By Kelvin Opere and Najma Mahat

Recent global concerns with a new Covid-19 variant, new county health reforms thinking and the calling off a national health workers strike suggest that rethinking the right to health is timely.

MCAs on Monday stormed the office of Kiambu Governor Kimani Wa Matangi, demanding a speedy disbursement of bursaries to them for onward transmission to needy students in their respective wards. According to them, the governor is using his office to benefit his foundation, which will disburse the funds. Their accusation is that the first-time governor has sidelined them in the plans to disburse bursaries by forming bursary committees at the ward level without consulting them.

The above-listed organisations commend the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for the swift investigations into the brutal murder of Edwin Kiprotich Chiloba. The investigations have resulted in a confession and arrest of four suspects. We laud their efforts to ensure that perpetrators of this heinous act are brought before a court of law. We call upon the LGBTQ+ community and the general public to share additional information to help prosecute this case.

Gay rights activist Edwin Chiloba has been brutally murdered. Our opinions will filter his death as a hate-crime, grim murder or another example of a state that failed to protect its own citizens.

Judge Roselyn Aburuli convicted two people for the lynching of a suspected mobile phone thief in Siaya County this week. The judge admonished the accused for not apprehending the suspect and handing him over to the police as required by law.

As the sun sets for the last time this year, 56 million Kenyans, 47 + 1 governments just received their 2022 report card. How did the 59-year-old student Kenya perform against the standards contained in the Kenyan Constitution this year?

Defence Cabinet Secretary Adan Duale recently sparked a debate over the right of Muslim girls and women to wear the hijab. In a Quran Competition, Duale suggested that Muslim women must wear hijabs whenever in public, and those who oppose it should move elsewhere. Many, including senior government officials such as Economist David Ndii, condemned his remarks as threatening Muslim women and our democratic space.

On December 22, 2022, Sakaja Arthur Johnson, the Governor of Nairobi County, Kenya’s capital,  partnered with Cooperative Bank to release patients who had been detained in hospitals due to accrued medical bills. We congratulate Governor Sakaja for such a humanitarian gesture. However, prior to this public good, the rights of these patients were infringed upon. This is unacceptable.

As the sun sets on a highly electoral year, we cannot resist but reflect on the highs and lows of 2022. Our #ChambuaUongozi campaign took #AmnestyKwaGround to empower citizens to engage political aspirants across 69 wards. We continued to protect the freedom of expression and those persecuted for exercising this freedom. We noted a 39 percent drop in extrajudicial killings. Unfortunately, 18,988 households remain homeless a year after the December 2021 evictions in Mukuru kwa Njenga.

Incoming Inspector General Japeth Koome whipped up his first dust storm. His and other public comments may indicate possible direction policing could take next year.

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