misterseed.com

It was a heated meeting punctuated by spirited arguments as ODM-Kenya presidential aspirants met to seek a way out of their party’s nomination stalemate. The meeting, chaired by Westlands MP Mr Fred Gumo, saw Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga pushed hard by his co-aspirants to give nomination by consensus a chance, but only after they agreed that if the method failed they would adopt his favoured delegates’ system. Gumo, who addressed the Press after the meeting at the United Kenya Club, sought to assure that all was well and that they were still on course in their pursuit of getting the party’s presidential torchbearer. He said: "We are asking our supporters to give us more time to settle this weighty matter."

"A good mind, a good heart and warm feelings - these are the most important things in the world" - The little book of Wisdom

Mr. Seed Kenya Services has opened more than 100 CDS accounts for Kenyans abroad since January this year. We can now buy for you Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) shares which has been announced (see story below) as from 18th July, 2007. The shares goes for KSh. 9.50 per share and individuals will be entitled to a minimum of 2,000 shares, meaning that one will need to raise at least KSh19,000 to participate in the issue. The share opens on 18th July and closes on 31st July, 2007. If you have not yet opened a CDS account, it is not yet late - you can open and buy the shares as well. Contact Mr. Seed on misterseed@yahoo.co.uk Tel: +447951220695 or Mr. Stephen Mwangi our partner in our offices in Nairobi. The office is located at 7th Floor, Jubilee Insurance Exchange, Kaunda Street, Suites 701-702, P.O. Box 70351-00400, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: 00254-721991597, email: stevemwangi@anstegroup.com. Our partner in Kenya is Mr. Stephen M. Mwangi a former Bank manager for 25 years.

"If rain beats the teeth, the lips get the blame" - The Wisdom of Africa, Nigeria

The Initial Public Offer (IPO) for 240 million shares of the Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) opens on July 18 at Sh9.50 per a share. The offer closes on July 31. Individuals investors will be entitled to a minimum of 2,000 shares, meaning that one will need to raise at least Sh19,000 to participate in the issue. Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya announced the sale of 40 per cent of the Government owned re-insurance company on Thursday following approval of the public offer by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA). For the first time in a Government privatisation, reserve allocations have been set aside for special interest groups. These include insurance companies, whose reservation is 20 per cent of the shares on offer, qualified institutional investors get 30 per cent of the shares, employees three per cent while the remaining 47 per cent goes to the public. Insurance companies in Kenya are required by law to cede at least 18 per cent of their treaty insurance business to Kenya Re. The reservation for qualified institutional investors, according to Kimunya, is due to the "nature of the industry in which Kenya Re operates." The delivery versus payment method has also been adopted for issuing allocations to institutional investors, which means that they shall be required to pay only for confirmed allocations as opposed to upfront payments during applications.

Announcing details of the offer, Kimunya said the Government shall offer for subscription 240 million shares of the approximately 600 million shares of the 37 year old parastatal. Kenya-Re has an asset base of Sh11.3 billion with its operations spread in over 41 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Its premiums income for last year stood at Sh3 billion having risen from Sh1.3 billion in 2002. Forty per cent of its revenues are derived from international operations with the rest coming from the domestic market. At least three previous attempts to privatise the company over the last ten years have been shelved as the Government sought to come up with the best privatisation formula. Meanwhile, Kimunya said the Kenya National Assurance Company (Knac) 2001 is in the process of being liquidated. He said Government had allocated funds towards the purchase of some of Knac 2001’s prime properties. Knac 2001 advertised for the sale of some of its commercial buildings in Nairobi and Mombasa and Kimunya said that the Government would take over some buildings which, he said, were being under valued by potential buyers. He said the Government gave up on efforts to revive the life assurance business company. Earlier attempts by the Government to merge Knac 2001’s business with that of Kenya-Re flopped after a due diligence report by PKF Consulting cast doubt over its viability. - The Standard.

65 people had paid for the Singles Dinner by Friday 15th June, 2007. The target is 100 people. If we do not meet the 100 target we cannot host the dinner. For this reason we are extending the deadline to 30th June, 2007.

The Kenya Government has commissioned a study on mobile telephone industry’s tariff and taxation levels in what is hoped would trigger a decline in the cost of calling

The High Court in Kenya on Thursday 28th June 2007 removed cobwebs around Kanu ownership by declaring Mr Uhuru Kenyatta the official leader of the party. Judges Alnashir Visram, Roselyn Wendoh and Mathew Anyara Emukule further ordered the Electoral Commission of Kenya to recognise Mr Kenyatta and his team as the legitimate Kanu leaders. In their 118-page ruling, the judges said: “What this means is that the officials of Kanu led by Hon Kenyatta before the purported change by the registrar of societies, shall remain the legitimate officials of the party and not respondents.” The judges also quashed the decision by the registrar to recognise a team led by Keiyo South MP Nicholas Biwott as new party officials. The judgment also cleared the issue on whether Kanu was right over its link with the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya. This also gives Mr Kenyatta the chance to decide what alliances the former ruling party will make ahead of the General Election. He has said that he is ready to lead another coalition if his ODM-K colleagues do not satisfy Kanu’s demands that political parties should come into the coalition as corporate members, among others.

WASHINGTON - Thursday 28th June 2007. The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush's plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

The bill's supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.

Senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is highly unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.

A similar effort collapsed in the Congress last year, and the House has not bothered with an immigration bill this year, awaiting Senate action.

The vote was a stinging setback for Bush, who advocated the bill as an imperfect but necessary fix of current immigration practices in which many illegal immigrants use forged documents or lapsed visas to live and work in the United States.

It was a victory for Republican conservatives who strongly criticized the bill's provisions that would have established pathways to lawful status for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. They were aided by talk radio and TV hosts who repeatedly attacked the bill and urged listeners to flood Congress with calls, faxes and e-mails.

Voting to allow the bill to proceed by ending debate were 33 Democrats, 12 Republicans and independent Joe Lieberman, Conn. Voting to block the bill by not limiting debate were 37 Republicans, 15 Democrats and independent Bernard Sanders, Vt. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., did not vote.

The bill would have toughened border security and instituted a new system for weeding out illegal immigrants from workplaces. It would have created a new guest worker program and allowed millions of illegal immigrants to obtain legal status if they briefly returned home.

Bush, making a last-ditch bid to salvage the bill, called senators early Thursday morning to urge their support. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez approached senators as they entered and left the chamber shortly before the vote.

"We have been in contact with members of Congress over the past couple of days and the president has made it clear that this is important to him," White House spokesman Tony Snow said before the vote.

But conservatives from Bush's own party led the opposition. They repeatedly said the government must secure the borders before allowing millions of illegal aliens a path to legal status.

"Americans feel that they are losing their country ... to a government that has seemed to not have the competence or the ability to carry out the things that it says it will do," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole, R-N.C., said many Americans "don't have confidence" that borders, especially with Mexico, will be significantly tightened. "It's not just promises but proof that the American people want," Dole said.

But the bill's backers said border security and accommodations to illegal immigrants must go hand in hand.

"Year after year, we've had the broken borders," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "Year after year, we've seen the exploitation of workers."

After the vote, he said: "It is now clear that we are not going to complete our work on immigration reform. That is enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told colleagues that if the bill faltered, the political climate almost surely would not allow a serious reconsideration until 2009 or later. It would be highly unlikely, she said, "in the next few years to fix the existing system ... . We are so close."

From the beginning, the bill's most forceful opponents were southern Republicans. GOP Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jeff Sessions of Alabama led the charge, often backed by Texan John Cornyn.

Two southern Republicans — Lindsey Graham, S.C., and Mel Martinez, Fla., who was born in Cuba — supported it.

Also crucial to the bill's demise was opposition from three Democrats recently elected from GOP-leaning states. They were Jon Tester of Montana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., called the vote "a victory for fear-mongering and obstruction over a bipartisan commitment to fix our broken immigration system."

Source: Yahoo News

Can you work it out? This 'tigon' has twice the aggression of a normal big cat - it's a cross between a lion and a tiger. The impressive beast is an attraction at a zoo in Canberra, Australia, and it bears the stripes of a tiger and the physique of a lioness.

WASHINGTON — One day after the Senate agreed to take up the issue again, President Bush on Friday called on Congress to pass an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws by year's end. "Each day our nation fails to act, the problem only grows worse. I will continue to work closely with members of both parties, to get past our differences, and pass a bill I can sign this year," Bush said at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Bush said Americans "must meet our moral obligation to treat newcomers with decency and show compassion to the vulnerable and exploited, because we're called to answer both the demands of justice and the call for mercy."

Americans "must meet our moral obligation to treat newcomers with decency and show compassion to the vulnerable and exploited, because we're called to answer both the demands of justice and the call for mercy."

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders announced Thursday the chamber will resume debating immigration later this month. The deal to revive the bill came after a stepped-up lobbying effort by Bush, who met with Republican senators during a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had pulled the legislation from the Senate schedule, saying Republicans were trying to kill it with amendments.

Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tentatively agreed to limit the number of amendments that can be offered, putting the bill on track for a vote on final passage before the July 4 break. The House will begin debating immigration in July, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said administration officials "are encouraged by the announcement from Senate leaders." Hours before Reid's announcement, the president pledged $4.4 billion for border security and enforcement of employment laws in a speech to Associated Builders and Contractors. The move was designed to win over Republican skeptics. Only seven of Bush's fellow Republicans supported the immigration bill in a key vote last week.

In the days since, Bush has pressured senators to support the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's immigration laws in more than two decades. The bill would beef up security along the border, increase penalties for hiring illegal aliens, expand opportunities for foreigners to work in the USA and, for the first time, make job skills a factor in determining who may immigrate. The most controversial provision would give an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship. White House spokesman Tony Snow said the funds for border security would come from fines and penalties assessed against illegal immigrants under the bill.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a presidential candidate and bill critic, accused Bush of backing "amnesty fees" and the administration of stalling construction of a U.S.-Mexican border fence "until the president gets his amnesty bill."

Due to the increase in the fraudulent money transfers, the government is lowering the level of the amount you should give the ID. This means that from now it will become imperative to get ID and proof of address for transfer above £1000 (this limit will drop to £650 within next month). This will be in line with other European Community Countries.

Meet Eclyse – an animal that looks like it was assembled in one of those dodgy garages where they weld halves of two stolen cars together. But Eclyse isn't the result of some crazed Doctor Dolittle with a god complex. It's a zorse – a zebra/horse hybrid, born on a ranch in Germany. And she's the product of a holiday romance. While most zorses have stripes across their whole body, Eclyse only has two blocks of stripes – on her face and her rear.

The pure white areas she gets from her mother, a horse called Eclipse. Eclipse's owners sent her to a ranch in Italy for a while – where she met a rugged, handsome zebra called Ulysses. One thing led to another – and when she got back home to Germany, Eclipse surprised her keepers by producing a little half-horse, half-zebra with highly unusual markings. Ranch spokesman Udo Richter commented: 'You can tell she is a mix just by looking at her. But in temperament she can also exhibit characteristics from each parent. 'She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one.'

London, June 28th, 2007. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has held his Cabinet meeting after appointing a wave of new faces to run the country. Gordon Brown has appointed the first female Home Secretary as part of his Cabinet reshuffle today. Jacqui Smith, a former 'Blair Babe' arrived at the Home Office headquarters in Westminster and said she was "immensely proud" to take on the role. Ms Smith, 44, entered Parliament in 1997 as part of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's landslide victory and was today promoted from Chief Whip. David Miliband has been confirmed as Foreign Secretary and Jack Straw will be new Justice Secretary. Douglas Alexander will be International Development Secretary and James Purnell will be Culture Secretary. Mr Miliband, at 41, is the youngest to hold the post since David Owen in 1977. The first meeting lasted little more than 50 minutes.

Mr Miliband said he was "tremendously honoured" to be asked to become Foreign Secretary in Gordon Brown's new government. Mr Miliband's appointment is seen as reward for resisting temptation to run against Mr Brown as a "Blairite" candidate for the Labour leadership. Miliband and his brother, Ed, are the first pair of brothers to sit in the Cabinet together for nearly 80 years, according to records. Ed Miliband, who enters the Cabinet for the first time, is Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Defeated deputy Labour leadership contender Alan Johnson is set to take over health, moving from the Department for Education and Skills, which is expected to be split in two. Alistair Darling is widely expected to switch from Trade Secretary to Mr Brown's old job as Chancellor. Prime Minister Brown's radical reshuffle will need to be wide-ranging not least because of the number of heavyweights quitting their jobs. As well as his own post at the Treasury, John Reid has stood down as Home Secretary, Patricia Hewitt has resigned as Health Secretary and Baroness Amos has left as Leader of the Lords. A host of young Brownites such as Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, Douglas Alexander and Andy Burnham are also predicted to benefit from the reshuffle.

Gordon Brown has appointed Jacqui Smith as Britain's first female home secretary in a huge Cabinet overhaul. Alistair Darling becomes chancellor, David Miliband foreign secretary, Alan Johnson health secretary and Peter Hain work and pensions. Mr Brown's closest political ally Ed Balls will be the newly-created schools and children secretary. It is the first Cabinet with brothers - Ed and David Miliband - and a married couple, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper. The newly-appointed ministers met earlier in 10 Downing Street for the first Cabinet meeting of Mr Brown's premiership. Eleven members of the old Cabinet - including Tony Blair and John Prescott - are not in Mr Brown's first administration and there are nine new arrivals. There are 22 full Cabinet members. Defence Secretary Des Browne is the only minister to remain in his post - but he also takes responsibility for the Scotland office. There are five female members of the full Cabinet, as opposed to eight under Tony Blair, but a further four women, Tessa Jowell, Yvette Cooper, Baroness Scotland and Beverley Hughes, who will attend Cabinet when necessary.

The first women Home Secretary - Jacqui Smith has been promoted rapidly since 1997

Baroness Scotland becomes the second black woman to be a Cabinet member but is the only member of an ethnic minority in Mr Brown's top team. New Cabinet faces include James Purnell, who takes over as culture secretary from Tessa Jowell, and Andy Burnham, who becomes chief secretary to the Treasury. David Miliband, who at 41 becomes the youngest foreign secretary since David Owen in 1977, said he felt "tremendously honoured". He pledged a "diplomacy that is patient as well as purposeful, which listens as well as leads". Jacqui Smith, formerly Labour's chief whip, is perhaps the biggest surprise in the new line-up. She said she was "pleased and proud" to be given the job adding it was "hard to imagine a greater responsibility and honour". Prisons and other functions now come under the control of new Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who also becomes the first MP to take up the post of Lord Chancellor. Mr Brown has created three new departments: the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. The Department for Trade and Industry has been abolished, along with the Department for Education and Skills which has been split into two.

Douglas Alexander, who was named as Labour's general election coordinator at the weekend, takes over at the Department for International Development, which is expected to be given an enhanced role under Mr Brown. Harriet Harman, who was elected deputy leader of the Labour Party, and will be taking over as party chairman, becomes leader of the House of Commons. Hazel Blears, who was among the five MPs to lose out to Ms Harman in the deputy race, becomes communities secretary. John Hutton, who has been replaced as work and pensions secretary by Peter Hain, will become business and industry secretary. Shaun Woodward, best known for defecting from the Conservatives to Labour in 1999, will replace Mr Hain as Northern Ireland Secretary - the job turned down by Lib Dem peer Paddy Ashdown. Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon is the new Labour Party chief whip. Yvette Cooper becomes housing minister, attending Cabinet when needed. Also attending Cabinet will be Tessa Jowell, who becomes Olympics minister, Attorney General Baroness Scotland and Lords Chief Whip Lord Grocott.

Former United Nations deputy secretary-general, Sir Mark Malloch Brown, has been granted a peerage in order to take up the post of minister for Africa, Asia and the UN. He will not have Cabinet rank but will attend Cabinet meetings. Several heavyweight figures in predecessor Tony Blair's Cabinet are going. John Reid is retiring as home secretary, Margaret Beckett is leaving the role of foreign secretary and Baroness Amos is no longer to be leader of the House of Lords. Patricia Hewitt, who has elderly parents in Australia, said she was quitting as health secretary, and resigning from the government, for "personal reasons". Former Labour chairman and consumer affairs minister Ian McCartney turned down the offer of a government job, telling Mr Brown it was time for some "fresh faces". It is thought unlikely that a replacement will be announced for outgoing Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. After stepping down as prime minister, Mr Blair also quit as MP for Sedgefield to become a Middle East peace envoy on behalf of the EU, US, UN and Russia. This will prompt a by-election, expected to take place in mid-July.

Commons leader: Harriet Harman

Chief Whip: Geoff Hoon

Innovation, universities and skills: John Denham

Lords leader: Baroness Ashton

Attorney General (attending Cabinet when necessary): Baroness Scotland

Culture: James Purnell

Schools and children: Ed Balls

Northern Ireland: Shaun Woodward

Chief secretary to the Treasury: Andy Burnham

Cabinet office minister/Duchy of Lancaster: Ed Miliband

Housing minister (attending Cabinet when needed): Yvette Cooper

Children and youth justice (attending Cabinet when necessary): Beverley Hughes

Africa, Asia and UN (attending Cabinet when necessary): Lord Malloch Brown

Lords chief whip (attending Cabinet when necessary): Lord Grocott

Tony Blair
John Prescott
John Reid
Margaret Beckett
Patricia Hewitt
Stephen Timms
Lord Goldsmith
Hilary Armstrong
Lord Falconer
Baroness Amos
Ian McCartney

Prime minister: Gordon Brown

Chancellor: Alistair Darling

Foreign Secretary: David Miliband

Home Secretary: Jacqui Smith

Health: Alan Johnson

Justice: Jack Straw

Environment: Hilary Benn

Defence and Scotland: Des Browne

Int Development: Douglas Alexander

Transport: Ruth Kelly

Wales/Work and Pensions: Peter Hain

Business and enterprise: John Hutton

Communities: Hazel Blears

Olympics minister (attending Cabinet when needed): Tessa Jowell