On the other hand, they do not incorporate any of the expected spending cuts and tax rises the Treasury is considering imposing at its autumn statement on 17 November, which would worsen the outlook.
A young girl runs towards a fence carrying a message in a bottle describing conditions inside the Manston migrant centre
Migrants being held in the Manston processing centre have begged for help via a message in a bottle thrown over the perimeter fence.
A young girl threw the bottle to a PA news agency photographer outside. It contained a letter which claimed there were pregnant women and sick detainees at the Kent facility.
The plea comes after hundreds of people are thought to have been moved out of the disused airfield site near Ramsgate amid concerns it had become dangerously overcrowded.
The letter, written in broken English and addressed to “journalists, organisations, everyone” appeared to suggest 50 families had been held at Manston for more than 30 days.
It said: “We are in a difficult life now… we fill like we’re in prison [sic].
“Some of us very sick… ther’s some women’s that are pregnant they don’t do anything for them [sic].
“We really need your help. Please help us.”
The letter claims there is a disabled child at the site, adding: “He’s really bad, they don’t even care about him.”
“It’s not easy for someone who has children… there’s a lot of children they shouldn’t be here. They should be in a school not prison,” it adds.
The letter went on to say, “our food is very bad like its make us fill sick… we got no phone no money no smok [sic].”
Witnesses said they saw security guards at the site ushering people back inside when members of the press were walking by the fence.
The young girl was among a group of children who broke past security guards and ran over to the fence to throw the bottle to the photographer.
The letter added: “We wanna talk to you but they don’t even let us go outside.”
In an exclusive interview, Sky News has been told some migrants inside Manston are threatening to self-harm and go on hunger strike in protest at being detained.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said on Tuesday the number of migrants had “fallen substantially”, with more expected to be moved the following day.
The situation had been branded a “breach of humane conditions” with 4,000 people being held there as opposed to its capacity of 1,600.
A Home Office spokesman said Manston was “resourced and equipped” to process migrants and alternative accommodation would be found for them “as soon as possible”.
The spokesman warned anyone thinking of leaving a “safe country” that “despite what they have been told, they will not be allowed to start a new life here”.
He added: “We urge anyone who is thinking about leaving a safe country and risking their lives at the hands of vile people smugglers to seriously reconsider.”
The department said it provides for all the basic needs of migrants arriving in the UK, their safety and those of its staff are its utmost priority, and it is committed to protecting their welfare. – skynews
Concerns over the impact of an energy blackout have grown since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The government has “war gamed” emergency plans to cope with energy blackouts lasting up to seven days in the event of a national power outage amid growing fears over security of supply this winter.
The Guardian has seen documents, marked “official sensitive”, which warn that in a “reasonable worst-case scenario” all sectors including transport, food and water supply, communications and energy could be “severely disrupted” for up to a week.
They show that ministers will prioritise getting food, water and shelter to the young and elderly people, as well as those with caring responsibilities, if the country experiences blackouts, with the Met Office warning that Britain faces a higher risk of a cold winter.
Whitehall officials are currently stress-testing Programme Yarrow, the confidential plan for coping in the event of a power outage, and have held a series of exercises with government departments and councils across the country in recent days.
The cross-government blueprint was first drawn up in 2021, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to improve planning and resilience in the event of a major technical fault on the National Grid. It is unrelated to the energy outlooks published by the National Grid for this winter.
However, concerns over the impact of a blackout have grown as a result of the war, with government insiders admitting the planning exercises had taken on a new urgency as a result of the resulting energy crisis, which has seen household energy bills spike.
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, said: “All governments do contingency planning for worst-case scenarios but the truth is that we are vulnerable as a country as a direct consequence of a decade of failed Conservative energy policy.
“Banning onshore wind, slashing investment in energy efficiency, stalling nuclear and closing gas storage have led to higher bills and reliance on gas imports, leaving us more exposed to the impact of Putin’s use of energy as a geopolitical weapon.”
The type of technical fault envisaged by government planners includes flood damage or a lightning strike on a substation, but could also cover an attack by a hostile state on sub-sea power cables, following Russian attacks against the Nord Stream energy pipelines.
The leak comes after a warning from Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, on Monday that Britain had become “more vulnerable” in recent years as countries seeking to do it harm had “levelled the field” by investing time and money into new technologies.
In the worst-case scenario outlined in the plan, only analogue FM radios would work, with just BBC Radio 2 and 4 broadcasting, and uncertainties around local radio as some stations only have a few hours of backup generator cover.
The Guardian revealed last month that the BBC has prepared secret scripts that could be read on air if energy shortages cause blackouts or the loss of gas supplies this winter.
One source said: “The government doesn’t want any publicity on Yarrow, as they don’t want it to be seen as linked to Ukraine, energy supply and the cost of living. But we need to think about how we can help people in advance. The fact they’re talking about it now means they have a real concern it could happen.”
Cabinet Office sources said they did not recognise the claim, as planning was unrelated to events in Ukraine.
Programme Yarrow prepares for a situation where power is unavailable, without any pre-warning, to all premises without backup generators during winter. It envisages that 60% of electricity demand will be met “between day 2 and day 7” when households and businesses will be given “intermittent access” to ration supply.
An agreement between energy regulator Ofgem and National Grid stipulates that 100% of electricity demand should be restored after a week. The government expects that target to be met even in a worst-case scenario.
“All sectors will be severely disrupted, including communications, transport networks, energy supply, food and water supply,” one document said.
The Yarrow plans prepare for a more severe situation than that outlined by National Grid last month, which warned that Britons could face three-hour rolling blackouts under a worst-case scenario if temperatures drop sharply and Russia cuts off gas supplies to Europe.
Under the electricity supply emergency code, households and businesses will be given 24 hours’ notice of a planned outage, and the plan could be published up to a week ahead on a rolling basis.
The “rota disconnection plan” is designed to cut power evenly across the country. The power cuts should initially only take place once a day for three hours, although it could take up to an hour to reconnect after that. However, the frequency of cuts will depend on the severity of the energy supply shortages.
Jan Rosenow, Europe director at the Regulatory Assistance Project, an energy thinktank, said: “There are so many things coming together at the same time: the gas shortages, high prices, the problems with electricity generation from nuclear plants in France. That’s what causes the concern in government. It is prudent [to plan for outages]. It’s a shame it takes a crisis to have this conversation.”
A government spokesperson said: “As a responsible government, it is right that we plan for all potential scenarios and work with industry to prepare and exercise robust contingency plans. This work is ongoing continuously and is an important strand of our national resilience planning.
“Local and national exercises are a part of this ongoing work and ensure we are able to effectively respond to any of a wide range of scenarios, no matter how unlikely they may be.” – Guardian, London
The volatility in the exchange rate market has slowed dollar trading among lenders or interbank deals, causing a scarcity of the US unit.
Retail dollar buyers are now paying up to Sh130 per unit in Kenyan banking halls, underlining the large margin between the official printed rate and the market rate for customers.
Several large banks are now selling the greenback at between Sh130 and Sh131 per unit, while buying the same at between Sh117 and Sh119, with bankers saying the higher prices have been driven by demand and the cost of accessing the hard currency on their part.
The official shilling-dollar exchange rate published by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) stood at 121.33 units Monday. The shilling has depreciated by 6.8 percent against the dollar since the beginning of this year, attributed to strong demand for the American currency.
Equity Bank and I&M Bank quoted the selling price of the dollar at Sh130.35 and Sh130.75 per unit respectively yesterday, while buying at Sh118.75 and Sh119.85.
Co-operative Bank was selling the US currency at Sh131.40 per unit and buying at Sh117.15, as per quotes listed in its banking halls.
The higher effective rate for those buying dollars in the market has been highlighted for months by importers. Access to the greenback has also proved difficult for some due to banks being unwilling to sell to each other, which makes it hard for smaller players to fulfill their orders from clients.
The volatility in the exchange rate market has slowed dollar trading among lenders or interbank deals, causing a scarcity of the US unit.
“The foreign exchange market is a matter of demand and supply. Some customers are only willing to sell you dollars at a higher rate than the published mean rates. You then add a margin to that,” said a bank executive.
The exchange rate has long been a sensitive issue, with most players preferring silence for fear of reprisals from the central bank.
Earlier this year, manufacturers had complained that a dollar shortage was forcing them to buy the greenback at a premium to the CBK’s official average exchange rate.
The regulator, however, dismissed the possibility of a parallel exchange rate developing in the country, saying the market has enough dollars to meet demand from importers and corporates.
The widening of the bid-ask spread — the difference between the price a dealer buys and sells a currency — in the foreign currency to a margin of more than Sh10 is also indicative of the high demand for dollars amid a perceived drop in supply, according to bankers.
The scramble for the dollar means that buyers — both for trading and hedging purposes — keep bidding higher for the currency.
Official data on forex holdings by the private sector in local banks have backed the claims that clients are holding onto their dollar stocks tightly.
By the end of July, foreign deposits in local bans stood at the equivalent of a record Sh905 billion, pointing to market distribution inefficiencies and hoarding rather than an outright shortage of forex in the country.
Global economic uncertainty arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and high inflation in western countries has also strengthened the dollar — a safe haven asset — meaning that it pays for one to hold the currency for capital gains and a hedge against potential future economic upheavals. – businessdailyafrica.
The MP for Dover has said tensions in the area are ‘running high’ after reports of migrants entering homes.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke has said ‘tensions have been running high’ in her constituency since a teenage boy ran into a woman’s home last week.
The teenager, believed to be Albanian, ran into a house in the village of Aycliffe, near Dover, and asked for transport to London or Manchester.
He is thought to have arrived on a small boat that landed on nearby Shakespeare Beach – a common arrival spot for those not rescued at sea.
Speaking on LBC on Sunday afternoon, Elphicke said the incident had inflamed tensions in the local area as she discussed an attack petrol bomb attack at a Dover centre for processing migrants.
He then took his own life at a nearby petrol station.
Elphicke described the attack as “a very shocking incident.”
She went on to say that while she “wouldn’t want to speculate” on motives, “it is fair to say tensions have been running high over the last period and I have raised my concerns with the immigration minister”.
Police investigating Sunday’s petrol bomb attack said the motive was not yet known, but it was not being treated as a terrorist incident. The man has been identified as a 66-year-old who lives 120 miles away in the High Wycombe area in Buckinghamshire.
Elphicke has also made clear who she regards as partly to blame for a chaotic policy that has got worse under a decade of Conservative-led government.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, she said: “We must all do what we can to alleviate human suffering.
“But surely we must also be honest about what is actually happening – which is that the vast increase in illegal Channel crossings is being driven by Albanians with no right to asylum on our shores whatsoever.”
Elphicke cited a Home Affairs Committee and said that “one to two per cent of Albania’s entire male population under 40 had arrived in Britain across the Channel this year”.
“They are not fleeing wars in the Middle East,” she said. “Albania is a Nato member. A country seeking to join the EU.
“Not that you’d know it from the handwringing rights industry, the charity sector and the skewed reporting of the issue from the Left-wing media and the BBC.
“It’s time that those who have hindered Governments’ efforts to end these crossings – a ragbag of union leaders, pro-migrant charities and Left-wing lawyers – now stopped.”
It comes as the Channel crossing crisis deepens amid growing concern over the conditions in which migrants are being held while waiting to be processed once they arrive in the UK.
So far this year close to 40,000 people have made the treacherous journey from France, crossing the world’s busiest shipping lanes in dinghies and other small boats, provisional Government figures show.
Charities and human rights groups say asylum seekers are being treated inhumanely.
On Saturday, The Times reported that decisions made by Home Secretary Suella Braverman led directly to overcrowding and outbreaks of scabies and diphtheria at a separate migrant processing centre in Kent, citing multiple government sources.
Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale blamed the Home Office, under either former home secretary Priti Patel or the present incumbent Ms Braverman, of failing to book hotels, contributing to the overcrowding at the Manston migrant processing site.
Allies of Ms Patel said she signed off on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers whenever it was required, despite it being politically “unpalatable”.
On Monday, Braverman also denied blocking the use of emergency hotels and ignoring legal advice.
“My thoughts are with those affected, the tireless Home Office staff and police responding. We must now support those officers as they carry out their investigation,” she said. – yahoo.com
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during his first Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons in London on October 26.
When new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s parents left Kenya in the 1960s, it was not of their own volition. The promise made by ruling party Kanu slightly before Independence that there would be “space for everyone” was only for those who took Kenyan citizenship.
In Kenya, British Asians were regarded as middle-class, but once in London, they were only allowed to take up low-income employment and were categorised as “coloured”.
That move was supposed to deter those willing to relocate.
Rishi Sunak’s parents were part of the “stateless” Indians who had found themselves characterised as the “undesirables” of the British Empire and struggled to reach London, where a quota system on British Asian migrants was in place.
Britain only allowed a limited number of arrivals yearly, and they had agreed with Jomo Kenyatta on the numbers allowed to leave Kenya, which had refused to allow dual nationality.
During the Lancaster conferences on Kenya’s Constitution, Kanu opposed Kadu’s proposal for dual citizenship. And therefore, after Independence, non-Africans in Kenya were given two years to make up their minds.
After that, Asians found themselves in a dilemma. They could neither return to India – which had closed doors on them – nor take up British citizenship easily after London came up with strict policies and a quota system.
As a medical practitioner, Sunak’s father, Yashivir, who was born in Kenya, and his pharmacist mother, Usha, born in Tanzania, had careers in an area that had been targeted for Kenyanisation.
Though Kenya had only 38 African doctors at Independence, eight of whom were interns, the fate of foreign doctors was raised in Parliament in 1963 when MPs pressured the government to start Kenyanising the health sector. By then, the Ministry of Health had employed 218 medical doctors.
To frustrate non-Kenyan Asians still in the country, the Kenyatta government confronted them with new laws that forced them to apply for work permits, as if they were fresh immigrant, and they were restricted in the nature of business they could undertake.
The government wanted companies to incorporate local directors to escape the purge, but most Asian-owned businesses were family enterprises and could not accommodate outsiders.
Ironically, those Indians who were pushed out of the retail trade went into industrial production, which informed the community’s domination of the sector.
Initially, the setting up of an African commercial class to replace the Indians who dominated the distribution sector faced some teething problems; it hurt most of those who were ordinary shopkeepers and they had to leave the retail sector.
This political tempo had been set in May 1960 by Tom Mboya, who told the Legislative Council that people seeking “double loyalties have a lot to fear because they are not Kenyans at heart.
They want to exploit that position…If he wants to be an African, and there is room for Asian and Europeans to become Africans, then let him become African without qualification”.
Thus, at Independence, the Jomo Kenyatta government gave all businessmen and settlers in Kenya an ultimatum: to either take on Kenyan citizenship or leave with their families.
Kenya was copying from India, which had in 1955 passed the Citizenship Act that abolished double nationality.
One had to either become an Indian subject or a British subject. Kenya then adopted an open anti-Asian policy on United Kingdom passport holders (it was only in July 2017 that they were finally gazetted as a new Kenyan tribe, ending 54 years of discrimination).
For Kenyatta, in order to implement the new policy, his government had set up the Kenyanisation of Personnel Bureau, whose purpose was to oversee the removal of various employees within the public and private sector of either British or Asian origin and recommend renewal of work permits.
Commercial and settler farmers were also given “quit notices” to give room for the Africanisation of the businesses and take-over of the settler farms, put in a Land Bank under the resettlement programme.
While the work permits and the Land Bank became avenues of corruption in the 1960s and 70s, the migration policy threw thousands of families out of the country, creating a new generation of Kenyan-born diasporic communities.
Most of these were astute investors and traders, and some today are at the core of industry in the UK and Canada, where they settled. The move caused a lot of panic in the UK, leading the Labour Government to enact the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill to limit such entries.
The idea was to restrict the inflow of Asians from East Africa and other holders of British passports in foreign countries.
Home Secretary James Callaghan told the House of Commons that the measures were necessary “in fairness to the people of this country and in the interests of equitable treatment for the citizens of the Commonwealth as a whole”.
He proposed a special allocation of 1,500 employment vouchers a year for those holding British passports who had no substantial connection with Britain either by birth or paternal parentage.
The problem was what to do with 35,000 Indians in Kenya holding British passports and another 105,000 Asians who could turn stateless.
With Kenyatta moving on with the Africanisation programme, Britain was always afraid that he might throw the Indians out rather than follow the quota system.
Many Indian families lost their properties and businesses to the political elite through the programme. Others who had not denounced British citizenship after Independence, were squeezed out via rules that made it hard for them to get employment or do business.
Even as locals took over these Asian-owned businesses, there was entrepreneurial confusion since most of the locals had yet to make up their minds on what they wanted from all the opportunities on offer.
Francis Macharia, the National Chamber of Commerce chairman, put it aptly in the 1960s: “Many Africans are completely confused. They don’t know whether they want to do business or farming or something else – and there is a tendency to look at business as a hobby.” The rise of Rishi Sunak as British Prime Minister ends as a beautiful story that started with lots of political rejection in East Africa. – nation.africa.
Elon Musk has completed his $44bn (£38bn) takeover of Twitter
Elon Musk has completed his $44bn (£38bn) takeover of Twitter after months of toing and froing over the deal.
His first move was to fire the social media company’s top leadership, which he accused of misleading him over the number of spam accounts on the platform.
Musk sacked Twitter’s chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to reports.
It has also been claimed Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out of the building.
Musk later tweeted “the bird is freed” in a nod to the deal being completed.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder was given a deadline of 28 October to close the deal to avoid going to trial, after the social media company sued him for trying to rip up his original offer made back in April.
Musk and Twitter were due in court on 17 October, but it was pushed back after the world’s richest man said he would go through with the purchase after all.
Earlier this week, Musk posted a bizarre video of himself entering Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink alongside the message: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in”.
Musk, who has updated his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit”, said on Thursday he did not buy the social media platform to make more money but “to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
He says he wants to “defeat” spam bots on Twitter, make the algorithms that determine how content is presented to its users publicly available, and prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division, even as he limits censorship.
He has not offered details on how he will achieve these wishes and who will run the company – and has so far been vague about his plans.
ANALYSIS: WHERE ARE MUSK’S TWITTER RED LINES?
Elon Musk first made an unsolicited bid for Twitter in April, and it’s been a will he, won’t he, on-again, off-again saga since then.
The billionaire has spent the intervening period dropping crumbs of information about what he wants Twitter to be under his control.
Musk seems to be suggesting less moderation of what users put on the platform, although he did tweet this week: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
But there are major mid-term elections coming up in the US and a presidential election approaching in Brazil. Both of those events are likely to be plagued by misinformation and election denial.
So, this is the first big test for Musk, now in charge of one of the world’s biggest communication platforms. We’ll find out soon enough where his red lines are.
According to reports, Musk told staff during his visit it was not true he was planning on cutting up to 75% of Twitter staff after acquiring the company.
It was previously reported that Musk told investors he was hoping to cut around three-quarters of the firm’s 7,500 employees.
In other plans, the outspoken billionaire has also repeatedly referred to a “super app”, which he has tentatively dubbed “X”.
The concept has drawn comparisons with China’s WeChat, which combines familiar features like messaging, a marketplace, and public Twitter-style posts into one place.
Musk has told investors he plans to sell users premium subscriptions to reduce reliance on ads, allow content creators to make money and enable payments, according to Reuters news agency.
Elsewhere, his plans to cut content moderation are feared to lead to a deluge of hateful, harmful and potentially illegal content on Twitter.
He has previously spoken of his belief in “absolute free speech” and hinted he would allow suspended and often controversial figures, such as former US president Donald Trump, to return to the platform.
Experts have warned that the world’s richest man’s loose stance on moderation could be a route for the service’s “very worst” trolls to thrive, turning Twitter into a “Wild West” where anything goes.
The 28 October deadline was to give Musk time to finance the deal. Had it not been met, a judge in Delaware – the US state where Twitter is incorporated – would have arranged a trial for November.
It ends months of bad blood between the two parties regarding the takeover, with Musk complaining about fake accounts on the platform and claims by a whistleblower that Twitter misled regulators about security risks.
It also emerged earlier this month that Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his conduct. – skynews
Safaricom has been allocated a prime internet spectrum for its fifth-generation (5G) mobile technology network,
Select Safaricom customers in five counties can now access 5G internet services after the telco launched the service on Thursday, with the first beneficiaries being home and office users.
The company announced the availability of the super-fast internet that will be used only on 5G-enabled devices about a year-and-a-half since starting 5G trials in March last year, with the first target on its enterprise customers.
The service, however, will be available at 35 active 5G sites across Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii, Kakamega and Mombasa counties at first, before the company expands to 200 sites across the country by March 2023.
“We believe in the transformative power of the internet and will continue to deliver the most advanced technologies towards enabling our customers to enjoy a digital lifestyle. The launch of 5G Wi-Fi is the first step in empowering our retail and enterprise customers to start exploring new opportunities that 5G provides,” said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.
Safaricom also announced that the service will not be immediately available on mobile data packages, as the company says it is in the process of rolling them out.
“Plans are also underway to provide 5G data packages for mobile internet customers and leverage the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo device-financing solution to avail more affordable 5G smartphones,” the company stated.
Customers in 5G-ready zones can access 5G Wi-Fi by purchasing a 5G router at Sh25,000 and incurring a setup fee of Sh5,000, then select from three packages on offer.
“Customers will also have the option of signing up for a 36-month contract that will enable them to receive the router for free. The introductory 5G Wi-Fi plans include 10Mbps with a usage limit of 300GB at Sh3,499; 40Mbps with a usage limit of 500GB at Sh5,999; and 100Mbps with a usage limit of 1TB at Sh14,999. Customers will be able to continue using the internet at throttled speeds upon depletion of the allocated usage limit,” Safaricom stated.
It added that customers using supported 5G smartphones will also access the 5G network.
Supported smartphones include 5G-enabled devices from the Samsung Galaxy S and Fold series, as well as Huawei and Oppo 5G devices. Customers using iPhones and selecting 5G-capable Samsung devices will require a software update from the manufacturer to access the 5G network. – nation.africa.
NATIONAL HOUSING STONI IN ATHI RIVER, KENYA
– Its 30 minutes drive to and from the Airport (JKIA )
– Its in a clean and secure gated community
– Ensuite master bedroom
– Instant hot water showers, fridge, cooker, microwave and washing machine
– Dining and living room
– 55 inches Samsung Tv with all free local channels
– Free Wi-Fi
– Cctv camera along the house compound
– Free weekly home cleaning services offered
– No water problems
– The house has a perimeter wall for enhanced security
– There is parking space
– Green area compound suitable as play area for kids
– The houses are separated by bougainvillea wrapped chain link fence
– Wide road that doubles the parking
– Spacious backyard with dhobi area.
For more information please contact:
Tel no. +254718562717 OR +254721417130.
rnjash@yahoo.com or Bmuturi7@gmail.com
