Page 3 - Kenya

Explosion near police station in Kenya kills 4 people, including 3 officers

An explosion at a small hotel located near a police station in northeastern Kenya killed four people, including three officers, and wounded several others on Monday, authorities said. The blast in the town of Mandera, which is on the border with Somalia, was caused by an improvised explosive device that had been planted at the hotel and was detonated as a crowd of people sat down to eat breakfast, police said. Mandera police chief Samwel Mutunga said that two of those wounded were in critical condition and would be flown to the capital, Nairobi. Investigators have blamed east Africa-based extremist group al-Shabab for the attack. The group, which hasn't claimed responsibility for the explosion, has staged major attacks in Kenya and neighboring Somalia. The latest attack followed another one on Sunday in coastal Kenya's Lamu County, where two police reservists were killed. The area has a forest, which has often been the site of security operations because it's a known hideout of ..

Fire set off by a gas explosion in Kenya kills 3 people, injures 280 others

A truck loaded with liquid petroleum gas cylinders exploded in a depot in the Kenyan capital and set off a late-night inferno that rapidly spread and burned homes and warehouses, killing at least three people and injuring 280, officials said Friday. The death toll was expected to rise. At least 24 people were critically injured, the Kenya Red Cross said, after a huge fireball erupted from the gas depot. Some gas cylinders were thrown hundreds of metres (feet), sparking separate fires in the neighbourhood. The truck was parked inside a gas cylinder storage and filling site that had multiple applications to operate there rejected last year because it was too close to residential areas, Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority said, raising questions over whether it was operating illegally. The government knew this liquid petroleum gas plant was existing in a residential area but they did nothing, local resident Charles Mainge said. They should make sure this doesn't happen .

India, Kenya ink 5 pacts, govt announces $250 mn LoC for Kenyan agri sector

India on Tuesday announced a USD 250 million line of credit to Kenya for modernisation of its agricultural sector as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto agreed to shore up bilateral ties in areas of defence, trade, energy, digital public infrastructure and healthcare. Following the Modi-Ruto talks, the two sides signed five pacts providing for cooperation in a range of areas including sports, education and digital solution, and unveiled a joint vision document to scale up maritime engagement in the Indian Ocean region. The Kenyan side offered, in line with Kenyan laws, to provide land to Indian companies and institutions for cultivation of crops, including millets. In order to enhance bilateral economic engagement as well as to finance projects under development partnership, the two leaders also discussed the need to use local currencies for trade. In his media statement, Modi said India has been a "reliable and committed" development partner for .

India to provide $250 mn LoC to Kenya for modernisation of its agri sector

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced India's decision to provide USD 250 million to Kenya for modernisation of its agriculture sector following his wide-ranging talks with visiting Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto. Ruto arrived here on Monday on a three-day visit with an aim to expand overall ties between the two countries. In its foreign policy, India has always given high priority to Africa and has expanded its overall ties with the continent on a mission mode in the last nearly one decade, Modi said in his media statement after the talks. "I am confident that President Ruto's visit to India will not only strengthen bilateral ties but will give a new momentum to our engagement with Africa," he added. The prime minister said India will provide USD 250 million as Line of Credit to Kenya for modernisation of its agriculture sector. Referring to the Indo-Pacific, Modi said closer cooperation between India and Kenya in the region will advance common efforts. India

Kenyan President William Ruto pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat

President Droupadi Murmu and PM Narendra Modi welcomed William Ruto at Rashtrapati Bhavan. William Ruto was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan

Want to thank PM Modi for helping Africa become G20 member: Kenya President

He said that India and Kenya have a fantastic bilateral relationship and added that he is looking forward to visiting India

Power returns to Kenya after 14 hrs, longest in recent memory; airport shut

Electricity was being restored in most parts of Kenya on Saturday, 14 hours after the longest outage in recent memory, the majority government-owned power distributor said. There was still no clear explanation for the outage that hit on Friday night, shutting down the country's main international airport, affecting major hospitals and even the president's office compound. I am really sorry for what has happened, Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said in a statement close to midnight. There is no excuse worth reporting and there is no reason why our airport is in darkness. Kenya Power later on Saturday said it had restored service in most areas. The outage came just weeks before Kenya's government hosts the first Africa Climate Summit, where energy will be key on the agenda. Kenya gets almost all its energy from renewable sources, but infrastructure and alleged mismanagement remain an issue in the country of more than 50 million people. Kenya Power had announced in a brief ..

Meta, Kenya moderators agree to out of court settlement in $1.6 bn lawsuit

Meta, Facebook's parent company, and 184 of its content moderators who were based in Kenya agreed on Wednesday on a mediation attempt to settle out of court. Last year, the moderators from several African countries filed a lawsuit against the social media giant and its outsourcing firm, Sama, seeking USD 1.6 billion in compensation, alleging poor working conditions, including insufficient mental health support and low pay. The Employment and Labour Relations court said they have 21 days to reach a settlement and that former Kenyan chief justice, Willy Mutunga, and labour commissioner, Hellen Apiyo would co-mediate the dispute. The moderators were employed via Sama, a San Francisco subcontractor that describes itself as an ethical AI company, to work in its hub in the capital, Nairobi. Their job entailed screening user content in 12 African languages and removing any uploads deemed to breach Facebook's community standards and terms of service. Some of the moderators previously to

Eye hospital chain Dr. Agarwal's raises $80 million from TPG, Temasek

The top shareholder of publicly listed Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospitals plans to operate 300 hospitals by the end of 2025. It currently has over 150 hospitals, including in African countries like Nigeria

US to put forward UN order to allow Kenya-led police to fight Haiti gangs

The United States said Tuesday it will put forward a UN Security Council resolution that will authorise Kenya to lead a multinational police force to help combat gangs in Haiti that control much of the capital and are spreading through the Caribbean nation. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a news conference at the start of the U.S. presidency of the council this month that we welcome Kenya's decision to lead the multinational force (and) we will be working on a resolution to support that effort. Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity to stop the gangs. U.N. Secretary-General Antnio Guterres had been appealing unsuccessfully since then for a lead nation to help restore order to Latin America's most impoverished country. More than nine months later, Kenya was the first country to positively consider leading a force, offering to send 1,000 police to help train an

HC seeks Centre response on whereabouts of missing media person in Kenya

The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought the response of the Centre on a woman's plea claiming her brother and media professional Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan was missing since last year and detained in Kenya. She said she was not in a position to contact him. Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice to the Ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs on the petition, and asked them to file a status report within two weeks. The high court listed the matter for further hearing in August. Khan, 49, who went missing in Kenya in July last year, was the ex-COO (chief operating officer) of Balaji Telefilms and had worked with Eros, Star TV India and Warner Brothers, according to the petition. Petitioner Anis Fatima Zachariah said her brother had travelled to Kenya on tourist visa on June 24, 2022 and on July 22 last year, Khan and his friend were around the Westlands, Ole Sereni when some people claiming to be police officers "unlawfully and arbitrarily" intercepted their vehicle and hijacked it.

ONGC Videsh reconsiders its plan to buy stake in Kenya oil project

The Indian oil company needs more clarity after TotalEnergies SE and Africa Oil Corp. quit the Kenya consortium several weeks ago, an ONGC executive, who asked not to be named

'Some talks going on', says Oil India CMD on Kenya oilfield acquisition

The state-owned oil company also witnessed double-digit growth in revenue driven by the natural gas business

Indian oil firms in talks to buy stake in Tullow's Kenya block: Oil India

Oil India, along with ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, are talking to Tullow, Rath said, without elaborating on the size of a possible stake

Kenya tea company suspends operations after protesters burn machines

A multinational tea company based in Kenya has suspended operations after tea plucking and harvesting machines were burned by protesters citing massive job losses due to mechanisation. The suspension of operations at the Ekaterra tea company's South Rift region farms will affect thousands of employees. The Kenya Tea Growers Association announced Tuesday that all large-scale tea producers in Kenya will scale down operations in solidarity with Ekaterra until security is guaranteed. Casual labourers previously employed to pick tea protested on Monday against the loss of jobs due to the use of machines. They told local media that, additionally, the automation of the picking process is causing more work for employees in the sorting department because machines do not pick the finest tea leaves. They burned five machines and looted tea products from one of the company's shops. The tea growers association has appealed to President William Ruto to intervene as there have been various other

World Bank chief nominee Ajay Banga to visit Cote D'Ivoire, Kenya next week

During his trip, Ajay will draw from his experience living and working in emerging markets and his expertise in forging public-private partnerships to mobilize investments , action to tackle challenge

Kenya warns of worsening food crisis as drought escalates in arid counties

The food crisis in Kenya's arid counties could escalate amid suppressed October to December 2022 rainy season that led to crop failure, and drying of pasture and water sources, a senior official said

Meta faces new lawsuit, accused of amplifying hate speech in Africa

Meta Platforms is facing a lawsuit in Kenya's high court accusing the company of failing Africans by amplifying hate speech and incitement to violence on Facebook

Pakistan brings home body of journalist Arshad Sharif killed in Kenya

A plane carrying the body of an outspoken Pakistani journalist who was shot and killed by Nairobi police while living in hiding in Kenya touched down at an airport in Islamabad just after midnight Wednesday, officials said. Arshad Sharif was killed Sunday night when the car he was in sped up and drove through a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital and police opened fire. Nairobi police expressed regret over the incident, saying it was a case of mistaken identity during a search for a similar car involved in a child abduction case. Sharif was traveling with another Pakistani resident, Khurram Ahmed, when their car failed to stop for reasons that remain unclear despite being flagged down at the checkpoint. Police opened fire and laid chase. Sharif's car flipped over and he was shot in the head and killed. His family in Pakistan said Ahmed, who had initially been identified as Sharif's brother by the Nairobi police, was not a relative but that he was the driver of the car, according

Indian envoy meets Kenyan President Ruto over abduction of 2 Indians

India on Monday described as "very disturbing" the circumstances surrounding the abduction of two Indians in Kenya and subsequent lack of information in the case. Indian High Commissioner to Kenya, Namgya Khampa, met Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto and requested him for expediting the investigation into the matter, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. A close aide of the Kenyan President last week claimed the two missing Indians, Mohammad Zaid Sami Kidwai and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, have been killed by the disbanded DCI (Directorate of Criminal Investigations) unit, according to a media report. It is learnt that the Kenyan government has not said anything officially on the report. Kidwai and Khan, who were part of the Kenya Kwanza digital campaign team, went missing alongside taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania from Mombasa Road in July. "We have been in regular touch with the Kenyan government to locate the whereabouts of the two missing Indian nationals, Mohammad Zaid Sami Ki