Deputy President William Ruto speaking to traders and residents of Kwa Vonza town in Kitui County on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. Image:WILLIAM RUTO/TWITTER
Ruto himself has been lambasting Raila on every campaign platform, calling him "mtu ya kitendawili"
In Summary
The DP says Kenya Kwanza team will win the election with a landslide because their competitors do not have an agenda or a plan for Kenyans
The UDA boss attacked Raila on his stand on corruption, accusing him of hypocrisy in his promises.
Deputy President William Ruto has told Azimio la Umoja flag bearer Raila Odinga to stop mentioning his name in rallies and instead concentrate on selling his agenda to Kenyans.
At a Kenya Kwanza rally at Orahey Grounds in Wajir on Thursday, Ruto warned Raila against using his name in public platforms and said the trend can be attributed to lack of an agenda by the Azimio team.
“Stop using my name to drive your campaigns. I am not your manifesto. Every day it's Ruto this, Ruto that. Stop it,” Ruto said.
Ironically, Ruto himself has been lambasting Raila on every campaign platform, calling him "mtu ya kitendawili".
The DP has severally claimed that Raila wrecked the Big Four Agenda.
"Do not blame us when Kenya Kwanza wins the election. It will be because you did not have an agenda other than Ruto,” the DP said .
Ruto reiterated that the Kenya Kwanza team will win the election with a landslide because their competitors did not have a plan for Kenyans
“Your agenda from morning up to evening has been William Ruto this William Ruto that,” he said.
Present during the rally was ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi and a host of aspirants for the various seats in Wajir.
The UDA boss attacked the ODM leader on his stand on corruption, accusing him of hypocrisy in his promises.
Ruto told residents not to believe the former Prime Minister when he tells them he will fight graft.
“How on earth will he fight corruption when he is the biggest beneficiary of it? The money he is using to campaign is stolen and forcefully gotten from governors," the DP said.
"The people who are campaigning with him are those who have stolen from sick people.”
He said Raila runs a 'laundary' for governors who have stolen money from poor people.
Ruto said that Raila’s campaign was nothing but a laundry system used by corrupt people in government to clean their stolen wealth.
“How dare he tells us he will fight corruption. Let him look for people who he could lie to but not us. Kenyans are not fools,” Ruto said.
He reiterated that Azimio la Umoja leaders have no plans to better the lives of Kenyans.
“You are just a product of corruption. You feed and sleep on it. My friend, how on earth are you going to fight it when you are the biggest beneficiary?” Ruto asked.
“The people campaigning with you are the people who have stolen from sick people and KEMSA, and now they are financing your campaign.”
Ruto added that the Building Bridges Initiative was nothing but malicious plans made behind closed doors to benefit the elite families in the country.
“We cannot allow two to three people to plan for this country. This is a country of over 50 million people. Whatever it is they are planning will be rejected,” Ruto stated.
The UDA leader said that the Azimio La Umoja flagbearer has little to show for the period he served as the Prime Minister in the Grand Coalition government.
“He was in government for a while but what did he do? Nothing. We should get a Bondo express car to drive him there so that he can rest,” he said.
(Edited by Francis Wadegu) By ALLAN KISIA AND MANAL SHAMI, The Star
The Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi has secured an injunction from Masaka High court halting all activities on a contested piece of land in Mijwala sub county in Sembabule district.
The land ownership is being claimed between Buganda kingdom on one side and the state minister for Health Anifa Kawooya Bangirana and six other people on another side.
Masaka High court deputy registrar Julius Borore directed Kawooya who also doubles as the Mawogola West constituency MP to halt the ongoing developments on the disputed land until a suit instituted against her by the kingdom is resolved.
Kawooya alongside former Sembabule LC V chairperson Dr Eli Muhumuza, Benon Kuteesa Burora, Alfred Mbasa Nabasa, Samuel Mushabe had started constructing private structures on part of Mijawala sub-county land after claiming ownership.
However, the Kabaka in the capacity as the registered trustee of Buganda kingdom estates sued Kawooya and others accusing them of encroaching on the land, which he describes as the official customary mailo land, traditionally belonging to the Mijwala sub-county, a local government structure that was also adopted by the central government.
Through his lawyers; Eliakim Kumumanya and Edward Mukwaya, the Kabaka also sued the Sembabule District Land Board and the commissioner Land Registration for erroneously facilitating the issuance of certificates of ownership on the disputed land.
They applied for an interim injunction to restrain the defendants from utilising the disputed land for their personal benefits until the main case is determined, which has been granted.
Court has instructed the parties to prepare their defences for the main suite whose hearing is slated to commence on April 14, 2022. However, Kawooya insists that she legally procured the disputed land from the rightful owners from whom she also obtained a genuine certificate of ownership, which was later transferred in her name.
Kawoya says she intends to use the same land to construct a community nursing school, saying that she is ready to defend her interests in the courts of law. Notably, squabbles of land ownership involving the Buganda kingdom and notable persons are not new in Sembabule district.
In 2020, the district was involved in a similar dispute with the kingdom after it undertook to construct a permanent commercial building next to the district headquarters without the approval of the latter. - URN/The Observer
L-R: Kenya's ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru, Telkom chairperson Eng Eddy Njoroge, Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait, Telkom CEO Mugo Kibati, ICT Chief Administrative Secretary Nadia Abdallah, PEACE high representative Oliver Zheng, Blockchain and AI taskforce chair Prof Bitange Ndemo and Mombasa County ICT CEC Ahmed Anwar during the launch of the sixth submarine internet cable at Nyali Mombasa on March 29, 2022. PHOTO | FAUSTINE NGILA | NMG/Photo Courtesy
Thirteen years since Kenya welcomed its first ever fibre optic cable, the country has now unveiled a sixth submarine internet cable that promises to offer higher speeds, lower latency and broader bandwidth.
The launch of the Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (Peace) cable on Tuesday comes at a time when the country’s internet economy is rapidly growing, thanks to digital transformation acceleration occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As demand rises for cloud storage, heavy internet content streaming, e-commerce platforms, e-learning apps, telehealth systems, fintech innovation and online businesses, the new cable is expected to offer additional broadband to the national fibre backbone network.
The $399.9 million cable connects Africa to France and Pakistan through the Europe-Asia route, providing a direct connectivity to Asia which is expected to reduce communication delays between Africa and Asia.
Affordable mobile data
The launch is a partnership between Peace and Kenya’s most affordable mobile internet data provider Telkom, which creates optimism that mobile data could soon be more affordable. Kenya has the most expensive mobile data in East Africa according to the global Mobile Data Index.
But the 15,000 kilometre cable is expected to create more flexible digital connection options, including high-speeds of 200 Gbps per single wavelength with a total capacity of 192 Terabits per second, as well as stable and secure data access possibilities.
Speaking during the launch at Nyali, Mombasa, ICT and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said Kenya was right inside the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) where demand for fast internet is at an all-time high.
“Right now, you can enjoy 5G data speeds at Uhuru Gardens. This will revolutionise how Kenyans consume the internet. 5G smartphone penetration in Kenya is growing. More online business opportunities will be unlocked by this cable,” he said.
Further, the continued growth in consumer demand for connectivity and data could unlock new markets for co-location data centers, content development networks and Over-the-Top service providers in the country, Peace Cable’s Chief Operating Officer, SUN Xiaohua said.
Stable data access
“Peace will bring more diversified digital connection options and provide high-speed, large-capacity and stable data access opportunities to Kenya,” he said.
Fiber optics or optical fibers, are long, thin strands of carefully drawn glass about the diameter of a human hair. The strands are arranged in bundles called optical cables.
Peace and Telkom are relying on them to transmit light signals over long distances. But at the transmitting source, the light signals are encoded with data.
So, the optical fiber transmits this data by light to a receiving end, where the light signal is decoded as internet. Therefore, fiber optics is a pipe to carry signals over long distances at very high speeds.
Telkom said the investment in submarine cables is of strategic importance to its business, where it views access to the Internet as a fundamental human right.
Chief executive of the telco Mugo Kibati said contributing to Kenya's strategic evolution to become a digital economy is critical, especially through using the internet to improve peoples’ lives.
“This ultra-high capacity cable will assist Kenya and the region in meeting its current and future broadband capacity requirements as well as assist carriers in providing affordable services to Kenyans,” he said.
Mr Mugo added that the operator will create a future smart landing hub for the majority of the submarine cables in East Africa as it continues to provide cross-connections to all data, entering and exiting Kenya.
Six submarine cables
Telkom currently operates and maintains five of the six submarine cables that have landed in Kenya.
“We’re upgrading and expanding our 4G capacity in the Coast region, before moving into other areas across the country. This Sh14 billion nationwide rollout is part of our long- term network expansion strategy,” said Mr Kibati.
Former ICT Principal Secretary and chair of the Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence taskforce Prof Bitange Ndemo – who has witnessed all six cables land in Mombasa – said Kenya is now ready to take on global tech heavyweights in the digital economy.
“Broadband access is a human right. With these steps, we will even witness the launch of a seventh and eighth internet cable,” he said.
Peace, a Hong Kong-based cable network founded in 2018, said its second phase will see the cable extend to Singapore and Southern Africa, boosting bandwidth and connectivity from its current African landing point in Mombasa, all the way to South Africa, consequently opening new markets in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The East African Marine System (TEAMS) internet cable launched in June 2009, set the stage for the digital transformation that ‘Silicon Savannah’ now enjoys but the laying of more cables now places the country at the apex of internet penetration in Africa.
Since then, other internet cables landing in Mombasa have been the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION), Seacom and the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1).
Internet cables
Their respective speeds are 5.2 Tbps, 12.3 Tbps, 18.6 Tbps, 12 Tbps and 36 Tbps, and all serve to deliver an unprecedented amount of internet bandwidth in East Africa.
Kenya Power also uses internet cables to manage the national electricity grid and leases the excess capacity to Safaricom, Airtel, Liquid Telecom and Jamii Telecommunications.
Since launch in 2010, Kenya Power has cumulatively earned Sh3.02 billion from the fibre leasing business, in its 4,000-kilometre long cables.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates a total of 1.1 million kilometers of fibre cables have been laid in Africa with 50 per cent of them being deployed by private Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
MNOs are granted licenses to offer mobile communications services and have the right to deploy fiber to connect their towers and base stations for their backbone and backhaul needs.
About 40 per cent of all fiber optic cable in Africa, a staggering 450,000 kilometers, is publicly-owned according to IFC. This includes government networks, state-owned enterprises and utilities. By Faustin Ngila, The East African
Privacy is a universal human right. Article 10 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has a right to privacy, whether as an individual or family. This certainly includes public figures. However, when a person freely enters public life, one must understand that certain issues that can be considered private for a private individual can become a matter of legitimate public interest, especially when those things affect the performance of the officeholder’s duties. By its very nature, entering public life lends one’s private life to public scrutiny.
Becoming a public servant means putting the public’s interest ahead of one’s own. This becomes more critical when it is the health of the public official.There are patterns that seems to play out when a “very important person” suffers ill health. Somehow, the official disappears from the public eye for a worrying period of time without explanation, then rumors begin to emerge, and then there is a vehement denial and sometimes threats to those who announce the illness, even if it is true. Then the “very important person” is whisked away because unlike the rest of humanity, they cannot be treated at home.
It is then followed by reports from those who visit him or her that the person is doing well and will soon be back. The next thing is a public announcement that the “very important person” has “suddenly” died!
It is important that personal sensitive patient information is protected from being disclosed, especially without the patient or family consent or knowledge. But again, being a public servant leads to an erosion of the absolute right to privacy. It is the reason that public servants declare their wealth.
In the United States for example, the President undergoes an annual medical examination and the report is provided to the public. On the White House website, you will find a comprehensive review of President Biden’s medical history complete with the medication he is on currently. When a public official is ill, his or her employers, the people, are duly informed, even if it is a case of Covid.
Not so for our “employees” generally in Africa. If is “treason” for example, to talk about the health of an African president.
We, the people, their “bosses,” are kept in the dark until we are invited to honour the legacy of the fallen hero. This is what gives rise to pervasive rumors. The information-starved public will speculate or invent information to fill that information void and with the facility of social media, it often blows out of proportion.
The enemies too take advantage to sow doubt, anger, resentment and discord or poke disrespectful jokes. In order to avoid knee-jerk reaction to information damage control, it is important to communicate more robustly and effectively about our public servants’ medical conditions with the press, the media and people. We can be candid about the situation while remaining respectful of the person’s and family’s privacy.
There is nothing secret or shameful about human suffering and dying. In fact, one can give a powerful witness of life at these moments of mortality like Pope John Paul II did in April 2005. What we celebrate most in Christian faith is Jesus’ public witness to his divine message through his passion, death and resurrection. There is dignity in suffering and dying if embraced courageously in the context of a loving community and not in secrecy. Daily Monitor
The author, Rev Dr Alex Ojacor, A priest serving in Chicago Archdiocese, USA
Supreme Court Judge Njoki Ndung'u at the BBI appeals hearing at the Supreme Court on January 18, 2022. Image:FILE
"The high court and Court of Appeal issued contradicting judgments."
In Summary
• I have perused properly and I cannot find logical reason to rule out the president's involved in the initiation of a popular initiative.
• I have perused properly and I cannot find logical reason to rule out the president's involved in the initiation of a popular initiative.
Supreme Court Justice Njoki Ndung'u has ruled that no law limits the President of the Republic of Kenya from initiating a popular initiative.
On the issue of the second schedule on boundaries, she ruled that the lower courts lacked jurisdiction to determine the proposed additional constituencies. She wondered whether the Supreme Court itself has jurisdiction to address the question.
She held that the Second Schedule proposing additional 70 constituencies was unconstitutional. On public participation, she held that there was public participation but said there should be a law on public participation.
On whether the president can be sued, she said civil proceedings do not lie against the president and that an aggrieved person should pursue Impeachment.
Below are highlights of Justice Ndung'u's judgment on the BBI:
I have perused properly and I cannot find a logical reason to rule out the president's involvement in the initiation of a popular initiative.
The constitution does not state who the promoters must be. The constitution is silent on this issue.
A president enjoys all constitutional rights and freedoms like any other Kenyan. A president does not lose his or her constitutional rights under Article 38.
There is no law that limits the president from enjoying his political rights, especially that of campaigning for a political cause, which in my view, includes constitutional amendments.
I fault the courts for making declarations of unconstitutionality without specifically itemizing the article of the constitution that was either denied or violated, infringed or threatened. I find that the president was not the promoter of the popular initiative.
Does the basic doctrine structure apply to Kenya?
The basic structure is not applicable in Kenya. The Basic Structure Doctrine has only been accepted in a few countries.
Was the second schedule unconstitutional?
The second schedule to the Constitution Amendment Bill conflicts with the substantive provisions of Article 89 of the Constitution and is therefore unconstitutional.
Can the president be sued in his personal capacity?
It is my finding that the president in appointing the BBI task force was discharging his mandate in promoting and enhancing the unity of Kenya.
There was no basis for concluding that the president's actions contravened the constitution to deprive him of the immunity he enjoys.
Was there sufficient public participation?
The collection of signatures is not a constitutional process and the promoters are not under any obligation to conduct public participation prior to the collection of signatures.
I cannot concur with Nambuye's finding that there was a need to give the public reports in Kiswahili, braille sign language before the referendum. There is no evidence that public participation did not take place.
Did IEBC have a quorum to conduct its mandate?
The high court and Court of Appeal issued contradicting judgments.
It is my considered view that the trial courts need to follow the decision of other judges unless there are compelling reasons to depart from the same.
This is to ensure consistency, accuracy, predictability and sound judicial administration. The Star
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