Jomvu Mp Badi Twalib has called on Imams and muslim clerics to ensure that they enforce Covid-19 protocols in places of worship, mosques and madrassas.

Twalib who has just recovered from the deadly disease warned that violations of the protocols will attract stringent measures from the government.

Speaking after hosting imams and members of the Congolese business community in Mombasa for an iftar, Twalib regretted that there are some mosques that are going against the protocols even as cases of infections continue to rise in the county.

“It is not Uhuru Kenyatta who will suffer when you get this disease, it is not him who will get breathing complications, it is you, so make sure as a leader the measures put in place are adhered to and we stop putting our people at the risk of contracting the disease” said Badi.

Twalib however maintained that as leaders they are not after the closure of mosques though it will also depend on the behavior of the faithful and leadership of the mosques.

The Mp recalled his encounter with the disease challenging the clerics to act as ambassadors in spreading the word of adhering to the guidelines set by the government.

"I'm a living proof that this disease exists. Thank God I survived, there are some who are now in the grave. I would like to appeal to all of you to act as ambassadors and tell our people to adhere to the measures and take good care of themselves and their loved ones" he said.

His sentiments comes just a week after Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho held an emergency meeting with muslim clerics over the rising cases of the deadly disease in the county. Joho also called for another meeting with all elected leaders to discuss ways to curb rising cases.

Budget carrier Skyward Express will resume its flights from Mombasa to Nairobi on Sunday May 2, 2021.

This is after the the lifting of the restriction of movement in and out of Nairobi by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday during the Labour Day celebrations at State House, Nairobi.

All passengers and airport users are still required to strictly observe the safety measures in place to ensure the safety of all airport users.

"Health and safety ouf our customers and staff is our priority, We therefore urge all our customers to strictly observe all Covid-19 protocols att all times" reads a statement from the airline.

The flight will depart Mombasa's Moi International airport at 16:00 hrs.

Skyward Express launched it's daily flights to Mombasa on March 2017. 

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu will on Tuesday start a two-day state visit to Kenya.

According to a statement from state House spokesperson Kanze Dena, President Uhuru Kenyatta will receive Suluhu at State House.

Suluhu will be coming to Nairobi nearly five years since her predecessor the late John Magufuli visited the country.

This would be her first State visit since taking power although she has already made an official trip to Uganda on April 11 to strengthen bilateral ties and finalize the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Tripartite project agreement..

On April 10 Presdient Kenyatta  sent Sports CS Amina Mohamed to Tanzania to formally deliver Kenya’s invite to President Suluhu.

Addressing the Tanzanian parliament few days ago Suluhu told legislators that her administration will pursue economic diplomacy with partners in the region and across the world, signaling intent to repair relations with the outside world.

Suluhu was sworn into office on March taking over from John Magufuli who succumbed to heart failure.

Tanzanian singer Harmonize seems to have moved on from his relationship with ex-girlfriend actress Frida Kajala Masanja.

What was once a true sign of love is nothing but a past memory, Harmonize has now decided to replace a tattoo of Kajala's initial (K) accompanied by a queen's crown and heart emoji, which he had inked on his neck.

Kajala also inked Harmonize's initial (H) on her neck, accompanied by a king's crown.

Harmonize has now replaced the tattoo with the words 'Konde Gang', a music label that he runs.

The 'Attitude' hitmaker took to social media to share a video with fans of himself replacing the tattoo.

Harmonize introduced Kajala to the public in February, months after separating with his Italian wife Sarah Michelotti.

The two dated for months before breaking up.

Their break was followed by a series drama with Harmonize threatening to sue his former colleague at Wasafi Rayvanny accusing him of leaking his nudes. Read here : http://ommydalla.co.ke/buzz/item/2148-angry-harmonize-now-to-sue-ex-colleague-rayvanny-over-trending-nudes

You can also read: http://ommydalla.co.ke/buzz/item/2165-police-probe-harmonize-nudes-leak-saga

Meanwhile, Harmonize has also inked a unique tattoo in honour of the late President of Tanzania John Magufuli, on his right leg with the words " I have sacrificed my life for the poor people of Tanzania.''

The Coronavirus pandemic has temporarily set back the global agenda of ensuring young people aged between 10 to 24 years are in education, training or employment by 2030, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

The President noted that globally, schools for more than 168 million children have been closed for almost an entire year due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

“Young people have lost jobs and livelihoods and others have been exposed to personal risks such as teenage pregnancy and alcohol and drug abuse,” the President said.

The President spoke on Friday evening during a Generation Unlimited (GenU) global leadership council meeting held virtually and attended by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana and former British PM Gordon Brown.

President Masisi and PM De Croo are new entrants into GenU's leadership council where President Kenyatta is a member and a strong voice for the youth agenda.

Gen U is a partnership that brings together the youth, governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society to advance  Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations' Youth 2030 Strategy.

Despite the set back, President Kenyatta said the pandemic has catalysed young peoples innovativeness and heightened the relevance of the GenU vision.

Citing the example of Mr Calvin Shikuku Odhiambo, a 2020 GenU Youth Challenge winner from Kenya, President Kenyatta said young people have shown amazing resilience and eagerness to seek solutions.

“He (Odhiambo) represents a generation of talented innovators in Kenya, which includes a group of 16 university students who designed locally made ventilators and were recognised as UN Persons of the Year 2020,” President Kenyatta said.

The President emphasized the need to give the youth a chance, saying they hold the key to recovery, resilience and a sustainable future in line with GenU’s four work streams of connectivity to schools, scaling-up online and remote learning platforms, encouraging entrepreneurship skills and supporting young people as change makers.

“The four work streams speak directly to actions we need to take to support the world’s 1.8 billion young people recover and rebuild post-Covid; and in the longer term, equip them to become productive workers and global citizens,” President Kenyatta said.

He expressed satisfaction that GenU’s broad based partnership platform has made it possible to bring together public, private and youth partners to strengthen coordination and impact of the many youth initiatives in Kenya.

In this regard, the President singled out his administration’s partnership with Unicef ITU's Giga initiative that helping to connect schools to the internet, a project that has delivered one million devices to Kenyan schools.

“But we now need to exponentially expand connectivity to reach each and every child and ensure effective learning through digital platforms. I invite partners to join us on this expansion,” he said.

At the same time, the President spoke about the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a platform through which Kenya and the UK seeks to raise 5 billion USD for helping children across the world to access education.

“The campaign will culminate in a GPE Financing Summit to be held later in the United Kingdom on July 28 to 29. 

“I invite you to join us at the Summit and harness the GenU platform to mobilize resources to help countries re-imagine and re-build education systems for a more resilient world,” President Kenyatta said.

On his part, President Masisi welcomed his addition to GenU's leadership council saying he will leverage on his skills and networks to promote the interests of young people across the world.

Prime Minister De Croo said Covid-19 had exercebated global inequalities and called on the private sector to assist governments in investing more in education so as to enable the youth access quality jobs and develop their entrepreneurial abilities.

President Kenyatta was joined at the virtual meeting by Head of Public Service Dr Joseph Kinyua and ICT CS Joe Mucheru.

Veteran Mombasa based actor Gilbert 'Gillie' Owino is dead.

Gilbert famous for his role as 'Mzee Msiri' in the popular locally produced TV drama series 'Pete' died on Friday afternoon. He was aged 63.

Speaking to Ommy Dallah, Pete producer Daudi Anguka revealed tha the late actor had been suffering from Liver cancer.

"It's just last month that it was discovered he had Liver cancer and the doctors told us that it was at stage four. The doctors even told us that he only had like six months to live" said Anguka.

Adding" He has been receiving treatment but things got worse this morning, we rushed him to Premier hospital but were advised to take him to Coast general hospital which has the equipements for treatment. He died at Coast general as we were preparing to take him to the ward".

Anguka also revealed that the late actor had already started shooting some of the scenes from Pete.

"He always insisted on shooting even when he was not feeling well. He had already shot like 30 episodes out of the 260 episodes".

Anguka termed the death as a big loss to the local film industry.

Gillie was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Sanaa Theatre Awards in 2018 due to the contribution he has made in the arts. He has staged many plays in Mombasa’s Little Theatre Club and Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi.

After releasing her debut Hip-Hop track, No Love, Ruguru is back at it again with Blessings.

A soulful R&B track with a message of hope, perseverance, and love in these trying times.

“With everything that’s going on in the world I felt that people needed to hear a song of hope to lift their spirits. The song holds a special place in my heart and I hope it will touch the lives of the people that hear it.” Says  Ruguru.

Blessings is definitely a change from what we first heard from Ruguru, owing to her debut track being a hip hop track. This shows how she plans to diversify her music and her career for the time to come.

“The song went straight through to my heart and soul the first time I heard the demo. You can definitely bet on Ruguru to deliver.” - Camilla (Ruguru’s A&R Manager).

Listen here : https://ruguru.ffm.to/blessings

Watch the lyric video here : https://youtu.be/Y6vqRLYGpXU

Paul Ndambuki is the new Coast police commander, replacing Gabriel Musau.

Musau has been moved to police headquarters as the Director of inspection.

Ndambuki who assumed his new role yesterday (Thursday) was moved from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations Academy in South C, Nairobi where he was the commandant.

The national police service termed the changes normal aimed at boosting their operations.

With the eyes and ears of the world currently on Africa, Apple Music is celebrating Africa Month this May with a campaign themed around Umoja and a message of unity and togetherness.

The campaign also shines a spotlight on the new generation of African artists who are changing the narrative in the music industry locally and abroad.

The campaign features an exclusive Africa Month Umoja playlist which includes some of the best cross-continental collaborations in recent memory, with music from Focalistic & Davido, Naira Marley & Busiswa, Gyakie feat. Omah Lay as well as AKA feat. Burna Boy.

Also included are 12 exclusive guest playlists from artists including Omah Lay (Nigeria), Manu Worldstar (DR Congo/SA), Tems (Nigeria) and Amaarae (Ghana), all alumni of Apple Music’s emerging-artist spotlight program Africa Rising. 

Representing Lusophone Africa is Nenny (Cape Verde) and Calema (São Tomé and Príncipe), from East Africa is Zuchu (Tanzania) and Nviiri The Storyteller (Kenya).

For Francophone Africa is Suspect 95 (Ivory Coast) and Tayc (Cameroon), and lastly representing Southern Africa, we have Focalistic (South Africa) and BET award-winner Sha Sha (Zimbabwe).

The playlists are made up of songs that make the artists proud to be African, or that have changed the landscape of music in Africa.

Africa Month will also be supported across Apple Music Radio.

Africa Now Radio with Cuppy will be hosting a special Africa Month ‘Umoja’ special on Sunday 30th May to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the show and pay tribute to some of the best collaborations on the continent.

On Apple Music 1’s The Ebro Show, each week Ebro will interview a guest artist from a different region to talk about their exclusive Africa Month playlist, as well as featuring a weekly Motivation Mix from prominent DJs from across the continent playing the best in Amapiano, Afrobeats and more. 

Nadeska will also be featuring her Africa Rising artist of the week slot on The Nadeska show each week during the month of May.

The featured artists had this to say about their playlists:

“I picked these songs because they easily represent the growth of Afrobeats over the years, showing how diverse the genre’s sound is. I curated this playlist to display that diversity in sound and each song has its own impact story on Afrobeats,” Omah Lay tells Apple Music.

"These songs transport me to different times in my life and remind me of how music is able to take you back to a particular place and feeling." - Tems

“What I love most about these songs is their Afrocentric nuance. There’s a rhythm and energy about Africa that’s probably best expressed through our music.” - Sha Sha

"These songs make me proud to be African! The pure and exciting creative genius from these African artists makes me proud and sure that Africa to the world is an important mission.” Focalistic

“This collection of songs explores the politically charged and psychedelic grooves and lyrics of the 70s, the slick sexual innuendos and western R&B/hip hop adjacent production of mid to late 90s highlife and hip life and finally the Afrobeats explosion of the 2010s that charted a new path for African music all together.” - Amaarae

“We find different music genres of my Cape Verdean roots like Funana, and Morna. And other African flavours like Souk and Gqom that have been keeping me company. When I listen to this playlist I wouldn’t choose anything but to be African.” - Nenny 

"Music has been the one consistent voice for us all - uniting, uplifting and entertaining across generations. It has been an unceasing vessel used to tell our untold stories.” - Nviiri The Storyteller

"These are my all time favorite songs as they inspire me to write songs that will live through generations.” - Zuchu

"This playlist is what I define as the New Africa. The vibrant Africa. The unstoppable Africa. These sounds have not just inspired me but have also built me into the artist that I am today. Enjoy." - Manu Worldstar

"We chose these songs for our playlist especially because they represent our childhood, growing up as little boys into our journey back home in Africa. Our soul and African background is what made us who we are in terms of the creativity we have for music.” - Calema