Mwakilishi News Bulletin - Midday Edition, Friday 30 October 2026
Midday Edition for Friday, 30 October 2026. Running time 8:38.
In this bulletin
Diaspora News
Immigration News
Kenya News
- Heckling and new team as Sifuna launches party offices (see also: Sifuna Names Godfrey Osotsi, Caroli Omondi in Proposed Linda Mwananchi Party Leadership)
- Eastleigh: woman's body found, fifteen missing
- US charges five in ghost students fraud
- Mackenzie kept preaching from custody, court told
Business News
Transcript
This is the news from Mwakilishi.com.
Good afternoon. It's midday on Friday, the thirtieth of October, and here is your midday edition.
Coming up.
Eastleigh collapse: rescuers recover a woman's body as fifteen people remain missing.
Kalonzo warns against premature Sifuna endorsement as supporters heckle him in Nairobi.
US court blocks reopening of the fifty-five thousand visa Green Card lottery.
Those stories, and more, in the next few minutes.
We begin with diaspora news, Kenyans in the United States are increasingly cutting ties with fellow countrymen to shield themselves from malicious reports to immigration authorities. Community leaders say personal grudges, workplace rivalries and domestic disputes trigger anonymous tips to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many hide their addresses, workplaces and legal papers from close friends. Citizen or permanent resident spouses sometimes use that status as leverage in marital conflicts. James Mungai, a US-based Kenyan doing community support work, says staying away guarantees others never learn your immigration status. A Swahili phrase meaning placed on ice describes a compatriot picked up by immigration patrols.
Staying with the diaspora, prosecutors have asked a Nairobi court to send Brian Kiprop Kiplagat to the United Kingdom to face eight charges, including the murder of his girlfriend Marianne Kilonzi. Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu argued local courts cannot judge guilt. He said they only decide whether surrender conditions have been met. Kiplagat fled Britain after the killing. His sixteen-month run ended on the tenth of June, when immigration officers arrested him at Namanga as he tried to cross into Tanzania. The court heard Kilonzi, a forty-three-year-old Citibank vice president, was beaten to death at home in January twenty twenty-five.
Turning to immigration news, a United States court has blocked the reopening of the fifty-five thousand visa Diversity Visa lottery, leaving African applicants uncertain about the twenty twenty-seven entry. Business Insider Africa reported the ruling today. Kenya, historically eligible and registering millions of entrants yearly, sits at the centre of the uncertainty. The Green Card lottery, created by Congress in nineteen ninety, offers fifty-five thousand immigrant visas a year to nationals of countries that sent fewer than fifty thousand immigrants to America over five years. Selection is by random computer drawing, with a seven per cent cap for each country.
Also on immigration, Home Office data shows foreign workers turning away from Britain. In the year to September twenty twenty-six, main Skilled Worker visa applications fell forty-three per cent to twenty-six thousand four hundred. Health and Care Worker applications collapsed sixty-three per cent to seven thousand five hundred, ninety-five per cent below the November twenty twenty-three peak of one hundred and sixty-one thousand seven hundred. The minimum salary rose to forty-one thousand seven hundred pounds in July twenty twenty-five, and the immigration skills charge rose thirty-two per cent. Dependant applications fell sharply too.
Turning to news from Kenya, opposition tensions over the twenty twenty-seven presidential race erupted in Lavington, where Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna opened his Linda Mwananchi Movement offices. DAP-K leader Eugene Wamalwa appeared to declare Sifuna the opposition candidate, drawing chants of President Sifuna. Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka pushed back, saying consultations on the presidency are set for the thirteenth of November, and premature endorsements could derail unity. Sifuna named a proposed leadership team, including Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi as chairperson and Suba South MP Caroli Omondi as secretary general. He pledged to slash five hundred billion shillings from the budget.
Staying in Kenya, search teams in Eastleigh have recovered the body of a woman from the basement of the collapsed building, early on Friday, day eight of the operation along Yusuf Haji Avenue. At least fifteen people remain missing. Governor Johnson Sakaja has threatened legal action against Embakasi East MP Babu Owino over posts linking him to the building's approval, and Owino refuses to apologise. Hundreds of Kamukunji traders protested on Thursday after eviction notices, because nearby structures may be compromised. Detectives are questioning county officials and a building owner. On Wednesday sixteen were reported missing, with phone signals tracing nine to the site.
Also in Kenya, the US Justice Department has charged five people over a student aid fraud built on ghost students. Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald announced the indictments, code-named Operation Ghostbusters. Investigators say the network used stolen identities to claim federal financial aid and enrol fictitious students. Seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars has been seized. Prosecutors say much of the money reached a fake safari company in Kenya, and the Kenya-linked portion is believed near two million dollars. Three defendants charged in New Jersey are accused of moving one point three million dollars to Kenya. Two Kenyan citizens were indicted separately.
Still with Kenya, a court in Mombasa has heard that Shakahola cult leader Paul Mackenzie obtained contraband mobile phones in custody and used them to keep his doomsday teachings alive. The preacher faces trial over the deaths at Shakahola forest, where investigators exhumed more than four hundred bodies from shallow graves in twenty twenty-three. Mackenzie founded the Good News International Church after years as a taxi driver, teaching followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus. Police raided the forest in April twenty twenty-three after tip-offs, rescuing dozens of emaciated followers. He has remained in custody since.
Turning to business news, French shipping group CMA CGM has launched its first dedicated block train between the Port of Mombasa and the Nairobi Embakasi Inland Container Depot. Each departure hauls one hundred and eight container units on a rake of fifty-four wagons. The whole train runs as one formation, so cargo moves from the quayside to Nairobi without being split or re-sorted, cutting delays and damage. The service runs on the standard gauge railway commissioned in twenty seventeen. Cargo discharged at Mombasa can be cleared in Nairobi. Mombasa is East Africa's busiest harbour, serving Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
Staying with business, nearly fifteen international construction firms want to set up factories or distribution hubs in Kenya. Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Doctor Erick Rutto announced the interest at the Big Five Construct exhibition at Nairobi's Sarit Centre, which has drawn more than one hundred and fifty exhibitors from over twenty-five countries. He said the chamber is running feasibility assessments on materials, power costs and locations. The push is driven by Kenya's surging affordable housing market. The country faces a housing deficit of two million units. Some manufacturers say seventy per cent of their output serves affordable housing.
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.
Bulletins are published twice a day, at midday and 6pm Eastern. Listen to past bulletins.
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