Nairobi - Barack Obama's Kenyan grandmother is struggling to cope with her new celebrity status as visitors flock to her home in a small village in western Kenya, reports said Friday.

Sarah Obama is receiving up to 500 guests per day, ten times more than before her grandson won the US presidential elections, the Daily Standard reported.

"The visitors are many and I do not even have time to go to my kitchen to cook as I used to do," she bemoaned.

Nairobi/Arusha - One of Rwanda's most famous singers has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting the 1994 genocide, the international criminal court for the genocide in Rwanda (ICTR) said Tuesday.

Simon Bikindi was convicted for making a speech in June 1994 in which he urged Hutus to kill the Tutsi minority.

"The chamber found Simon Bikindi guilty of direct and public incitement to commit genocide for his calls to exterminate Tutsi at the end of June 1994 on the Kivumu-Kayove road," the ICTR said in a statement on its website.

The ICTR also said that three of Bikindi's songs were used in 1994 to "promote contempt for and hatred of the Tutsi population, and to incite people to attack and kill Tutsi."

Nairobi - Seven current and former Kenyan MPs are facing corruption charges for allegedly claiming illegal allowances worth around 250,000 dollars.

The Kenyan anti-corruption watchdog (KACC) on Thursday began proceedings against the seven accused, among whom are Information Minister Samuel Poghisio and assistant defence minister David Musila.

Poghisio is accused of illegally claiming around 35,000 dollars in 2006 and 2007, while Musila is suspected of claiming twice that.

In the papers it filed in court, the KACC said that Poghisio made "improper use of his duties, status and power for personal gain."

Five former MPs are accused of illegally claiming a total of around 145,000 dollars.

Nairobi/Berlin - Somali pirates have seized a Liberian- flagged ship in the Gulf of Aden, although several crew members managed to escape overboard and were picked up by a German Navy helicopter, US Navy and German officials said Friday.

"The Liberian-flagged tanker Biscaglia was successfully attacked today in the Gulf of Aden," Commander Jane Campbell of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Two helicopters from a coalition ship found several people in the water and transferred those individuals to a French ship that is on national tasking," she added.

Nairobi  - Kenya's cabinet has agreed to implement a report into this year's post-election violence that should see a local tribunal set up to try politicians and businessmen accused of orchestrati

Nairobi - Some 90 per cent of Kenyans want their MPs to pay taxes on their allowances, a poll published in the Daily Nation revealed Wednesday a day after lawmakers threw out an amendment to a bill that would force them to do just that.

Kenyan MPs pay tax on their basic monthly salary of around 2,500 dollars, but they enjoy tax-free allowances of almost three times that figure.

MPs argue that their allowances, which cover healthcare, entertainment and interest-free home and car loans, should not be taxed as constituents often expect the MPs to help them out financially.