Students studying programs at Eldoret based Moi University have been forced to book a bus home after their academic programmes were halted.
According to a circular issued to the students, the university cites the destruction of property, unrest, and injury to security officers working within the school, which led them to close the facility indefinitely.
Students in Moi university have been protesting poor management in the school and corruption in the administration.
Moi University joins a list of university unrests that have rocked 2019, with Kenyatta University having been closed this week.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in Ethiopia | PHOTO COURTESY
President Uhuru Kenyatta last evening said Ethiopia is a constant reminder of why Africans should preserve their culture and traditions, and guard the hard-earned sovereignty of African states.
He said Addis Ababa remains a historical icon and significant city on the African continent because of Ethiopia’s reputation as one of the countries that successfully resisted colonialism.
The President spoke when he joined other regional Heads of State and Government at the inauguration of the Unity Park, a museum inside the Ethiopian National Palace that documents the country’s journey through generations.
President Kenyatta said a country that does not know its history will not understand its present and will find it hard to navigate through today’s complex world.
“Ethiopia is endowed with a rich and colourful history that makes it unique on the African continent. As one of the few countries to resist and defeat efforts at colonialism, it serves as a constant reminder of the need to preserve our culture and sovereignty,” he said.
The Head of State said the preservation of African cultural heritage and historical assets will serve to restore the dignity, honour and wellbeing of the African people.
“Preserving and restoring African cultural heritage and the protection of our environment is a huge investment that we as leaders must continue to champion tirelessly,” President Kenyatta said.
He
commended Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the political leadership of
Ethiopia for efforts to entrench democracy and create unity in the country.
“I would
like to commend you for the bold steps you have taken on political reform and
gender inclusivity.
“Opening
the Palace is an indication of your efforts to entrench democracy,” President
Kenyatta told PM Ahmed adding that Kenya and Ethiopia continue to enjoy cordial
relations as the two neighboring countries mark 55 years since they established
bilateral relations.
PM Ahmed
said he will continue with his rallying call of ‘medemer” (synergy) to end
ethnic compartmentalisation of the country and create a stable, united nation.
Other
regional leaders who attended the inauguration ceremony included
President Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), President Mohamed Abdullahi (Somalia),
President Salva Kiir (South Sudan) and Sudan Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
Several
other countries including Djibouti were represented by Cabinet Ministers or
special envoys at the event that was also addressed by Ethiopian President
Sahle-Work Zewde.
The
leaders praised Ethiopia for its economic transformation and for remaining a
strong African nation.
The Unity
Park which comprises the palaces of former rulers of the country among them
Emperor Menelik II and Emperor Haile Selasie pays tribute to Ethiopia’s legacy
as an unconquered country during the continent’s dark period of colonisation by
European powers.
Sections
of the palace were renovated at the cost of five billion Birr (Shs 17.5
billion) to develop display pavilions of cultural and historical assets
of the country’s nine regional states to signify the reconciliation and unity
efforts being championed by the Ethiopian government.
Ahead of
the launch ceremony, regional leaders held talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
followed by a tour of the the vast Unity Park situated inside the Palace.
The
Palace hosts the Prime Minister’s office and is the official seat of power of
the Ethiopian state.
As part
of the elaborate celebrations to mark the opening of the facility, the visiting
Heads of State and Governments as well as invited guests were treated to an
array of traditional performances including dances from across the country of
more than 110 million people.
James Mugo of Interways Works shows the steel structures to be hoisted at Witeithie and Mangu along Thika Road. The bridge will be completed by 30th November 2019. | LILIAN MUNTHEU
BY LILIAN MUNTHEU – INTERWAYS Construction Works yesterday said the Witeithie and Mangu footbridges will be completed by November 30th.
During a site tour yesterday, the firm’s Chief Executive Officer James Mugo said the steel paths for the crossing bridge across Thika highways arrived a month ago from China and are being assembled at site.
The steel paths will be bolted within two weeks and placed on the concrete pillars. Mugo said the firm had been paid Sh.130 million for the two bridges against a contract sum of Sh.430 million.
So far, the works are 50 percent complete. The works include service roads of two kilometers long, bus stops, public toilets and service lanes, sewer connections and lighting.
Delays in clearing the steel parts at the port of Mombasa due to stringent new rules by the Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) was blamed for the delay.
Mugo said the housting of the steel structures will not occasion closure of Thika Road.
110 heads of cattle stolen from Meru. | PHOTO COURTESY
Kenya Police officers attached to the Rapid Deployment Unit and the Anti Stock Theft Unit have recovered 110 heads of cattle.
The missing cattle are believed to have been stolen from Meru county.
The Police through their online platforms requested owners who had lost their cattle to visit Doldol Police station in Laikipia to identify and collect their animals.
No arrests nor identity of the cattle rustlers has been put out by the Police.
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, At a past event | PHOTO COURTESY
After Kenya emerged winner in the Social and Economic Equity Award, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko bragged on social media on how Nairobi beat 105 cities in the world.
His sentiments did not excite a resident of Nairobi. A man who identifies as John Thuo, took to Sonko’s Facebook post as he felt we dint deserve the award.
According to him, countries like Kigali and Kampala were far much better than Nairobi.
“Award? Were these people drunk? Was there anyone on the ground for the same? You can’t even beat Kampala. Leave alone Kigali,” commented Thuo.
The governor in return saw it fit to give Mr. Thuo a dose of his own words as he felt the county deserved the award.
“They were on the ground na kama umejam amsha bibi yako avunje glass aigrind akupe ukunywe (They were on the ground and if you are angry, wake your wife up to grind you some broken glass so you can drink it),” Sonko responded.
Governor Mike Sonko receiving the Award on behalf of Nairobi | PHOTO COURTESY
The awards focused on Governance, Sustainable diets and nutrition, social and economic equity, food production, food supply, and distribution and food waste prevention, reduction and management.
African Union Special Envoy Raila Odinga at the Mombasa Likoni Ferry | PHOTO COURTESY
In Kenya, Politicians will find a talking point in anything. Be it a funeral, be it cancer, or a simple rescue operation.
In the weekend setting the sun on a very sombre September, Mrs. Kighendi and her daughter Amanda plunged into the Indian Ocean, an incident that exposed incompetence in disaster management operations in the country.
While visiting the site in Mombasa’s Likoni Ferry crossing point, African Union special envoy Raila Odinga ordered the halt of dredging operations to stop inorder to pave way for recovery operations.
This did not digest well with the splinter ‘Tangatanga’ Jubilee faction, who took a swipe at Raila Odinga for issuing executive orders, and acting as a president.
“Your excellency, these handshake people are abusing us. We are starting to get a very interesting scenario. How can the opposition leader purport to give instructions to government officials to carry out orders. Is that even possible? questioned Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua.
The vocal faction took over podiums to tarnish Raila’s involvement with the executive and claiming the ‘breach of contract’ is confusing Kenyans on the role Raila plays in the government.
Hardly a weekend after his order was issued, dredging was seen to have been halted. A day later, the Kenya Navy finally spots the sunken car.
Here is what Political analyst David Ndii had to say concerning the matter,
"According to W.Ruto & his stupid team,the beautiful duo of mother & daughter better rot under the ocean if its Raila who'll help the recovery of their remains.Executive orders are written, where did Rao issue such an order? He got it from his brother; the President."~David Ndii pic.twitter.com/ohCvMvujRj
— Ekidor Japeth(Jefoh@maestro) (@JapethEkidor) October 7, 2019
Judging by the silence since the Kenya Navy reported citings of the car, it appears that the splinter group have had to swallow their opinion Raila’s orders.
The ghost of Political promises has come to haunt the Jubilee government after the Auditor General raised a red flag over allocation of funds, awarded to stalled sports complex projects.
The state of the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret has left Kenyans an angry lot after its sorry state surfaced the interwebs.
According to reports, funds allocated to the project were withdrawn shortly after African Nations Championship (Chan) organizers, Confederation of African Football (Caf), resorted to pulling its plug on Kenya for Morocco, attributing their actions to ‘lack of Seriousness’ by the Kenyan sports agencies.
The Treasury, resorted to withdrawing funds catered to upgrading 5 stadia: Moi International Sports Centre- Kasarani and Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi, Kinoru Stadium (Meru), Kipchoge Keino Stadium (Uasin Gishu), and Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos
According to the Auditor General, it is alleged that 699 Million shillings were pocketed as of June 30, 2018, with zero work shown. 11 % of the total amount allocated for the stadia upgrade.
Adding to the accusations it was also noted that contractors had abandoned the sites.
“A review of the implementation status of these projects in the year under review showed that there was a delay in completion and contractors had abandoned the sites” the audit points out.
It is only a matter of time before this stadium project blows into a full-blown 4.8B scandal. The Ministry of Sports has so far not commented on the matter.
Teens who suffer from depression tend to fare better in years to come if they have supportive families. fizkes/Shutterstock.com
Depression is a leading cause of disability and disease for people around the world. It often begins during adolescence, especially for females, may continue or recur in adulthood and tends to become a lifetime chronic health condition.
More than 300 million people suffer from this mental health disorder worldwide. Depression is not only about feeling blue. It can also harm one’s social relationships, school or work and physical health. Poor mental health and depressive symptoms may also be associated with the recent increase in midlife premature deaths of despairdue to suicide, alcohol and drugs.
Although treatment methods and intervention efforts continue to advance, many depressive conditions remain irreversible. The push for prevention and early, affordable and feasible intervention is stronger than ever, especially for young people.
We are bothsocial demographers who study family processes and health. We use a life course perspective in our research, meaning that we use longitudinal data to follow individuals as they move through various stages of life and examine how the social contexts they experience influence their health.
Recently we were interested in understanding how mental health changes from adolescence through mid adulthood. We wanted to see if we could identify family processes that might protect teens from depression in adolescence and later. We found that close and cohesive family relationships, understanding, and shared good times protected them then and later.
It is well known from the scientific evidence that close family relationships reduce the risks of depression during adolescence, a life stage when depression often begins, especially for girls. We were interested to know whether the mental health benefits of close and cohesive family relations in adolescence last into young adulthood, and so we used longitudinal data from a nationally-representative sample to address this question.
The family context is a key area that draws wide scholarly and public attention for early intervention efforts. Most research on the role of the family context for depression focuses on risk factors, such as neglect, abuse and financial insecurity. We wondered, however, whether preventive efforts may be more effective if focused on protective factors. We could not find major studies that could shed enough light on the topic.
Some small cross-sectional studies with clinical and community samples suggest that being part of a close and cohesive family in adolescence helps alleviate depression symptoms for teenagers.
But does this protective effect last long into adulthood when adolescents move out of their parent’s house and embark on their independent lives? This intriguing and pressing question remains unknown due to a dearth of longitudinal studies that follow the same people over time.
A study, which we published on Oct. 7 in JAMA Pediatrics is, so far as we know, the first to examine this topic in a nationally representative sample by tracking individuals over a 30-year life course from early adolescence to midlife. Our findings suggested that, yes, the protective effect not only helps in the tough teen years but also protects later.
Some good news, and good insights
Depression often first appears in adolescence and can come back throughout young adulthood and even middle age.Chanintorn.v/Shutterstock.com
The data we used come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally-representative study that has followed over 20,000 adolescents starting in 1995 into adulthood. The group of adolescents who started in the cohort have been re-interviewed five times, adding valuable knowledge about development over the course of life. The new data from the 2017 round of interviews have enabled us to examine how what happens in adolescence matters for later life mental health.
Our findings provide a new contribution to the research on early family experiences and lifetime depression and insights into how depression can be prevented from developing into a lifetime illness.
First, we found gender differences in depression over time. Females experienced significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than males between early adolescence and their early 40s.
The overall trajectory of depressive symptoms was high in adolescence, fell in the early 20s, and then slowly rose again in the late 30s. The growth curve of depression is flatter for men than women.
Teenage girls are vulnerable to high levels of depression during middle to late adolescence. Teen boys, in comparison, experienced a shorter period of depression in late adolescence. Women then experienced the highest levels of depression in their late 30s. Men’s highest levels of depression occurred in their mid-30s to early 40s in the face of increasing challenges from work, family and social life.
Our primary interest, however, was to examine whether cohesive family relationships in adolescence protect young people from depression in adulthood and how long those protections last.
Our findings indicate the mental health benefits of cohesive family relationships during adolescence last through midlife. Individuals who experienced positive adolescent family relationships had significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms from early adolescence to midlife (late 30s to early 40s) than did those who experienced less-positive family relationships.
We also see this benefit working differently for men and women. Women benefit more from positive adolescent family relationships than men, especially in adolescence and the early 20s. But men with low parent-child conflict benefit for a longer time throughout young adulthood than women.
Living in a cohesive home, having someone around who understands and pays attention, and having fun together as a family can build up warmth, trust and attachment between the family members and adolescents and positive feelings for teens. The absence of parent-child conflict reinforces parental support and approval for them. Close relations may provide sources of social and emotional support that encourages the development of skills for coping with changing and cumulative stressors.
Our research findings emphasize the urgent need for early preventive interventions of depression in adolescent family life. Adolescence is a critical life stage where profound transformations in neurological, biological, cognitive and social development take place. These profound changes during adolescence make teens especially vulnerable to the development of lifetime depression.
Public health initiatives can teach and encourage parents and family members to nurture positive family relationships with their adolescents. Programs can be developed to promote family cohesiveness for adolescents by providing tips on how families can show affection and understanding, spend time together and work through conflict. This preventive approach will be most effective in fostering long-term healthy mental development into adulthood.
Our study, however, does not imply that adolescents in less cohesive families are doomed to lifetime depression. Depression is an extremely complex mental disorder. No one knows exactly what causes it. Factors such as genetics, abuse or serious illnesses can increase risks of depression too. Teens may be able to find similar sources of social support and gain coping skills through other social connections with friends, in religious and other institutions, and in the local community.
The skills and strategies that youth learn to cope with emotional problems may last throughout life, continue to promote mental health well into adulthood, and help to prevent negative outcomes and premature deaths due to suicide, alcohol or drugs in middle age.
