There was tension at the Nyamira County headquarters today after some protesting employees relieved themselves at the county offices.

The workers vandalised the door to the devolved unit's human resource director Godffrey Kiriago's office, demanding his removal.

About 15 in number, the workers marched to the offices that are housed on the first floor of the main National Government offices, demanding that Kiriago vacate office in respect to a court ruling that was issued in Kisumu last week by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

The petition to remove Kiriago and his Payroll Manager Elmeldah Kemunto Nyaberi from office was filed by Vincent Omao, a citizen of the county.

Justice Christine Baari who issued the ruling said Kiriago and Kemunto were illegally hired early in 2021 to steer payroll cleansing exercise.

According to the court papers, the two were hired on secondment from the National Government but the court maintained that their hiring was not competitive as should be in such a case.

The payroll cleansing has since claimed about 1,500 casualties within the circles of the county's workforce, all of whom are being surcharged for the alleged misdoings.

The workers allegedly earned illegal promotions and job designations against regular orders.

The employees who protested at the county headquarters are said to be among those affected by the purge.

According to a county worker who witnessed the incident said five of the men urinated at the entrance in turns as they shouted for the officer's removal.

Kiriago was not in office at the time of the incident.

Responding to the developments, Public Management Executive Thomas Nyariki said the county was in the process of executing the court order.

Nyariki said by unfortunately by Monday afternoon, the county had not been served with the court ruling.

"We are treating the case as a criminal act and already, we are following up with the law enforcing agencies for possible prosecution," Nyariki said.

County Police Commander Grace Kakai said the case was yet to be reported to the Police.

"We are yet to receive reports about the incident. Once the report has been made, then we shall move forward to investigate," Kakai said. - Stanley Ogwae, The Standard

NAIROBI, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Six bodies were on Sunday retrieved from a building in central Kenyan county of Murang'a that collapsed while under construction.

James Macharia, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development said at a briefing in Nairobi that the search for survivors in the collapsed four-story building had intensified.

He said the rescue operation was expected to end on Sunday, adding that the government will enhance inspection of residential and commercial buildings to ensure their structural integrity was not compromised.

The building was under construction when it collapsed on Friday, prompting a rescue mission. A search for more is ongoing. Macharia added that a building adjacent to the collapsed hotel was also under construction and will be demolished.

Macharia disclosed that 4,000 buildings had been identified as unsafe countrywide even as state agencies work on modalities of demolishing them to avert potential danger. - Xinhua

By JULIUS MBALUTO

Kenyans in the Diaspora have been waiting for long to exercise their right to vote. However, the waiting is coming to an end as IEBC has started the process of facilitating them to vote in 2022.

Speaking at Hilton Hotel in Luton to a group of Kenyan leaders, under the umbrella body KCCC (Kenyan Communities Chairpersons Council - UK), IEBC Chairman Mr Wafula Chebukati told Kenyans in the UK that they will be voting in 2022 elections.

Mr Wafula Chebukati IEBC Chairman Addressing Kenyans

KCCC is the umbrella organisation of the following Kenyan Community organizations in the UK, SEKK (South East and Kent Kenyan Group, Kenyans in Hertfordshire, KOB (Kenyan Oxford Community, UKAC(United Kenyan Community) Kenyans in the Highlands Scotland, Kenyans in Nottingham, KCS (Kenyan Community Slough), KUH (Kenyans United Hampshire), Kenyans in Reading, KAIB (Kenyan Association in Bristol), LDSKCF-Luton and Dunstable Surrounding Kenya Community),Kenya Women in the UK and Kenyans in Sheffield.

More groups include, Kenyans in Peterborough, ELEK (East London and Essex Kenyans), KCI (Kenyans in Channel Islands) KCB (Kenyan Community Bedford, Kenyan Community in Cardiff and Kenyans in Coventry

Officials from Kenya High Commission

The event was well attended and graced by IEBC and Kenya High Commission officials. It is not only in the UK that Kenyans will vote but also others from seven different countries including US, Canada, Qatar, UAE, UK, South Sudan and Germany.

Previously Kenyans within East African countries and South Africa voted.  Kenyans in Diaspora right to vote is being implemented in a progressive manner as per the constitution.

Mr Chebukati told Kenyans in the Diaspora not to always think about the amount of money they remit to Kenya as their qualification to vote because their right to vote was guaranteed in the constitution. Mr Chebukati told Kenyans that they will be voting  through Kenyan embassies.

Kenyans will apply for registration using a valid passport as per the law. Kenyans in East Africa have the chance to use either their passport or Identity card according to the laws passed in parliament. Currently, registration and voting is to take place within the Kenyan embassies.

This poses challenges to the IEBC like Kenyans living away from London or any other embassy within the seven countries where Kenyans will vote might have to incur expenses to come for their registration and polling centre.

Mr Chebukati said that IEBC will might explore other methods to facilitate more Kenyans to register. However, voting will happen only in the Embassy as IEBC can only gazette one polling station as per the law.

Proxy voting, online voting and registration is out of the question as the law requires that one must be present to provide biometric data. However, the IEBC Chairman said, these other options can be explored in the future and the law changed to accommodate them.

Kenyans who attended the meeting                                                 IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati and KCCC-UK Chairman Lukas Kamau

Kenyan leaders present from different locations in the UK praised IEBC for their efforts to ensure Diaspora votes.  Different community leaders raised different issues like facilitation of differently abled people to vote, distance from embassies to where all Kenyans live and the costs they might have to incur to register and vote, use of online systems to facilitate voting, the idea that some embassies like in London in central city and longer ques for voting might be a challenge.

IEBC Chairman promised that IEBC will work with the embassies to come up with solutions for all challenges faced. Mr Chebukati and his team from Nairobi urged Kenyans to register in big numbers.

More Photos below..

Rev Joseph Odima, Julius Mbaluto and IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati

Source: AP Photo/Sarah Blake Morgan

Imagine knowing that the very act of going to a religious service would likely result in violence and death. In Nigeria, churches have been sent warning letters instructing them to shut down or face "ferocious" attacks. That's some Christmas card! In a perhaps not unrelated event, just before Thanksgiving, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Nigeria as part of his tour of Africa, the country was cruelly and infuriatingly de-listed from the roster of Countries of Particular Concern for Religious Freedom by the U.S. State Department.

Christians in Nigeria rightfully feel abandoned by the United States. In a distressing new video released by the Religious Freedom Institute, Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza of Northeast Nigeria says Christians are disheartened by the perplexing move. "All Christians in Nigeria are feeling bad" about it, he says, fearing an upswing in anti-Christian violence.

In 2014, much of Bishop Mamza's diocese was devastated by Boko Haram marauders. As the region was occupied by the Islamist terrorist group, members of his flock fled, leaving their whole lives behind. Some of them were able to go back in 2016, but there was nothing there for them. Their homes and farms had all been destroyed.

Mamza says he is hard-pressed to find a family that has not lost someone to that murderous violence -- he lost his elder brother, cousins and uncles. He says people are traumatized -- and they remain surrounded by people who hate them. 

The religious-freedom designation exists for countries where there are "systematic, ongoing egregious violations of religious freedom, among other cruelties to the human person because of religion. The bipartisan United States Commission on Religious Freedom (USCRF) immediately said it was "appalled" by the move. The USCRF exists in part to advise the U.S. government about the list, and the State Department ignored its recommendation to keep Nigeria on the list.

"How is Nigeria different than the Nigeria of two years ago?" Mamza asks. "The persecution here is more intense now than ever." He asks the U.S. State Department to explain what data they used, because it's not reflective of the facts on the ground. He is saddened that the Biden administration didn't actually talk to Christians in Nigeria before making its move.

Eric Patterson of the Religious Freedom Institute also warns against explaining away the violence in Nigeria as something other than religious. Listen to the perpetrators, he says -- they say their motivation is religious -- they want Christians dead.

The Religious Freedom Institute recently held a virtual panel that should embarrass all Americans. It was called "America's Indifference to the Plight of Nigerian Christians: A Conversation about U.S. Policy."

"There are a set of overlapping catastrophes happening in Nigeria," Patterson said. "For more than a decade, Boko Haram, Islamic State of West Africa and criminal and terrorist organizations have murdered 90,000 of their fellow citizens -- their fellow Sunni Muslims, the Shia minority and Christians." 

The U.S. ambassador to Nigeria has dismissed concerns about the violence against Christians. During the Religious Freedom panel, Nina Shea from the Hudson Institute pointed out that we are watching "a growing spreading, bloodied disintegration of northern Nigeria." If it continues unabated, it will both destabilize the country and radicalize it, and "create incalculable human misery."

"This is a U.S. national security threat," Shea says, "that the United States is completely missing." She says the delisting of Nigeria is a "betrayal" for what we stand for as a country.

Remember these long-suffering people this Christmas. You can watch a short video on the YouTube of the Religious Freedom Institute -- look in the faces of some of the people we have abandoned -- and witness the courage of Bishop Mamza, who says God will bless you for your prayers. Keep an eye on what is happening and educate people to create moral pressure for our government to undo this injustice. By Kathryn Lopez, Townhall.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York. She can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..