The KCB bank diaspora banking team pitched its services to Kenyans  in Dallas Texas during the memorial weekend.

The team included which the Head of diaspora banking Vincent Aberi, the US Relationship manager Winstone Muchira, Boston KCB agent Eunice Waweru and the newly appointed Dallas/Fort Worth KCB agent, Catherine Gathuka Franklin met with community leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals at the Wyndham Hotel on Alpha Rd on Friday.

At the forum, they shared on KCB’s diaspora banking products in addition to ways the bank can be of service to those in Diaspora looking to invest in Kenya.

Of the items discussed, several sparked great interest such as the KCB’s mortgage loans which are the best rates offered by any Kenyan bank at 9% for loans in US Dollars and 14.5% for loans in Kenya Shillings.

Also, of interest was the Tuungane Chama Group Account that is designed to avail financial solutions to investment groups through which they can access up to Ksh 50,000,000 in lending towards investment projects.

On Saturday the team engaged small groups in McKinney, Desoto and Irving.  On Sunday the team engaged with Kenyan’s at Upendo Baptist Church in Garland.

Overall, the turnout and response from Kenyan’s in DFW was great and the KCB team and products were very well received.  The team from Kenya, Vincent and Winston are still in the USA and has proceeded on to California and Minnesota.

Vincent Aberi will be present at the Madaraka Day activities at the Parkers Lake park at Plymouth.

The diaspora team is reachable for questions.  ontacts are as follows:

Vincent Aberi – (469) 396-6566,

Winstone Muchira– (857) 500-9565, Eunice –(617 513-4295,

Catherine Gathuka Franklin– (214)808-8508 or via email diasporaunit@kcb.co.ke.

Two Stony Brook Children’s Hospital doctors have given a young Kenyan girl a reason to smile.

After a 2010 humanitarian trip to Nairobi, dentist Leon Klempner and plastic surgeon Alexander Dagum returned to find an email from a charity director about a young girl, Saline Atieno, who was badly disfigured after contracting a rare but serious bacteria called noma. The disease ravaged the girl’s face, eating away at her palate, jaw and nose. The majority of children who contract noma die from it. The charity director asked if there was anything the doctors overseas could do, as her condition was so severe.

“There’s always a few children like Saline that get turned away because of the extent of their deformity,” said Klempner. “For me, this was the tipping point. She had no friends, wasn’t attending school, her father had died to AIDS, her older sister was pregnant, she lived in this remote village with no clean water — it was just a combination of things that pulled at your heartstrings.”

Klempner founded a charity, Smile Rescue Fund, to raise money for Saline to have the surgery in her homeland. But after two failed attempts, he arranged for Saline to be brought to Stony Brook.

“We felt we couldn’t leave her there,” Klempner said. He and his team performed the surgery for free.

Klempner and Jennifer Crean, who was to house Saline for part of her stay, picked up 12-year-old Saline from the airport and remember meeting a shy young girl who was ashamed of her appearance.

“Her face was hidden, she had a hat on her head, she was looking at the ground,” Crean said. She remained introverted during those first few months in America, but after some time with her first host family, “she started to come out of her shell,” she said.

The scheduled reconstructive surgeries were supposed to take about four months, but ended up taking a full year.

“We realized after the CAT scan and evaluation it was gonna require quite a few stages, a lot more needed to be done,” said Dagum. Because Saline’s tissues were very scarred and didn’t move easily, he and his team first “inserted balloons under her forehead to expand the tissues,” thus giving them enough tissue to start rebuilding the nose and palate. From there, they took grafts from the little girl’s ribs to reconstruct her nose, and used her lower lip to help create a new upper lip. Saline’s final surgery was a few days ago.

The transformation of the quiet young girl into a “boisterous” preteen has been incredible, Crean says.

“She’s just very happy, a typical 12-year-old child,” she said. She loves normal American pastimes like fawning over One Direction, going to the beach and watching hockey games. “We try to do as many things as possible to show her the American way,” she said. “She’s been fishing, she’s been skiing, ice skating. She very much adapted herself into our way of life easily.”

Now that she is on the road to recovery, Saline will return home to Kenya this Saturday to be reunited with her mother and older sister. Crean said she is sad to see her go, but Saline is returning home with a new lease on life thanks to the doctors who saved her.

“We saw her transform from a shy girl who would cover her face to a girl who plays and enjoys life,” Dagum said.

-Daily News

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/stony-brook-docs-girl-new-face-article-1.1810158#ixzz33Gz5R7Zz

Raila Odinga’s two-month absence away in the United States, where he was on a residency programme at Boston University’s African Presidential Centre (APC), has been cause for much speculation, including of the conspiracy theory kind.

The APC says it provides “an unprecedented and unique approach to studying democratisation and free market reform in Africa . . . for former democratically-elected African leaders and access to their papers, and through access to present democratically-elected leaders, the center provides a forum for them to share and a venue for others to benefit from their insights and expertise. The Center offers an exceptional opportunity to see the present phase of Africa’s development through the eyes of the ‘architects of that change.”

The APC also hosts policy debates and deliberations on free market reform on Africa. Established by a one-time US ambassador to Tanzania, Charles R. Stith, who still directs it, the Centre also contributes to the development of current US policy on Africa.

Given the interest the study tour excited, Ambassador Stith was compelled to issue a clarification about Raila’s programme, an unprecedented PR exercise for the APC. Stith explained Raila had been invited in his capacity as a “statesman and a representative of the democratisation trend in Africa”.

Turning to claims that Raila’s admissibility in a programme specifically described as “presidential” was questionable, Stith said the Kenyan leader was eminently qualified for the invitation and critics such as Kirinyaga Central MP Joseph Gitari not only do not understand what APC does but also that “being selected to participate in a programme as prestigious as ours speaks well of the country”.

To listen to Raila’s detractors across the political aisle, the man was basically up to no good and the study tour was little more than what in intelligence circles is referred to as a “cover story”. The Jubilee alliance rank and file was made to believe by their most ardent anti-Raila strategists that the ODM leader and ranking principal of Cord had several other agenda in the US, some of them extremely sinister.

Jubilee-compliant bloggers have spread the word about Raila having been to some kind of regime-change school or gymnasium in the US, being primed by shadowy CIA types to return to Kenya and foment an uprising. The Kenyan Post, an online newspaper, informed its readers that Raila and former aide Salim Lone had teamed up with Professor Makau Mutua in a series of meetings in April in Mutua’s rooms atthe State University of New York and formed a clandestine organisation, the Kenya Action Group (KAG), dedicated to regime change before the 2017 general election.

One Diaspora Kenyan, Joseph Kinuthia of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, told the Daily Nation newspaper of Nairobi: “The idea that Mr Odinga, an accomplished politician, can spend two months away from Kenya to attend some school in America is unbelievable. I know he has been up to something sinister”.

Other speculation included health issues, seeing as Raila is almost 70 and spent nearly a decade in total in the detention-without-trial cells during the marathon Daniel arap Moi presidency (1978-2002).

There was even talk of sheer political fatigue, particularly since he took the break barely a year after he had lost the presidential poll for a second consecutive time in the March 2013 general election. There was also the matter of the botched ODM Delegates’ Convention and elections at the end of February.

When he left Kenya, Raila left an interim leader, former ODM secretary-general Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, nominally in charge. In other words, he left his party in crisis. Raila had a fairly full and elaborate itinerary away from the APC, both during and after the study tour, almost all of it well-publicised by media. He delivered lectures at Morehouse College, a private, all-male historically Black institution in Atlanta, Georgia; Princeton University, the fourth-oldest in the US and world-famous as a research institution; Elizabeth City State University, one of the foremost historically Black colleges in the US; Columbia University, a private Ivy League research university; and 377-year-old Harvard University, one of the most prestigious universities on the planet. He also gave media interviews and participated in celebrity social events.

If Raila got up to something secretive and under the radar of media and intelligence attention, it will have to await his next volume of memoirs. If, say, he met secretly with a powerful and influential world figures like billionaire and regime-change specialist George Soros, an admirer, then the Joseph Kinuthias of this world will feel mightily vindicated, both here and in the Diaspora, in the fullness of time.

What is not in doubt is that Raila had some quality time away from the rough-and-tumble dynamics of politics at home for some serious reflection and personal stock-taking. He could well return home this morning a changed man in a number of subtle ways.

He has also almost certainly come to a number of major decision about the way forward for both ODM and Cord, which received a poor report card on theirperformance as the opposition in Jubilee’s first year in office. Speaking from the APC early in his study tour, Raila gave Jubilee merely a pass for its first year.

He delivered well-researched and well-written lectures and maintained a statesmanlike tone and gravitas throughout, observing, for instance, that the eastern African region will rake in multiple trillions of shillings over the next 10 years from hydrocarbon and other recently-discovered natural resources. This is clearly a near-future which he would like to participate in from a position of presidential power and influence.

Towards the end of the US tour, he told an interviewer that he had not yet made up his mind about a fourth stab at the presidency, which would also be his third consecutive one, in 2017.

His homecoming from the US today will be easily one of the highlights of the political year. And he could well have a surprise or two for both his followers and those of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, both pleasant and not.

- The Star

Former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga says a number of top government officials want to kill him over a matter arising from one of the Kenyan cases at the International Criminal Court.

Speaking from his hospital bed at Avenue Hospital, Nairobi, yesterday, Njenga said these officials want him dead because he refused to record a statement and become a witness in one ICC case.

In a statement to police seen by the Star, Njenga identified Nairobi politician Ferdinand Waititu as the go-between for the unnamed officials, saying the latter had approached him with a view to persuading him to become a witness.

Njenga is recuperating from an attack by unidentified gunmen at Kari Farm, Nyahururu, last weekend.

“It is not about land, and, for your information, Mungiki no longer exists; some people are pursuing me to eliminate me through calculated moves after I refused to record the ICC statements”, said Njenga.

According to Njenga, people are being murdered in other areas and buried in Kitengela so as to stir tensions in a strategy that is part of a plot to finish him.

Njenga said that before he was shot at last Saturday, his guards had spotted a number of men who took photos of his house and the vehicle he was using hours before the incident.

“One of my aides, who died in the incident, saw these men and met them in the Olkalao area – and when he asked them who they were, they referred to themselves as police officers in a crew”, said Njenga.

Njenga said he is aware the police have hired what he described as a specialized crew whosemission is to assassinate selected persons that the government feels are a nuisance.

“We decided to quit Mungiki and reform, we believe in the living God and we are not turning back, that is why He has been on my side, and, for sure, the truth shall prevail for the world to know”, he said.

He reiterated that allegations he was fighting with his brother for control of landholdings in Kitengela were false and in bad faith, aiming to create division among family members.

In a police statement seen by the Star, Njenga claimed that three vehicles had followed his convoy of two cars for some time before the shooting ambush.

The copy of the statement read in part: “I had recorded a statement at Nairobi Area [police] that my life was in danger and that I was suspicious after Mr. Waititu Ferdinand had approached me to make a statement as a witness in the ICC cases at The Hague.

“I had told him that during the violence I was in prison and so I could not make a statement. He told me that if I did not make the statement I would die mysteriously”.

The fingers of Njenga’s left hand were grazed by a bullet and are still heavily bandaged, but all indications are he will soon leave Avenue and be referred to outpatient services.

- The Star

Police in Attleboro are seeking help from the public in the search for the missing Kenyan woman Jennifer Mbugua after her car was found abandoned and the car keys still in the ignition.

Her gray Camry was found abandoned at a local gas station on Wednesday morning prompting police to conduct a ground and air search for her.

The gas station is located at the Shell Gas station on Route 1 near Interstate 295.

President Uhuru Kenyatta deviated from tradition on Sunday by making his way into the Nyayo National Stadium for the Madaraka Day celebrations not on the customary ceremonial Land Rover but a Toyota Land Cruiser with bullet proof glass surrounding it.

The motivation for the change was unclear with Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) speculating that it could be part of heightened security measures or another manifestation of the ‘look East’ policy adopted by President Kenyatta’s government.

“Our president is now in a bullet proof LAND CRUISER? Where is our ceremonial Landie?,” @MediaMK posed.

While @Kenajode saw it as a definite move East, “Moving East kabisa even chasecars including one that dropped him Toyota Landcruiser VX and Prados no European cars!!”

Former Activist and photojournalist Boniface Mwangi was however of a different opinion and saw the bullet proofed Toyota as a consequence of increased insecurity in the country.

“The crowd at the stadium is screened but Uhuru’s vehicle is proof that Kenya is no longer as safe as it used to be,” he tweeted.

The armored Toyota was at odds with President Kenyatta’s previous public appearances where he has been reported to break ranks with his security detail to shake hands with the masses and carry children.

President Kenyatta’s lap on the vehicle also came just hours after the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) decried the deteriorating state of security in the country.

“In the three months that I have been away, Kenyans daily communicated their frustrations to me via email, SMS and phone calls. A baby was shot in Mombasa and his mother killed, part of the growing victims of insecurity that has claimed young and old, babies and mothers,” Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga stated on his return from a three month trip abroad.

While acknowledging that security was indeed a challenge in his Madaraka Day speech, President Kenyatta was also adamant that his government is well able to manage it.

“These extremists will attack even a child, like Satrin Osinya. Nothing can justify such heinous acts, and nothing will stop us from bringing their perpetrators to justice,” he assured.

- Capital FM News

Standing in a small wooden booth cluttered with brightly colored cosmetics boxes a heavily made up woman unwraps a syringe and a needle, then fills the syringe with pink cream that’s been decanted from a blue packet. “You must only use a small amount, otherwise you can become albino. This is strong stuff,” she says as she pricks her customer’s skin.

Rose is one of dozens of skin bleaching gurus that operate along River Road in downtown Nairobi, a hub for illicit activities that is notorious for its knock-off electronics, budget brothels, flamboyant transsexuals and petty crime. It is also known for its backstreet beauticians, like Rose, who promise clients that their treatments will make them look six years younger and ten shades lighter.

These salons have been around for a long time, and have caused a number of health scares over the years, often due to creams with high mercury content, but recently more extreme treatments have started to become popular and are causing concern amongst health officials.

The popularity of skin-bleaching injections has rocketed over the last 18 months according to Dr Pranav Pancholi, a Harvard-trained dermatologist who works at Kenya’s Shah Hospital. Pranav says because it’s a recent phenomenon, no one really knows what the long-term health implications are.

“The products used on the streets are not used by certified professionals” he says. “The trade in black market creams and injections is completely unregulated. There is no way of knowing just how dangerous they are.”

Rose injects Mercy, a customer, with skin whitening cream.

On River Road the skin bleaching specialists hawk their goods sitting on stools in the street or standing in the doorways of their shops, some of which are just wooden booths rammed full of small colored boxes and creams. The more ramshackle beauty salons have gaudy hand painted signs, and sit sandwiched between seedy bars, DVD sellers, and starkly lit brothels. Others are slightly more upmarket, with large glass windows and neon signs.

The sellers are all women and know how to hustle. They can be brash and aggressive, often standing outside and whispering and hissing at women who pass by to entice them into their shop.

When I first went to River Road and started to talk to people about taking photographs the sellers harassed me, asking me what I wanted, and even pushing me into a room where they could quiz me about what I was doing. They demanded over $500 to tell their story then kicked me out onto the street with dirty looks when I refused to pay it. Skin bleaching is a sensitive topic in a conservative and religious country like Kenya, and operating unlicensed salons that offer injections is against the law. It only survives though institutionalized bribery and if any of the skin bleachers get into trouble it’s likely they’ll need to make a hefty payout to avoid jail.

Rose shows her elbows – the only evidence of what color her skin used to be.

Rose is different to the other women I meet. Self-assured, but less aggressive. She is proud of her business and willing to show me around without extorting me for money. Under her heavy makeup her skin is thin and pale after five years of continuous whitening treatment. Her previous skin color is only hinted at by areas of darker skin around her knuckles and elbows.

At first she denies that she provides the skin bleaching injections, but after an hour of talking she tells me that she does offer the injection treatments and agrees to show me how they work.

“The injection lightens you from inside. It makes women clean,” she tells me. “If you want an even color and fast results, injecting is much better than a cream.”

The injection is expensive at $70 per shot, nearly a month’s salary for many Kenyans. “Most of my clients are wealthy and some are national celebrities,” she says. “Many are Somali or Indian. But, those ones never come to my shop. They send a driver with a photo of their skin color and I supply what they need.”

Rose laughs, “Some girls go back to their village and tell them the water of Nairobi made them lighter. There is great shame for wanting to change what God gave you.”

Rose’s workplace is one of the many rickety and disorganized looking skin treatment booths. In the tiny room Rose proudly shows me her book of accounts, thick with names and numbers. She also introduces me to a customer who is waiting for her first skin bleaching injection, a giggly, outgoing woman in her mid-twenties who didn’t want to be names, so I’ll call her Mercy. Mercy tells me that she lives close to River Road and also sells bleach creams.

Mercy is excited about receiving the expensive treatment. As we wait for Rose to get a syringe from a nearby pharmacist she tells me that she has been using skin whitening creams for a couple of years and they have already helped to “brighten” her skin color, but she finds the process too slow.

A box of skin whitening treatment.

She says her dream is to be as white as a European and she will try anything to achieve her objective. “My husband prefers half-caste women to darker girls, and he is proud to be mine when we go to the club,” she says. “I get far more male attention now I am lighter.”

When she gets back from the pharmacy Rose carefully prepares the injection and I take a look at the treatment’s packaging.
The instructions indicate that it should be applied as a cream, rather than injected. The pink liquid is described as an “exfoliating pigment erasing solution which peels off rough/tough layers of skin.”

According to the box the treatment should show visible results in one to two weeks. It comes from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it contains AHAs, or alpha hydroxy acids.

Later I show Dr Pranav a photograph of the treatment’s packaging and he tells me alpha hydroxy acids are a type of corrosive compound used in chemical peels and can cause serious health problems if used incorrectly. Medical professionals don’t normally inject products containing AHAs as they can cause serious infection and kill body tissue causing flesh to waste away. Pranav also explains that the black market creams and treatments used in Kenya often contain powerful steroids that cause skin to become thin and easily damaged.

Mercy cries out when the needle pricks her skin but after the injection she seems pleased that she went through with it. Grinning she gives a shrug and says, “Nairobi is very competitive and Kenyan men like women with whiter skin.”

Follow Wil Crisp on Twitter

-Vice.com

Mombasa, Kenya: The Kenya Defence Forces has lost 800 soldiers since 2011, a State lawyer has disclosed. This comes as the military warns that desertions will be severely punished to deter those stationed in Somalia and other missions from leaving.

The shocking disclosure, which is said to have raised concerns among top military officers, was made at the Court of Appeal in Malindi last evening.

The State is attempting to overturn a High Court ruling issued last week by Justice Edward Mureithi in Mombasa that suspended three court martials trying 26 former naval servicemen for deserting the military in 2007 and 2008. Last evening, the Court of Appeal rejected an application by State lawyer Mwangi Njoroge who is representing Defence Cabinet Secretary Rachel Omamo seeking the immediate reversal of Justice Muriithi’s suspension of the military trials.

The Appellate Court instead ordered State lawyers to return to the High Court in Mombasa to convince Justice Muriithi to give them a stay order.

State lawyer Alex Muteti who is representing the military courts, the Commander of the Mtongwe naval base and Chief of Defence Forces Gen Julius Karangi, disclosed the desertions as the Appeal Court rejected an application to reverse Justice Muriithi’s April 30 verdict.

Muteti, who was flanked by several top military officials, did not provide details or reasons for the desertions but indicated that punishing the 26 ex-servicemen will deter future desertions and stem negative influences on serving soldiers. Al-Shabaab militants He insisted that Kenya is at war after the Kenya Defence Forces entered Somalia in October 2011 to fight Al-Shabaab militants as the Court of Appeal judges questioned why the military authorities had refused to obey a court order setting the 26 suspects free on bail.

The soldiers have sued Karangi, Omamo and Navy Commander Maj Gen Ngewa Mukala. Muteti told the Court of Appeal in Malindi that if the trend was left to continue, KDF soldiers in Somali will be demoralised.

“We have lost 800 soldiers since Kenya went to war with Somali and that is why these soldiers must be tried in the court martial so that those serving the country’s interest in Somali are not demoralised,” said Muteti.

-The Standard

Zach Khadudu is a Kenyan by birth and a journalist by choice. He is a commentator and an activist with a passion for refugee and human rights. He may share a heritage with a certain US president, but his heart lies elsewhere – in the written and spoken word.

This is my letter to the just-born, mixed-race baby – prescribed reading, I hope, for a progressive future.

Welcome to the world, Cutie! To Denmark, to be specific. By virtue of your mum being a Dane and your father being a foreigner, you have to decide where you want to belong.

That is the law, Baby. And the law is a blind ass. Never mind that you are being born in a country that cherishes individual freedoms. When it comes to citizenship, your individual freedom is null and void.

You cannot decide to have dual citizenship to embrace both your cultures. The choice to be fully Danish and fully your ‘father’s nationality’ is inapplicable.

You have to decide, Little One: be a Dane or remain a ‘foreigner’ like your dad. It is a tough choice for a zero-year-old to make, but when the men and women at Christiansborg speak, their word is law.

Transcend the labels
You are being born in abeautiful country, Tot. But not everything is as rosy as it may seem. I wish I could promise you paradise as you start your life’s journey, but I’m obliged to inform you of the reality.

As a ‘brown’ kid in a predominantly white country, you are bound to raise some eyebrows. Note, that you are being born in a society that is obsessed with labels.

At best you will be labelled half-caste or mulatto, at worst they will call you neger, despite you being as fully white as you will be fully African.

I urge you to transcend the labels and live your life. Your mixed race does not subjugate you to any half measures; rather it will make you doubly rich in the cultural heritages of both your parents’ races.

Walk with pride
You are beautiful. Raise your head high, your chest out and shoulders wide and walk with pride. Never mind the curious hands that will want to feel the texture of your hair because it looks different.

They are but a few ignorant elements, and ignorance is a hard malady to cure.

Note also, that sometimes your strange last name rather than your credentials and competencies will determine whether you get the job or not.

If lady luck smiles on you, however, and you grow to be a platinum-selling musician, famous footballer, successful captain of industry or world-class athlete, they will forget your race and fully claim you as a Dane (think of Wilson Kipketer, black as night and full-fledged Dane).

Otherwise you will have to stand up to be counted.

Listen to your inner voice
Finally, remember to smile (but don’t fake it) as it is one of the happiest countries in the world you are being born into. Millions of kids are not as lucky as you are – just think of those born in Syria, kidnapped in Nigeria, shot in Pakistan and locked up in asylum camps in Denmark.

They too are children, just not as lucky and free as you are. They are slaves of draconian laws and brutal orthodoxy.

It is still a beautiful world, Babe-In-Arms, and not everyone is mean. Grow to overcome the trivialities of ill-intentioned laws that deny you dual citizenship and skewed minds obsessed with labels.

Instead, grow to find your place in the universe and your voice in the important conversations of our time: justice, poverty, globalisation, climate change and human rights.

These, and the dignity of your humanity, are more vital than the colour of your skin or texture of your hair.

- COPENHAGEN POST

Cord leader Raila Odinga today paid a visit to former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga at his home in Karen. Raila was with Kisumu senator Anyang’ Nyong’o when he made the visit at 3pm.

Maina was shot by unknown assailants on May 24 that left his lover and four others dead. He was later taken to Avenue Hospital in Nairobi for specialized treatment.

The former mungiki leader who is now a bishop at Hope International ministry in Kitengela last week told police in a statement that his shooting was linked to ICC cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta.Maina

Cabinet Secretary fir Interior Joseph Ole Lenku had earlier claimed Maina was shot by a rival group after a land deal gone sour. Raila was close to Maina in the run up to 2007 elections after the later declared support for Raila’s candidacy.

The two had a long chat and even counted the bullet holes in Mania’s jacket. His assailants are yet to be brought to book.

Raila took a swipe on government for it’s failure to stem runaway insecurity in the country.

“We have a government blaming foreign nations for issuing travel advisories when it is clear we cannot protect our citizens.” Raila said.

“How do you live in a country where if you disagree with somebody, all you do is look for a gun? This is law of the jungle.You cannot admit to the existence of a criminal gang and say let them sort it among themselves. So why do we have government?”

- The Star

A commercial and legal dispute is brewing between the highest decision-making organ of the Catholic Church in this country and the management of a city restaurant – Al Yusra Restaurant Limited – over tenancy rights.

The Somali-owned food outlet along Kimathi Street, Nairobi, signed a six-year lease starting December 2013 for a section of Waumini House, headquarters of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat, in Westlands, Nairobi, for the opening of a branch.

The lease was signed on behalf of the bishops by property agents Knight Frank Limited.

However, the bishops, through lawyer Charles Kanjama, now want the lease terminated, saying it was signed without their “express written consent”.

In the letter, the Catholic bishops say the premises could not be used as a restaurant, “due to the character of the property and the area”.

“We instructed our agent (Knight Frank) to let out the premises sometime in 2013, BUT NOT [sic] to restaurant business, due to the character of the property and the area,” reads a letter dated May 28, signed by lawyer Kanjama.

Contacted for comment, Knight Frank said they are under “clear instructions” from their client not to speak to the media about the issue. “Please keep us out of this,” said an official who requested anonymity.

Kanjama said an agency agreement between KCCB and Knight Frank required the owner’s written consent to any proposed tenancy.

“Unknown to KCCB, the agent purported to let out some premises to yourselves, which action was done without authority and is thus null and void,” he wrote.

But the management of the popular city restaurant, through Rahma Jillo and Company Advocates, said their clients were being denied tenancy because they are Somalis and Muslims.

“To allege that the reputable firm Knight Frank had leased the premises without the consent or authority of your clients is not only insulting to our clients but also an attempt to mask the truth, that your client is unlawfully seeking to terminate the valid tenancy through strong-arm tactics that are informed by intolerance and discrimination,” their lawyers’  letter, dated May 29, reads in part.

A series of meetings involving the KCCB general secretary, members Fr Vincent Wambugu, the Rev Antony Muheria and Bishop Martin Kivuva at the Holy Family Basilica, chaired by Cardinal John Njue, convened to resolve the stalemate but failed.

In one meeting, Bishop Kivuva is quoted as saying that the bishops were “uncomfortable” with having part of the premises rented out to Somalis and Muslims as it may “cause havoc”.

“For the record, we have video recordings of the meetings that will be produced at the appropriate time,” said the restaurant management through lawyer Rahma Jillo.

“This is not only discriminatory but highly objectionable in view of the recent past screening of Muslim Somalis being profiled on grounds of ethnicity and religion. This is discriminatory, unconstitutional and against the teaching of the Catholic Church,” read the response letter, also copied to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.

The management said the allegation that the “reputable firm of Knight Frank Limited did not have authority or the consent of your client, is not only a lame excuse but out-rightly false”.

KCCB has since taken over control of the 2,153-square-feet renovated space.

Al Yusra Restaurant Managing Director Abdull Wahab told the Star yesterday that they had already spent Sh18.5 million on renovating the premises and continue to “incur losses” due to the delayed opening of the branch. He said they had paid Sh2.1 million in rent.

The terms and purpose of the lease were clearly indicated in the agreement, Wahab said, adding KCCB’s “feigning of ignorance” of the contents of the document is “insincere”.

“The premises are to be used as a restaurant only and change of user will not be permitted during the period of the lease without the lessor’s consent,” reads a copy of the lease agreement seen by the Star.

“Who wants to cause havoc in his business? We are genuine businesspeople and respected as such,” he said.

There have been complaints by Somalis in Kenya of harassment since the ongoing security crackdown started two months ago.

The restaurant was due for opening yesterday. Wahab said they are moving to court this week, to seek legal redress. “There are laws in this country. We feel the move to deny us access to the premises which we heavily invested in and coming from the highest decision-making organ is shocking and illegal. We are being denied because we are Muslims and Somalis,” he said.

On Friday, contractors who had been applying final touches were locked out after they found the doors chained and padlocked. A security officer was also reportedly assaulted in a scuffle. The matter was reported at the Parklands police station.

The bishops’ body led by Cardinal Njue now demands the restaurant vacates the premises. “We put you on notice that KCCB objects in the strongest terms to any attempt by yourselves to operate a business on the said premises,” said lawyer Kanjama.

“Kindly take notice that KCCB will immediately move to deny you any further access to the space in question and does hereby demand that you forthwith and under our client’s supervision give vacant possession of the said premises,”

He said the restaurant is only “allowed to remove equipment, fixtures and fittings under supervision. But you will not be allowed any further access to any part of the building in the interim and without sufficient notice to our clients”.

Al Yusra said the released premises was previously a restaurant and had all the structures and set-up of a restaurant, including a kitchen.

- The Star

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and “Game of Thrones” star Gwendoline Christie have joined the cast of “Star Wars: Episode VII,” J.J. Abrams’ highly anticipated extension of the classic space-opera franchise, Disney and Lucasfilm announced Monday.

Nyong’o and Christie add some female star power to a cast that was criticized for being predominantly male when it wasannounced in April. No details have been revealed about their characters.

two join newcomer Daisy Ridley and “Star Wars” veteran Carrie Fisher, as well as John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker.

“I could not be more excited about Lupita and Gwendoline joining the cast of ‘Episode VII,’” Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement on starwars.com. “It’s thrilling to see this extraordinarily talented ensemble taking shape.”

Joseph Helon Explains what happened to Esther Arunga.He is the founder of the Finger of God Church

Cord leader Raila Odinga yesterday paid a visit to former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga at his home in Karen. Raila was with Kisumu Senator Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o.

Maina told of how he was shot 30 times but survived like the biblical Shadrack,Meshack and Abednego who walked in the dens of lions but were saved by God.

“I saw angels come down and surround me,” Maina told Raila during the visit.

Maina was shot by unidentified assailants on May 24 in a highway ambush that left his lover and four others dead. He was taken to Avenue Hospital, Nairobi, for specialized treatment.

Njenga, a bishop at his Hope International Ministry in Kitengela, last week told police in a statement that his shooting was linked to the ICC case facing President Uhuru Kenyatta. His church pastors had earlier said his shooting was prophesied.

“I was approached many times to write a statement in favor of those guys(Uhuru) and I have refused and this shooting is linked to the ICC case,” Maina said yesterday.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku had earlier claimed Njenga was shot by a rival group after a land deal gone sour. Police have yet to make any arrests.

Raila was close to Maina in the run-up to the 2007 general election, after he declared support for his presidential candidacy. When Njenga was jailed at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison before the elections, Raila visited him and gave him two books, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Njenga has subsequently frequently praised Raila, saying the former Prime Minister has always stood by him in times of trouble.

During the visit yesterday, the two had a long chat and even counted the bullet holes in Mania’s jacket. Raila took a swipe at the government for what he described as its failure to stem runaway insecurity across the country.

“We have a government blaming foreign nations for issuing travel advisories when it is clear we cannot protect our citizens,” Raila said.

“How do you live in a country where, if you disagree with somebody, all you do is look for a gun? This is the law of the jungle. You cannot admit to the existence of a criminal gang and say, ‘let them sort it out among themselves’. So, why do we have government?”

Raila jetted back on Saturday, after a nearly-three-month stay in the US. He has demanded that Jubilee hold dialogue with Cord over a number of challenges the country is facing, including insecurity, the cost of living, unemployment and a distressed tourism sector.

- The Star

Neema Gospel Church in Richardson TX is inviting you to join them on Sunday June 15th for a fundraiser to benefit the acquisition of a new worship facility. The fundraiser will be held immediately after service. Sevice begins at 10 am and ends at 1pm. All are welcome.

When Ambassador Zachary Dominic Muburi-Muita was appointed as head of the Directorate of Diaspora Affairs, not many Kenyans noticed.

In fact, few knew that such a post existed within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

By appointing a seasoned diplomat to the post, the President must have been trying to send a subliminal message to his critics that he is serious about engaging with the Diaspora.

However, Kenyan media largely snubbed the news of the appointment, perhaps considering it too mundane.

The only mention of Mr Muita was on a Facebook post where the Director of Digital, New Media and Diaspora relations, Dennis Itumbi, announced that issues regarding Kenyans living outside the country would be handled by the new director.

But even then, he misspelt his name, referring to him as Mr Mwamburi.

DIGITAL PROMISE

In July last year, Mr Kenyatta announced a major reorganisation in his office and appointed the hitherto blogger-cum-activist the Director of newly created Digital, New Media and Diaspora Department.

An elated Itumbi said: “I pledge to lead the path in delivering the Digital promise and to connect the concerns and ideas of Kenyans in the Diaspora and those on the digital space with Governmentservice and the Presidency.”

But the excitement was short lived, or so it seemed. Soon after the appointment, all manner of barbs began flying his way, with some even faulting the President for “relegating the Diaspora affairs into a small corner of his office.”

The most high profile denigration came from former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who rubbished Mr Itumbi’s appointment saying: “The kind of character who has been appointed by the Government… I don’t think has the kind of connection and capacity to bring the Diaspora together.”

TAKE THE BLAME

In an interview with Nation.co.ke in Dallas, Texas, Mr Odinga criticised PresidentKenyatta for creating a “mere desk in his office and not giving the Diaspora the seriousness it deserves.”

Since then, Mr Itumbi has on several occasions found himself on the receiving end as he, sometimes unsuccessfully, tried to explain what the exact mandate of his office is.

Mr Muburi-Muita faces a herculean task in the newly created Directorate. Controversy has dogged the Diaspora desk since its establishment by the President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Before his appointment was announced, Mr Itumbi said: “On the Diaspora front, it must be said from the depth of my heart and mind, we did not do a good job in 2013.

“The ideas and planning were superb, but the execution has been slow and the impact dismal. There are many reasons, but instead of naming them for now, I take the blame.”

As the Jubilee administration marked its first year in office last April, Mr Kenyattawas fiercely criticised by Kenyans in the Diaspora.

Some said their agenda was never given much thought both in the TNA and URP manifestoes prior to the merger of the two parties.

“The chickens are now coming home to roost. It is a clear indication that from the word go, we were just a by-the-way in grand scheme of things,” said Jeremy Anguka in an interview with Nation.co.ke in Washington DC.

KENYA’S 48TH COUNTY

Others urged the President to cut the rhetoric and act. “What we want to see are tangible results. We are tired of speeches,” said Wainaina Mbugua soon after President Kenyatta delivered a speech in Kampala during a meeting with Kenyans living in Uganda three months ago.

“My government considers the Diaspora the single biggest asset outside the country for the developmental roles it plays through remittances,” the President had said.

In May last year, President Kenyatta told Kenyans living in the UK that he considers the Diaspora as Kenya’s 48th county.

“My Government is developing instruments of engagement to bolster relationship with you, the Diaspora to ensure there is a inn enabling environment for you toinvest in key projects in the country,” he said. One year later, this is yet to be actualised.

The entry of Mr Muburi-Muita is however seen as a step in the right direction. “He has what it takes to streamline the Diaspora and bring it to par with other progressive Diasporas,” said Peterson Muthoga of Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr Muita sought to assure Kenyans in the Diaspora that they will see positive changes in the very near future.

The envoy said his immediate assignment is to ensure that the eagerly awaited Kenya Diaspora Policy is out by mid June.

“Once we do this, our mandate and terms of engagement will be clear and we will all be reading from the same script,” he told Nation.co.ke during a phone interview.

ECONOMIC MUSCLE

Last year, the Kenyan Diaspora remitted over Sh110 billion which is the equivalent of 5.4 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Vision 2030, Kenya’s economic blueprint unveiled in 2007, was cognisant of the role of the Diaspora as a key player in the country’s economic development.

But even as the Diaspora is hailed for its economic muscle, it has variously been criticised for lack of cohesion.

According to Ms Regina Njogu, a Washington DC based lawyer, divisions in the Diaspora make it very difficult for any meaningful engagement.

“They have failed to form into an inclusive organization. Instead of a streamlined umbrella Diaspora body, what we have is a proliferation of organisations all over the world, most with no national outlook,” she wrote in an opinion piece in the Nairobi Law Monthly.

So who is this man tasked with a spearheading activities in one of the five key pillars of Kenya’s Foreign Policy?

Mr Mumburi-Muita is a career diplomat who, prior to his appointment as the envoy to the UN by President Mwai Kibaki in 2006, served as Kenya’s High Commissioner to Tanzania.

TIME TO DELIVER

Previously, he was a Principal Counsellor at the Kenya Embassy in Israel and the head of the Middle East Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He also served as the head of the Americas Division, Senior Assistant Secretary and Acting Head of the Asia and Australasia Division.

The envoy also acted in various capacities in Kenya’s missions abroad, including in the Netherlands and the Sudan.

In January 2010, he was elected President of the UN High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation, which spearheaded the intergovernmental review and policymaking of South-South Cooperation.

Prior to his current undertaking, he was the head of the UN office to the African Union in Addis Ababa, appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in 2010.

As to whether Mr Muburi-Muita will deliver, only time will tell.

BMJ Muriithi- Daily Nation