The Star 04/03/2017

More than 20,000 children, mainly girls under 18 years, are trafficked annually in Kenya. A report released by the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect says Busia is the most prone to child and general human trafficking. The border town is a prime entry and exit point for cross-border child trafficking. Most of the girls trafficked through Busia are hired as house girls in urban towns such as Eldoret, Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa. It is also a source of many trafficked girls from the Luhya community. “Many mothers and women in Nairobi want to employ a Luhya house help because it is believed they are hard working,” ANPPCAN director of Programmes Wambui Njuguna said. “Since the East African Community borders were broken, it became…

WILLY BETT Cost of maize to decline The cost of maize flour will start falling in a weeks after imports from Mexico start arriving. The Agriculture CS says the government has waived import duty to prevent costs from rising, but it is too early to say by how much the cost will decline. A 2kg packet of maize flour is now retailing at a high of Sh142 and there were fears it could rise up to Sh160. See Page 15 JUDI WAKHUNGU Defends ban on plastic bags She says the ban should have been imposed a long time ago as discussions have been going on for 10 years. Wakhungu banned plastic carrier bags through a gazette notice dated February 27. She says plastics litter streets, hanging from tree branches and…

An Embu woman’s family, whose husband tried to resurrect her last week, on Saturday blocked journalists from covering her burial. Pollyrose Ng’endo, 38, fell sick and was rushed to Mwea Hospital, where she died of TB on March 26. Her husband Robinson Karumba, 40, last Wednesday made news by praying for her resurrection at the mortuary the whole day. On Saturday, her family barred reporters from her funeral in Rianjeru Village, Mbeere South. At about 1pm, relatives and mourners spotted the reporters arriving. The family held an impromptu meeting in which they resolved to block journalists from covering the funeral and told them to leave, despite the reporters seeking permission to cover it. Last Wednesday, Karumba and his followers were at Gakwegori Funeral Home from 8am to 5pm, praying for…

THE political wars between the ODM establishment and Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria (pictured) appear to continue unabated. Last week, ODM dispatched its Kiambu county chair CN Mbugua to join a door-to-door campaign for Kuria’s opponent Joyce Ngugi. The dual assault by the county ODM chair and former MP Moses Mwihia is said to be giving the outspoken MP sleepless nights. The incumbent will face a titanic battle in defending his seat. A storm is brewing at the Meru County Assembly after the HR department was last week instructed to write and deliver an appointment letter in the middle of the night to a candidate who ranked third in an interview for Deputy Clerk of the Assembly conducted barely three days earlier. A senior County Assembly boss is said to…

A viral video that captured the extra-judicial killing of two suspected gang members in Eastleigh, Nairobi, on Friday, has outraged Kenyans. It is alleged that the dead suspects were members of the notorious Super Power Gang and were about to commit a robbery. The gang is among more than 90 groups outlawed in a gazette notice by Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery in December last year. The father of one of the young men shot in the incident acknowledged that his son was actually a thug and pleaded with the government to release his body. “He was not one to use knives or guns. He was just a thief of going into people’s pockets and such things,” he told journalists at his home. There were mixed reactions by Kenyans online with…

EXECUTING suspected criminals isn’t an investigative tool, it’s just total impunity committed by those who are purely murderers and not by any stretch of the imagination policemen. You cannot allow law enforcers to ran amok and go around killing citizens: Extrajudicial killing is illegal, unacceptable and a mockery of constitutionalism, period. A suspect of any kind is supposed to be arrested and taken through a process of trial and, if found guilty, convicted and sentenced. But if we have police executing those suspected of committing offences0 then it’s a real tragedy. We have a Police Service that is rogue investigator, rogue judge and rogue executioner. But the fact is that these things are going on and no one in a position of authority seems interested in addressing them fully and…