Profile: Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o – Literary and Social Activist
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, was born in Kenya, in 1938 into a large peasant family. He was educated at Kamandura, Manguu and Kinyogori primary schools; Alliance High School, all in Kenya; Makerere University College (then a campus of London University), Kampala, Uganda; [...]
Germany gives €1.2M for vegetable pest management initiative to boost food security and nutrition in Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar and Thailand
Dar es Salaam - Efforts to improve the productivity of vegetables to feed and enhance the nutrition of people in Africa and Asia have received a major boost with the release of a €1.2 million (about US$1.6 million) research grant from the German government. The grant will be used for an international initiative that will [...]
Kenya property market booms as a result of somali piracy
The price of properties in Kenya are on the rise, and Somali nationals in the country are making offers to buy properties in some of Kenya’s posh neighbourhoods and sometimes even offering a bit more to outbid local Kenyans in the rush to invest pirate-earned cash. This sudden increase in the price of properties in [...]
Walking metres to fetch water in Kenya – Action aid lends a helping hand
NAIROBI, Jan 3 - Protus Onyango (IPS) – The acute lack of water in Kenya means families have to trek long distances every day to fetch water. In both rural and urban areas, people often walk as far as 30 kilometres or more to collect water from rivers, streams or wells. But thanks to self-help projects backed [...]
Kenyan women set to make their mark in politics
NAIROBI, (IPS) – The August 2012 elections in Kenya will open doors to massive political participation by women for the first time ever. The new constitution in effect since August 2010 contains a provision that should radically change political representation for women in this East African country. Women’s rights activists in Kenya are confident that as a [...]
Human trafficking is on the rise in the Horn of Africa amidst the drought and famine the region faces
RIFT VALLEY, Kenya (IPS) – Amina Shakir (not her real name) fled the drought and famine in Somalia for a better life in Kenya. But she did so illegally, placing her faith in the hands of a criminal network headed by Mukhalis or agents in Swahili. In the end her faith was misplaced as she [...]
Women being raped: The dark side of the famine crisis in Somalia
DADAAB, Kenya (IPS) – When Aisha Diis* and her five children fled their home in Somalia seeking aid from the famine devastating the region, she could not have known the dangers of the journey, or even fathom that she would be raped along the way. Diis left her village of Kismayu, southwest of the Somali capital [...]
Kenyan Nobel laureate and strong advocate for the protection of the environment Wangari Maathai has died
Nobel Peace laureate and conservation advocate, Prof Wangari Maathai is reported to have died in Nairobi after a long battle with cancer. She was 71. According to the country’s Nation Newspaper. The environmentalist and politician died at the Nairobi Hospital at around 10pm on Sunday, officials at her Greenbelt Movement organisation told The Nation. Prof Maathai [...]
Ambassadors from Russia, Kenya, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea present letters of credence to Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma
FREETOWN - Four countries including three African Union member states have expressed desires to consolidate diplomatic ties with the Sierra Leone. Kenya, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Russia, made commitments for continuous collaborations on behalf of their governments at the presentation of letters of credence by a High Commissioner, Ambassadors and Plenipotentiaries to President Ernest Bai Koroma [...]
The poor struggle in Kenya as inflation soars
RIFT VALLEY, Kenya, Aug 24 (IPS) – As Kenya’s inflation rate reached 15.53 percent, compared to 3.18 percent in October 2010, the country’s poor have been struggling to afford the most basic of essentials. In some areas families can no longer rely on regular meals and have reduced them to one a day, others mostly [...]
