Mwakilishi News Bulletin - Midday Edition, Wednesday 28 October 2026

Midday Edition for Wednesday, 28 October 2026. Running time 8:35.

In this bulletin

Diaspora News

1. Australian Senate honours Kenyan diaspora leader Antony Kamau
2. Kenyan embassy in Doha pledges diaspora welfare support

Immigration News

1. Class action challenges US freeze on refugee green cards

Kenya News

1. Inspector Sang detained fourteen days over Mutiso and Mbobu murders
2. Ruto to address nation at six pm as State House teases announcement
3. Signs of life under collapsed Eastleigh building
4. Jubilee names coalition talks team ahead of 2027
5. Kenyan crew members earn UAE medals for axe-attack bravery
6. Ruto urges Russian factories, citing trade gap
7. Agnes Wanjiru extradition hearing delayed to 2027
8. Ebola scare: twenty discharged, ninety-eight monitored

World News

1. Dozens feared dead in Spain train collision

Transcript

This is the news from Mwakilishi.com.

Good afternoon. It's midday on Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of October, and here is your midday edition.

Coming up.

Signs of life detected beneath the collapsed Eastleigh building as rescuers race to respond.

President Ruto to address the nation at six pm, with a major announcement teased.

Dozens feared dead after two trains collide south of Madrid in Spain.

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

Turning to diaspora news, Australia's Senate has formally honoured Antony Kamau, the president of Kenyans in Queensland. The recognition was marked by a ceremonial display of the Australian National Flag in the Senate Chamber, following a presentation by Senator Paul Scarr. Kenya's State Department for Diaspora Affairs congratulated Kamau, saying his leadership has helped raise the visibility of Kenyans living in Australia and strengthen links within the community. The department said his work focuses on professional development, civic engagement, mentorship and community support.

Staying with the diaspora, Kenya's embassy in Doha has pledged to strengthen ties with citizens living in Qatar. Ambassador Mohamed Nur Adan held talks with Felix Cheruiyot, a senior leader at Gulf Good Vibes, focusing on mental health awareness and peer support for Kenyans. He also met Abdulrahman Hussein, a Kenyan artist with Qatar Museums who gained recognition from Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani. The embassy said the meetings reflect a broader effort to maintain links with diaspora members and back social welfare abroad.

Turning to immigration news, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over its freeze on green cards for refugees. Newsweek reported the litigation yesterday. The suit, brought in federal court, lets representative plaintiffs press claims for all refugees affected. It centres on Section two-oh-nine of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lets refugees apply for permanent residence after one year. With adjudication suspended, refugees past their first year remain in refugee status indefinitely.

Turning to Kenya, a police inspector suspected of masterminding the murders of Dr Mutiso and Mbobu has been detained for fourteen days. The officer, identified in Daily Nation reporting as Inspector Sang, will be held while detectives continue their investigations. The newspaper describes him as the suspected mastermind, the person believed to have planned and orchestrated the killings rather than simply taken part. Reporting has traced hideouts linked to him, people believed to have assisted him while he was sought, and a connection to Uganda.

Also from Kenya, President William Ruto will deliver a recorded national address at six pm today. State House Press Secretary Emmanuel Talam confirmed a major announcement, without disclosing the subject. The President is in Moscow for the Third Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum. But a twenty-seven-second State House video suggests a sports announcement, appearing to show Talanta Stadium, which a National Assembly committee found ninety-four per cent complete. Ruto previously pledged to rename it the Raila Odinga International Stadium, honouring the former Prime Minister.

Staying with Kenya, signs of life detected beneath the collapsed sixteen-storey building in Eastleigh. National Disaster Management Director Duncan Onyango confirmed today that acoustic life detectors operated by Chinese experts and the Kenya Red Cross picked up signs of two people alive. But he cautioned detection does not guarantee immediate rescue, as the confined site allows access from one side. Operations are nearly eighty per cent complete, though no victims have been recovered since Saturday. Youths raided county trucks carrying scrap metal from the site.

Also from Kenya, the Jubilee Party has formed a three-member team to negotiate coalition agreements with opposition groups ahead of the twenty twenty-seven election. Former Murang'a Senator Kembi Gitura will chair the committee, joined by Secretary General Moitalel Ole Kenta and Janet Ong'era. It will review the draft deed for the Ukombozi Alliance and talk to other parties. The party also named Lucy Naisiae Kashu interim Women's Caucus chairperson and Madina Yunis Mahat interim Deputy Organising Secretary. The decision followed Party Leader Fred Matiang'i's recommendations.

Staying with Kenya, two Kenyan flight attendants who helped their captain after an axe attack mid-air have received a top UAE civil honour. David Kimotho and John Muchina were awarded the First Class Order of Zayed the Second on Tuesday by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan. The emergency unfolded on September the thirtieth aboard a Flydubai Boeing seven-three-seven from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The co-pilot allegedly attacked Captain Smit Machchhar, who raised the alarm before collapsing. The jet plunged over sixteen thousand feet in over thirty seconds.

Also from Kenya, President Ruto has urged Russian investors to set up factories in Kenya, revealing a trade imbalance at the Russia-Kenya Business Roundtable in Moscow today. He said bilateral trade reached three hundred and eighty million dollars last year, but Kenya's exports were only fifty-two million. Imports from Russia stood at three hundred and thirty million dollars, six times what Nairobi sells to Moscow. Kenya exports tea, coffee, cut flowers and vegetables, while importing wheat, fertilisers, iron and steel.

Back home in Kenya, the family of Agnes Wanjiru has learned by chance that the UK extradition hearing for her alleged killer has been postponed to the twenty-fourth of May, twenty twenty-seven. Former British soldier Robert James Purkiss was due before Westminster Magistrates' Court next month. Her daughter Stacy, now fourteen, had fundraised to travel to London. Her niece Esther Njoki said no reason was given. Agnes disappeared in March twenty twelve from Nanyuki, and her body was later found in a hotel septic tank.

Also in Kenya, twenty people have been discharged from quarantine as an Ebola scare continues, with ninety-eight others still under monitoring in Nairobi. The Daily Nation has published a first-person account from inside the facility titled My Life in Nairobi's Ebola Quarantine Centre. No further details were available about those discharged. Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people. The average case fatality rate is around fifty per cent, and people are not infectious until they develop symptoms.

Turning to world news, dozens of people are feared dead after two trains collided south of Madrid in Spain. The crash happened in Toledo province, on trains carrying more than five hundred passengers combined. No official death toll has been confirmed, and the full extent of casualties is still being established. The circumstances of the collision have not been disclosed, with the speed and type of services involved still unclear. Toledo lies on one of Spain's busiest rail corridors, thirty minutes from Madrid by high-speed train.

And that is your midday edition. The next bulletin is at 6 o'clock this evening. You can read every one of these stories in full, and much more besides, at Mwakilishi.com.

Have a good afternoon.

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