In the landmark ruling, a Bungoma high court judge said Josephine Majani’s rights were violated as she gave birth.

Mrs Majani said nurses had slapped and verbally abused her in 2013 and left her to deliver her baby in full view of the public.

Her ordeal was secretly captured on camera by a hospital intern.

High court judge Abida Aroni said the mother’s rights to health and dignity had been infringed at Bungoma county hospital, around 400km (250 miles) north-west of Nairobi.

The ruling establishes a precedent in the way other similar cases will be settled in a country struggling to fix its maternal healthcare system.

One of Mrs Majani’s lawyers, Martin Onyango, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that his client had been “forced to walk by herself to the delivery room for the removal of the placenta” after she gave birth on the floor.

He said the verdict was a “big win” for women in Kenya.

“It is an affirmation that these services must be of good quality and services must be offered in a dignified way,” Mr Onyango, a senior legal advisor for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said.

The BBC’s Victor Kenani in Nairobi says that many Kenyan government hospitals are ill-equipped to provide women with quality and dignified maternal services.

It comes as the country’s health minister ordered an investigation into claims new mothers were sexually assaulted at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.

Last month, the wrong patient was given brain surgery in the same hospital.

They were meant to operate on a man with a blood clot on the brain. But the man who had surgery only needed non-invasive treatment for swelling.

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Source: BBC

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Homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya, as in most African countries. Gay sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Until today’s ruling, Kenya was one of at least eight countries worldwide where men suspected of being gay are subjected to forced anal testing. The others – according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) – are Cameroon, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and Zambia.

Today’s decision by the Court of Appeal overturns a previous ruling from 2016 on the legality of such examinations, and whether they violate an individual’s privacy.

HRW says the “cruel, inhuman and humiliating” process usually involves medical personnel “inserting their fingers, and sometimes other objects, into the anus of the accused. In other cases, men are ordered to strip naked and bend over or lie down with their feet in stirrups while doctors “visually” examine their anal regions”.

Following today’s ruling, a lawyer for Kenya’s National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said: “The humiliation and pain caused by these useless anal examinations will follow our clients for the rest of their lives.”

LGBTQ campaigners hope the ruling will influence another court case under way to decriminalise gay sex.

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Source: BBC

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Mr. Mahama described the move as a “great show of statesmanship” in his comments on Twitter.

Great show of statesmanship.
Healing and reconciliation. Good for Kenya. pic.twitter.com/Ilq5oEcoaE

— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) March 10, 2018

Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga spoke on national TV on Friday after holding their first public meeting since the poll.

President Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November after he won an election re-run in October, which Mr Odinga had boycotted.

In the election aftermath, about 150 people were killed and Mr Odinga subsequently swore himself in as the “people’s president” and refused to recognise election winner, Mr Kenyatta, as head of state.

They had both dismissed all calls for talks, from Kenyans and foreign diplomats but in their joint address, President Kenyatta referred to Mr Odinga as his “brother”.

Thier meeting notably occurred ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is expected to land in Nairobi for a three-day diplomatic tour.

Mr Mahama, has some stake in the matter as he led the Commonwealth observer mission to monitor the country’s polls.

He faced some ridicule and criticism after the Supreme Court overturned the results of the election following alleged malpractices, as free and fair.

Mr. Mahama, alongside other observer groups, had declared the August 8, 2017 elections which the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta won, as free and fair, despite the irregularities alleged by Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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One patient needed surgery for a blood clot on the brain, the other only non-invasive treatment for swelling.

But a horrifying mix-up of identification tags saw the wrong man operated on, reports say.

The doctors did not realise their mistake until “hours into the surgery, when they discovered there was no blood clot”, the Daily Nation reported.

The head of the Kenyatta National Hospital said the patient was “in recovery and progressing well” and an investigation is under way.

The board regulating medical practice says such a mix-up is a first in the country. It has demanded a report from the hospital and plans to hold a hearing.

Social media users have expressed shock that such an incident could have been allowed to happen.

It comes only six weeks after the health minister ordered an investigation into claims new mothers were sexually assaulted at the same hospital.

Doctors ‘overwhelmed’
Hospital CEO Lily Koros said the hospital “deeply regrets this event and has done all it can to ensure the safety and well-being of the patient in question.

“We are happy to inform the public that the patient is in recovery and progressing well,” Ms Koros added.

She said four staff – the neurosurgeon, ward nurse, theatre receiving nurse and anaesthetist – had been suspended.

“The management has suspended the admission rights of a neurosurgery registrar and issued him with a show-cause letter for apparently operating on the wrong patient,” Ms Koros said. A show-cause letter requires a staff member to account for his or her actions.

But the doctor’s colleagues have protested against the suspension, reports The Star, arguing the person who put on the identification tag is the one that should be punished.

Meanwhile, the doctors’ union defended staff, saying the hospital was “overwhelmed” by staff shortages and inadequate operating theatre space.

“You find one doctor could be doing 10 to 19 operations [in a day],” Ouma Oluga, chief executive officer of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union, told Reuters news agency.

The Nation reports that – “in a miracle of some sort” – the two patients are in good condition. It adds that the person who had the blood clot might not need to undergo surgery after all, as his condition has improved significantly.

Social media users were scathing about the apparent error.

Some called for the resignation of the hospital’s entire board of management in light of the other controversies at the institution.

As well as the allegations that new mothers were sexually assaulted in the hospital, a woman was able to kidnap a newborn baby there in February. The baby was recovered and returned to his parents a day later.

The flagship national hospital has also been plagued with reports of broken equipment, overcrowding, and long waiting times for treatment. Its management blames insufficient funding and says inadequate health provision more widely in Kenya has placed an unreasonable burden on the hospital.

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Source: BBC

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Senator James Orengo and financier Jimi Wanjigi planned to attend opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s burial.

But officials said the pair failed to present a court order overturning an existing suspension of their passports.

Both men support Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who named himself “the people’s president” last month.

There is growing concern that the government is ignoring civil liberties in response to the mock inauguration of Mr Odinga.

Unlike Mr Orengo and Mr Wanjigi, Mr Odinga was allowed to fly to Zimbabwe, without any difficulties, for the burial of Mr Tsvangirai, his long-time friend.

The Zimbabwean politician died of colon cancer on 14 February, and thousands of people are expected to attend his interment in his home village of Buhera.

Kenyan immigration officials had held Mr Orengo and Mr Wanjigi at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport overnight on Monday after they failed to present a court order authorising them to fly.

“When the two arrived at the airport, they were requested to avail copies of the said court orders but they had none,” the director of immigration services said. “Instead, they showed some writings on their phones purporting to be court orders.”

On Tuesday, Mr Kihalangwa tweeted that the court orders had finally arrived and the men had been allowed to travel.

Mr Orengo has disputed Mr Kihalangwa’s timeline, saying that immigration officials received the court order on Monday night.

He and Mr Wanjigi are due to leave for Zimbabwe later on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, the Kenyan government has been cracking down on supporters of Mr Odinga.

Earlier this month they deported his close aide Miguna Miguna, saying that he did not hold a Kenyan passport.

The government also took three television stations off air ahead of Mr Odinga’s mock swearing-in, and kept the channels suspended in defiance of a court order overturning the ban.

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Source: BBC

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Mr Miguna has boarded a flight to take him to Canada, where he is a citizen.

The government says Mr Miguna renounced his Kenyan nationality, which he denies.

Ahead of the mock inauguration, the government took Kenyan TV channels off air so they couldn’t broadcast it.

For more on this and other stories, visit our Africa Live page

Mr Odinga boycotted last year’s election re-run, saying it would be rigged in favour of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He and his supporters consider him the rightful leader of Kenya.

What was the ‘swearing-in’ about?
In August, Mr Odinga ran for president against Mr Kenyatta.

He lost, but the country’s Supreme Court said the election wasn’t transparent, prompting a re-run in October.

Mr Odinga declined to enter this race, saying nothing had changed, and Mr Kenyatta won 98% of the vote, with only 39% turnout.

But after letting Mr Kenyatta govern for two months, he held his unofficial swearing-in ceremony at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on 30 January.

During an oath signed and conducted by Mr Miguna, Mr Odinga declared himself “the people’s president”.

President Kenyatta took three TV channels off air, with only two resuming broadcasting this week – and only on subscription services, not free-to-air.

How Kenyans are coping without TV
On 31 January, police arrested TJ Kajwang, a lawyer who witnessed the ceremony.

Two days later, they broke down Mr Miguna’s door in a dawn raid and also detained him.

Mr Miguna says he was then kept “in unlawful incommunicado detention for five days under the most horrendous, cruel and inhumane conditions imaginable”.

On Tuesday, he appeared before a court outside Nairobi and was charged with “being present and consenting to the administration of an oath to commit a capital offence, namely treason”.

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Source: BBC

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Esmond Bradley-Martin, 75, was found with a stab wound to his neck at home in the capital Nairobi on Sunday.

The former UN special envoy for rhino conservation was known for his undercover work establishing black-market prices.

The US citizen had recently returned from a research trip to Myanmar.

Bradley-Martin was in the process of writing up his findings when he died, reports the BBC’s Alastair Leithead from Nairobi.

His wife found him in their house in Langata. Police are investigating the circumstances but suspect it was a botched robbery.

Our correspondent says Bradley-Martin had spent decades risking his life to secretly photograph and document the illegal sales in ivory and rhino horn, travelling to China, Vietnam, and Laos to pose as buyers – helping establish black market prices.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

He had first come to Kenya from the US in the 1970s when there was a surge in the number of elephants being killed for their ivory.

His work on illegal wildlife markets helped pressure China to ban the rhino horn trade in the 1990s, and domestic ivory sales, which came into force this year.

Fellow conservationists have been paying tribute to him on social media.

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Source: BBC

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[contextly_sidebar id=”8zR08lYGl1IZ4qI1XDXEgGjoD7l5c1SL”]Odinga did not take kindly to the words of a Ghanaian researcher who strongly condemned him for swearing himself in as president of the East African country.

Abeku Adams’ scathing comment under Raila Odinga’s post and self-declaration as president, did not only earn him more than 1,000 reactions, most of which were in support of his position but also resulted in him being blocked by Odinga on Facebook.

The 34-year-old commented, “Congratulations H.E Raila “Buffoon” Odinga,’president’ of ‘little Kenya’, the man who boycotted an election and won without contesting. Such a glamour of ‘idiotism’. Africa is such a mess!!… It’s the ignorance of the mad of his madness that makes madness a mysterious illness”

The comment caught the attention of many eyes, over 400 of whom made comments under Abeku’s post.

But several hours later, Abeku’s online connection with Odinga was cut off as the self-proclaimed ‘people’s President’ blocked him from seeing and commenting on his subsequent posts.

Last week, Raila Odinga, declared himself the “people’s president” at a controversial “swearing-in” ceremony in the capital, Nairobi.

Thousands of his supporters attended the event, despite a government warning that it amounted to treason.
The authorities shut down TV stations to prevent live coverage of the event.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November. He won an election re-run in October, but Mr Odinga boycotted it.

Elections were first held in August but the courts ordered a re-run, saying Mr Kenyatta’s victory was marred by irregularities.

Kenyatta was officially re-elected with 98% of the vote on 26 October but just under 39% of voters turned out. He was inaugurated in November.

His victory is not recognised by Mr Odinga, who argues he was elected by a small section of the country.
Mr Kenyatta also won the original election on 8 August but that result was annulled by the Supreme Court, which described it as “neither transparent nor verifiable”.

When the repeat vote was called, Mr Odinga urged his supporters to shun it because he said no reforms had been made to the electoral commission.

Correspondents say the election dispute has left Kenya deeply divided. About 50 people are reported to have been killed in violence since the August ballot.

Many have suggested that Odinga’s stance is a recipe for violent clashes in Kenya as the government says Odinga’s action is treasonable.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i told reporters they would stay closed until investigations were complete.

NTV, KTN and Citizen TV went off-air at around 09:10 (06:10 GMT) on Tuesday.

They had previously been warned not to cover the ceremony naming Raila Odinga as “the people’s president”.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement circulating on social media that broadcasting the event – described as an attempt to “subvert or overthrow” the government – “would have led to the deaths of thousands of innocent Kenyans”.

However, Kenyan journalists denounced the move as outrageous and in a statement called for “respect of the constitution” and an end to the “unprecedented intimidation of journalists”.

The Interior Ministry said it was a “serious breach of security”.

Mr Matiang’i told reporters: “As a result of what happened yesterday, we have commenced investigations targeting individuals. Media houses will remain closed until we complete investigations.”

Meanwhile, opposition MP TJ Kajwang, who wore his lawyer’s wig and stood next to Mr Odinga while he was being “sworn in”, has been arrested.

Mr Odinga held his own “inauguration” after claiming he was the rightful winner of last year’s election.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November. He won an election re-run in October, but Mr Odinga boycotted it.

Mr Kenyatta’s initial victory was overturned by the Supreme Court, citing “irregularities and illegalities”.

The inauguration event in Uhuru park was attended by thousands of supporters, and went off peacefully.

Citizen TV live streamed the event on its website, and on YouTube and Facebook.

–

Source: BBC

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Thousands of his supporters attended the event, despite a government warning that it amounted to treason.
The authorities shut down TV stations to prevent live coverage of the event.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November. He won an election re-run in October, but Mr Odinga boycotted it.

Elections were first held in August but the courts ordered a re-run, saying Mr Kenyatta’s victory was marred by irregularities.

Holding a Bible in his right hand at a park in Nairobi, Mr Odinga declared that he was answering to a “high[er] calling to assume the office of the people’s president of the Republic of Kenya”.

People had had enough of election rigging and the event was a step towards establishing a proper democracy in the East African state, Mr Odinga told a cheering crowd.

Speaking earlier to Kenyan broadcaster KTN, Mr Odinga said his “swearing-in” was intended to “show the world that what we are doing is legal, constitutional and not something you can remotely describe as a coup”.

It was a public relations stunt that ended in disappointment for many opposition supporters, says the BBC’s Alastair Leithead in Nairobi.

Mr Odinga turned up for just 20 minutes. He signed a statement, swore an oath and left the stage, leaving his supporters wondering why it was such a low-key affair, he adds.

His deputy, Kalonzo Musyoka, was not at the event, and Mr Odinga said Mr Musyoka would be “sworn-in” at a later date.

However, his absence suggested there were divisions in Mr Odinga’s National Super Alliance, BBC correspondent says.

One of them, Larry Oyugi, said there was nothing illegal about Tuesday’s event: “We have warned the police enough and we are also going as per the constitution. The constitution of Kenya, article one, allows all Kenyans to exercise their power directly.

“This is why we are here to exercise our powers by gathering here and also article 37 allows peaceful assembly. We are citizens of this country, we are allowed to peacefully assemble here and elect our president as per the constitution.”

Police allowed the event to take place, despite warning earlier that they would prevent it from going ahead.
Three privately owned television stations – NTV, KTN and Citizen TV – went off air from around 09:10 (06:10 GMT), BBC Monitoring reports.

Citizen TV told the BBC the authorities had forced them off the air over plans to cover the gathering.
It live streamed the event on its website, and on YouTube and Facebook.

KTN viewers watched their screens fade to black as the news presenter read a statement confirming that the national communications authority was switching off the transmission.

Switching off the broadcasting signals of media organisations is unusual in Kenya, the BBC’s Anne Soy reports from Nairobi.

Threats have been made in the past and some media groups have been raided, but none have had their signal deliberately disrupted.

Kenyan journalists have denounced the move as outrageous and in a statement called for “respect of the constitution” and an end to the “unprecedented intimidation of journalists”.

There was tension in Kenya on Tuesday as some schools closed in the capital because of the event, and people did not know what to expect, our correspondent says.

Mr Kenyatta was officially re-elected with 98% of the vote on 26 October but just under 39% of voters turned out. He was inaugurated in November.

His victory is not recognised by Mr Odinga, who argues he was elected by a small section of the country.
Mr Kenyatta also won the original election on 8 August but that result was annulled by the Supreme Court, which described it as “neither transparent nor verifiable”.

When the repeat vote was called, Mr Odinga urged his supporters to shun it because he said no reforms had been made to the electoral commission.

Correspondents say the election dispute has left Kenya deeply divided. About 50 people are reported to have been killed in violence since the August ballot.

–

Source: BBC

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