The Star 01/30/2017

Kenya today locks horns with Africa’s regional blocs for the position of the AU Commission chairperson at an election President Uhuru Kenyatta has invested in heavily and lobbied the support of 35 countries. Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed is in the race for the position. “Pray for me,” she told the Kenyan press on the sidelines of the 28th AU Summit in Ethiopia. Uhuru left on Saturday for the Summit. He was expected to offer moral support to Amina. The AUC chairperson is the chief accountant of the union and the spokesperson of the organisation with regard to how the AU relates to other international bodies such as the United Nations and the EU. Critics have dismissed campaigns for Mohamed’s bid as a waste of public resources. “Amina has failed…

MUSALIA MUDAVADI Senator Khaniri joins ANC Vihiga Senator George Khaniri and seven MCAs, including the county assembly acting speaker, on Saturday defected to the Amani National Congress. Khaniri was elected on the UDF ticket. He said had decided to go independent until ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi called and urged him that they walk together. See page 29 EVANS KIDERO Lists his achievements The governor says he has made Nairobi better, despite opponents saying he has provided poor services, and accusing him of running a government riddled with corruption. He said he is not being fought over a poor development record, but because he is Luo. and land grabbing cases at City Hall, believed to be aided by county officials. See page 23 KIRAITU MURUNGI Accused of Hurting Uhuru bid…

Education stakeholders meet today to decide whether to start piloting the reviewed curriculum from May. Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development chief executive officer Julius Jwan said the purpose of today’s meeting is to hear stakeholders react to the work done so far. The KICD will host the National Curriculum Reforms Conference to launch the Basic Education Curriculum Framework at the KICC. The conference will update the public on milestones in the curriculum reform process. Jwan said the Basic Education Curriculum Framework is the outcome of an extensive stakeholder engagement, a national needs assessment study, deliberations from a national curriculum reform conference and several benchmarking studies. “If the meeting agrees to the curriculum team’s proposals, we expect to carry out the first pilot in lower learning levels — nursery and classes…

IS opposition chief Raila Odinga (pictured) planning a dressing-down of the ruling Jubilee Party with yet another corruption scandal in the coming few weeks? Well, Corridors has established that the Cord co-principal, with the help of his economic advisers, is piecing together evidence of what they will claim is another Eurobond-like scandal. This, Raila hopes, will trigger a shift in voting pattern countrywide. Those in the know say that the dossier will be released immediately the ongoing voter listing exercise is concluded. A close confidant of the ex-Prime Minister was overheard bragging at a high-end hotel in Nairobi that the magnitude of the scandal will rock the very nerve centre of the Jubilee administration and its aftershocks will be felt all the way to August 8. THAT campaigns for the…

 THE ICC is quietly compiling evidence of witness tampering in the collapsed cases against Kenya’s top leadership in a move that may resuscitate The Hague narrative ahead of the August election. THE ICC AGENTS NOW IN KENYA ARE DRAWN FROM TANZANIA AND RWANDA AND SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH AND KISWAHILI . THEY ARE SAID TO BE WORKING CLOSELY WITH SOME CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS TO CONCEAL THEIR MISSION AND ARE KEEN ON OBTAINING BOTH VIDEO AND AUDIO RECORDINGS OF KEY MEETINGS The Star has established that a team of eight ICC sleuths is in Kenya to collect and collate evidence of what they believe was massive witness interference in the now-defunct cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. The team is also in the country to monitor top political…

BARELY seven months to the next general election, the ICC ghost once again rears its head, probably at the most inopportune time in the history of the Republic of Kenya. News that the court has launched fresh investigations into the collapsed cases on Kenya is definitely a shocker, particularly as regards the motive of such action at this time. The manner in which the cases against four Kenyans collapsed left little doubt that they could be revisited in future. According to Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, the cases collapsed because of massive interference with witnesses through the connivance of the Kenyan state. In terminating the cases, the court left the gate open, suggesting that the prosecutor could take back the cases if and when sufficient evidence was gathered. In other words,…