The Kenya government has released the last of the children who were being held at the Bungoma prison as the government cracked down on the Sabaot Land defense force in the Mt. Elgon area. This has been confirmed by human rights defender, Martin Wanyonyi.

AP story

A team appointed by Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, to investigate the conduct of Finance Minister, Amos Kimunya, has issued it’s findings. The report has recommended that due to the several irregularities surrounding the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel, the conduct of several people has come into question and their resignation was immediately sought. This includes the Central Bank governor, Njuguna Ndung’u, the director of the The National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), Michael Gichangi and the secretary of the board of directors of Central Bank, Kennedy Kabuga.

Standard story

Botswana troops amass along the border with Zimbabwe a few days ago. Source: Sunday Standard

Information leaked to the local press in Botswana indicate that the military in that country is ready to take on Zimbabwe unilaterally if leaders of Southern Africa fail to act soon.

There is a general consensus that it is time for Robert Mugabe to step down whether he likes it or not. The question is, if he has to be brought down are African leaders ready to do it in a swift and decisive manner?

Bishop Desmond Tutu has said that force is justified to bring peace and enable negotiation in Zimbabwe and Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga has asked the AU to deploy peace-keeping forces in that troubled, once-prosperous country.

Meanwhile, the UN security council is reported to be “considering” sanctions against Zimbabwe including freezing assets belonging to Mugabe and his henchmen. China blocked US attempts for sanctions immediately after violence broke out in the runoff elections June 27th ,so if a real solution is expected, the UN security council is the last place Africans should look to for guidance. China has entrenched interests in Mugabe or his henchmen staying in power and will use it’s vote, possibly with Russia to stall this effort at all costs.

The UN has become a brothel where some powerful countries rape and hug the weak countries of the world at the same time while onlookers choose to look away helpless (or not) or convince themselves there is a romance going on. Case in point - Wikileaks has evidence that the Chinese government is shipping weapons to Zimbabwe, so it is ridiculous to have delegations at the UN waste precious time and money as the people of Zimbabwe suffer and at the end of the day, no resolution will be passed that will be of immediate benefit to them. It is even more painful to watch as the Chinese vice minister for foreign affairs, Yang Jiechi, gets up on stage and says that China opposes sanctions because the most pressing issue was to “stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe”. What hypocrisy !!

China has become quite adept at these diplomatic waltzes and will use it’s experience and security council vote, which almost always goes in tandem with the Russian vote, to ensure that this situation drags on until another major world event pops up on the radar and it will be back to business as usual.

The real solution here is going to come from initiatives such as Botswana’s and will need support of all the other African countries. This becomes complicated because China has slowly built economic alliances with governments all over Africa so one is left wondering what is next for yet another African country caught in a political crisis and especially the plight of the long-suffering Zimbabweans caught in the middle.

July 2, 2008 7:17PM CDT Dallas TX

This is just unfolding: Opening a Yahoo email in Firefox automatically redirects to this page - js.worthathousandwords.com - and then the blank page just hangs and never loads.

Not sure what is going on. It has so far been reported in Firefox 2.0 and  3.0 and even Macs running OSX with the Safari browser, so it seems to be an internal Yahoo problem or a bug in Firefox.

Using Internet Explorer seems to work fine when opening Yahoo emails.

As a temporary fix, you can also disable Javascript in Firefox - Tools>Options>Content - 3rd line - uncheck “Enable Javascript”.

From the Nation website

Saved locally on Breaking News Kenya

The Kenyan parliament today passed a vote of no confidence on Kenya’s Finance Minister Amos Kimunya after details surrounding the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel came out last week.

The motion was brought by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale.

Nation Media story

Celtel Kenya has announced unlimited internet for it’s post-paid customers through it’s UhuruNet plan. The service will be available for Kshs 2,995 per month all over Kenya.

Telecom provider, Safaricom has announced that current CFO Les Baillie will retire in 2009 and will be replaced by Chris Tiffin, currently CFO at Celtel Nigeria.

see also - Business Daily Africa

Kenyans in Minnesota had a Q&A with Kenya’s Finance minister, Amos Kimunya last year and when they asked him about corruption, he gave a very interesting response given the current situation he is in;

On the issue of corruption, which has been the main culprit of Kenyan economic drawback, Kimunya said the government was doing all it could to reduce the vice. He didn’t give details, but said arresting and prosecuting offenders was not the best solution.

“You can round people up and hang them, and some countries have done that, but corruption will still be endemic,” he said. “What we are doing is closing the gates” to prevent future corruption.

That, the minister said, doesn’t mean Kibaki’s administration is extending amnesty to those who stole or continue to steal from the government.

The article goes on;

Kenyans in attendance had mixed reactions to Kimunya’s presentation. Kelvin Ngige said that while Kimunya did a great job outlining the number of investment opportunities, he wasn’t pleased with the way the minister said the government was handling corruption.

“He should have explained in depth what mechanisms the government has in place to stop things from falling through the cracks,” Ngige said.

Celestine Ogwel agreed. “I think the minister is in denial about corruption,” Ogwel said.

Quoted from Mshale newspaper article published March 27, 2007 - Kenya Ideal for Investment, Kimunya Tells Diaspora