Tag: GreatLakesNews

Mining sector-related accidents are on a worrisome upward trend, according to a new report, which shows that 27 people lost their lives within the first five months of this year.

The Chief Inspector of Mines, Mr Ally Samaje, says besides the casualties, 46 people were injured in eleven accidents that were recorded between January and May – one of the highest in recent years.

“During the whole of 2016, the recorded number of deaths and injuries was 30 and 32. The latest figures, even before we are half-way the current year, indicates that local quarries are increasingly becoming death traps,” he said.

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals has embarked on a countrywide mission to train artisan miners on safety precautions in quarries. He said a session had been conducted at the Mirerani Mining Hills in Simanjiro District in Manyara Region.

Four people died in three accidents there so far this year. It was during the session that Mr Samaje painted the grim picture, and told quarry owners that the government won’t hesitate to close down and revoke the licences of those whose sites would be deemed to be unsafe.

The training programme covers the Northern, Central, Western, Lake-Victoria, Eastern, the Western Peninsula, Southern Highlands and Lake Nyasa zones.

Landslides, explosions, suffocation, electrocution and fire outbreaks are among the major causes of accidents. On his part, the Commissioner for Minerals, Engineer Benjamin Mchwampaka, has ordered all mines to have managers who must monitor the activities of mining pits closely, and ensure that accurate records of workers assigned in the basements are kept.

He remarked: “We have discovered that some of those engaged in the operations down there are casual labourers whose identity and number are unknown. This poses problems for rescue teams in the event of accidents.

” The Executive Secretary of Mirerani Artisan Miners Association, Mr Aboubakar Madiwa, proposed that training sessions at Simanjiro should be conducted at weekly intervals, because the hills host 593 small scale miners, and the figure keeps rising.

Meanwhile, Mugini Jacob reports that a new small gold mine has been closed indefinitely after claiming the life of an artisanal miner at Merenga village in Serengeti District, Mara Region.

Source:Daily News

Cohabiting couples in Burundi have until the end of the year to get married or face legal consequences.

The government order comes after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched a campaign “to moralise society”.

A government spokesman said a crackdown on informal relationships was needed to combat a population explosion.

He said too many schoolgirls were getting pregnant and men were taking advantage of women by cohabiting with several simultaneously.

Burundi has been in crisis since 2015 when Mr Nkurunziza, a born-again Christian, announced he would run for a controversial third term.

‘We want order’

Interior ministry spokesman Terence Ntahiraja told AFP news agency that church and state-sanctioned weddings were the solution to the country’s population explosion – and a patriotic duty.

“We want Burundians to understand that everyone is responsible for his life, we want order in this country,” he said.

“All this is done within the framework of the patriotic training programme,” he said, referring to an initiative launched by President Nkurunziza.

It is not clear exactly what sanctions those not tying the knot will face.

However, one farmer quoted by AFP said local officials had already threatened him and his partner with a fine and said any child born out of wedlock would not qualify for free education or medical treatment.

The farmer, named only as Pierre, said he had not married because he could not afford the bride price demanded by his partner’s family.

Hundreds of people have since died since Mr Nkurunziza launched a bid for a third term. But the country had been relatively calm in recent months.

Source:BBC

Kenyans may have to dig deeper into their pockets to buy second-hand cars popular with the majority if proposals to lower the age limit for used-vehicle imports are implemented.

A report has recommended the slashing of the age limit for imported cars to five years by 2021, in a raft of measures intended to promote local assembly in the region.

8 years

Kenya only allows imports of second-hand cars not older than eight years while Tanzania has set its limit at 10 years.

Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan do not have any such limits.

On average, cars in the region are 15 to 20 years old.

Second-hand imports are highly popular with a majority of middle-income Kenyans as they are cheaper.

New cars are out of reach for the majority, with most dealers only focusing on a few wealthy buyers, the government, big companies and aid agencies.

The EAC report argues that the disjointed policies on age limits among the EAC member states are flooding regional markets with old cars and stifling the growth of new car manufacturing.

2.2 million

“Lack of clear policy on age limits has been identified as a factor contributing to increased imports of used vehicles, while also posing adverse impact on environment, safety and health,” states a policy brief on the report that was submitted to a summit of the EAC heads of state last week.

Under the proposals, EAC countries would harmonise the age limits for used car imports at eight years by 2019.

This limit would then be lowered to five years by 2021.

Imported used cars make up about 85 per cent of the 2.2 million on the road in the region.

Under the proposals, EAC countries would harmonise the age limits for used car imports at eight years by 2019. This limit would then be lowered to five years by 2021.

Used car imports make up about 85 per cent of the 2.2 million cars on the road in the region.

The report, carried out by the EAC secretariat and the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), estimates that the region loses about $2 billion in foreign exchange every year on importing cars.

It is argued that with more stringent limits on the cars coming in the EAC, a window will open up for local manufacturing to thrive, to meet growing demand.

The report also recommends that the EAC invests in two large-scale assembly plants that will produce cars with a price range of between Sh516,200 ($5,000) to Sh1 million ($10,000).

The region should aim to produce 500,000 units per year by 2027.

“It is expected that the growing economy and expansion of the middle class will continue to spur the demand of vehicles in the EAC region,” says the policy brief.

Currently East Africa has an average motorisation level of 15 vehicles per 1,000 people, lower even than the African average of 44 vehicles per 1,000 people. Whether these proposals will be implemented remains to be seen.

EAC partner states have been trying to harmonise age limits on cars for more than a decade with little success.

Source:Daily Nation

DRC (MNN) — In 2016, the Democratic Republic of the Congo had more newly-displaced people than Syria or Iraq. According to the latest Global Report on Internal Displacement by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 966,000 people fled their homes in the DRC last year, making it the largest group of displaced people from 2016.

What caused such a massive upset of the country’s people? National tensions had already been building in the DRC leading up to their elections, which were supposed to take place in November 2016. But then President Joseph Kabila refused to step down from his position in December, stirring up a lot of political outrage. Now the election postponement could take even longer as the nation’s budget minister essentially says they can’t afford the $1.8 billion it would cost to hold the elections.

The outrage has led to multiple protests, and clashes between ethnic groups and the militia. Just in the last five months in the DRC’s central Kasai region, over 500 rebels and security forces were killed. Investigators with the United Nations have discovered several mass graves since the unrest began.

Nick Frey with Mission Aviation Fellowship in the DRC explains, “The violence, first of all, in the Kasai region has been ramping up for the last few months…. two UN employees, one American and a Swedish woman, were kidnapped and eventually killed in the region. So that really brought international attention and forced the international community to get more involved.”

The last civil war in the DRC ended in 2003, but there are new fears that recent tensions could lead to another civil war.

MAF works to fly ministry partners and humanitarian workers into remote regions in the countries they serve to bring aid, supplies, and share God’s love. The MAF team in the DRC has continued their aviation services, even since the start of the unrest.

“Since then, we’ve done a handful of flights. I think we’re up to somewhere around 10 to 15 flights now to the region, mostly for medical teams that are going to work in hospitals there. Sometimes we’re taking vaccinations and medications and other things, and then mostly health staff — doctors, nurses, logistics people — to and from so they can help the internally displaced people in the region and the other people affected by the violence.”

So where does the Gospel come in? Frey says it’s in everything they do, from how the aviation staff conducts themselves to the conversations they have.

“Before we fly, for example, we give the pre-flight briefing for the passengers and then we always start with a prayer. So that’s a perfect opportunity to pray for the country, pray for the people affected, pray for the passengers and the work they’re going to be doing in the humanitarian area, and then integrate God’s grace into that.

“[We] thank Him for the daily grace He gives us, for Jesus dying on the cross, and for the hope that is found in Him that is so much more solid than hoping in international aid groups that can come and save us for a day, but not save our souls. So there’s doors into all kinds of really great conversations that we’ve been having with these humanitarian aid workers.”

However, the MAF team in the DRC has still faced challenges. The biggest one Frey shares is the need for more hands on deck.

“With this current increase in flight requests, we’ve been really short-staffed. So we don’t have a lot of pilots and mechanics right now. It’s a constant need in MAF around the world. Most of the programs I know about are understaffed in terms of pilots and mechanics, especially maintenance specialists. So that’s a real need right now. We have pilots flying five and six days a week, and we all have other duties to maintain. We have lives here, and our children are here, and our families are here. It just takes a lot of time to pull all this off and it’s pretty straining on our program.”

Interested in service or career opportunities with MAF? Click here to see the listings at their website!

But most of all, they could really use your prayers — for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the people they serve, the partners they serve with, and the MAF ministry.

“We would really appreciate prayers for the country. It’s been a year of much instability in different regions and different areas, including the city of Kinshasa where our main base is. So we really covet prayers for the country, for the country’s leaders…. We really appreciate prayers for peace and for opportunities to share Christ’s love with people on a daily basis and to point people in the direction of real hope.”

Source:Mission Network

Two police officers died on Thursday morning after their vehicle ran over a landmine on the Malelei-Kulan road in Liboi, Garissa County.

Police sources told the Nation that two other officers in the vehicle were injured, one critically, and have been rushed to hospital.

Restive

North Eastern Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh told reporters by midday that officials were yet to get a full report on the attack.

The deaths come barely a day after four Administration Police officers were killed in a similar attack near the Kulan Dam in Liboi.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kenya’s eastern border with Somalia is notoriously restive and prone to attacks staged by Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militants.

The attacks come days after police warned of increased terror activity in the area.

Al-Shabaab militants “are dispatching operatives into parts of north eastern region to lay IEDs along routes used by our security patrols in efforts to frustrate our security operations at the border areas,” the police statement said.

Warning

Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet warned that some members of the terrorist group had sneaked into the country and were planning attacks.

In a statement, IGP Boinnet said the terror group was behind a series of attacks, including a recent attack in Mandera where a chief was killed.

The IGP, however, said police were on high alert and asked the public to be vigilant and report suspicious people to the police.

The Shabaab is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Mogadishu but began attacking Kenya in 2011 after Nairobi ordered its troops into Somalia to fight the militants.

Source:Daily Nation

Kenya’s hopes of having neighbours sign the much-needed economic partnership agreement with the European Union now depend on how soon the bloc will lift sanctions on Burundi.

At a recent Heads of State Summit in Dar es Salaam, the East African Community resolved to hold any further discussions on the agreement only if Burundi’s situation is discussed in the same forum.

Sanctions

“The heads of state noted that the remaining partner states that have not signed the EU-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) are not in a position to do so pending clarification of issues they have identified in the agreement,” says the communique issued after the leaders met in the Tanzanian port city.

“The summit also agreed that the EU sanctions on Burundi should be discussed alongside the EPA discussions.”

Kenya was represented by Deputy President William Ruto who used the forum to call for removal of the non-tariff barriers he argued were killing inter-community trade.

Cabinet Secretaries Phyllis Kandie (East African Affairs), Aden Mohammed (Industrialisation), also attended.

Trade pacts

But the issue here was the delayed signing of EPAs.

Burundi, a member of the East African Community should essentially have signed, alongside Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), is a set of trade pacts that allow African countries specific privileges to export to the European Union markets without being subjected to customs.

They cover trade in goods and development cooperation and covers on agriculture, fisheries and economic and development cooperation.

The EU was negotiating with a bloc and required all EAC members to sign.

Only Kenya and Rwanda have signed as others claim the pact as it is may kill local industries.

Yet Burundi is also on the EU’s sanction list for the violence that punctuated President Pierre Nkurunziza’ s third term bid in 2015.

Violence

In September 2015, the EU European Council imposed restrictive measures against Burundi, targeting four key leaders it argued fuelled the violence.

These measures included a travel ban and asset freeze against those “whose activities were deemed to be undermining democracy or obstructing the search for a political solution to the crisis in Burundi.”

“This approach also takes account of the obligations stemming from the Cotonou Agreement concerning respect for human rights, democratic values and the rule of law, and, in this context, of the possibility of starting the consultation procedures laid down in the Agreement, inter alia in Article 96,” the European Council said at the time, referring to the name of the initial agreement signed in the Benin capital in 2000 and which provides for EPAs.

While the sanctions are to hold till end of October this year, EAC leaders now say Burundi’s isolation is another factor that should be dealt with first.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is the new chairman of the EAC Summit, was authorised to lead a delegation to Brussels to discuss the way forward, including discussing what these other countries disagree with.

But there were still ultimatums.

6 Months

“In the event that an acceptable way forward is not reached with the EU within the next six months, the chairperson was authorised to explore the use of variable geometry in implementation of the EPA by EAC partner states working with the council of ministers,” the dispatch says.

Variable geometry is a term used often within the European Union to describe a situation where irreconcilable differences exist among member states.

In this case, the solution if often to allow groups of countries that agree with a certain goal to pursue it while allowing those opposed to it to hold back.

The agreement provides duty- and quota-free access for Kenyan and EAC products to the EU market.

It also creates new regional opportunities through more flexible rules of origin and accumulation framework.

It guarantees that the EU will not apply export subsidies on products destined for the EAC market.

Kenya

But of the five, only Kenya requires to sign the agreement to enjoy these benefits as it is a developing country.

The rest are considered Least Developed and already enjoy a set of benefits while exporting to the EU.

Tanzania and Uganda have argued signing the EPA as it is would allow the region to be a dumping ground and kill of nascent industries.

The leaders resolved that Kenya should not be “disadvantaged” for signing the EPAS ahead of the group, but offered little guarantee of that protection.

Source:Daily Nation