Kenya

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Sunday that Kenya was mistaken to invite Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to last week's signing ceremony for the country's new constitution. Odinga said despite efforts to "foster good neighbourliness" it was "wrong".

Kenyans can now cancel trips to India or South Africa for kidney surgeries, and instead head to Kenyatta National Hospital where doctors have transplanted 14 kidneys in less than a year.

Normally, they do one or two a year. Another 20 patients are on the queue after new kidney donors were found.

The overwhelming support for the new constitution has increased the chances of Prime Minister Raila Odinga bagging the presidency in 2012, according to a new opinion poll published on Sunday.

The survey conducted by pollsters Infotrak Harris also shows that the winning candidate will have to carefully select his or her running mate in order to claim victory.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Friday spoke for the first time of the anxious moments before a head surgery that kept him out of office for a month.

He revealed how he looked his wife Ida in the eye before the surgery and told her he was at peace with himself if that was to be his last day on earth.

Nine in every 10 Kenyans are satisfied with the outcome of the referendum, which ushered in a new constitution.

According to the latest opinion poll conducted by Synovate, between August 7 and 9, a majority of the 9.1 million people who voted for or against the draft constitution, are of the view that the results were a true reflection of what Kenyans wanted.

The 'Yes' camp was leading with slightly more than 6 million votes while the 'No' side had 2.7 million votes on Thursday night.

Interim Independent Electoral Commission official Winnie Guchu said the final result was expected to be announced later.

Less than 12 hours after the polls closed in Wednesday's referendum in Kenya, provisional results showed supporters of a new constitution headed for a landslide win.

According to results from the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), the Yes side had 4,141,521 votes (67 per cent) against the No camp's 2,054,946 (33 per cent).

SEVENTY-three people are feared dead after their boat capsized on Lake Albert on Saturday night. The mishap occurred at Kakoma in Runga village, Kigolobya sub-county in Hoima district.

By press time, the Police, assisted by local residents, had rescued 17 people. A body of an adult female and those of four children were recovered.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's push for an endorsement of a new constitution has received a major boost this weekend. Prime Minister Raila Odinga hit the campaign trail again after a month out because of health problems.

PRIME Minister Raila Odinga has been named among the politicians making "unsavoury, derogatory and insulting" remarks during the campaigns before referendum on the proposed constitution on August 4.

Kenya was on Monday under heightened security after terrorist bombs killed 74 people in Kampala.

Somali militant group al-Shabaab, on Monday claimed responsibility for Sunday's twin- bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital on Sunday night and slaughtered people watching the World Cup final at a restaurant and a sports club, authorities said.

Police officers and prison warders were on Wednesday awarded a long-awaited 28 per cent salary increment. Senior officers also benefited from the raise, but at the lower rate of 25 per cent.

This is only the first instalment of a pay plan that will see the salary of the lowest- earning officers doubled in three years.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is recovering at the Nairobi Hospital after he underwent head surgery, his doctors said on Tuesday.

The operation, which they described as minor, was done on Monday night, and was meant to relieve pressure, which had built up outside his brain, Dr Livingston Oluoch-Olunya, a neurosurgeon, said at the hospital.

The Kenyan Government on Monday called in the military to help investigate a grenade attack on a crusade at Uhuru Park on Sunday in which six people were killed and 104 injured.

Five people died and more than 70 others were on Sunday hurt after two explosions caused a stampede at a 'No' rally in Nairobi's Uhuru Park.

The explosions took place as a Nairobi preacher was conducting prayers after the main rally, which was otherwise peaceful.