Gladys Shollei sacked

Kenya's Judicial Service Commission has sacked Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Gladys Shollei . The commission revealed this on Friday citing insubordination,  incompetence,engaging in sideshows and misappropriation of funds.

JSC chairman and Chief Justice Willy Mutunga stated  that it was a unanimous resolution of the commision to sack the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary. Mutunga added that Shollei was  removed from office with immediate effect for: incompetence, misbehaviour, violation of the prescribed code of conduct for judicial officers, violation of Chapter 6 and Article 232 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 (and) insubordination.
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The Chief Justice noted that Shollei had admitted to 33 allegations in which Sh1.7 billion taxpayer funds had been lost or were at risk. He said the Judiciary stood to lose Sh2.2 billion from financial impropriety on which the allegations against her were based.

The Chief Justice said JSC had invited the Ethics and Anti-Corruption commission to do a thorough investigation "in light of the gravity of the issues" that informed Shollei's sacking.

Keep your promise,ICC tells Uhuru

ICC Outreach Coordinator for Kenya and Uganda, Maria Mabinty Kamara  on Wednesday said  President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto had committed themselves that they will continue to cooperate with ICC so they should leave to the promise.

Ms Kamara was speaking at Panafric Hotel in Nairobi during the monthly Journalists for Justice Forum. She  said President Kenyatta is still required to attend trial next month pending the petitions he has filed.

Ms Kamara said ICC will adide by the United Nations Security Council decision on request for the deferral of cases facing President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto by the African Union.

Ms Kamara said the ICC could leave Kenya to handle case facing journalists Walter Barasa if the country establishes credible proceedings against him and charges the former Eldoret based correspondent with the charges the ICC has lined up for him.

Westgate Mall terror attack suspect released after probe

By Cyrus Ombati(Standard Digital)

  A former police officer thought to have participated in the Westgate Mall terror attack has surrendered to police to deny the accusations.
Mohamed Hussein, who was a former General Service Unit (GSU) officer and bodyguard to a High Court Judge surrendered to Wajir police CID boss Monday morning saying he never took part in the attack.
Anti-Terror police officers in the area grilled him for a while before releasing him after they were convinced he was not the one captured on CCTV clips shooting at the shoppers at the mall on September 21.
Nairobi head of CID Nicholas Kamwende who is among the team of detectives investigating the attack said they had confirmed the former GSU officer is alive and did not participate in the attack.
“That was speculation because he has turned himself in, talked to our officers and we can confirm he did not participate in the attack. He is a free man for now,” said Kamwende.
He added they are yet to get key suspects in the attack.
Detectives handling the case say they are also looking for at least eight suspects believed to have been directly involved in the attack. Four of them were captured on the CCTV footage at the mall.
 “They probably arrived there in time to ensure everything was in order before they left as the terrorists struck,” said a senior official aware of the probe.
FBI agents —alongside investigators from Britain, Canada, Israel and Germany —were dispatched to investigate the crime scene.
There have been no details on what the international team has found so far in the bullet-scarred, scorched mall but they are expected to independently submit their reports.
Other officials say the team is frustrated because there are so many loose ends that are yet to be connected by the local detectives for them to be able to give their report.

Undergo journalism training or quit blogging

Media Council of Kenya CEO Harun Mwangi has said that bloggers need to be accredited to by MCK. He said that if bloggers want to be recognised as journalists then they must have diploma or  degree courses in Mass Communication.

Mwangi argued that prosecuting bloggers was a challenge since they cannot be tagged to the journalism career.

“It becomes very hard when a complaint comes to our office that a blogger has defamed or abused a person online. This is because bloggers do not have any idea about journalism or the code of ethics,” said Mr Mwangi.

He argued that bloggers were tarnishing professionalism in the media with many abusing social media platform and using it as a tool to breed ethnicity and hatred.

“Most of them have never stepped in any media class. That is why they can be able to publish obscenities and get away with it. They only care for their popularity,” he added.

Addition information by Daily Nation

Alice Munro awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro "master of the contemporary short story".

Fact box

106 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded 1901-2013.

13 women have been awarded the Literature Prize so far.

4 Literature Prizes have been divided between two persons.

The youngest Literature Laureate ever, Rudyard Kipling,  was 42 years, best known for The Jungle Book .

The oldest Literature Laureate ever was Doris Lessing, when she was awarded the Prize in 2007. She was 42 yearsby then.