IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Ahmed Kathrada funeral: South Africa’s Zuma asked to stay away

    {South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has not attended the funeral of veteran anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada at the request of his family.}

    Mr Kathrada called on Mr Zuma to resign last year after he became mired in a series of corruption scandals.

    Ex-President Kgalema Motlanthe got a rousing applause from mourners when he repeated Mr Kathrada’s call.

    Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who is at risk of being sacked by Mr Zuma, also received a standing ovation.

    Mr Kathrada, 87, was buried in the main city, Johannesburg, following his death on Tuesday.

    He was jailed alongside Nelson Mandela for fighting against white minority rule.

    Mr Kathrada spent more than 26 years in prison before his release in 1989. He later served as an adviser to then-President Mandela in South Africa’s first democratically-elected government.

    Mr Zuma had ordered the national flag to fly at half-mast following his death and had postponed a cabinet meeting so that officials could attend the funeral.

    However, Mr Zuma did not attend the funeral and would not attend a memorial service later this week “in compliance with the wishes of the family,” a government statement said.
    Mr Kathrada’s wife, Barbara Hogan, is known to be a fierce critic of Mr Zuma.
    Mr Kathrada was a member of the governing African National Congress (ANC), which is led by Mr Zuma.

    Mr Kathrada was a simple man – that was the sense you got at his funeral.
    There was nothing lavish or grand in sight, just a tent filled with people from all walks of life to show their love for Uncle Kathy, as he was affectionately known, one last time.

    While some of South Africa’s top leaders were present, they did not receive any special treatment.

    The sombre mood was quickly overtaken by an unmistakable desire to “speak truth to power”.

    Speaker after speaker decried what they said was the moral decay and corruption in the Zuma-led government.

    And while people were mourning, there seemed to be a greater commitment to protect South Africa and its democracy – and that is perhaps the most fitting tribute to Mr Kathrada.

    Mr Kathrada wrote to Mr Zuma last year, asking him to resign after South Africa’s highest court ruled that he had breached the constitution by failing to repay government money used to upgrade his private rural home in Nkandla.

    In a separate case, another court ruled that Mr Zuma should be charged with corruption over a 1999 arms deal.

    He denies any wrongdoing, and has refused to resign.

    Mr Motlanthe, the keynote speaker at the funeral, said that “on a day like this we should not mince our words”.

    To cheers from mourners, he read excerpts of Mr Kathrada’s letter and said that the anti-apartheid veteran was “deeply disturbed by the current failure of post-apartheid politics”.

    “Today, we close his eyes permanently. During his life, he opened ours forever,” Mr Motlanthe said.

    Mr Gordhan shed a tear when Neeshan Bolton, the executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, paid tribute to him.

    Mr Gordhan stood for the values of Mr Kathrada, Mr Bolton said.

    South Africa’s media has been rife with speculation that Mr Zuma plans to sack Mr Gordhan, in a move aimed at giving him and his allies greater control over government finances.

    However, the ANC’s top six leaders are evenly split over Mr Zuma’s plan, with three of them, including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, opposed to it, Reuters news agency quoted unnamed sources as saying.

    On Monday, Mr Zuma ordered Mr Gordhan to cut short a trip to the UK, where he was meeting leading businessmen in an attempt to persuade them to invest in South Africa.

    The request to Mr Zuma not to attend the the funeral suggests that family and friends of the anti-apartheid veteran want to distance themselves from the scandal-hit president.

    Mr Zuma’s allies – especially youth leader Collen Maine – launched a sustained attack on veterans like Mr Katharada, after they raised concern about his leadership and the corruption in government.

    South Africa’s former high commissioner to the UK, Cheryl Carolus, told me: “It’s just a shame to imagine that in the last few years, even weeks and months, he [Mr Kathrada] was subjected to the most outrageous vitriol from kids who weren’t even born when he went to jail – and that other elders in our ranks actually allowed that”.

    So the absence of the 74-year-old Mr Zuma – who spent about a decade on the notorious Robben Island prison with Mr Kathrada – from the funeral can only be described as a snub.

    Source:BBC

  • DRC tense as police clash with anti-Kabila protesters

    {Police and demonstrators battle in Kinshasa as talks between President Kabila’s government and opposition fall apart.}

    Congolese police fired rounds into the air and launched tear gas canisters to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters in Kinshasa on Tuesday after talks between the opposition and President Joseph Kabila’s government fizzled out.

    Unrest broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital after Catholic bishops withdrew from their role as mediators between the government and opposition in talks aimed at paving the way for delayed elections later this year.

    Demonstrators, some burning tyres at city crossroads, took to the streets in several areas in Kinshasa.

    A Reuters news agency witness saw opposition members gathering at the home of the late Etienne Tshisekedi, the main opposition party’s former leader, during a news conference with his son, the new Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UPDS) party leader, Felix Tshisekedi.

    Many shops remained closed and some schools called parents to collect their children

    Kabila’s mandate ran out in December but polls were not held because of what the government said were budgetary constraints, sparking violent protests at the end of last year in which security forces killed at least 40 people.

    DRC’s conference of Catholic bishops (CENCO) helped negotiate a December 31 deal aimed at avoiding a political crisis by ensuring an election this year to elect Kabila’s successor.

    In January, the bishops warned the deal was at risk of unravelling if politicians did not act quickly to reach compromises and implement it.

    The bishops stepped aside on Tuesday after progress on the deal stalled, raising the prospect of renewed violence in a country that has suffered a succession of wars and rebellions.

    “We think that there’s no longer anything to do,” Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of CENCO, told Reuters. “We have given all our time and all our energy, and in the meantime, pastoral work suffers.”

    Kabila has ruled the mineral-rich central African nation since his father’s assassination in 2001. His critics accuse him of deliberately delaying elections in order to remain in power.

    {{‘Grave concern’}}

    DRC has never experienced a peaceful transition of power and millions have died in conflicts in the country’s east since 1996, most from hunger and disease.

    Meanwhile, the UN, EU, and African Union expressed “grave concern” on Tuesday over violence in the Kasai region, including the reported killing of 40 police officers on Saturday.

    The organisations “condemn this despicable act and express their condolences to the families of the victims”, they said, after Congolese national police accused rebels of killing the officers in an ambush.

    Together with the International Organisation of Francophonie, they “express deep concern over the grave situation in the Kasai provinces” in central DR Congo.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • UN: Malaria outbreak kills over 4,000 in Burundi this year

    {An outbreak of malaria has killed over 4,000 people in Burundi so far this year, the United Nations said Wednesday, a dramatic rise over the 700 victims the government announced just two weeks ago.}

    There have been over 9 million cases of malaria in the East African nation since January 2016, according to the report by the U.N. humanitarian office. Burundi, one of the world’s poorest countries, has a population of about 11 million.

    The malaria cases are “well beyond the epidemic threshold,” the report said, citing World Health Organization investigators.

    The outbreak is the latest crisis for Burundi, which has been wracked by deadly political violence since 2015 and faces food shortages that the U.N. says have left nearly one in 10 people severely food insecure.

    The political crisis began with President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful decision in April 2015 to seek a third term, which critics called unconstitutional. Hundreds have been killed, and more than 380,000 Burundians have fled into neighboring countries.

    The U.N. estimates that the number of people affected by food insecurity increased from 2.1 million to 3 million between October and January, the report said.

    Source:Washington Post

  • Uganda:Kayihura drops Baroza as PA

    {The Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura has dropped his personal Assistant Jonathan Baroza.}

    In the Thursday mini reshuffle, General Kayihura replaced Baroza with CP Ibrahim Sagal from Interpol.

    Mr Baroza, according to the reshuffle message is headed for a pending course. Sources say the IGP’s decision to sack Mr Baroza and five others was as result of the warnings from the security group investigating the murder of former police Spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

    It is alleged that he was advised to do away with people who are much known to the public as they can be easily infiltrated by criminals.

    Police Spokesman, Mr Asan Kasingye said the transfers are normal but asked for some time to gather details regarding the reshuffles.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Kenya:Lebanese firm Zakhem on the spot over Sh48bn pipeline

    {When Lebanese engineering firm Zakhem won the tender in 2014 to build a 20-inch pipeline in Kenya, it promised to complete the work in 18 months at a cost of Sh48 billion. It hasn’t.}

    They later demanded an additional Sh11 billion for the contract.

    Kenya Pipeline Company chairman John Ngumi commented to the Nation: “I can only say that we are disappointed.”

    Though legally a company can vary its tender by 25 per cent, an avenue used by many firms to get more money from State corporations, Zakhem’s demand has raised eyebrows in Parliament.

    The financing of the pipeline was a major undertaking and a $350 million loan facility was arranged by KPC with a banking consortium that included CFC Stanbic Bank, Citibank Kenya (Citi), Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

    FABULOUS DEALMAKER

    The deal was brokered by London’s East End lawyer Sanjeev Dhuna, a partner with London’s Allen & Overy, who is regarded as a fabulous dealmaker in the law firm. (He was the man who advised StanChart on the financing of Bharti Airtel’s $10.7 billion purchase of Zain Africa).

    Dhuna raised the $350 million for the project and KPC was to fund the other costs through its reserves.

    Zakhem has been one of the politically correct engineering firms in Kenya ever since they arrived in the 1970s. A well-known family enterprise still led by its founders George Zakhem — author of Men Who Dream Can Do — and his brother Abdallah, the Kenyan business was started by the latter, managing director of Zakhem International Construction Group in Kenya from 1970 to 1982.

    From the onset, Abdallah built solid political networks and won big tenders. Doubling as his country’s Honorary Consul in Kenya since 1978, he penetrated the corridors of power and still packs a punch.

    With the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975, Nairobi gave Zakhem a new life and home. It had won its first major tender in Kenya in 1975, to build the premier 14-inch 450-kilometre oil pipeline from Mombasa to Nairobi at $100 million.

    FAVOURED BY GOVERNMENT

    Soon, Zakhem became one of the companies favoured by government functionaries and was, at times, single-sourced. Others were Yugoslavia’s Put Sarajevo, Soleh Bonneh (Israel) and Jewish billionaire Gad Zeevi’s HZ Construction. Zeevi would later become a business partner with insiders in the Moi regime and his company, too, won lucrative tenders.

    Zakhem had been out of the picture — and out of controversy in Kenya — until it won the latest KPC tender. It had shifted some of its business to Nigeria, where Abdallah became a known figure as the chairman of Lebanese Nigerian Friendship Association (Lenifra), which organises high-profile banquets for local and Lebanese businessmen.

    They got lucrative tenders in the National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), thanks to President Olusegun Obasanjo, but in Liberia, they left in 2009 under a cloud of controversy after President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dismissed her confidant Harry Greaves — then head of the State-owned Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC) — following a Ministry of Justice probe into alleged bribery in a $24.8 million concession.

    In the scandal, LPRC had issued an international competitive bid that produced two finalists: Zakhem estimated the cost of the project at $24.8 million while another construction company, Mechanical Engineering Group (MEG), submitted a $12 million bid. Despite the wide price discrepancy, Greaves unilaterally signed a contract with Zakhem.

    In Kenya, Parliament had as far back as 1995 been told that Zakhem was getting contracts even when it was not the lowest bidder.

    KPC insiders say that management knew the company had been blacklisted in West Africa when they gave it the pipeline deal and that the tender committee did not get enough time to scrutinise it.

    COMPANIES CRIED FOUL

    Although the other shortlisted companies cried foul, the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) gave the project a clean bill of health. Zakhem’s competitors had accused the firm of submitting two figures: $591 million and a discounted $485 million. PPARB said this was not the case and gave the company a chance to do yet another pipeline.
    “Zakhem was to do new civil works, new stations, install new pumps and instrumentations. It also has to drill the tanks to accommodate the new pipes,” an engineer knowledgeable with the goings-on told the Nation. “We have learnt that two of the members of the PPARB have direct interests in KPC.

    “A daughter of one of the board members is employed as a senior manager while another PPARB board member was a past KPC lawyer.”

    Shortly after they clinched the tender, Zakhem began holding planning meetings with KPC officials.

    “What we realised from the start is that they wanted to make as much money as possible,” said a source who attended the meetings.

    At a project meeting in Mombasa, Ibrahim appeared in person to say that he wanted to import some electric mortars from Toshiba Mitsubishi, the Japanese electrical company.

    LOUDLY COMPLAINING

    He claimed that the 3 megawatt motors required for the main line pump were not available in Kenya.

    “He wanted us to downgrade to Zone 2, which means he would save up to Sh10 million per motor if we went for that,” said a source.

    In oil industry lingo, “Zone 0” is a place where likeliness of fire is very high and requires special explosion-proof motors. But an engineer said: “He brought mortars for Zone 2 to be used for Zone 0 for approval.”

    When some KPC engineers told him that motors of up to 8MW were available in the local market, “they walked out in protest,” an official who attended the meeting recalled.

    Once outside, Ibrahim was heard loudly complaining that they had spent a lot of money on that project.

    The new pipeline will have a throughput of a million litres per hour, up from 730,000 litres per hour on the current pipeline. Zakhem was also to build a fibreoptic cable along the route besides installing four pumping stations and firefighting systems.

    With all these, the country is set to lose Sh40 billion for replacing an infrastructure that was working. It is also set to lose billions of shillings more if it accepts a demand for additional funding to cover delays.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Kizigha, Banji out of EALA race

    {Two former East African Legislative Assembly Members of Parliament from Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), who were seeking nomination for re-election in the regional body, were axed in the ruling party’s Central Committee (CC) that met yesterday.}

    According to the party’s Ideology and Publicity Secretary, Humphrey Polepole, the party had already forwarded 12 names of successful nominees to the speaker of the National Assembly. However, the names of popular politicians, Ms Angela Kizigha and Ms Shyrose Bhanji who were defending their seats were dropped, ending their political career in EALA at least for now.

    The two were among 450 CCM cadres who were flexing their political muscles in a bruising titanic battle to win nomination in their party so that they can be voted by Members of Parliament to represent the country into the regional law making body.

    According to Mr Polepole, the CC convened yesterday under the leadership of the party’s chairman Dr John Magufuli and came up with 12 names that will be voted by parliamentarians in the august House to get six EALA members from CCM.

    From the mainland, the committee proposed four men and four women while from the Isles the committee proposed two men and two women.

    “Among other factors, we considered gender threshold at 50/50 ratio, educational background, experience in leadership, ethics and integrity and both sides of the union, unlike other parties that picked names without going through a proper and transparent democratic process,’’ he explained.

    The party’s spokesperson as Zainab Kawawa, Happiness Lugiko, Fancy Nkuhi and Happiness Mgalula (Mainland-women). The proposed names of men from mainland are Dr Ngwaru Maghembe, Adam Kimbisa, Anamringi Macha and Makongoro Nyerere.

    From Zanzibar, the CC proposed four names out of which two are men and two are women. They are Abdalla Hasnu Makame, Mohammed Yusuf Nuhu, Maryam Ussi Yahaya and Rabia Abdalla Hamid.

    Prior to picking up of the names, Mr Polepole said all the 450 names (out of which 93 were women and 357 were men) were forwarded to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) secretariat for a rigorous vetting process.

    Later, the names were forwarded to CC that also forwarded the names of people with requisite criteria to a committee of CCM parliamentarians for voting, before the 12 names were released yesterday. When assessing the names, Mr Polepole said some members who were seeking nomination were axed after the party proved that they had tried to offer bribes during the process.

    According to him, apart from removing their names, the party had directed the government through the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau to take appropriate legal action against them.

    Meanwhile, ACT Wazalendo party leader, Mr Zitto Kabwe has forwarded a request to the speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai to convene the Parliamentary Standing Orders Committee to deliberate on the latter’s Government Gazzette No 11, released on March 17 announcing the election of EALA members.

    According to Mr Zitto, who doubles as Kigoma Urban Law Maker, the speaker’s announcement violated the parliamentary standing orders that provides for representation of all political parties that have representatives in the National Assembly regardless of their number of representatives in the House.

    “The speaker issued directives that the positions to be contested in Parliament shall consider the representation ratio in the House, meaning there will be allotment of seats instead of election, a directive that is against the East African Treaty,’’ he insisted.

    Source:Daily News

  • Rwanda,Tanzania and Burundi to benefit from 80 megawatts

    {Over 7,000 households in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are set to benefit from 80 megawatts of electricity from the Rusumo Falls hydro-electric project along Kagera River whose ground-breaking ceremony is set for today.}

    Tanzania’s Minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof Sospeter Muhongo and his Rwanda and Burundian counterparts are expected to grace the ground-breaking event scheduled at the Tanzania-Rwanda border. Each partner state will have a share of 26.6MW to be connected to their national power grids.

    The project is as well meant to strengthen the regional power interconnections between the three countries, which are also member states of the East African Community (EAC).

    Apart from the 7,000 households to benefit through the local area development program, there will be additional 188 households, surrounding the project, to benefit directly through the livelihood restoration program.

    “This is in addition to providing job opportunities to over 500 skilled, non- skilled and casual workers from the three benefiting countries,” the event organisers said in a press statement yesterday.

    Construction of the power generation plant is financed by the World Bank while the transmission lines that will connect the power plant to the national grids in the three countries will be financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

    According to the statement, there will be representatives from the World Bank, AfDB and board members of the Rusumo Power Company Limited from the respective shareholder countries.

    The Rusumo Power Plant is implemented by the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination Unit (NELSAP-CU) mandated by the three countries through the Rusumo Power Company Ltd (RPCL).

    The NELSAP-CU Regional Coordinator, Engineer Elicad Nyabeeya, stressed that the regional project requires effective coordination and management to deliver the power plant, associated transmission lines and sub-stations on time.

    He reiterated that once the project is completed, it will enhance socio-economic growth, reinforce regional cooperation, partnership and peace within the Kagera River Basin countries. Construction of the power plant is expected to last three years, until 2020.

    It will be undertaken by a joint venture of Chinese companies, CGCOC Group Limited and Jiangxi Water & Hydropower Construction Company Limited Joint Venture (CGCOC – JWHC JV).

    The two Chinese firms will execute the civil works in addition to supply and installation of hydro-mechanical equipment while a consortium Rusumo Falls Andritz Hydro GmbH of Germany and Andritz Hydro PVT Limited of India will supply and install electro-mechanical equipment for the power plant.

    Source:Daily News

  • MTN Rwanda donates Rwf 700 million in 7 years

    {MTN Rwanda has unveiled that it has since 2010 through MTN Foundation donated Rwf 700 million to support various projects in education, health, environment and businesses. }

    This was revealed yesterday during a press conference where MTN Rwanda officials narrated their achievements and future plans.

    “You have heard MTN donations of computers to schools, water reservoirs to citizens among others,” said MTN’s Sponsorship and Promotional Coordinator Alain Numa.

    He explained that MTN donated at least Rwf 100 million each year since 2010.

    MTN Rwanda chief executive, Bart Hofker explained the five pillars upon which MTN is founded mainly based on maintaining trust among clients, preservation of achievements, keeping the lead in telecommunication services in Rwanda, building for the future and offering good services.

    He lauded Rwanda leadership for fast-tracking development after experiencing dark history in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

    “Rwanda has made remarkable progress. It is committed to the future, and has a vision to achieve. Mobile phone telecommunications will play a role in that drive,” he said.

    Bart explained that MTN will keep providing job opportunities to Rwandans and ensuring that every woman accesses technology.

    MTN promised to continue delivering fast and efficient telecommunication services to clients including calls services.

    MTN staff in a press conference yesterday.

  • Breaking chain of illicit drugs supply: Four arrested with 10 sacks of cannabis

    {Continued police operations and campaign to break the chain of illicit drug supply led to the arrest of for people in Rwamagana District, who were trafficking ten sacks of cannabis, about 300kgs.}

    According to the Eastern Region Police Spokesperson, Inspector of Police (IP) Emmanuel Kayigi, residents of Mutenderi Sector in Ngoma District informed the police in the area about a ring of traffickers, who had sneaked the drugs into the country, and were destined to unknown area.

    “We gathered all the information possible and discovered that they had stashed the drugs in a house in Rwamagana District, where they were recovered, and four suspected dealers arrested,” IP Kayigi said.

    “We have since learnt that there are other individuals involved, and investigations are still underway to ensure that everyone is brought to book,” he added.

    He commended the great role of the general public in the fight against drugs in the country, and the ongoing efforts to break chains of supply through real time information sharing.

    “Through community policing, the public have been very helpful in coming forward with credible information that leads to the arrest of drugs traffickers,” said IP Kayigi.

    In a related development, in Rulindo District, police destroyed scores of illicit gins seized in the last three months in an event attended by over 600 students.

    The destroyed substances include 7200 sachets of Blue sky, Kick Waragi and Kitoko waragi.

    Others are 1302 bottles of African gin, 23 liters of Kanyanga and pellets of cannabis.

    The arrests and seizure of drugs comes at the time when Rwanda National Police (RNP) in partnership with the public and other players in policing, are mainly focusing on identifying and arresting traffickers as an effective way to prevent abuse of psychotropic substances.

    On Tuesday, police uncovered an illicit brew distillery in his house in Kinyinya Sector of Gasabo District, where at least four drums had been concealed in four different holes dug within the house.

    About 25 drug dealers were also arrested in two separate operations in Nyarugenge District mid this month and recovered over 700kgs of cannabis from them.

    Source:Police

  • Beating deadly pneumonia with hormones

    {Hormone could save lives of particularly vulnerable patients}

    Researchers have found that a hormone responsible for controlling iron metabolism helps fight off a severe form of bacterial pneumonia, and that discovery may offer a simple way to help vulnerable patients.

    The researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified a key hormone critical for preventing pneumonia bacteria from spreading throughout the body. The hormone, hepcidin, is produced in the liver and limits the spread of the bacteria by hiding the iron in the blood that the bacteria need to survive and grow.

    Stimulating hepcidin production in patients who do not produce it well, such as people with iron overload or liver disease, may help their bodies effectively starve the bacteria to death. That finding could be lifesaving for these vulnerable patients, especially as pneumonia bacteria grow increasingly antibiotic antibiotic-resistant.

    “The rate at which these organisms become resistant to antibiotics is far faster than the rate at which we come up with new antibiotics. It’s a race, and they’re winning it,” said researcher Borna Mehrad, MBBS, of UVA’s Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. “Increasingly, the choice of antibiotics to treat these infections is more and more limited, and there are occasions where there just isn’t an antibiotic to treat with, which is a very scary and dangerous situation.”

    {{Helpful Hormone}}

    Mehrad and his team, including colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that mice that had been genetically modified to lack hepcidin were particularly susceptible to bacterial pneumonia. Nearly all of the mice had the pneumonia bacteria spread from the lungs into their bloodstream, ultimately killing them. “It’s the exact same thing that happens in people,” Mehrad said. “The mice that lacked the hormone weren’t able to hide iron away from the bacteria, and we think that’s why the bacteria did so well in the blood.”

    Researcher Kathryn Michels, a graduate student in Mehrad’s lab and the first author of a manuscript outlining the findings, noted that many people lack the hormone because of genetic illnesses or liver disease. “It’s quite common,” she said. “We think this line of research is very relevant to the many people who can’t make this hormone very well and are, clinically, very susceptible to these infections.”

    She noted that there is already a drug in development that mimics the function of hepcidin and could be used to decrease the iron levels in the blood of pneumonia patients who lack hepcidin. That drug has been developed primarily to treat chronic iron overload, such as is seen in people with hereditary hemochromatosis, but the new research may give it another, lifesaving application.

    “We think that short-term treatment with this drug should be an effective way of treating these [pneumonia] infections,” Mehrad said. “At least in mice, it seems to work extremely well.”

    Source:Science Daily