Tag: GreatLakesNews

{As the nation commemorated the 17th anniversary of the death of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere yesterday, Tanzanians have been urged to go back to the basis of Arusha Declaration to foster integrity among leaders and fight corruption in the country.}

According to politicians and academicians, it is difficult to abandon the Arusha Declaration because it has scientific grounds on the country’s development vision.

Speaking at a symposium to commemorate the death of Mwalimu Nyerere, the Deputy Minister for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Engineer Stella Manyanya, insisted the need to go back to the basis of leadership ethics and patriotism for the development of the country.

The symposium was organised by Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy.

“We have witnessed various challenges that afflict our country such as public servants engaging in corruption, ghost workers and student scandals …all these are due to lack of leadership ethics,” Eng. Manyanya said.

She commended the actions being taken by the Fifth Phase Government against public servants who go against the Code of Leadership Ethics. Eng. Manyanya called upon people to abide by leadership ethics regardless of their political affiliation.

According to her, lack of leadership ethics has caused people to believe that a good leader is the one who provides them with gifts – as a result they elect them basing on what they have benefited.

“This is very dangerous for the country because leaders are being elected basing on what they have given the electorate and not on merit,” Eng. Manyanya said. She, however, called for thorough assessment of the Arusha Declaration to make it understood by many people especially the youth.

According to Eng. Manyanya, most youth may be missing the actual meaning of the concept, thus the need to be improved to cope with the current generation. Contributing in the debate, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Vice-Chairman (Mainland), Mr Philip Mangula, said the Arusha Declaration provides the country with vision, thus all leaders should understand that they are responsible for serving people by basing on the concept and not otherwise.

“Nowadays leaders have been abusing their positions and electorate have been violating their democratic rights by cheaply selling their votes through bribes,” he said. He insisted that leaders should understand that the basis of the Arusha Declaration is humanity and not obtaining votes through corruption, because doing so means going against the principles set by the late Mwalimu Nyerere.

Mr Mangula further said that his party has been nominating leaders basing on the same grounds, thus, screening was done on contestants of last year’s general election to ensure that they get qualified leaders.

He said that a total of 41 people applied for the presidential post in the last general election and CCM’s Ethics Committee had to screen all of them to ensure that they get a national leader with the required qualifications.

Mr Mangula cautioned that CCM would not allow any person who bribes people to obtain any position in the government.The Executive Director of Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, Mr Joseph Butiku, said that Mwalimu Nyerere believed in humanity, that is why he wanted all people to be treated equally.

Mr Butiku said that leadership ethics are clearly stated in the Arusha Declaration and any person who wants to be a leader must be a leader of the people and not for personal benefit.

He said that although the leadership ethics is a good guideline, there were some leaders who have been criticising it because they want to fulfil their personal interests. Another contributor, Dr Harun Kondo, said that it is difficult to abandon the Arusha Declaration because it has scientific grounds on the prospects of the country.

“There are some people who are against the Arusha Declaration, but it is difficult to abandon it because it is the vision of our country’s development,” he said.

{President Kiir was making reference to recent ambushes on several commercial vehicles along the Nimule-Juba and Yei-Juba roads.}

South Sudan President Salva Kiir has called for calm and a spirit of forgiveness.

Kiir, pleaded with parents and relatives who have lost loved ones in tragic incidents that have engulfed the country to avoid revenge but pray for peace to return to South Sudan.

“I want everybody to remain calm. Nobody should take law into their hands to go and revenge, it is not time for revenging; it is time for forgiveness even if we get those who have killed people. We will still forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing,” Kiir said.

President Kiir was making reference to recent ambushes on several commercial vehicles along the Nimule-Juba and Yei-Juba roads.

In the latest attack, three Uganda-bound buses were ambushed by unknown gunmen along Nimule-Juba Highway in South Sudan on Monday. The buses included Echo Bus, Gateway bus and Friendship Bus Company that were waylaid at Jebellein, 50km from Juba and about 120 kilometers from the Ugandan border at Elegu in Amuru District.

They were traveling to Kampala when men wielding automatic rifles emerged by the road side and forced them to stop. One bus was instantly burnt while two others were stopped and looted before the attackers fled the scene.

In the other incident, up to 30 people were killed and 20 others injured in an ambush on commercial vehicles along the Juba-Yei road on Saturday. The vehicles carrying over 200 passengers were stopped at gunpoint at Ganji, an area between Lainya and Juba, forcing some of the passengers to flee into the bush for safety.

One of the Ugandan buses that was attacked and burnt to ashes

The gunmen, according to survivor accounts, then started separating people on the basis of their ethnicity from others by asking people whether there were members of ethnic Dinka or not. They then executed all ethnic Dinka, including women and children before setting one vehicle ablaze.

But president Kiir said South Sudan has suffered for a very long time and that his government would not accept any fighting. “If there are elements still among us doing their job in between us, it will be a matter of time, we will handle them.” he said.

Meanwhile, Kiir made a public appearance in the streets of Juba town on Wednesday afternoon to refute rumours about his death. He went into an open pickup vehicle accompanied by some senior government officials to the neighbourhoods of Gudele, Kator, Malakia and Konyo-Konyo.

“Of course nobody can come to the media to deny his or her own death but this is what you have now subjected me to. I am alive and well. I want to assure my people of South Sudan that what they heard were all fabrications by the enemies of peace.”

Kiir said those who wishing him death don’t want peace.

{Adjoa Anyimadu, a researcher at the Chatham House think tank in London, points out that Tanzanian presidents generally serve two five-year terms meaning it is “too early to say whether this constriction of democratic space is going to continue to tighten over Magufuli’s presidency.”}

When a photograph of a smiling President John Magufuli, sitting in an economy class plane seat, appeared on Twitter this month it was widely praised as another example of his personal austerity and common touch.

That the picture was in fact an official photo opportunity at the launch of two new Air Tanzania planes -– Bombardier Q400s that only have an economy class and never left the ground –- made no difference to his fans in Tanzania and beyond.

Since winning last October’s election Magufuli has shown a talent for publicity-grabbing stunts that bolster his no-nonsense, corruption-busting, man-of-the-people reputation and have made him wildly popular.

He won the October poll with 58 percent of the vote. A recent opinion poll gave him a staggering 96 percent approval rating.

Yet at the same time his readiness to act on impulse, regardless of due process or political niceties, worries some who see a wide authoritarian streak at the core of his populism.

Magufuli has shut down newspapers, banned opposition rallies, switched off live broadcasts of parliamentary sessions, applied a draconian “cyber crimes” law to jail critics, and permitted a messy and unfair election to pass in semi-autonomous Zanzibar.

“We’re being a bit blind to the negative stuff that he’s doing,” said Nic Cheeseman, a professor of African politics at Oxford University, who argues that Magufuli’s good and bad moves stem from a worrying willingness to break the rules.

“When he marches into a place and sacks people without due process he’s acting in a populist way, but at the root of that is the same thing that sees him going against the rules in banning opposition rallies. It’s the same inspiration and process.”

Master stroke

Magufuli, whose nickname “tingatinga” means “bulldozer” in Swahili, began his presidency by sweeping the streets on independence day, appointing a streamlined cabinet, summarily firing government officials suspected of ineptitude or corruption, sacking latecomer civil servants during surprise visits to their offices and banning first class tickets, expensive foreign travel and costly ‘per diem’ allowances for officials.

The cost-cutting earned him the approving and popular #WhatWouldMagufuliDo hashtag with which Twitter users shared their often-humorous money-saving ideas.

It played well in the impoverished East African country where generations of same-party rule had left the youthful population disenchanted with traditional politics.

The selection of a relatively unknown 56-year-old former works minister, unencumbered by the baggage of corruption, was “a master stroke” by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, said Nicodemus Minde, a Tanzanian political analyst.

“The CCM brand was tarnished, but Magufuli’s was not,” Minde said, allowing for a semblance of change while perpetuating CCM rule, in power since independence in 1962.

{Several houses have been torched following fresh clashes at Olmelil, along the Kisii-Narok border.}

One person suspected to have been involved in the burning of houses was arrested and is being held at Ramasha Police Station.

Olmelil Location Chief Mr Richard Korgoren said arsonists stormed his neighbourhood at around 10:00 pm Thursday and torched his neighbour’s house.

“I was asleep and suddenly heard people screaming. When I came out, I saw my neighbour’s house on fire,” he said.

Youths from both the Kipsigis and Kisii communities started fighting but police who had responded to distress calls stepped in to stop the fight.

Ikorongo Location chief Mr Francis Omidi said two houses were torched on the Kisii side.

A Google Earth image shows the location of Olmelil, along the Kisii-Narok border. Several houses have been torched following fresh clashes at Olmelil, October 13, 2016.

“A big group of armed youths from the other side stormed Ikorongo village and started torching houses,” he said.

General Service Unit officers from Njipship camp, regular and Administration Police officers from Ramasha Police Station managed to disperse the warring youths after firing gunshots in the air.

“Gun shots rent the air for the better part of the night,” said a resident, Christopher Mogaka.

The area has been a flashpoint for conflict between the two communities living along the common border.

The two communities have been engaging in retaliatory attacks for the past five months citing a border conflict and cattle-rustling issues.

{A wanted warlord in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo has surrendered, five years after he escaped from prison following his conviction for crimes against humanity, the provincial governor said on Wednesday.
}

Gedeon Kyungu, leader of regional separatist group Bakata Katanga, turned himself in with a bout 100 of his fighters at a ceremony in the village of Malambwe on Tuesday, Haut Katanga governor Jean Claude Kazembe said.

It was not immediately clear why Kyungu had surrendered, what would happen to him now or whether the staged nature of his return suggested some sort of deal had been agreed.

Authorities have struggled for decades to end violence in the east, where militia groups have attacked civilians and plundered vast mineral resources.

Kazembe said he thought Kyungu wanted to take part in the government’s rebel demobilization program, a scheme that rights activists have criticized for integrating violent insurgent groups into the national army.

The region where Kyungu operated before his arrest became known as “the triangle of death” because of the suffering inflicted on civilians there.

News of the ceremony organized to mark his surrender angered
some campaigners. “The welcome that was reserved for Gedeon was
a great disappointment and an insult to all of his victims…Gedeon’s place is in prison,” the president of the African Association for Human Rights, Jean Claude Katende, told Reuters.

A Congolese military court sentenced Kyungu to death in 2009 for his role in killings in the copper-rich Katanga region. Congolese courts can impose the death penalty but no executions have been conducted since 2003 when a moratorium was imposed.

He escaped from prison in the provincial capital of Lubumbashi in 2011. U.N. experts said in a 2014 report that he had close ties to high-ranking politicians.
The name of his separatist group, Bakata Katanga, means “cut
off Katanga” in Swahili.

{South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma left Nairobi on Wednesday morning having concluded a first-ever State visit to Kenya by a South African president.}

But the visit left a bitter taste in every Kenyan’s mouth.

The expectations attached to the trip were simple: the visa rules imposed on Kenyan travellers had to be changed really fast.

What Kenyans got was, however, a promise to “consider” the request officially handed in by his host, President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Both leaders had told journalists how committed they were to “softening up borders” to improve intra-African trade from the paltry 14 per cent to something higher.

But South Africa and Kenya are not equals and their passports are not either.

To President Kenyatta, there is no good reason South Africa continues to require Kenyans to apply for visas and wait for five working days to get them when South Africans can get entry permits on arrival in Kenya.

To President Zuma, however, Kenya is a conduit for illegal immigrants, a weakness that must be tamed before this privilege is granted.

The irony is that the South African leader also acknowledged his country hosts many of these people, mostly from Zimbabwe, who he said could easily take advantage of easier rules.

“You know that both countries — South Africa and Kenya — have a lot of foreigners touring these two countries, some of whom could use that possibility for not good reasons.

“Those are matters that have to be looked at as we move forward,” he told journalists at a joint press conference in Nairobi.

NO TIMELINES

South Africa gave no timelines though this issue has been discussed by the relevant ministers of the two countries for three years.

Instead, he referred the issue to his juniors to handle, something that could take several years to deal with.

South Africa argues it has been eliminating these conditions step-by-step such as reducing the fee from Sh7,100 to Sh4,900, providing for a three-year multiple entry visa for frequent travellers; a ten year multiple entry visa for frequent business travellers; a ten year multiple entry visa for academics holding African passports; issuing of study visa for the duration of study; offering permanent residence to graduates studying within the critical skills category and removal of transit visas for travellers transiting through South African airports.

All these are, however, not useful as long as one must apply visas through third parties, wait long to get or be denied a visa and the fact that you have attached health certificates on your travel documents.

Pretoria’s immigration attitude is not limited to Kenya.

In spite of diplomatic sentiments about pan-Africanism and commitment to trade, Pretoria often looks down upon poorer countries, including those belonging in the same economic bloc with it.

For example, South Africans generally get free entries to Kenya, Uganda, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Burundi, but they demand visas from nationals of all these countries before they set foot on South African soil.

The imbalance may be attributed to the naiveté of government negotiators when drafting these immigration agreements.

But it could also be because of the concessions these poor folks make in exchange for, say, investments from Pretoria.

QUALITY OF PASSPORT

Zuma’s argument however reflected on the quality of Kenya’s passport and even indicted the Immigration Department for not sealing gaps for immigrants.

“We must find solutions to those issues so that with what Africa has agreed. The matter is receiving attention. We have to ensure that there are no loopholes for criminals to take advantage of.”

It may be true about those loopholes considering that Kenya has arrested more than 200 Ethiopians and Eritreans trying to sneak through the country this year alone.

But according to the Passport Index, an interactive website that aggregates immigration data from countries based on their passport and visa policy, South Africa’s passport lags behind tiny islands like the Seychelles and Mauritius, both of who grant Kenyans visas on arrival despite having the most powerful passports on the continent. The latter doesn’t even require a visa at all

From the data, it appears poorer countries are generally more welcoming to foreigners and often allow visas on arrival, visa-free admissions or have simpler ways of obtaining visa.

The list shows that Burundi, Comoros, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mauritania, Togo and Uganda are ranked in Group One of most welcoming countries. Kenya is in Group 11 where, incidentally, it is the only member.

South Africa, when assessed on the welcoming rank is 58th with a score of 75. South Africa’s visa free score is 60 and visa-on-arrival is 31, making its passport to rank 93rd worldwide.

In comparison, Kenya has 37 score on visa-free ranking and 28 for visa-on-arrival. It ranks 121 globally.

Pretoria’s insistence that people from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Sudan and Eritrea (countries that tail in every respect on the Passport Rank) could be passing through Kenyan borders to travel to South Africa may be reasonable.

But is actually an insult on those who provide the Kenyan passport.