The government has closed a Muslim secondary school in Sagana, Kirinyaga County, and sent over 100 students home in a fresh crackdown on unregistered institutions.
Deputy County Commissioner Moses Ivuto said the director of the institution, Tahfidh-ul-Quran Academy Secondary School, was also arrested in the operation.
Mr. Ivuto warned those operating without following directives from the Ministry of Education that the law would catch up to them.
“Most of these institutions do not meet the minimum standards required and we will investigate this school director further,” said the Deputy County commissioner.
Ndia sub-county Director of Education Kamemba Kamande said the school director will be arraigned in court and charged for operating an unregistered school, further for going against the government’s COVID-19 guidelines.
The school boss is presently being held at the Baricho Police Station in Ndia, Kirinyaga West. By Johnson Muriithi, Citizen
Construction workers are seen around spectators' seat area in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that have been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo, Japan June 22, 2021. Photo REUTERS/Issei Kato
TOKYO, June 23 (Reuters) - Alcohol, high-fives and talking loudly will be banned for the reduced numbers of Olympic ticket holders allowed into venues as organisers concede a "sense of celebration" will be limited at a Games already postponed by a year due the coronavirus.
Organisers have pushed ahead with preparations for the Olympics, still called Tokyo 2020, despite strong concerns among the Japanese public that hosting competitors from around the world could result in further COVID-19 outbreaks.
Compounding those worries, a second member of Team Uganda, an athlete, has tested positive after being given a clean bill of health just days ago upon arrival in Japan.
Media reports that organisers were considering allowing alcohol consumption in Olympic venues when sales have been restricted in and around Toyko over concerns it would increase contact and mingling in bars provoked an outcry this week.
The hashtag "cancel the Olympic Games" garnered tens of thousands of tweets, adding to wave of protests online and on the streets over the past months.
A crowd of people gathered in front of the metropolitan government headquarters on Wednesday evening to protest against the Games, with participants chanting "cancel Olympics", "stop the torch", "save lives", and "protect livelihoods".
A month before the opening ceremony on July 23, Tokyo Olympics President Seiko Hashimoto reiterated that organisers wanted a safe and secure Games.
"If our citizens have concerns (over serving alcohol at the Olympics), I think we have to give up on that. That's why we have decided to ban the sale of alcohol," she told reporters.
Sponsor Asahi Breweries (2502.T) said it agreed with the decision, calling the move natural.
Ticket holders, to be selected in a new lottery after domestic spectators were capped at up to 10,000 per venue, will also be asked to go straight to venues and straight home, to refrain from talking en route and should not ask athletes for autographs.
"The major challenge at the Tokyo Games is to curb a flow of people and limit a sense of celebration," Hashimoto said. "We are striving to make the Tokyo Games safe and secure, so it won't be full of celebration."
When Toyko won the Games back in 2013, it was greeted with a roar of approval and an outpouring of emotion from a country hailing the decision as the final step of the country's recovery from a devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that set off multiple reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
UGANDAN CASES
Eight years on, that joy has been dimmed by the pandemic.
Japanese medical experts have said banning spectators is the least risky option but also given recommendations on how best to host the Games if spectators are admitted. Spectators from overseas have already been barred.
Hashimoto has defended the decision to allow spectators.
"I understand that holding the event without spectators would lower the risk, but there is evidence that there have been no clusters at other events and tournaments," Hashimoto told reporters on Tuesday.
Organisers said on Wednesday they would decide on whether to allow spectators at night sessions, taking infections into account, by July 12 when virus curbs are due to be lifted in Tokyo and some other areas.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has still not ruled out holding the Games without spectators if Tokyo is put back under a state of emergency, from which it only emerged on June 21.
The positive test for the Ugandan athlete followed a positive test for a coach upon arrival in Japan on Saturday, and after the rest of the delegation were quarantined.
Their cases underscore the challenges ahead for organisers to make the Games safe, with daily testing of athletes, who will be confined to a "bubble" and kept away from the public.
The second positive test was announced by the team's host city Izumisano in western Japan, confirming the rest of Team Uganda and a local city official who accompanied them from the country were close contacts.
Many Japanese remain sceptical about the possibility of holding even a scaled-down Games safely during a pandemic, with 619 infections reported for Wednesday in Tokyo, up 118 cases versus a week ago.
"I believe that it will not be possible to prevent contagion within the Athletes' Village," Masahiro Kami, the head of think-tank Medical Governance Research Institute, told reporters.
The arduous preparations for the Olympics also appeared to have taken its toll on organisers.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike was hospitalised on Tuesday after the metropolitan government said she would take the rest of the week off due to fatigue. - Chang-ran Kim/Sakura Murakami/Tetsushi Kajimoto, Reuters
Reporting by Sakura Murakami Editing by Gareth Jones
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga at KICC in Nairobi for the National launch of BBI signatures collection exercise. November 25, 2020.
PSCU
The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) has received yet another blow after the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Wednesday, June 23, announced the scheduling of the boundaries delimitation process to 2024.
In a statement, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati explained that the delimitation of boundaries, which would lead to the creation of new constituencies, would not be possible before the 2022 general election.
BBI had proposed the creation of 70 new constituencies that would see the number of elected MPs increase from the current 290 to 360.
IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati at the commission's office at Anniversary Towers in Nairobi in June 2017.
TWITTER
Article 89 of the constitution requires the commission to review names and boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12.
However, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga through their lawyers filed appeals to the ruling at the Court of Appeal.
Justice Daniel Musinga, the President of the appellate court, stated that all cases would be heard on June 29 and 30, and July 1 and 2 by a seven-judge bench.
The BBI bill also faces time constraints as according to the constitution, a referendum cannot be held one year before the general election.
Supporters of the bill are hopeful that the court will make a judgment in due time to enable IEBC to prepare for the referendum.
IEBC launched a pilot study in four counties ahead of boundaries review in January 2021. These were Nakuru, Turkana, Isiolo and Kwale.
In May 2020, IEBC was allocated over Ksh150 million in Supplementary Budget II to start the process of delimitation of electoral boundaries ahead of the 2022 general election.
The delimitation or fixing of boundaries was last conducted in 2012 which means that 2024 is the deadline for the boundaries review.
Chebukati announced that the commission had developed the Boundaries Review Operations Plan (BROP). However, implementation stalled due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
Kenyans.co.ke attempted to contact BBI Secretariat Chairman Junet Mohammed for a response but he was unreachable.
Suna East MP Junet Mohamed (left), and BBI Secretariat Co-Chair Dennis Waweru (right) submit signatures to IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati (centre) at IEBC headquarters in Nairobi on December 10, 2020
Kenyans have complained of disruptions due to an M-Pesa outage that has hindered payment transactions on Safaricom's mobile money transfer platform.
The service was down for at least an hour by 4pm Wednesday, leading many users to air their frustrations on social media.
Attempts to use the service by press time were still unsuccessful, triggering an automatic response from Safaricom that indicated the company was working to restore the service.
“M-Pesa is currently unavailable. We are working to restore services and deeply regret any inconvenience caused,” the automatic message stated.
Most of the concerns raised indicated that unavailability of the service had affected transactions that involved using their phones to pay.
Aside from the message prompt to users attempting to use the service, Safaricom, which powers M-Pesa, is yet to issue an official communication on the disruption.
M-Pesa app
The downtime comes at a time when Safaricom has introduced a mini-app feature on its new M-Pesa app, which comes incorporated with mini applications of services such as deliveries, ticket booking, shopping, licences applications, insurance, government services, and utilities which customers frequently need.
This is among other features of convenience on the new app, which the giant telco is banking on to expand its customer base.
Services currently available as mini-apps include Madaraka Express train ticketing, long-distance bus booking with BuuPass, event tickets on Mtickets, shopping gift vouchers on GiftPesa Vouchers, insurance services on eBima, and gas delivery from Pro-Gas.
To lure more people into using the mini-apps, the telco will award customers who book train tickets on Madaraka Express with 10 per cent of the value of their tickets back into their M-Pesa accounts. The platform allows customers to transact offline and does not require data bundles to complete transactions. By Peter Mburu & Albert Mwazighe, Daily Nation
Our world has changed Like never before and it's so sad Every day because our lives have changed So much in life today and so many families suffering Like never before and this killer virus is here to stay And we were all caught unaware and it's sadness In the air and isolated from our loved ones every day And there's no happiness or joy in our lives today It's just another loved one who's sadly passed away And coronavirus walks among us every day And we try our best to struggle through This horrible coronavirus storm Trying to stay safe and keep ourselves warm And the pain and hurt it's brought us and There's nothing much to gain and our Peace and love has all gone away And it's just a lonely tear rolling down my face and I've been Crying inside this cold lonely old place And all the pain running through me every day Coronavirus coronavirus when will you ever Just go away and I cry for the loved ones who's sadly passed away and I'm still cocooning away and Every day and I'm lost without you in my life The world has changed so much Coronavirus every day in our life And the darkness surrounds the world today And it's so cold and painful every day and I feel the chill up and down my spine every day And our warm hugs and soft kisses Have just all faded away and Just like our loved ones fading away And nobody to hold at night And nobody to whisper I love you good- night And as a lonely tear rolls down my face I try to smile and remember your beautiful face As coronavirus has slowly taken you away And I promise you all I'll love And pray for everyone Who's been suffering from coronavirus Every day.
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