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The Court of Appeal has adjourned a civil appeal case on the extradition of former Cabinet Minister Chris Okemo and former Kenya Power and Lighting Company boss Samuel Gichuru.

In a statement to media on Monday, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution stated that Okemo’s defense counsel led by Mr Fred Ngatia had applied for adjournment of the case Monday morning on grounds that the DPP filed and served submissions late (July 21st, 2016) and without a list of authorities.

Ngatia requested for 21 days to file written submissions further arguing that the appeal be heard separately since Okemo’s case is clear and distinct from that of Gichuru and the charges are also different and distinct.

“Mr. Okemo has never been an employee of KPLC where Mr. Gichuru served as the Managing Director,” said Ngatia.

“In our view, the parties are not ready for today’s hearing because the written submissions were only served on 21 July 2016 and they were not accompanied with a list of authorities. For that reason we are implying to allow an adjournment sought to allow parties file and serve written submissions,” ruled the three bench appellate judges.

“Appellant to file submissions within 21 days and respondents also given 21 days to respond. Hearing dates to be given by the registry.”

The DPP, in his statement, said that he was ready to continue with the hearing of the two appeals noting that his position is that the two cases be heard together as they emanate from one judgment of the High Court and one ruling by the magistrate.

The DPP’s team was led by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions assisted by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecution Edwin Okello and Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecution Lilian Obuor.

“It will be a waste of judicial time to hear the appeals separately”, said Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Edwin Okello.

In the Civil Appeal for the extradition of Samuel Gichuru to the Jersy, counsel Otachi for the appellant raised the issue of recusal of the bench as constituted (Hellen Okwengu, Martha Koome and Festus Azangalala).

In his oral submissions Otachi argued and indicated that Justice Martha Koome had given a dissenting ruling in a judgment that challenged the report by a ministerial committee constituted to look into the financial and procurement process at the Kenya power and Lighting Company in which Gichuru was adversely mentioned and sought to have his name expunged from the report.

Justice Koome gave a dissenting decision from the two who quashed the report and had Gichuru’s name expunged prompting the accused to accuse the judge of bias.

“The application is a side show and the judge has removed herself,” ruled the bench.

~Citizen Digital

The number of tourists visiting the country has risen significantly as the country leverages on the ongoing wildebeest migration. According to the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB), over 330,000 tourists have visited the country since January.

Hoteliers in the country have projected good business as the annual wildebeest migration begins.

The wildebeest migration is regarded as one the Seven Wonders of the World and that in itself continues to lure tourists.

While some come and go back without witnessing this great marvel, most of them are on hand to see the first group of wildebeests as they make the trek from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania into the Maasai Mara in search of green pasture.

For the period between July and October, the tourism comes alive with these dramatic river crossings.

Players in the hospitality industry are all smiles as they witness increased bookings. Local tourists have been urged to take part in promoting domestic tourism.

According to the KTB, the over 330,000 tourists have visited the country for leisure and conferences since January this year. This represents a fifteen percent rise in tourist arrivals compared to 284 thousand tourists in a similar period last year.

The migration comes with good tidings for Kenya’s tourism sector with KTB seeking to capitalize on the migration to position the country as a safari destination.

~Citizen Digital

Two dormitories were on Monday morning set on fire at Wanguru Girls Secondary in Mwea East Sub County, Kirinyaga County in a recent wave of school fires and unrest facing the country.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Mwea-East Deputy County Commissioner Geoffrey Targon said the fire started at around 5am and resulted in the destruction of 136 beds and students’ personal belongings.

He further stated that the incident could have involved people within and without the institution, adding that police have launched investigations into the matter.

Board of Governors Chairman Mr Ndambiri revealed that the school was aware that there was a threat of arson, but noted that the authorities did not act on the intelligence.

“What has happened here is unfortunate because we had word of it since Saturday when I was informed by some teachers that there was an arson threat. I spoke to the authorities advising that the school should be closed down immediately,” he said.
Elsewhere, three students sustained minor injuries and property worthy million of shillings razed down on Sunday night following a fire incident at Ndanai Girls’ Secondary School in Bomet County.

Confirming the incident, Sotik OCPD Mr Jonathan Ngala said the students who were in the dormitory during the incident got hurt as they tried to escape.

The students were rushed to Ndanai Hospital where they are receiving treatment.

~Citizen Digital

Women in Kisauni, Mshomoroni and adjacent areas are now living in fear following attacks and acts of sexual harassment by a gang of young boys.

The boys who are allegedly aged between 12 and 18 are said to ambush their victims on their way home from work or functions and stealing their valuables. In the event the victim does not have money or a mobile phone on them, the boys then proceed to suckle their breasts.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, some of the women said the act is not only a violation of their rights but also a health risk as they fear they could get infected with HIV/AIDS.

The women now lament that some of those boys are as young as their grandchildren and yet no action has been taken by security agencies despite reporting the incidents.

According to Joseph Deng’ea, an elder in Mshomoroni, he has received reports of the harassment but the victims shy away from reporting to the authorities.

“The women are always pleading with me to let them remain anonymous which makes it very difficult to pursue these culprits,” he said.

County Commissioner Mohamed Maalim has however appealed to victims to come forward and report the incidents.

At the same time, Coast regional coordinator Nelson Marwa has directed police officers to arrest leaders of criminal gangs among them Wakali Kwanza and Wakali Wao accused of attacking locals in Kisauni area in Mombasa county.

Speaking to journalists in his office on Wednesday evening, Marwa said the gangs were harassing women in some parts of Leisure and Mtopanga that have now turned into dangerous zones.


~Citizen Digital

A virtual map of Bryant Park is displayed on the screen as a man plays the augmented reality mobile game "Pokemon Go" by Nintendo in New York City, U.S. July 11, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich

A Canadian woman has been charged after she allegedly fired a pellet gun at Pokemon GO players from the rooftop of a Toronto-area home, local police said on Monday.

Witnesses saw the 29-year-old woman fire at least four shots on Saturday night from the roof of a two-story building, police said in a statement, adding that no players were injured.

A police spokesman said part of the street in the town of Newmarket, north of Toronto, had possibly been marked in the augmented reality game as a “gym,” where players gather to challenge each other.

It is not immediately clear how many Pokemon GO players were on the street that night, though the police spokesman said the area has attracted them by the dozens.

“There’s nothing to suggest mental health issues,” he said.

Police said the woman was arrested without incident and charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Pokemon GO has been an unexpected success from Spain to Australia, doubling the value of Nintendo Co Ltd since the game’s launch in the United States earlier this month.

Using mobile devices, players search for virtual Pokemon characters that appear to pop up at office spaces, restaurants, museums and other places. Players score points in various ways, including capturing the Pokemon characters with a flick of a finger on their phone screen.

The game was also to blame for a rash of car accidents and a slew of mishaps stemming from distracted players.

York Regional Police, which oversees Newmarket, said officers have received “a number of” calls from concerned citizens about people playing Pokemon GO, and while there’s nothing illegal about partaking in the game, players should be careful not to trespass.

Last week, two youths in Canada unaware of their surroundings when they were playing Pokemon GO made an illegal border crossing into the United States.

At least 19 people were killed and 25 injured in a stabbing spree at a facility for disabled people west of Tokyo, making it one of Japan’s deadliest mass killings since World War II.

Officer Satomi Kurihara of the Sagamihara Fire Department confirmed the death toll at the Tsukui Yamayurien facility in Sagamihara, a residential area approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital.
Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old who worked at the facility until February, broke in through a window about 2 a.m. Tuesday (1 p.m. ET Monday), Kanagawa Prefecture officials said at a news conference.

Police said they received a call from an employee of the facility reporting the attack, according to state broadcaster NHK.

About 3 a.m., Uematsu turned himself in at the Sagamihara police station, carrying a a bloodstained knife and cloth, officials said.

The incident sent shock waves through Japan, where mass killings are rare. Because gun ownership is highly restricted, mass stabbings and poisonings are more common, CNN’s Paula Hancocks said.

In June 2001, eight children were killed when a former janitor entered an Ikeda elementary school in Osaka and began stabbing students at random.

In June 2008, a man ran over a group of people with his truck and then stabbed 18, killing seven, in Tokyo’s famous Akihabara gaming district.

The biggest loss of life in Japan’s recent history was in 1982, when 24 people died after a Japan Air Lines pilot crashed a flight into Tokyo Bay.

The last time Sagamihara made global headlines was in 2012 when Naoko Kikuchi, a member of the Japanese doomsday cult responsible for the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, was arrested there.

The attack killed 13 people and injured more than 5,500 people.
The cult, Aum Shinrikyo, was responsible for another sarin gas attack the previous year that killed seven people and sickened some 200 more.

~CNN

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has told Reuters that there were significant failures in intelligence ahead of last Friday’s attempted military coup and that the armed forces would quickly be restructured and have fresh blood.

In his first interview since declaring a state of emergency following the abortive coup on Thursday, Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible but would not be easy, saying “we are more vigilant”.

“It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it. I said it to the head of national intelligence,” Erdogan told Reuters in his palace in Ankara, which was targeted during the coup attempt.

He said a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS), the top body overseeing the armed forces, which was due to be held on August 1, might be brought forward by a week to oversee the restructuring. The Council is chaired by the prime minister, and includes the defence minister and the chief of staff.

“They are all working together as to what might be done, and … within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging. With this new structure, I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood,” Erdogan said.

“After all that has come to pass, I think they must now have drawn very important lessons. This is an ongoing process, we will never stop, we will continue very actively, we have plans,” he continued.
Erdogan looked calm and composed throughout the interview, but security was heightened inside and out his vast palace complex, with police special forces in the gardens and city dump trucks blocking access roads at impromptu checkpoints.

The lights at the palace, which usually illuminate the night sky, have been dimmed in recent days.

Erdogan said there was no obstacle to extending the state of emergency beyond the initial three months if necessary. It would allow his government to take swift measures against supporters of the coup and will permit the president and cabinet to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem necessary.

About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation since the coup attempt was put down.

“This state of emergency is not a curfew. People will still be on the street minding their own business and getting on with daily life,” he said.

Erdogan said the movement of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who he blames for masterminding the attempt to seize power, would be treated as “another separatist terrorist organisation”, drawing a parallel to the state’s fight against Kurdish militants over the past three decades.

“These people have infiltrated the state organisation in this country and they rebelled against the state,” he said, calling the actions of Friday night “inhuman” and “immoral”.
He said the death toll had risen to 246 people excluding the coup plotters and that 2,185 people were wounded. Soldiers used fighters jets, military helicopters and tanks to strike institutions including parliament, the intelligence agency and Erdogan’s palace in Friday’s violence in Istanbul and Ankara.

Ankara has said it will seek the extradition of Gulen, who has denounced the coup attempt and denied any involvement.

The putsch and the purge that has followed have rattled the country of 80 million, a NATO member bordering Syria, Iraq and Iran, and a Western ally in the fight against Islamic State.

~Reuters

President President Buhari in a past event

A Nigerian former militant group said on Sunday it has been holding talks with the government to end a wave of attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta which has crippled the country’s crude output.

On Thursday, the office of President Muhammadu Buhari said the government was using oil firms and security agencies to talk to the militants “to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region”.

“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) wishes to confirm that indeed it has been in preliminary talks with the Federal Government through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies,” the group said in a statement.

MEND is a major former militant group which signed in 2009 an amnesty in exchange for cash and job training brokered by the previous government.

It said the Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has claimed responsibility for a series of recent attacks, would not be part of the dialogue.

“The Federal Government made it clear during our meetings that a negotiation with criminals is out of the question,” MEND said. “The Niger Delta Avengers…fall under this category.”

The Niger Delta Avengers group had on Thursday said it was not aware of any talks with the government.

Security sources have linked the Avengers to former commanders in MEND. Both groups hail from the same area.

Militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude sales make up about 70 percent of national income and the vast majority of that oil comes from the southern swampland.

Nigeria, an OPEC member, was Africa’s top oil producer until the recent spate of attacks pushed it behind Angola.

Enforcing any peace deal would be difficult as the militant scene is divided into small groups where leaders do not control the unemployed youth they recruit.

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang says he would only leave the Bundesliga club for Real Madrid.

The Gabon international is one of Europe’s most coveted forwards and has been linked with Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Manchester City in recent months.

He has handed his current club a boost by stating he would only leave Dortmund to join one other team Real Madrid.

Speaking to German TV channel ZDF, he said: “The only club that could move me away from Dortmund is Real Madrid, and no other  in this moment.”

“Sometime I want to play for Real Madrid, which is one of my big goals in my career. But at the moment everything is great.”
The striker has excelled at Borussia Dortmund since joining from St Etienne, and scored 39 goals in 46 appearances for the club last season.  Real have only brought in one player so far in the summer transfer window, exercising their right to bring back Alvaro Morata from his spell at Juventus.

Dortmund have sold Mats Hummels, Henrilkh Mkhitaryan and Ilkay Gundogan to Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Manchester City.


ENGLAND

• Manchester United have submitted an increased bid of 92 million pounds for midfielder Paul Pogba, but Juventus are seeking an additional 10 million Euros. They are also understood to be exploring the possibility of signing Juventus centre-back Leonardo Bonucci.
• Chelsea striker Diego Costa remains a target for his old club Atletico Madrid with the Blues wanting Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata,  as his replacement.
• Stoke are preparing a club-record bid for West Brom striker Saido Berahino, after their initial offer of 20 million pounds was rejected. The club is also set to secure the 13 million pounds  signing of Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen  after Swansea City failed to match their bid.
• Swansea striker Bafetimbi Gomis is finalising a deal to join Marseille on a season-long loan.
• Bordeaux are set to approach Arsenal about re-signing Mathieu Debuchy. The full-back spent the second half of last season on loan at the Ligue 1 club but only made nine appearances due to injury.
• Mauricio  Pochettino tells Tottenham that he won’t walk out on them for Argentina.

ITALY

• Juventus are lining up a move for Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic, as a replacement for Manchester United-bound Paul Pogba with other reports stating they are also eyeing Barcelona’s Javier Mascherano instead.  
• AC Milan are closing in on the signing of Alvaro Arbeloa on a free transfer, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. The report suggests Milan have offered the Spanish defender a one-year-deal with the option for a second.
• Arsenal and Liverpool are interested in signing Inter Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozovic .It is claimed the Croatia international is also being tracked by Napoli and Juventus with the Italians thought to be asking for a fee in the region of 30 million Euros for the player.

SPAIN

• Raphael Varane says he is not set for a reunion with former manager Jose Mourinho at Manchester United after the defender insisted that he will be staying at Real Madrid this season.
• Valencia are expecting to speed up their negotiations for the transfers of Barcelona players Cristian Tello and Martin Montoya once Andre Gomes’ move to the Camp Nou is finalized.
• Besiktas are interested in taking Barcelona midfielder Arda Turan on loan, reports.

Sources: Eurosport.com, BBC, SkySports, soccernet.com, football365.com

Britain’s Prince Harry has spoken about how he regrets not talking sooner about the impact of the death of his mother, Princess Diana.

Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, when Harry was 12 and his brother Prince William was 15.

Harry, now 31 and fifth in line to the throne, said he had not discussed his mother’s death until three years ago, the BBC reported.

“I really regret not talking about it,” he said. “For the first 28 years of my life, I never talked about it.”

He added: “It is OK to suffer, but as long as you talk about it. It is not a weakness. Weakness is having a problem and not recognizing it and not solving that problem.”

Harry, who is the queen’s grandson, was speaking last week at a barbecue he hosted for the mental health charity Heads Together, attended by sports starts such as former England footballer Rio Ferdinand and Olympic athlete Kelly Holmes.

“I think the key message here is that everyone can suffer from mental health issues, whether you’re a member of the royal family, whether you’re a soldier, whether you’re a sports star,” said Harry, a former army officer who served in Afghanistan.

~Reuters

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