Newspapers on Wednesday, February 11, discussed various topics, while the politics leading up to the 2027 General Election dominated all the pages.
Source: UGC
Elsewhere, one of the newspapers reported on a plan to remove the Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna from his position as general secretary in the ODM party.
1. The Star
The Star reported on the removal of ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna.
The party’s National Executive Committee will meet on Wednesday, February 11, in what could be a crucial session, amid growing speculation that the future of Sifuna and his allies could be decided.
This would mark the second NEC meeting since the death of the long-time ODM leader Raila Odinga in October.
In the first session, the committee appointed Siaya senator Oburu Oginga as Raila’s successor, bypassing the three deputy leaders.
Although the official agenda is to receive information from the Central Management Committee on union building and preparations for the National Conference of Delegates, today’s meeting has strong signs of an impending leadership change.
According to The Star, there is a secret push to replace Sifuna with Busia governor Paul Otuoma.
Insiders say momentum is building among senior figures who believe Otuoma “would work seamlessly with party leader Oburu.”
Signs of the party’s withdrawal are already visible: some of Sifuna’s allies have been removed from the NEC WhatsApp group, fueling rumors of targeted exclusion.
The NEC is also expected to rebuke members who oppose ODM’s collaboration with the President’s party William Ruto of UDA.
Those reported to be on the list include deputy leader Godfrey Osotsi, Governor of Siaya James OrengoMPs Caleb Amisi, Babu Owino, and Kisumu women’s representative Ruth Odinga.
One NEC member, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the possibility of change.
“That is possible [kuondolewa kwa Sifuna] because some of his people have been removed from the NEC group and have not been invited to the Mombasa meeting,” The Star quoted them as saying.
The campaign against Sifuna intensified after Finance Minister John Mbadi demanded his suspension, accusing him of treason.
“A person like Sifuna will not remain in ODM because he already has a crisis. Now he is selling someone else’s agenda. Why are you pretending? You cannot put him in the party,” he said.
According to the ODM Constitution, disciplinary action requires a formal complaint to the committee, which then makes recommendations to the NEC.
There are no such complaints at present; The original complaint by Migori Senator Eddy Okech was dismissed.
Osotsi dismissed talk of the party’s uprooting as unusual.
“That will be against the law. On what basis? If any of the officials have gone against the party’s rules, disciplinary action must be taken,” he said.
Sifuna has been at the forefront of the group opposing the participation of ODM and UDA, a position that has increased the division within the party.
Surprisingly, his visible allies in the NEC, among them Saboti MP Caleb Amisi and Kipkorir Menjo, were removed from the NEC WhatsApp group on Sunday.
They were also excluded from the Mombasa meeting, with Chungwa House explaining the decision as a result of their election as county party chairmen.
2. Nation Today
Taifa Leo highlighted the loopholes in the Ministry of Education through which Kenyans could lose billions of shillings.
The newspaper reports that about KSh 5 billion is wasted every year due to inaccurate school enrollment figures, according to revelations from a national verification audit conducted by the ministry.
The review, conducted between September and December last year, showed a 16.5% drop in primary school enrollment and a 2.64% drop in secondary school enrollment after undocumented students were removed from official records.
Since government funding is based on the number of students, the move has a major impact on how public funds have been allocated in recent years.
However, it is unclear how long the government has been using fake statistics to fund education programs.
Using the average government allocation rates, about KSh 1,420 per primary school student and KSh 22,244 per secondary school student per year, the new student figures show that about KSh 3.4 billion in primary schools and KSh 1.9 billion in secondary schools may have been paid based on unverified figures.
This brings the total amount of public funds given to students that year to approximately KSh 5.3 billion.
This amount does not include allocations for secondary schools, infrastructure funds and special needs education funds, suggesting that the actual losses could be much higher.
According to the audit report, thousands of students were excluded from funding after failing to meet conditions, including missing birth certificates, incomplete student information or inaccurate school records.
Only fully accredited students are considered for funding.
In addition, 26 schools were found to be non-performing, meaning they are currently not providing educational services due to closures, teacher shortages or poor infrastructure.
The report also shows that 1,841 primary schools and 1,661 lower secondary schools did not submit any data, while 38 Special Education schools were missing students, which raises questions about management and accountability in the education sector.
These results confirm long-standing concerns raised by the Auditor General of Government Accounts regarding the presence of missing students and errors in registration data, which puts the education sector at risk of misuse of public funds.
3. Daily Nation
The Daily Nation newspaper reserved space for the intervention of the Kenyan government in response to the deaths of Kenyans in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.
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