The Star 01/19/2017

Lands CS Jacob Kaimenyi yesterday denied claims that documents issued by the ministry after 2013 are illegal. He said the court gave the ministry a window of one year to fine-tune land laws in tandem with Land Laws (Amendment) Act 2016. “I wish to reassure the public that contrary to what is reported in the Standard newspaper of January 17, 2017, and other electronic media, that grants, leases and certificates of titles issued by the ministry after 2013 are legal, valid and legitimate,” Kaimenyi told the press in his office. He urged the Standard newspaper to apologise for creating fear and doubt on land ownership documents. Nairobi lawyer Anthony Otiende, moved to court in 2015, seeking to nullify regulations and forms for preparing leases that were implemented by then Lands…

WAR ON POACHING Two armed poachers shot dead Two poachers were gunned down at Satao in the Tsavo East National Park on Tuesday. KWS spokesperson Paul Gathitu said officers on patrol saw four sets of human footprints between Aruba Lodge and Satao Camp at 1pm. He said the officers located the four poachers, who were armed. They recovered some of the weapons. See Page 16 PETER KENNETH Leaders support his candidature Murang’a leaders have told Nairobi governor aspirants to stop intimidating the former Gatanga MP in his bid to run for the city’s top job. Kigumo MP Jamleck Kamau said , “Nairobi belongs to all of us. Anyone can vie and the voters will decide who they want.” On Sunday, Senator Mike Sonko said “foreigners” are not welcome to vie.…

The new IEBC commissioners led by chairman Wafula Chebukati are set to take office after President Uhuru Kenyatta formally appointed them yesterday. The appointment of the seven-member team will rejuvenate an electoral agency that has been operating without substantive commissioners. The Issack Hassan team resigned last year, but were to remain in office until the new electoral chiefs take over. “The reconstitution was a bi-partisan process that breathes new life into the electoral agency, while at the same time restoring confidence in its capacity and competence to deliver on its constitutional and statutory mandates,” State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said. The commissioners are Consolata Nkatha, Boya Molu, Roselyn Akombe, Paul Kurgat, Margaret Wanjala and Abdi Guliye Uhuru congratulated the new IEBC officials and expressed confidence they will deliver their mandate…

SO is Water CS Eugene Wamalwa planning to move to NASA or is it Ford-K leader Moses that has some plans? Well, could be none of the above. But what is going on between the two has left mouths agape. Sources whisper to Corridors that the two met for elaborate talks at the Ole Sereni Hotel, Mombasa Road, Nairobi, on Tuesday. Details remain scant. Wetang’ula initially appeared to be rattled by Musalia Mudavadi’s elevation as the de facto Luhya leader. Recently, he said he only recognises Cord, not NASA. So could Wamalwa, currently Jubilee’s blue-eyed boy in Western Kenya, be wooing Wetang’ula to the ruling party, or is it the other way round? Only time will tell - and the clock is ticking. NAIROBI, Mombasa and Kisumu counties have received…

 Resign yourself. It’s time to call it quits if you want to run for office. IN THE PAST, POLITICIANS HAVE QUIT INFLUENTIAL POSITIONS, HOPING TO WIN ELECTION, ONLY TO LOSE AND FALL INTO OBSCURITY A host of ambitious public servants — Cabinet Secretaries, PSs, hundreds of heads of government agencies and parastatal chiefs, as well as teachers — must rush to resign by February 8, six months to the polls. CSs Mwangi Kiunjuri (Devolution) and Eugene Wamalwa (Water and Irrigation) and several top civil servants are resigning next month to run for election. The Cabinet Secretaries have prepared resignation letters to President Uhuru Kenyatta. Reconstitution of the 20-member Cabinet is imminent, also because the government hopes Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed will be elected African Union chairperson at the end…

FIRST of all, I don’t like the law that Parliament put in place to make it mandatory for public servants who want to run for office to quit six months to a general election. Before that, public officers used to have a minimum of three months. So as long as that law is not challenged, or overturned by a court of law, then it is the law. There are no two ways about it. I don’t think it is necessary for public officers to leave office that early. My beef is that this law is discriminative, because it only says public officers who want to vie must resign while serving leaders serve until the end. This is already discrimination, because you are saying even if you are elected, then you…