Theresa May takes over as British PM
Theresa May will take over the job of British prime minister from David Cameron on Wednesday and form a government with the monumental tasks of extricating Britain from the European Union and uniting a fractured nation.
May, who has been interior minister for six years and is seen by her supporters as a safe pair of hands to steer the country through the disruptive Brexit process, will become Britain’s second woman prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher.
After her own visit to the palace to be formally entrusted with the job by the monarch, May will then enter Number 10 Downing Street as prime minister in the afternoon.
Riek Machar leaves Juba
South Sudan’s vice president has withdrawn with his troops to outside of Juba but is not planning for war, his spokesman said on Wednesday, as a ceasefire that ended heavy fighting with the president’s forces entered its third day.
Forces loyal to longtime rivals Vice President Riek Machar’s forces and President Salva Kiir fought street battles in the capital during a five-day period until a ceasefire was reached on Monday. ‘We had to move away from our base (in Juba) to avoid further confrontation,’Machar’s spokesman James Gatdet Dak in Nairobi told Reuters, saying he was in contact with Machar’s forces. “He is around the capital. I cannot say the location.”
It was not clear what caused the latest rift between the two men who have long jostled for power, even before South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011. The flare-up was apparently sparked on Thursday when Kiir’s forces stopped and demanded to search vehicles with Machar’s troops. Gatdet Dak said Machar would stay away from Juba until ceasefire details were worked out.
13 women candidates shortlisted for deputy CJ
The Judicial Service Commission today shortlisted thirteen women for the Deputy Chief Justice position. The candidates are Hannah Okwengu, Abida Ali Aroni, Agnes Murgor, Wajiru Karanja, Philomena Mwilu, Fatuma Sichale, Lydia Achode, Pauline Nyamweya, Martha Koome, Roselyne Nambuye, Surinder Kapila, Pamela Mwikali Tutui and Joyce Miguda Majiwa.
Eighteen others have been shortlisted for the position of judge of the Supreme Court.
BREXIT costs Kenya fruit shippers
Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is costing Kenyan fresh-produce exporters 8 million shillings ($79,000) a day because of the pound’s slump against the dollar, the head of the industry association said.
The British currency has weakened 12 percent against the dollar since June 23, when the country voted to end its membership of the trading bloc, known as Brexit. That’s hurting Kenyan shippers of fruit, vegetables and flowers to the U.K., Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya Chairman Dipesh Devraj said.
“Our biggest customers are in the U.K.,” accounting for more than half of Kenya’s fresh-produce exports, Devraj said in the capital, Nairobi. “We pay for freight in U.S. dollars and receive payments in pounds. This makes the equation instantly bad.”
Horticulture exporters in Kenya must prepare for a slump in business because of Brexit, as the U.K. is one of Kenya’s biggest trading partners, according to Grant Thornton Kenya. That may bring pressure to bear on the Kenyan shilling, it said in a June 24 report. The currency has gained 1 percent against the dollar so far this year.
Uhuru Kenyatta meets Ford Kenya leaders
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday met leaders of the New Ford-Kenya party, barely three days after they announced its dissolution. The leaders who met President Kenyatta at State House in Nairobi included party leader Ken Lusaka, Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa and former minister Musikari Kombo.
The leaders said they had taken the bold move to dissolve their party to unite Kenyans and move the country forward. President Kenyatta thanked them for the decision to join Jubilee, saying it would pave the way for other political parties to take similar steps. “I want to assure you that we will also merge our parties. The issues of the law which had delayed us have now been resolved,” said the President.
The President said the move shows Kenyan leaders are keen on forming a party with a national outlook. “We don’t want to kill the opposition, all we want is for our politics to be issues-based,” said President Kenyatta.
