Kenya's Raila Odinga warns of ethnic election violence

Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga has warned that the emergence of ethnically-based political groups could spell doom in elections due next year.

Mr Odinga joined a coalition government with his rival President Mwai Kibaki to help end violence after the 2007 poll when more than 1,200 people died.
"When the ethnic drums are being sounded, we know" what that means for the country, he told the BBC.
But he said the coalition had helped bring in reforms.

Kenya mourns women's rugby captain Aberdeen Shikoyi

Tributes are being paid to Aberdeen Shikoyi, the captain of the national Kenya Women's Rugby team who died on Saturday in Nairobi.

According to the Kenya Rugby Football Union, Ms Shikoyi was injured during the first leg of the Women's Elgon Cup in Uganda a week earlier.
She was immediately airlifted to the Kenyan capital for treatment, reportedly for a spinal injury.
Her death was announced shortly after her team won this year's Elgon Cup.

Vatican condemns christians attacks in Kenya and Nigeria

The Vatican condemned what it called “terrorist” attacks on Christians in Kenya and Nigeria on Sunday which claimed around 20 lives and called for restraint against a cycle of violence.
“The new terrorist attacks in Kenya and Nigeria at Christian celebrations are horrible and despicable acts,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Church attack in Nairobi Kenya

At least one person has been killed and 10 wounded in a suspected grenade attack on a church in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, police have said.

The attack targeted the God House of Miracle Church, in Ngara neighbourhood.
There has been a string of small arms attacks and explosions in Kenya since Kenyan troops crossed the Somali border.
Kenyan police have blamed previous attacks on Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab Islamists.
However, no-one has yet said they carried out the blast.

Frank Odoi: Kenya mourns Ghanaian cartoonist

Tributes are being paid to one of Africa's leading cartoonists, Ghanaian-born Frank Odoi, who died over the weekend in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

He was killed in a traffic accident involving a minibus tax, known as a matatu, on Saturday but his family only learnt of his death on Monday.

His Driving Me Crazy comic strip that tackled the subject of the matatu's notoriously reckless driving.

Mr Odoi, 64, moved to Nairobi in the 1970s and worked there ever since.

Golgoti - white man in Africa

Mr Odoi was one of two passengers to die when the matatu in which they were travelling veered off the road into a ditch on Saturday.

When the cartoonist did not return home over the weekend, family members searched all the hospitals before finding his body in a Nairobi mortuary on Monday morning.

Mr Odoi was one of the first visual artists to be given a daily slot in Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper about 30 years ago - and he has dominated the Kenyan artistic scene ever since.

His work - fiction and political commentary - was also featured in newspapers all over Africa and the BBC's Focus on Africa magazine.

He was most famous for his Golgoti series, about a white man who comes to Africa, and Akokhan, the tale of two centuries-old squabbling men which was based on the folklore of his native Ghana.

News of this death broke on Monday evening in Kenya.

Fellow cartoonist Paul "Maddo" Kelemba, who was a fellow director of the media company Four Dimension Innovative, was among those to pay tribute to his colleague.

"Looking at the empty desk in the corner and expecting to see Frank has been very difficult, disturbing and has made us very angry," Mr Kelemba told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"It is so sad that he met his end at the hands of the matatus which were the subject of his comic strip," he said.

US embassy in Kenya issues terror attack warning

The US embassy in Kenya has issued a terror warning to its citizens in the country, warning them of a possible attack on Nairobi hotels and prominent Kenyan government buildings.

The timing of the potential attack was not known, it said in a statement, but it had reason to believe that it was in the last stages of planning.

It urged US nationals to be cautious.

In 1998, the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed by al-Qaeda operatives who rammed its gate with a truck.

A total of 213 people, including 12 Americans and 34 local embassy staff, died in the bombing.

More recently, al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants from neighbouring Somalia have vowed to carry out an attack on Kenya for sending troops into Somalia.

Kenya sent hundreds of troops into Somalia last year after a wave of kidnappings, including those of four Europeans on Kenyan soil, blamed on al-Shabab.

The UK issued a similar warning to its nationals in Kenya earlier this year.

Kenya rangers shoot dead five suspected poachers

Wildlife rangers have shot dead five suspected ivory poachers during a gun battle in western Kenya.

Two rangers were hurt during the battle in West Pokot county, said officials from Kenya's Wildlife Service (KWS).
They said 50kg (110lb) of elephant tusks and AK-47 rifles were recovered.
Kenya has recently taken a more aggressive stance against poaching as it combats a surge in demand for ivory from Asia, despite a long-standing ban on the international trade.
KWS spokesman Paul Udoto said on Saturday that rangers were determined to make poaching "a high-cost, low-benefit activity".
The KWS says about 100 elephants are killed each year in Kenya by poachers.
Ivory from elephants is often smuggled to Asia for use in ornaments, while rhino horns are used in traditional medicine.

Kenya's McDonald Mariga faces lengthy spell out

Kenya and Parma midfielder McDonald Mariga is facing several months out through injury.

The Italian club have confirmed he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in their 2-0 league win over Novara on Wednesday.

Parma have not indicated how long he will be out for but the injury usually takes several months to recover from.

It effectively rules the 25-year-old, who is on loan at Parma from Inter Milan, out for the rest of the season.

He is also very unlikely to feature for Kenya in their 2014 World Cup and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June.

Kenya are due to travel to Togo for the second leg of their Nations Cup qualifier on the weekend of 15-17 June with a 2-1 lead from February's first leg.

Mariga missed the win over Togo after he quit the team in a row over money.

So there were already doubts over his future involvement with the Harambee Stars even before he sustained the injury.

The Kenyans are also due to play Malawi and Namibia in World Cup qualifiers in June, Nigeria are the third team in Group F.

Kenya's striking airport workers fired

Striking Kenyan airport workers who failed to return to work on Monday have been dismissed, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has said.

Some 1,300 airport staff went on strike on Friday demanding a pay increase.

According to the KAA, the dismissals affect about 50% of those who were striking at the main international airport in the capital, Nairobi.

A BBC reporter says police officers have been deployed to man the security operations at all the major airports.

"We take this opportunity to assure the general public that operations at all our airports have continued with no interruptions," Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper quotes the KAA statement as saying.

"The management have put into place contingency measures with the support of government agencies and other airport stakeholders."

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