Mwakilishi News Bulletin - Evening Edition, Tuesday 27 October 2026

Evening Edition for Tuesday, 27 October 2026. Running time 8:16.

In this bulletin

Diaspora News

1. Counties to get diaspora liaison officers
2. Kenyans in Saudi Arabia hit by flight curbs
3. Kenya protests Nigeria's visa hurdles

Immigration News

1. US green card sponsorship rules to tighten
2. Work permit auto-extensions end in the US
3. UAE fines up to thirty-five million shillings for fake jobs
4. US drops hundred thousand dollar H-1B fee

Kenya News

1. Kalonzo and Gachagua to hold ticket talks
2. Cyber threats rise to two point six billion events
3. Babu Owino defies Sakaja defamation demand
4. Waititu sentencing set for November the second

Transcript

This is the news from Mwakilishi.com.

Good evening. It's 6 o'clock this evening on Tuesday, the twenty-seventh of October, and here is your evening edition.

Coming up.

US flight restrictions leave hundreds of thousands of Kenyans in Saudi Arabia at risk.

UAE slaps thirty-five million shilling fines on firms issuing fake work permits.

US drops Trump's one hundred thousand dollar H-1B fee in boost for Kenyan professionals.

Those stories, and more, in the next few minutes.

Turning to diaspora news, the government plans diaspora liaison officers in all forty-seven counties to channel investment from Kenyans abroad into community projects. The proposal came from talks between Ambassador Ann Wanjohi of the State Department for Diaspora Affairs and Fatma Mohamed of the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee. Counties will create focal points matching local development needs with the money, skills and technology of Kenyans overseas. Officials plan a pilot scheme in selected counties before a national rollout, tracked through shared performance indicators and joint monitoring.

Staying with the diaspora, thousands of Kenyan workers in Saudi Arabia face severe travel disruption after the United States ordered non-emergency staff and families to leave. The directive took effect on the twenty-third of October, after missile and drone strikes by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels hit civilian airports. American officials now need special authorisation to use any Saudi airport. More than five hundred thousand Kenyans live in the Gulf, roughly three hundred and ten thousand in Saudi Arabia, and flights face diversions, delays and cancellations.

Also from the diaspora, Kenyan professionals travelling to Nigeria face stringent visa demands and high fees, even though Nigerians enter Kenya freely. Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing'oei on Tuesday called the situation unacceptable, saying Nairobi is seeking a remedy through diplomatic and political channels. Applicants must provide an employer's letter, a host company invitation, three months of bank statements and a yellow fever certificate. Travellers say the demands match or exceed those of Britain, the United States and the Schengen area, with delays and non-refundable rejections.

Turning to immigration news, a proposed US Labour Department regulation would restrict how companies fire American employees while seeking to sponsor foreign talent for permanent residency. The White House budget office completed its review of the Permanent Labor Certification changes on the twenty-third of October, clearing publication and thirty to sixty days of public comment. The draft tightens rules linking layoffs to permanent visa petitions, alongside the requirement to test the local workforce for EB-two and EB-three green cards, and updates recruitment and non-discrimination standards.

Staying with immigration, a new Homeland Security rule ending automatic extensions for work permits has left thousands of foreign workers facing job suspensions. Published on the fourteenth of October, it applies to renewal applications filed on or after the thirtieth of October last year. Officials estimate twenty thousand to thirty-three thousand permits could lapse over eighteen months from May twenty twenty-seven. The rule removes both the one-hundred-and-eighty-day and five-hundred-and-forty-day automatic extensions. Experts at Reddy Neumann Brown warn green card applicants and H-four spouses will be hit hardest.

Also on immigration, Kenyans heading to the United Arab Emirates gain stronger protection under rules fining employers up to thirty-five million shillings for fake work permits or leaving workers jobless. The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation announced the measures on Friday. Maximum fines apply to hiring without valid permits, leaving workers without duties, misusing permits, closing businesses without regularising staff, and employing minors. Minister Abdulrahman Abdulmannan Al Awar's crackdown targets sectors employing tens of thousands of Kenyans, including construction, hospitality, retail, security and domestic service.

Still with immigration, US Citizenship and Immigration Services has begun approving H-one-B petitions without President Trump's one hundred thousand dollar fee, according to India's Economic Times. The report says the agency is granting petitions without collecting the payment, signalling the charge is no longer enforced at filing. The fee, announced in September twenty twenty-five and set above one hundred and three thousand dollars, applied to new employment petitions, not extensions. The shift removes the cost barrier facing employers sponsoring foreign professionals, among them thousands of Kenyans.

Turning to Kenya news, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua will hold talks on who carries the opposition presidential ticket in twenty twenty-seven, the Daily Nation has reported. The election is due in August twenty twenty-seven, when President Ruto is expected to seek a second term. Kalonzo, elected to Parliament in nineteen eighty-five, served as Vice President between two thousand and eight and twenty thirteen, and was Raila's running mate in three elections. Gachagua was impeached as Deputy President in October twenty twenty-four.

Staying in Kenya, the country recorded two point six billion cyber threat events in the three months to September, a rise of fourteen point four five percent on the previous quarter. The Communications Authority, the state regulator, says that is more than twenty-eight million threat events every day between July and September, an increase of over three hundred million on the quarter before. Monitoring is run by the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre, which coordinates responses with telecommunications operators, banks and government agencies.

Also in Kenya, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has refused to retract social media posts or apologise to Governor Johnson Sakaja and architect Okeya Hempstone Nyawanda over the Eastleigh building collapse. He rejected a six-hour ultimatum issued on the twenty-sixth of October. The row centres on a document Owino shared, purportedly showing county approval for the Eastleigh plot where a multi-storey building collapsed on the twenty-third of October. Owino's lawyers say the loss of lives demands public scrutiny, and noted the letter addressed him as Madam.

Elsewhere in Kenya, former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu and his co-accused will be sentenced on the second of November over a five hundred and eighty-eight point seven million shilling road tender. Chief Magistrate Harrison Barasa set the date after the High Court overturned their acquittals and upheld the convictions. Waititu apologised in court, saying he and his wife are first offenders. Prosecutor Vincent Monda pressed for six-year terms on each count. Defence lawyer Chris Mutuku countered that the accused have already paid more than fifty million shillings.

And that is your evening edition. The next bulletin is at midday tomorrow. You can read every one of these stories in full, and much more besides, at Mwakilishi.com.

Have a good evening.

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