Kenya

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He Allegedly Left Girlfriend's Body in Car, Is Arrested Again

Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kangethe had fled police custody in Kenya last week

(Newser) - A man wanted in Massachusetts to face murder charges has been rearrested, a week after he dramatically escaped from police custody, Kenyan police said Wednesday. Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kangethe escaped while awaiting extradition on a Massachusetts warrant alleging he killed his girlfriend and left her body in a car at...

Illegal Gas Site in Nairobi Unleashes Deadly Inferno

At least 3 dead, more than 270 injured following explosions in Nairobi

(Newser) - A truck loaded with liquid petroleum gas cylinders exploded and set off a late-night inferno that burned homes and warehouses in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, killing at least three people and injuring more than 270, officials said Friday, with the death toll expected to rise. At least 24 people were...

Cult Leader Is Blamed for Hundreds of Deaths in Court

Paul Mackenzie must undergo a mental assessment

(Newser) - Doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 30 of his followers were presented in a Kenyan court in the coastal town of Malindi on Wednesday to face charges of murdering 191 children . Mackenzie and the other suspects were not yet formally charged and so did not enter pleas because High Court...

Lion Footprints Lead to Motorcyclist's Body

Attack occurred near national reserve in Kenya

(Newser) - Police in Kenya on Monday recovered the body of a man believed to have been attacked by a lion while he was riding a motorcycle near a national reserve in the south of the country. Police were notified by community members of an abandoned motorcycle along a road near the...

Manhunt Begins in Kenya After Woman Is Found Dead in US

Suspect in slaying took flight from Boston, Massachusetts investigators say

(Newser) - The body of a missing Massachusetts woman was found Wednesday in a parking garage at Boston's Logan International Airport, and state police said the suspect in her killing has taken a flight to Kenya. The search for the man has begun there, ABC News reports. Margaret Mbitu, 31, was...

It's a Site Known for Crashes. This One Just Killed Dozens

At least 51 die after truck hits market traders, other vehicles in Londiani, Kenya

(Newser) - A truck rammed into several other vehicles and market traders in western Kenya, killing dozens, police said. The Friday evening accident occurred at a location known for vehicle crashes near the Rift Valley town of Londiani, which is about 125 miles northwest of the capital, Nairobi. Officers at the scene...

Kenyan Facebook Content Moderators: Job Is 'Torture'

Lawsuit against the social media giant could have global effects

(Newser) - On the verge of tears, Nathan Nkunzimana recalled watching a video of a child being molested and another of a woman being killed. His job as a content moderator for a Facebook contractor required him to look at horrors. Some overwhelmed colleagues would scream or cry, he said. Now, the...

Cult Members Keep Trying to Die, Even After Rescue

65 charged with attempted suicide in Kenya; meanwhile, starvation death toll rises to 300-plus

(Newser) - The death toll from a Kenyan doomsday cult whose members fatally starved themselves has surpassed 300, making it "one of the worst cult-related tragedies in recent history," per Reuters . The adjusted number came after authorities exhumed 19 more bodies from mass graves in the nation's southeastern Shakahola...

Kenya Cult Death Toll Rises to 73
Death Toll at Kenyan
Cult's Ranch Rises to 90
UPDATED

Death Toll at Kenyan Cult's Ranch Rises to 90

17 more bodies exhumed after pastor allegedly told followers to starve themselves

(Newser) - The startling numbers continue to grow in Kenya: The death toll at a ranch owned by a pastor who is accused of leading a religious cult and ordering his followers to starve themselves reached 90 on Tuesday. The new figure came after police exhumed 17 more bodies, per the AP...

25 Deaths and Counting Linked to Alleged Kenyan Cult

Pastor is in custody, accused of encouraging followers to starve themselves

(Newser) - Twenty-one bodies have been found so far on land owned by a pastor in coastal Kenya who was arrested for telling his followers to fast to death, per the AP . Malindi sub-county police chief John Kemboi said more shallow graves have yet to be dug up on the land belonging...

For Kenya's Elite Female Runners, a Brutal Price to Pay

'New Yorker' explores the gender-based violence they face at home

(Newser) - Agnes Tirop was found murdered in October 2021. Six months later, Damaris Mutua was strangled to death. Both women were in their 20s and killed in the same town of Iten, Kenya. But they had something more telling in common: Both were elite runners on the world stage. At the...

In Kenya, Election Comes to Crazy Finish

William Ruto defeats Raila Odinga, but 4 of 7 election commissioners denounce the count

(Newser) - After last-minute chaos that could foreshadow a court challenge, Kenya’s electoral commission chairman on Monday declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner of the close presidential election over five-time contender Raila Odinga. Ruto received 50.49% of the votes with more than 7.1 million, the chairman said, while...

Hospital Reminds Desperate Kenyans It Won't Buy Kidneys

Nation is deep into a cost of living crisis worsened by Russian blockade in Ukraine

(Newser) - With the price of food and other necessities soaring, a hospital has found it necessary to remind desperate Kenyans that they shouldn't try to raise money by selling an organ. "How much for my kidney?" is now the question most often posted to Kenyatta National Hospital, a Facebook...

'Stray Lion' in Bushes Was Just a Shopping Bag
'Stray Lion' Alert Leads to
Much More Innocuous Find
in case you missed it

'Stray Lion' Alert Leads to Much More Innocuous Find

It was a shopping bag with a lion's face on it in the bushes outside a Kenyan home

(Newser) - A farmhand in Kenya may be feeling a little foolish today, but also pretty lucky: His anxiety-ridden "stray lion" sighting turned out not to be a lion after all. The BBC reports on the incident that took place in Kinyana, a village not far from Mount Kenya National Park,...

A 'Nation of Lakes' Battles an Alarming Trend
A 'Nation of Lakes'
Battles an Alarming Trend
longform

A 'Nation of Lakes' Battles an Alarming Trend

'The Guardian' looks at devastating increase in lake levels

(Newser) - A decade ago, geologist Simon Onywere was among the first scientists to notice what residents of waterlogged villages already knew: lakes throughout Kenya are expanding. Since then, a widespread catastrophe has unfolded. Per the Guardian , which traced Onywere’s efforts to help pinpoint the cause and spur action, the Kenyan...

Living Animals in White Rhino Breeding Program: One

Najin, one of 2 remaining northern white rhinos, has been retired

(Newser) - Hopes of saving the northern white rhinoceros now rest on a sole female, some frozen sperm, and a dozen embryos. There are just two northern white rhinos alive—females Najin and Fatu of Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy—whose eggs were extracted, then inseminated with frozen sperm from dead males...

Runner Who Finished 4th in Tokyo Is Murdered
'Prime Suspect'
in Olympian's
Murder Arrested
UPDATED

'Prime Suspect' in Olympian's Murder Arrested

Emmanuel Rotich, husband of runner Agnes Tirop, was detained in Mombasa, Kenya

(Newser) - Update: The husband of a Kenyan long-distance runner who competed in the Tokyo Olympics and was found murdered this week has been arrested. The BBC reports that Emmanuel Rotich was detained in Mombasa on Thursday, a day after 25-year-old Agnes Tirop was found dead in her bed, as he was...

15-Month Mission Saves Giraffes on Sinking Island

9 endangered Rothschild giraffes transported on custom-made barge to mainland Kenya

(Newser) - For more than a year, multiple groups have worked together to rescue nine endangered giraffes from a sinking island in a Kenyan lake. On Monday, the final two animals made the milelong journey from their flooded habitat to their new home on the mainland, thanks to the rescuers' patience and...

Obama Mourns His 'Mama Sarah'
Obama Mourns
His 'Mama Sarah'
obituary

Obama Mourns His 'Mama Sarah'

Former president's stepgrandmother dies in Kenya

(Newser) - Sarah Obama, the matriarch of former President Obama's Kenyan family, has died, per the AP . She was at least 99 years old. Mama Sarah, as the stepgrandmother of the former president was fondly called, promoted education for girls and orphans in her rural Kogelo village. She died at the...

American Gets 15 Years for Abuse at Kenyan Orphanage

Gregory Dow, 61, started the home with his family

(Newser) - An American who ran an orphanage in Kenya has received a prison sentence of more than 15 years after being convicted of sexually abusing four girls there. Gregory Dow "traveled halfway around the world to prey on incredibly vulnerable victims," a federal prosecutor said. "His crimes are...

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