TALKING POINT

The launch of the first 24-hour news channel in Kenya by the Standard Group on 10 th July 2015 is a major milestone in country’s media industry. Many Kenyans, both in the diaspora and in Kenya have been waiting for such a channel and this can be attributed to the reception the launch got on social media platforms Twitter and Facebook. Several people lauded the launch, which Standard Group says is meant to inform, educate and entertain the masses. The channel will offer comprehensive, incisive news, current affairs programming, documentaries and features, while KTN will continue to air its popular programs. This is just but a glimpse of what digital migration promises its subscribers. It is also important to note that the launch of this channel will see the media group recruit more employees, a positive thing to digital content creators. It is also a challenge to other media organizations in the country to exploit the broadcasting opportunities that come with digital ...

Double standards, blind political sycophancy, war of words and heckling. These are some of the dishonorable behavior our elected leaders have engaged, in relation to yet another multi-million corruption scandal in government, this time at the National Youth Service (NYS). Devolution and planning Cabinet Secretary Ms Ann Waiguru has for weeks now been on the spot because NYS lies in her docket. She has maintained that she is clean in relation to the Ksh. 826 million scandal, claiming that she was the whistle blower and asked the Directorate of Criminal investigation department to investigate how the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) was hacked by unknown people (as at now) in an attempt to steal over 800 Million shillings from NYS. President Uhuru Kenyatta, through State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu, defended the embattled CS, stating that he will not ask her to step aside to allow investigations to be carried out by the Ethics and Anti-Corrupti...

If the recent revelations by police investigations on recruitment of university students in Kenya to terror group Al Shabaab are true, then the government should move with speed to stop radicalization. Reports by police indicate that the University of Nairobi (UoN), Kenyatta University (KU), Moi University and Mount Kenya University have become Al Shabaab feeder institutions and some students are on the terror group’s payroll.  11 UoN students are believed to be Al Shabaab ‘employees’, something that is a time tickling bomb and must be treated with extra caution. The police must act fast on The National Intelligence Service (NIS) tip offs and arrest the suspected recruits before they execute an attack on innocent Kenyans. Radicalization of the youth by Al Shabaab has become a more complex phenomena and many Kenyans continue to wonder why the militia group is reported to be recruiting bright students with promising careers from universities and secondary schools. A few mon...

Traditionally, it was (is) an abomination for a young girl who still lives in her parents’ house to get pregnant. Cases of unmarried girls getting pregnant were rare, and were often condemned. They were rare phenomena because sex education was offered to both boys (by their fathers and grandfathers) and girls (by their mothers and grandmothers). The children were educated on how to relate with the opposite sex in order to avoid unwanted pregnancies- before marriage. Sex was a sacred act and was not meant for non-adults. For one to become an adult, he/she had to undergo a rite of passage. As I was going through the Kenya Gazzete Supplement No. 57 (Senate Bills No. 17), I came across an important clause… According to the bill, an adolescent is any person between the ages of 10-17. From the above provision of the bill, it is only prudent to say that the proposed sex education to children will be friendly and informative and will not corrode the morals of children. It...

A teacher is a student's parent while at school. he or she is entrusted with the responsibility of instilling knowledge, acceptable morals and wisdom on students. the society expects educated students to uphold good moral standards in the society: because teachers, being their mentors and educators are their number one role models. The recent incident at Nakuru's Njoro Girls High School where a teacher was reported to have sexually molested seven students in the school is appalling. What followed was the closure of the school, following the tension that mounted after the students accused the teacher of molesting them sexually, even taking "selfies" with some students while half naked. So, the begging question is, whose morals are the students supposed to emulate if their mentors in the society are demonstrating beastly acts to them? what character are we churning as a society? It is saddening that the teaching profession is breeding deceitful mentors to children, ...

Today marks 52 years since Kenya attained internal self-rule after a long struggle to overcome colonialism. There have been a lot of political transformations since then, from multi-partysm- whose drive was to fight for the rights of Kenyans through opposition parties to the then ruling single party KANU - to promulgating a new constitution in the year 2010. So, even as we celebrate 52 years of independence, have we done enough as a county to ensure that we overcome the challenges that jeopardize stability in the county? Insecurity Since Kenya’s incursion into Somalia, we have had a series of terrorist attacks- the most notable ones being the Westgate Mall attack in September 2013 which left at least 68 Kenyans dead and the most recent one being the Garissa University College attack which left at least 147 students dead. The country has had well over 100 terrorist attacks since 2011, which to any sane individual is quite ridiculous. The police have been blamed for not acting...

The recent sporadic grenade attacks in the country that has left several families mourning their beloved ones is seriously alarming. Once again the government, the security docket to be specific is letting Kenyans down. A state that has not set the security of its citizens as a prime priority is a failed state. Sometimes i am always left wondering why our soldiers are busy trying to restore order in our neighboring country Somali while back at home we continue to lose several innocent lives due to grenade attacks by terrorists. It has reached a point that many Kenyans are afraid of visiting certain areas within the country that experience grenade attacks mostly, such as Eastleigh estate in Nairobi and also the coastal city of Mombasa. The most recent attack in the country was three days ago in Eastleigh Nairobi where at least six people lost their lives and several others were seriously injured following three grenade explosions at about 8:30pm. As Dennis Okari (NTV's investigati...