Tag: GreatLakesNews

{The two police officers who went missing after the Hamey Police Station attack on Thursday morning were killed and their bodies taken to Somalia.}

Their bodies were paraded by al-Shabaab terrorists at their headquarters in Jilib, Somalia. They have been identified as Constable Job Kibet and Constable Kiprotich Ng’eno.

Some 4,484 rounds of ammunition, an MG3 machine gun, two G3 rifles and a VHF radio set were also taken by the terrorists in the raid at the camp in Garissa County, according to a brief sent to police headquarters in Nairobi by Dadaab police.

On Thursday last week, National Police Service spokesman George Kinoti said that over 50 terrorists in two Toyota Land Cruisers launched the attack but officers in the camp managed to repulse them.

“The attackers retreated and later returned in bigger numbers in a lorry and fired three bombs into the camp, destroying some tents thus forcing our officers to withdraw for cover,” said Mr Kinoti.

During the attack, Constable Justus Egesa was shot in the head and was later airlifted to Nairobi for treatment.

Constables Robert Kinuthia, Stephen Mutua, and Reuben Kiprono suffered light injuries. They were rescued and taken to Dadaab Hospital for treatment.

Sergeant Godfrey Kailutha and Constable Peter Kambutha escaped without any injuries, according to the police.

After the attack, the terrorists burnt down four tents and drove away in a police vehicle.

“Following subsequent reinforcement, all officers have been accounted for except two,” said Mr Kinoti.

Police also confirmed that the photos doing the rounds on social media were those of the missing police vehicle, a Land Cruiser with the registration number GKA 398Y.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the police officers were caught unawares and that there was no rapid response team to pursue the attackers after the raid.

{Senior official with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Joachim Minde and Arusha-based businessman Kassim Said have been charged with two counts relating to export of elephant tusks valued at over 4.2bn/-}

The 55-year old Minde alias Kennedy John Kimaro, who is TRA’s Customs Officer residing at Kinondoni Hananasif and 50-year old Said, alias Bedui, a resident of Arusha Masai Camp, were arraigned at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Before Principal Resident Magistrate Emilius Mchauru, they were accused of leading organised crimes and unlawful dealing in government trophies, the offences that fall under the Economic and Organised Control Act. They were not allowed to enter plea to the charges because the case will be tried by the High Court.

The case will be heard by the lower court upon securing consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Advocate Emanuel Mbega, for the accused, pressed for his clients’ bail.

However, the magistrate said the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the application. As a result, the magistrate remanded the accused until October 10, when the case will be mentioned. Investigations into the matter, according to the prosecution, were incomplete.

State Attorney Salim Msemo told the court that the accused committed the offence on diverse dates between March 2013 and August 2015 in Dar es Salaam.

He alleged that the accused and others not in court, intentionally organised a criminal racket by acquiring, possessing and exporting from Tanzania to Hong Kong in China and Thailand some government trophies.

According to the prosecution, the trophies were 3,500 kilogrammes of elephant tusks valued at 1,925,000 US dollars, equivalent to 4,202,275,000/-, the property of the United Republic of Tanzania.

{Joint statement on the Democratic Republic of Congo by the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and the International Organization of La Francophonie.}

The African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF) are gravely concerned by the recent violent events in Kinshasa and elsewhere in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where protesters and security forces clashed, resulting in loss of life.

The four partner organizations call on all political actors in the DRC, including the presidential majority and the political opposition, to exercise maximum restraint in their actions and statements and to urge their supporters to refrain from violence.

They also urge the authorities of the DRC to promote and protect human rights, and to uphold fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, including when managing public order situations. All stakeholders, including officials of judicial and security institutions, have an individual responsibility to act in full compliance with the rule of law and human rights, and will have to face the consequences should they fail to do so.

While committed to continuing to support the ongoing national dialogue, the four partner organizations recall that only an inclusive dialogue resulting in an agreement involving the widest range of political actors will pave the way towards peaceful and credible elections, in accordance with the DRC Constitution and Security Council Resolution 2277 (2016).

The four partner organizations urge the Government of the DRC to remain engaged in the dialogue process, including through continued confidence-building measures, and encourage the political groups who are not part of the current talks to play a constructive role with a view to contributing to the holding of credible elections at the earliest possible date.

{High above the routine, commonplace slog of Waa village in Kwale, a dense formation of coastal clouds drifts lazily across the sky.}

Below it, a gentle gust of wind swishes a woman’s long turquoise blue skirt up her bent back.

Embarrassed by the ignominy, she straightens up, pulls the skirt down to position, then bents again to wring water out of a tiny pink dress and a number of cloth napkins she has been washing, before putting them to dry on a line fastened on two palm trees.

Her maternal care is natural, and these chores mean the world to her.

But that beautiful scene is ended by a call for help from one of the mud houses in the homestead.

“She cannot latch properly, mama!” a tiny voice wails, in Kiswahili. “And my breasts are sore!”

Ms Saumu Baushi, 34, sighs, abandons her washing, and walks into the house.

Inside, a small girl sits on a bed, holding a two-week-old baby, one of her breasts exposed. She looks eleven. Or twelve.

“This is my 14-year-old first-born daughter,” Ms Baushi explains.

“She gave birth two weeks ago but she does not even know how to position the baby on her breast. So I have to hold the baby and help it suckle.”

Ms Baushi is one among many mothers in this little village in Kwale County whose daughters have become mothers at a very young age.

And, as Kenya marks the World Contraception Day today, the policies and guidelines under debate will strike a sensitive cord in her heart.

“I am taking her to the dispensary today to put her on family planning,” she announces to us, matter-of-factly, referring to the daughter who is struggling to breastfeed her progeny.

“If she has brought me a grandchild at this age, how sure am I she won’t get another child? She will get the Depo-Provera shot and will be on it until she finishes her studies.”

{{CONTRACEPTIVE USE}}

Depo-Provera is a contraceptive injection for women that contains the hormone progestin, and while in Kenya it has traditionally been associated with married women who want to space their children or prevent conception altogether, here in sleepy Waa a girl who is barely in her teens is about to get the shot.

“I know it is a decision some people would frown over,” explains the girl’s mother, “but look at me; I am a grandmother at 34 years!”

The 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey shows that half of women in Kenya aged between 20 and 49 had their first sexual intercourse by the time they turned 18, and that one in 10 women of the same group had their sexual debut by 15.

One in four Kenyan women aged between 25 and 49 have given birth by age 18, while one in two have given birth by 20.

Health workers say teenagers, some as young as 13, are now on various family planning options, and this surge may be driven by the high number of teenage pregnancies as a bigger portion opts to use contraceptives after getting their first child.

“In every facility in Lunga Lunga Sub-County, there are mothers who are under the age of 19 years seeking antenatal care services,” says Ms Lele Hassan Matano, the local public health nurse.

The use of contraceptives by adolescents is a sensitive issue in a country with strong religious inclinations, and although government policy is to ensure availability of such services for men and women who are ready for, and need, them, the society is yet to wrap its collective head around the reality of teens on pills.

“We have informed our health care workers that, for family planning to be successful, the entry point is the sexual activity of an individual. So when a teenager comes for the services, the health worker should not deny them contraceptives,” Ms Matano says.

Her views are supported by Mr David Baya, the Kwale County health promotion officer, who says parents need to realise that the sexual activities of their children, while predisposing them to infections, also expose them to unwanted pregnancies.

Ms Ali, a resident of Kwale, put her twin daughters on contraceptives when they were in Standard Seven.

“I had to have a plan so that they do not get pregnant again easily. How do I take care of them and their children at the same time?” she asks.

“It is better to prevent at least one thing — in this case pregnancy — than them come here with both infections and pregnancies.”

MY INITIATIVE
Ms Mwanajuma Magadi, a nurse at Waa Dispensary, says while they offer contraceptive services to teenagers, they also advise them on the importance of protecting themselves from STDs and ask them to use condoms.

“The current generation of children is not one that waits to be told,” she says.

“They pick a lot of stuff from social media. We parents think they do not know things like sex, but some know and do things that even we parents are not aware of.”

And the evidence is all over the place: at Waa Primary School, the bell goes for lunch break.

As others rush to the dining hall, 15-year-old Mwanaisha, who is in Standard Six, heads home to breast-feed her one-year-old son.

The Nation is not revealing the identities of the girls we talked to for this story to protect their privacies and rights.

“The only thing I have to do now is take care of the baby and read until I complete my primary school education,” she says when we catch up with her.

“I am on contraceptives, so at least I am sure I will not get pregnant again. I have been receiving the three-month injection since I gave birth one-and-a-half years ago while in Standard Four.”

This shocking narrative of young girls, some barely in their teens, on birth control programmes is repeated by several other teenage girls in this region.

Some are mothers already, others got on contraceptives before they could conceive, herded to the clinics by their mothers or friends.

Saida, a 21-year-old Form Two girl, has had the Jadelle implant inserted in her arm for the last two years. Before that, she used Depo-Provera for two years.

“I do not need to tell my parents what I am doing,” she says when asked whether her parents know about her contraceptive use. “I have my own brains… and I am using them.”

{Religious leaders have commended the government’s rapid response to the quake damages, with the Catholic church dedicating its countrywide offerings at yesterday’s masses to support the victims.}

Speaking at different occasions, the leaders said they were encouraged by the response, notwithstanding limited country expertise on how to deal with natural calamities like earthquakes.

Bukoba Catholic Diocese Bishop Desderius Rwoma and the Ahmadiya Community leader in Tanzania Sheikh Waseem Ahmad Khan said in separate interviews with the Daily News that the country needs to go extra mile in countering such disastrous occurrences in future.

“I am so far satisfied with the government efforts, which have managed to mobilise various partners to donate for the victims of this historical disaster in our region. However, there is a room for improvement in some aspects,” said Bishop Rwoma.

As different aid keep flowing in for the quake victims from all corners of the country and beyond borders, the Catholic church through the Catholic Secretariat had directed all the dioceses to dedicate offerings during the Sunday mass last week towards supporting the victims.

The Bishop said the church was readily available to support the government efforts, adding already its organisation Caritas, was mobilising various aids for the victims. Bishop Rwoma said it was crucial for all well wishers to join hands to ensure sufficient resources are mobilised, contributed and supplied to the victims, proposing the representation of some entities that made donations to witness the distribution exercise if they wished to do so.

“There were mixed feelings when it was announced that only the Regional Commissioner was responsible for overseeing the contribution and distribution of the aids. In my opinion, representatives of other organisations could also be allowed to witness the exercise for the sake of transparency,” he said.

As the aid and other humanitarian assistance are required to reach all the needy equally and timely, Bishop Rwoma cautioned people with vested interests to stay away from the exercise. On his side, Sheikh Khan said the quake calamity was a wakeup call that the human beings should return to God and repent instead of shifting blames.

Sheikh Khan whose Community donated different items worth 6m/- for the victims said cheap politics had no chance in dealing with the emergency.

Another leader who visited and consoled the victims over the weekend was Chadema member of the Central Committee and 2015 presidential candidate Edward Lowassa who challenged the media to expand the coverage of the calamity to attract more attention and aids.

{A drunken soldier in civilian clothes fired four shots from his gun, causing panic, the local mayor said.}

Thirteen people died when a panic-stricken crowd stampeded in a troubled town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, local officials said.

“The incident happened when a drunken soldier in civilian clothes fired four shots from his gun, causing panic,” the mayor of Beni, Jean Edmond Nyonyi, said.

“Eight people drowned when they threw themselves in the river, four were killed in accidents and one person died of a heart attack,” he said.

Fears of gun violence run deep in Beni, which lies in a strife-torn, unstable region of the DRC.

More than 700 people have died since October 2014 in massacres blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces, a partly Islamist armed group of Ugandan origin.

Fifty-one people were killed in Beni on 13 August, a gruesome slaying that touched off mass protests against the central government in Kinshasa.

{Eledu, a shopkeeper at Enagus Trading Centre in Kamunda Sub county, Soroti District, went with four cows, two goats and Shs240,000 as bride price.}

Soroti. In July 2012, Margaret Anjawao introduced her fiancé, Ambrose Eledu, to her parents, Charles Asili, 51, and Stella Amuge in a pompous customary wedding.

Eledu, a shopkeeper at Enagus Trading Centre in Kamunda Sub county, Soroti District, went with four cows, two goats and Shs240,000 as bride price.

Anjawao’s relatives were satisfied with the bride price and handed over their daughter to start marriage life.

Barely a month into the marriage, cracks were already visible. Anjawao, who had already delivered a baby girl, claimed her husband was having an extramarital affair, an allegation Eledu consistently denied.

In the second month, Anjawao said she could not be trapped in a love triangle.

Without informing her husband, she picked her baby, packed her belongings and left Eledu’s home. She camped at her brother’s home several miles away.

Eledu returned to an empty house. He tried to lure his wife back but in vain, which only got him angry and he started making threats on Anjawao’s life.

Upon realising the gravity of the threats, Anjawao’s shifted from her brother’s home to her grandmother’s.

Eledu’s efforts to establish whether his wife was still at his brother-in-law’s home were unfruitful. He turned to his father-in-law, demanding the return of all the items he gave the family as bride price since their daughter had failed to meet the marriage terms.
Asili’s family members told Eledu that they had already slaughtered the animals and spent the money, so they were not in position to return the bride price.

Eledu treated the family’s explanation as rejection and continued pestering his in-laws to refund the bride price to an extent that the family felt threatened.

Threatened
Asili reported the matter to the local council authorities, citing threats on his life. The authorities didn’t delve into the details since the two parties had solved the matter.
On Christmas of 2012, after having supper, Asili’s family retired to bed. At midnight, some people riding a boda boda stopped in his compound and one walked to his doorstep.
A man, who claimed to be one of his relatives, had brought coffee beans saying he was selling them cheaply. Asili left his wife in bed and opened the door to tend to the client.
Amuge later told police that she heard a bang followed by a sound of someone hitting the door. It was followed by another deafening sound.
“The shooter told him that ‘I am here to kill you today,” Asili’s widow recalled.
She ran to the door to see what had happened only to find her husband struggling to get up from the ground where he had fallen.
Amuge made an alarm that sent the people at the doorstep fleeing on their motorcycle.

{{Father-in-law shot}}

She examined her husband and found that he had been shot and was bleeding profusely. She made another alarm that attracted local council officials and residents.
The unconscious Asili was taken to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital as the village chairman, Mr George Ekau, rushed to Kamunda Police Station to report the matter.
Police officers carried out preliminary investigations and picked cartridges and fingerprints from the crime scene.

Relatives and friends rushed to the hospital to find out Asili’s health condition. Eledu too visited and offered Shs50,000 to buy drugs for the patient.

The investigating officer, Assistant Inspector of Police, Martin Enyaku, was told that Asili was on his death bed so he sent detectives to the hospital to collect any information from him.

The next day, Asili gained some energy to talk. He told police detectives that he had seen his son-in-law at his doorstep before he was shot.

No sooner had he made the declaration than he died. After obtaining a dying declaration, police mounted a search for Eledu.

He was later on seen riding a motorcycle in Soroti Town. Police were called in and he was arrested. Eledu denied killing his father-in-law, saying they had long resolved their misunderstanding.

Police detectives asked him where he was on the fateful day to which Eledu said he was at his shop. Unconvinced, police searched Eledu’s home hoping to find clues.
It was at Eledu’s home that the officers made a shocking discovery. They picked an army uniform, a motorcycle and a bullet. Eledu could not explain how government property ended up in his house.

Despite the discovery, the detectives didn’t have enough evidence that could prove that Eledu was not at home when the incident happened.

He had neither left fingerprints at the scene nor was the area bright enough for the victim to see the attackers. Asili’s widow had told the police that everything happened when she was in her bedroom, so she only heard sound. Worse still, the victim had died.

Detectives turned to records and technology. They secured a court order and made print-outs of Eledu’s mobile phone.

The results were clear-cut. He had been at the scene for more than three hours and left the area at the same time when the shooting had stopped. Detectives had managed to place Eledu at the scene, which was the most important ingredient needed to prosecute the murder suspects.

The detectives also checked records of ownership of the motorcycle and it was found to be in another person’s name. Soon, the owner of the motorcycle visited the police station with a different story.

The owner said Eledu had rented the motorcycle from him.

However, police were unable to get identities of the new cyclist. Eledu’s defence had been left with glaring gaps.

Without anywhere to hide, he made a confession that he made a half payment of Shs15,000 to another rider to take him to Asili’s home on the fateful night.

Eledu said he promised the rider more money if the mission was successful. In the plan, the duo came up with an alternative plan that in case the deceased does not open the door where he was to be shot dead, they were to pour petrol on the house to burn Asili and his family.

Eledu said when Asili opened the door and they shot him, they thought they had killed him that is why they left the scene.

Asked about the whereabouts of the gun used in the robbery, Eledu told detectives that the motorcycle rider remained with the gun.

Mr Enyaku recorded Eledu’s charge and caution statement. The hunt for his accomplice has up today not yielded results. State attorneys sanctioned a murder charge against him and he was later taken to court.

At the High Court, Eledu denied the charges. State prosecutor provided evidence showing how Eledu had a motive to kill Asili.

The State prosecutors said Eledu had earlier threatened to kill the deceased and his daughter if they had not refunded his bride price.7

The State presented a charge and caution statement that Eledu had made a confession before police officers. Although Eledu claimed he made the statement under duress, Justice Henrietta Walayo believed it.

The presentation of mobile phone printouts that put Eledu at the scene was the last blow.

In her judgment, Justice Walayo said she was satisfied that the State had proved that Eledu killed Asili.

On April 13, 2016, the court sentenced Eledu to 36 years and eight months in prison for murdering Asili.

Justice Walayo said the manner in which the old man lost his life was gruesome and the deceased died in pain. She said the appropriate sentence was 32 years.

The judgment was delivered in an open court and the convict was sentenced to serve his jail term in Soroti prison. The period on remand was also considered.

{{The numbers}}

36

The number of years Eledu was given to serve in jail for murdering his father-in-law.