Sonko, who last week spent 10 hours at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, is also being probed over graft claims related to multimillion shilling garbage tenders at City Hall and which [are?] reported to have pushed him to consider picking a deputy governor who will take charge should he be paraded in court (People Daily, Monday September 9, p.2). Criminal suspects are not “paraded in court”. They are charged or arraigned.
IEBC clears 10 candidates for Kibra parliamentary by-election ahead of Tuesday deadline (Capital FM headline, Monday, September 9). Intro: Over ten candidates have been cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to contest in the forthcoming Kibra by-election ahead of the deadline for submission of candidatures on Tuesday. So, how many candidates were cleared? Ten, 11 or 18?
We are cognizant to the fact that the competing interests around the procurement have in the past nit been in agreement with our decisions (Kenya Ports Authority press statement in the Star, September 11, p.7). The proper construction is “cognizant of”, a quite formal expression.
How many heads does a man have? The question came to Pen Cop’s mind upon reading this intro: Residents of Lukhokhwe village in Bungoma’s Kimilili constituency were sent into panic after the body of a man who was working in Malawi was ferried back without a head (Star, September 11, p.28). A human being has one head. In this sad case, the man’s body was ferried back from Malawi without “the” head.
Kenya Power has stepped up public awareness campaigns geared at raising awareness on billing process, as well as combating fraud and enhancing customer satisfaction (KBC online, September 11). “…has stepped up public awareness campaigns to raise awareness…”? Did the writer read that sentence twice? Better something neat like: Kenya Power has stepped up public awareness campaigns on billing to combat fraud and enhance customer satisfaction.
Kenya’s business environment has greatly improved on [the?] political truce between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his rival Raila Odinga, according to an International Monetary Fund document (Star, September 12, p.15). What is the meaning of that? To improve on/upon means to make better. Has Kenya’s business environment made the handshake better or is it the other way around, handshake made the business environment better?
Prof Walingo has been sent on a compulsory leave by the university counsel and the institution’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) in charge of Academic Affairs appointed to the position in an acting capacity (Nairobi News, September 12). What’s a “university counsel”?
Hotels scramble for children’s flitting attention (Business Daily headline, September 6). What’s “flitting attention”? Fleeting.
