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/ 13 January 2006

Kenya orders crackdown on outlawed sect

Kenyan authorities on Friday ordered police to be ruthless with an outlawed cult blamed for murders and violent robberies and held by officials to be attempting to win legitimacy by transforming itself into a political party. "Despite the sect having been banned, there are obvious indications that it is still alive," said National Security Minister John Michuki.

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/ 12 January 2006

Kenyan activists call for minimum sentence for rape

An alleged ex-convict known only as ”Maranda” may have been responsible for the rape of five-year-old Peris Akoth at the beginning of this year, in Kenya. Then again, he may not. However, the case has already become a rallying point for anti-rape campaigners who claim that abuses such as these would be less likely to occur if Kenya had adequate legislation on the books.

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/ 11 January 2006

Drought threatens Kenyan wildlife

A searing drought that has put millions of people across East Africa at risk of famine is threatening Kenya’s famed wildlife herds as they stray from protected areas to forage for scarce food and water. Officials said elephants had killed at least two people in the past two weeks around Tsavo, which is home to the largest number of the animals.

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/ 10 January 2006

Africa: ‘2006 must be year of action’

Promises of aid to Africa must be kept in 2006 or millions of people will die needlessly, the top United Nations adviser on poverty said on Monday, while insisting that every penny must be accounted for to ensure it is used properly. ”2006 has to be the year of real action on the ground,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project and adviser to the UN secretary general.

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/ 3 January 2006

US renews Kenya terrorism warning

The United States on Tuesday renewed its terrorism warning for US citizens in or thinking of travelling to Kenya in a step likely to anger the Kenyan government which has long fought for the alert to be lifted. In a travel warning the State Department urged ”American citizens to consider carefully the risks of travel to Kenya at this time due to ongoing safety and security concerns”.

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/ 15 December 2005

UN launches $174m appeal for Somalia

Civil unrest, a recent wave of assassinations and piracy in Somalia are hampering humanitarian access to more than one million vulnerable people in the war-ravaged nation, said members of the aid community at the presentation of the 2006 humanitarian appeal for Somalia on Wednesday.

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/ 15 December 2005

‘Tragic game of musical chairs’

Kenya’s political crisis has deepened, with 22 politicians refusing to accept posts in a reconstituted government, and foreign envoys adding their voices to demands for a snap election. Kenya has been without an effective government since President Mwai Kibaki fired his Cabinet three weeks ago.

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/ 12 December 2005

Kenyan leader calls for calm amid outcry

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday urged the East African nation to shun heated political debates and focus on development amid an outcry over his new Cabinet that has sparked a revolt among ministers and deputies. He delivered an address marking the 42nd anniversary of Kenya’s independence from Britain.

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/ 12 December 2005

Sudan’s leaders ‘responsible for atrocities’

Sudan’s top leadership, including President Omar el-Beshir, bears responsibility for widespread atrocities committed in the troubled western Darfur region, a leading human rights watchdog said on Monday. ”The Sudanese government at the highest levels is responsible for widespread and systematic abuses in Darfur,” Human Rights Watch said.

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/ 9 December 2005

Senior UN officials to assess border stand-off

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will send two senior UN officials to Eritrea and Ethiopia to assess the volatile border stand-off following a decision by the Eritrean government to expel personnel from the UN peacekeeping mission there. Annan has asked the head of the UN peacekeeping department, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, to leave as soon as practicable for the Horn of Africa.

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/ 7 December 2005

Kenya anxiously awaits new government

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki appeared set on Wednesday to name a new government to replace the Cabinet he fired en masse last month after the embarrassing rejection of a new Constitution he backed. The expected announcement is hoped to bring an end to a two-week crisis of authority in the East African nation.

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/ 5 December 2005

Strong quake shakes six African nations

A strong earthquake shook Central and East Africa on Monday, causing buildings to sway in at least six nations near its epicentre on the border between Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. No damage or injuries were immediately reported from the temblor that registered 7,5 on the Richter scale.

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/ 5 December 2005

Murder trial in Kenya stalls over torture claim

The trial in Nairobi of six men, including a priest, accused of murdering a septugenarian Italian bishop in central Kenya earlier this year hit a snag on Monday when one of the defendents claimed to have lost his hearing under police torture. Over prosecution objections, Nairobi High Court Nicholas Ombinja adjourned the trial, which had been scheduled to start on Monday.

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/ 1 December 2005

Lack of food hampers Kenyan ARV programme

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/257998/special_rep_icon_template.jpg" align=left>With only a quarter of Kenyans who need anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) receiving them from the government, the race is on to ensure that many more people get treatment to fend off Aids-related diseases. But ARV recipients also need enough, good food, without which ARVs cannot work properly.

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/ 29 November 2005

Nobel laureate appeals for calm in Kenya

Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai on Tuesday urged Kenya’s bickering political leaders to show restraint in a crisis of authority that has raised fears of unrest in East Africa’s most stable nation. She urged Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition to cool tensions that erupted after last week’s rejection of a new Constitution.

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/ 26 November 2005

Kenyan leader flexes political muscle

Stung by the rejection of a new Constitution he backed, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has moved to restore flagging confidence in his leadership with a pair of tough political moves, analysts said on Friday. Kibaki sacked his entire Cabinet and then suspended next week’s planned reopening of Parliament.