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Category: News

  • Ugandan Executed in China over Drug Trafficking

    {{A Ugandan musician only known as Roy Kapale (Pictured below) has been set to death by hanging in China for Drug Trafficking.}}

  • Odinga Attakcs African Leaders ‘Demonising’ ICC

    {{Former Prime Minister in Kenya, Raila Odinga has lashed out at African Leaders whom he says are demonising the International Criminal Court (ICC).}}

    He defended the ICC from accusations that it targeted African leaders saying the continent was a victim of its own failures.

    Odinga added that African leaders facing charges at the ICC were referred by their countries.

    He said Kenya voted to have the post election violence suspects tried at The Hague while Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Taylor and Joseph Kony have all been referred to the same court by their respective countries.

    Odinga made the remarks while addressing students and staff of the University of Pretoria on Wednesday saying said increasing attacks on the International Criminal Court by Africa’s leaders were disturbing and hypocritical.

    Odinga said it was difficult to understand why leaders who voluntarily appended their signatures to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC have turned around to condemn the same institution.

    The Kenyan politician said he is disturbed by attempts to demonise institutions that seek to provide relief to citizens who have suffered abuse in the hands of the leaders asking African governments to come up with concrete steps to provide justice to its citizens.

    He said that Africans are suffering as a result of the betrayal of the ideals that informed the struggle for independence.

    “Independence has come. The leadership comprised those who had fought for basic freedoms of expression, speech, association and movement. We assumed the leaders understood the pain of being denied these freedoms. They understood the pain of inequitable distribution of resources.

    “They knew the pain of being discriminated against on the basis of tribe, race, religion and place of origin. They would not commit such sins against their own people. Today, we know we were wrong,” Odinga said.

    He lamented that the struggle that the African people have had to endure in the years after independence have been as vicious and sometimes more vicious than what they waged against the colonialists.

    “It has been a struggle laced with the pain of being betrayed by a brother, an uncle, a father, a neighbour, and a friend. Where are we to turn?”

    {Nation}

  • Kenyan Woman Detained at Indian hospital over Huge Bill

    {{A Kenyan Man John Githinji and his family are in distress following his daughter’s detention by an Indian hospital over a Sh1.8 million bill.}}

    The hospital’s management has refused to release his daughter who has undergone a successful kidney transplant, unless the money is paid.

    {{Declared fit}}

    Ms Esther Wacera Githinji, 33, flew to Hinduja Hospital in March last year for a kidney transplant after waiting for 10 years to get a suitable donor.

    This is the second transplant after an earlier one where her 60-year-old mother donated to her her kidney in 2005 failed.

    Thankfully, Ann Githinji, Wacera’s sister volunteered to donate a kidney to her last year. To facilitate a transplant, the family raised Sh1.1 million by selling off some of their assets, including taking a loan and holding a fundraising. The money, he says, was enough for exercise that was to take between three to four weeks.

    However after medical analysis, doctors at the hospital said Wacera’s body was not compatible with a kidney from a family member especially because it had rejected the organ donated by her mother seven years ago after using it for only 11 months.

    Doctors advised them to seek a donor outside their family and were lucky when they found an Indian family that was suffering a similar plight and were willing to do a kidney exchange.

    However, there was an obstacle. “The Indian Government refused to do the transplant, saying that one of their own could not give a kidney to a Kenyan, leading to a legal tussle,” said Ms Julia Wambui an older sister to the detainee. It took 13 months to clear the legal hurdles for the exchange to take place.

    All this time, Wacera and her mother were living in a rental house in the country and the family was spending between Sh60, 000 to Sh80, 000 per month for their upkeep.
    After the transplant, Wacera developed complications and had to undergo three other costly operations, adding to the already astronomical bill.

    {standard}

  • Journalists Converge in Nairobi for ACCER Awards

    {{Journalists from across Africa converged in Nairobi, Kenya for the first African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER) Awards.}}

    Shaping the climate change and environment narrative in Africa was the theme for the event, which coincided with the 2013 World Environment Day commemoration.

    Ghana’s Adu Domfeh emerged second runner-up for his radio piece on the role of community radio in helping local people mitigate the impact of climate change.

    Other winners in the Africa-wide competition included Peter Labeja (Uganda), Pius Sawa (Kenya), Elias Ntungwe Ngalame (Cameroon) and Mwadalitso Mwando (Zimbabwe).

    The Awards is organized by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) in liaison with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), and supported by Christian Aid, Oxfam Novib, SIDA, Finn Church Aid, Diakonia, and BrandKenya Board.

    PACJA Secretary-General, Mithika Mwenda, emphasized that national economies, livelihoods and social welfare across Africa are getting disrupted “as communities’ vulnerability to climate change becomes obvious and can no longer be ignored”.

    He noted that “Sub-Saharan Africa is the region that has contributed the least to the global accumulation of green house gas emission but it is the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change”.

    Mr. Mwenda therefore expects the media to be allies and agents in driving the climate change agenda, hence PACJA’s commitment to building media capacity and encouraging reportage on the subject.

    Dr. Wilbur Otichilo of the Kenyan Parliamentary Network on Renewable Energy and Climate Change enjoined media practitioners to simplify the difficult subject of climate change for local people to appreciate its impact on their lives.

    According to him, there are efforts to link up various parliaments in Africa to champion the cause of climate change.

    Kenya is hoping to become one of the first countries in Africa to have a law on climate change with the expected passage of a bill this year.

    “Our main concern is to come up with a policy and legal framework to govern the issues related to climate change and we are currently fine-tuning a climate change bill which was prepared in the last parliament,” stated Dr. Otichilo.

    Food, building and transportation are critical sectors mainly contributing to climate change, said Desta Mebratu, UNEP Deputy Director, Regional Office for Africa.

    He therefore called for the issue of food waste and food loss to be addressed at all levels to give meaning to the World Environment Day.

    {wirestory}

  • Alcohol Hinders 7 out of 8 MDGs

    {{Seven out of the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are substantially hindered by heavyalcohol consumption that negatively affects them all, research findings have indicated.}}

    International Evidence shows that alcohol is a cross-cuttingrisk factor in many areas of public health, as well associal vices, from child health, non-communicable and communicable diseasesincluding STIs and HIV/AIDS, gender based violence and crimes, to economic and social development, grossly hindering sustainable development of households, communities and societies.

    {{MDG 1}}: Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger: Poverty is in different ways exacerbated by alcohol use: We see in communities throughout the East African Community (EAC) disastrous alcohol expenditure; the pattern is one where bread winners, in most cases men, divert meager family resources meant for food and other household needs to their alcohol habit due to chronic alcohol dependence. In addition, home brewed traditional alcoholic beverages mostly use ingredients that are common household food grains, such as maize, millet, sorghum and cassava.

    Thus this practice depletes food supply at household and community levels. The ultimate consequences of thesepractices leadto food insufficiency, hunger and a poor diet in the family which in turn leads to avoidable illness especially for children. Moreover, alcoholism causes bad health to the consumer, hence dramatically reducing their chances of earning income for household use.

    Alcohol addiction also leads to excessive use of family resources to feed the addictive habit, further depriving family members of social opportunities such as education, drawing them deeper into abject poverty, without future prospects to get out of the vicious cycle, as many who grow under such conditions, themselves pick up the alcoholic tendencies.

    {{MDG 2}}: Achieve universal primary education: Many of the staff in educational sector have fallen victims to alcohol abuse and hence frequent absenteeism and lack of professionalism in schools. In homes, alcohol poses competition with among others educational resources and hence increasing the dropout rates of school goers.Availability of alcohol to school going youth is also a major concern likely to significantly affect completion rates.

    {{MDG3}}: Promote gender equality and empower women: Evidence shows that alcohol is a huge factor behind gender based violence. In addition to that, aggressive alcohol marketing techniques of the alcohol industry in the EAC, amplify the common belief of masculine superiority over females, perpetuating objectification and sexualization of women and girls and justify male demonstration of power.

    Emerging evidence further shows that alcohol fuels violence against women up to a factor of 3 to four times over the situation where no alcohol is used. Some of these acts of violence include rape and battering, which are not only demeaning but bring about life threatening psychological repercussions.

    {{MDG 4}}: Reduce Child Mortality: Where alcohol consumption is excessive, there is poor family planning and poor care for the household dependents, as most household income is spent on alcohol consumption and not on essential household needs like good nutrition and other needs.

    Infant mortality is exacerbated by poor maternal diet during pregnancy and lack of care. Inadequate family planning as happens when the male or both spouses are alcohol consumers leads to unplanned pregnancies and increase infant mortality due to many predisposing factors during the pregnancy period.

    {{MDG 5}}: Improved Maternal Health: Alcohol consumption as normally happens by the male partners substantially raises violence against women partners. Acts of violence including harassment, battering,and rape render women physically weak and mentally depressed, contributing to general poor health and especially poor pregnancy outcomes for either mother or the newborn infant.

    Improvement in maternal health cannot be attained where heavy alcohol drinking prevails, due to the preferential resource allocation to alcohol drinking rather than household utilization. Drunken violence also brings about mental problems, and when this happens in pregnancy, it makes a bad situation much worse.

    {{MDG 6}}: Combat HIV/ AIDS, Malaria and TB: Accumulatingresearch evidence has confirmed the symbiotic relationship between alcohol and HIV/AIDS and TB, as alcohol consumption seriously reduces immunity, thereby increasing the chances for contracting infection.

    Alcohol intoxication impairs judgment leading to risky sexual behavior. Intoxication also makes ART drug use compliance erratic, leading to poor treatment outcomes. Alcohol has also been overtly implicated asa leading risk factor in manyNon-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, andnow these are on a steep rise in the EAC countries.

    {{MDG 7}}: Ensure environmental sustainability: Investigations into alcohol production process shows environmental abuse. For instance, in many cases, more than 25 liters of water are needed in order to produce just one liter of beer, not to mention the large land expanses of land used for cultivating wheat, barley and other agricultural products used as raw materials for malt and alcohol production.

    Trees are being cut down, water and air polluted for the case of local alcohol production. Packaging of alcohol in sachets has also led to environmental concerns.

  • Zimbabwe Warns Against Foreign Interference

    {{Zimbabwe’s Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has warned against foreign interference in the country’s domestic matters saying progressive Zimbabweans would not allow foreigners to violate and desecrate their sovereignty by varying or challenging domestic laws.}}

    Mr. Mutambara was responding to outsiders contesting the election date saying, Constitutional Court ruling directing President Mugabe to proclaim election dates and hold harmonised elections by July 31 is final and binding and neither Sadc nor the AU can reverse it as any such attempts will be akin to infringing the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

    The DPM, who is a principal to the Global Political Agreement, warned Ms Lindiwe Zulu who is international relations advisor to South African president Jacob Zuma that whatever their political differences or views on the election dates.

    Ms Lindiwe Zulu was quoted in some sections of the Zimbabwean media saying with or without the Constitutional Court ruling, harmonised elections will be decided by a roadmap.

    “It is not acceptable for the SA facilitation team to use the language that says ‘with or without the court ruling, an election roadmap has to be agreed,’ thus, demeaning and disregarding the decision of our Constitutional Court, while implying that a roadmap outside the laws of Zimbabwe will determine the election date.

    “This is an attack on our national sovereignty. All Zimbabweans across the political divide; including those who are offended by the Constitutional Court judgment or feel that it was a wrong decision; must unite, oppose and reject this patronising and illegitimate posturing by our neighbours,’’ DPM Mutambara said.

    The backroom facilitation team’s role, the involvement of Sadc and the AU as guarantors; DPM Mutambara said, was never meant to disregard Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity.

    “Foreigners must respect our constitutional dispensation. As Zimbabweans, we must preserve our national sovereignty,’’ he said.

    All foreigners, DPM Mutambara said, should realise that a binding and final determination had been made by the Constitutional Court in Zimbabwe and it should be respected without reservation.

    Political scientist and Zanu-PF Politburo member Professor Jonathan Moyo concurred and dismissed as scandalous efforts by President Zuma’s backroom facilitation team to influence the election date when the Constitutional Court had already pronounced itself on the matter.

    “That is preposterous as it is scandalous. It can only come from someone with a subversive intention or agenda against our country because the most important fundamental is the rule of law, and in this case the only competent authority is the Constitutional Court.

    “We cannot have somebody coming from a country with very serious problems of its own like the Marikanas and all to pontificate and say we will use the roadmap. We do not need the roadmap. We need the Constitution, and we have it,” he said.

    Prof Moyo said President Mugabe had already stated that he will abide by the Constitution Court’s ruling, putting to rest any plans to delay the holding of harmonised elections.

    He slammed Ms Zulu for trying to provoke a crisis in Zimbabwe.

    “We have a woman with nothing to do trying to promote a crisis in Zimbabwe. Election dates in Zimbabwe are not fixed by an agreement between anybody but on the basis of the law,” Prof Moyo said.

    He said Sadc through its executive secretary Dr. Tomaz Salomao is on record saying that the regional bloc was waiting for the Constitutional Court ruling on elections otherwise Zimbabwe was ready for polls.

    The MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai wants the election held as late as October and is on record denouncing the ruling by the Constitutional Court.

    Political analyst Dr Charity Manyeruke ruled Ms Zulu offside saying Zimbabwe had to abide by the ruling of the Constitutional Court.

    “Zimbabwe will obviously abide by the ruling of the Constitutional Court. Any decision outside the Constitution is ultra vires and illegal,” she said.

    “The facilitation team has overstepped its mandate. It has to understand that Zimbabwe is a country that abides by the rule of law and cannot be ruled by individuals who think they can make decisions on what happens, how it happens and when that should happen. People should respect the principle of territorial integrity which is a fundamental principle of Sadc,” she said.

    The Constitutional Court, last week, ruled with a crushing majority of seven yeas to two nays that President Mugabe should proclaim elections dates and hold harmonised elections by July 31 this year.

    The ruling came in the wake of an application by Mr Jealousy Mawarire of the Centre for Elections and Democracy who wanted the court to compel President Mugabe to proclaim the election date before June 29 when the life of the Seventh Parliament lapses.

    Sadc’s announcement on the sidelines of the AU’s mid-term summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that it would convene a special summit on Zimbabwe to co-ordinate efforts to find funding for the harmonised elections has been latched onto by forces opposed to elections as an opportunity to lobby for poll postponement.

    The regional bloc is, however, on record saying Zimbabwe was ready for elections and it would stand guided by the Constitutional Court ruling on the way forward.

  • RDF Command & Staff College Conducts National Security Symposium

    {{The RDF Command and Staff College organised a 2 day symposium with the theme, “National Security Symposium on Contemporary Security Challenges: African Perspective”. The conference kicked off at RDF CSC, Nyakinama in Musanze district.}}

    The Symposium, opened by Hon Gen James Kabarebe, Minister of Defence, attracted important personalities and researchers who discussed different topics to students.

    The first day covered three topics commenced by “Implications of Defence Management on Policy to Capability in a Developing Country’’ by the Minister of Defence, Gen James Kabarebe as main speaker. Prof Charles Gasarasi and Prof Herman Musahara were discussants for the topic.

    The second presentation was “Revolutionising Institutions to address National and Regional Security dynamics’’ by the RDF Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Charles Kayonga as main speaker with Dr CM Kabwete as discussant.

    The third lecture was “Good Governance as a Precursor for National Security’’ presented by Prof Anastase Shyaka assisted by Wellars Gasamagera and Eusta Kayitesi as discussants.

    Discussions on 6 June 2013 will feature topics by Hon Minister of Foreign Affairs on Foreign Relations.

    The Symposium is aimed at enhancing National Security understanding to RDF officers completing Senior Command and Staff Course this month.

    {Hon Gen James Kabarebe, Minister of Defence}

    MOD

  • Britain to compensate Tortured Kenyans

    {{The UK will compensate thousands of Kenyans tortured by colonial forces during an uprising that began as the British Empire wound down, a lawyer and expert witness have said.}}

    “We have agreed on an out-of-court settlement,” Kenyan lawyer Paul Muite, an advisor to the Mau Mau veterans seeking compensation, told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

    “[The negotiations] have included everybody with sufficient evidence of torture. And that number is about 5,200,” he said, declining to comment on the size of the payout.

    Britain’s foreign office declined to comment on UK media reports that the settlement would total $21.5m.

    Negotiations began after a London court ruled in October that three elderly Kenyans, who suffered castration, rape and beatings while in detention during a crackdown by British forces and their Kenyan allies in the 1950s, could sue Britain.

    The torture took place during the so-called Kenyan Emergency of 1952-60, when fighters from the Mau Mau movement attacked British targets, causing panic among white settlers.

    A formal announcement on the settlement is expected later on Thursday.

    {aljazeera}

  • Rwandan Genocide Suspects in UK Battling Extradition

    {Above genocide suspects facing extradition from UK: L-R,Charles Munyaneza,Celestin Ugirashebuja, Emmanuel Nteziryayo 45,}

    {{A group of Rwandans accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide appeared in court in London on Wednesday at the start of a second legal battle by four of them to avoid extradition to Rwanda.}}

    The five were arrested May 30 under warrants alleging genocide and related crimes during the 100-day massacre of over a million Tutsis. They deny the charges.

    Emmanuel Nteziryayo, Charles Munyaneza and Celestin Ugirashebuja were all mayors of provincial Rwandan towns in 1994 and are accused of organizing massacres.

    Vincent Bajinya, who was a medical doctor in Kigali, is accused of inciting genocide during meetings at his house and organizing roadblocks where Tutsis were killed.

    All four were first arrested in Britain in December 2006 and held in prison until April 2009, when the London High Court freed them on the grounds that they would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda.

    A fifth suspect, Celestin Mutabaruka, was not involved in the earlier legal battle. He was the head of an agricultural project at the time of the genocide and faces the same seven charges as the other four.

    Prosecutor Gemma Lindfield told the court that the Rwandan legal system had improved since the 2009 High Court ruling, making it more likely that Rwanda’s extradition bid would succeed this time.

    Lindfield cited changes in Rwanda’s witness protection system and court decisions in countries including Norway, Sweden and Canada to extradite genocide suspects to Rwanda.

    “These developments … represent a sea change in the view of the global community and the international courts,” said Linfield, who was acting for Rwanda during the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

    The five men, all in their 50s and 60s, appeared by video link from Belmarsh Prison in London. They were remanded in custody until the next court hearing, scheduled for June 27.

    {{Denied Bail}}

    Bajinya, Nteziryayo and Munyaneza applied for bail but were denied by judge Emma Arbuthnot on the grounds that they posed a flight risk.

    “These are extremely serious charges. It is hard to imagine how they could be more serious,” Arbuthnot said, adding that if extradited and convicted the men could be facing sentences of 25 to 35 years.

    The lawyers for the three men argued that they had put down roots in Britain, where they had been living in stable homes with their wives and children for years, and there was no evidence that they would try to flee.

    Frank Brazell, Bajinya’s lawyer, said he did not accept that there had been a “sea change” in the Rwandan legal system and cited a number of concerns about the conduct of the Rwandan government.

    In particular, he quoted a 2012 human rights report by the U.S. State Department which he said criticized Kigali for allegedly harassing journalists and opposition politicians.

    These matters will be dealt with during hearings provisionally scheduled to begin in late October.

    The other two suspects did not apply for bail but their lawyers signaled they may do so.

    Britain and Rwanda do not have an extradition treaty but signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the five genocide suspects on March 8. Its contents were not disclosed in court.

    A previous agreement, signed at the time of the last round of extradition proceedings, stipulated that if convicted the men would not face the death penalty. That was because Britain does not extradite suspects to countries where they risk execution.

    The judicial fallout from the Rwandan genocide has been complex and has caused controversy both within the country and abroad.

    The 75 most high-profile genocide suspects were tried by a special U.N. tribunal based in Tanzania which has now finished hearing cases. Rwanda tried an estimated 2 million suspects through its “gacaca” system of community courts. It is estimated that 65 percent of those were convicted.

    {reuters}

  • Egypt Demands Ethiopia Halt Nile Dam

    {{Egypt will demand Ethiopia stop building a dam on one of the main tributaries of the Nile, a senior government aide said on Wednesday, ramping up a confrontation over the project that Egypt fears will affect its main source of water.}}

    Ethiopia set off alarm bells in Cairo last week when it began diverting a stretch of the river to make way for the $4.7 billion hydroelectric plant.

    Countries that share the river have argued over the use of its waters for decades – and analysts have repeatedly warned that the disputes could eventually boil over into war.

    The high stakes involved were underlined on Monday when senior Egyptian politicians were caught on camera advising President Mohamed Mursi to take hostile action to stop the project, and one went as far as suggesting Cairo destroy the dam.

    Egypt, which has been involved in years of troubled diplomacy with Ethiopia and other upstream countries, said Ethiopia must now halt work on the dam.

    “Demanding that Ethiopia stop construction of the dam it plans to build on the Blue Nile will be our first step,” said Pakinam el-Sharkawy, the presidential aide for political affairs.

    “The national committee that will be formed to deal with this issue will determine the steps that Egypt has to take.”

    No one from the Ethiopian government was immediately available to comment.

    Senior Egyptian politicians called in to discuss the crisis with Mursi on Monday were apparently unaware their meeting was being broadcast live on television.

    The leader of Egypt’s Ghad party, Ayman Nour, suggested spreading false reports that Egypt was building up its air power.

    “We can ‘leak’ news information claiming that Egypt plans to buy advanced aircraft to increase its aerial presence etc., to put pressure, even if not realistic, on diplomatic discourse,” he said.

    Younis Makhyoun, leader of the Salafi Islamist al-Nour party, was filmed saying Egypt should back rebels in Ethiopia or, as a last resort, destroy the dam.

    {agencies}