Kibra News Network

Kenyan universities have set out the medical examination, health cover and documentation requirements for the 2026 admission cycle, according to the source credited below. Background University admission in Kenya requires more than a placement letter.

Institutions ask for a completed medical examination form, proof of health cover, and in some cases specific screening for courses with clinical or laboratory components. The introduction of the Social Health Authority in place of the old national scheme has changed which card students present and how dependants are covered, which is the main reason the requirements are being restated each intake.

Why it matters here For a family in Kibra this is a cost question first. Each item on the list, the medical examination, the registration, the travel to a facility that will complete the form, arrives in the same weeks as fees, transport and accommodation, and a missed step can delay reporting.

Students...

Addis Ababa - The Government of Ethiopia is taking decisive measures against individuals, organizations, and networks accused of undermining the ongoing macroeconomic reform through corruption, illegal economic activities, and misuse of national resources.

Background Anti-corruption drives announced from the centre tend to be judged on two questions rather than one. The first is whether the cases reach court and survive there, since arrests without prosecutions are a familiar pattern across the region.

The second is whether the net is drawn widely enough to include people close to the governing arrangement, because a campaign that only reaches opponents functions as politics rather than as enforcement. Independent prosecution and a judiciary insulated from the executive are what separate the two.

Why it matters here Kenyans have watched enough of these cycles to recognise the shape. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions have announced high-profile cases repeatedly, and...

Kenya has named its squads for the East Africa Secondary Schools Games rugby competition, according to the source credited below. Background The East Africa Secondary Schools Games are the main regional competition for school sport, and for most players they are the highest level of representative rugby they will reach.

School rugby has historically been the main pipeline into the Kenyan national sevens and fifteens sides, which is both a strength and a weakness: the pathway is real, but it runs almost entirely through a small number of schools with the facilities, coaching and travel budgets to compete.

Why it matters here That is the part that matters in Kibra. A pathway that runs through well-resourced schools is closed to most children here before it starts, not through any selection decision but because the school has no pitch, no kit and no budget to travel to a tournament.

KNN has...

The Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (Rwanda FDA) has ordered the immediate recall of more than 20 alcohol brands after shutting down a dozen manufacturing facilities in an ongoing crackdown on substandard alcohols. Background Recalling alcohol brands and closing producers usually follows testing that has found either methanol contamination or ingredients and strengths that do not match the label.

Illicit and poorly regulated spirits are dangerous in a specific way: methanol poisoning can blind or kill, and it is indistinguishable by taste from ethanol, so consumers cannot protect themselves through judgement. Enforcement tends to arrive in waves after a cluster of poisonings, and the difficulty afterwards is keeping the closed producers closed.

Why it matters here Kenya has fought this battle for years, through periodic crackdowns on second-generation spirits and unlicensed brews. In Kibra and similar settlements the risk is concentrated because cheap alcohol sells where incomes are lowest, and...

Kenyan bankers have made a fresh set of demands to the Central Bank of Kenya over the way loan interest rates are set, according to the source credited below. Background Kenyan lending rates are shaped by the Central Bank's policy rate, by the risk-based pricing models each bank submits for approval, and by the cost of deposits.

When the policy rate falls, lending rates have historically been slow to follow, and the argument between the regulator and the banks turns on whether that lag reflects genuine funding costs and non-performing loans, or simply the absence of competition.

The Central Bank has previously used moral suasion and approval of pricing models rather than direct caps, having seen the effects of the interest rate cap that was in force between 2016 and 2019. Why it matters here Credit in Kibra rarely comes from a commercial bank at all.

Traders here borrow from...

A search team has retrieved the remains of renowned climber Nirmal Purja and several members of his team. Background Recovering bodies from high altitude is among the most dangerous work in mountaineering. Above roughly 8,000 metres the human body deteriorates faster than it can recover, avalanche debris is unstable, and a recovery team is exposed to the same conditions that caused the original accident.

Families often wait weeks or months for a weather window, and in many cases a recovery is never attempted at all, which is why a completed retrieval is significant in itself. Why it matters here Kenya's mountaineering community is small but real, centred on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori, and the same logic governs rescue there: a search is limited by weather, by daylight and by the equipment the rescuers have rather than by willingness.

More broadly, the question of who bears the cost and risk...

According to the report, Kwale, Embu, Kericho, Mandera, Siaya and Uasin Gishu were the only counties to attain an "A" grade after exceeding the statutory development spending threshold while demonstrating strong fiscal discipline.

Background County budgets are split between recurrent spending, which is mostly salaries and operations, and development spending, which is the money that builds things. The Public Finance Management Act sets a floor of 30 per cent of a county's budget for development, and the Controller of Budget reports on whether counties reach it.

Missing the target is rarely a single decision; it is the cumulative effect of a wage bill that grows faster than revenue, late exchequer releases, and procurement that stalls late in the financial year. Why it matters here Nairobi's performance is a Kibra story in the most literal way.

Development spending is the line that funds drainage, footpaths, lighting, water connections, health centre equipment...

Team evacuated a patient from McMurdo Station after landing plane in total darkness and temperature of -43°C. Background Winter medical evacuations from Antarctica are among the hardest flights attempted anywhere. For several months there is no daylight, temperatures sit far below the safe operating range for most aircraft, and a runway is compacted snow lit by whatever the ground crew can improvise.

Because there is no possibility of a diversion, the decision to fly is made by weighing a patient's condition against a risk that cannot be reduced, and national Antarctic programmes cooperate across flags when one of them has the aircraft and another has the patient.

Why it matters here The principle underneath it, that a medical evacuation is a logistics problem before it is a clinical one, applies much closer to home. In Nairobi the constraint is not darkness and cold but traffic, distance to a facility that...

A Senate index has warned that Nairobi County's mounting pending bills point to a fiscal crisis, according to the source credited below. Background Pending bills are invoices a county has received and not paid. They matter more than the label suggests, because they are effectively borrowing from suppliers without a loan agreement: contractors stop work, small suppliers go under, and future procurement becomes more expensive as bidders price in the risk of late payment.

A county with large pending bills is also constrained in its next budget, since the arrears have first claim on the funds before any new project can start. Why it matters here For Kibra this is the mechanism that stalls local works.

A contractor who has not been paid for a drainage contract in one ward does not mobilise for the next one, and the ward gets an unfinished trench rather than a completed drain. It...

Kinshasa - The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ugandan authorities to ensure the safety of exiled Congolese journalist John Zihindula Bwirabwanda, whose Ugandan home was broken into by armed men who threatened to kill him for posting news on social media.

Background Exile is not the end of the risk for journalists who leave after threats at home. Reporters who continue publishing about their own country from a neighbouring one remain reachable, and the protection they receive depends on the host state treating the threat as a policing matter rather than a diplomatic inconvenience.

Press freedom organisations track these cases precisely because the pattern is consistent across regions: the threat follows the work, not the border. Why it matters here Kenya is one of the region's main destinations for exiled journalists and activists, which makes the standard set by neighbouring states directly relevant here.

Kenya's own record has been...

Nairobi - The Kidiwa Affordable Housing Project in Soi Sub-County, Uasin Gishu County, is transforming lives long before the first residents receive the keys to its 220 housing units. Beyond providing decent and affordable homes, the development has become a catalyst for employment, skills development and economic empowerment for the surrounding community.

Background Kenya's affordable housing programme is funded by a levy on gross income and delivered through county-level projects, with units allocated through the Boma Yangu platform. The recurring questions about the programme are not about whether houses get built but about who ends up in them: whether allocation is transparent, whether the monthly repayment is genuinely within reach of the income group the scheme names, and whether the supporting infrastructure, water, sewerage and roads, arrives at the same time as the buildings.

Why it matters here Kibra is the place where the answer matters most and the delivery...