| At gunpoint, kidnapped Nyeri missionary keeps preaching |
 In an instant, Jim Scudder was living a nightmare.
The missionary and his son, John, had traveled from their home in Nyeri, Kenya, to the capital, Nairobi, to obtain a visa for John to attend Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.
As they pulled up to a guesthouse on a recent Wednesday night, five armed men jumped into their car. The hijackers forced the Scudders into the back of the car and started driving.
They threatened the Christians and shoved guns into their chests. They took Jim Scudder’s cash and bank cards and forced him to withdraw money from automated teller machines.
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| Church where Mass is held once a year |
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The Italian War Memorial Church in Nyeri is not your ordinary Catholic sanctuary.
Located at Mathari few metres from the Ihururu road about five kilometres from Nyeri Town, the sanctuary houses the remains of 676 mostly Italian soldiers captured by the British during the Second World War.
While it was being built - disguised as a church - few people knew that behind this facade was a move to negotiate (or just ambush) British authorities to have about 700 bodies of Italians soldiers and civilians, who had died during the World War II in East Africa, buried on the "church" walls. It worked.
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| Nyeri scoops Miss KeMU 2010 Title |
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 Ruth Nyandia is this year’s Miss Kenya Methodist University.
The 19-year old Computer Information Sciences student beat a crowded field of contestants from all five KeMU campuses to bring home the coveted crown at the event that was held yesterday at the university’s main campus.
Nyeri Campus was represented by 6 contestants (both ladies’ and gents’ winners and runners-up in the preliminaries held in Nyeri) accompanied by a 50-man strong cheering squad.
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| Nyeri slums installed with streetlights |
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 The face of Nyeri town is changing dramatically with the installation of streetlights across various slums.The 38 million shillings project is targeting six slums area among them Majengo, Ruring'u, Kamukunji and Dedan Kimathi grounds. Mayor of Nyeri Joseph Thairu expects the lighting to not only improve security but also extend the business hours in the rural town.
According to the Mayor the street lighting project is bound to be a show-stopper. We are also going to upgrade our markets through the slum-upgarding program. We are also constructing three markets. The first market is the Sokojinga market which will now be housed in a two-story building. Presently, it is an open market and is in a very bad state.
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Amid a public outcry over negligence and poor management of the nation’s sports facilities, Keini West District is set to get a new stadium.
A six-member Athletics Kenya team last week toured the site of the proposed Mweiga Stadium on invitation by the local Member of Parliament, Nemesius Warugongo.
The proposed stadium, which Warugongo nicknamed Mweiga Wembley Stadium, will be a welcome development especially after AK abandoned the derelict Ruring’u Stadium, 17km away in Nyeri, and moved the weekend track meeting from there to Narok.
Warugongo said: “I love the UK’s Wembley Stadium and it is my dream this will become as magnificent in terms of impact and sporting activities.”
The meeting gave technical advice to the contractor, who is on site, to ensure the facility in the town centre of the Kieni West
District headquarters, along the Nyeri-Nyahururu highway, meets standards. The facility is seen as an alternative training venue for athletes, especially long distance runners.
With a football pitch, a dais, several volleyball courts and facilities for field events, Mweiga Stadium will be the only one big enough for track and field events and speed work training in Nyeri County.
“We are glad the initiative is coming from a local leader who seems to understand the needs of youths,” said Nyeri AK sub-branch chairman Mutahi Kahiga.
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| savvy granny with coveted sense of style |
 She might be old, but fashion is something she is not ready to let go easily. Eunice Wangeci Maina, 65, leaves many with their mouths agape because of her stylish dress code. Her sense of dressing developed at an early age and she has made it her trademark style, matching everything from the hat, to the handbag and even umbrella.
And indeed “Cucu wa mix and match” (fashion granny), as she is fondly referred to by residents of Blue Valley estate where she hails from, has become an icon in Nyeri Town, standing out from the rest. In fact, the widow and mother of four, has become a mentor and inspirational figure to young and old women alike.
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| Two students killed in Endarasha Boys school fire |
 Grief befell Endarasha Boys in Nyeri after two students were burnt beyond recognition after a dormitory was reportedly set ablaze by fellow students.
The two students Kennedy Karogo Njuguna and Joseph Mwangi Maina of Endarasha Boys Secondary School in Kieni West district were trapped when a fire broke out at the Fr Wambugu dormitory where 180 form one students slept.
The charred remains of the two students, blackened by the raging inferno, lay near an exit door, an indication they got burnt while trying to escape from the burning building.
The building was also badly damaged with the roof caving in and burnt metal beds and boxes which were littered outside the dormitory, perhaps as students tried to rescue some of their belongings.
Following the incident, nine form one students have been arrested. Also arrested were the owner of a petrol selling outlet at Endarasha town and a man he reportedly instructed to sell petrol to the students.
Police recovered a 10 litre container believed to have carried petrol which was used to set the dormitory ablaze.
Students are said to have jumped over the school fence and walked the 500 meters to Endarasha trading centre where they bought the fuel.
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| Butchering an Elephant for Meat and Ivory |
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 Residents of Kagochi village in Nyeri carve the meat from an elephant which died in a nearby forest from an unknown cause. The tusks were removed and the elephant was carved up for consumption, defying armed forces recommendations not to.
Its an early Christmas festival for villagers of Kagochi in Nyeri, Kenya, after an adult elephant was found dead in a nearby forest. The cause of death was not known.
Kenya Wildlife officials suspected poisoning from the farmers. However, the villagers, armed with knives and axes defied the armed officers order with some carrying pieces of meat to their homes.
Elephant invasion has been a major problem in the area. The animals come from a nearby Mt Kenya forest and now the residents are calling upon the government to install an electric fence around the area.
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 Mercy Muthoni, 27, gazes blankly into the horizon as she ponders a future without her husband.
It is more than a year since he disappeared from their Gathaithi village home in Mathira, Nyeri, as vigilante gangs roamed the area.
At the time, the gangs were hunting down members of the outlawed mungiki sect, who they accused of committing several murders.
In turn, mungiki hit back in April last year and killed 29 people at Gathaithi village.
She recalls that Mr Dickson Muhindi left without a warning, and has never been heard of since.
“I have left it all to God since my search has yielded nothing,” Muthoni said, fighting back tears.
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| Murugi urges Kenyans to accept gays |
 A Cabinet minister has stirred a hornet’s nest with a suggestion that Kenyans should accept homosexuality and learn to live with it.
Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi told participants at a national symposium on HIV/Aids in Mombasa targeting homosexuals, lesbians and sex workers that the government had no option but to address the community’s concerns.
“We need to learn to live with men who have sex with other men… we are in the 21st century and things have changed,” she told the gathering on Thursday.
Participants at the seminar were mainly homosexuals, lesbians and sex workers, dubbed “most at risk population” because their sexual behaviour puts them at greatest risk of HIV infection.
Ms Murugi said the group was an independent constituency and should not be stigmatised because of sexual inclination.
She told the National Aids Control Council to compile statistics to enable the government to develop a policy to cut prevalence rates among the group.
“This symposium is critical in ensuring that risk factors are discussed and taken into consideration in national planning for HIV and Aids,” said the minister.
Religious leaders were on Friday furious at the minister.
Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya organising secretary Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa said the utterances were “satanic and contrary to Africa culture”.
“God in his holy books (Quran and Bible) cursed homosexuality and directed us to fight it. The minister has offended Kenyans who passed a new constitution that criminalises the vice,” he said.
Sheikh Khalifa urged President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to take stern action against the minister.
Kenya National Muslim Advisory Council chairman Sheikh Juma Ngao demanded that Ms Murugi resigns or be sacked.
“The minister and National Aids Control Council officials should create their own country which allows homosexual, lesbian and prostitution acts,” he said.
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