Flooding caused by heavy rains has affected large areas of Kenya including the capital, Nairobi. At least 11 people have been killed and more than 17,000 are displaced.
The rainy season that began in mid-March has damaged homes and farmland.
Those affected are appealing for urgent government assistance as hunger and the risk of disease loom.
The Kenya Red Cross is helping those who have been forced from their homes and has advised those in low-lying areas to seek shelter.
The rain is forecast to last until early next week.
Politician accused of harassment after birthday handshake
via Citizen Digital/TwitterCopyright: via Citizen Digital/Twitter
Kenya's Association of Muslim Lawyers says a politician who appeared to force a woman to shake his hand should be investigated for harassment.
A widely circulated video of an office birthday party shows Ken N'gondi, the Speaker of Nairobi's County Assembly, apparently insisting that a female Muslim colleague shake his hand. He is also seen putting his hand on her shoulder when she stands up.
Kenya hosts key regional summit to spur girl's education
Kenya is hosting a regional conference on boosting girls' education in East Africa.
Their goal is to challenge societal norms that exclude some girls from mainstream education, by using culturally sensitive approaches.
More than 100 stakeholders from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya are to take part in the three-day meeting, which kicks off in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Another key focus is boosting support systems for vulnerable girls - including pregnant girls, teenage mothers and girls with disabilities.
More African countries recall batch of cough syrup
A batch of the children's cough syrup manufactured by Johnson & Johnson in 2021 has now been recalled by drug authorities in six African countries.
This is after Nigeria's drug agency warned that it contained high levels of a toxic and potentially fatal substance.
Drug regulators in Tanzania and Zimbabwe are the latest to recall the syrup as a precautionary measure, although Zimbabwe's Medicines Control Authority said there was no record of the syrup being imported into the country.
Last week, Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (Nafdac) recalled a batch of the Benylin Pediatric syrup after detecting the toxic substance Diethylene glycol in it.
A few days later, Kenya's pharmacy board ordered a halt in the sale of the syrup, acting on Nafdac's advice.
They were then followed by drug authorities in South Africa and Rwanda, who recalled the syrup during the weekend.
Diethylene glycol has been linked to the recent deaths of dozens of children in Cameroon and The Gambia.
Human consumption of the substance causes multiple adverse effects, including acute kidney injury, which may lead to death.
The recalled Benylin Paediatric syrup, batch no 329304 was manufactured in South Africa in May 2021 and was marked with an expiry date of April 2024.
South Africa's drug regulator said batch 329303 was also affected, and that the batches had been sold in South Africa, Eswatini, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria.
Kenvue, which now owns the Benylin Paediatric syrup brand, said it is collaborating with authorities and conducting its own tests, Reuters news agency reported.
African athletes caught up in China half marathon probe
The organisers of the Beijing Half Marathon have opened an investigation into allegations of race fixing involving Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes.
In footage that has gone viral on social media, Ethiopian athlete Dejene Hailu and Kenyan runners Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat appeared to intentionally let Chinese athlete He Jie win Sunday's half marathon.
He, the 2023 Asian Games marathon gold medallist, was then congratulated by the three African athletes after he won the race by a second.
Some Chinese social media users have criticised He's win as "embarrassing" and unsportsmanlike, amid speculation that the race result was manipulated.
"We are investigating and will announce the results to the public once they are available," a representative of the Beijing Sports Bureau told AFP news agency on Monday.
The marathon's organiser also confirmed the investigation had been launched, AFP reported.
Neither He, Hailu, Keter or Mnangat have commented on the
investigations.
African nations urge restraint over Iran-Israel tensions
BBC Monitoring
The world through its media
Several African countries have called on Israel to show restraint as its war cabinet meets to decide whether to retaliate against an unprecedented Iranian aerial attack on Saturday night.
Iran said it carried out the assault in response to an Israeli air strike on its consulate in Damascus on 1 April. The attack killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.
Saturday's assault on Israel involved more than 300 drones and missiles, the vast majority of which were intercepted, Israel's military said.
Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Somalia have called for restraint to avoid further escalation.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement on social media platform X that “all parties must exercise the utmost restraint and avoid any act that would escalate tensions in a particularly fragile region”.
Kenyan President William Ruto urged Israel “to show utmost restraint taking into account the urgent need for all parties to walk away from the brink beyond which recovery will be enormously difficult”.
He said the Iranian attack “represents a real and present threat to international peace and security”.
Somalia called on "the international community to take swift and decisive action to de-escalate the situation and reduce the risk of further conflict".
The Nigerian foreign ministry urged Israel and Iran to "reflect on the universal commitment to peaceful resolution of conflicts".
Kenya police chief criticised for warning striking doctors
A group of civil and human rights groups in Kenya have demanded for an apology from the country's police chief, after he vowed to take action against striking health workers.
Public hospital doctors from the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) have been striking for just over a month, citing grievances like the non-payment of salary arrears and delays by the government to deploy medical interns.
Clinical officers - who are less qualified than doctors but have similar responsibilities - have also walked out.
Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome on Sunday accused the health workers of being "a public nuisance" by blocking roads and blowing whistles during demonstrations, "thus causing discomfort to patients in hospital and the general public".
"We have information that non-medics with the intention to cause havoc and terror to the public intend to join the ongoing processions, a move that poses a threat to public safety and security," he said, adding that the police "have been instructed to deal with such situations firmly and decisively".
KMPDU and eight civil and human rights groups demanded that Mr Koome retract and apologise for his statements or they would pursue legal action against him.
They also pledged to hold Mr Koome personally liable for any harm that befalls picketing and protesting health workers.
Moderna halts plans for Kenya Covid vaccine factory
BBC Newsday
World Service radio
Coronavirus vaccine-maker Moderna is pausing plans to build a manufacturing facility in Kenya.
It had planned to start filling doses of its Covid-19 vaccine on the continent as early as 2023, but Moderna says it has not received any vaccine orders for Africa since 2022.
The firm says there has been a decline in demand for Covid-19 vaccines, and that it is resizing its manufacturing network to cut costs.
Moderna is spending about $4.5bn (£3.6bn) this year in research and development of other, new vaccines including for HIV, malaria and cancer.
Profits are higher for cancer treatments, which require more doses per patient than coronavirus vaccines.
It had detected an unacceptably high level of diethylene glycol in a batch of Benylin Paediatric in 100ml bottles and issued a recall in Nigeria on Wednesday.
The effects of ingesting diethylene glycol include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, altered mental state and acute kidney injury, the PPB said.
The alert only applies to Batch No 329304 of Benylin Paediatric 100ml, which is due to expire this month.
The PPB ordered all pharmaceutical outlets, healthcare facilities and healthcare workers in Kenya to stop distributing it.
It said it was now conducting its own investigations.
Johnson & Johnson, which manufactures the syrup in South Africa, has not commented.
Suspects arrested in shocking Kenya gang-rape video
Police in Kenya have arrested seven suspects in connection with a gang rape of a woman in western Bomet county.
The incident, captured in a viral video, happened in Chebanyi village last December, the police said.
The clip trending as "sigor boys" on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows several men in a dimly lit room taking turns to sexually assault a woman, who is heard screaming.
The video has shocked the country, with many calling for justice to the unidentified woman.
Police said in a statement on Thursday they arrested the suspects following an operation in the area.
Two of the suspects were positively identified and police say they are pursuing the other individuals.
Police said that they will bring the suspects to court and apply to hold them for longer to complete investigation.
Kenyan doctors dismiss president's plea to end strike
Kenyan doctors working in public hospitals have vowed not to go back to work despite President William Ruto's appeal to end a weeks-long strike that has hampered health services in the country.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) went on strike on 14 March over the non-payment of salary arrears, delays by the government to deploy medical interns and other grievances.
On Sunday, President Ruto urged the striking doctors to reconsider their stance, saying that his government was unable to meet their demands due to the ballooning wage bills.
“I know we have a situation in Kenya facing our doctors and (medical doctor) interns but I want to implore them that we as a nation need to agree that we must live within our means, fellow countrymen and women,” Mr Ruto said.
But in response, KMPDU secretary general Davji Atellah said, "we cannot backtrack on our salaries to exploitation in the name of the wage bill".
"The doctors' salary is important [just] like the salary of any Kenyan," Mr Atellah said.
Kenyan doctors reject government offer to end strike
Kenyan doctors working in public hospitals have rejected a government offer aimed at ending a weeks-long
strike that has hampered health services.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists
Union (KMPDU) went on
strike on 14 March over the non-payment of salary arrears, delays by the government to deploy medical interns and other grievances.
Late on Tuesday, the government asked the doctors to end their strike, saying the salary arrears have
been paid and that trainee doctors would be hired from Thursday
this week.
He said the government's offer does not "honour" a collective bargaining agreement that was signed in 2017, when a separate doctors' strike lasted for three months.
Kenyan hospital to dispose unclaimed bodies of 475 babies
Kenya's largest public referral hospital has announced that it will dispose hundreds of unclaimed bodies currently at its morgue if family members will not collect them.
"Interested members of the public are therefore requested to identify and collect the bodies within seven days, failure to which the hospital will seek authority from the courts to dispose of them," the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) said on Tuesday in a notice published in the privately owned The Star newspaper.
The 541 bodies include 475 babies and 66 adults.
The hospital published the names of the deceased, but the identities of a few of the bodies are unknown.
KNH and other public hospitals and morgues in Kenya frequently issue notices for relatives to collect unclaimed bodies.
Bodies that remain uncollected after the grace period are often buried in mass graves.
The bodies are usually of patients who die in hospital without the knowledge of their families.
Some families also opt to abandon bodies of their loved ones in mortuaries when they cannot afford to clear their hospital or mortuary bills.