Page 3 - Kenya

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

2 missing Indians killed by disbanded DCI unit, claims Kenyan Prez aide

A close aide of Kenyan President William Ruto has claimed that the two missing Indians in Kenya have been killed by the disbanded DCI unit, a media report said on Friday. Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and his friend Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai, who were part of the Kenya Kwanza digital campaign team, went missing alongside taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania from Mombasa Road in July. The two contributed immensely to the success of Ruto's campaign, said Itumbi, who was at the heart of Ruto's presidential campaigns, The Nation newspaper reported. Sometimes when our team was overwhelmed and we needed graphics, I sent (material) their way and they paused whatever they were doing and did me the favour, he said in a Facebook post. They visited Mombasa, Homa Bay, (Masai) Mara, nyama choma joints and loved our dance joints too. They invited me to India; I told them I would visit after (the) elections. Their eyes were primarily on enjoying Kenya as much as they could. When they sat down, they produced very ..

Kenya to receive nearly 1.46 million foreign tourists this year: Report

Kenya has forecast to receive nearly 1.46 million foreign tourists in 2022, up from 870,000 recorded in 2021 amid the post-Covid-19 economic recovery

Uneven trade ties lead Kenyan policy makers to review plan towards China

The lopsided trade and investment ties with Beijing are gradually alarming the Kenyan policymakers and underscoring the need to review policy towards China

Kenya's Kipchoge clocks 2:01:09 for world record in Berlin Marathon

He's done it again. Two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge bettered his own world record in the Berlin Marathon on Sunday. The Kenyan star clocked 2 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds to shave 30 seconds off his previous best mark of 2:01:39 set on the same course in 2018. My legs and my body still feel young, the 37-year-old Kipchoge said. But the most important thing is my mind, and that also feels fresh and young. I'm so happy to break the world record. Ethiopia's Tigist Assefa unexpectedly won the women's race in a course record of 2:15:37 18 minutes faster than she had ever run before. It was the third fastest time ever. I wasn't afraid of my rivals, even though they had faster times than me, the 26-year-old Assefa said. Kenya's Rosemary Wanjiru was second on her debut in 2:18:00 the second fastest debut ever run just ahead of Ethiopian runner Tigist Abayechew in 2:18:03. Kipchoge and Assefa's combined time of 4:16:46 ensured the marathon was the fastest ever. The men's record