Top news items in major Kenyan media outlets

The following are news highlights in Kenyan media outlets on Saturday.

-- Religious leaders ask President Uhuru Kenyatta not to sign the elections amendment bill, which was passed acrimoniously in parliament this week. The changes allow a manual back-up in election management, a move that the opposition legislators oppose vehemently, saying it is a recipe for rigging next August's polls. The clergy asked Kenyatta to rise above partisan politics and refuse to assent to the bill until further negotiations. (Saturday Nation)

-- Kenyans celebrate Christmas on shoe-string budgets as tough economic times that have led to high inflation down the festive cheer. Many families in towns are not travelling up country for festivities and have cut budgets on celebrations. (Standard on Saturday)

-- Hundreds of Kenyan children are dying unnecessarily from diseases that could be easily prevented through vaccines, experts say. They urge concrete actions to stem the tide against vaccine-preventable diseases. (The Star)

-- 2017 would be the year of reckoning for the banking industry in Kenya as lenders contend with interest caps, low public confidence and a cyclic of slowdown of the economy due to next year's elections. (The East Africa