Three suspects were Monday night arrested in Mwingi town after they were found selling narcotic drugs including heroin.
The suspect’s John Musya, Paul Mumo and, Julius Musya all aged between 23-24 were arrested as they hawked the highly addictive illegal drug that was carefully concealed in seven sachets.
Over 10 rolls of bhang were also recovered from the suspects, who had contravened curfew orders to ply their illegal trade in Mwingi town.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the suspects sell the illegal drugs to twilight girls who moonlight in the busy town.
The suspects were placed in custody pending arraignment in court for being in possession and trafficking in narcotics.
Meanwhile, a 29-year-old man committed suicide on Saturday night at deliverance court in Umoja estate, following a disagreement with his wife over an unknown issue.
His wife had made good an earlier threat to quit their marriage, despite him pleading that she doesn’t desert him.
After the argument, the woman is reported to have packed her belongings and gone back to her parent’s home in Dandora.
The man only identified as Brayo was so heartbroken that later in the night, he wrote a text message to his estranged wife informing her that he had left her the world, ‘nimekuwachia Dunia.’
Worried, the woman tried to call him frantically to dissuade him from taking his life but the man’s phone went unanswered.
Overwhelmed by emotions, she returned to the house early Monday morning accompanied by Brayo’s brother to check on him, only to be confronted by his lifeless body lying on the bed.
Bray had taken a poisonous substance that killed him instantly.
Scene of Crime detectives documented the scene and moved the body to Mama Lucy Lucy’shospital mortuary awaiting postmortem.
Naivas Supermarket has taken up the space vacated by Tuskys at Juja City Mall last year.The biggest Naivas it’s now continuing on an aggressive expansion spree in a race to maintain its market leadership on toes and high notch.
The retailer began operations at the 37,000 square foot space situated off Thika Road on Tuesday.
A Naivas store in Juja City Mall on Thika Road, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | Bogonko Nyokang’i-TheCrossFireNews Media
Chief commercial officer Willy Kimani said the new branch will be a food market offering a range of consumer products including alcohol.
“This new store has been a long-standing request by our customers and through research we proved its viability and delivered a store that we are sure will meet needs of our shoppers. Juja is a vibrant area which will serve up to garden city and the Naivas store will bring a truly Kenyan touch to this cultural melting pot,” said Mr. Kimani on Tuesday,21 September 2021.
Officals launching Naivas store in Juja City Mall on Thika Road, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | Bogonko Nyokang’i-TheCrossFireNews Media
The new outlet comes less than two months after the retailer opened a new store in Embakasi along Airport North Road and becomes Naivas’ 76th branch in the country.
The Juja City Mall outlet is the eighth branch within the Thika Road vicinity with other stores being Mountain Mall, Kasarani, Eastern Bypass, Spur Mall, Kahawa West, Githurai 45 and Githurai 44.
“Juja City Foodmarket will be no different. No surprises just authentic Kenyan hospitality,” Mr Kimani added.
Staffs at Naivas store in Juja City Mall on Thika Road, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | Bogonko Nyokang’i-TheCrossFireNews Media
Naivas and its top rivals QuickMart and Carrefour are among retailers spending heavily to expand, seeking to fill voids left by collapsed and beleaguered supermarkets – Tuskys, Nakumatt, Choppies, and Shoprite.
Staffs and Executives at Naivas store in Juja City Mall on Thika Road, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | Bogonko Nyokang’i-TheCrossFireNews Media
Jumia Kenya have sealed a strategic partnership with Naivas Foodmart to give consumers a better shopping experience with access to a wider range of products when shopping online as shopper now is mobile driven, using mobile to do his/her shopping, using their smartphones more frequently to place orders.
Kenya’s’ Leading retailer Naivas supermarket has inked a strategic partnership with Africa’s e-commerce leader and Kenyas number one Jumia, to give consumers a better shopping experience with access to a wide range of products.
Customers or Consumers who will benefit immediately are those within or along Ngong Road, Community Area, Hurlingham, Mbagathi, Kileleshwa and Lavington areas will now be able to order from Naivas Foodmarket (Prestige) on Jumia Food for a wide range of products.
Chief commercial officer has hinted that its a best way to create opportunities and make products delivery easy to customers and that’s the reason they’ve been able to partner with Jumia.
“We want to make fewer trips to the stores and our aim is to serve Kenyans at every possible opportunity by providing a mobile experience that makes it as easy as possible for them to acquire products as quickly as possible at their own convenience,” said Willy Kimani, Chief Commercial Officer, Naivas Foodmarket.
He also added that Today’s online shopper is mobile driven, using mobile to do his/her shopping as its using their smartphones more frequently to place orders.
On the other hand Jumia commercial boss stated that the partneship will assitt and promote a contact-free shopping exprience. “The partnership will enable shoppers a contact-free shopping experience as we ensure that everything the consumer wants is delivered to their doorstep.” said Kenneth Oyolla, Chief Commercial officer, Jumia Kenya.
The partnership will first feature Naivas Food Market at Prestige Plaza along Ng’ong road, before rolling out to its other outlets nationwide. Naivas enjoys a strong market share in the region, with over 70 branches in Kenya as the now the retail giant is banking on its wide variety of products and affordable price offering and its large customer base, to make the online venture successful.
Now its evident that Customers can now begin shopping for Naivas Foodmart in wide range of products on Jumia, through regulary visiting there website or online forum to oder and get the products delivered instantly and friendly through https://www.jumia.co.ke/
Universities and other institutions of higher learning have been dubbed as game changers in the country’s politics as they hold the potential to eliminate the tribal divides during electioneering periods.
Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary (CS) Joe Mucheru said that universities have been referred to as the melting pots of cultures since this is where ideas are hatched, where intellectuals infuse their ideals to the next generation of leaders and where different cultures come together as one in search of enlightenment and this citadel should therefore be the model for peace in the country.
Speaking on Friday at the University of Nairobi (UoN) during the closing ceremony of the first National student’s convention on youth peace and elections, Mucheru said that he is particularly encouraged that the project brings young people from across the tribal and political divide, to not only promote dialogue and peace, but also to develop cohesive and resilient relationships that promote mechanisms to resolve conflict peacefully.
“This is what we need as a country: preaching peace and unity rather than politics of division. I am proud of the work that the Universities and Colleges Students’ Peace Association of Kenya (USCPAK) is doing under the Executive Director Allan Chacha and the fact that they are bringing the youth together and discussing peaceful elections just 11 months to the election,” said Mucheru.
The CS urged the youth to take advantage of their numbers to make a difference for themselves and for this country saying… “I also take this opportunity to challenge you to seek elective office so that you can embark on the journey of making meaningful gains for yourselves and your country. You have the largest stake in this country as you constitute 75.1 per cent of our population. It is your time to take the mantle of leadership.
“I encourage you to read the biography of Tom Mboya, who at 29 was recruited by Martin Luther King Junior and was in John F. Kennedy’s election team. You will see that there is no better time than now to wake up and heed the call for leadership,” said Mucheru.
The Cabinet Secretary said that with Kenya having the best internet connectivity in Africa, having a youthful population and the innovative nature of Kenyans, the country is set to take off and get to the levels of Malaysia and Singapore.
The CS said that the Ajira digital programme right now has over 1.2 million young people working and that number can rise to even 10 million because the demand they are getting from Korea, Singapore, USA and Australia among others is very high.
“We want to create awareness on these job opportunities and that is why we are building Ajira youth empowerment centers across the country so that the youth can go there and be able to have access to machines and internet and work online,” said the CS.
USCPAK Executive Director Allan Chacha said that there is a lot of tension between the police and students and as a way of mending the strained relations, they have planned a series of clean-ups in police stations together with the police so that they can interact and defuse the tension.
“We are tired of being given small money and being incited to harm our fellow youth, the only complaining that we will do is at the ballot box,” said Chacha.
He said that they were championing the Mwanafunzi Investment Trust Fund because the students say that the reason they are used to cause chaos is due to lack of a source of income before and after graduating making them vulnerable to misuse.
“The initiative is aimed at encouraging the youth to save and invest. The proposal we have is that if a student is able to save even Sh100 per month then that in itself can be used as collateral instead of being asked for a title deed while accessing a loan from financial institutions,” said Chacha.
IEBC Acting Director for Voter Education, Partnerships and Communications Amina Sudi said that they would carry out an aggressive voter registration and they have agreed with the universities that the institutions will be used for voter registration.
“We are going to have an open voter registration for our university students where they will register at their universities and be allowed to vote at their respective home areas,” said Sudi.
“As young people, I urged you to go out and say what you want to say using the ballot, you don’t have to shout or go to the streets, you have a weapon to use kindly use it wisely,” she said.
University of Nairobi Dean of Students Johnson Kinyua said that university students in their hundreds of thousands deserved a seat in Parliament which would see their issues articulated in the way they deserve.
Kinyua called on the IEBC, Parliament and the Judiciary to look at ways this could be actualized legally.
Ugenya Member of Parliament, David Ochieng is calling on investigative agencies to bring to book the killers of four security guards who were allegedly hacked to death at Siranga trading centre in Ugenya.
Speaking during a funeral service for the four at Siranga Primary School grounds the lawmaker lamented that close to two weeks since the incident happened no suspect has been apprehended.
Mourners including a section of area leaders accused the security apparatus of being too slow in their investigations.
Led by Ugenya Member of Parliament David Ochieng, the leaders called on the relevant bodies to fast track investigations to ensure the perpetrators face the full force of the law.
Ugenya Assistant County Commissioner Rufus Kihara assured residents that authorities were doing all they can to unravel the mystery surrounding the frequent killings in the area.
The deceased security guards were George Agara Opuch aged 68, 59 year old Patrick Oduor Ondoo, 49 year old Benard Odhiambo Opondo and Thadeus Ochieng Radido aged 43 years.
Kenyans are no longer interested in the politics that does not help change their lives for the better, Deputy President William Ruto has said.
He said people had come to the realisation that changing the Constitution was only aimed at creating positions for a few leaders instead of transforming the country.
“As a people, the decision has been made. We are going to build an equal-opportunity society through an economic revolution that is anchored on the bottom-up model,” he said.
In the proposed policy, Dr Ruto explained, millions of jobs would be generated and a conducive business environment created.
However, he noted that many political figures were not happy that Kenya was about to take off.
“There are multiple plans to derail it. But they will not succeed. We are building an indomitable alliance of the ordinary people that will propel this grand dream,” added the Deputy President.
He spoke Thursday when he met religious leaders from Embu County at his Karen residence.
The Deputy President said it was not going to be business as usual in Kenya.
“The poor will no longer be misused by the powerful to go up the political ladder,” he argued.
Dr Ruto insisted that the formation of political alliances will not make Kenya any better.
“It is not the alliance of the mighty but that of the lowly and the jobless that will create a revolution that will change our country.”MPs present during the meeting were Cecily Mbarire (nominated), John Muchiri (Manyatta), Geoffrey King’ang’I (Mbeere South), Eric Muchangi (Runyenjes), Alice Wahome (Kandara), Jayne Kihara (Naivasha), Rigathi Gachagua (Mathira) and Purity Ngirici (Woman Rep., Kirinyaga).
1,263 people have tested positive for Covid-19, from a sample size of 8,680 tested in the last 24 hours bringing total confirmed positive cases to 225,663.
The positivity rate is now 14.6% while cumulative tests so far conducted are 2,287,443.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, out of the new cases 1,234 are Kenyans while 29 are foreigners with 640 males and 623 females.
The youngest is an eight-day-old infant while the oldest is 101 years.
26 patients have succumbed to the disease, all of being late deaths reported after conducting facility record audits in the month of August 2021 pushing the cumulative fatalities to 4,404.
´´719 patients have recovered from the disease with 607 from the Home-Based Isolation and Care program while 112 are from various health facilities countrywide.Total recoveries now stand at 208,169 of whom 167,484 are from the Home-Based Care and Isolation program, while 40,685 are from various health facilities.´´ Read the statement.
A total of 1,982 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities countrywide, while 9,845 are under the Home-Based Isolation and Care program.
146 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 79 of whom are on ventilatory support and 67 on supplemental oxygen. No patient is under observation.
Another 782 patients are separately on supplemental oxygen with 720 of them in general wards and 62 in High Dependency Units (HDU).
Vaccination
As of August 18th, 2021, a total of 2,221,704 vaccines have so far been administered across the country. Of these, total first doses are 1,454,102 while second doses are 767,602.
The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose is at 52.8% with the majority being males at 55% while females are at 45%. Proportion of adults fully vaccinated is 2.8%.
The uptake of the second dose by Priority Groups is as follows: Aged 58 years and above 233,005, Others 227,334, Health Workers 129,202, Teachers 114,705 while Security Officers are at 63,356.
Chairman Council of Governors – Gov Martin Wambora
The 7th Annual Devolution Conference that was to take place in Makueni County next week has been postponed indefinitely.
This follows a review of Covid-19 containment measures announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta Tuesday banning physical and in-person public gatherings and meetings, including political rallies and campaign meetings for impending by-elections for a further 60 days.
The conference was to start on Monday, August 23, and close on Thursday, August 26 at Makueni Boys High School.
“The Steering Committee of the 7th and final Annual Devolution Conference hereby notifies members of the public on the inevitable postponement of the Devolution Conference. This is premised on the Presidential directive issued on 18th August 2021, vide Public Order No. 5 of 2021 on Coronavirus Pandemic suspending all public gatherings and in-person meetings. The Steering Committee shall communicate on the new dates in due course” announced the Council of Governor’s chair Martin Wambora.
The Council urged Makueni residents to take advantage of the ongoing mass vaccination exercise to safeguard their health in the wake of soaring infection and death rates.
“We urge all residents of Makueni County and the neighboring Counties to continue with the vaccination exercise in readiness for the conference” stated the committee.
Uproar continues to greet recent revelations of mistreatment of Kenyan migrant workers in Saudi Arabia amid demands for answers from state agencies concerned.
The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) has weighed into the matter, expressing concern over the plight of Kenyans facing exploitation in the oil-rich Gulf states.
CAJ chairperson Florence Kajuju wrote to the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection Simon Chelugui asking him to clearly indicate his position on the matter and the ‘steps taken if any, or intended actions and time-frames,’
“Regrettably….distress calls of Kenyan workers in Saudi Arabia have been ignored with fatal consequences,” Kajuju lamented
In the letter to the CS Thursday, the Ombudsman further indicated that it is in receipt of complaints to the effect that attempts by victims and their families to pursue justice have been frustrated.
“We look forward to hearing from you with a view to remedy lapses in the administration of migratory labour,” Kajuju told Chelugui.
And she did not stop there. She further took issue with the National Employment Authority over the presence of rogue recruitment agencies who abandon workers as soon as they arrive in the Middle East.
In her letter to NEA Director-General, Kajuju wants to know the status of regulation of private employment agencies sending Kenyan workers to Saudi Arabia.
“Section 8 of the Commission on Administrative Justice Act, 2011 mandates the Commission to look into complaints on maladministration including delay, ineptitude among others,” Kajuju noted in her demand letter.
Led by Kiambu Town MP Jude Jomo, Kieni MP Kanini Kega, Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu and Murangá Woman Rep Sabina Chege, the leaders said there is need to replace the current party leaders with fresh, youthful and vibrant leaders who will spearhead a vigorous grassroots campaign.“In this regard, we have agreed to clean our grassroots party leadership by replacing those that have betrayed the course and abandoned the ship with those that are royal to the party and the Party Leader President Uhuru Kenyatta,” They said.
Section of Jubilee Party Members at Windsor Hotel
The MPs under the Central Kenya Jubilee Caucus further resolved that the Party undertakes a grassroots mobilization exercise targeting Nyeri, Murangá, Kirinyaga, Nakuru, Nyandarua, Laikipia and Kiambu Counties and that they open party offices in the 7 Counties immediately.
They have also agreed to cover each ward and constituency in the 7 Counties with Coordinators to consolidate party activities.“We wish to reiterate that the priority of the Jubilee Party is to strengthen, rejuvenate and rebrand itself and the party structures. This will help the Party Leader as he engages other like-minded parties and party leaders to build winning alliances and deliver victory in the 2022 general elections,” They said.
The Caucus said they could no longer ignore recent developments within the party saying it has lost its vibrancy especially after losing recent by-elections in a region it used to enjoy unrivalled support.“Following the Kiambaa by-election, we took time to engage our party members and supporters in the grassroots, to understand their views on the direction of the party ahead of 2022,” They said.
