Former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar of Kenya Kwanza and businessman turn politician Suleiman shahbal are among nine politcians voted to represent Kenya in the East Africa Legislative assembly (EALA).

Omar who vied for the Mombasa governor seat in the August election but lost to Abdulswamad Nassir led the Kenya Kwanza coalition with the highest number of votes at 253, followed by Zipporah Kering who garnered 223 votes.

Suleiman Shahbal of ODM party closed the list of four Azimio MPs by garnering 181 votes. ODM party leader Raila Odinga's daughter Winnie Odinga got 247 votes.

Kennedy Musyoka from Wiper party led with 262 votes garnered from both chambers, Senate and National assembly.

Former Nominated MP David ole Sankok got 223 votes, while Godfrey Mwangi bagged 213 votes from both Houses.

Falhada Dekow survived after Fred Muteti who had garnered 189 was edged out on a gender technically.

The nine will now join their colleagues in Arusha next month for swearing-in ahead of their sittings.

The Uganda- Kenya Coast tourism conference and exhibition 2022 kicked off on Thursday in Mombasa, bringing together hundreds of attendees mainly tourism stakeholders from Kenya and Uganda.

The two countries Kenya and Uganda have stepped up efforts to compliment each other in the tourism sector.

According to a report, tourism arrivals in Uganda in 2021 stood at 512,945, out of these 326,387 were from Kenya which translates to 63.63% of all arrivals in Uganda.

Between January and March 2022 close to 95,000 Kenyans visited Uganda for various reasons reporting an increased demand for Kenyan visitors to Uganda due to various events that have taken place in Kampala such as golf, rugby tournaments, music concerts among others.

Speaking during the official opening of the conference, Uganda's Minister for Foreign affairs in charge of regional cooperation John Mulimba called for more cooperation between Kenya and Uganda tourism stakeholders.

Mulimba emphasized the need for peace in the two countries for tourism to thrive.

"If you have good products but no peace then you will not achieve anything. To our tourism stakeholders from Kenya and Uganda present at this conference, please work closely with the security agencies for the industry to thrive" said Mulimba.

Adding" As Uganda, we recently had a challenge due to the outbreak of Ebola virus but all is well and we welcome all visitors to Uganda, we are now safe."

On his part Kenya Coast Tourism Association (KCTA) Chairman Victor Shitaka said Uganda remains one of major market for the Coast tourism industry.

"For the first time in the history of Kenyan Coast different teams from the tourism industry have started partnering, Kenyan Coast and Uganda have come together to promote tourism, this is a major step" said Shitaka.

Adding "Kenyan Coast has it's unique products and this is the same case with Uganda so we believe coming together will work well in complementing the two countries."

Shitaka revealed that they will also be seeking to partner with other East Africa countries.

"We are looking forward to increasing our numbers as the Kenya Coast. We are targeting to increase our numbers by 10% in the next six months" Shitaka revealed.

Transport cabinet secretary Kipchumba Murkomen is set to make his first official tour of the Mombasa port tomorrow, Thursday.

According to a programme seen by this blog, CS Murkomen is expected to arrive at the KPA headquarters at 9 am before proceeding to the Chairman's office for a brief meeting.

The CS is then expected to proceed to the boardroom where he will be taken through a presentation of Mombasa port operations by the acting Managing Director John Mwangemi.

The CS is also expected to make a tour of key port facilities including the Second Container Terminal, SGR marshaling yard, Kipevu oil terminal and Dongo kundu.

This will be Murkomen's first visit to the facility after being sworn into office one month ago.

In September, KPA started the process of returning port services to Mombasa in compliance with President William Ruto’s directive.

Leaders and the business community from Mombasa have been supporting the return of port operations to the coastal city.

The Kenya Clinical Officers Association (KCOA) has called for or concrete actions to address mental health concerns among health workers.

According to KCOA Secretary General Joseph Chebii the issue of mental health has now become a concern among health workers.

Speaking during the 24th Kenya clinical officers association annual scientific conference held at the Sai Roch hotel Mombasa, Chebii said many health workers go through stress due to poor working conditions, overworking due to shortage of health workers in health facilities and lack of resources.

"In the past three months we have buried four of our members from clinical medicine department. The issue of our colleagues taking their own lives through suicide has now become a major concern to us and it needs urgent and concrete action to address to it." said Chebii.

Adding " We have a problem with issues of mental illness and this one is attributed to many factors including work stress, alcoholism and drug abuse."

Chebii called on the government to come up with a special taskforce and policies to address the issue before it escalates further.

"We have been having an issue with the CBC and we saw the government forming a special taskforce to address it, we also want a taskforce be gazetted and address the issue of health workers. " charged Chebii.

His sentiments were echoed by KCA president Albert Taity who also emphasized on the need for more resources to be channeled to the health sector by both national and county governments.

"I think it is important to note that most of the counties have not been meeting the 15% of the budgetary allocation to health out of their resources according to the Abuja declaration. We want to also push the national government to devolve more resources to to the counties because health is now a devolved function." said Tiaty.

Adding" The other thing we also need to do is to think about the general welfare or our health workers. Health workers are the software of the system, even if you have the best gadget but poor software it can never work.

Britam General Insurance has launched a new travel insurance plan in partnership with Kenya’s leading tour and travel company, Bonfire Adventures and digital innovation lab Qhala.

Under this partnership with Britam, Bonfire will offer all their domestic travel customers, a free travel insurance cover, insuring them against accidental injuries, illnesses, and death during their travel.

In case of an accident resulting in death, an amount of Sh100,000 will be paid to the beneficiaries of the covered, while a similar amount will be paid to the person covered in the event of permanent disability arising from an accident during the trip.

Additionally, customers are covered up to Sh40,000 for medical expenses resulting from an accident during their trip.

Travelers can also opt in to an enhanced package for Sh600, which covers evacuation and hospitalization during their trip. The benefits of this enhanced cover include Sh100,000 for death and Sh100,000 for permanent disability arising from an accident during the trip.

Additional benefits include Sh100,000 for inpatient medical treatment and Sh40,000 for emergency medical evaluation during the trip.

“We want to ensure that Kenyans have peace of mind when creating memories with their loved ones; both individually and collectively,” said Evah Kimani, Britam’s Director for Partnerships and Digital, while announcing the partnership.

“This cover is a value add to our customers and aligns with our commitment to give customers memorable experiences. This partnership is also timely as we approach the holiday season,” said Bonfire’s Chief Executive Officer – Simon Kabu.

“Qhala is proud to have built the digital platform that allows Bonfire customers, to access Britam's pioneering insurance offer. We are proud to have played a key role in making travel insurance more accessible to all,” Shikoh Gitau, CEO and Co-Founder of Qhala said.

Adding, “We see a wider application for this on-demand insurance cover model to gig economy workers.”

Britam and Bonfire are also working on plans to introduce a travel insurance cover for international travel.

Governors from the Coast region are expected to meet to deliberate on the hustler fund and blue economy among other issues.

On Tuesday the cabinet approved the legal and institutional framework to anchor the establishment and implementation of the hustler fund. In the first phase of the fund which will be launched on November 30, 2022, the loan limits will be at a minimum of Ksh.500 and a maximum pegged at Ksh.50,000, based on the borrower’s credit score.

According to Mombasa governor Abdulswamad Nassir,  the Coast leadership will be meeting to see how the Coast people will benefit from different economic opportunities including the hustler fund.

"We want to focus one on the issue of hustler fund, blue economy and those opportunities that are available in the Coastal region. We want to see how our people will benefit from them" said Nassir.

Adding " We are waiting for our Chairman Kilifi governor Mung'aro who is currently away, he will chair the meeting. We will all come together as Coast governors irrespective of our political differences ."

Kilifi governor Gideon Mung'aro was last month elected as the Chairman of the regional economic block  Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani.

Nassir revealed that Coast Mps will also be holding their meeting on the same issues and come out with one voice.

"We will also make sure that our speakers also meet to deliberate on these issues, to represent the voices of all members of county assemblies from the region" said Nassir.

Last Saturday Nassir held a meeting with leaders from Mombasa and Kilifi counties at a hotel in Mombasa, among those who attended the meeting was Nyali Mp Mohammed Ali and his UDA counterpart Owen Baya of Kilifi North.

Nassir charged "The meeting was basically about our unity as Coast leaders irrespective our political differences, we want to serve our people since we are all one" 

Africa’s biggest in the comedy scene are gearing up to excite a Kenyan audience at the game-changing, rib-cracking Laugh Festival in Nairobi, Kenya (10 Dec 2022) at the KICC Tsavo Ballroom.

This is the fourth annual edition of the Laugh Festival produced and presented by Laugh Industry - Kenya’s biggest comedy central.

The night of African comedy by The King of comedy Daniel ‘Churchill’ Ndambuki will feature the best of the best Kenyan comedians and their international counterparts including Celeste Ntuli (South Africa), Salvado (Uganda), Daliso Chaponda (Malawi), Loyiso Gola (South Africa), Q-Dube (Zimbabwe) and Oga Bachelor (Nigeria).

The Laugh Festival is a premier comedy and entertainment event with the aim of converging Africa’s top performing comedians on a grand stage annually.

It is designed to be a night full of laughter and great experience as comedian acts from Kenyan and around Africa converge in one venue to commemorate and contribute to Africa’s comedy scene.

This shall continue to bring discovery and celebration of the gem that lies within the country’s comedy scene and Africa at large while presenting world-class entertainment.

The Laugh Festival 2022 edition brings back momentum to the series following a Covid hiatus with the last edition successfully held in 2019.

Partners of the fourth edition of Laugh Festival include Radio Africa (Classic 105 & Kiss 100), Magnate Ventures, amongst others.

A group of Islamic scholars from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, Cairo have called on Muslim community to coexist peacefully with other religions clerics and boldly speak out against extremist groups such as Al Shabaab who target mainly the youth to recruit them into their groups.

The scholars under the auspicious of the Azhar mission in Kenya said it's against Islamic teachings to wage war against such groups, adding that youth especially from the Coast region have been misled to and engage in radicalization.

Speaking on the sidelines of a madrassa/ Arabic and IRE teachers special lecturers under the concept of moderation in Islam, led by the head of religious section Wizaratul Auqaf, Egypt, Sheikh Gabrer Taie Youssef Soultan, they urged Muslim madrassa teachers to stick to right teachings.

“If a teacher has good teachings they will not involve themselves with terrorism, there are those who pretend to hide in the religion to lure people, it’s a crime, and we strongly condemn this, “said Sultan through an interpreter. 

He urged Muslims and Islamic organisations in various parts of the country to preach peace and tolerance.

He further urged the youth to avoid such extremist groups whose main goal is to bring violence.

He also urged Muslims to reject or ignore the aspects of fundamentalist Islam that predict or encourage Islamist domination over all other religions

He said Islam is a religion of peace and that those using religion as a justification for violence are people with twisted ideologies out to tarnish the name of the erstwhile peaceful religion.

Ustadh Muhammad Sheyba, the administrator at the Shibu Mosque said youth are soft prey because of skewed Islamic teachings from some institutions adding that this could be tamed if all religious clerics coexist.

He said violence of whatever nature against a fellow human being is against the tenets of Islam and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad.

“Religion should not be used by people to preach hatred. Let’s encourage our faithful about the importance of religious and peaceful coexistence without encouraging violence in the guise of preaching Islam,” he added.

The cleric noted that there is no place in the true religion of Islam that ‘promotes, commends and encourages violence, bloodletting and the killing of the innocent people’.

“We want these teachers to go out and give the correct teachings in accordance with religious integrity, we don’t want people who preach radicalization, because Muslim religion is peace, “added Sheyba.

According to Masjid Shibu ustadh Abdulkarim Mohamed Shabiby, muslims should coexist and preach peace without setting any borders. He spoke at the at the Shibu mosque in Mwembe Tayari shortly after teaching sessions of Muslim imams.

 “The scholars are here with us for one week before they travel to Nairobi for similar sessions,” said Shabiby on Sunday. At least 150 teachers from the six Mombasa sub counties benefited from the teachings where they will be expected to extend the teachings to the grassroots.

Mombasa governor Abdulswamad Nassir has announced that he is advertising for the positions of county executives including CECMs, cheif officers and the position of county secretary.

In a media brief at the governor's office on Sunday, Nassir said that the decision to advertise for the positions was informed by the need to ensure that Mombasa gets qualified individuals.

He also announced that he had set up three committees made up of professionals to help him vet and pick individuals to fill the positions advertised.

"The law allows me to pick individuals, but I found it wise to engage professionals to assist me pick the individuals to serve in my administration"

"I have already written to the county public service to immediately hire those who will be picked for chief officer positions as the rest face the assembly for vetting," said Nassir.

His announcement comes two months after he was sworn into office on September 15.

There were speculations that he had failed to announce his cabinet because of interference from powerful sources within and outside of the county. 

Nassir however refuted the reports saying that no individual or entity was interfering with his running of Mombasa.

"I have advertised these positions and will like to welcome those who feel they are qualified to apply regardless of political assertion, religion or ethnicity," he said.

Adding "Those are just rumours, there is no  single person who has tried that."

The committee to vet those applying for the county cabinet executives positions will be led by representative from Kenya National Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mombasa chapter.

The committee will also have Mahmoud Noor and Ali Ahmed from the Finance Taskforce and will be joined by former Mombasa Law Society chairman Benjamin Njoroge.

Other members will include pastor Ibrahim Charo to represent the church, former chief Kadhi Sheikh Hammad Kassim to represent Muslims, and a representative from the Mombasa diaspora council.

Dr Wilfred Githinji, a don at Kemu will chair the committee to pick the new county secretary and will be joined by a representative from KNCCI Mombasa.

Others will be Oscar Juma from the  Institute of Certified Public Accountants Kenya (ICPAK), Mwinyi Bwika from LSK and a representative from the county government workers union.

Nassir said that the process of picking the individuals to serve in the positions will be done in ten days time beginning Monday.

 The CECM positions to be filled include Lands, Housing and Urban Planning, Water Natural Resources and Climate change resilience, Environment and solid waste management, Transport and infrastructure..

Others will be, Health, Finance and economic planning, Blue economy, agriculture and Livestock, Public service administration, youth gender and sports and Tourism, culture and trade department.

Positions for Chief officers will include a chief officer in Policy and planning, Governance, Tourism culture and trade, Blue economy agriculture and livestock and Youth gender and social services.

Others will be Public service administration, Education and digital transformation, Lands housing and urban planning, Water and sanitation, Renewable energy natural resources and climate change resilience, Environment and solid waste management, Transport and infrastructure, public health and disease prevention, clinical services and finance and economic planning.

Mombasa businessman and politician Suleiman Shahbal has mourned his former chief campaigner and strategist Nyonga Makemba.

Makemba died on Saturday evening while receiving treatment at a hospital in Mombasa where he had been admitted for some days.

Makemba also served as a personal assistant of former powerful Coast politician Karisa Maitha.

In a long social media post, Shahbal as his strongest supporter, brother and friend.

"Today, I have lost a friend, a brother, and my strongest political supporter for the last 12 years David Nyonga wa Makemba. Nyonga stood with me in every single crisis in my campaigns since I started my political career." posted Shahbal.

Shahbal revealed that he was to visit the late Makemba at hospital tomorrow(Sunday).

"I spoke to his son yesterday and I had planned to go see Nyonga tomorrow morning, but unfortunately, he passed on today. Nyonga had been admitted at the Coast General Hospital.Nyonga has been a key political player in both Kilifi and Mombasa politics from the days of the late Karisa Maitha."

Adding "He was a leader and a Mijikenda elder who was respected by all including those who disagreed with him.My deepest condolences to his wife, relatives, friends, and family."