Top news items in major Kenyan media outlets

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

-- Governors on Tuesday threw their weight behind the Opposition in calling for the exclusive use of an electronic system in this year's General Election as the government insisted on a manual backup.

The governors noted manual backup would be prone to abuse, expressing fears that the system would be so lame that even dead people could be counted as voters in the August 8 polls. The county officials were presenting their views to the Senate Legal Affairs Committee, which was taking public opinion on the contentious Election Laws (Amendment) Bill controversially passed by the National Assembly last month. (Daily Nation)

-- President Uhuru Kenyatta set to meet striking doctors' officials in a bid to end their work boycott, which has crippled health services in public hospitals countrywide for about a month. (The Standard)

-- New-born deaths have reduced in Kenya by 70 percent since free maternity services were introduced four years ago, a new study has shown. (The Star)

-- Kenyan investors will be locked out of the upcoming initial public offerings of Tanzania's privately-held telcos, including Vodacom, Tigo and Airtel, which must list on the Dar-es-Salaam bourse under a new law. The sale would be limited to Tanzanians, according to guidelines from the capital markets regulator. (Business Daily)

-- Kenya and Uganda have rolled out a joint livestock vaccination programme to curb spread of infectious animal diseases across the border and enhance rearing of livestock. (People Daily) Endit