The High Court has declined to grant urgent interim orders seeking to halt the upcoming interviews for the position of Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Delivering the ruling, Justice Aburili Roselyne Ekirapa determined that the application failed to meet the threshold of extreme urgency required to warrant ex-parte conservatory orders, effectively clearing the way for the selection process to proceed as scheduled. The judge noted that the recruitment exercise had been in the public domain for months, with applications closing in August 2026, meaning the petitioners had ample time to challenge the…
Author: Special Correspondent
Kenyan-born politician Huldah Momanyi-Hiltsley has won re-election to the Minnesota House of Representatives. According to unofficial results released by the Minnesota Secretary of State, Momanyi-Hiltsley received 9,852 votes, representing 71.8 per cent of the vote, while her Republican challenger, Charlie Kistler, received 3,840 votes, or 28 per cent. The results remain subject to official certification. Her new two-year term is scheduled to begin in January 2027. She thanked those who played a role in what she described as a fight for democracy, adding that she remained grateful regardless of the outcome. “The polls are closed! But as we wait for…
US President Donald Trump has taken aim at Republicans and conceded that the Democrats have done “a good job” in the US midterm elections, as they take control of both the Senate and House of Representatives in a momentous win. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump derided Greg Abbott, who lost the Texas governor race to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, saying Abbott wouldn’t have lost if he “hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months”, using the acronym for “Republican in Name Only”. The president said that if he had been on the ballot, the Republicans “would…
A security guard linked to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has been denied bond after being charged with stealing seized cigarettes worth Sh22.78 million from a KRA warehouse in Eldoret. The guard is accused of breaking into the warehouse and stealing 1,860,520 sticks of Supermatch cigarettes valued at Sh22,780,542. The cigarettes had previously been seized by the authority and were being held at the facility. The accused faces a charge of theft and an alternative charge of failing to prevent a felony in connection with the alleged disappearance of the seized goods. According to a statement issued by KRA on…
AI-driven disinformation is flooding voters’ feeds as the United States heads toward its Nov. 3 midterm elections. “AI is making its way into the 2026 midterms in a big way this year,” said the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks AI-generated political advertising. Earlier in October, the project said it had identified 220 such advertisements worth more than 137 million U.S. dollars — a staggering increase from 50,000 dollars during the 2024 election cycle, and an “almost certainly” low estimate given the difficulty in detecting the use of AI. With much of this content carrying no disclosure that AI had been…
Another wave of protests swept across major European cities on Saturday, with demonstrators voicing grievances over issues ranging from living conditions to disputes involving public institutions. Meanwhile, calls for gatherings on social media prompted police to step up security in several cities. Public services, the cost of living and housing affordability remained key concerns in many of the protests. In France, around 320,000 people took part in a new round of protests on Saturday, including about 70,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. Organizers put the nationwide turnout at nearly 500,000, including 200,000 in the capital. Around 70,000 police…
The United States, South Korea and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea on Saturday, as Pyongyang continues to reject disarmament ahead of possible talks with Washington. Speculation is mounting over a potential meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at next month’s APEC summit in China, with Trump making repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi “reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization” of North Korea during talks on Friday…
The Nairobi High Court has overturned President William Ruto’s directive to allocate 40% of affordable housing units to teachers and police officers, saying it has no legal basis. Justice Patricia Nyaundi Mande ruled on October 29, 2026, that the President’s speeches on 3rd June 2025 and 13th September 2025 “have no legal effect and cannot be used to change or add to the criteria for the allocation of housing units as stipulated in the Affordable Housing Act and Regulations”. The directive would have allocated 20% of the national affordable housing programme to teachers and another 20% to members of the…
The High Court has prohibited the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) from cutting judges’ medical and daily allowances after ruling that it overstepped its mandate under the Constitution. The court, in its judgment this week, set aside provisions of a letter written by the SRC in October 2023, which sought to slash optical and dental benefit cover for judges from Sh200,000 to Sh75,000 and the daily subsistence allowance from Sh25,000 to Sh18,000. It ruled that such benefits are not part of remuneration paid to judges under Article 230 of the Constitution but are instead part of their ‘conditions of service’,…
In May 2024, Francis Mogambi arrived in the United States after winning the Diversity Visa lottery, a programme that gives people from around the world a chance to become permanent residents. Just over two years later, the Kenyan national found himself at the centre of a US investigation into an alleged nationwide scheme to defraud the federal student aid system. On 19 October 2026, a grand jury in Nebraska indicted Mogambi on five counts of theft of government money and five counts of aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors allege that, between November 2025 and May 2026, he worked with associates in…
