Alerting on News and Events occurring around Kenya, from latest political intrigues, sports, health articles, entertainment, relationships and many more.
“Those who are surprised by Rwanda’s achievements believe success is an anomaly for African nations. They believe African nations must follow a path defined by others. Rwanda did not choose the path of development to win a prize. We do not choose to fight corruption to please others. We have chosen this path for ourselves because we believe in doing the best for all Rwandans.”
These are the common ways hackers are obtaining your information.
Skimmers are plastic devices that fit over the top of an ATM’s card acceptance slot. The electronic components within the device steal the information that’s stored in the stripe on the back of your card. Often times, there’s also a hidden camera that allows hackers to capture video of you entering your PIN number.
Another device putting you at risk is the PIN pad overlay, which fits over the real PIN pad and records your PIN presses.
David Cameron's ancestors were among the wealthy families who received generous reparation payments that would be worth millions of pounds in today's money
The true scale of Britain's involvement in the slave trade has been laid bare in documents revealing how the country's wealthiest families received the modern equivalent of billions of pounds in compensation after slavery was abolished.
The previously unseen records show exactly who received what in payouts from the Government when slave ownership was abolished by Britain – much to the potential embarrassment of their descendants. Dr Nick Draper from University College London, who has studied the compensation papers, says as many as one-fifth of wealthy Victorian Britons derived all or part of their fortunes from the slave economy.
As a result, there are now wealthy families all around the UK still indirectly enjoying the proceeds of slavery where it has been passed on to them. Dr Draper said: "There was a feeding frenzy around the compensation." A John Austin, for instance, owned 415 slaves, and got compensation of £20,511, a sum worth nearly £17m today. And there were many who received far more...
"The victim's sentence was increased because her lawyer had spoken out..."
A yet to be publicly identified female gang rape victim was initially found guilty and sentenced to 90 lashes for violating the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian s (KSA) rigid Islamic law on segregation of the sexes.
When the defense attorney for a raped Saudi Arabian woman appealed a Sharia Court decision that the 90-lash sentence against his client was unjust, all that was succeeded was the more than doubling of the punishment meted out to the woman who was raped and beaten by seven men.
The Saudi judiciary stood by its decision. "The Ministry of Justice welcomes constructive criticism, away from emotions," it said in a statement.
The statement also said that the "charges were proven" against the woman for having been in a car with a strange male, and repeated criticism of her lawyer for talking "defiantly" about the judicial system, saying "it has shown ignorance."
The woman’s lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, reached out to the media. The court has since banned him from further defending the woman, confiscating his license and summoning him to a disciplinary hearing later this month.
The justice ministry implied the victim's sentence was increased because she had spoken out to the press. "For whoever has an objection on verdicts issued, the system allows to appeal without resorting to the media," said the statement carried on the official Saudi Press Agency.
The rape took place in 2006. The victim said it occurred as she tried to retrieve her picture from a male high school student she used to know.
While in a car with the student, two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area. She said she was raped there by seven men, three of whom also attacked her friend.
The Underground tunnel starts in the car park of the shopping centre and goes directly into the heart of Nairobi
The terrorists behind the Nairobi shopping centre massacre are feared to have escaped capture by fleeing like “sewer rats” through an underground tunnel.
Security services are probing claims the al-Shabaab militants behind the #Westgate attack slipped into the mall’s sewage system and fled by travelling half a mile in knee deep sludge.
Our exclusive pictures reveal the exact point where the darkened tunnel meets the Nairobi River.
It is here many of the terrorists are believed to have surfaced then slipped away…leaving a hard core group inside the mall to complete their slaughter.
A source close to the investigation said: “They escaped like sewer rats. The terrorists would have been able to pass through the underground tunnels at a rapid pace and surface almost unnoticed.
“We are dealing with a highly organised outfit. The operation was planned with military precision, nothing had been discounted.”
The darkened tunnel continues for more than two miles across Nairobi, leaving the gang behind the attack ample opportunity to flee the scene before Kenyan troops arrived.
Unbelievably, it is alleged that Kenyan investigators didn’t know of the escape route until at least 72 hours after the horror unfolded.
Sunday Mirror reported Russell Myers is pictured inside the tunnel
Details of the gang’s escape route comes as it emerged a sixth British person had been killed in last Saturday’s attack.
Up to 150 people are feared to have died in all with a further 62 being reported as missing in the sickening terror hit.
Those killed, injured and missing were remembered with a minute’s silence as Government officials, police, soldiers and terrorism experts continued to work at the scene.
The terror gang planned the operation meticulously, studying plans of the mall for months and even hiring a shop to store a deadly arsenal of weapons including huge chain guns, rocket propelled grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Specialist officers are still investigating whether white widow Samantha Lewthwaite was among those who took part in last Saturday’s attack.
Security services are probing claims Lewthwaite, 29, now the world’s most wanted woman, fled the scene moments after blasting her way into the shopping centre with up to 30 crazed al-Shabaab militants.
She is suspected of directing the gang to slaughter innocent women and children.
The tunnel leads from the centre of Nairobi and into the car park of the Westgate shopping centre
Sunday Mirror
Lewthwaite, from Aylesbury, Bucks, is understood to have been “ghosted” out of the east African country within hours.
Intelligence sources are investigating whether she travelled to neighbouring Somalia where she is being sheltered by shadowy al-Shabaab leaders.
The former British soldier’s daughter was last week made the subject of an Interpol “Red Alert” as the world’s security services hunt for her.
Survivors of the bloodshed have claimed they saw a white or “pale skinned woman” holding a gun and directing militants in Arabic.
It is not known whether Lewthwaite is among the fanatics who were killed in the siege, but the latest development and supporting witness statements suggests she may have been inside the mall before escaping.
Another senior source said: “Lewthwaite could be anywhere. She has evaded capture before and may have done it again. The world must find her before it is too late.”
In another dramatic day of developments, a car believed to be connected to the terrorists was yesterday revealed to be packed with explosives in boxes.
A silver saloon Mitsubishi parked at the entrance of the mall also had petrol poured inside it.
Investigators claim it is “a miracle” it never exploded.
Bungling Kenyan investigators had previously dismissed the car for nearly a week until it was pointed out as potentially significant by foreign detectives.
Inside the car were several sim cards, grenade pins, bullets, rifles and shredded paper believed to be plans of the building and operation.
A source close the investigation said: “What the investigators now believe is that the terrorists wanted to explode the car when terrified shoppers starting to run for their lives.
“Once people started the stampeded the terrorists wanted to detonate the bomb started so it could have had maximum effect by slaughtering hundreds more people.
“For some reason the bomb did not go off. The results could have been utterly catastrophic if it has successfully detonated. We could have been easily been dealing with more than 1,000 deaths. The modus operandi of these animals is completely barbaric.”
Sources have indicated the tactics employed by the attackers could only be equalled to those used by “Al-Qaeda terror squads”.
The source added: “It is by sheer luck or a miracle that the attackers were committed to being inside the mall when they realised the bomb had failed. There are no winners in this carnage, but it looks like it could have been even worse which is impossible to believe.”
The Sunday Mirror can reveal Kenyan security services were warned more than a year ago of an attack in the capital city on the exact date of the Westgate siege.
Leaked documents have emerged suggesting the National Intelligence Service had “credible evidence” last September concerning a “Mumbai style attack” on high profile targets including the Westgate shopping mall.
The 20 page dossier details terrorist plots and activities including a direct warning of a “terror plot in Nairobi between September 13 and 21, 2013”.
The Westgate terror siege was executed on Saturday, September 21.
The leaked briefing suggests the intelligence report was seen by senior ranking officials, including Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta.
The revelation will heap more pressure on senior officials who have been heavily criticised after releasing conflicting statements during and after the siege.
The intelligence report, dated exactly a year before the Westgate siege – September 21, 2012 – indicated at least three known terror suspects were in Nairobi planning suicide attacks.
Specific intelligence pointed to the terror suspects believed to be in possession of two suicide vests, 12 hand grenades, two AK47 rifles and have already surveyed two targets”.
The intelligence report further advised that the suspects had at least one chain belt GMPG gun, hand grenades and an unknown number of bullet proof vests.
It is not known if this information was investigated further but the revelations will undoubtedly raise questions
However, it has emerged that one of the suspected leaders of the massacre may have been trained by the British military.
A Muslim convert, known as Omar, was killed at the end of the four-day Westgate siege by police and his former comrades in the Kenyan special forces. Anti-terror officers are combing through records of special forces soldiers who left the Kenyan army around 2005 – and those who received specialist training from the British.
The same report indicated the suspects were “being assisted by Sheik Hassan alias Blackie of Majengo and Omar Ahmed Ali alias Jerry”.
Security services are urgently investigating the two pieces of intelligence to see if they are connected.
According to the mirror.co.uk news, the fugitive White Widow plotted the bloody Kenyan mall massacre from a secret lair just 100 yards away, security forces believe.
British mum-of-three Samantha Lewthwaite – now the world’s most wanted woman – rented a house opposite the shopping centre where crazed Muslim fanatics later slaughtered up to 150 people, they say.
Police sources said a “delicate operation” was now under way to search properties around the Westgate mall since the horrific four-day gun siege erupted in Nairobi a week ago.
Interpol has issued a worldwide alert to find 29-year-old Muslim convert Lewthwaite and sources revealed that a huge part of the probe centred on her being “ghosted” into Somalia – base of terror group al-Shabaab, which has claimed responsibility for the attack.
A source said: “Nothing is being ruled out, but a major strand of the investigation is looking at Lewthwaite having been in Nairobi more than once in the last few months but then travelling back across the border to Somalia.
“She has known links in the country and surrounding areas. Everything is being done to find her.”
Lawyers for Kenyan deputy president William Ruto asked judges to adjourn his International Criminal Court (ICC) trial to allow him to return home to deal with an armed attack on a Nairobi shopping mall, according to a court filing seen by Reuters on Sunday.
In the filing, lawyers say Ruto, who is in the Hague defending himself against charges of crimes against humanity over his alleged involvement in a wave of violence after the 2007 elections, is needed at home to help with security briefings and consultations.
20 photos taken by The New York Times staff photographer Tyler Hicks, who was nearby when gunmen opened fire at Westgate Mall in Nairobi, killing at least 39 people in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Kenya’s history. He was able to go inside the mall as the attack unfolded. Go to the following link to see all photos: Witness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall
The president has decried the US for its intimidation tactics and fear-mongering after the Venezuelan presidential jet was blocked from entering US airspace.
“I would like to announce that we are preparing a lawsuit against Barack Obama to condemn him for crimes against humanity,” said President Morales at a press conference in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He branded the US president as a “criminal” who violates international law.
In solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia will begin preparing a lawsuit against the US head of state to be taken to the international court. Furthermore, Morales has called an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to discuss what has been condemned by Venezuela as “an act of intimidation by North American imperialism.”
The Bolivian president has suggested that the members of CELAC withdraw their ambassadors from the US to send a message to the Obama Administration. As an additional measure he will call on the member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas to boycott the next meeting of the UN. Members of the Alliance include Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Saint Lucia.
“The US cannot be allowed to continue with its policy of intimidation and blockading presidential flights,”stressed Morales.
The Venezuelan government announced on Thursday that President Nicolas Maduro’s plane had been denied entry into Puerto Rican (US) airspace.
“We have received the information from American officials that we have been denied travel over its airspace,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said, speaking to reporters during an official meeting with his South African counterpart. Jaua decried the move “as yet another act of aggression on the part of North American imperialism against the government of the Bolivarian Republic.”
President Maduro was due to arrive in Beijing this weekend for bilateral talks with the Chinese government. Jaua was adamant that the Venezuelan leader would reach his destination, regardless of any perceived interference.......Remember Kenya's President Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta was in China the other day......
Researchers from University of California and University of Pittsburgh have found that women with curvier bodies tend to have a higher IQ compared to women who have straight or round bodies. Curvier women also appear to have more intelligent children according to the longitude study that took place between 1984 and 1994. The body shape associated with intelligence is also described as ‘hourglass’ and consists of larger hips and considerably thinner waist.
Scientists explain their discovery with the fact that women with hourglass-figures have more Omega-3 fatty acid stored in their bodies which is extremely necessary for the proper growth of the baby’s brain during pregnancy. Larger figured women appear to have more Omega-6 in their bodies which is less suitable for brain growth. Too thin women lack both Omega-3 and Omega-6.
Omega-3 is found in fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, anchovies and sardines. Omega-6 is found in vegetables oils, whole-grains, eggs and poultry but it’s prevalence in the human body has been associated with the presence of more diseases. All those foods are found to be beneficial for adults and thus for pregnant women.
The study also found upper-body fat to have a negative effect on the supply of fatty acids which are essential for the neurodevelopment while lower-body is found to be beneficial. Therefore, scientists claim that the waist-hip ration can give significant indications regarding women’s cognitive abilities as well as their children’s.
An International Criminal Court (ICC) expert who is based in Paris, France, has told Aljazeera TV that the ICC is extending its mandate by prosecuting President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto, who face crimes against humanity charges at the ICC.
John Laughland, Director of Studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris and associate law professor at Harvard University said that Kenya's post-election violence in 2007-08 has no place in a tribunal for war crimes.
"The court was set up to deal with the laws of war, not judge on every single case of sporadic violence that happens around the world," Laughland said.
"The people who run this court want to increase their powers and are intoxicated by the idea of a supranational authority to police everything. What frightens me about that is that it is all being done without following the basic constitutional principle that all power needs to be restricted and counterbalanced." Laughland added.
He said ICC is treating Kenya as a pariah state where he urged the ICC to rethink their strategy before prosecuting the two cases.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said that Kenya will not be destabilised by the International Criminal Court trials facing him and his deputy William Ruto.
He assured the court of the country’s cooperation until the end of the trials saying that they are innocent and would be acquitted by the court, Daily Nation reports.
The President also rejected calls for a referendum by several leaders to amend the Constitution saying it would deter development in the country and also interfere with the laws that were passed by Kenyans.
The emergence of the Coalition of the Willing—comprising Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda—has sent ripples in the East African Community, with Tanzania dismissing it as an “act of isolation”.
on Wednesday, the minister for East African Community Affairs, Mr Samwel Sitta, warned that the move by the three countries was against the spirit of integration and poses a threat to the future of the community.
“We will not be bullied into fast-tracking the integration because it will not be sustainable,” Mr Sitta noted.
This is the first statement issued by Tanzania since the three countries met in Kampala in July to plan on grand regional infrastructure projects.
The leaders of the three countries met in Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa last month and resolved to fast-track political federation.
Experts then reportedly met in Kigali last week to advance negotiations on how to implement the directive of their heads of state and a committee was created to spearhead the federation process.
Mr Sitta told reporters yesterday that the move by the Coalition was discouraging and ran counter to the original integration spirit of the five-member East African Community.
It is also a general and wrong interpretation of article 7(3) of the EAC protocol that allows member countries to have separate special-interest engagements, he added.
“The areas of cooperation the three countries are working on are no different from the ones we collectively discussed during the chairmanship of then-Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki,” Mr Sitta added. “If they have all of a sudden chosen to isolate us, all we can do is leave them alone and wish them well.”
Tanzania is an active member of the Southern Africa Development Co-operation (SADC), comprises South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Alliance
Mr Sitta hinted that Tanzania might never join integration initiatives that would have been taken by the three countries without its involvement.
His statement came a few weeks after the East African Community Council of Ministers officially sought clarification on why the three countries were running a parallel integration agenda.
Early this month, the council directed its chairperson, Uganda’s EAC Affairs minister Shem Bageine, to prepare full information on the blossoming alliance between Kenya and its landlocked neighbours Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
“The Council requested the chairperson of the council to provide more information on these developments to the Council at its 28th Meeting,” the ministers said after a meeting earlier this month.
Last week, the three countries initiated talks to introduce a single tourist visa from 2014 in order to enhance the flow of tourists across the three countries without additional fees. Infrastructure development and improvement is also on the agenda.
The three countries also want to implement a passport-free travel zone which would allow their nationals to use identity cards or voter registration cards to travel from one state to another.
But Mr Sitta yesterday accused the three countries of embarking on a “political agenda” while well aware of the fact that a committee formed to look into the subject is due to submit its report to the heads of state summit in November.
Tanzania’s position is that approaching integration matters with the kind of haste championed by Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya was a recipe for disaster and it is not ready to bow to such pressure.
The EAC secretariat has denied any divisions, saying the treaty allows members to sign pacts for implementing milestones agreed at regional level as long as there was room for others to join when ready.
But Mr Sitta noted yesterday that implementing regional transport projects such as constructing the Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali standard gauge railway without
Tanzania casts doubt on the commitment of the three countries to executing similar projects that run through Tanzania such as the Isaka-Kigali railway and the Uvinza Bujumbura railway.
Chris Khaemba has been proposed to head the Education docket in Nairobi County.
Governor Evans Kidero has also appointed Evans Ondieki, a lawyer, as County Executive member for Transport and Public Works.
The governor was forced to present new names after the Assembly rejected the nomination of John Kennedy Wanyama as Education boss.
Mr Khaemba began his career as a Mathematics and Physics teacher at Alliance High School in 1984 after serving as a Kenya Air Force officer.
HIGH RANKING
In 1995, he was transferred to Friends School Kamusinga, where he spearheaded reforms that pushed the school to be among the top ten in Kenya.
After his stint at Bungoma County, another government transfer in 1998 led him to Alliance High School.
Under his leadership, the institution maintained its lead in national academic rankings, received more donor funding and increased scholarship allotments for students from poor families.
The onus is now on county representatives to accept or reject the two nominees when they resume sittings.
Two former ICC prosecution witnesses have revealed details of how they were coached by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to give false accounts against Deputy President William Ruto and his co-accused Joshua arap Sang.
The witnesses revealed how they were coached not to use words such as ‘tried’, ‘really’, ‘recall’, ‘all I can say’, ‘sometimes’ and ‘I believe so’ when being cross-examined so as to convince the judges.
One of the witnesses, Samuel Kosgei, explained how they were also told not to hesitate, scratch their noses, touch the back of their ears, faces or neck when being cross-examined because the judges would not trust their testimonies.
In a video clip seen by Capital FM News on Wednesday, Kosgei maintained that the OTP had fabricated evidence against Ruto and Sang and had even told witnesses what to say.
“We were told how the words ‘I do not know’ were powerful to the judges. We were coached about these words so as to keep them in mind when being cross-examined. We were also told not to rumble or think out loud,” he explained.
He also said that he and others were forced to cram their accounts and would do so in groups so that their testimonies are corroborated.
Kosgei was before his withdrawal listed as witness Number 15 and he mentions two officials from the OTP only identified as Emma and Alex as those who conducted the ‘lessons.’
He claimed that he was given maps of Ruto’s Sugoi home and asked to sketch what he was seeing while at the same time verbally explaining the same in Kalenjin.
“This sketch shows the sitting room, the fridges, the bedrooms, everything but I have never been to Ruto’s home. A map was just put on a wall and I was instructed to draw it and give an audio explanation of the sketch. I don’t know where that map came from,” he alleged.
Kosgei added that he was also asked to say that he was present at a place where it is alleged that an oathing ceremony took place.
“I was also given details about oaths and told by the OTP to say that dogs were slaughtered at the Molo Milk Plant. But I don’t even know where this milk plant is,” he claimed.
The European Union’s ambassador to Nairobi, Lodewijk Briet, has said that cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto will be dropped before December this year, for lack of evidence.
Speaking at Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, during the proceeding of Deputy President William Ruto’s trial at the ICC on Tuesday, Briet said Uhuru and Ruto’s cases may also be dismissed on technical grounds or economic diplomacy.
He said that the cases have already split the Western nations, where majority of them calling for the dismissal of the cases since they are politically castigated.
“The cases worry the West, which sees a stable Kenya as vital to regional security and the fight against militant Islam,” Briet said.
He said Uhuru and Ruto’s cases cannot be compared with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir’s cases because the two have cooperated with the court from the beginning.
"A Bashir scenario is highly unlikely,” the envoy said adding that it is just a matter of time before the cases are dismissed on technical grounds!
The European Union’s ambassador to Nairobi, Lodewijk Briet, has said that cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto will be dropped before December this year, for lack of evidence.
Speaking at Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, during the proceeding of Deputy President William Ruto’s trial at the ICC on Tuesday, Briet said Uhuru and Ruto’s cases may also be dismissed on technical grounds or economic diplomacy.
He said that the cases have already split the Western nations, where majority of them calling for the dismissal of the cases since they are politically castigated.
“The cases worry the West, which sees a stable Kenya as vital to regional security and the fight against militant Islam,” Briet said.
He said Uhuru and Ruto’s cases cannot be compared with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir’s cases because the two have cooperated with the court from the beginning.
"A Bashir scenario is highly unlikely,” the envoy said adding that it is just a matter of time before the cases are dismissed on technical grounds!
ICC Judges on Tuesday granted the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court a week to bring her witnesses to stand. Lawyer Karim Khan for Kenya Deputy President William Ruto warned the court of nonexistent witnesses pointing out withdrawal and recanting of evidence by these witnesses. The prosecutor’s office in the recent past hinted it has over 42 witnesses lined up against William Ruto. In its presentation during the opening of the case the office of the prosecutor fell short of confirming it only has 22 witnesses.
The 22 witnesses by the prosecution are believed to be a group of victims of the 2007 violence scheduled to recount the events of the mayhem and a number of witnesses who are believed to be associates and operatives of the ODM allied politicians and businessmen from Rift Valley. This begs the question, how many among the 22 witnesses are actually the witnesses and who are the victims to give accounts of events? Hypothetically, the witness attrition problem maybe emerging as a major hurdle in the case and based on the legal and intelligence circles projections, paying and coaching then paying the witnesses is like hiring mercenaries and if they get better deals, they will fight your war.
The witness attrition and the lack of credible basis for an investigation that concludes the prosecutions staunch position that the violence was planned and not spontaneous will completely discredit the office of the prosecutor.
ICC is likely to be the most embarrassed international institution in the 21st Century forever taking the Kenyan cases with the ado and pride the prosecution has continued to portray.
A popular Ugandan prophet, Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre Cathedral in Kampala has prophesied that the ICC cases facing the President and his Deputy will fail. The respected Prophet who is holding a mega crusade at Uhuru Park in Nairobi says that God had shown him that the ICC cases were politicized.
He says that putting Kenya in the ICC at the current century is equal to colonisation. In a media interview, the prophet said that the failure of the ICC cases against the President and his Deputy will put to shame the Western Nations and put a clear picture that days of colonisation are over.
The ICC cases have entered a critical trial stage and drama is expected in the Hague based court as Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda fights her seemingly weak case with top lawyers in the world.
IT IS NOT POSSIBLE, AT ALL FOR RUTO AND MYSELF TO BE AWAY AT THE SAME TIME; THAT CAN NEVER HAPPEN; HOPE I'VE MADE MYSELF CLEAR!
1.We Will Work With that Court But it Must Understand that Kenya Has a Constitution
2. It is Not Possible, at All, for Ruto and Myself to Be Away at the Same Time;
3. Ruto and Myself Will Not Be Away at the Same Time; Kenya is An Independent and Sovereign Nation and Must Be Respected;
4. I Am Speaking in My Capacity as the President of the Republic of Kenya Given An Overwhelming, Democratic and Constitutional Mandate by the People of Kenya;
5. If They Want Us to Cooperate Then They Must Make it Easy for Us to Cooperate;
6. As President I Will Not Allow Violation of the Country’s Constitution; and I Hope I Have Made Myself Very Clear!
The ' extraordinary' night meeting at the Hagues CARLTON AMBASSADOR hotel that went late into the night... This was after president Kenyatta warned he may withdraw his cooperation with the court... More details to follow...
Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Kenneth Marende, and Kanduyi MP, Alfred Khangati, have asked for forgiveness from the Luhya community elders for supporting former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Speaking during the home coming party of Hamisi MP, Charles Gimose, in Vihiga town, the two leaders apologised to the community and leaders for supporting an outsider for the Presidency.
“I betrayed the community twice supporting Raila. Never again! I will only support a member of the Luhya community,” Khangati said.
On his part, Marende said he believed in Luhya unity because the constitution recognises tribes.
“As a speaker I kept repeating that parliament is national not tribal. But now, the constitution recognizes tribes, I now support the Luhya for Presidency in 2017,” Marende said.
During the party, UDF leader, Musalia Mudavadi, repeated his calls for Luhya unity saying the community must clinch the Presidency in 2017 since they also have “Tyranny of numbers”
A significant political scandal is moving toward explosion in the Netherlands. The story behind it is so vile, and the Dutch government cover-up so energetic, that its broad exposure could cause the International Court of Justice, the primary judicial organ of the United Nations, to leave The Hague.
The court's building is an imposing edifice in a fenced, parklike setting, home to 15 judges. Nearby, amidst more Gothic architecture, sits the Netherlands' Ministry of Security and Justice.
In mushy Dutch political language, a ministry website states that their thousands of employees are “working toward a safer, more just society by giving people legal protection and, where necessary, intervening in their lives. ... The law is about people.”
This high-hat statement comes from a Justice Ministry led until recently by an alleged sexual predator — Joris Demmink. The quiet, balding, bespectacled bachelor was secretary-general of the Ministry of Security and Justice and commander of the National Police until he retired at age 65, with full benefits and official praise at a lavish dinner, just four months ago.
For 30 years, Demmink was one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in the Netherlands, a perfect position from which to keep secret his alleged hobby of molesting young boys, sometimes as part of an organized group of EU pedophiles.
A resolution pending on Capitol Hill would ban Demmink from ever entering the United States and would move the International Court of Justice out of the Netherlands.
Demmink, however, is a friend of the powerful, including the Dutch royal family. The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix's personal lawyer is particularly close to Demmink. He and the royal family would have to be aware of the detailed allegations going back to the 1990s, when Demmink was director general for International Affairs and Immigration for the Netherlands, and was accused of raping a 14-year-old homeless child in Turkey.
Demmink is believed to have preyed on poor and homeless boys in the Netherlands and other EU countries, particularly Turkey, for years, using the power and perquisites of his elite office — limousines, bodyguards, drivers and policemen to procure boys for sexual use.
There have been some strong calls to investigate Demmink, including a multipage resolution asking the United States to support removing the International Court from The Hague. The resolution is a catalogue of horrors, detailing the alleged molestations of three boys.
A videotaped statement from a Turkish police officer, Mehmet Korkmaz, in charge of security on three of Demmink's visits to Istanbul between 1995 and 1997, said that he was ordered to pick up young “street boys” and bring them to Demmink for sexual abuse.
The Netherlands Embassy in Washington says there is no proof of any of these allegations. That's not surprising, since neither the young boys, nor the policemen, nor INTERPOL officers have ever been interviewed by Dutch authorities.
By Richard W. Carlson
Richard W. Carlson is a former U.S. ambassador to the Seychelles and the former director of the Voice of America.
