Kenya
Looming Clash After Alice Wahome Trashes Summon
A letter addressed to the commission’s secretary Skitter W. Mbugu, on Wednesday, January 13, seemed to lay the groundwork for a back and forth clash.
The document authored by Wahome set conditions upon which she would honour the summon due for Thursday, January 14.
“To enable me to prepare a substantive response and reasonable defence, kindly let me know which part of my statement you find offensive taking into account the freedom of expression laid out in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.
“Take notice that I am therefore unable to attend to the summons on 14th January 2021 as requested unless and until I receive the requested particulars,” she demanded.
Wahome had been summoned over remarks she allegedly made in October 2020 after violence broke out during Deputy President William Ruto’s visit to Kenol, Murang’a.
The incident, which happened before Ruto’s arrival at AIPCA church in Kenol, left two people dead and several others injured
Wahome reportedly went on a scathing attack against President Uhuru Kenyatta, and called for his resignation.
The commission stated that Wahome’s comments were hateful in nature, and were likely to disrupt the peaceful existence between ethnic communities.
Failure for the legislator to appear in person at their offices, the commission noted, would institute contempt proceedings against her.
After the violent confrontation, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai ordered for the immediate arrest of the politician alongside Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro.
The scuffle in Murang’a started when a group of rowdy youth blocked the highway at Kenol, and began engaging perceived ‘political’ rivals in running battles.
Several vehicles were damaged, as the main highway to Nyeri remained impassable for several hours.
In a statement, KR announced that it had started loading and moving double-stack freight trains between the Port of Mombasa and Inland Container Depot (ICD)Nairobi.
“The move will help improve daily cargo evacuation and efficiency of the Port of Mombasa,” reads an excerpt of their statement.
To improve daily cargo evacuation and efficiency of the Port of Mombasa, today we started loading and moving double-stack trains between the Port of Mombasa and ICD Nairobi via SGR.
Each train has a capacity of moving a minimum of 154 TEUs.#keepkenyamoving #transportwithus pic.twitter.com/EBViTfGB8s
— Kenya Railways (@KenyaRailways_) January 27, 2021
In addition, the national rail carrier stated that each train has a capacity of moving a minimum of 154 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The service was initially introduced in 2018 but was shut down after cargo movers avoided moving their goods via the SGR.
The SGR is the only service in Kenya that has the capacity to ferry double-stacked and was one of the reasons why the modern rail was built at a cost of over Ksh360 billion. Cargo movers have complained of the high cost of moving cargo via the service which is compounded by delays in sorting cargo at the Nairobi ICD.
In recent months, traders and importers were facing delays in the delivery of cargo attributable to damaged wagons at the port of Mombasa.
The damage to the 550 wagons was caused by six giant cranes installed at the facility at a cost of Sh1.2 billion.
The damage caused a serious shortage of wagons which forced Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) to cut by more than half the number of SGR freight trains in the past two months.
This resulted in delays in delivering cargo as well as congestion at the port.
As of November 2020, more than 3,000 containers had remained uncollected as Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and KRC worked out on urgent measures to contain the situation.
In a statement seen by Muhabarishaji.com, the County Assembly Speaker Anthony Waweru them information false, but confirmed that the assembly had received the bill on January 26, but was yet to deliberate on it.
Waweru stated that Members of the Kirinyaga County Assembly are currently on recess and would resume preliminary seatings on February 8, 2021.
“The County Assembly of Kirinyaga has not considered the Constitutional amendment Bill 2020 (BBI),” the statement reads in part.
Waweru further stated that the assembly would deliberate on the amendment bill extensively and determinations presented to the Senate and National Assembly as stipulated by the law.
“The County Assembly of Kirinyaga shall in consultation with the people of Kirinyaga and within the confines of the law consider the Constitutional Amendment Bill and submit its decisions to the Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the National Assembly as guided by section 257(6) of the constitution of Kenya,” the statement reads.
Members of County Assemblies have had the spotlight turned on them, as their determinations would make or break the BBI report.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Monday, January 25, cleared the way for the BBI to move to county assemblies.
This is after the commission confirmed that 1.4 million votes collected by the BBI secretariat were enough to kickstart the referendum process.
The amendment bill will then be subjected to a referendum should a majority of the county assemblies pass the bill, whereas it will terminate immediately should it fail to garner the required threshold.
According to the Chairman of the Ksh5.2 billion, 44-floor apartment building at Upper Hill, the individuals who were granted the refund explained the harsh economic impact they had been going through during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We refunded the deposits in full ranging from Ksh5 million to Ksh12 million,” he said.
The real estate sector has been one of the worst-hit by the pandemic.
According to data published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) covering the second quarter of 2020, the real estate sector growth slowed to 3.9% compared to 7.2% expansion in a similar period of 2019.
Covid-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to the Kenyan economy over the past few months.
The immediate impact on the sector has been a reduction of the labour force and disruption of supply chains, which is expected to translate to longer development periods.
Kenya has also witnessed a negative impact on the supply chains as most developers source construction materials from nations such as China.
This translated to longer development periods owing to a shortage of resources and ultimately reduced building completions.
The market is expected to experience a slow recovery post-Covid-19 as uptake will be subdued due to depressed income levels and changed priorities by prospective investors.
The government is expected to continue putting in place sound fiscal policies to cushion businesses and people’s disposable incomes.
The price of properties in Kenya dropped to a great extent in 2020, with many property sellers providing huge discounts.
Many real estate companies are providing personalized plans so that none of their clients feels any burden on their pocket when making a purchase.
In terms of rent concession, reductions, and holidays, there has been no single basic formula applied by landlords. Rather, each and every landlord is dealing with their individual tenants on a case-to-case basis.
Consumer behaviours are clearly being forced to change, which will result in a very different demand profile for property going forward.
