Day: May 1, 2023

The Kenya Animal Genetic Resource Centre (KAGRC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the County Government of Kakamega to help them establish an Artificial Insemination (AI) station for pigs.

KAGRC Managing Director Dr. David Kios said the AI station for pigs will be the first one in the country and will supply semen across the nation.

He said the institution will boost the pig farming industry as currently pigs take long to reach the required market weight.

Speaking in Kakamega, Dr. Kios also said that KAGRC will support the county government in setting up a Liquid Nitrogen Plant to help them carry out AI services efficiently.

He urged Livestock farmers to utilize sexed semen from the Resource Centre so that their cattle can produce between 15 to 20 liters of milk.

At the same time, Dr. Kios said the Centre has introduced Goat AI to improve on goats to produce at least five liters of milk per day.

‘This is critical especially for food security to the young ones and also as an income generation for women and the youth who keep goats. We currently have semen which we are introducing through the county government of Kakamega,’ he assured.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Murang’a Catholic Diocese Bishop Rt Rev James Maria Wainaina has called on the country’s top leadership to hastily take action on religious factions that have mislead the faithful through unacceptable ideologies.

Bishop Wainaina’s sentiments comes in the wake of the Shakahola infamy where Good News International Church leader Paul Mackenzie is accused of driving his followers to death by preaching that starvation was the only path to God.

Speaking at Mumbi grounds Sunday during St Joseph the worker, Mumbi Catholic parish family day, the bishop who derived his sermons from the day’s readings on the good shepherd emphasized that the country’s leadership needed to answer very critical questions at this point in time.

‘In the Old Testament, whenever the people went astray, the kings took responsibility for their actions. A good shepherd will not lead the sheep astray; instead, he lays down his life for the sheep who knows him by his voice as he also knows them by name,’ he added

The bishop emphasized Jesus’ love for his followers and his willingness to guide and protect them. ‘Likewise, today we are asking, where was the President and the security agents when the Shakahola massacre was taking place? Mass extermination of people is unacceptable and is not in line with the will of God,’ Wainaina added.

He wondered how such religious organizations were registered and urged the President to take action.Further, he cautioned church leaders who are using religion to advance weird unacceptable ideologies noting that it is against the calling to be a good shepherd.

Celebrated on the fourth Sunday after Easter, the good shepherd Sunday also doubles up as the vocation Sunday.

‘Pray for the vocations as each of the children of God is called to serve Him in four different ways of life; in marriage, undertaking the priestly life, the religious life in the case of brothers and sisters and even in the individual life,’ he observed.

The event attracted hundreds of faithful from the Parish’s ten local churches and was held under the theme, ‘United in the Eucharist.’

Source: Kenya News Agency

The clergy in West Pokot County have vowed to collaborate with the government in promoting peace within the region.

The clergy stated that they were doing their best to ensure that the West Pokot community gets both spiritual and educational empowerment which they pinpointed were critical in enhancing peace.

The men and women of cloth were speaking during an interdenominational thanksgiving service attended by President William Ruto at Makutano Stadium on Sunday. They were led by retired Anglican Church of Kenya Bishop Stephen Kewasis.

‘We as the clergy in the region are committed to ensuring we establish schools for our community members to have their children get education. The church plays a critical role in changing people’s way of life through preaching against retrogressive cultural practices,’ said Bishop Kewasis.

He appealed to the government to enjoin the religious community in their empowerment programmes for sustainable development.

The clergy noted that although the county has been branded as a region bedeviled by insecurity, a huge part is known to be peaceful.

‘You excellency the president, we started this journey of making our region a haven of peace when you were the Deputy President. We are very confident that now that you are the president, we shall collaborate to end these isolated cases of livestock thefts,’ stated the retired bishop.

He added that as religious leaders, they are committed to engage all elders from the neighborhoods to bring a lasting solution to cattle rustling.

The clergy highlighted that cattle rustling was being propelled by the culture of polygamy and giving birth to many children that fail to go to school hence the need to prioritise education in the region.

They also underscored the value of community radio stations and appealed to the Head of State to consider assisting the religious community to establish a radio station to help push the peace and development agenda for the region.

Speaking during the event Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago suggested a downward review of the dowry demands to three animals arguing that it will help discourage cattle raids.

‘Demanding for as high as 20 cows as dowry encourages cattle rustling. It is high time we thought of reducing the figure to three cows. We can shift to exotic breeds such as Sahiwal so that one animal can be equated to several animals,’ said Mandago.

The call for peace dominated the event with area Members of Parliament calling for enhanced road infrastructure noting that the move will open up the area for effective security operations.

Area legislators Peter Lochakapong (Sigor), Titus Lotee (Kacheliba), their Kapenguria counterpart Samuel Moroto and County Woman Representative Rael Kasiwai called for completion of roads initiated by the government to help boost security and open up the vast county.

Moroto on his part asked for the subdivision of the West Pokot Subcounty into two arguing that the area was too vast for effective management and administration.

The legislators also vouched for the establishment of a university in the region mentioning that a satellite campus that was in the region was closed down leaving the region without a university.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki Monday launched the commencement of autopsies for the 110 bodies of victims of controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie’s cultic teachings.

Professor Kindiki said it would take up to one week for the exercise to be completed and that it will take relatives of the victims more than one month to know the identities of the bodies through DNA.

The post mortem extermination exercise is led by Chief Government pathologist Johansen Oduor assisted by detectives from the Homicide Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and forensic experts among others.

Addressing journalists at the Malindi Sub County Hospital Mortuary Monday, Prof. Kindiki urged members of the public to be patient as the government embarks on the process to establish the truth about the Shakahola massacre.

He said the government had resorted to using modern technology to conduct the rescue and recovery operation in the 800-acre piece of land believed to belong to Mackenzie, adding that the entire Chakama ranch is a crime scene and no member of the public will be allowed in as it is a security operation area.

‘We are here to witness the commencement of a very critical stage concerning what happened to our people in Shakahola forest,’ he said, adding that 110 bodies have so far been recovered. He said the exhumation exercise had been halted temporarily due to heavy rains.

Kindiki named Assistant Inspector General of Police Peter Ndung’u as the operation commander supported by the regional police commander.

He said that all officers who will have been found to have slept on the job would be made to account for their lapses, adding that a commission of inquiry into the incident will establish what actually transpired.

‘There must be accountability. Other than establishing the cause of the tragedy, the commission will investigate and give recommendations on the conduct of officers that may have been negligent,’ he said.

On his part the government Pathologist said the process could take a month as it involved many technical issues.

Kilifi governor Gideon Mung’aro also called on the public to be patient and give the pathologists time to conduct the post mortem and DNA.

He assured members of the public that the operation being carried out in Chakama ranch was not meant to victimize locals.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Whereas many people have a lot of positive things to write home about the advent of speedy internet and the rise of social media, the same cannot be said about newspaper vendors.

The wide popularization of E-papers and the availability of publications online appears to be the new concept that is slowly but surely eating lunch meant for newspaper vendors.

In Nyeri reading newspapers online has become so common and the newspaper vendors are an unhappy lot. Many of them are now lamenting about the hard times they are facing due to declining sales of their art which dates as far back as the 1800s.

Johnson Nderitu who has been in the business for more than 25 years, said that he reminisces on the days that selling newspapers was a real business where he could sell 100 newspapers copies in a day.

Nderitu also attributed the plummeting hardcopy sales to the rise of ageing staff in most offices in Nyeri, who prefer getting information online. He cites an example of how his current orders are from older people between the ages of 45 and 60 who majorly occupy senior positions in most offices.

‘Due to technology and digitization of newspapers, citizen journalism and free news websites, the sale of newspapers has declined making it difficult to even sell 30 newspapers a day unless there is a juicy story. This new media is not all bad, however it is affecting me economically because I cannot meet my family’s needs and I am too old to get a better paying job,’ said the 73 year-old.

Daniel Ndegwa, another vendor, said that even his prominent customers who traditionally booked the paper in advance no longer do the same since they can now access the whole story online.

‘I used to sell 50 newspapers and I had orders for over 30 newspapers daily which I used to deliver to homes or offices. Currently, I only sell about 20 papers at most and have less than eight orders for personal delivery. My customers now just call me to discontinue my delivery services since they can now access these newspapers on their smartphones,’ he lamented.

He added that for the last 15 years he has been selling newspapers, he has never seen a bigger threat to his business until now, that he had to set up a side business to complement his income.

His story and that of his counterpart Kelvin Mutua are the same as both of them say that the rains started beating them during the Covid-19 pandemic when their customers started embracing technology.

‘The pandemic is what caused the low sales as people stopped buying the physical newspaper copies. Today, I hardly sell more than five copies in a day compared to 2018 where I used to sell over 15 newspapers. I can no longer depend on this sole business, I had to set up a shop as another source of income,’ explained Mutua.

Although most of these vendors agree that it may be difficult for the government and the publishers to regulate the proliferation of online content, they are seeking help in rescuing this old age business from going extinct.

Brian Mwangi suggests that newspaper publishers should come up with a plan where vendors can earn a commission from converting hardcopy readers to the online platform. Brian said that this will help vendors make money even at the face of dwindling hardcopy sales.

He added that the newspaper business has made young people like him get employment from production to distribution and if the business falls then the number of unemployed persons would rise drastically.

‘Currently a paper like People Daily has transitioned fully to online and others like The Star, Taifa Leo and Business Daily are on the verge of going fully online. This means that the number of those involved in the production and distribution will be laid off,’ he explained.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The Nairobi County government has vowed to enforce the ban on plastic bags to protect the environment from pollution.

Nairobi Governor Johnstone Sakaja said the County government will in a weeks’ time undertake an operation within the city to ensure that the plastic bags and bottles that have been banned are no longer in the market and supermarkets.

He said Nairobi is the environment capital of the world, hosting the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and would not allow the banned plastics to be used in the city, as they were clogging drainages.

‘A lot of roads and drainages are flooded because of dumping of plastic bags and bottles, we will not allow this as we have to keep our city clean,’ said Sakaja.

Speaking at Labour Day celebrations held at Uhuru Gardens today, the Governor said the Nairobi County government is working with Kenya National Highways Authority and Kenya Urban Roads Authority to finish the uncompleted work at the Nairobi Expressway.

He announced that a contractor has already been sourced to undertake the works at Uhuru highway.

Sakaja also requested the President to intervene on the private security wages which he lamented were underpaid regardless of the government’s pronouncement every year during labour day that the minimum wage be above Sh13,000.

He said it is sad that the private security workers numbering 450,000 countrywide and in Nairobi County 250,000 are only paid between Sh4,000 to Sh5,000 when people are grappling with economic challenges.

‘Others sufferings are the drivers of Bolt, Uber and Taxify because of competition,’ said Sakaja, adding that 90 percent of the accidents caused by the drivers could be as a result of driving for 22 hours a day to make money.

The Governor disclosed that his government has already done regulations on transport touching on the digital companies and urged AA of Kenya and the Communication Authority to gazette the regulations so that the drivers can get something.He added that the County government has already designated picking and dropping of passengers by drivers.

Governor Sakaja further stated that his government managed to increase the county’s revenue collection by Sh 673 million from January to March 2023 compared to the same period last year.

Sakaja who attributed the increase in revenue collection to the hard work and commitment by employees said in April 2023 the county also managed to collect Sh800 million, terming it the highest monthly amount ever collected since the start of devolution.

He announced that the county government will towards the end of this week employ 3500 workers in the cleaning section.

Source: Kenya News Agency