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Obi and Abubakar head to court to contest Tinubu’s victory
Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar have said they will challenge Tinubu’s win in court.
Thursday, March 2, Peter Obi said he would challenge the outcome of the Nigeria election in court to prove he won the presidential race.
“We will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election, and we will prove it to Nigerians,” Obi told the press in Abuja.
PDP’s candidate Atiku Abubakar, who unsuccessfully contested for the presidency for the sixth time, described the election as a “rape of democracy.”
The election “was grossly flawed in every material particular and, as such, must be challenged by all of us,” Abubakar said.
Abubakar said he talked with his lawyers to decide his next steps.
According to Nigerian law, candidates who want to submit legal challenges have 21 days following the announcement of results to bring their case to the courts.
Eleven political parties rejected the presidential election results that the Independent National Electoral Commission announced.
INEC declared the ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu, the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election. The 70-year-old got 36% of the vote. His main rival Atiku Abubakar got 29 percent, and Labour’s Peter Obi got 25 percent.
Will the Supreme Court in Kenya overturn its ruling on LGBTQ?
President William Ruto finally weighed in on the rife LGBTQ debate in Kenya after a conspicuous week-long silence that made many Kenyans doubt his stance.
On Thursday, while addressing women at KICC, he declared he wouldn’t allow same-sex marriages in Kenya.
Ruto said he respects the Judiciary, but he has reservatiFormons about the Supreme Court ruling that okayed the LGBTQ community to form organizations and register as NGOs in Kenya.
“Not on this ruling. We will not. We will hold on to our culture and traditions. We will not allow same-gender marriages. We cannot go to the streets to demand that they be allowed to marry. This can happen elsewhere, but it will not happen in Kenya,” Ruto said.
“Let me assure our women that I will not allow other women to bring competition or the other way around. If the men take all these men, where will you get husbands? I will not allow that,” he added.
The president appealed to all religious leaders to stand their ground and educate the Kenyan children “so that our culture will be emulated by future generations”.
In the same event, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua reacted to the growing homosexuality debate, saying it is demonic.
“Yale maneno tunasikia kotini, ati kuna chama ya kutetea ati wanaume waoe wanaume, na wanawake waoe wanawake. Sasa hiyo ni mambo gani hiyo. Sasa mama akiolewa na mama, wataambiana nini? Hii maneno hatutaki, ni maneno ya kishetani kinyume na vile sisi tunaamini,” Gachagua said in Kiswahili.
Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, also faulted the Supreme Court for the controversial ruling. Odinga was speaking on Thursday in a meeting with Muslim leaders.
“The Judiciary has the mandate to protect the existing law, and that’s why those aggrieved in the context of the law move to the courts. It’s not their responsibility to create any law,” he said.
“What the judges should have done is to tell the gay community to go to Parliament. We are recommending Parliament to make laws in accordance with Article 45 so that we don’t have concerns on the issue,” Odinga added.
Matiang’i jets out of the country but he’s not on the run
The mystery surrounding Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i’s leaving the country just when the anti-corruption turned their eyes on how has been resolved.
Matiang’i’s lawyer Danstan Omari has dismissed reports that his client fled the country amid a probe by government agencies.
Omari confirmed that his client left the country for the UK on February 9 and said he’d return in two weeks. He said rumors that Matiang’i had fled the country were “stage-managed wars” driven by “inexplicable vendetta and malice.”
Matiang’i has found himself at loggerheads with the new administration, who appear to be keen on punishing him for the role he played under President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime, where he seemed to be the enforcer of sidelining then Deputy President William Ruto.
Omari confirmed Matian’i is under investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Corruption Commission (EACC).
He said Matiang’i left the country on February 19 for a two-week trip to the United Kingdom.
“I have instructions that my client informally notified senior security sector and diplomatic officials about his two-week trip to the UK. It is therefore unfair to cast aspersions on his movement,” Omari said.
Omari added that it’s common for Matiang’i to travel to the UK.
“Those familiar with his travel schedules over time will confirm that he travels regularly to that part of the world via KLM and — as was in this case — very openly, through open public means,” Omari said.
Matiang’i, a potential future presidential hopeful, has found himself in the mix of President William Ruto, Azimio leader Raila Odinga, and Kenyatta’s feud.
Odinga and the Azimio team have come out strongly in his defense, daring the Ruto administration to arrest him.
DCI wants to question Matiang’i over reports that police raided his home.
Senior Superintendent of Police Michael Sang said DCI is investigating Matiang’i on suspicion of publishing false information contrary to section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act 2018, among other offenses, regarding the alleged raid of his home.
The EACC is investigating Matiang’i for corruption, and they have demanded to see his wealth record from 2012 to 2022.
Irene Masit meets destiny as IEBC is swept clean
President William Ruto, Wednesday, March 1, sacked Irene Masit as IEBC commissioner after recommendations by Justice Aggrey Muchelule’s tribunal. He immediately announced a vacancy for her position.
Last month, the tribunal investigating the conduct of four IEBC officials recommended Masit’s removal.
In a report released on Monday, the team led by Justice Aggrey Muchelule said it found that Masit, one of the commissioners, and her former commissioners: Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang’aya, and Francis Wanderi —violated the Constitution during the 2022 elections.
“This Tribunal recommends that Commissioner Irene Cherop Masit be removed from office as a member of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission,” the tribunal’s report read in part.
Is Moses Kuria chasing out Chinese investors?
The row surrounding China Square Mall hit a new crescendo that caught the diplomatic mission of Beijing, calling for nondiscriminatory trading rules between Kenya and China.
On Saturday, the mall closed shop temporarily after Moses Kuria attacked the Chinese-owned mall that is said to be currently the most affordable shopping area in Nairobi.
Moses Kuria, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Trade, last Friday said he had urged Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor Prof. Paul Wainaina to buy out the lease for the establishment.
Kuria accused the mall of creating unfair competition to the local small businesses, which he said have been forced out of the market. However, Kuria’s utterances have since been widely criticized from within and outside the country.
Meanwhile, Lei Cheng, the mall proprietor, said his business is legal and centered on healthy completion.
“We opened this store on January 29 this year. We are barely a month old. In the first two weeks in business, our sales turnover was KES 20M,” Cheng said.
“Nowadays, on a bad day, we sell goods worth KES 10M…My business is legal and is centered on healthy competition. We have cooperated with all government directives for opening a business in Kenya, and we are here to break the monopoly,” Cheng added.
Lawyer Miguna Miguna has condemned Kuria for closing the mall, calling it an “anti-poor people” move.
On Wednesday, March 1, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya weighed in on the matter and called for a creation of a friendly business environment.
“We hope that the Kenyan government will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and Chinese citizens and create an inclusive and friendly business environment to better promote China-Kenya practical cooperation and bring benefit to our two countries and two peoples,” the embassy’s statement read in part.
Senator for Nandi, Samson Cherargei, appealed to the trade minister to solve the matter without hurting business and in an unbiased manner.
“The foreign investors have created employment for the youth and contributed to the Growth of the Kenyan economy and especially at a time when we were being faced with hard economic times,” Cherargei noted.
Mohammed Faki, the senator for Mombasa, also faulted Kuria for frustrating the Chinese investor, yet the country badly needs investors.
“The economy is dilapidated not only in the country but globally to the extent that we cannot borrow funds from other nations. It’s not possible that we are going to look for investors on one end and on the other end, we are chasing them away,” the Mombasa Senator said.
Will Kenya’s investigative agencies uproot sex for work culture?
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) on Monday, February 27, condemned sexual harassment, exploitation, and gender-based violence subjected to female workers in tea plantations in Kericho County after the shocking BBC Africa Eye exposé: Sex for Work.
In the investigative documentary, about 100 women told the BBC Africa Eye that they had been compelled into having sex with their supervisors at the tea plantations owned by British companies to keep their jobs. The companies are Unilever and James Finlay.
The human rights commission asked the relevant state agencies to investigate the matter and bring the offenders to book.
“The Commission welcomes and supports the intervention by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, which has since ordered for investigations into the reported incidents. The Commission expects that the offenders will be brought to book,” KNCHR’s statement read in part.
“The Commission will, in line with its mandate, support access to justice by the victims and engage the Businesses affected (and all other businesses) to enhance their capacity to respect human rights in their operations,” the statement continued.
The ministry of labor also said it takes allegations and accusations raised in the film seriously.
“We take these reports seriously and are concerned that such acts could happen. These accusations amount to violation of the law and workers’ rights,” said Geoffrey Kaituko, the Principal Secretary at the ministry.
U.S. comes to the aid of hunger-stricken Kenyans.
On Monday, February 27, the U.S. donated Ksh.16 billion to support Kenya’s drought relief measures.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the funds will help meet the urgent needs f approximately 1.3 million people across Kenya.
“After a fifth failed rainy season in the Horn of Africa, cumulative rainfall in Kenya is now less than 70 percent of the 30-year average across most of the country – exacerbating humanitarian needs,” USAID said.
Communities in Kenya’s arid and semi–arid land counties are experiencing the worst effects of the drought, as farmers are losing crops and millions of livestock, and increasingly scarce resources, such as water, food, and pasture, are driving intercommunal tensions and violence.
“Today’s announcement of more than $126 million in food assistance will allow USAID partners to meet urgent needs for approximately 1.3 million people across Kenya. USAID will provide emergency food items such as sorghum, maize, yellow split peas, and vegetable oil for families living in areas where local markets are not functioning,” the agency said further.
President William Ruto lauded the U.S. aid for the support, which came a day after Jill Biden’s official visit to Kenya.
“On behalf of the people of Kenya, my profound gratitude to the U.S. government for this generous support to very deserving people suffering the worst drought due to four years of consecutive failed rains,” Kenyan President William Ruto said in response to the aid.
However, the donation has attracted controversy from many Kenyans, who claim it was a bribe to the government of Kenya to allow for the protection of the LGBTQ community.
However, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, has said there is no link between the donation and gay rights, particularly the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter.
“We have had a cordial relationship with Kenya, and the Kenyan government knows the U.S. perspective. Although we in the U.S. respect LGBTQI views and rights, we can’t push other countries on the same,” said Whitman Friday in Kajiado.
“I want to underscore that there is absolutely no linkage between food and drought relief and Kenyans’ stance on LGBTQI. We have been giving our donations without any condition,” Whitman added.
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