Kenyan

Somalia’s largest telecommunications provider, Hormuud Telecom, on Monday accused Kenyan government forces of deliberately destroying its equipment and facilities in the Dhuyac-garoon area of the Lower Juba region, saying the incident has severed communications and mobile money access for tens of thousands of civilians in southern Somalia. In a statement, the company said the damage targeted infrastructure serving communities in Dhuyac-garoon and has left an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 residents without essential…

KISMAYO, Somalia — An improvised explosive device killed two Kenyan police reservists and wounded two others Thursday near a border patrol position in Mandera County, close to the frontier with Somalia, Kenyan police said. The blast struck at Kulun Border Point Four along the Bulla Hawa–Mandera crossing, about 100 meters inside Kenyan territory in Mandera East Sub-County, according to a police report. The officers, attached to the National Police Reserve, were on routine patrol when the device detonated in a remote section…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A Kenyan doctor who says he was working on a United Nations medical evacuation team in Somalia has appeared in a video appealing to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Kenyan President William Ruto, saying he and colleagues have been held by al-Shabab for more than a year and a half following a helicopter crash. The man, identifying himself as Dr. Ambrose Kimiti, says the aircraft carrying the medical team crash-landed on Jan. 10, 2024, in territory controlled by al-Shabab while on an official…

MOGADISHU — A Kenyan doctor working with a United Nations medical evacuation team in Somalia says the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has held him and other colleagues for more than a year after their helicopter crashed in militant-held territory, according to a new video appeal. In the message addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Kenyan President William Ruto and the Kenyan public, the doctor, Ambrose Kimiti, says their aircraft went down on Jan. 10, 2024, during a medical evacuation flight. He says fighters from…

MANDERA, Kenya — Kenyan police on Tuesday said they thwarted a night raid by al-Shabaab militants on a Chinese workers’ residence in Elwak, Mandera County, securing all 10 occupants and repelling the attackers after a prolonged exchange of gunfire. The assault began around 1 a.m. when heavily armed men forced their way into the compound, located roughly one kilometer from the Elwak Police Station, according to a police statement. Officers guarding the site engaged the assailants in sustained fire, preventing them from…

Kenya’s High Court on Thursday temporarily halted a $1.6 billion Kenya–U.S. Health Cooperation Framework, citing privacy concerns over the transfer of Kenyans’ medical and epidemiological data. Justice Bahati Mwamuye issued conservatory orders after the Consumers Federation of Kenya petitioned the court to stop implementation until the state provides safeguards for how sensitive health information would be handled. In an interim ruling, the judge paused any move by the State Law Office, the Senate and other government…

Kenya’s High Court on Thursday struck down parts of a decade-old seed law, clearing the way for small-scale farmers to save and share local seed varieties without fear of prosecution — a decision celebrated as a major victory for “food sovereignty” advocates and rural communities. In a ruling delivered in Machakos, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Nairobi, the court found provisions of the 2012 Seed and Plant Varieties Act unconstitutional. Those provisions had criminalized saving uncertified seeds and then…

Kenya’s elite unit thwarts Al-Shabaab IED plot in Garissa after community tip-off NAIROBI — Kenya’s Special Operations Group (SOG) says it disrupted a potentially deadly attack by Al-Shabaab militants in Garissa County after local residents alerted security forces to suspicious activity along a rural stretch of road. Officials reported that eight suspected militants were intercepted on the Welmerer–Yumbia road as they were attempting to assemble improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Security teams engaged the group,…

Raila Odinga, Kenya’s tenacious opposition leader and former prime minister, dies at 80 NAIROBI — Raila Odinga, the combative and charismatic politician who embodied Kenya’s long, bruising fight for multiparty democracy and remained the country’s most formidable opposition voice for decades, has died at the age of 80, a person in his office told Reuters on Wednesday. Immediate details were scarce. Indian daily Mathrubhumi reported that Odinga had been receiving treatment in the southern city of Kochi and suffered a cardiac…

Kenyan man indicted in U.S. child-nutrition fraud probe as investigators trace money to Nairobi real estate