Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations is failing to support hundreds of ethnic Tigrayan members of a U.N. peacekeeping force as they fear returning home to Ethiopia and facing potential detention amid the country’s Tigray conflict, peacekeepers tell The Associated Press.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia has started generating electricity from the controversial mega-dam that is being built on the Blue Nile.

The milestone was reached on Sunday morning when one of the 13 turbines of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam started power generation in an event officiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

“From now on, there will be nothing that will stop Ethiopia,” Abiy said.

The dam will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam upon completion.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopian lawmakers have voted to end the country’s three-month state of emergency early as mediation efforts continue to end the deadly war in the north.

Tuesday’s vote by lawmakers came after Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, decided on Jan. 26 to end the state of emergency originally imposed for six months, citing recent developments in the conflict.

NAIROBI, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations humanitarian partners have appealed for more than 500 billion shillings (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) to provide life-saving assistance and protection to about 29.1 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in 2022, the UN relief agency said on Wednesday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said between 12 and 14 million people are waking each day to face high levels of acute food insecurity and severe water shortages across the three countries, due to drought in the first quarter of 2022.

NAIROBI, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Tuesday launched a regional cancer center at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Kenyatta said the center which will cater for cancer patients in the region and beyond becomes the second public facility of its type in Kenya after the one at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital.

NAIROBI, Feb 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two murder fugitives who were arrested by Kenyan detectives last Wednesday have been extradited to face trial in the United Kingdom.

Mohamud Siyad Abdihakim and Monteiro Tariq Kennedy Mangal, both British nationals, were arrested by Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations -Transnational Organized Crime Unit, in collaboration with the UK authorities.

An international arrest warrant had been issued against them for the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy identified as Alex Smith, from Wembley, in northwest London.

NAIROBI, Feb 1 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya and Portugal have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen collaboration in the health sector in the wake of sustained efforts by Kenya to advance the Universal Health Coverage agenda.

A meeting between Health CS Mutahi Kagwe and the head of mission at the Portuguese Embassy Luisa Maria Fragoso resolved to form a technical working team to explore areas of possible collaboration in the field of medicine.

MANDERA, Kenya, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- At least nine commuters were killed in a roadside blast along a highway in northeast Kenya early Monday.

Regional police chief George Seda confirmed the incident, saying the blast happened when a minibus ran over an improvised explosive device set on the road along Arabia-Mandera highway, about 8 km from Mandera county.

"Witnesses have seen five bodies and we are on the ground now," he said, adding that four people died of severe injuries in hospital.

BUSIA, Kenya, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan security officers have detained two suspected poachers and recovered 14 pieces of ivory in Busia County near the border with Uganda.

Busia deputy divisional police commander Stephen Kimunya said the two suspects -- a Kenyan and a Ugandan -- who were arrested Thursday evening had sneaked 26 kg of ivory from Uganda in search of a market in neighboring Kenya.

NAIROBI, Jan 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenya has suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) to retaliate against a move by Dubai to ban all passenger flights from Kenya last year.

The suspension took effect on Jan 10, for an initial period of seven days.

“Inbound and transit passenger flights from UAE are suspended for a period of seven days. We are doing this to reciprocate a ban on Kenyan passenger flights to UAE,” Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said.