The Star 12/21/2016

The Employment and Labour Relations Court tomorrow is expected to order doctors’ union officials be jailed or fined for disobeying orders to end their 17-day strike. Yesterday, Justice Hellen Wasilwa found the officials in contempt of court for calling and participating in a strike that the court declared illegal. She had also ordered doctors to resume duty. However, they refuse to return until the state implements the CBAsigned in 2013 awarding them a 300 per cent pay rise. Kenya has less than 5,000 doctors, including 3,000 in public hospitals. Virtually all of them are on strike.They have been joined by an unspecified number of physicians and consultants from other facilities. Wasilwa ordered the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union officials to appear in court tomorrow for a ruling. “In…

SAMBURU RESIDENTS Forgo feast to fix village school Residents of Naisunyai village in Samburu East subcounty have raised Sh11.5 million from selling 465 out of 500 livestock meant for the Lmuget cultural celebration. They will use the money to build classrooms in the only primary school in the village. Naisunyai Primary School is inside the Westgate conservancy. See Page 30 TITUS YOMA Kisumu police hunt for gang Police have launched an extensive manhunt for the panga-wielding gang terrorising Kisumu res idents at night. This follows the hacking to death of a 63-year-old retired teacher by thugs on Monday night in Migosi estate. County police commander Titus Yoma said John Omondi was accosted by thugs on his way to hospital. See Page 28 NDEGWA MUHORO Petitioned over Sh2.4bn land Owners of…

British journalist Jerome Starkey was deported because he was a security threat, the Interior ministry has said. Interior spokesman Mwenda Njoka yesterday told the Star Starkey was deported for “security reasons”, but declined to elaborate. He said the government explained to Starkey why he was deported. “It was a security reason and you can ask him because he knows,” Njoka said. The Times Media journalist was arrested and detained at JKIA for close to 15 hours on his arrival from England on December 8. He was later deported. Njoka told the Star Starkey was quizzed by detectives from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit and the NIS and his photos were taken. A senior detective told the Star Starkey was declared a security threat by the NIS following a string of phone…

WHO is responsible for traffic lights at City Hall? Nairobians and other motorists using Jogoo Road are questioning why the lights at the junction of Jogoo Road and Rabai Road were vandalised almost a year ago and are yet to be replaced. It is reported that numerous accidents have occurred at the junction as motorists, especially matatu drivers, drive carelessly without giving way to private vehicles. Motorists now want Governor Evans Kidero (pictured) to order immediate replacement. A local bank has taken over an insurance company with clear instructions to terminate all medical policies where insurers have ever made claims, despite the number of years they have insured with the company. They are operating on a blind assumption that Kenyans are unaware of their rights - but it’s just a…

‘LET US NOT USE THE POWERS GIVEN TO US BY THE CONSTITUTION AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY TO MAKE LAWS THAT WILL DRIVE US TO ANARCHY. THIS MATTER HAS NOT BEEN BROUGHT TO THE JUSTICE AND LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE’ Opposition leader Raila Odinga yesterday said Jubilee wants election laws weakened because “President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto have sensed defeat and panicked.” Raila told the Star in an interview that the opposition’s decision to join forces in the National Super Alliance, NASA, against Jubilee has sent shock waves through the ruling party. “They have sensed defeat and gone into panic mode. That is why they are trying all manner of schemes that will allow them to play games with election results,” Raila said. Yesterday the National Assembly…

Registration of voters FOR the first multiparty elections in 1992 the ECK conducted a national registration drive. The data of registrants was entered in the so-called “black books” from which mimeographed lists for use at the polling stations were derived. In 1997 the ECK computerised the registers using optical mark recognition (OMR) forms, although the black books were kept as a back-up. The 2002 elections were based on the 1997 register, updated in registration drives in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The use of black books was forbidden in those elections. (The same approach was to apply in the 2007 elections but shortly before the elections it was decided that black books could be used as back-up.) There were two registration drives in 2007, from 1 to 30 March, reinforced by…