NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 24 – Former President Uhuru Kenyatta spent time with children at various children homes where he shared Christmas goodies.

Photos shared on social media shows the cheerful Kenyatta playing with babies as he distributed Christmas gifts.

He distributed goodies at Mama Fatuma Goodwill Children’s Home in Gatundu and Children’s Garden home and School in Uthiru just outside the capital Nairobi.

Kenyatta has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office in August, and mainly focuses on peace initiatives in the DRC and Ethiopia as the regional peace envoy.

Kenyatta left office in August 2022, after serving as president for two terms.

He handed over to his deputy William Ruto who won the election, defeating Kenyatta’s preferred successor Raila Odinga who suffered a humiliating defeat which he unsuccessfully challenged at the Supreme Court.

In Summary
  • He made the pledge following the poor performance by athletes from Kitui during an inter county cross country competition at Kitui High School on Saturday
  • The Saturday event was hosted by the Athletic Kenya Kitui county branch under the chairmanship of Philip Ngovi

Renowned environmentalist, Dr. Isaac Kalua, has expressed concern over the lack of proper grooming of talented athletes from Kitui and offered to sponsor an annual Green Cross-country race.

Kalua was jolted by the poor showing by the team from Kitui during a cross-country competition at Kitui High School against their compatriots from Makueni and Machakos on Saturday.

Kalua lamented that although Kitui was well endowed with talented youth not only in sports but also in art, they never got the opportunity to exploit their acumen for lack of training.

He consequently announced that his own environmental outfit, Green Africa Group, would next year sponsor the Green Cross Country to the tune of Sh300,000 to identify talented athletes in Kitui for grooming.

“In my individual capacity and the green Africa Group, we will launch the Green Cross Country. I have been informed that for the event to successfully take place it requires a budget of Sh300, 000. I will put the money into the kitty,” said Kalua.

Kalua who is the CEO and founder of Green Africa Group said he would make the sponsorship of the Green cross-country an annual ritual to ensure that no talented sportsman was left behind.

He spoke at the Kitui High School grounds where he was the guest of honor during the Ukambani Inter-County Cross-Country competition that was attended by the AK Southern branch chairman, Paul Mutwii.

The competitions were organized and hosted by the Athletic Kenya Kitui county branch under the chairmanship of Philip Ngovi.

The event was used to pick sportsmen who will represent the region during the national cross-country championship at Ruiru on January 21 in Kiambu County.

Kalua lamented that no single athlete from Kitui qualified to be part of the team that will represent the region at the Ruiru national competition.

He noted that participants from Kitui County were obviously ill-prepared as they had not been exposed to any preparatory training. He said those from Makueni and Machakos counties appeared more groomed.

The conservationist said Kitui leaders should have hitherto exposed the athletes to training and in-house competitions for them to perfectly compete with those from Makueni and Machakos at the Saturday cross-country.


Credits: The Star Newspaper 

On Monday March 22, President Uhuru Kenyatta attended a memorial service for the late Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli. He was in the middle of his speech at about 1pm when Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer rang out. As soon as he heard the call to prayer, President Uhuru paused his speech for the entire duration. This act earned the President praise from both Christians and Muslims across the region.

Against this backdrop, it is critical for us as a nation to actually pause, just as the President did and reflect on the role of both prayer and mutual respect in our lives. Prayer is not just a religious rite. It is infinitely more powerful than that. Søren Kierkegaard the Danish philosopher captured it well when he said, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.”

One of the changes it effects in us is to stir respect for our fellow human beings.

At this critical juncture in our nation, when the corona pandemic is strangling our health, economy and way of life, prayer must regain its rightful place at the centre of our nation. This doesn’t mean occasionally pleading with God to help us in our moment of need. Rather, just as happened when President Uhuru paused his speech because of prayer, we need to deliberately pause and refocus our way of life to prayer.

Although there were those who scoffed at the late Magufuli’s constant call to Tanzanians to embrace prayer as one of the antidotes to Covid-19, millions of Americans were in fact, turned into prayer. Last year, the Pew Research Centre conducted a survey that revealed that 55 per cent of US adults had prayed for the coronavirus spread to end. Evidently, prayer is a tool wielded by everyone, irrespective of race, social status or economic class.

Interestingly, the efficacy of prayer has been scientifically proven. In 2009, several researchers conducted a study on the effects of prayer on depression and anxiety.

Their study, published in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, revealed that when people prayed for each other, their depression and anxiety rates decreased. Kenya’s current economic, health and political challenges have opened the floodgates of depression and anxiety. I suggest that we embrace prayer as a shield against this onslaught.

This should be done both spontaneously and deliberately, in a coordinated approach. As a matter of fact, the same coordination being employed to roll out vaccinations should be deployed in prayer. Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch writer who helped many Jews escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust once posed a question that should guide how we deploy prayer during these difficult times, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”

We should not treat prayer as a spare wheel that we only seek to use occasionally, during emergencies.

Rather, we should enthrone prayer into the steering wheel of our families and nation. If we do so, some of our pressing national problems will be tackled successfully. In 2011, a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin revealed that prayer helps in quenching anger and aggression. In this regard, it engenders a feeling of solidarity and harmony.

This is exactly what Kenya needs. During these moments when challenges are punching us from every corner, it’s easy for us to become disillusioned and divided. Thankfully, prayer can come to the rescue. Even as we seek to pray, we must never lose respect for one another. You cannot purport to talk to God when you despise His children, your fellow Kenyans, your fellow human beings.

When he paused during the Muslim call to prayer, President Kenyatta was in essence showing respect to our Muslim brethren. His Christianity did not preclude him from extending respect to Muslims.

Kindness, which is a sibling to respect, is love in action. If we are kind to one another, if we are respectful of one another, then our political or tribal differences will not result in automatic hostility. We can disagree without pulling each other down. As President Obama once said, ‘We can have political debates without turning on one another.’ As we enter yet another Covid-19 lockdown, let us pull together in prayer that is stemming from mutual respect for one another.

As we do so, let us listen to one another and to our Heavenly Father.

In the words of Mother Theresa, “God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.” We must pause for prayer to heal our land. Think Green, Act Green!

-The writer is the founder Green Africa Foundation

www.kaluagreen.com