted.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson predicted Monday that federal courts will ultimately allow the Obama administration toproceed with its plans to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.

"I believe we will prevail," Johnson said of the legal battle that has forced DHS to halt preparations to move forward with President Obama's controversial executive actions announced in November.A federal judge andan appeals court have temporarily blocked the measures, which would make up to 5 million undocumented immigrants eligible for deportation relief, including undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

"Our lawyers at the Department of Justice say we have the legal authority to do this," Johnson said in a speech about the nation's immigration system at Rice University in Houston. He added that the president's actions, known as deferred action, are "the right thing to do...Over and over again, in the life of this nation, there have been classes of people who, by virtue of their race, gender, religion, or nationality, exist on the margins of society and struggle to seek our acceptance."

"It has been the tradition of this great nation that, ultimately, we hear their claims and grant them relief," Johnson said.

In his remarks, the secretary also criticized what he called the "emotion and partisanship wrapped around the subject of immigration. Facts are too often drowned out by demagoguery, suspicion, exaggeration, and misperception."

As an example, Johnson cited a 2013 public opinion survey in which Americans were asked whether the number of immigrants entering the country illegally is higher or lower compared to 2003. A majority, 55 percent, said illegal immigration was rising.

In fact, Johnson said, "the opposite is true," pointing to indications that illegal immigration flows are far lower than in the past. Evidence has been emerging that such flows have fallen to their lowest level in at least two decades, with DHS and some experts crediting the billions of dollars the nation has poured into southwest border security. Other experts point to other factors for the change, such as demographic changes and economic improvements in Mexico.

"I am on a mission to separate fact from fiction about immigration in the public mind," and share more information," said Johnson, who acknowledged that DHS has said too little publicly about the subject in past years. "This too breeds suspicion and misperception to fill the void," he said.

A second Kenyan suitor seeking to marry US President Barack Obama's daughter Malia has emerged.

Rome: Pope Francis hinted Friday that he may visit Kenya in November, stopping off during a debut African tour that is also set to include Uganda and the restive Central African Republic.

Addressing thousands of priests from around the world who were gathered at Saint John Lateran basilica in Rome, Francis said that adding a Kenyan leg to his first ever African trip was "a possibility".

"It's still not certain because there are organisational problems," he added.

"If God wishes it to happen, I will go to Africa in November-to the Central African Republic and then Uganda," the pontiff said, confirming plans announced last year.

The trip to the Central African Republic will take place "before the change of president", Francis said.

Presidential and legislative elections are currently slated for July and August, but preparations are reportedly running behind schedule.

Francis's Ugandan visit will meanwhile mark the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's canonisation of the country's martyrs, Francis told the priests.

The 22 young Christian martyrs, who were executed by the local king in the late 19th century, were declared saints in 1964 during the first ever visit to Africa by a pontiff.

BOSTON--A memorial service in honor of the renowned Kenyan scholar and economist, the late Dr. Mwangi Kimenyi, will be held at the newly launched Well of Worship Center at 145 Broadway, Dracut, about 30 miles North of Boston tomorrow Sunday June 14 starting at 2pm.

According to the Board of Directors of the new church, the late Dr. Kimenyi was a frequent visitor to Boston where he has several family members and many friends,  most of whom said they would be unable to attend the main memorial to be held in Baltimore Maryland same day.

Among Dr. Kimenyi's family in the area include his younger sister, Florence Kaara of Dracut, her children as well as a sister in law.

"The late professor was a well-known figure in the Kenyan community, both in the Diaspora and back home. He has done a lot of contributions to the Kenyan community as a scholar on the world stage as a scholar and so when the family approached us to host the memorial, we felt it is very important to do so," said Peter Okeny, chairman of the board for the new church.

"As a fellowship of believers, we are here to preach the gospel. We are here to fulfill the Great Commission and speak it to the people so we can bring fresh hope to a suffering community in this region of the world," he added during an interview with Ajabu Africa News.

The late Dr. Kimenyi passed away last after a short illness, a development that shocked many in the Kenyan community including Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta.


The late Prof. Mwangi Kimenyi.PIC/BMJ MURIITHI/NATION

In a condolence statement issues shortly after the death, President Kenyatta said that the late Dr. Kimenyi had championed for Kenya's interests as an economist at the World Bank and as a scholar in many educational institutions.

"The news of the death of Professor Samson Mwangi Kimenyi is a moment of shock and sorrow, not just for his family, but for Kenya.The late Prof Kimenyi never forgot his origins, and he always put his expertise at Kenya's disposal. He was a founder of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy and Research Analysis, and he published widely and effectively in matters of concern to Africa and its Diaspora. Equally, he was a mentor to younger Kenyan academics, and he defended Kenya and Africa's cause in forums abroad," said the President in his statement.

The president said that during his recent trip to the USA in August last year, the late Prof. Kimenyi had hosted him at the Brookings Institution where Kimenyi served as the Director of the Africa Growth Initiative.READ FULL STATEMENT HERE >>>

To give Kenyans in Boston a chance to mourn the late professor Well of Worship church board added the Dr. Kimenyi had frequently visited and worshipped with Kenyans in Boston and so they were saddened by the shocking death as well, and would like to memorialize him as well.

"As the new Well of Worship Center, we are part of the Kenyan community here. We should be involved in community issues are something happens. We are inviting Kenyans from near and far to come and be part of this memorial of the late Dr. Kimenyi who had contributed significantly to our country," said Francis Ngigi Kang'ethe, a member of the church board.

At the time of his untimely death, the late Dr. Kimenyi was also a Professor in Economics at the University of Connecticut.

Apostle George Melden, the apostolic leader at the Well of Worship Center added that the new is humbled to open it's doors to everyone who would like to attend the memorial.

"We welcome you all to mourn the loss of this great son of Kenya," he said.

According to the new church board, the Well of Worship Center is a fellowship of believers that is open to all members of the community in the region who may be looking for a place where emphasis is on prayer and worship rather than social comfort.

"It will also give a platform to all aspiring preachers of the word from any community out there, both young and old to come and practice their calling after which they can go out and plant more churches wherever God calls them to go," said Margaret Muya while speaking to Ajabu Africa News.

Currently, the church has six preachers alternating harmoniously to at lead weekly fellowships and Sunday services.

Other board members involved at organizing the memorial included Jane Kuria, of the recent shockingHeaven is Real, Hell is Real supernatural revelation,Simon Mwangi as well as Damaris Gakuya.

He hails from Ndakaini village, Muranga County, central Kenya.

The memorial has been planned to start at 2pm, shortly after the church's Sunday service that starts at 10.30am to 12.30pm.

Kenyans were also informed that ample parking is available for those who may want to attend the evening memorial or the morning church service, or both.

For more information, call:

Peter Okeny: 978-761-5698
Margaret Muya: 978-394-0754
Apostle George Melden: 832-813-9285
Simon Mwangi: 978-596-6246
Damaris Gakuya: 978-277-8810
Jane Kuria: 978-996-8532

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday increased the available protections for undocumented immigrants in deportation proceedings, authorizing federal courts to be able to postpone the dates for the immigration proceedings at the request of those affected.

In an 8-1 vote, the high court ruled in favor of Noel Reyes Mata, a Mexican citizen who has lived in the United States illegally for 15 years and, after being found guilty of assault, received a deportation order from an immigration judge.

Then, according to the ruling, he expressed his desire to appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest administrative entity for enforcement of immigration laws.

However, his attorney did not file the proper paperwork within the required 90 days and he decided to find another lawyer and again asked the court to let him appeal the deportation order.

The BIA refused to provide him with any relief and, later, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals claimed that it did not have the authority to extend the deportation deadline.

"Whether the BIA rejects the alien's motion to reopen because it comes too late or because it falls short in some other respect, the courts have jurisdiction to review that decision," wrote Justice Elena Kagan in the majority decision.

The high court ruled that the Fifth Circuit wrongly claimed that it lacked jurisdiction to consider an immigrant's appeal of the BIA's denial of an untimely motion to reopen his removal proceedings, thus changing the rules of the game regarding immigrants and deportation proceedings. EFE

The US State Department said that it will need another week before it can completely fix a technical issue that has taken down the US visa issuing system.

Thousands of temporary farm workers and tourists have been stranded at least since the State Department first announced a hardware problem that halted the issuing of visas since June 9.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that more than 100 experts from both public and private sectors are trying to fix the problem.

"This is a global issue and we're working around the clock to fix it," he said at a press briefing,reportedReuters. "That said, for all the hard work, don't expect the system will be on-line before next week."

The hardware failure, which has not been attributed to a cyber-security hacking attack, has affected the system that carries out security checks on visa applications, halting work at 235 consular posts.

Specifically, a central database isn't receiving biometric information that includes fingerprints from US consulates worldwide.

During the 2014 fiscal year, the State Department issued 9.9 million non-immigrant visas for workers and tourists, with nearly half a million permanent or immigrant visas.

Temporary workers include those who work in agriculture. Thousands of farm workers have been stranded at the Mexican border and that is leading to losses of millions of dollars as fresh produce crops that remain unpicked start to rot. More than 1,000 workers are waiting to come to California to pick berries and other crops.

"It's a crisis," said Jason Resnick of the Western Growers Association, which represents farmers in California, Arizona and Colorado, toThe Packer newspaper.

Resnick said that the workers stuck in border towns are often from rural areas of Mexico and are vulnerable to victimization by criminals.

Growers who use H-2A visa workers are responsible for paying for their food and lodging expenses, and the delays are causing extra expenses to growers.

Resnick said the crisis is another reason lawmakers need to revisit reform for the guest worker program.

A Kenyan woman and her baby were stabbed to death on Monday afternoon in Anaheim, California.

Not to be outdone by a Kenyan lawyer who offered president Obama 50 cows among other livestock for his daughter Malia's arm in marriage, a Jamaican farmer has up the ante and is offering president Obama 10 acres of marijuana.

Unlike the Kenyan, the Jamaican farmer does not want Malia for his wife, he wants her to be his daughter-in-law. Roy Chambers of St. James,Jamaica says he believes Malia and his 1y year old son would make a perfect couple and have a perfect family.

"My marijuana farm is my most valuable possession but am willing to give it to president Obama in exchange for his beautiful daughter to marry my son," said Mr. Chambers. "I tried to approach President Obama with my offer while he was in Jamaica a few months ago but the security prevented me. I have sent him a regular mail to the white house and also an email so I hope he will reply soon," he continued.

President Obama will now have a difficult task of deciding what he wants in exchange for his daughter's wife in marriage. From a Kenyan he could get fifty cows, 70 sheep and 30 goats. From a Jamaican he can get an entire 10 acres of the Jamaican high grade and Bob Marley's favorite sensimilla. Decisions, decisions.

18 Karat Reggae reached out to the white house to find out if President Obama was entertaining any of the offers, as expected, we did not receive a response.

On the order of Gov. Robert Bentley, the Confederate battle flag which stands at the foot of the confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds was taken down this morning.

Two workers came out of the Capitol building about 8:20 a.m. and with no fanfare quickly and quietly took the flag down. They declined to answer questions.

Moments later Gov. Bentley emerged from the Capitol on his way to an appearance in Hackleburg. Asked if he had ordered the flag taken down, the governor said, "Yes I did."

Asked his reasons for taking it down and if it included what happened in Charleston last week, the governor said, "Yes, partially this is about that. This is the right thing to do. We are facing some major issues in this state regarding the budget and other matters that we need to deal with. This had the potential to become a major distraction as we go forward. I have taxes to raise, we have work to do. And it was my decision that the flag needed to come down."

Bentley said before he made the final decision he checked to see if there were any impediments in the law or state policy that would prevent him from taking down the flag and found none, so he acted.

After the battle flag-which is at the center of the controversy was gone, workers began removing three other Civil War era flags.

They are the First National Confederate Flag, commonly preferred to as the "Stars and Bars;" the second flag is the Second National Confederate Flag, more commonly known as the "Stainless Banner;" and the last flag standing is the Third National Confederate Flag.

About 90 minutes after the battle flag was removed, about a half dozen workers removed those remaining flags. The workers did not answer questions.

The view of the flags on the huge monument has been obstructed by the heavy trees at the site which is just at the bottom of the steps leading to the main doors of the Capitol's north entrance and is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. It is a very short walk from the governor's office.

The cornerstone of the Confederate monument was laid by Jefferson Davis, president of the CSA (Confederate States of America) on April 29, 1880.

After the flags were removed, a protester carrying a Confederate flag showed up at the monument.

"If you don't change people's hearts, changing a flag won't do anything toward racism," said Mike Williams of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

While the federal government stalls on immigration reform, some states have begun acting on their own. Much attention in the last decade has focused on Republican-dominated areas that have tightened enforcement. Meanwhile, more quietly, California moved in the opposite direction, encouraging integration rather than deportation.

California has passed more than a dozen laws on immigrant integration between 2001 and the present. In mid-June, the state expanded healthcare access to all undocumented children and boosted spending for naturalization assistance. These various laws collectively produce a kind of state-level citizenship--call it "the California Package."

The California Package is innovative in several respects. Not only does it grant rights to immigrants that are restricted at the federal level, but it also tends to blur the distinction between citizens, authorized, and unauthorized immigrants — valuing everyone who lives in the state and contributes to society.

Thus, for example, qualification for in-state tuition is not based on immigrant status but rather on the number of years any person has spent in the K-12 system in California. Similarly, the state passed a law in 2014 that requires all professional licensing boards to consider applicants regardless of their immigration status. And all residents can obtain a driver's license.

This creation of a de facto system of state citizenship may seem radical, especially after a century or more of thinking about immigration law as falling squarely in the domain of the federal government. However, we have seen even more robust forms of state citizenship in the past.

Between the Civil War and the early 1900s, more than a dozen states allowed noncitizens the right to vote, and many allowed them to cast a ballot not only in local but also in state and federal elections. These noncitizens simply had to declare their intention to become citizens, a relatively easy task given that the United States had fairly lax rules on immigration at the time-with the notable exception of Asians, who were excluded from immigration and naturalization.

The California Package does not go quite so far. In fact, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill last year that would have allowed legal permanent residents to serve on juries, and several attempts to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, including school board elections, have failed.

Still, the California Package stands out as significant today, especially in light of the failure of comprehensive immigration reform and, more recently, the blocking of President Obama's executive order on deportation relief and work authorization for the parents of U.S. citizens.

The California Package also stands out in contrast to the policies of its neighboring state — what we might call "the Arizona Package." If we classified states by their immigrant policies, California and Arizona would occupy opposite ends of the spectrum.

Arizona has been passing restrictive measures on immigration since 2004, and even though the U.S. Supreme Court blocked most aspects of its enforcement law in a 2012 decision, the state still has some of the toughest measures on the books when it comes to employee verification, state voter registration and restrictions on accessing state benefits.

In Arizona, an undocumented high school graduate cannot qualify for in-state tuition, state financial aid or health benefits, even if she is the beneficiary of Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. By contrast, an undocumented high school graduate in California can qualify for education and health benefits and ultimately find work as a board-certified accountant, architect or engineer. And she can do these things even if she is not a beneficiary of DACA.

Backers of California's pro-integration laws have justified these measures as a way to get more immigrants contributing to local economies. Given the likelihood of continued policy gridlock in Washington, we can expect a number of liberal states to hear California's message, and to follow suit.

Karthick Ramakrishnan is a professor of public policy, and Allan Colbern is a doctoral candidate in political science, at UC Riverside.

In the world of aviation, on-the-job selfies are the quickest way to find yourself in the unemployment line.

Two pilots were fired after taking photos with an actress in the cockpit during a flight on Tuesday from Buenos Aires to Rosario. The woman, Vicky Xipolitakis, shared the photos with her 405,000 followers on Twitter.

In the photos, the trio looks like they're having a great time--smiling widely as they pose in the cockpit.The problem is that one of the photos was clearly taken while the plane was in-flight, a fact that didn't impress airline management.

Mariano Recalde is the president ofAerolineas Argentinasand told the local news that the pilots in-air selfies put other lives at risk. "As soon as we became aware of the situation, we dismissed the pilots," said Recalde. "They are two irresponsible people."

Xipolitakis is an actress and model who is famous for regularly posting seductive photos on her social media. She has been barred from flying with the airline for five years for her part in the incident.

This isn't the first time a pilot landed in hot water after snapping photos in the cockpit.Earlierthis month, a Japan Airlines pilot was suspended from his position after he took a selfie in the cockpit with a flight attendant.

And back in March, the internet went into a tizzy after a woman posted photos sitting in the cockpit during her flight from Taipei to Hong Kong. The Civil Aviation Department requested that the airline provide an explanation for the incident.

Massachusetts State Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office are working with MassDOT to expand outreach to the public through digital billboards seeking assistance identifying the unknown toddler whose body was found on Deer Island last month.

A total of 84 MassDOT-permitted billboards in 50 locations across Massachusetts (including the one pictured here, on I-95 in Canton) will feature dedicated tip lines that may be reached by phone or text message along with a computer-generated composite image created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Tipsters are reminded not to text while driving.

Anyone with information on the girl's identity may text the word GIRL followed by their tip to the number67283.The text-a-tip line is completely anonymous and does not provide authorities with any information about the tipster. A phone line is also available at617-396-5655. All tips will go directly to the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit, which is investigating the little girl's death.

A woman walking her dog along the western shore of Deer Island found the child's body in a trash bag on the afternoon of June 25. The girl is believed to have been about 4-years-old, had brown eyes and brown hair, weighed about 30 pounds, and stood about 3.5 feet tall. She was wearing a distinctive pair of white leggings with black-and-white polka dots and was found with a zebra-print fleece blanket that investigators believe may have been special to her. 

In the days and weeks that followed, investigators have acted on hundreds of leads and coordinated dozens of well-being checks on children locally, nationally, and internationally. To date, however, none have led to the child's identification.

Three counties in Nyanza are caught up in an ‘ownership’ row for US President Barack Obama, just hours before his historic visit to the land of his father.

Although, the US has said the president will not be visiting "home" during his three-day visit, this has not stopped Siaya, Homa Bay and Migori counties from claiming associations with him.

And Homa Bay and Migori appear to have valid reasons in their bid to steal Siaya's thunder. For your information, Siaya is the county that hosts the world famous village called K'Ogelo. 

Should Obama decide to make a surprise decision and visit home, perhaps he should consider going to Obama. For it is from Obama village in Migori County that, according to Governor Okoth Obado, that his ancestors came from.

Speaking to The Standard on phone, Migori Governor said Obama village was in the county long before people came to know of Barack Obama.

"Obama village has been in this county even before anyone ever knew that there would come a leader called Barack Obama. I saw many businesses and roads being named Obama just after the US President became Illinois Senator. This village of Obama in Awendo sub-county is the main origin of the K'Ogelo clan," said Obado.

Obado says there is a distortion of facts regarding where the Obama family traces its roots.

"I get disturbed when I see people misleading Kenyans and the world that the Obama family is entirely in Siaya County. That family traces its roots right in this village (Obama village). When we remain quiet, people should not think we do not know the history of this great leader," said Mr Obado.

But before you conclude that Obama is the best place for Obama to visit, perhaps you should listen to Homa Bay County Governor Cyprian Awiti. He told The Standard in an interview that the Obama family first settled in Kanyadhiang' village in Kendu Bay before moving to Alego Kogelo in Siaya.

Awiti further gave other reasons why President Obama should identify with Homa Bay. First, the late Tom Mboya, the man who helped Barack Obama senior (US president's father) to a secure scholarship in the US, hailed from Homa Bay County. Just think about it, if Mboya did not give Obama senior a scholarship, would we have a President Obama today? The second reason that Awiti gave is that Obama Senior lived in Kanyadhiang', Homa Bay, before moving to Siaya.

"In fact," says Awiti, "Homa Bay is home of the Obama family. Even today, the family is still here and indeed, Barack Obama visited this place before he became a senator. I wish he would spare some time to even lay a wreath on the late Mboya's mausoleum."

Mama Sarah Obama in an interview with The Standard confirmed that, indeed, they have a family in Homa Bay County.

"When Barack visited in 1991, I took him to Kanyadhiang' village in Kendu Bay, Homa Bay County, where our larger family is, and believe you me, there was no special bed for him and he did not mind sleeping on a mat and covered himself with an old bed sheet," she said amid laughter.

But if there is a reigning champion in this Obama "game", it must be Siaya. The county claims the strongest and closest relation with Obama, and this is evident from the popularity the county has gained since Obama was elected senator in 1996.

K'Ogelo's popularity grew tenfold when Obama became the US president. The village's association with the world's most powerful man also came with good tidings. The village now boasts of electricity, better roads and security.

Obama's father was born in 1936 in K'Ogelo, to Hussein Onyango Obama's second wife Akumu. Hussein's third wife, Sarah Onyango Obama, is the US president's oldest living relative and hails from K'Ogelo. Kenyans know her as 'Mama Sarah'.

Siaya Governor Cornel Rassanga well K'Ogelo's place in history. He notes this is the place where Obama hailed from and advises others to stop laying claim to him.

"When Obama meets governors I will ensure I tell him he is a resident of my county, and therefore he must look at me with good eyes," he said.

US President Barack Obama was on Thursday night scheduled to leave for Nairobi via Germany.

BOSTON,--The much awaited, first ever African Hidden Talents competition in New England kicked off yesterday with Nigerian Nollywood top host, Perez Egbi, 3 judges and performers from Kenya, Nigeria, Cape Verde Islands communities providing maximum entertainment during day one of the show.

About two dozen competitors showed up for the event, with 5 making it to the grand finale that will be held in September, while over a dozen also made it to the second round that will continue tomorrow.

However, organizers said that more first time competitors are also welcome to showcase their talents tomorrow as well and get a shot to the Grand finale, where the winner will scoop $3,500 cash prize.

"We are not locking anyone out. New entrants can come tomorrow Sunday and register at the door. We want to bring out all the African talents that we can in this region. All you have to do is show up. There is no age limit and there is no registration fee," said Lilian Emefiele, producer of the new show.

"I love this thing. There is a lot of talent among Africans here and I am having a lot of fun. I am so glad that I came and I hope to see more people on Sunday," said host Perez, who flew in from Nigerian for specifically to encourage Africans in Boston to explore their artistic talents.

The judges, R to L:Taka Tani, an actress form Cameroon, Jack Baguma from the Ugandan Community in Burlington and Naomi Osagiede from the Nigerian community. AJABU PHOTO/H.MAINA

The inaugural day of the event saw fierce competition among performers, forcing the three judges--Taka Tani, an actress form Cameroon, Jack Baguma from the Ugandan Community in Burlington and Naomi Osagiede from the Nigerian community based in Brockton, and president of the African Hidden Talents, into a lively back and forth over who would qualify to advance.

The second place winner will get $2,500 with the third finisher pocketing $1,000.

Among items presented during the first day included gospel music presentations, secular music, poems, and dances. More is expected on day 2.

The Best Western Hotel is located at 1 Raining Rd, Woburn, MA 01801. ( Right Off Exit 36 of I-93 North or South).

Kenya's Susan Gitau with host, Perez Egbi

A performer from Cape Verde Islands

Kenya's Esther Gitau faces the judges. Ajabu Pic/H.Maina

Nigerian poet

Nigerian dance group

Kenya's Shiro from Worcester.

Nigeria's 4 year old contestant.

Televangelist Pat Robertson tries to insist that he's not "some sort of right-wing extremist," which could only be convincing to someone who has never watched an episode of his daily television show, "The 700 Club."

An example would be a recent program in which a Christian Broadcasting Network reporter profiled the debate in Kenya over President Obama's support for LGBT rights and Kenyan Bishop Mark Kariuki's anti-LGBT efforts.

In an interview with CBN, Kariuki called on Kenyan leaders to reaffirm the country's laws making homosexuality a crime punishable by up to 14 years of imprisonment, and urged Obama to reverse his support for LGBT rights before it leads to America's destruction.

Robertson, who, like Kariuki, believes that LGBT rights will lead to divine wrath against America, said that "those Africans got it right." "One wishes that the President of the United States would listen to some of his fellow Africans, cousins, to what they have to say because they speak truth and they speak wisdom," he added.

BOSTON--Highlighting the importance of early work experience and its correlation to long-term career success, Gov. Charlie Baker today met with nearly 100 young people benefitting from the Commonwealth's YouthWorks summer jobs program.

Approximately 4,000 teenagers across the Commonwealth are participating in the YouthWorks program this summer, which provides summer jobs in the public, non-profit and private sectors to lower-income young people ages 14 to 21.

YouthWorks is a state-funded program administered by Commonwealth Corporation --a quasi-public state agency--on behalf of the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The Fiscal Year 2016 budget signed by Governor Baker earlier this month allocated $11.5 million to YouthWorks--the highest amount ever for the program --for next summer's programming.

Massachusetts is one of the only states in the nation to invest in state-funded early work experiences and work-readiness programs for low-income young people.

Since 2007, more than 33,000 young people have been employed through YouthWorks.

Gov. Baker on Thursday visited a neighborhood center in Mattapan operated by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD)--one of the non-profit organizations that facilitates the YouthWorks jobs program.

"With YouthWorks, we are aligning what employers tell us they need in future workers with experience, education and skill-building programs,"Governor Baker said. "We need to replicate what works and do more of it so young men and women can find a path that leads them to a job and ultimately a career."

Governor Baker was joined by Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker, II, and Boston Red Sox's Chief Operating Officer Sam Kennedy, along with Boston Police Superintendent William Gross. The Boston Police Department employs approximately 60 teenagers every summer.

"Companies tell us again and again they cannot find enough skilled workers to fill available jobs,"Secretary Walker said. "By supporting young people in acquiring the skills they need to enter and be successful in the workforce, we're also meeting the needs of businesses for a pipeline of skilled workers."

"We are tremendously grateful to Governor Baker and our state legislators for their support of state funding for youth summer jobs, including expanded funding for next summer,"said John Drew, president and chief executive officer of ABCD. "That increase is a critical step in serving the needs of thousands of Boston teens from low-income families who are eager to work, learn and succeed."

ABCD, through its SummerWorks program, partnered with 250 employers to provide 1,050 Boston teens jobs this summer. The young people are working in museums, health centers, and day camps, among other places. The Boston Police Department employs young people every year, offering teenagers mentorship and class discussions in order to strengthen relationships between inner-city teens and police.

The rigors of the program were raised this year with new requirements aimed at ensuring teens leave with a plan to help them find their next job in the private sector. Young people who get jobs this summer must have a resume, and a portfolio describing the skills they earned when they finish working.

They must also participate in "Signal Success," a new hands-on work readiness education program overseen by Commonwealth Corporation.

Work experience is critically important for the long-term success of young people. Research shows teens who work have long-term gains in employment, future earnings, and educational outcomes.

Students who work up to 20 hours per week during high school are more likely to earn a bachelor's degree than students who do not work, research shows. Teens with early work experience also tend to attain work in higher-level occupations later in life, and tend to have jobs with pension plans and employer-provided health insurance.

Talk about a formidable one-two punch! I've previously teased the possibility of Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira working together on the same project, but I didn't expect it to happen on stage (this is a film blog after all). No matter - I'll certainly take it! And if you live in NYC, here's an upcoming treat for you to get excited about.

Nyong'o will make her New York stage debut this fall in the Public Theater's production of the war drama "Eclipsed," which is written by Danai Gurira (yes, she's a playwright as well -an award-winning playwright I should add-if you didn't already know; I've mentioned it on this blog a number of times).

The theater made the announcement today.

"Eclipsed" is set in 2003 near the end of the civil war in Liberia, and follows a group of women who are captives of rebels fighting the government.

In a statement, the Public Theater's artistic director, Oskar Eustis, called the work a "feminist reading" of a conflict that is "both heart-breaking and profoundly life-affirming."

"Eclipsed" will be directed by Liesl Tommy, who previously helmed the play's premiere at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington in 2009.

The show is to begin previews at the Public Theater on September 29, and continue through November 8, with opening night scheduled for October 14 (just in time for the premiere of the next season of "The Walking Dead," and prior to the theatrical opening of the next "Star Wars" movie).

Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya is to build huge railway bridges over the unique national park in the capital Nairobi, a move conservationists welcomed as a positive step on Tuesday.

The railway line, from the port city Mombasa to Nairobi,was due to cut through the 117 square kilometre (45 square mile) wilderness, where buffalo and rhino roam just seven kilometres (four miles) from the bustling high-rise city centre.

But Kenya's wildlife service, the land commission and national railways authorities have agreed to build long bridges stretching for potentially as much as nine kilometres over key parts of the park.

"We intend to build the bridge that will have an entire length of up to nine kilometres," said Paul Muya, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

No details have been given for when construction would begin, but KWS said the bridge will rise as high as 20 metres (66 feet) above the ground at some points, to allow animals to cross beneath.

Conservation activist Paula Kahumbu, who heads the Wildlife Direct campaign group, said the bridge was the best option available.

"The elevation is a very innovative approach, that will be a solution to future developments passing through wildlife areas," she said.

Kenya launched in 2013 the construction of a Chinese-funded $13.8 billion (10 billion euro) flagship railway project to dramatically increase trade and boost the east African country's position as a regional economic powerhouse.

But conservationists warned it threatened the park's existence.

The key transport link is eventually hoped to extend onwards to Uganda, and then connect with proposed lines to Rwanda and South Sudan.

President Barack Obama's visit to his father's homeland concluded on a Sunday with an address to nearly 5,000 young Kenyans in an indoor arena just outside Nairobi. There,he toldthe adoring crowd, "I am proud to be the first American president to come to Kenya, and of course, I'm the first Kenyan American to be president of the United States."

Amid the bustling streets of Washington, D.C., in the midst of Monday morning traffic, a growing body of protesters could be heard for blocks.

"Change the game, time is coming! Change the game, we're getting ready!" they sang.

The Reverend Jamal Bryant, pastor of Baltimore's Empowerment Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church, led just under 200 people in a peaceful assembly with a strident demand. They want the U.S. Department of Justice, under the direction of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, to take over the investigation into the death of Sandra Bland.

Bland, 28, was arrested several weeks ago after a routine traffic stop for assaulting a public servant and later found dead in her Waller County, Texas, cell from an alleged suicide.

"Over the last two weeks, six African-American women have died in police custody. And while we realize black men have already been targeted in mass incarceration it looks like the next in line are black women," Bryant said. "Today we've assembled to take a stand not just for Sandra Bland, but for sisters that are under attack all over the country," he said, standing shoulder-to-should with protestors holding hand written signs that read “I am Sandra Bland," "I am Ralkina Jones" and "I am Sarah Lee Circle Bear" -signs listing the names of women of color who've died in recent weeks while in jail.

When asked what sort of response he anticipates receiving from Lynch, Bryant replied: "I am eager and expecting that with the assault on African-American women she will be able to identify and I expect that she will take action."

"We are on the front line urging Lynch and the Department of Justice to stand with us. We have come to implore the Department of Justice to live up to its name," said Bryant, 44.

Tamika Mallory, a community organizer for the Justice League New York, thanked Bryant for leading the protest. She recalled a phone conversation they had weeks ago when she called him crying hysterically after learning the details of Bland's death and urged him to get involved.

Mallory says she's more than a community organizer. She said she's also a concerned activist committed to fighting for justice in cases of police brutality perpetrated against minorities.

"[Our organization] specifically works on police misconduct cases in New York," she said. "In April 2015, we marched from New York to D.C. and even traveled to Baltimore when Freddie Gray died."

"This is a very serious issue and something we have to stand up against," Mallory added. "I am Sandra Bland. It could have been me, my mother, my sister or anyone of us at any time. We cannot stand by and watch what we know is a pattern where women are turning up dead in police custody. The Department of Justice needs to do what it says it does and protect every citizen and every human being the same."

Protesters of all ages and social strata gathered for the rally. Reality TV celebrity Yandy Smith-Harris of "Love & Hip Hop New York" traveled from New York to the District seeking justice for Bland and the five other women who've died while in police custody in recent weeks.

"I'm not here as a celebrity," she said. "I'm here because I'm tired. I'm here because I have questions. I'm here because I want my questions answered and they haven't been. I'm here because there are so many inadequacies that I don't understand and I just want to know why. And because no one is telling me why or feels like they have to answer my questions. I have a problem with that too."

Noticeably present were a number of mothers with very young daughters under the age of five.

Shay Miller, a resident of Northeast, said she felt it important to bring her one-year-old daughter Eva to stand in solidarity with Bryant and other demonstrators seeking justice.

"As a Black woman in this era I feel like my voice should be heard. I feel like if my voice isn't heard I'm not standing for anything," Miller said.

Willie Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast, shared his disappointment with the Department of Justice's inaction in cases like Bland's that have gained national attention.

"The federal government has failed to do its job and in many instances it has failed to prosecute [those responsible] for causing the deaths of black men and women," he said.

Near the end of the protest, Bryant issued a statement to the 2016 presidential candidates, urging them to adopt justice reform as part of their platforms to gain favor among African-American and Latino voters.

"If you can't understand the importance of the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' then you won't matter to us," he said. "We need all elected officials to be accountable - not just the Republicans, but every Democratic candidate also."

"Please know this election cycle you will not take the Black and Latino vote for granted. We need to hear about policies, laws, justice reform and what you will do about police who are corrupt and feel like they can handle Black and Latino people any kind of way. At this moment, here are your options -justice or else," Bryant concluded.

Joseph Njeru, a 22 year old Kenyan boy from Mbeere in Embu county has become the first Kenyan to ever join up the world famous National Basketball League (NBA), media reports indicate.

Njeru, a 6'6 tall man who plays KPA in Kenya's basketball league will soon be headed for trials with the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers, Kenyan media outlets reported Tuesday. According to the Nairobi Wire, Njeru is an Alumni of the Upper Hill High School. Watch video below.

A Limuru court has released televangelist James Ng'ang'a, who is on trial over a road crash that claimed a woman's life, on a Sh500,000 cash bail.

PASADENA, CA---Laureen Noelle Awino Otwala, a 34 year old Kenyan woman has gone missing in Pasadena, California.

According to a press release by Pasadena Police Department, Otwala was last seen at the Fuller Theological Seminary located at 135 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena on July 10, 2015.

The police described Otwala as a black female, 5' 3", 125 lbs. Dark complexion, black and red braided hair and brown eyes.

News of the missing Kenyans was first reported to the police when the Theology School where Otwala is suspected to be a student filed a missing person's report, according to one Kenyan who contacted Ajabu Media after receiving the report via an email from a former friend in the Seminary.

The Kenyan, who requested anonymity, said that his American friend at the seminary knew very little about Otwala and "doesn't seem like she has family/relatives around".

Last year, Jennifer Mbugua, a 33 year old Kenyan woman went missing in Fall River, near Boston, prompting a massive search effort by the Kenyan community and friends.

However, the efforts to trace Miss. Mbugua have remained futile and no word has ever been heard about her since then.

Pasadena Police is requesting anyone in the public who may have any kind of information regarding the missing Kenyan in California to contact them on 911, your local police department or the Pasadena Police Department at 626-744-4241.

Read more from the Police Report here:http://local.nixle.com/alert/5476396/

LOS ANGELES: In his first interview since being fired from the WWE in late July, Hulk Hogan apologized on "Good Morning America" for his use of the n-word and insisted that he's not a racist.

"I'm not a racist, but I never should have said what I said. It was wrong. I'm embarrassed by it," the former pro wrestler, who's real name is Terry Bollea, told ABC News' Amy Robach in an interview that aired Monday on "ood Morning America."

Hulk said he grew up in an environment where the N-word "was just thrown around like it was nothing."

"People need to realize that you inherit things from your environment," he said. "And where I grew up was south Tampa, Port Tampa, and it was a really rough neighborhood, very low income. And all my friends, we greeted each other saying that word."

He also revealed that he was having suicidal thoughts around the time that he was taped, without his knowledge, using racial epithets about his daughter Brooke Bollea's then boyfriend.

"I was at the lowest point of my life to the point where I wanted to kill myself," Hogan said. "I was completely broken and destroyed and said, 'What's the easiest way out of this?' I mean, I was lost."

The WWE stripped its website, including its Hall of Fame section, of Hogan's image and name after it was revealed that he used racial slurs in a 2005 sex tape that' at the center of a lawsuit he's filed against Gawker Media. Hogan sued Gawker for $100 million after the site posted clips from the video online in October 2012.

"Oh, my gosh. Please forgive me. Please forgive me," he said Monday. "I think if you look at the whole picture of who Hulk Hogan is, you can see over all the years that there's not a racist bone in my body."

Brasilia: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff criticized ride-sharing app Uber on Wednesday for adding to unemployment, but she said each city had to decide how to deal with the service that has riled conventional taxi drivers.

Brazil's three major cities Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia have all moved to ban the mobile app developed by Uber Technologies Inc that enables users to hail Uber drivers for rides. None of the bans has yet taken effect, with mayors holding off on approving the laws.

"Uber is complicated because it takes jobs away from people... It leaves taxis with less work," Rousseff said in response to a reporter's question. "It's not an easy issue. It depends on the rules of each city and state, because it is not a federal government decision," she said.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the capital Brasilia, lawmakers have voted to ban the unregulated services of Uber but the federal district governor vetoed the ban and set up a commission to decide what is best for the city.

In Rio, the city council proposed a new law to prohibit unregulated taxi services in a move designed to ban Uber. Mayor Eduardo Paes has not yet decided whether to sign it into law, but has said he would like to develop a rival technology for the city's taxi drivers.

More than a thousand taxi drivers protested against Uber in Rio in July, blocking roads and stalling traffic during morning rush hour.

In Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, a vote to ban the ride-sharing app is similarly awaiting the signature of mayor Fernando Haddad.

Taxi drivers complain that Uber drivers are not properly regulated and have fewer overhead costs, giving them an unfair advantage. 

NAIROBI: Hot on the heels of Uber's pulling up in Kenya, home-sharing platform Airbnb is now open in Africa.

The company, which allows users to list their spare rooms to travellers who do not wish to stay in a hotel has pitched tent in the continent, convinced the region is the platform's next growth space.

Business Beat had an exclusive interview with Nicolai D'Elia, Airbnb's boss for Africa, who spoke about the company's growth prospects in the continent on the back of its growing tourism industry and technology boom.

"Africa is definitely a key part of our next growth phase. This is a market with 54 countries and almost a billion people, with growth prospects that are higher than almost every other region in the world," said Mr D'Elia.

Before joining the Airbnb executive team two months ago, D'Elia was Facebook's head of international growth and partnerships in the emerging markets of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He added that aside from a favourable macroeconomic climate, Africa has a vibrant tourism industry and infrastructure gaps that provide the perfect opportunity for users of the $25 billion (Sh2.6 trillion) start up.

"The total travel market in Africa is estimated to get to more than $50 billion (Sh5.2 trillion) in the next half decade," he said.

"There are already 60 million people who travel to Africa every year, and these numbers are expected to grow both in terms of people who travel into Africa and people who travel within Africa."

South Africa has the largest number of listings for the continent at 9,000; Nairobi accounts for 1,500 of the total 27,000 listings.

In Nairobi, guests can chose rooms ranging in cost from Sh1,500 per night to Sh10,000, with listings spread across several addresses, including Langata, Kileleshwa, Embakasi and South B.

Other listings also exist outside the city, particularly in the coastal areas, such as beachfront houses in Nyali, Watamu, Lamu and Malindi. 

AFFORDABLE SPACE

Airbnb grew out of the founders' need for affordable living space, and grows through referrals.

"We have been growing at 250 per cent year on year in terms of listings in Africa, and this is quite healthy and we want to accelerate this growth," D'Elia said.

He added that the primary mission of Airbnb is to create a world where "everyone can belong anywhere" by staying at other people's homes when they travel.

"This means being present in every country and region in Africa, and investing in these places to grow communities. Hosts not only share their rooms, but also their culture, traditions and values with the people they let into their houses," he said.

D'Elia noted that this immensely benefits a country's tourism industry, particularly in destinations that do not have mature accommodation infrastructure.

Currently, Kenya has a bed-capacity gap of between 10,000 and 15,000. In addition, the tourism sector is just starting to climb out of a four-year slump that led to the closure of several hotels at the Coast, though some are starting to reopen.

Airbnb is expected to offer tourists, particularly those from within the country, a cheaper alternative to conventional hotel accommodation.

However, its growth has brought challenges in other parts of the world, particularly its central operating model, which is seen to directly rival conventional hotel business.

Like ride-sharing platform Uber, Airbnb has disrupted traditional business establishments, with the hotel industry viewing the platform as a giant online hotel that operates above conventional regulations. Further, tax authorities in the US and some countries in Europe are cracking down on Airbnb landlords.

Some home owners have also complained of finding their properties trashed and there have been safety concerns, the latest being a sexual assault allegation where a 19-year-old guest claimed his Airbnb host imprisoned him and later sexually assaulted him.

CONSTRUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS

D'Elia, who has also worked as innovation manager at global telecoms umbrella body GSMA, said trust is at the centre of Airbnb's operating model and it would work with regulators in all territories it is present.

"As far as we know, there are no regulations here in Kenya and other African countries that we have explored that are against home sharing," he said.

"We are at the beginning of our journey and we are building constructive relationships with the relevant government stakeholders, showing them that there is a definite positive impact on cities and communities if we are able to let hosts become micro-entrepreneurs."

He added that despite being disruptive, companies like Airbnb and Uber are not setting out to kill traditional business models, but to complement them.

"Like here in Kenya, there is a lot of development in infrastructure that is invaluable in propping up traditional brick and mortar businesses. We should, however, be able to build conditions that support entrepreneurship, which include access to capital, training and good governance."

"If we have all these things in place, we can have both systems working in tandem with each other."

It’s not, and never should have been, an either or proposition to say black lives matter or police lives matter. The slaying of a police officer must and should be denounced with the same vigor, passion and outrage as the unwarranted slaying of an unarmed African-American. 

The sad thing is that from virtually the moment that the black lives matter movement exploded on the scene in the aftermath of the Michal Brown killing in Ferguson, Missouri there has been a low intensity verbal war over whose lives are more important, and when an officer is gunned down or an unarmed black is gunned down who, or even whether there should there be an outcry. The debate is silly and dangerous.

Last December, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund which is a national organization dedicated to tracking the number of officers killed in the line of duty, and promoting awareness of the dangers to law enforcement and commemorating those slain. It sounded the alarm that the number of police officers murdered in 2014 had leaped to 120. 

This was a 20 percent increase over 2013, and it reversed a decade long trend. The brutal killings of two New York City police officers the same month along with the killing of a Tarpon Springs, Fla. police officer less than a day later upped that number to 123.

Though the number of officers slain so far in 2015 has plunged from the stunning number killed in 2014, the killing of officers has seemingly resurged with the slaying of officers in Tennessee. 

Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois. When one officer is gunned down ambush style, as was the case of Houston Deputy Daron Goforth, it will draw instant headlines and rage. It should. 

However, it should not draw a finger point of blame at the civil rights organizations that have been at the forefront of protests over police killings. There is certainly no evidence of any conspiracy, or plot by police abuse protestors to wink and nod at the killing of police officers, let alone to target them for attacks.

Nearly every activist organization at the forefront of the protests over the killing of Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Ezell Ford, as well as their family members, instantly condemned the killings of officers. Civil rights groups have made it abundantly clear that anyone who tries to in any way intimate or justify the killings as some kind of retaliation or evening the score for the deaths of the blacks killed is sick, a provocateur, and a vicious murderer. 

Civil rights groups have been emphatic that attacks on police officers are despicable and outrageous and reinforce the false and irresponsible notion that civil rights groups are anti-police. There’s always been the recognition that police officers have a tough, and dangerous, job, and the overwhelming majority of officers do not harass, abuse, or engage in misconduct, and that they take seriously their oath to protect and serve communities and that includes communities of color. The protests have always been aimed at the few officers who don’t and those officials who shield them.

There are two other good reasons why those who swifltly denounce the killing of unarmed blacks by a police officer must just as swiftly denounce the slaying of a police officer by a deranged or misguided individual. This heinous act could derail the growing public recognition that police violence is a major issue that cannot be ignored. The first steps were being taken toward a national dialogue among law enforcement, including use of body cameras, a grand jury system overhaul, a systematic tracking of civilians killed by police, and a revamp of policies on the use of force by officers.

There is also the concern that the killings could heighten tensions between police and minority communities, with deadly consequences. At times when officers have been killed in the line of duty, some police officials have recognized that danger and quietly reminded officers to uphold the highest professional standards. This is crucial, because an officer killing stirs anger, outrage and fear among many police.
 
The other reason is that a failure to speak out when a police officer is killed leaves the advocates for police reform wide open to the knock of a double standard; namely picking and choosing whose lives are important. Nothing could erode public sympathy and support for the victims of unwarranted police violence faster than that charge.

Officer safety is, and must, be of paramount importance to those who fight for police reform.  Positive and proactive police-community relations, dialogue and engagement is a two way street. If there’s the sense that one side doesn’t give a hoot about officer’s safety and lives, then the well will be hopelessly poisoned. That’s a surefire prescription to escalate the cycle of fear and violence between police and African-American communities. When that happens, we all lose. 

Yes, black lives and police lives both matter, and it’s an absolute must for us to keep saying that.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Los Angeles and KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

They turned up in large numbers, on foot and in cars, to bend their knees and seek divine intervention for the two prominent Kenyans left in the dock of the International Criminal Court.

Not far from a traditional shrine the Kalenjin consider sacred and its grounds hallowed, and regardless of their religious persuasion and ethnic roots, they prayed for an end to the trial for alleged crimes against humanity against two sons of the Kenyan soil; Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang.

They prayed to God that the two would also enjoy freedom from trial just like the four others whose charges fell off one by one: President Uhuru Kenyatta, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, former Cabinet Minister and Orange Chairman Henry Kosgey and former police chief Hussein Ali.

The politicians of all party stripes converged at the little -known Kiptoror Shrine in Nakuru County to beseech God that the ICC burden be lifted off the shoulders, not only of Ruto and Sang, but also those of their families, friends and supporters.

Meeting under pregnant cumulus clouds, which soon gave way as the skies opened up, the about 200 members of the National Assembly and Senate, flanked by an equal number of members of county assemblies, were watched and listened to by the multitude who thronged the site.

The downpour may have scattered them to share limited shelter but it did not break their spirit or distract them.

The well-attended rally was cut-short by the heavy downpour that forced Bishop Jackson Kosgei of Worldwide Churches to shorten his prayer. The politicians had come from far and wide, to seek divine intervention following last week's decision by ICC judges to allow recanted testimonies by hostile witnesses to be used in the trial of Ruto and Sang.

And as soon as pastors intoned their prayers, politics took centre-stage. According to Kalenjin elders, Kiptoror was the last battlefield between the colonial masters and their forefathers. It is because of that victorious history that they decided to converge for special prayers there yesterday.

However, prayers at the actual secret Kiptoror Shrine failed to proceed as planned, after religious leaders prevailed upon the elders to abandon that for another day.

The host, Kuresoi North MP Moses Cheboi (KANU), said he was certain that Ruto and Sang never committed the alleged crimes and they will be acquitted.

"All political parties are represented here. We are at Kiptoror to go down on our knees and ask God to stand in the gap on behalf of our two brothers," he told the surging crowd.

Several women MPs from both the Jubilee and the Opposition joined Kalenjin gospel artist Emmy Kosgei, while their male counterparts stormed the stage alongside the Bureti Stars Band associated with the Kalenjin song Kilontoi Wee (We shall overcome).

The musician led the charged crowd with Kilontoi Wee, turning the church service emotional as women reached for their lessos to wipe tears and others went into silent prayers. Security officers had a hard time screening and controlling the crowds. Those who got the opportunity to speak railed at the ICC, vowing to use all necessary means to ensure that the trial against the two comes to an end.

In a show of solidarity and commitment to the coalition that brought President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP Ruto to power, Jubilee politicians accused the court of using the case to profile the Kalenjin community.

Their argument was that ICC had, by allowing the use of the recanted evidence with no chance of rebuttal, condemned the Kalenjin community by depicting its elders and institutions as a "criminal network".

Nandi Senator Stephen Sang set the ball rolling when he told the cheering crowd that the case was no longer about Ruto and Sang but an attempt by Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to put on trial one of the Kenyan communities. "We will not allow one community to be singled out by an international court. ICC has turned tribal and as a country we must not allow this to happen," he said. Not a court The senator worked up the crowd when he claimed the evidence Bensouda was introducing in the case was against the Kalenjin community.

Senate and National Assembly majority leaders' Kithure Kindiki and Aden Duale vowed that Jubilee would apply diplomacy, political and legal means to ensure the trial facing the DP ends.

"We will not rest until the case against the Deputy President and Sang comes to an end. We will use diplomacy where applicable, politics if we have to and apply the law where necessary until that case is terminated," promised Kindiki.

"We were utterly shocked by the conduct, mischief and mechanisation at the International Criminal Court. The President, his deputy and Sang, being staunch believers of the truth, the rule of law and justice, surrendered themselves to the ICC with a belief that this was a court for justice. It is now beyond doubt that the ICC is neither a court of justice nor even a court at all," said Mr Kindiki who was initially Ruto's lawyer at the trial.

He said Kenyans now have a reason to believe that the case was no longer about Ruto and the radio journalist but a trial of the community. Mr Duale said the recent development in The Hague was a clear demonstration that the court was longer interested in finding the truth but had resorted to being a political tool for certain individuals.

"That the ICC by itself went to the Assembly of States Parties to create Rule 68, thereby changing the rule of engagement targeting the Kenyan case midway and deceitfully created the impression before Kenyans and African Union delegation, that changes were innocent and not intended to be used in the Kenyan case, speaks volumes about the duplicity of the court," said Duale.

Duale said the Jubilee coalition will remain intact under the President and his deputy and there is no cause for alarm over the future of the coalition. Kindiki claimed that, by using the amendment, the ICC had violated the agreement and it seemed hell-bent to secure a conviction in the Ruto case by use of falsified evidence.

"The ICC is applying double-standards by using Rule 68 yet when Kenya threatened to pull out of it, they insisted that the trial would go on whether Parliament passes a motion to withdraw or not," Kindiki noted.

Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has argued all along that Kenyans thought the case was about justice but when the judges decided to use evidence from witnesses who had pulled out and recanted their statement, "we were convinced the matter is now politics."

"The move by the court demonstrates that they have a predetermined outcome of the case and are willing to do anything to achieve it. ICC is desperate to fulfill its threat to make Kenya an example by hook or crook," he said.

He claimed ICC had decided to put on trial a community including its leaders, business people, youth and women.

"This is no longer about the DP and Sang, the court has now profiled an entire community terming them thugs and criminals of an organised network and as Kenyans we can no longer allow that to happen," he said. More than 30 MPs from Central who attended the prayer meeting vowed to stand by Ruto claiming they were aware of a scheme to divide Kenyans by continuing with the trial of the DP. Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu said they would not allow the court to profile the community.

Kericho Senator Charles Keter, said many people had allegedly talked ill about the Sunday prayer meeting but they were ready to prove them wrong. "Today, all our leaders are equal before God and man, what brought us together is prayers only," said Mr Keter.

Turbo MP Elisha Busienei charged the crowd by alleging that several youths believed to be ICC witnesses were still missing from his constituency.

The Nursing Council of Kenya, which regulates nurses in the country, has also distanced itself from Mugo Wairimu, who was busted allegedly sexually assaulting his sedated patient.

In a statement yesterday, the Council's Registrar Edna Talam said that their review of the database of nurses in their records has revealed that Wairimu is not part of the nursing profession.

Although Wairimu has not claimed to be a nurse, the council moved quickly to distance itself to remove any doubts after the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, which regulates medical doctors, disowned him as well.

"We have been able to validate using our nursing database that James Mugo Wa Wairimu is not a nurse in training, and has never been registered or enrolled as a nurse in Kenya," she said at the Council's offices in Nairobi. Talam said that the Council has neither records of indexing, internship placements, Council exams undertaken nor registration/enrolment and licensure for the said James Mugo Wa Wairimu.

"The law should take its course to address the situation, so that it can be a lesson to others who purport to be professional health workers. We condemn these acts with the harshest terms possible and request the public to be vigilant of such quacks who purport to be either "Doctors", "Nurses" or any other health professionals," she said.

She added, "For an individual to be licensed to practice as a nurse in Kenya, the individual must submit themselves to the indexing process, undergo and complete training and successfully complete both institutional and Council exams as per the training guidelines."

Talam said should investigations be done reveal that there were nurses or persons posing as nurses working in that facility and in any way in the alleged sexual abuse of unsuspecting women, disciplinary action will be taken against them.

"We request nurses to confirm the qualifications of the doctors they work with to avoid working under people who are operating illegally," she said.

Talam expressed regret that the council was part of the joint government team that shut down Wairimu's dubious facility some time back only for it to reopen behind their backs.

A British Airways jet caught fire on Tuesday as it was preparing to take off from Las Vegas, prompting the crew to abort takeoff and evacuate terrified passengers.

"There were 159 passengers and 13 crew on the flight," McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas said. It added that seven people on board were treated for minor injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the fire broke out in the left engine of the 257-seat Boeing 777 shortly after 4:00 pm (2300 GMT) and the crew immediately aborted takeoff and ordered an evacuation.

"Passengers deplaned on the runway using emergency slides and (were) bused to the terminal," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told AFP. "The aircraft, a 777-200 experienced a technical issue as it was preparing for takeoff from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas" heading for London.

British Airways, which said there were two fewer passengers on board, also described the cause of the fire as being due to a "technical issue".

"Our crew evacuated the aircraft safely and the fire was quickly extinguished by the emergency services at the airport," a company statement said. "A small number of customers and our crew have been taken to hospital as a precaution." 

An AFP correspondent at the airport said the blaze was quickly put out by some 50 firefighters who rushed to the site within minutes along with other emergency vehicles. Passengers described scenes of panic on the plane with one witness saying there was "a lot of screaming" as fumes filled the cabin and the crew deployed the emergency slides.

Some of the passengers posted dramatic images and videos that showed plumes of smoke and flames engulfing the aircraft. "Just got evacuated from our flight#BA2276 plane caught fire somehow omg," passenger Dominic Worthington said on Twitter.

Nairobi, Kenya---The much sought after controversial gynaecologist James Mugo Ndichu alias Mugo Wa Wairimu was finally arraigned in court yesterday.

Mr Mugo, whose whereabouts were unknown until Thursday when he was arrested in Limuru, was brought to the Milimani law courts in Nairobi shortly after 8am under tight security.

Mugo, who is accused of sexually abusing a patient at his clinic in Githurai 44, was held in the court cells as he awaited to be arraigned. The "doctor" came to public limelight after a shocking video footage appeared to show him raping a sedated woman patient.

Since then, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDB) and the Nursing Council of Kenya have termed him a quack. Mugo, who runs Prestige Healthcare, situated in Zimmerman estate in Nairobi, was arrested on Thursday at Gitungo Hotel in Limuru in what police said is pursuant to criminal reports made to police accusing him of several sexually related offences.

On Thursday, Head of Serious Crime Unit John Kariuki said Mugo was likely to be charged with rape and indecent assault once police complete investigations.

Wielding a two-litre bottle of water, the "gynaecologist" was ushered into the dock by four uniformed court orderlies. The suspect, whose actions have elicited divergent views, was arraigned before Senior Principal Magistrate Charity Oluoch.

The prosecution sought for 30 days to enable police conduct an in-depth probe into his alleged offences. Ms Oluoch, however, directed that he be remanded in custody for 14 days.

"After considering the prosecution and defence's requests, I note that the state's request for 30 days is a long period. I direct that the suspect be remanded for 14 days, but prosecution is at liberty to request for more time if investigations could not have been completed by then," the magistrate said in her brief ruling.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko, through Senior Assistant DPP Jacinta Nyamosi, asked the court to allow the police to detain Mugo on grounds that his safety was not guaranteed due to the public outrage the matter had attracted.

Nyamosi told court that investigations have revealed several complaints affecting large number of victims who are yet to record statements. Mugo will now have to remain in custody until September 25 when he is likely to plead to the charges preferred against him after investigations.

Nyamosi also told the court that indepth investigations required extraction of mobile phone records besides reports from the Cybercrime Unit and KMPDB.

Mugo's lawyer Peter Macharia said he was not opposed to the continued detention of his client due to his safety concerns.

"We are not opposed to the detention of my client the reason being his own security. Mugo has already been tried in the court of public opinion and as we speak, his security is not guaranteed out there if released," Macharia said.

One of Barack Obama's cousins is suing the Met Police for £400,000 pounds over claims colleagues subjected her to a campaign of harassment and passed wind next to her desk.

ACCORDING to a new report by the Pew Research Center, Asians are on track to become the largest population of immigrants in the United States.

The study released on Monday, Sept. 28 also mentioned that the share of new Hispanic arrivals is smaller than it was 50 years ago, and that the percentage of the whole US immigrant population was higher in 1890 than it is today.

By 2065, Pew projects that there will be 441 million people living in the US, and 88 percent of that growth will be attributed to future immigrants and their children. Asians are expected to outnumber Hispanics, making up 38 percent of all immigrants.

The nearly 130-page document--entitled "Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to US, Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065"--provides "nonpartisan analysis that explores trends and projects the future," and comes 50 years after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, CNN reported. The act took away a quota system that once favored European immigrants, and replaced it with a policy that looked toward reuniting immigrant families and providing necessary employees.

Since the act's passage, about 51 percent of immigrants have come to the US from Latin America, and a quarter of new immigrants have come from Asia.

The US currently holds the largest immigrant population in the world--today, about 14 percent of the nation's population are immigrants, but that number is expected to rise to at least 18 percent, Pew Research Center projected.

Of the current largest immigrant groups, Hispanics made up 4 percent of the total U.S. population in 1965. Today, they make up 18 percent, and by 2065, that figure is projected to be 24 percent. Asians, meanwhile, were less than 1 percent of the total population 50 years ago--today, their numbers went up to 6 percent in 2015, and they are expected to meet 14 percent by 2065.

Earlier data from the Migrant Policy Institute revealed Asians have one of the highest naturalization rates in the country. While only 47 percent of all immigrants in the country are naturalized, the number for Asian immigrants is considerably higher, at 59 percent.

Breaking it down by Asian subgroups, data found that Vietnamese and Taiwanese immigrants have the highest naturalization rates at 76 percent and 74 percent, respectively. Data reveals 59 percent of Koreans, 51 percent of Chinese, 47 percent of Indians, and 68 percent of Filipinos are naturalized.

As of 2013, 1.26 million Filipinos are US naturalized citizens; 43,489 of whom were naturalized that year. Today, the total Asian population in the United States amounts to over 18 million --- nearly 18 times more than 1.5 million in 1970.

Though Hispanics make up 47 percent of US immigrants, immigration from Latin American countries has generally slowed, especially from Mexico.

"A steep decline began in 2007, in part because of the Great Recession," Mark Lopez, director of Hispanic research for Pew, explained. "It became more difficult to cross the border and to demographic changes in Mexico with fewer young people wanting to head north."

Lopez, who oversaw this study, says the steady rise of Asian immigrants has "bubbled up" over the past decade, noting Chinese citizens who've flocked to the United States for educational opportunities like graduate school. He also mentioned the great influx of Indians arriving on visas to work in high tech, taking jobs in Silicon Valley.

Of newer immigrants from the past five years, more have come from Asia (2.5 million) than from Central and South America (1.7 million).

According to Pew, the US will no longer have a "majority group" within four decades. By 2065, Hispanics are expected to make up 31 percent of immigrants, the study predicts. Asians will later outnumber Hispanics to make up 38 percent of immigrants.

"On one hand, US citizenship offers more security than let's say, permanent resident status, which can be lost or revoked in some instances. In addition, to having the right to vote and having the ability to run for political office, US citizens can sponsor a wider range of family members--they can bring children, spouses and parents quicker than what's allowed for the lawful permanent residents,” commented Jeanne Batalova, a senior policy researcher at the Migration Policy Institute.

Becoming a citizen is "a very important step for the Asian American community because it allows them to become more integrated in America," said Jannette Diep, executive director of Boat People SOS-Houston, in a press call back in June. "This integration allows the AAPI community to become more visible in US cities, increasingly getting elected to public office. Some immigrants never thought they would become a US citizen and have the right to vote in their lifetimes."

President Obama, stern and visibly shaken by the Oregon massacre, lambasted the NRA yet again for its suffocating grip on Congress. An equally shaken Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, said that she was sickened by the sheep-like willingness of Congress to do the bidding of the NRA. Obama didn't single out Congressional Republicans as the prime culprits, but it was strongly implied that he meant them in the congressional genuflection to the NRA. Clinton, however, did finger Republicans as the culprits and vowed to go after the GOP if elected. Clinton and Obama are right, but both left this out in their targets. In 2010, 53 Democrats took tens of thousands in campaign cash from the NRA.

In 2012, a presidential election year, 16 House Democrats and 4 Senate Democrats were back at the NRA's cash trough. Now four years later, and despite near weekly gun shootings and massacres, the NRA is unfazed. It wasted no time in plopping down more than $1 million for an ad than ran on Fox News, CNN and on local television in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada during the first GOP presidential debate in August. These are the three early presidential primary or caucus states and an NRA digital ad ran in South Carolina, the other early primary state. This was small change compared to what NRA officials say they'll spend to beat back even the hint of a congressional move to tighten gun control laws in 2016 and beyond.

The NRA has been wildly successful in doing just that for the past decade through a well-oiled, well-versed, labyrinth of PACs, lobbyists, legal counsels, divisions, funds and a foundation. The NRA has these divisions: Federal Affairs, Public Affairs, Finance, Research and Information, Conservation, Wildlife and Natural Resources and most importantly the NRA Political Victory Fund. Its scorecard of wins is still nothing short of phenomenal.

In 2008 it was directly or indirectly involved in nearly 300 campaigns for the House and Senate. NRA backed candidates or incumbents won 230 of them. It spared little expense in padding its congressional win scorecard. It ranked in the top tier of contributions received, lobbying dollars spent, and money garnered and spent by its PACs. But it's not just the NRA's money and willingness to spend it to pack Congress with pro-gun backers. It also cherry picked former government officials or job holders to do its congressional arm twisting for it. In 2012, fifteen out of its near 30 lobbyists had government ties.

The assumption that the NRA is basically a front for conservative GOP business and political interests is, as the NRA dollars to Democrats in 2010 showed, another bad misread. Though a big share of the NRA's campaign dollars went to Republicans it has been adept at spreading the largess around. In 2012, Democrats received more than $2 million in NRA campaign contributions.

The NRA has gotten a stupendous return on the $17 million it spent on federal elections in 2012 and the tens of millions it spent on past elections. In the decade since the assault ban expired in 2004, nearly 20 strong gun control bills have died still born in House and Senate committees. There hasn't been much movement in the states either to get tougher gun control laws. Thirty-three of the states have the barest minimal gun checks. A dozen others have only slightly more restrictive controls on guns.

The Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 plopped the NRA on the nation's hot seat. The White House, many lawmakers, and much of the public demanded that the NRA soften its hard line opposition to any gun control measures. It almost certainly will do a little to stem the storm which could include calling for stronger measures on storage of weapons, tighter screening and back ground checks, maybe even borrowing a page from the tobacco industry's PR gambit and advocate hazard warnings on the improper use of guns, and even offer to be part of a national conversation on gun violence. But if it did much more than that such as advocating full blown bans on the big ticket deadly weapons would upend the philosophical and political bedrock of the NRA. It would jeopardize the near bottomless storehouse of funding that the organization has received from gun industry interests and supporters. It would instantly turn off thousands of avid gun owners that look to the NRA to be its political mouthpiece in Washington and in the states for unfettered gun rights.

After each fresh mass bloodletting, Obama, and a majority of Americans scream loudly for Congress to do something, anything, to stop the gun carnage. The NRA is always singled out as the group with the blood on its organization's hands. The Oregon massacre, sadly, won't shake the NRA stranglehold that insures that nothing is done.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Torpedoing Hillary: The GOP Plan to Stop a Clinton White House (Amazon ebook). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Los Angeles and KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network

Eldoret, Kenya: There was shock and dismay in Eldoret when over 500 children were arrested in an orgy of drugs, alcohol and sex at a basement club.

The swoop was conducted by police and officials from National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada). The juveniles were part of revelers, who were in frenzy of fun at the Sam's Discotheque club in the White Castle building just opposite the Eldoret Police Station, along Uganda road. Police had a hectic time restraining the suspects who attempted to escape from the dragnet.

They were forced to use teargas canisters to contain the patrons. Rolls of bhang, khat, 'muguka' and several used and unused condoms were found at the premises that operates on Sundays only. Alcohol in sachets and banned alcohol brands were also recovered in the operation. The club operates on Sundays from 1pm to 6.30pm.

A police lorry made 12 trips ferrying the teens from the club to the police station, which is 20m away as uniformed and plain clothes police keenly supervised the exercise.

Parents whose children failed to arrive home reported to the police station to check on the fate of their children after information went viral on social media. Parents were forced to part with Sh1000 for their children to be freed from the police cells, in what police termed as cash bail.

Uasin Gishu alcohol control board chairman Amstrong Rono, who led the operation at the discotheque, said they had been investigating the premise for operating without due diligence and selling alcohol to the underage.

He said the premises will remain closed adding that the manager and employees who were working at the time of the operation, have been arrested and will be arraigned in court. Rono said the suspects will be arraigned in court once police are done with investigations. He urged parents to be vigilant.

"Those arrested were aged between 13 and 18. They are school going children," said Rono

Eldoret West Acting OCPD Samson Rukunga the juveniles were taken to police custody for protection in compliance with the Children's act. "The children were taken to safe custody after it emerged that majority were under the age of 18 and we are currently handing them over to their parents." said Rukunga.

The police chief stated that adults, who were arrested alongside the minors, will be charged together with the patrons, who were operating the pub. He called upon parents to be cautious of their childrens' movements. Parents, who could not raise the Sh1000 on Sunday, flocked the Police Station on Monday to release their children who had spent the night in the police cells.

The irate parents blamed authorities for laxity and called for immediate closure of pubs operating without licenses.

Lagos (AFP) - Nigeria on Monday confirmed the arrest in London of former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke on suspicion of bribery and money laundering.

"Nigeria is aware of the arrest of the former petroleum minister in London on money laundering charges," presidential spokesman Garba Shehu told AFP.

"The government has been informed and the DSS (Department of State Services) is collaborating with the relevant security agencies in the UK to handle the matter," he said.

Britain's National Crime Agency said on its website on Friday it had detained five people on suspicion of bribery and money laundering but did not disclose the identities of the suspects.

"All five people arrested were released on conditional bail later that evening, pending further investigation both in the UK and overseas," a statement said.

"The investigation commenced in 2013 under the Proceeds of Corruption act, and transferred to the NCA earlier this year."

Media reports quoted unnamed family members of Alison-Madueke as confirming her arrest.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) refused to confirm the arrest but was reported to have sealed her home in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Alison-Madueke, 59, was oil minister under former president Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 until earlier this year when he was defeated in elections by Muhammadu Buhari.

She was the first woman oil minister in Nigeria--Africa's largest producer--and the first female president of the global oil cartel OPEC.

In London on Monday, Westminster Magistrate's court granted police permission to retain £27,000 ($41,000, 36,500 euros) in cash seized during Alison-Madueke's arrest.

"The police were applying for the continued detention of the £27,000 seized during the arrest. The application was granted for six months," a court official told AFP.

Alison-Madueke was not in court for the hearing.

She has previously been accused of large-scale fraud in the management of the country's multi-billion-dollar oil wealth but denied any wrong-doing.

In February 2014, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, claimed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had failed to remit $20 billion in revenue.

Sanusi was later removed from his post by Jonathan, who disputed the figures involved, in a move many saw as politically motivated.

Buhari, who last week announced he would take personal charge of the oil ministry, has begun a purge of the NNPC, ordering a review of its finances and sacking the entire board.

NAIROBI: A city tycoon who has been detained in a Tanzanian prison for the past two years may finally get justice.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete vowed to look into Don Bosco Gichana's long delayed quest for justice.

Gichana who is also wanted by the US government over alleged money laundering, has been at the now renamed Arusha Main Prison, for two years, prompting Kisii residents to send a petition to Tanzanian authorities for his release or extradition.

Gichana, who unsuccessfully vied for the Kitutu Chache South parliamentary seat on a People's Democratic Party ticket in 2013, had stayed in jail for two years before his charges were read to him in 2015. He was charged with 12 counts of forgery, including altering documents jointly with a Tanzanian, Boastice Mwale, for money laundering.

Tuesday, in his brief but precise acceptance speech, Kikwete said that he would look into the case that had now been dragged in court for its third year and get to the bottom of the matter, consequently ensuring that justice was administered according to the law.

"I have heard about Don Bosco and as soon as I get back home I will look into his case and get to know why he hasn't got justice," said Kikwete.

This came moments after Milimani Member of Parliament Simba Arati pleaded with the Tanzanian President to look into the issue that had now garnered nationwide attention and even attracted over 8,000 members of the Free Don Facebook page that have been spearheading an online campaign for his release.

"Mr President I would like to kindly ask you that before you leave office to ensure that a Kenyan by the name Don Bosco who is detained in Tanzania gets to see justice," said Arati.

Carrying placards that showed their appreciation for Kikwete's visit to Kenya, the youth from Milimani area chanted pro Kikwete slogans.

Kikwete vowed to make a sizeable donation to the youth to boost their means of livelihood and this saw them sing and dance to songs of praise as the Tanzanian head of state boarded his motorcade.

Earlier in the day, President Kikwete had been presented with the keys to the Capital City by Dr Kidero who said that Nairobi City was honoured to host the President who is in his last term as President of Tanzania. 

"The relationship between Kenya and Tanzania has grown from strength to strength and the handing over the keys has further strengthened it," said Dr Kidero.President Kikwete while accepting the keys acknowledged that Nairobi being the hub of trade, finance and communications had contributed immensely to the relations between Kenya and Tanzania in the last 5 years.

The Tanzanian head of state said that he would ensure the relations between the two nations continued to prosper. 

News mogul Rupert Murdoch stirred mild fury when he claimed GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson would be a "real black president."

 
Forget the racial insult, the stock rightwing putdown of Obama, and the fact that this preposterous dig came from Murdoch. What is more interesting is Murdock's rationale for calling Carson a "real black president." Carson, presumably, would bridge the racial divide, says Murdoch, and that means he'd be the true unifier the country needs. There's really no need to recite the long and steadily growing litany of Carson's idiocies on everything from taxes "simply tithe," to comparing Obamacare to slavery, claiming that arming kindergarten teachers is the way to stop a mass killer, and his equating homosexuality with bestiality. Or even his reach back a millennium to chastise the citizens of Pompeii for not running away from the lava to save their lives when Vesuvius erupted.

Carson is on an incredible roll. He knows that his nutty quips will be spread eagled over every media outlet and roil legions on Facebook and social media. He's at or near the top of heap in some polls as a top GOP presidential candidate and that show him even more implausibly actually beating Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical head to head showdown. But beyond his endless milking of his rags-to-successful-neurosurgeon story and the inane quips about President Obama and Democrats before packs of ultraconservative fawners and groupies, what makes him real political timber, let alone presidential stuff?

Carson initially got and keeps currency because he's black and can be relied on to make the most ridiculous, media grabbing quips on anything that crosses his mind. But as Murdoch hints in his "real black president" tout of Carson, he can say what GOP ultraconservatives and unreconstructed bigots want to say about Obama, but it just sounds better coming out of Carson's mouth. The GOP has turned this tactic into a studied art with black conservatives such as Clarence Thomas. But Carson makes far better copy than Thomas, because, unlike Thomas, Carson actually speaks, and when he does, he'll say something just ludicrous enough to get attention.

In the Obama era the GOP has worked overtime to tout, cultivate, prop up, and showcase a motley collection of black GOP candidates for a scattering of offices. The aim is two-fold: to find that someone who can have just enough luster and media appeal to be a counterbalance to Obama while at the same time allowing the party to thump its chest and claim it's not racist.

But let's assume that Carson has a real chance to bag the GOP nomination and even the presidency. How would this “real black president" actually govern? Carson has so far not put pen to paper and laid out a comprehensive program and position on the budget, government spending, civil rights enforcement, the environment, crime control, the military, and foreign policy.

"President" Carson's position's on the issues must be pieced together from his statements in debates and interviews and speeches He will spend big on and radically expand the size of the military. In the process, he will not tie the military's hands. He backs the use of torture in fighting terrorism He will boost trade and eliminate deficits by imposing "stiff tariffs" on all imported goods. On civil rights and civil liberties, he sees no pattern of racial profiling in the disproportionate number of minority arrests. He touts stand your ground laws. And on his signature worry, gay rights, he will accept gay marriage because it's the law, but would do nothing to expand protections and rights for gays.

He would covertly spy on government workers to make sure they are not slacking off. And while he's at it, he would unilaterally cut the budget by 10 percent for every government agency. Public education would go the same way. He called it a "propaganda system." He would ignite a stampede by the government to back vouchers, charter schools, and any and every type of private school to take up the slack.

Since he has relentlessly attacked the Affordable Care Act, branding it tantamount to slavery, he would cheer yet another effort to gut, if not outright eliminate it altogether. The climate change argument will get nowhere with Carson. He has called it "distracting and irrelevant." Being the loud outspoken man of the faith he purports to be, he's declared creationists, not evolutionists, have "god's ethics." He will give a fresh nod to creationism in the schools. Likewise, given his staunch pro-life, anti-abortionview, he will ban all abortions soon after fertilization and absolutely oppose any abortion for "convenience"

Carson's fervent backers see all of this as the prescription for a new type of White House, and better still a change in the substance and style of governance. It will, of course, be nothing short of a colossal disaster and turn government into a laughingstock. But then again that's how Murdoch's "real black president" will govern.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Torpedoing Hillary: The GOP Plan to Stop a Clinton White House (Amazon ebook). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Los Angeles and KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network

What is the value of zero? If you want to establish this value, you only need to scrutinise the Sh791,385,000 lost from the National Youth Service funds and you will surprise yourself.

You will establish that indeed zero has great value, at least in fraud, and what appears to be a zero-sum game could be quite something else, once the cash is wired into a bank account.

According to investigators of the NYS scam, perpetrators of the rip-off only needed to add a zero to their transaction amounts to claim figures 10 times the actual claim.

Where a supplier supplied goods worth Sh10,000, a zero would be added to make it Sh100,000. Where supplies totaled Sh1 million they would shoot to Sh10 million in claims and where they totaled Sh10 million they would balloon to Sh100 million in the claims.

Fleecing Kenyans of their hard-earned sweat has never been that easy courtesy of the magical zero.

"It is clear that a zero has been added on each amount entered in the IFMIS system resulting in extra millions of shillings to be paid to the supplier. This is a case of manipulation of the IFMIS system," a Banking Fraud Investigations Unit established.

Suspect transactions

The fraudulent activity involving addition of zero was figured out in 18 suspect transactions where amounts reflected in the quadruplicate LPOs (Local Purchasing Orders) were found to be different from the amounts entered in the IFMIS.

In one case for instance illustrated in the report, a company owned by one Josephine Kabura Irungu called Form Homes Builders was paid a total of Sh154 million for supplies of road construction materials worth Sh15 million.

The amounts were paid in four transactions of Sh39 million, Sh38.8 million and two sets of Sh38.5 million. The actual amounts in the LPOs however, according to the BFIU report, is Sh3.9 million, Sh3.88 million and two sets of Sh3.85 million.

Put differently, the supplier made a cool Sh139 million in addition to the profits she made in supplying the Sh15 million worth of materials.

From the report, three companies all under directorship of Ms Irungu were paid a total of Sh791 million in a span of five months. The monies were credited to their bank accounts held at Family Bank.

Investigators put a total of Sh712 million as the total fraud monies paid to Ms Irungu's companies. This is the difference of the monies paid through IFMIS and the ones in the book copy of the LPOs.

"This is the amount considered as having been stolen," the investigators concluded. The first payment of Sh15 million went through on the eve of Christmas in 2014. On the eve of the New Year (December 29, 2014), Ms Irungu‘s company was paid a total of Sh66 million in two payments of Sh39 million and Sh37 million.

By January 19, she had been paid another Sh124 million in four separate payments issued on two separate days. The month of February was not particularly lucrative for Ms Irungu's companies as they were paid only Sh85 million. However the month of March proved a bountiful one for Ms Irungu's companies which got a total of Sh432 million.

In fact, on one single day (on March 11, 2015), Irungu‘s Roof and All Trading company was paid a total of Sh111 million. On another good day, March 24, Ms Irungu's Reinforced Concrete Technologies was paid Sh93 million. Other than the three companies, the BFIU report lists three other companies--Gilnak General Supplies, Mindul Learning Equipments and Gilgrains General Supplies--all associated with Ms Irungu which scooped Sh106 million from State Department for Planning and ministry of Youth.

Limited information

"They produced some delivery notes which indicate that the materials are loaded to NYS trucks from two quarries at Ongata Rongai and transported to Kibera and other ongoing slum upgrading projects. They buy the materials cheaply from a man who has rented the quarries from the land owners and sells the same to NYS at a high value," the report states.

The BFIU report says claims by Irungu that she was not paid were not true because payments were traced to her bank accounts at Family Bank. Incidentally, when investigators checked in at the Family Bank accounts of Ms Irungu, they found all the money had been withdrawn.

When cyber forensic investigators attempted to find out persons who entered the fraudulent entries in the system, they couldn't find out. They found out that the NYS IFMIS users had been using http browser.

"The challenge with this is that in doing forensic analysis, one can only recover limited information from the browser history. To get details of all transactions done requires getting the image of the IFMIS server for analysis," another BFIU report states.

The report is categorical that certain NYS employees colluded with suppliers to facilitate the fraud "resulting in inflated amounts being entered in the IFMIS by introduction of a zero in all these transactions."

The "zero-addition strategy" deployed in the NYS transactions contradicts all known attributes of figure zero as a mere numerical symbol and as a concept meaning absence of quantity. The quantity of zero in NYS millions is invaluable.

Despite their big size, elephants rarely get cancer, and scientists say they have discovered the secret to the creatures' special protection. It's in the genes.

Elephants have 38 additional modified copies of a gene that encodes p53, a compound that suppresses tumor formation.

Humans, on the other hand, have only two, according to the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

This means that as elephants evolved, their bodies made many extra copies of a gene that prevents tumors from forming.

Elephants have been considered an enigma for years because they have far more cells than people, which would presumably place them at higher risk of cancer over their lifespans which can last 50-70 years.

And yet, the analysis of a large database of elephant deaths showed that less than five percent of elephants die of cancer, compared to 11 to 25 percent in people.

"By all logical reasoning, elephants should be developing a tremendous amount of cancer, and in fact, should be extinct by now due to such a high risk for cancer," said co-senior author Joshua Schiffman, pediatric oncologist at Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine.

"We think that making more p53 is nature's way of keeping this species alive."

Elephants also come naturally equipped with a more aggressive internal mechanism for killing damaged cells that are at risk for becoming cancerous, researchers said.

"In isolated elephant cells, this activity is doubled compared to healthy human cells," said the study, which was co-authored by experts from Arizona State University and the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation.

Researchers hope that their findings could one day lead to new cancer-fighting therapies in people.

But that day could be far off, according to Mel Greaves, director of the Centre for Evolution and Cancer at The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

"The new research provides a plausible answer to one of the most celebrated riddles in evolutionary biology--why some big animals with lots of cells still manage to have quite low rates of cancer," said Greaves, who was not involved in the study.

"It is not immediately clear what lessons there are from this elephant tale for risk of cancer in humans. The main impact of this remarkable story is to bring into focus the question of why we are so uniquely predisposed to cancer for our size and lifespan--and what we can do to change this."
AFP

Copenhagen (AFP) - A Danish zoo on Thursday dissected a lion in front of a group of children, in an educational event condemned as a "macabre spectacle" by animal rights groups but given a thumbs-up by many Danes.

The nine-month-old lion was one of three that Odense Zoo in central Denmark put down in February, on the grounds it had too many big cats and could not find a home for the surplus. Since then, the beasts had been kept in a freezer.

Last year, a zoo in the capital Copenhagen came under fire after a healthy giraffe was euthanised and dissected in public.

On Thursday, between 300 and 400 adults and children -- some as young as four -- gathered around zoo guide Rasmus Kolind as he began the dissection by cutting off the lion's tongue.

Some of the children, who were standing only centimetres (inches) away, held their noses and frowned as the animal was skinned and the stench of the cadaver began to fill the air.

"Wouldn't it be stranger if I were standing here cutting up an animal that smelled like flowers or something else?" Kolind told the crowd.

"Dead animals smell like dead animals. There's not a lot to say about that," he said.

"I don't want to see that," one boy said, but a girl interviewed by public broadcaster DR described the event as "fun to see but also a bit disgusting."

Zoo guide Lotte Tranberg explained why the healthy young lion had to be put down.

"If we had allowed it to stay it could have mated, that is to say have cubs, with its own sisters and its own mother. And then you have what is called inbreeding," she told the crowd.

In a risque joke, as he proceeded to carve up the carcass, Kolind asked "Is there anyone who would like an eye?" before chopping off the head, holding it up for everyone to see, and then proceeding to skin it.

-International criticism-

Public dissections are a regular occurrence at Danish zoos, where they are seen as a way of teaching children about nature.

A Copenhagen zoo prompted a storm of criticism in February last year, and its scientific director received death threats, for putting down a healthy giraffe and cutting it up in public.

Earlier this year, Odense zoo dissected a camel, pony and tapir (a creature that looks like a pig with a trunk), without sparking controversy, but Thursday' dissection was a different matter.

More than 135,000 people, most of them living outside Denmark, signed an online petition condemning the zoo's display.

"I am now embarrassed to admit that my great grandmother was 100 percent Danish after hearing of your plans to slaughter animals," Laura O'Hara from the US town of Fairfax wrote on the zoo's Facebook page.

Most comments from Danish users however defended the event, which took place during the autumn school break, as having educational value.

-'Valid choice' -

A spokeswoman for the Humane Society International in Europe, Wendy Higgins, accused the zoo of "making a macabre spectacle" out of the lion's demise, which it blamed on the "irresponsible" over-breeding of the felines in zoos.

The Danish Animal Welfare Society, by contrast, dismissed the reaction as disproportionate.

"Millions of chickens live miserable lives. Nobody reacts," the group wrote on Twitter.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, for its part, defended the culling of the lion as a "scientifically valid" solution to ensuring a sustainable animal population and called the educational dissection "a valid choice".

In Denmark, where farming is an important part of the economy and children have been known to visit slaughterhouses on school tours, many people have been taken aback by the outrage over the dissections.

Copenhagen Zoo's scientific director Bengt Holst has lamented the "Disney story" shaping many people's view of zoo animals.

Tony Elumelu, an attributed philanthropist and African billionaire, is a stellar businessman with specialized training in economics, seeking to change the economic standing of those in the African-American community. Elumelu chairs Heirs Holdings and Transcorp, and is also the founder of the esteemed Toney Elumelu Foundation.

In 2014, Elumelu, along with other prominent American and African business moguls, partnered to form a summit in Washington DC that consisted of more than 45 African and American business heads, along with 50 African business leaders. The common theme of the platform was to see to the improvement in the economic stance of Africans, as well as African-Americans, and to create advancement opportunities for all who interacted.

Elumelu's statements to the media explained that the summit presented a promising opportunity for individuals to make positive returns on contributions made to valuable incentives around the Atlantic. He expressed that this was not mere chatter, but an outlet to expose those involved to greater opportunities in business growth.

The vision set forth by Tony Elumelu is one that he believes merges more than simple aid; it creates a solid partnership between Africa and the U.S. It's the beginning of a business journey that takes a different, but more rewarding, path for all of those invested. The trip to Africa taken by President Obama was another key indicator that steps are being taken in the right directions to strengthen business ventures between Africa and America.

These attempts coexist with The Tony Elumelu Foundation as it extends its principles for growth to businesses owned or started by women and minorities. The most significant move, by far, is the entrepreneurship program that The Tony Elumelu Foundation will spearhead. It is designed on a financial standing of $100,000,000 to be disbursed among entrepreneurs throughout the U.S and Africa.

This newly formed relationship between Africa and the U.S is one that can create a positive mode of growth for African American entrepreneurs who stay the course and take the route the foundation has designed. The overwhelming occurrences of negativity surrounding African Americans in the press makes it necessary for many to find outlets that help them reach their full business potential. The summit created the opportunity and the foundation’s program provides the means to capitalize on the opportunity.

Ladies and gentlemen;

I am happy to be back home ahead of the El Nino.

I called to speak to you on the sorry state of affairs in our country, particularly our economy.

Since Jubilee came to power, it has insisted that the economy is growing and Kenyans can sit back and relax. We in Opposition have warned that we are on the road to nowhere. We warned that jubilee is over borrowing, over spending and over stealing.

We have warned that the cost of living is rising and Jubilee economics is testing our patience.

We raised alarm that the Jubilee Government had increased our public debt by Ksh.860 billion in one year, from Ksh.1.8 trillion to Ksh.2.6 trillion. This was an increase of 50 percent, the largest annual increase in our history. The Grand Coalition government increased the debt by Ksh.900 billion in the five years it was in office, an average of Ksh.190 billion. We warned that Jubilee was borrowing at almost five times the rate at which the Grand Coalition government borrowed.

When we raised questions, we were called names and told off in words that cannot be taken back. Political posturing, bickering and insults replaced honest debate. A lot of time and a lot of trust were lost.An ugly reality now mocks us. The National Treasury has acknowledged that it is facing a cash crunch due to a combination of domestic and international loan repayments falling due, slow collection of government revenue and demands for disbursements. But the wastage and inefficiency persists in government.

The recovery and the job creation witnessed between 2003 and 2012 are disappearing.

I have always believed that people are ready to handle the truth. So I wish to be honest with Kenyans, if the government won't be.

The truth is that our economy is underperforming. All of the 10 African countries whose economies are among the 20 fastest in the world are growing at 7 per cent plus. They include: Liberia--------10.4 per cent Niger--------8.0 per cent Cote D'Ivoire-----7.9 per cent Ethiopia------7.5 per cent Ghana------7.3 per cent Mozambique-------7.2 per cent Tanzania-------7.2 per cent Rwanda-------7.1 per cent DRC------7.1 per cent Zambia--------7.1 per cent Uganda-------6.2 per cent Kenya---------5.2 per cent. At 5.2 per cent, Kenya's economy is number four within the East Africa Community. We are only better than Burundi. The idea that Kenya is the region's biggest economy may soon be a myth. Tanzania will catch up with us in four years and become 20 per cent bigger economy by 2030.Last week, Imperial Bank was put under receivership. We last had collapsing banks in the 1990s when YK92 wreaked havoc on our nation. Things are bad at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The media reported last week that investors at the NSE have lost another Sh60 billion in the last one month. This extended the losses to Sh530 billion since prices of shares started falling seven months ago. The market value of all outstanding shares at the NSE has shrunk by 20 per cent from Sh2.43 trillion in March to Sh1.90 trillion by the end of last week. The collapse of Imperial Bank and the losses at NSE indicate a possibility of capital flight. Our budget deficit stands at 10 per cent of the GDP and 18 per cent of revenue. Our public debt has doubled. Foreign debt has overtaken domestic debt. The external debts are mostly commercial and non-concessional. The cost of servicing our foreign debt is rising faster than domestic one largely as a result of huge commercial loans especially the Eurobond. But there is nothing to show for the big loans. We used to spend 4 per cent of our export revenue on servicing foreign debts. Now we spend 10 per cent.

Last year, we were told that the Sh289 billion ($2.75 billion) Eurobond loan would stop government borrowing from domestic markets, thereby helping drive down interest rates.

Today, interest rates are at their highest in more than a decade, inflation has gone haywire, the government is broke and nobody is talking about Eurobond.

Debt servicing is taking one third of our revenue and it is rising. Our exports have stagnated. But imports are growing. The government is living beyond its means.

One would have thought that when we are at the brink, we would see the bigger picture, be humbled by the reality and live up to our responsibilities. One would have thought that this reality would be reason to bridge the gap between far-flung positions and to bring about solutions in the interest of Kenya. Jubilee however sees this as just another moment for hubris, grandstanding, back passing and big talk. Jubilee refuses to agree that mega corruption in the end leaves even the big thieves with nothing to steal and nothing to pay workers like teachers. Sooner rather than later, the figures were going to refuse to add up. Let us be honest, teachers have not been paid, not because they went on strike but because the government is broke. The strike is the excuse.Counties are getting their money too late, if at all.We are only at the beginning of a long, bruising and miserable journey.

It is upon the president to ensure that confidence returns both among the Kenyan people and to the Kenyan economy. Yet the President glossed over these issues yesterday. Mr President, we need a clear road map to put Kenya on the path to sustainable and equitable growth. As Opposition, we stand ready to support measures that will steady the economy and ensure respect for our nation. We are ready to support a growth strategy that takes Kenya where it belongs. We know the league this nation should be playing in.

We demand a plan that creates a convergence; with productivity, job creation, fairness and inclusivity at the centre of our growth agenda. Mr President, provide Kenyans with a credible course for a stronger and better future.

Present to Kenyans a credible system to ensure their bank savings remain safe.

Mr President, we demand stability for the Kenya shilling.

Mr President, no wind will guide a sailor that has no destined port.

Tell Kenyans where you are taking them, how you intend to get there and by when. You asked for, and acquired the mandate to steady, not to wreck the nation.

Do not underestimate the urgency of the situation Kenya faces. Do not underestimate your imperative to act. Please get up and report on duty.

HON RAILA ODINGA; EGH 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out a lawsuit by an American citizen who says he was mistreated when detained by U.S. officials for four months in three different African countries.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against Amir Meshal on a 2-1 vote. The court held that legal precedent that allows U.S. officials to be sued individually for violations of the U.S. Constitution has never been applied to overseas conduct.

Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer who represents Meshal in coordination with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ruling "endangers the rights all Americans have under the Constitution."

Meshal was detained, initially by Kenyan officials, after he traveled to Somalia from New Jersey in 2006 to study Islam. He was first held in Kenya, before being moved to Somalia and then Ethiopia.

Meshal said he was held for four months, denied access to a lawyer and threatened with torture and death. He said that four FBI agents, including lead defendant Chris Higgenbotham, participated in the interrogation. The agents wanted him to confess to connections with Islamist militant group al Qaeda, Meshal said.

Meshal was eventually released without charge and returned to the United States. He sued in federal court in 2009, saying his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated. A federal judge in Washington dismissed the claim in 2014, prompting Meshal's appeal.

In the appeals court decision, Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote that the U.S. Congress has not created a legal remedy that covers U.S. citizens detained overseas by U.S. authorities.

"If people like Meshal are to have recourse to damages for alleged constitutional violations committed during a terrorism investigation occurring abroad, either Congress or the Supreme Court must specify the scope of the remedy," she added.

Judge Nina Pillard wrote a dissenting opinion in which she noted that had Meshal been detained in the United States "there is no dispute" he could have sued.

"Yet the majority holds that because of unspecified national security and foreign policy concerns, a United States citizen who was arbitrarily detained, tortured and threatened with disappearance by United States law enforcement agents in Africa must be denied any remedy whatsoever."

A U.S. Department of Justice representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

The case is Meshal v. Higgenbotham, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 14-5194.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; editing by Grant McCool)

Dar Es Salaam: Tanzania's ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM)'s presidential candidate John Pombe Magufuli has taken an early lead in the country's general election, amid protests from the opposition that there are plans to intimidate its supporters.

Results released by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) showed Magufuli leading with 150,000 votes against his main rival Edward Lowassa who had 82,826 even as election observers raised concern over the slow pace of release of results.

The results were from 13 of the country's' 239 constituencies, and do not show any projection of how the closely fought election will go.

"We are only announcing the results as they come in," said the chairperson of the commission, Mr Damian Lubuva.

"Under the constitution, it is the only the commission that can announce the results. Citizens are requested to be patient until we get the results. You can get unofficial results from other avenues but these are not credible," he added.

But the the slow pace in releasing the result is already causing anxiety within the opposition, with Lowassa claiming that that the manner of the results announcement points to a sinister motive by the electoral body.

Kenya's ranking as an investment destination has improved, largely due to the introduction of Huduma Centres and a campaign to increase electricity connections.

OAKLAND, Calif. --African immigrants in the Bay Area are upset that many of them have to go through a secondary review process in order to apply for a California driver's license under AB 60.

But DMV officials say the reason some countries don't appear on the list of acceptable passports has to do with security requirements, not geography.

At a recent forum in Oakland with DMV officials, several African immigrants said they didn't understand why they were sent into secondary review. Attendees asked why more than half of African countries were not on the list of acceptable passports, leaving their nationals to provide more documentation in order to apply for a driver's license.

Ekow Croffiie, an Oakland resident originally from Ghana, pulled out his passport and birth certificate, saying he had been in secondary review for months.

"Every time I call, they say, 'You should wait for 90 days,'" said Coffie."I'm just frustrated because I have a family, my wife doesn't drive, and my kids have to go to school."

Adoubou Traore, project director of the African Advocacy Network in San Francisco, has been meeting with DMV officials to answer some of the questions and concerns that he hears in his community.

"They contacted us," Traore said about the recent forum in Oakland, one of more than 200 public forums the DMV has held across the state to provide information about how to apply for a license. Traore saw that as a hopeful sign. "It shows that there's a will to see this issue taken care of."

Still, he said, "You could feel people's frustration."

Since January 2015, the DMV has issued more than 500,000 driver's licenses to unauthorized immigrants in California under AB 60. To be eligible, they must provide proof of identity and California residency, as well as pass all required tests.

Passports and other documents accepted by the DMV must meet all of the standards of security. This includes questions like how easy it is to forge a passport, and how the country verifies people's identities.

Mexican nationals, whose country has a security agreement with the DMV, need only present one document to prove their identity. This can include a Mexican passport issued in 2008 or later, a Mexican consular card (matricula consular) or a 2013 Mexican federal electoral card (Instituto Federal Electoral Credencial para Votar).

A second group, including those from some other Latin American countries and those whose passports are approved by the DMV, needs to present two documents.

Those who do not fall into either of the first two groups, including nationals of many African and Asian countries, are sent to secondary review, where they are asked to provide additional documents to verify their identity.

According to the DMV, a majority of those who have been sent to secondary review in January and February have gotten approval to move forward with their application.

But Armando Botello, deputy director of the DMV's Office of Public Affairs in Sacramento, noted that the number of applications that required a secondary review exceeded the DMV's expectations. As a result, the wait time in some cases exceeded four months.

"To everyone who has been waiting for their secondary review," Botello said, "we apologize and ask them to be patient."

Traore said he plans to continue to meet with DMV officials to help more African immigrants take advantage of AB 60.

"Education is needed on both sides," Traore said. "It's in everyone's interest," he said, to allow people to apply for a driver's license -- not only for those who get a driver's license through AB 60, but for the safety of everyone sharing the road.

For more information about how to apply for a California driver's license under AB 60, go toDMV.ca.gov.

Kenya's Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has warned about the "drumbeats of possible violence" in the next elections and called on civil society to "save us from this precipice".

Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has announced he will lead a countrywide revolution campaign in the next three months to save Kenya from collapsing due to massive graft and misappropriation of taxpayers’ money.

Keter while speaking in Lessos, Nandi County said the country is on the brink of collapsing yet those in power have ignored the situation at the expense of their self-interests. "Kenya is on the brink of collapsing as our economy continues heading to a point of no return. Top leaders are swindling money through inflated mega projects facilitated by borrowed funds which do not benefit the locals, instead forcing them to pay heavily," Keter said.

He was categorical on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project contracted at Sh327 billion saying it was inflated threefold and the cash crunch bedeviling the country is attributed to such corrupt deals.

"Tanzania is currently building an advanced SGR of 2700 kilometres at Sh870 billion yet we are doing an ordinary gauge railway of 600kilometres at Sh327 billion, where is this disparity coming from if not corrupt individuals taking advantage to steal?" He questioned. 

The outspoken legislator said it is time for leaders to put aside party affiliations and represent interests of the citizens, cautioning that history will harshly judge them if they sit and watch the country collapse that is why he will be on the frontline of a revolution.

"It is sad that some leaders in the Jubilee affiliation have been accusing me of planning to divide the leadership when am honestly raising issues  affecting us, they are using the divide and rule approach to silence u who are advocating for change," he explained.

According to Keter Kenyans are facing economic repercussions perpetrated by leaders they elected and soon it will be too much for them to handle and they will spearhead a massive revolution similar to the Arab Spring.

"We should love our neighbours as we love ourselves because the price of fuel in Kuria is similar to that in Rift Valley, the high interest rates too. These unaddressed issues are killing our dairy farming and crop production sector and we need to rise up against such," he added. Keter was critical of the Jubilee leadership and explicitly stated that Kenyans are missing former President Mwai Kibaki's regime because he spurred significant development on infrastructure, education and agricultural and mining sectors. He observed that it is sad the country loses over sh400 billion annually through corruption with another sh147 billion through tax evasion putting the country in a precarious situation and hurting devolution progress that would hasten development.

He blamed self seeking leaders for abetting graft, saying those who withdrew signatures to endorse a motion against Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru's impeachment do not have the future of Kenya at heart. 

"In 2017 Kenyans need to drift away from regional cocoons and elect leaders with citizens' interests at heart. I will not relent to work for the good of Kenyans and I will fearlessly lead a revolution because that is the only solution," he said.

CAIRO: A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypts Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the group said in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

Egyptian security sources earlier on Saturday said early investigations suggested the plane crashed due to a technical fault.

The claim of responsibility was also carried by the Aamaq website which acts as a semi official news agency for Islamic State.

"The fighters of the Islamic State were able to down a Russian plane over Sinai province that was carrying over 220 Russian crusaders. They were all killed, thanks be to God," the statement circulated on Twitter said.

"If you want to get it done, you will find a way, else, you will find an excuse" is a common saying that seems to have taken root with yet another Kenyan gospel hit maker. Fans of Mr Seed have waited on his album for a long time, but as he recently revealed, the album which is set to be launched on December 13^th was delayed by various factors including Satan and men. 

Knowing too well that his fans had been watching, Mr Seed went on to admit that he might have lost some fans over the years, but he was willing to win them back, and make new ones with this new album.

"I know with the years I’ve lost some fans as well as gained new ones but there are also those who have been holding it down for me since day one and for them big up it really means a lot to me so I will take that time to connect with both of these people."

Known as Kenya's starboy, Mr Seed’s career started off with top notch collaborations that gave him, a chance to learn the industry ropes and was soon a rising star scooping nominations and awards.

Despite a sizeable fan base acquired over time, Mr. Seed does not have an album to his name.

In a long Facebook post, Mr. Seed attributed the delay to various reasons among them, Satan and some men.

This comes after a very long silence from the Star boy who seems to have a new resolve towards delivering music to his fans.

Here is Mr. Seed's full message to fans.

Hello fam, hope this finds you well, it’s been a long time coming since I started my journey as a gospel artist, it's been a bumpy road with a lot of short comings and challenges but I’ve had my high moments too in the industry!! It's now 5 years since i was introduced in the gospel scene n since then I've done more than 12 songs most of them topping charts both in the gospel and secular scene!

Many have played a big role for making me what i am starting from producers, video directors, DJs, radio and t.v presenters, friends and family, fellow artists and last but not least my fellow artist!! Coming this 13th December I will be making a very huge step in my career as I will be launching my 1st album, I know I should have done this a long time ago but the efforts of some men and mostly Satan has caused this long delay but I feel like now it’s the best time to do it and also Gods time is the best!!to me it will be more than an album launch know with the years I’ve lost some fans as well as gained new ones but there are also those who have been holding it down for me since day one and for them big up it really means a lot to me so I will take that time to connect with both of these people in a way I’ve never done before it will be big.

Los Angeles - A massive sexting ring is rocking a high school in Colorado, with at least 100 students trading nude pictures and posting them on social media, news reports said.

Some of the kids in the photographs were as young as 12, and included eighth graders from the middle school, The New York Times reported.

The students, many of whom are on the football team at Canon City High School, could now face criminal charges, reports said.

The school district announced Wednesday that "a number of our students have engaged in behavior where they take and pass along pictures of themselves that expose private parts of their bodies or their undergarments."

Noting that a "large number" of the high school football team players were implicated int he scandal, the district said it was canceling the high school's last football game of the season.

"Because we can't guarantee that every kid we put out on the field would be clean of this circumstance, we would just rather not put a team out at all," Canon City Schools Superintendent George Welsh told NBC television affiliate KOAA.

Noting it first learned of the behavior on Monday based on anonymous tips and student reports, the district stressed that taking a picture of yourself showing a naked private body part and sending it to another person was a felony.

The same applies if receiving such a picture and forwarding it to another person, or receiving such a picture and retaining possession of it over time.

According to The New York Times, police and the district attorney's office are weighing whether to file child pornography charges-- including felony charges -- against some of the participants.

Students circulated up to 400 lewd photographs, it added.

The police probe is focusing on whether any adults were involved, the school district said.

Students used password-protected "phone vaults," apps that often appear to be simple calculators at first glance, to hide the photos from their parents and school officials.

"It's been going on for years," one Canon City student told KRDO13, an affiliate of ABC television.

The student said some fellow students, especially girls, had been pressured to take pictures of themselves.

The school administration held an assembly Thursday to warn parents and explain the technology that allows their children to hide photos.

Canon City Sheriff Paul Schultz said the problem extends far beyond the town limits.

"With the new technologies, this is happening everywhere," he said. "Should parents be worried? Absolutely."

Nairobi, Kenya: President Barack Obama's government has warned Kenya's leaders linked to corruption that they risked facing sanctions believed to include travel bans.

US Ambassador Robert Godec in Nairobi said the US Government was offering partnership which would help Kenya stem corruption including ethics training and supporting procurement through oversight for the programmes it was finacing.

Godec said corruption has reached crisis levels in Kenya making US take tough stand on unspecified action. The US has previously denied visa to in dividuals named in corruption.

"Corruption is undermining economic growth, security and many things the government wants to do. We believe Kenya will overcome it. Steps need to be taken to address the situation. The challenge is to figure out what needs to be done and it all depends on Kenyan leadership and citizens to champion change but we are willing to partner on solutions," he said,

He spoke when he announced a Sh65 billion (USD 650 million) support from USAID to help in medical partnership for life saving drugs and equipment.

"Obviously we will continue as we have in the past use mechanisms to reign in corruption and to address specific instances where individuals are proved to be involved, we will take actions that are available to us," he said without elaborating specific action.

Godec lauded efforts by Presient Uhuru Kenyatta in fighting graft like in the Anglo Leasing cases adding, "most Kenyans and Kenyan organisations are honest and run well.

He said at one time Chicago was absolutely corrupt but people took decisive action to end years of graft.

We will have extensive oversight. Integrity and efficiency in this program is not just something we hope for; it is something we require -- and we know it is something Kenyans demand as well.

We do so because, as we all know, corruption is a crisis in Kenya. As I have said frequently, it is undermining the country's future. Corruption threatens Kenya's economic growth, the provision of government services, and security. It threatens the country's health care system. It must end. And for that to happen, all public programs must live up to the highest standards. Public funds must go to their intended beneficiaries-- in this case patients suffering from life-threatening diseases--and not into the pockets of officials who betray the public trust. The United States' position on this problem is very clear: all allegations of corruption must be investigated; and when evidence is found officials must be prosecuted and, if guilty, sent to prison regardless of their position or wealth.

Ending corruption is first a task for leaders, but it is also the responsibility of everyone, all Kenyans. And, as a friend, the United States will do all it can to help, as promised, in the joint commitment issued during President Obama's historic visit.

The desire to have more than one child has been a motivating factor for many Chinese emigrants for over three decades. Change may be on its way though, as earlier this week, China lifted its one-child policy, allowing married couples to have two children. 

Theone-child policy, a population control measure viewed as a rather totalitarian symbol by the West, was introduced in 1979. For more than three decades, the unique China-style family consisted of a "4-2-1" model: four grandparents, a couple of two adults (both the only child from his or her family) and a single third-generation grandchild.

Aside from the fact that the policy has faced stanch criticism for being an abuse of human rights and for creating sex-based birth rate favouritism for boys --as China is a traditionally patriarchal society--the one-child policy has also created a huge problem for senior care. 

In a society that lacks a pension plan or affordable public health system, sometimes it is just too much for two adult children to take care of four elderly parents. 

Impacts of one-child policy

Jinhong Xu is one of many Chinese Canadians who immigrated here to avoid the one-child policy. As a result, Xu has two children who are 16 years apart; this stark age difference between children isn’t strange to see among many Chinese immigrant families. 

"I was born in 1967 in a small county in Shan Xi province," recalls Xu. "I was not the only child in my family, but I was only allowed to have one child after I got married in 1992. We both worked in a state-owned company. If [we violated the] one-child policy, we would both lose our jobs and [be forced] to pay a very heavy fine."

Xu is like many Chinese who faced many challenges living under China’s unique traditions and polices. 

Her first daughter was born in 1993 --a very joyful event to her, but not so much for her family as the child was not a boy. 
After struggling for years thinking of having another child, Xu finally immigrated to Canada in 2002 as a skilled worker and applied for family reunification to bring her husband and daughter here one year later. 

At 42, Xu had a second child born in Toronto's North York General Hospital in 2009. To her delight, it was a healthy boy that the whole family had been longing for.

"I remember I had to go through [a]amniotic fluid testas I was an older mother," she continues. "That was a really hard decision we have to make. It was my daughter who helped me go through the process. She really wanted to have a younger sibling." 

Staying beside her mom’s bed during labour, Xu's daughter was more thrilled than anybody else and started to learn how to help her mom take care of the baby.

"Hadn't my country had a one-child policy, I would be happily staying in China, making it easier (for me) to look after my aging parents," says Xu, her voice trembling and eyes filled with tears. "But [there isn't] much I can do. I was not a devoted child to my parents."

Changes for refugee claimants 

The one-child policy has also been a reason for many Chinese people to claim refugee status in Canada. Whether their claims are genuine or bogus, future asylum seekers may start to feel anxious now that the policy is no longer. 

Refugees from China had the most claims accepted from January to June 2015, followed by Pakistan, Hungary Iraq and Syria. 

Refugee claims go to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRBC). According to IRBC, the forced sterilization or abortion a person may face upon returning to China is grounds for granting refugee status. As is claims that the one-child policy goes against religious beliefs, such as in the case of Roman Catholics. 

Hart Kaminker, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer says the change in policy doesn’t necessarily mean an end to refugee claims of this nature though. 

"The policy now is allowing people to have two children," he explains. "You might get into a [refugee] case when people may have two children that may want to have a third child. That person may still have a valid [refugee] claim." 

This content was developed exclusively for New Canadian Media and can be re-published with appropriate attribution. For syndication rights, please write to publisher@newcanadianmedia.ca
 

The instant news broke about the hideous bloodbath in Paris, the tweets from the conservative echo chamber came fast and furious. They called for a total, all-out war, bashed immigrants, gun control advocates, liberals, President Obama, lax security and, of course, Muslims.

At that point, not one of the attacker's identities had been confirmed, no motive was given for the attack, and no group had claimed responsibility for it. Even after ISIS claimed the bloodbath as its handiwork, officials had still not confirmed the truth of ISIS's claim. And countless Muslim organizations, as well as governments including Iran, denounced the attack. It made no difference. The brutal finger pointing was in full swing. 

By contrast, when Obama denounced the attack, he called for greater vigilance and aggressiveness against terrorism. He did not say "Islamic terrorism." This set off the shrill conservative echo chamber even louder. But Obama's care in putting the blame and the action needed in the right place, and not on all Muslims or immigrants was the type of caution and restraint needed at a time when the witch-hunt against Muslims was again cranking up.

The right-wing's manic desire to turn every horrific and bloody terror attack into a political vendetta against immigrants and Muslims is an old script. But it's a serviceable one. In part because there are just enough real terror cells and individuals who are willing to commit mass murder and mayhem. And jumping on the anti-Muslim bandwagon when terrorists strike fans anti-immigrant fear and hysteria. This has been a trump card for legions of GOP demagogic, fear mongering officials and candidates. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is only the latest in a long line.

Even before the Paris massacre, there was evidence that immigrant and Muslim bashing would be back on the GOP political table. Trump milked it for maximum worth to garner headlines, massive media attention, and a poll ratings bonanza. The Paris massacre has the potential and the danger to up the ante even more. 

The pressure is heavy on both Democratic presidential candidates and Obama to take an even harder line on the Middle East conflicts. It won't just be ISIS that will be the focal point of any stepped up American offensives. Muslim groups in this country could draw even greater scrutiny, including widening surveillance and monitoring. When homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1996, the predictable happened. By week's end, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, there were more than 200 physical and verbal attacks against American Muslims, which included the burning of three Islamic mosques and community centers.

A full-blown domestic anti-Muslim witch-hunt was brewing at the time. But President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno did not rush to judgment and scapegoat Arabs. The swift arrest of McVeigh squelched the building mob hysteria against them. President George W. Bush, like Clinton, in his first public words after the terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, did not reflexively finger-point Arab terrorists. He took great pains to publicly rebuke the acts of harassment or violence against American Muslims and Sikhs in some cities. This did much to prevent wholesale acts of violence against Muslims.

This was also the case following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Public anger and passions were running hot. Muslims were again under intense fire and the clamor was loud for a big crackdown. But Obama and then Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick did not overreact. They damped down the furor and again made clear that the terror attack was the work of individuals and they would be the ones hunted down. And once they were apprehended their civil liberties and legal due process would be fully protected. Both were careful not to give any hint that the heinous act had anything to do with Islam or the sentiment of Muslims in this country. They, in effect, played a reasoned, responsible, and decisive role in heading off any anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim backlash to the violent acts of a few.

The Paris massacre was shocking and horrific. It, as all terror attacks do, caused untold personal pain and suffering. But the truth is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims from war-torn countries are working hard to rebuild their shattered lives. They have been among the first to loudly denounce the despicable acts of those who sully Islam by committing abominable acts. The message is, and must always be, to hunt terrorists, not to witch-hunt Muslims.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is What to Make of Ben Carson (Amazon Kindle). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

A day after the 5th Circuit announced its ruling against the Obama administration's executive actions on immigration, immigrant rights leaders said now is the time to act.

"We are not going to sit around and wait for a court ruling. We will not let right-wing judges or right-wing states determine what happens to the fate of our communities," Annette Wong, program manager with Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) told reporters at an ethnic media news briefing organized by New America Media. The roundtable was part of an effort by the statewide coalition Ready California to encourage residents to apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

One year ago, President Obama announced two new programs through executive action -- an expansion of the DACA program and a new program for parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA. Those programs remain on hold following Monday's court ruling, the latest decision following a lawsuit brought by 26 Republican-led states against the Obama administration.

The Obama administration is expected to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court in the next few weeks. If the Supreme Court takes the case, it will likely announce a decision in June.

But while those two programs remain on hold, immigrant rights advocates said there are steps that families can take now to secure their future.

"It doesn't matter what status someone has; there are actions they can take," said Juan Ortiz, staff attorney with the International Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA).

U.S. citizens can register to vote; eligible green card holders can apply for citizenship. Undocumented California residents can apply for a driver's license under AB 60, noted Ortiz.

Next May, undocumented children in California will be able to access full-scope Medi-Cal. California parents can start enrolling their kids now in Restricted Medi-Cal (sometimes called Emergency Medi-Cal), regardless of their immigration status.

Parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents can start preparing their documents so they will be ready when DAPA goes into effect.

And, most importantly, people can still apply for the original DACA program that was announced in 2012.

It's important to understand that Monday's ruling does not affect DACA, noted Sally Kinoshita, deputy director of Immigrant Legal Resource Center. That program remains in effect and continues to help undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children get work permits, social security numbers and a temporary reprieve from deportation.

Ortiz advised families to go to a trusted community based organization for an immigration check-up to see what they might qualify for. In fact, he said, almost 15 percent of people who apply for DACA end up qualifying for something else, like a U-Visa (granted to victims of crimes) or a T-Visa (granted to trafficking victims).

Meanwhile, several DACA recipients speaking at the briefing encouraged their community members to apply for the program so they could access all of its benefits --not only a social security number, a work permit and a reprieve from deportation, but also the stability and security to stand up and advocate for the rights of others in their communities.

For Mexican American DACA recipient Luis Avalos, getting DACA was " a shining light in a dark tunnel of uncertainty," allowing him to work legally and stop being afraid of deportation.

Avalos, 22, is now the chair of the San Francisco Youth Commission and advises the mayor and board of supervisors on issues of concern to young people. In order to be appointed to the commission, Avalos needed a social security number. 

"I wouldn't be able to be part of the San Francisco Youth Commission without DACA," he said.

For Hong Mei Pang, a community organizer with ASPIRE, getting DACA was "a pivotal moment" in her life.

Pang, who came to the United States from Singapore 12 years ago, said before DACA was announced in 2012, she was "working three jobs under the table in abusive, exploitative conditions." DACA allowed her to get work authorization and step out of the shadows.

Today she advocates against deportations that continue to separate families. "Being able to participate in community organizing," she said, "means we are able to hold each other up."

Meanwhile, for Brian Cheong, DACA might have saved his life.

Cheong, who moved here from South Korea 12 years ago, was the leader of his high school's marching unit, graduated at the top of the class, and was awarded the Outstanding Student Award, given to one graduating senior each year. 

When he went to college, he said, "that's when my life turned a little downward."

As an undocumented immigrant, he was forced to pay out-of-state tuition. In order to pay out-of-state tuition, he had to get a job. But because he was undocumented, he didn't have a permit to work legally.

"On top of that," he said, "the fear of deportation followed me everywhere I went. You never know if when you’re sleeping or working if people are going to come and capture you."

"I started to question my life," he said, "and whether it was worth it to continue."

When DACA was launched in 2012, Cheong said there was never any question that he would apply for it. Getting DACA allowed him to work legally and have a secure source of income for tuition, removed the fear of deportation, helped him regain confidence in life, and allowed him to feel stable and secure for the first time in a long time.

"I'm the type of person that likes to plan ahead, and I couldn't do that before DACA," Cheong explained.

Today, Cheong is in a military program called MAVNI, a special program that could allow DACA recipients with certain skills to gain something that they otherwise would not be able to access -- a path to citizenship. Cheong plans to eventually petition for his parents and family, who are currently left out of immigration reform.

To other young people who are living without legal status, Cheong had a simple message: "You are not alone."

"Get up, speak up, advocate and educate," he said, "not just for DAPA [Deferred Action for Parents of Americans] but for CIR [comprehensive immigration reform] as well."

For more information about Ready California, visitReady-California.org.

Kenya faces serious opposition from both the ICC top brass and powerful NGOs in its push to withdraw use of recanted testimony against Deputy President William Ruto.

This emerged as a powerful Kenyan delegation prepared to fly to London to lobby for support ahead of the 14th Assembly of States Parties Session.

The ASP is the legislative arm of the ICC.

In a letter to the ASP leadership, the three ICC chiefs led by President Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, warned against the Kenyan bid, saying it is sub judice and a threat to the Court’s independence.

"The Court notes with great concern that a number of issues have been proposed for discussion at the Assembly which relate to matters falling clearly within the judicial and prosecutorial competence of the Court," the letter reads in part.

"Additionally, as your Excellency will be aware, some of these matters are under active consideration before the Chambers of the Court, and hence sub judice."

Kenya wants the Rome Statute's 123 signatory states to set aside the application of the controversial Rule 68 that was used to admit prior recorded testimony of five recalcitrant witnesses against Ruto.

The decision sent shockwaves into Ruto's political inner circle, triggering the ongoing prayer rallies and other responses.

A high-powered delegation led by Defence Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo is in London to lobby for British ICC support.

Also said to be in the delegation are Tetu MP Ndung'u Gethenji and Ruto's legal aide Korir Singoei.

Last night the British High Commission in Nairobi confirmed that the Kenyan government had asked for high-level meetings.

"This is routine between two close partners, and follows the very positive discussions between HE President Kenyatta and PM Cameron in New York in September. The subject of discussion is a matter for the two governments," said the statement.

In the letter also signed by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Court Registrar Herman von Hebel, the trio emphasised that the Court's judicial and prosecutorial independence must not be undermined by ASP proceedings.

"It is respectfully submitted that, in accordance with the role of the Assembly within the constitutional framework and separation of powers of the Rome Statute system, the Assembly must refrain from any action that interferes with the ICC's judicial independence in this respect," the Court said.

Powerful global NGOs have also opposed the Kenyan agenda, setting the stage for a possible clash with the large Kenyan delegation including MPs who are traveling to The Hague.

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Parliamentarians for Global Action have all disapproved of the Kenyan bid.

"Any effort by the Executive and the Legislature to interfere with the independence and autonomy of the Judiciary -- including independent Prosecutors --shall be firmly rebutted," Parliamentarians for Global Action, a US-based NGO said.

The ASP will have its weeklong annual meeting from November 18 to 26 at the World Forum in The Netherlands.

Rwanda's senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a draft constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to seek a third term in office, the head of the senate said, clearing the path for a referendum that is not expected to face much opposition.

Kagame, in power since 2,000, won widespread praise for his role in ending a genocide in 1994 of some 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and for his rebuilding efforts after the conflict ceased. But while praising Rwanda's economic and social development since then, rights groups say the government severely restricts freedom of expression and does not tolerate dissent, charges the government denies.

Kagame is the latest long-serving ruler in Africa to attempt to extend his hold on power. Similar moves have already sparked violence and instability in Burundi and Congo Republic. So far there has been no unrest in Rwanda. "The change (of the constitution) was voted for by 26 senators. No one refused it," Bernard Makuza, senate president, said after the vote.

The draft amendments to the constitution have already been approved by the lower house. The amendments could see Kagame, who was first elected president in 2003, staying on until 2034.

The Democratic Green Party, Rwanda's only one genuine opposition party, which is tiny and has no seats in parliament, has tried to block the amendments through legal action, but the Supreme Court rejected its bid, saying it would depend on the will of the citizens.

Critics accuse Kagame, 57, of trampling on media and political freedoms, a charge officials deny. The government says it cannot be blamed if opponents fail to win at the ballot box.

A date for a referendum has yet to be decided. In Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision in April to run for a third term triggered months of protests and a failed coup. Opponents said the move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war there.

A court ruled he could run again. In Congo Republic, voters backed a change to allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to run for a third consecutive term.

The opposition had called for a boycott of that vote and numerous protests have ended in violence.

NAIROBI, Kenya--The solidarity account set up by Cord leader Raila Odinga to help off-set teacher's salaries during their protracted 5-week strike has netted Sh1.2 million as of Tuesday this week.

But the raw data released by ODM director of communications Philip Etale shows that the call to stand with the striking teachers, whose salaries had been stopped by their employer, the Teachers Service Commission, was largely ignored by virtually all Cord leaders including co-principal Moses Wetangula.

Mr Odinga and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, also a cord principal, donated Sh100,000 each as promised. Mr Wetangula's name is missing from the list of contributors.

The other Cord leaders who made contributions are Siaya Senator James Orengo who gave Sh49,800, Machakos Senator who contributed Sh50,000.

Other notable contributors are political activist Boniface Mwangi and vocal Nairobi lawyer Edwin Sifuna with Sh1,000 each.

Thousands of wananchi gave their donations, some as low as Sh10, while others requested Safaricom to reverse their transactions.

NAIROBI, Kenya__Kenya's president on Monday declared corruption a national security threat and he presented a raft of measures to fight the graft that is endemic in East Africa's largest economy.

"I believe that corruption is a standing threat to our national security," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in televised remarks. "The bribe accepted by an official can lead to successful terrorist attacks that kill Kenyans. It can let a criminal off the hook for them to return to crime and harming Kenyans."

The president's announcement was received with skepticism by analysts.

"This president has made the best speeches about fighting corruption but his credibility is very low," said John Githongo, a former Kenyan government adviser who exposed millions of dollars in government corruption in the previous regime.

"Going by the past speeches nobody should hold their breath (for change) lest they faint," Githongo said.

Kenyatta said among the measures to be taken against graft include the vetting of customs and revenue officers, whom the government believes are denying the country revenue by taking bribes to overlook individuals' and institutions' tax obligations. The country's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, has also been ordered to help track down the corrupt, Kenyatta said.

Banks that break anti-money-laundering laws and regulations will, at a minimum, lose their banking licenses, Kenyatta said, and directors and senior officials at those banks will also be held culpable for abetting money laundering.

Kenyatta's nearly three-year-old regime has come under heavy criticism for inaction against graft which American Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec earlier this month described as a crisis.

Many of the incidents of graft highlighted by the Kenyan media have focused on the Devolution and Planning Ministry. Just this past weekend, Anne Waiguru resigned as minister, citing health concerns.

Kenya ranked a low 145 out 174 countries in the Transparency International 2014 index of perception of graft among countries.

According to figures from the Department of Homeland Security, President Barack Obama's immigration policy has allowed 680,000 green cards to be issued to immigrants from Muslim countries over the past five years, and that number could repeat in the next five years.

That means the number of immigrants from Muslim nations who have already come in is higher than the population of Washington D.C., at 658,893, writes The Washington Examiner, and will not slow down unless Congress changes the president's open-door policy. The numbers could increase even more, with Obama planning to add 100,000 refugees, most coming from war-torn Syria.

According to Department of Department of Homeland Security Data released by GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions'Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest on Wednesday, refugees must apply for a green card within one year after arriving.

Immigrants with green cards have access to federal benefits, lifetime residency, work authorization, and a direct route to becoming a U.S. citizen, the release said.

"Without such changes, the Census Bureau projects that, for each coming year the total number of immigrants in the United States will increase, the annual rate of immigrant admissions will increase, and the foreign-born share of the population will increase," said Sessions' subcommittee release.

The foreign-born population in the United States is already at a record 41.3 million, the report said, and according to Pew polling, 83 percent of Americans believe immigration should either be frozen or reduced.

"By a nearly 10-1 margin, Americans of all backgrounds are united in their shared belief that companies with positions to fill should raise wages instead of bringing in new lower-wage labor from abroad," said Sessions' release. "And yet, despite this, the Senate's Gang of Eight bill would have tripled the issuance of green cards over the next decade, and this year's I-Squared bill would substantially increase both low-wage guest worker admissions and green card allotments - all on top of the existing record-breaking and unprecedented growth in future immigration."

The majority of people who have come with green cards were from Pakistan and Iran, at 83,000 each, followed by:

• Bangladesh: 75,000
• Iran: 73,000
• Egypt: 45,000
• Somalia: 31,000
• Uzbekistan: 24,000
• Turkey: 22,000
• Morocco: 22,000
• Jordan: 20,000
• Albania: 20,000
• Lebanon: 16,000
• Yemen: 16,000
• Indonesia: 15,000
• Syria: 14,000
• Sudan: 13,000
• Afghanistan: 11,000
• Sierra Leone: 10,000
• Guinea: 8,000
• Senegal: 7,000
• Saudi Arabia: 7,000
• Algeria: 7,000
• Kazakhstan: 7,000
• Kuwait: 5,000
• Gambia: 5,000
• United Arab Emirates: 4,000
• Azerbaijan: 4,000
• Mali: 3,000
• Burkina Faso: 3,000
• Kyrgyzstan: 3,000
• Kosovo: 3,000
• Mauritania: 2,000
• Tunisia: 2,000
• Tajikistan: 2,000
• Libya: 2,000
• Turkmenistan: 1,000
• Qatar: 1,000
• Chad: 1,000

BRUSSELS (Reuters)--Kenya said on Thursday it was ready to quit the International Criminal Court if it did not get assurances about the handling of the trial of its vice president, hardening a rift between African powers and the tribunal.

Vice President William Ruto is facing charges of crimes against humanity including murder, deportation and persecution linked to an outburst of ethnic killings after the 2007 presidential election.

Two senior Kenyan government lawyers told Reuters that Nairobi wanted promises that a new rule allowing the court to use testimony from witnesses who had since decided to withdraw could not be applied retrospectively to cases like Ruto's.

"Withdrawal (from the global court) is one of the options available to us if we can't secure what we have asked for," one of the legal advisers said.

A Kenyan government team was asking for the assurances on Thursday at a week-long meeting of the court's governing body in The Hague. Members of the team did not specify if they were prepared to quit immediately if their demands were not met at the session.

Kenya would be the first of the court's 123-member states to withdraw since it opened in 2002 with the aim of ending impunity for leaders who commit war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

The African Union and other powers have accused the court of anti-African bias for targeting Africans in the majority of cases before it, but the claim has been rejected by the court's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.

Prosecutors at the ICC were forced to withdraw charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom they accused of stoking the ethnic violence after the election.

They blamed their failure to put Kenyatta on trial on political interference with witnesses, especially after Kenyatta was elected president in 2013. Kenyatta has denied the allegations.

Kenya's Foreign Ministry said in tweets from The Hague on Thursday "that Kenya would have no option in the circumstances other than (to) contemplate withdrawal" from the court's founding Rome Statute.

Kenya and South Africa had joined forces in lobbying for more freedom to interpret the court's rules. [ID:nL8N13E47Y]

South Africa has been in conflict with the court since Pretoria failed to carry out an ICC arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir when he visited Johannesburg in June.

Bashir is accused of masterminding genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during Sudan's Darfur conflict and is wanted by the Hague-based tribunal, which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009.

The tensions not only risk undermining the court, but could also drive a wedge between Europe and Africa at a time when Europe is seeking allies in the Middle East and North Africa in its fight against Islamist militancy.

(Writing by Anthony Deutsch)

NAMUGONGO, Uganda--Pope Francis on Saturday honored the Ugandan Christians who were burned alive rather than renounce their faith a century ago, urging today's Catholics to follow in their missionary zeal and spread the faith at home and abroad.

A somber Francis prayed at shrines dedicated to the 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic martyrs who were killed between 1885 and 1887 on the orders of a local king trying to thwart the influence of Christianity in his central Ugandan kingdom. According to historians, the Christians were also killed because they refused the king's sexual advances, citing the church's opposition to homosexuality.

At Namugongo, outside the capital, Kampala, where most of the martyrs were burned alive, Francis prayed first at the gruesome sanctuary dedicated to the Anglicans, kneeling before part of the same tree where they were tortured before being executed. He then prayed at the Catholic shrine and celebrated Mass in their honor to mark the 50th anniversary of the Catholics' canonization.

How badly the faithful wanted to see and hear the pope was evidenced by prime spots packed literally cheek to cheek, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

But the church isn't having it all its own way here, Pizzey reports. Some 40 percent of Ugandans are Catholics, but a mere 20 percent of couples are legally married. The rest cohabit in what the church delicately terms "irregular situations."

It's more or less the way the church also refers to homosexuality, which is a raging issue here, Pizzey reports. Uganda has some of the most severe anti-homosexuality laws in Africa, including a proposed one that would have imposed the death penalty but which the church successfully lobbied against.

As many as 2 million people were expected to attend the Mass, including Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the president of South Sudan and the descendant of the king who ordered the deaths.

Francis urged them to use the martyrs' example of faith to be missionaries at home by taking care of "the elderly, the poor, the widowed and the abandoned."

"This legacy is not served by an occasional remembrance or by being enshrined in a museum as a precious jewel," he said.

"Rather we honor them and all the saints when we carry on their witness to Christ, in our homes and neighborhoods, in our workplaces and civil society, whether we never leave our homes or we go to the farthest corner of the world."

The Argentine pope knows of what he speaks. When he joined the Jesuit order as a young man, he longed to be a missionary in Japan. But his superior told him to stay home for health reasons, and he later developed a ministry in the slums of Buenos Aires that has formed the basis of his papacy.

During his two days in Uganda, Francis is expected to touch on some of the same themes he emphasized during the first leg of his trip in Kenya: corruption, poverty and giving young Christians hope and encouragement. After the Mass on Saturday, Francis has a rally with young people, a visit to a charity and a meeting with local priests, seminarians and nuns on his agenda.

Some of the pilgrims attending the Mass had been here all night to honor the martyrs and see the pope, braving rains and sleeping on mats to guard against the mud that turned the grounds into chocolate-colored muck.

"They are so important because they sacrificed their life because of their religion," said Beneh Ssanyu, 27, who showed off the mud encrusting her sandals and pants - evidence of her arrival at 1 p.m. Friday that scored her a prime front-row seat.

Security at the shrine was tight, with those entering the main area passing through metal detectors and police boats monitoring the moat surrounding the altar where Francis celebrated the service.

Francis has made a point on his foreign travels to honor local martyrs in hopes of inspiring a new generation of missionaries. When he was in South Korea, for example, he beatified 124 missionaries who helped bring the faith to the Korean Peninsula. He has also spoken out frequently about today's martyrs, the Christians in the Middle East and Africa who have been slaughtered by Muslim militants.

The history of Uganda's martyrs has helped shape the Catholic Church here, with huge numbers of pilgrims flocking to the Namugongo shrine, many of them Africans arriving from as far away as Congo and Tanzania. Most of the pilgrims walk long distances to the site to underscore their faith.

Newly-elected President John Magufuli, whose campaign slogan wasHapa kazi tu(Work and nothing else), is a man true to his word. That's if his recent statements and implemented changes are anything to go by.

For the first time in 54 years, Tanzania will not be officially celebrating its 9 December Independence Day. According to theBBC, he said it would be "shameful" to spend huge sums of money on the celebrations when "our people are dying of cholera". Cholera has reportedly killed 60 people in the country in the last three months.

Some of the changes implemented since President Magufuli came into office:

• No more foreign travel, embassies will take care; if it's necessary to go, special permission must be sought from him or Chief Secretary
• No more 1st class and business class travel for all officials except President, Vice, and Prime Minister.
• No more workshops and seminars in expensive hotels when their so many ministry board rooms available.
• President Magulufi asked how come engineers are given V8s when a pick-up is more suitable for their jobs.
• No more sitting allowances, how the hell are you paid allowance for a job which you have a monthly salary; that also applies to MP's.
• All individuals/firms that bought state companies that were privatized but haven't done anything (20years later) are to either revive the industries immediately or hand them back to the government
• Last week, he ordered the cost of a party to inaugurate the new parliament to be slashed from $100,000 to $7,000.

The new president, nicknamed The Bulldozer, has created a hilarious trend on Twitter as users acknowledge his extreme austerity measures under the hashtag #WhatWouldMagufuliDo.

Below are a few posts/contributions from readers across the globe fascinated by the new Mugufuli measures: 

Allan Ssenyonga ‏@ssojo81  Nov 26 Me and my boys wanted to use the gym at Serena but then we asked ourselves, #WhatWouldMagufuliDo

Eugene ‏@reggaeholic_  Nov 26 I wanted to leave Busia to go get a pic with Uhuru but then I thought #WhatWouldMagufuliDo 322 retweets145 likes Reply   Retweet   322     Like   145

Philip Maina ‏@kimutaimaina  Nov 26 My side mirror was stolen in traffic today, but instead of buying another one, I asked myself #WhatWouldMagufuliDo

Fat Albert ‏@MisterAlbie  Nov 26 My girlfriend wanted me to hire an artist to draw her potrait. Then I thought #WhatWouldMagufuliDo?

To view more hillarious posts of #WhatWouldMagufuliDo,click here >>>>>

Uganda--Over the weekend, Tooro Kingdom princess Ruth Nsemere Komuntale posted a sexy picture on her Facebook wall having a good time with pals.

In the picture, the gorgeous princess was clad in a two piece bikini showing off her royal curves and sexy figure while enjoying cocktail drinks with her girlfriends in a swimming pool.

Much as most of her fans and followers; especially dudes (for obvious reasons) are pleased with her assets, there are those that don't do not agree.

Info coming in from the kingdom is that elders in the ruling clan are furious about the way Komuntale is exposing her 'flesh' to the whole world.

According to inside sources, some of the elders could not believe their eyes when they learnt that their princess was showing off her royal assets to the world.

The source adds that they were furious and called for a meeting to discuss her moral conduct arguing that that is not how a princess should dress.

They believe that this could be one of the reasons her marriage to American Thomas Christopher failed because doesn’t know how behave and respect herself as a royal.

Lately, Komuntale has been posting revealing pictures of her sexy self after getting back in shape because she feels more confident of her smashing body.

Central African Republic's interim president Catherine Samba-Panza on Sunday asked for "forgiveness" from Pope Francis for two years of "evil" sectarian violence she dubbed "a descent into hell".

"Central Africans have inflicted unspeakable suffering on other Central Africans," she said on meeting the pope in the capital, Bangui, where the situation remains volatile.

"On behalf of the ruling class of this country but also in the name of everyone who has played any part in this descent into hell, I confess all the evil that has been done here throughout the course of history and ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart."

CAR descended into bloodshed more than two years ago after longtime leader Francois Bozize, a Christian, was ousted by mainly Muslim rebels, triggering the worst crisis since independence in 1960.

More than 12,000 peacekeepers are deployed in the impoverished former French colony --including in Bangui where Francis will spend just over 24 hours.

"The very presence of Pope Francis in Bangui is seen as a victory, a victory of faith over fear, over unbelief and a victory of compassion and solidarity," said Samba-Panza after the 78-year-old pontiff's arrival in the country, the last leg of a three-nation Africa tour.

"You have come to demonstrate your compassion for and your solidarity with a people tormented by hate and the spirit of vengeance, a people torn by endless conflict but which, despite everything, has not completely lost its faith."

Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta yesterday launched the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, Aids-Free, Mentored Safe women project to curb the spread of HIV.

The project falls under the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. Kenya will receive Sh3 billion from the project to prevent and treat HIV and Aids related ailments among adolescent girls.

Mrs Kenyatta said new HIV infections among the youth may reverse the gains made in the fight against the virus. She said it was unacceptable that 21 per cent of new HIV infections occur among young women aged between 15 and 24 annually.

The First Lady, who called for concerted efforts in the fight against HIV and Aids, spoke yesterday during the World Aids Day celebrations at City Stadium, Nairobi. "Unless we control new HIV infections among this group, our aspirations of becoming a vibrant middle income economy in the next few years is in jeopardy," she said.

She emphasised the need to pool resources to ensure the country achieves zero new HIV infections and zero HIV and Aids related deaths while at the same time eliminating stigma and discrimination associated with the scourge.

"This is a journey that I am personally committed to and will continue to play my part in ensuring that all the efforts aimed at getting to zero are sustained and positive results achieved," she assured.

She added: "And the starting point is for each one of us to get tested. This way, every individual will be able to make an informed choice to protect himself or herself and their loved ones."

US Ambassador Robert Godec said despite considerable progress in the overall global HIV and Aids response, 380,000 adolescent girls and young women get infected every year in Sub-Saharan Africa translating to around 1,000 girls every day.

There was drama when a woman stormed a church wedding in Imara Daima, Nairobi, and confronted the groom who had allegedly declared her 'dead'. To halt the wedding, the woman stripped in front of the bewildered congregation.

The afternoon drama unfolded at the Glory Outreach Assembly Church when Anne Gesase walked into the church with an army of irate women and sought to stop the wedding.

Anne claimed the groom, Nahason Nyamweya -- who is the father of her four children --had forged her death certificate to give him clearance for a second marriage.

It is alleged that the children aged 10, 14, 16 and 18 had been given new birth certificates that showed the new bride -- Catherine Kenyaa Ngumbi -- was their biological mother.

Hell broke loose when the first wife stormed the church breathing fire and ready to stop the ceremony.

Stripping in protest

Dressed in a black skirt, spotted blouse and gumboots, she walked in when the choir was entertaining the guests with sweet melodies.

Apparently, the groom's uncle --Samson Orenge -- was among the first to spot her and sensing she was up to no good, immediately made effort to alert the security to stop her.

The men tried to force her out, but somehow, she managed to make her way to the front. In a rage of fury, she started stripping naked in front of the church as she caused a scene.

As the Naija movie-like scene unfolded in front of the church, the groom and his new bride stood still totally astonished not knowing what to do.

The congregation also watched the unfolding drama in awe.

Unable to contain her, the security turned to Standard Group journalists, who had been tipped of the drama before it unfolded, and ordered them to leave.

In an effort, to throw more mud at an already muddy situation, the army of girls the woman had come with hurled insults at the groom and mocked him.

"If the lady is woman enough, why can't she give birth to her own children? Why snatch a husband then trade children like some food in the market?" they lashed out.

The Standard on Sunday team was able to scutinise one of the allegedly forged certificates dated February 21 and signed by Nairobi District Registrar HK Musembi.

In the certificate, Catherine Kenyaa Ngumbi has been named as the biological mother of the child.

According to witnesses, Anne and her husband Nyamweya had four children during their marriage before separating in 2006 due to domestic violence. Anne later relocated to her parents' home in Narok.

Area chief Jonathan Otoyi said he had earlier advised the groom and clergy -- only identified as Pastor Murimi -- not to go ahead with the ceremony as there was a formal complaint by the first wife.

However, Otoyi said Pastor Murimi appeared arrogant and disrespectful and went ahead to officiate the ceremony despite the arising issues.

"The law is clear; if a wedding is disputed it should not go on until the dispute is settled," said the chief.

Despite a signed objection obtained from the Attorney General's office, the wedding still went on under the guard of hired private security.

But the chief promised to ensure the matter is resolved amicably.

In a new report by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya, CORD strongholds have taken the lion's share of the newly-registered voters.

At least 17 counties in Western, Nyanza, Coast and Ukambani regions--where an overwhelming majority of governors, senators and MPs were elected on a CORD ticket in the 2013 polls--have nearly two thirds of all the new voters registered in the last fiscal year.

IEBC figures show that Kakamega, Machakos, Kisumu, Kilifi, Bungoma, Kisii, Kitui, Homa Bay, Siaya and Busia are among the top ten counties where majority of the new voters rushed to get their names in the voters' register ahead of the 2017 polls.

In these counties, where the Opposition won an overwhelming majority of electoral seats in 2013, there are 64,000 new voters out of the national total of 106,601.

Kisumu and Siaya counties, which are CORD leader Raila Odinga's strongest support base, registered a combined total of 9,794 new voters. The three Ukambani counties of Kitui, Machakos and Makueni, where Raila's co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka enjoys a huge following, registered 14,461 new voters. In Bungoma County, the political bedrock of the other CORD co-principal, Moses Wetang'ula, there are 5,046 new registered voters.

The opposition leaders have mounted campaigns to have eligible Kenyans in their strongholds to register in large numbers in preparation for the next elections. These campaigns appear to be bearing fruit.

Uhuru's county

President Uhuru Kenyatta's home county, Kiambu (4,278) is the only one from Central Kenya to register more than 4,000 new voters. In Nyeri, the home county of the former President Mwai Kibaki, managed to register 1,092 new voters, while Uasin Gishu, the home county of the Deputy President William Ruto, registered only 1,392 new voters.

In IEBC's report filed with the National Assembly, the commission complains that lack of money made it difficult to go out and push for more people to register. The registration was a quiet affair done in the commission's offices at the constituency level.

IEBC chairman Issack Hassan said the commission is not just focused on the local registration, but that it was also working to make sure that Kenyans living abroad get a chance to pick their favourite leaders.

"We remain committed to the progressive realisation of every Kenyan's right to vote," Hassan noted in the report submitted to Parliament on Tuesday.

The bad news for the country is that while the IEBC targets eight million new voters in the next one and half years before the elections, only 106,601 people registered in the last one year. Commission CEO Ezra Chiloba told The Standard on Sunday that within the next six months, his team would spend Sh500 million allocated for voter registration in the current financial year to recruit four million new voters.

"We are on course..The target is eight million new voters by the next election," said Chiloba, his confidence buoyed by the fact that in the one week that the IEBC had a voter education week, the commission managed to register 22,946 voters.

Aggressive plan

In a fortnight, the commission plans to roll out a comprehensive plan of how the registration of new voters, scheduled to begin next year, will be done. The Sh500 million, he said, was not enough, but the commission remained optimistic that it was going to work.

"We have tried to develop scenarios on how to go about it... so we said we will begin early next year. If we do it now, because of the rains, it might be costly," he said.

But politicians from both sides of the Jubilee divide are not happy with the numbers. They blame the government and the IEBC for failing to do a comprehensive campaign to make sure more people register.

"The low numbers are because of two things: voter apathy in our strongholds, which is worrying, and the culture of last-minute registration. But I am running a campaign called 'umira' which means 'get out and vote' and I am targeting five million new voters before the next election," Kuria said. "We are going to register in numbers never seen before in this country."

Asked if he was worried that the opposition strongholds had taken up the lion's share, he retorted: "It is good for other people to think that they are ahead. But we have the numbers."

ODM chairman John Mbadi (Suba), the Director of Elections Junet Mohammed (Suna East) and the Political Affairs Secretary Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja) told The Standard on Sunday that the numbers in their strongholds showed that people were keen to get their voice heard at the ballot.

"Prior to the last elections, the voters in CORD strongholds were deliberately disenfranchised because of the few registration kits and the slow manner in which these were being operated. Those in Jubilee strongholds over-registered, they have no more people to register. What you are seeing is a tip of the iceberg," said Wandayi. Mbadi and Junet agreed with Wandayi and added that the campaign for the people to get national identity cards was the first step towards making sure that when IEBC rolled out the exercise, a big number of eligible citizens would register as voters.

"Jubilee strongholds are almost hitting a plateau. They met the IEBC target in the last elections and some even surpassed, so they have fewer people coming on board. While in CORD areas very few registered. What we want is to have the BVR kits spread per polling station, not like the other time when we had one kit for three or even five polling stations," said Mbadi. But the biggest challenges for voter registration are issuance of ID cards and civic education on voter registration. According to Junet, IEBC should get enough money to carry out countrywide voter registration campaigns.

"To be honest, as we speak, IEBC said it had lots of pending bills. I am not even sure they have the capacity to register voters. Who is going to give them services if they have all these debts?" said Junet.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya warned four days ago that the next elections would  have to be monitored closely and IEBC had to be ready to deliver. "Learning from the past, we can expect that these polls too will be highly contested at all levels. It is, therefore, of great importance that all preparations necessary are made to ensure that the elections are credible and the results accepted by all," said the General Secretary Canon Peter Karanja.

Among some communities in USA, parents can name their child almost anything. Previously marginalized groups are more likely to give kids unique and seemingly odd names. It is a way to express their unique identities and origins. In the African community the talk about "ghetto" or "hood-ish names” is always a touchy topic. Who decides if a name is odd anyway? Different Kenyan communities have their unique baby naming customs.

Some communities pass names down through family generations, others have formulas to invent new ones. We have communities that create names by observing nature, events or current occurrences. Kenyans love their well-planned names. But why do most Kenyans in USA introduce themselves using their first names even to fellow Africans. Let's go even deeper. Can the African name keep you or your child from getting a job, a contract, a customer, or another money generating opportunity?

I am sure you know people who are in high places just because of their family names. At least that is the general consensus. If a name is perceived to have the ability to open doors, can it also have the ability to close them? May be you have never thought about it that way. And don't tell me it’s illegal. Stealing is illegal too. That doesn't mean it does not happen. Yes, in a perfect world, name-based bias should not be happening. Hiring managers and other gatekeepers are supposed to make decisions without letting unconscious biases interfere. The main words here are "supposed to".

In USA, name-based social stigma is very real and mostly subtle. All this may happen consciously or unconsciously. Multiple studies have shown that people are often unfairly denied opportunities based on their names. Non-ethnic sounding names in a resume have a 50% greater chance of receiving a call-back when compared to those with ethnic-sounding names according to one recent study. Shorter names get bigger paychecks. There are kids who grow up to find their names on no fly lists, no horse ride lists, no hire lists, no apartment lists, no food lists, no oxygen lists, or other black book lists. Some of these lists are only in peoples subconscious minds. Creating derogatory names has been used throughout history to devalue people. Name matters. This is squarely an economic problem.

Imagine a situation where the interviewer assumes you speak a certain foreign language and you don’t. Or where the employer is tempted to question your immigration status. This may prolong the vetting process or it may dampen the enthusiasm about hiring you in the first place. There are cases where a name changes the tenor of the interview or turns the interview into a joke fest, which may work against you. In a high competition market, if your name leads to awkward mispronunciation or misspelling incidents that ends up embarrassing the interviewer, things might not end well. How do you pronounce your name again? There are cases where names can lead to perceived low intelligence depending on how water has been muddied by negative stereotypes. As a Kenyan you may have also have to deal with cultural appropriation and caricature of African people in general.

Africans in USA may face a greater risk of name related bias according our research. Not only can the westerners not pronounce your name, they may not be able to pronounce the name your high school or college. They may not have a lot of respect for your credentials if the college you went to has a "funny" name. Did you just make that up? The risk of this bias is significantly increased by the presence of other forms bias like race, national origin, religion, alma mater, social class or accent. For the Kenyans in USA that combination of the stigmas may create a bigger concern.  By the way this has also been associated with unwarranted or heightened performance scrutiny when you are finally hired.

Should parents factor this in when naming their children? There are many schools of thought regarding baby naming. For most parents there is a great desire to preserve the cultural identity that a name represents. At the same time every parent would want the best for his or her child. Who should have thought that naming a brand new human being can be such an auspicious task?

Should you be thinking about what the child will have to go through with that name? Is a baby the golden chance to show your stupid creativity? Is this baby your canvas to express yourself? Is he a tool for your counterculture rebellion?

But you can also argue from the other side. At the end of the day, it is the parents' responsibility to name their child, right? The rest of the world does not get to weigh in on it, period!

There should be a middle ground on this.  Given a choice I think one should seriously consider the ramifications of medical, financial, college, or employment records. Should you name your child "@" or "#"? You favorite football team? Poor-child! There are times when the trend is led by rich celebrities: people whose children may never have to look for work! Some European countries have now designed laws on naming because it can get out of hand. In USA there has been cases where courts have had to interfere. There has to be a line somewhere. You should consider teasing and bullying that goes on in school. What name would you give your baby if you knew he or she will run for office one day? What name would you give your baby if you didn't know if he or she will run for office one day?

How do grown-ups try to mitigate name bias? Many first-generation immigrants tend to pick the easiest name to go by especially at work. Just call me Bob! You probably have seen this at work places. A guy goes by the name "Max". The name on his work Id is something else: Elvis Presley. He is tired of people making fun of him. Can you dance for us? Some minorities shorten or abbreviate their names on their resumes. There is a reason some people are dropping some letters in their names on their resumes or candidates using initials instead of full names. Others select a part of their names to use on resumes. John. F. N.

Having a sense of humor is also a mitigation strategy that people employ. Changing a name permanently to improve one's prospects is a not an unusual practice in USA. People change ethnic sounding names to give the market what it wants. The same as a company would do with branding efforts. These strategies have worked for some people. That's the way they get to make a living. Its survival first. There is a reason many people are opting for "culturally ambiguous or gender neutral' names.

Do not tell me this cannot be overcome. In 2008 a "skinny kid with a funny name" became the 44th US president. Knowledge is power. While we hope the environment will change we should be focusing on how we can effectively improve areas that we can control. Feeling hopeless or subscribing to willful blindness on issues that affect you internally is not a good strategy. My main aim here is to help you detect and hopefully deter things that may go against you. You should never not stop pursuing your goals. You must stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. I have done some research on many such forms of bias and published a book about them.

From a business point of view we are interested in whether your name can prevent you from achieving your goals. I want to be clear here. I believe you should never change your name to please the world. You should never feel inferior because of your name. You should also not assume that all employers are bad. This is not unique to Kenyans in USA by any measure. Most foreigners to any country can attest to name frustration. Misspellings, mispronunciations, embarrassments, calls for unwanted attention, stereotypes and profiling are some of the bumps one might face. It’s all about thriving and prospering in spite of any obstacles.

Building networks is one of the good strategies that I recommend. When a candidate is referred by somebody inside the company, name pronunciation or other concerns are likely to take a backseat. At this point the company will decide to meet you based on reputation and credentials. It's good to learn how to develop and nurture quality relationships. This is a sustainable mitigation strategy to deal with many bias related obstacles.

There is also something we call "Laws of Demand and Supply". Most of bias in USA is driven by demand. If there are 100 candidates and 10 job opening the bias becomes more pronounced. If there are 10 candidates and 100 job vacancies bias becomes less economically consequential. Here is where you will notice the effect of superior or scarce skills in dealing with the name issue. If you are competitive in your field and highly demanded, your name becomes a common nuisance. People with high skills or talents face less name exclusion. If you have a unique service or product, most clients will not care about your name too much because the demand overwhelms the bias. If you make the best secret sauce in the world, your weird name becomes an asset. Capitalism kicks in.

Whenever possible do not let the discussion about your name and its origin derail the interview. What does your name mean in Ashanti? He is an interviewer not a genius. We should not forget that there will be some companies that look for ethnic names because they may offer advantages in terms of labor costs or lack of union affiliation. Your name could be an asset. Employers are also trying to help. Some companies now are testing what they call "blind resumes approach", to try to address this issue. This is a practice where documents are reviewed without an applicant's name or address. There are other ways people can try to mitigate this exclusion and I have a whole chapter on this in my book. Learning how a name can be used to exclude you should be a part of your business and career planning strategy. This allows you to accentuate that self-acceptance with self-improvement and logic. You must prevail in spite of bias related obstacles.

You also have immense power to help improve the world peace in this area. We can all start by respecting other people's names. Do not assume that a name you've never heard of is obviously made up. Children do not choose their names. You should never make fun of anybody's name: that is what they got when they were born. It's not funny. No one should feel superior due to his or her name. Your name is cute but it's not an achievement. If somebody doesn't like a name or nickname, do not use it. Let us also be fair here. Accidents happen or your tongue refuses to cooperate. You must have butchered your share of names too in your lifetime.I know I have done it many times. Has anybody seenMiss. Watermelondrea and Supervisor Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff today?

Mahugu Nuthu, Nuthology Analytics, Kansas City, USA

Tough talk against corruption, a spirited defense of Eurobond and a twin talk-down of the press and Opposition were the hallmarks of President Uhuru Kenyatta's speech at the 52nd Jamhuri Day celebrations yesterday.

Through the speech delivered at a time his government has taken a beating over corruption, the President tightened the noose around Opposition leader Raila Odinga by insisting that he must substantiate his Eurobond theft claims.

In his first ever address on the matter since it flared, the President said the sword of justice will cut both ways for those who accuse his government unfairly and those who commit the actual corruption.

"Ours was one of the best issues ever on the African continent. It was oversubscribed. Yet some of us contrived to talk it down, undermining the credibility of our institutions, and investor confidence in our country," the President said in apparent reference to Raila's stated position that money from the Eurobond had been stolen. 

"Yes, I agree that those entrusted with public positions must be held to account. If found guilty the maximum punishment must be meted out. But the sword of justice cuts both ways. If you make accusations and fail to prove them, you will also be held accountable," the President said.

Raila has said he will not honour summons by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to substantiate his claims that money from the Eurobond had been diverted to people's pockets.

What does it mean to be bilingual? Simply defined, it is the ability to use two languages. Some people can speak two languages well, but are more comfortable reading and writing in one. Or one language is spoken at home, or smaller communities, while another is used in all public interactions including school and work.

Islamic State has sanctioned the harvesting of human organs in a previously undisclosed ruling by the group's Islamic scholars, raising concerns that the violent extremist group may be trafficking in body parts.

The ruling, contained in a January 31, 2015 document reviewed by Reuters, says taking organs from a living captive to save a Muslim's life, even if it is fatal for the captive, is permissible.

Reuters couldn't independently confirm the authenticity of the document. U.S. officials say it was among a trove of data and other information obtained by U.S. special forces in a raid in eastern Syria in May.

"The apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and may be taken with impunity," says the document, which is in the form of a fatwa, or religious ruling, from the Islamic State’s Research and Fatwa Committee.

"Organs that end the captive's life if removed: The removal of that type is also not prohibited," Fatwa Number 68 says, according to a U.S. government translation.     

The document does not offer any proof that Islamic State actually engages in organ harvesting or organ trafficking. But it does provide religious sanction for doing so under the group's harsh interpretation of Islam- which is rejected by most Muslims. Previously, Iraq has accused Islamic State of harvesting human organs and trafficking them for profit.

The document does not define "apostate," though the Islamic State has killed or imprisoned non-Muslims, such as Christians, and Shiite Muslims, as well as Sunni Muslims who don't follow its extremist views.

DOCUMENTS SHARED WITH ALLIES

U.S. officials say the records that were seized have given the U.S. government a deep look into how Islamic State organizes, raises funds and codifies laws for its followers.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, told Reuters the documents should be examined by the U.N. Security Council as evidence that Islamic State could be trafficking in organs to raise cash.

The May raid in Syria, which resulted in the death of Islamic State top financial official Abu Sayyaf and the capture of his wife, netted seven terabytes of data in the form of computer hard drives, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs and papers, said Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama's Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, in an interview. Abu Sayyaf was a Tunisian militant whose real name was Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi.

U.S. officials have previously described the Abu Sayyaf raid and some of the documentation seized. But until now, none of the actual documents have been released - aside from materials illustrating Islamic State's trafficking in antiquities, made public at an event at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in September.

The U.S. government has shared some of the documents from the Abu Sayyaf raid with allied governments in an effort to increase their understanding of Islamic State in recent weeks as Washington works to shore up support for countering the group.

The group of documents reviewed by entitled "Lessons Learned From the Abu Sayyaf Raid" - show how the Islamic State has provided a legal justification to its followers for a range of practices. 

For instance, "Fatwa Number 64" dated January 29, 2015, provides detailed rules for rape, prescribing when Islamic State men can and cannot have sexual intercourse with female slaves.

The fatwa sanctioning organ harvesting justifies the practice in part by drawing an analogy to cannibalism in extreme circumstances, a practice it says earlier Islamic scholars had allowed. "A group of Islamic scholars have permitted, if necessary, one to kill the apostate in order to eat his flesh, which is part of benefiting from his body," it says.

McGurk said Islamic State's Research and Fatwa Committee reports directly to the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

ORGANS OF 'INFIDELS'
The ruling on organ harvesting cites Islamic texts, principles and laws that it says support what it calls "the notion that transplanting healthy organs into a Muslim person’s body in order to save the latter's life or replace a damaged organ with it is permissible."

Senior U.S. officials, including McGurk, said they have not been able to ascertain whether the Islamic State had followed through on the fatwa on organ harvesting. 

The document provides "a religious justification for harnessing the organs of what they call infidels," he said.

William McCants, a Brookings Institution scholar who is author of the book "The ISIS Apocalypse," said the group's ruling on slavery and human organs don't represent modern Islamic interpretations.

In February, Alhakim, had urged the U.N. Security Council to investigate the deaths of 12 doctors in the Islamic State-held city of Mosul. Alhakim said the doctors were killed after refusing to remove organs.

The U.N. special envoy for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said at the time that he could not confirm the claim, but it would be investigated. The U.N. has not provided an update on that investigation, which Alhakim said he would ask the Security Council to revisit.

MADRID (AP) — About 35 African migrants, including at least one rescued at sea from an overcrowded wooden boat, are among the top prize winners of Spain's Christmas lottery, according to the owner of the lottery agency that sold more than 1,000 tickets that shelled out 400,000 euros ($438,000) each.

The winners who bought the tickets in the southern coastal city of Roquetas de Mar included migrants from Senegal, Mali and Morocco, agency owner Jose Martin told La Voz de Almeria newspaper in a story published Thursday.

Among them was a Senegalese man named Ngame who told Spanish media that he and his wife were rescued by Spain's coast guard in 2007 when their boat with 65 people was traveling from Africa's western coast toward Spain's Canary Islands.

Outside the lottery agency, Ngame was in tears as he clutched a photocopy of his winning ticket with the number 79,140. He thanked Spain for saving his life and giving him the chance to play the country's world famous lottery.

"Today I thank the Spanish government, the Spaniards too," Ngame told Ondacero radio. "They saved us when we were in the middle of the sea."

Roquetas de Mar is in Almeria province, where many migrants toil in greenhouses as vegetable and fruit laborers. The area also relies heavily on tourism, but unemployment is 31 percent --much higher than the already sky-high national rate of 21 percent.

Ngame did not give his last name to reporters but said life has been difficult for him and his wife since they arrived in Almeria. They had not decided how they would use the jackpot.

"I'm not sure," he said. "It's too soon to decide. We have to talk and see."

Agency owner Martin said some of the migrants weren't sure how they could collect their winnings, so he accompanied them to their banks to explain what to do.

Although other lotteries offer larger top prizes, Spain's El Gordo (The Fat One) is the world's richest, and unites the country because almost everyone takes part.

There are 24 million prizes in all for a country with a population of 47 million -- and players in droves form pools with friends, family and colleagues to buy the 20-euro ($22) tickets.

Across Spain, people stay glued to the television on Dec. 22 as lower-level winning numbers are announced until the El Gordo number is drawn. Then people who purchased winning tickets show up outside the lottery agency that sold them and uncork bottles of sparkling wine in gleeful street fiestas.

The lottery has always been immensely popular but has taken on special importance in recent years as Spain struggled through the bursting of a real estate bubble and the European debt crisis. While lottery winners used to buy apartments or new cars during Spain's boom years, many winners now pay off debts.

Students also featured heavily this year -- nearly half the winning tickets were bought at the Roquetas de Mar lottery agency by a high school in the nearby town of Laujar de Andarax, population of 1,600. Students then resold the tickets to raise money for a school trip, meaning the town was flush with winners.

Associated Press Writer Elsa Fraile contributed to this report.

Mandera, Kenya: A suspected Al-Shabaab militant was Saturday killed when an IED he was planting on the roadside went off in Dabacity, Mandera County.

Four others, who were with him, managed to escape on foot after the blast went off. The four were injured.

Police and witnesses said the incident happened at about noon. 

Police who were on patrol at Garesesala within Dabasiti area said they spotted five men digging a trench on the road. 

"On seeing the officers, the militants panicked and in the process the IED they were planting went off killing one of them. The others managed to escape on foot as they shot at the officers," said a police officer, who asked not to be named. 

The incident comes days after the gang tried unsuccessfully to attack a bus. Two people were killed in the attack. 

Police say intelligence reports show the gang operating in the area is a splinter group from Al-Shabaab that has joined Islamic State.

In the past month, about four attacks have happened in Mandera. 

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said a major operation has been mounted in the area to rid the gang. 

"We seek the help of citizens to be able to contain these terrorists," he said.

At independence in the 1960s, almost all African countries did not think of term limits of their leaders - presidents or prime ministers and took it for granted that they would work for the benefit of their countries since they did not belong to any other country as was the case for colonialists.

In one of Africa's most celebrated surprises this year, Nigerian voters unseated President Goodluck Jonathan.The election of Muhammadu Buhari defied expectations of electoral fraud and violence, and his anticorruption platform sparked hopes for reform and economic growth.

Yet progress on both fronts has been slow and uneven. To understand why, pick up Tom Burgiss"The Looting Machine," a bracing look at why a continent blessed with one-third of the world's hydrocarbon and mineral wealth remains mired in poverty and dysfunction.

A former Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, Burgis goes beyond the tales of spectacular venality among Africa's "Big Men" -- the world's four longest-serving rulers are in African countries bursting with oil or minerals -- to explain how the continent's "resource curse" is sapping its development.

Nigeria is a case in point. Africa'sbiggest oil producergets more than 90 percent of its foreign earnings and two-thirds of its tax revenue from oil exports. Yet there are many reasons why that hydrocarbon bounty is a mixed blessing.

For starters, it can drive up the value of a nation's currency, making other exports less competitive and imports more attractive. As Burgis points out, textiles used to be Nigeria's most important manufacturing industry. But cheaper Chinese imports smuggled in by Nigerian gangs (an illicit trade worth more than $2 billion a year) have devastated the industry--one example of why Africa produces just1.5 percentof global manufacturing output, despite its abundance of cheap labor.

Billions of dollars in oil revenues are also a tempting pot of money for bent politicians. One 2012 report said corruption hadswallowed up$37 billion worth of Nigeria's oil money over the last decade. That surpasses the annual economic output of more than half the nations in Africa as well as Nigeria's annual federal budget.

Such corruption has other toxic effects. Dirty money from bribes and kickbacks has to be laundered, and because those doing the cleaning don't care so much about profit or productive investment, their infusions of cash distort the value of assets.

Nigeria's reliance on oil for tax revenues also creates a perverse political dynamic: As Burgis puts it, "the ability of rulers of Africa's resource state to govern without recourse to popular consent." Instead of having to do right by taxpayers to win their votes, politicians focus on controlling and dispensing mineral wealth to bolster their patronage networks.

"Politics becomes a game of mobilizing one's ethnic brethren," Burgis notes -- a contest with dangerous destabilizing effects in Nigeria's fractious polity. In fact, as one Nigerian governor explains, if he failed to share the wealth, ill-gotten or otherwise, "I've got a big political enemy."

Nigeria is far from the exception. At least 20 African countries are what the International Monetary Fund calls "resource-rich": that is, their natural resources account for more than one-quarter of exports. Risking limb if not life, Burgis gamely takes readers around some of them, from the coltan mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea's rich bauxite and iron ore deposits to the diamond fields of Zimbabwe.

Even as the names and histories of the different predatory leaders blur, one thing is clear: Their looting depends on an all-too-willing cast of outside partners, whether Western mining and oil companies that plunked down bribes and abetted massacres, shady Israeli middlemen or shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.

Particularly disquieting is Burgis's description of the unsavory role played by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, which backed visibly corrupt, environmentally destructive, or just plain inequitable oil and mining ventures in Chad, Guinea and Ghana--all countries it was supposed to be helping.

If Burgis's book were to be made into a movie, though, the star villain would have to be Samuel Pa, the bespectacled, beardedZeligbehind some of the continent’s most dubious recent resource deals. Over the course of several decades, Pa parlayed the connections he made as a Chinese intelligence operative and arms merchant into a sprawling, secretive consortium based in Hong Kong known as the88 Queensway Group,not to mention a spot on the U.S. Treasury'ssanctionslist.

Western criticism of China's growing presence in Africa, Burgis writes, nonetheless carries a "distinct whiff of hypocrisy" that might make even King Leopold blush. Moreover, ordinary Africans stand to gain much from the $1 trillion or so that Chinese entities will reportedly plow into their continent by 2025.

That said, the tale of Pa and Queensway, which has its tentacles wrapped around oil holdings in Angola and Nigeria, diamond mines in Zimbabwe, and agriculture in Mozambique (to name just a few of its ventures), reeks of sulfur and brimstone. As several seasoned African mining executives told Burgis, the Queensway Group reminded them of Cecil John Rhodes, the forerunner of those who "use the conquest of natural resources to advance political power and vice versa."

One of the best hopes for curbing this rapacity and corruption may be to impose greater transparency on Africa's outside business partners. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, recently proposed arulerequiring U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies to publish details of their payments to governments.

Even China may see the writing on the wall. A few months after Burgis's book came out this year, hereportedthat Pa had been detained in one of China's deepening anti-corruption probes. Guess that scotches the prospect of any PaScholarshipsin the future.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
James Gibneyatjgibney5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Flavelleatcflavelle@bloomberg.net

The fear by the Kikuyu of a government in which they have no control is the biggest hurdle confronting the Jubilee Party's twin mission to secure President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election in 2017, and play launching pad for Deputy President William Ruto's presidential contest in 2022.

The pervasive fear of forced repatriation of the most populous and peripatetic community--with as many members outside of the native Central Kenya as there are inside--drives the Kikuyu to cling to the safe and familiar: their own.

The political expression of this fear is the rabid dread of anything that remotely resembled Majimbo (regionalism), and Uhuru's current burden is to convince his kinsmen that Ruto can guarantee their interests and assuage their fears if they vote for him.

Although the region has produced three of the four independent presidents, a siege mentality against power of state being turned against the Kikuyu was a dominant factor influencing voter behaviour during elections. This dread of forced eviction is rooted in the colonial experience, the anti-Gema purge of the 80s and perpetuated by the cyclic ethnic violence around election seasons in the 90s, whose ghosts are still haunting the nation to date, including the International Criminal Court's interventions in Kenya.

The trauma of the colonial experience, and fear of retribution against the region's political elite for perceived past excesses during the reign of first President Jomo Kenyatta, continue to cast a dark shadow on voter behaviour during elections.

Uphill task
Ruto and his backers will sooner than later have to wade through this historic baggage in the Kikuyu psyche if he were to succeed in securing the region's backing for his bid to succeed Uhuru.

Political actors who tried to persuade Central Kenya voters into voting for CORD leader Raila Odinga, and Amani Coalition leader Musalia Mudavadi in the 2013 general election say Mr Ruto's is an uphill task.

"Since colonial times, the Gema have experienced the power of the state turned against them and this left a traumatic scar, a historical baggage that politicians overplay and exaggerate to scare voters," says Ngunjiri Wambugu, a political consultant.

Through his Kikuyus For Change lobby, Mr Wambugu was among a group of brave Central Kenya businessmen and politicians who tried, with dismal success, to sell CORD leader Raila’s presidential flag in Central Kenya in 2013.

He was director of political affairs in ODM's presidential campaign secretariat, before defecting to Jubilee after elections. He says the colonial experience lasting more than 70 years of collective subjugation, mass punishment and an intense military operation to suppress Mau Mau (1952-59) are among factors that left a deep seated phobia of being under the power of "others".

After independence, a combination of excessive behaviour of some key actors during the first administration of Jomo Kenyatta (1963-78), and what was perceived as a retributive purge of the region's political and civil service elite after Kenyatta's death, fuels this siege mentality perhaps more than any other factor.

The cyclic ethnic violence phenomena that has plagued the country since re-introduction of multi-partyism in 1992, and which escalated most dramatically following the disputed presidential elections in 2007 elections, did not help matters.

"These have buttressed the political demagogues' clarion call "ni twathira" (we are finished) to every generation of voters, to stampede them towards their own and reject 'outsiders' regardless of their other credentials, policies or ideas," Ngunjiri says.

In one major rally in Karatina, Nyeri County, in the run up to the last elections, one presidential candidate warned the voters:
"If that man (one of his rivals) gets to State House, he will make all of you (Kikuyus) put on prison garbs when visiting public offices so all people can see you from a kilometre away because they call you thieves."

Fear was deployed to the maximum to instill a siege mentality among sections of voters to goad them not only to come out to vote, but also in large numbers because it was their lives 'on the line', not political careers of individuals.

A popular assumption is that the average Kenyan voter is a fairly informed, rational and law abiding citizen, who faithfully pays tax and goes to church on Sunday or Mosque on Friday.

Few people have tested this assumption to their painful grieve than former Laikipia West MP, Nderitu Muriithi. Armed with the assumption that all the voter needed to make rational political decisions was a clinical analysis of what was wrong with the economy and what needs to be done about it, his UDF party produced a manifesto dubbed Wanjiku Compact, translated in all major vernacular languages, Kikuyu included.

A former World Bank economist turned politician, Mr Muriithi says he learnt what swayed voters in the 2013 polls was fear, not ideas.

"Politicians and social scientists have discovered that Wanjiku is burdened by many cares in her daily struggles. To catch her attention, they must frighten her out of her daily preoccupations with survival. This explains the intense scare mongering directed at Kikuyu voters every election time. The slogan "ni twathira" was so effective," he recalls.

Muriithi and his former Ndaragawa counterpart Jeremiah Kioni went against the grain of the TNA wave and were whitewashed. By sticking with Mudavadi, they staked their political necks for a chop they will not forget in a hurry.

"UDF believed a middle of the road route through a moderate leader as Mudavadi was the most viable alternative to draw Kenya back from the extreme passions excited by a contest between Uhuru and Raila. Their followers behaved, and continued to behave, like two alien war formations which is not good for national unity," he recalls.

Wambugu had a front row interaction with what he describes as "irrational fear of annihilation" that seemed to eclipse every other idea, argument or consideration in choice of leadership among Kikuyu voters.

"Having tried to persuade leaders and voters in Central Kenya to consider a non-Kikuyu for president, I constantly came across expressions of deep fear that cuts across the social strata among the Kikuyu. The average Kikuyu peasant, university graduate or businessman deeply fears that government can be turned against them," he says. 

The average Kikuyu middle class and professional grew up on a diet of negative ethnicity, in addition to being targets of unflattering social labels that seemed to have left many seeing a shadow behind every bush.

Extremely gullible

"These are the same narratives they heard from their parents and grand parents, narratives of being hunted and haunted by an alien colonial state, and which makes them extremely gullible to political scare mongering," Ngunjiri says.

While working for Raila, Ngunjiri says he became aware of two seemingly contradictory aspects about the group behaviour of the Gema people than he was before.

"This is hard to believe for many, but it is true Kikuyus are a politically ambivalent and detached lot. I am convinced they can comfortably live in Kenya without ever bothering to be in political leadership, if they did not feel their interests in land, business and physical safety were threatened by government," he says.

The second seemingly contradictory aspect about their group behaviour he said: "Some argue the poor have no interest or reason to gang up with the rich to protect. The Gema people carry a collective baggage of a historical memory of being targeted, isolated, haunted, hounded during the colonial times," he says.

There's no shortage of chatter about GOP Presidential contender Donald Trump campaigning. But almost nothing has been said about how a "President" Trump would actually govern. While there's no consensus that he can win the GOP nomination let alone the White House, there is a consensus that he has a real shot at being a real threat to win the GOP nomination and make a real run for the White House. It's based on these very real facts. Since he officially declared for the presidency last June except for one brief moment he's consistently gapped every other GOP contender in poll ratings; no expected implosion has happened.

He has fired up a big swatch of the GOP base, conservatives, and white evangelicals, but more ominously he's stirred passion and zealotry among millions of disaffected, alienated white blue collar workers. He's been a rating's and thus a cash cow bonanza for much of the media and a sound bite dream machine for newsrooms. They will continue to play up every Trump quip, dig, and inanity big. This will further cement his name, reputation, and even appeal to millions.

Despite predictions that his backers will resoundingly shut down on him when they get in the voting booth in the primaries, there a good likelihood many won't. The GOP presidential nominee needs 50 percent plus one of the 2,470 delegates to bag the nomination. Party leaders gloat and nervously plot that Trump will crash and burn long before he getsanywhere closeto that number. Maybe, but 11 states have winner take all primaries, ten states assign delegates proportionally, and 17 states use a caucus and convention to hand pick delegates.

With only Texas senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio flirting with double digit poll support, it's no stretch to see Trump netting hundreds of committed delegates from more than a handful of states. Though Trump has seemingly warred with the GOP establishment, the fight has been over mostly over his style, personality, and comportment, but not on the key issues from abortion and Planned Parenthood to the economy and foreign policy. Take Trump's rough edge off his bluster about these issues, and his stance on them is mostly in line with the party's on these issues with some curious exceptions.

So the question that once seemed absolutely ludicrous to think let alone ask is now a question that can be seriously asked and even to an extent answered. Just how would Trump govern? There's little reason to think Trump is suited to patient, give and take negotiation and compromise to get his initiatives through Congress. His style is to bellow, bully, and harangue to get his way. As for the issues, Trump has been on the political scene long enough to have enough of a paper trail to piece together from his statements in debates and interviews and speeches a fairly accurate picture of what he will say and do on the big ticket issues. Those issues are the budget, government spending, civil rights enforcement, the environment, crime control, the military and foreign policy. He'll be totally hand's off Wall Street and the banks on regulatory matters, slash corporate taxes to "0" percent, impose no cap and tax on big oil, and radically slash funding for the EPA and the Department of Education. But he'll also cut funding for the Defense Department.

On civil rights and civil liberties, he accepts the Supreme Court decision in support of gay marriage, says he's "fine" with affirmative action, and will enforce the laws on hate crimes. He's disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement, but did acknowledge that black lives do matter.

He'll let states decide what they'll do about medical marijuana, legalizing marijuana, and the drug laws.
On the one hand he derides climate change as a "hoax" but on the other acknowledges that there may be some need to take some action.

He repeats the GOP party line that the Affordable Care Act is a "disaster." So, he'll, of course, try to repeal and replace Obamacare.

He reminds all that he opposed the Iraq War, but will put boots on the ground against ISIS, take a hardline confrontational stance in confronting North Korea and Iran on their nuclear capacity.

On the signature issues that got him and gets him raves from millions, he'll do everything to further erode labor unions, flatly oppose any minimum wage increase, try to wall off the borders, and crack down on Muslims coming and going in the country.

Trump hasn't as yet laid down a specific blueprint for how he'll work with Congressional Democrats or even Congressional Republicans, let alone foreign leaders, if elected, but there's really no need to do that at this point. It would actually ham string his free-wheeling, shoot from the lip approach to campaigning. If anything the absence of such a blueprint adds to his take-no-prisoners, tough talking, rip the establishment, allure.

As for Trump's hyped up, disgruntled, vengeful backers, they see all of this as the prescription for a new type of White House-- and better still, a change in the substance and style of governance. This would be nothing short of a monumental disaster and turn Washington into a home and away laughingstock. But in a political season of wide voter rage and discontent, too many, how Trump will actually govern is less important than that he will govern.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is Trump and the GOP: Race Baiting to the White House (Amazon Kindle). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network

A human rights activist has accused the government of not doing enough to find two Kenyans who went missing in 2013.

US-based activist, Dr Isaac Newton Kinity, said the government has done too little to locate Mr Dickson Bogonko Bosire and Mr Albert Muriuki.

Dr Kinity who has visited the country said: "Those who were with them the day before they disappeared were never interrogated. Their movements and their whereabouts moments before they disappeared were not explored and were most likely not investigated," he said when he visited the Nation Centre on Friday.

Mr Bosire, was a blogger who ran a gossip site, Jackal News, before his mysterious disappearance in September 2013.

Mr Muriuki was a deputy director in charge of constitutional and legislative affairs at State House and was reported missing in December the same year.

The two are yet to be found despite the search the government said it had launched.

"I plead with human rights organisations and other patriotic Kenyans to support a bid for fresh investigations into the disappearance of the two," said Dr Kinity who is the founder of Kikimo Foundation for Corruption and Poverty Eradication.

Meanwhile, Dr Kinity said corruption is still rampant in Kenya despite the changes in the regimes.

"There is no leader who is willing to stamp out corruption. To get rid of the vice, we need someone who is courageous enough. Someone who is willing to take jail, even those close to him. At the moment, there is none," said Dr Kinity who went into exile in the 1990s.

What is in a name? Well, if the case of mothers in the county delivering during the festivities is anything to go by, then there is a lot in a name.

Cleare Jakoyo is one of the 27 mothers who delivered at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya on December 25.

As most mothers at the maternity ward struggled to comb through the names of their families to give to their newborns, as per the norms of the Luo culture, Ms Jakoyo was thinking of how to fight tribalism through names.

As is common in the country today, some names are associated with tribes and people have been keen on identifying others people's tribes by their names, rather than use them for identification.

Jakoyo decided long before delivery to avoid a tribal name so as to spare her children from tribal discrimination, which seems to tear the country apart, especially during elections. A few minutes after midnight, Jakoyo brought to the world a bouncing baby boy and gave her four names, all Christian.

"I have decided to name my baby Santa Roby Aaron Sam. I have been a victim of ethnic profiling and would not wish to have my children face the same. We have decided as an extended family that we want to avoid tribal names," she said.

NAIROBI, Kenya-- This is to correct an article yesterday that indicated former Boston Based Diaspora Returnee as the operator ofJK & M Dance Studios who presented their rendition of the classic musical 'The Nutcracker'at the Oshwal auditorium, Westlands, in Nairobi Saturday afternoon, December 12, 2015.

Since then, we have learned form Roseanne herself that she has no role to play at JK&M Dance Studios, which shuld not be confused wit her former health training & fitness club in Lowell, near Boston. Our sincere apologies for the miscommmunication.

The cast is made of kids from a variety of schools in Nairobi with a passion for dancing and are taking professional classes to achieve their dreams. It was a timely production as the Nutcracker is the classic Christmas story centering on a young girl and her family celebrations on Christmas.

Mirema School founder Margaret Mutegiand Sweden EmbassyFirstSecretary Louise Bermsji were in attendance.

Federal Way, WA--It is with deep sadness and sorrow as we announce the sudden death of Pastor Charles Kamau Gitu on Wednesday night December 30th 2015.

He resided in Federal Way Washington state.

He left behind wife Catherine W Gitu , children James K Gitu London, Loise N Malei Kenya, Ian W Kamau Kenya,
Benjamin G Kamau, Seattle Washington, and several grandchildren. He hailed from Gitaru Ward in Kabete Constituency.

Prayers and gathering are being held daily at Benja's starting 5pm and anytime one is available

Venue: Tamigan apartments

• 3523 70th Ave E
• Apt Q103
• Fife Wa 98424

Contact

• Benja cell (206) 446-7188
• Catherine:cell (206) 430-4352
• Hse phone 253 235 5227

Your prayers, contributions and support are highly appreciated as we prepare to take the body home for final resting. Feel free to bring along a friend.

A fund raising will be held on Suturday January 16th 2016 starting at 4 pm at TABERNACLE TEMPLE OF PRAISE. 2025 S341stPL FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003

https://www.gofundme.com/PastorGitu

Courtesy of Lawrence Kamau of Boston, MA- Cousin to the late Charles Kamau Gitu

Nairobi, Kenya--Time is up for preachers notorious for asking for offertory or a set amount of money (seed) in exchange for special blessings and prayers on TV or radio.

Such 'seed' preachers, who encourage viewers to give 'far and beyond' their abilities to attract blessings, will soon have no place in radio and television programmes.

Preachers have also been banned from recruiting people to their faiths or asking them to get 'saved' as they often do at the tail-end of their broadcasts.

These, among other rules, are contained in the Programming Code for Free-to-Air Radio and Television Services in Kenya.

This is not all, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has also banned sex talk during the daytime on radios. This will be seen as punitive for TV and radio which depend on call-in shows with, sometimes,heart-to-heart sharing of bedroom matters on air. These popular shows drive up ratings and advertisers scramble to get slots to sell their merchandise when these shows are on air.

But according to CA, unless they are part of educational programmes, the shows stand banned during the watershed period --- between 5am and 10pm.