Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Somali in Dadaab are not being coerced into leaving the camps.}

The United Nations refugee agency on Friday defended Kenya over allegations that its authorities are pressuring Somalis to leave the Dadaab camp and return to their homeland.

Voice of America (VOA), a US government-funded news service, on Thursday quoted a UN representative in Dadaab saying that some refugees are returning to Somalia out of fear.

“Families we have interviewed and many of those who filled the repatriation forms have shown that they are returning because of threatening rhetoric by Kenyan regional security officials who recently visited the camp,” Dadaab-based UN official Mohamed Mahad Gurhan told VOA.

But a spokesman for the UN refugee agency in Nairobi insisted in an interview on Friday that Somali in Dadaab are not being coerced into leaving the camps.

“Those claims are not accurate. We have not seen this. In fact, the Kenyan government has been working more closely with us,” said spokesman Duke Mwencha.

Forced repatriation of refugees would violate international agreements that Kenya has pledged to respect.

Mr Mwencha said a total of 19,346 Somalis have voluntarily returned to their homeland from Dadaab so far this year.

He said they are carrying out a verification process after it emerged that some Kenyan citizens have been living in the camp pretending to be refugees.

The UN reported last month that 42,000 Kenyans had been found to be posing as refugees in Dadaab.

To induce more Somalis to return to their homeland, the UN has increased the amount of stipends it pays upon departure from Kenya and upon arrival at designated destinations in Somalia.

Each refugee had previously been given $150 (Sh15,000) when leaving Kenya and the same amount after reaching Somalia. Both sums have been increased to $200 (Sh20,000), Mr Mwencha said.

The UN is also providing returnees with three months of food rations and is promising that their children will be able to attend schools for at least six months, he added.

{Dar Es Salaam is one of the three East African cities picked for the multi-destination road show by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce marketing scheduled for Tuesday next week.}

Dubai Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Mr Issam Kazim, said that Dubai continues to be a popular tourist destination for Tanzanian travellers, with over 39,000 visiting the city last year.

Overall, Dubai saw a 13.7 per cent increase in travellers from these three East African countries last year. “The aim of the trip is to highlight and promote the wide array of new and upcoming family attractions, experiences and hotels in Dubai that will further enhance the visitor experience,” he said.

This marks the first time that Dubai Tourism has organised a road show in East Africa, generating an opportunity for local operators to meet directly with the gulf city’s top partners.

The road show in the other two East African cities of Kampala and Nairobi are being conducted this week. Flydubai SVP Commercial Operations, Mr Sudhir Sreedharan, “We are very pleased to take part in Dubai Tourism’s first-ever road show to East Africa and to showcase brand Dubai and flydubai.

{One lawmaker was reportedly stripped during the robbery at a guest house.}

Four MPs last night landed at Entebbe International airport empty-handed after armed men in South Africa waylaid them and three parliamentary staff on arrival for an official visit.

The attackers snatched their passports, personal effects.
One lawmaker was reportedly stripped during the robbery at KariBou-Inn Guest House located in a Johannesburg suburb, according to highly placed sources.

South African authorities and Ugandan officials have started separate inquiries into the diplomatic incident.

Those placed at gunpoint on Wednesday included Parliament’s Agriculture committee vice chairman Mr Robert Ndugwa Migadde and other committee members; Ms Santa Sandra Alum, Mr Francis Barnabas Gonahasa and Kenneth Esiangu Eitunganane.

Other victims were parliamentary senior counsel Florence Aceng, Agriculture committee clerk Jacquiline Mutekanga, and Dr Moses Achong Ongom, the marketing officer for Kyankwanzi District.The committee chairperson Christine-Doreen Lowila Oketayot flew in a day after the robbery, and Uganda diplomats booked her at Emperors Palace Hotel in Alexander Township where her distressed colleagues had been forcibly relocated.

“The matter is sensitive and I have referred it to Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Ambassador James Mugume,” Uganda’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Julius Peter Moto, said.

Ambassador Mugume told this newspaper by telephone from Singapore that he was unaware about the incident and his understudy, Ambassador Rossette Nyirikindi Katungye, said last evening that she had not been briefed.

Initial reports suggested that the MPs neither notified the Ugandan High Commission in Pretoria nor the parent Foreign Affairs ministry in Kampala of their trip.

This newspaper has, however, seen an August 11, 2016 letter by Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige to the PS, Foreign Affairs, requesting the ministry to assist the lawmakers and parliamentary staff “obtain the relevant entry visas to South Africa”. We were unable to reach officials of the South African High Commission in Kampala.

Parliament Communications Director Chris Obore, who, together with Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, is in Mauritius attending a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference, confirmed the attack on the MPs.

“We have heard about the unfortunate incident …they were robbed [of their property] at the gate of the hotel; they hadn’t even settled in,” Mr Obore said.

Speaker Kadaga reportedly telephoned her South African counterpart to request for help to get the affected MPs and parliament staff out of trouble.

The lawmakers were headed to Durban, about 630 kilometres away, to visit the Amandla Fertilizer production facility and Parliament picked all their bills.

A source that declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter claimed that the lawmakers likely picked the guest house because accommodation there is relatively cheaper and would enable them save money.

{{MP allowances}}

An MP gets $520 (Shs1.7 million) as daily allowance when on foreign trips. Rooms at the guest house on average cost South African Rands 635-1,265 (about Shs150,000-300,000 or $59-118) One source said someone who had spent nights at KariBou Inn recommended the guest House.

No staff of the guest house was available to speak when we telephoned them on the robbery incident.

{Former president reportedly underwent surgery to remove blood clot in neck artery.}

Retired President Mwai Kibaki’s surgery was successful and he is currently recuperating.

According to a source at the South African hospital where he is admitted, Mr Kibaki underwent surgery to remove a blood clot in an artery in his neck on Thursday and “was recovering well”.

“All they are prepared to say is that he made it through the surgery and is recovering,” said the source.

However, although the family of the former president is with him at Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, they remained tight-lipped on his condition.

Mr Kibaki had been scheduled for surgery after doctors located the clot in good time while it was in a relatively safe part of his body.

A clot in the blood is generally dangerous especially if it gets into organs such as the brain, heart and the lungs.

But Mr Kibaki is 84 and a stroke, his third, whatever the level of its intensity, is a serious threat to his health.

On Thursday, Mr Kibaki spent his fifth day in the South African hospital.

Mr Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital in Nairobi at the weekend and treated overnight before being flown to South Africa, accompanied by his personal physician, Dr Dan Gikonyo.

Besides Dr Gikonyo, Mr KIbaki is also being attended to by a government doctor whose name is yet to be disclosed.

The update on his health condition came as the government told social media users to stop their speculations on his condition.

Government spokesman Eric Kiraithe was particularly irked by claims in certain sections of the social media that Mr Kibaki was dead.

“It has come to my attention that there are rumours and ridicule circulating through social media regarding former President Mwai Kibaki. To share uncorroborated information of the former President’s passing is unacceptable,” he told journalists during his weekly briefing in Nairobi.

{Woman identified as Waumu Masha (34), has been arraigned before the Muleba District Magistrate’s court to answer charges of biting a policeman, causing him to suffer grievous harm.}

According to the charge sheet, the accused assaulted H 1955 PC Ali and a militia, MG 372644 Ramadhan. The accused allegedly committed the offence at around 2 a.m. on May 26, this year at Goziba Island in Muleba District. Hearing of the criminal case C/S 166/2016 will start on September 22, this year.

Meanwhile, Ms Waumu Masha has forwarded her complaints to the Minister of State in the President’s Office- Public Service Management and Good Governance, Ms Angela Kairuki, accusing the police of harassment and attempted rape.

Minister Kairuki confirmed to the Kagera Regional Commissioner (RC) Mr Salim Kijuu that she had already received the complaint and further investigations regarding the matter was underway.

According to the report, Ms Masha was arrested by militiamen and a scuffle ensued.

The matter was later reported to police and she was arrested and arraigned.

{Two Australian companies are being investigated over alleged bribery scandals linked to the presidents of Sri Lanka and the Congo, after the firms sought to secure multi-million-dollar contracts in those countries.}

A Fairfax Media and 7.30 investigation can reveal Perth’s Sundance Resources is implicated in an alleged bribery plot involving some family members of Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Engineering giant Snowy Mountain Engineering Company is being separately investigated over claims its staff sought approval to pay kickbacks to foreign officials, including a donation to the party of Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena when he was a cabinet minister.

While these matters are still being investigated, the revelations place pressure on the Turnbull Government to reform Australia’s maligned anti-corruption framework, and come after foreign bribery allegations implicating Tabcorp, Leighton Holdings and BHP Billiton.

{{Iconic Australian firm facing bribery investigations}}

The iconic Snowy Mountains Engineering Company (SMEC) is the subject of a major AFP probe examining the firm’s overseas operations.

7.30 can reveal SMEC’s overseas staff allegedly bribed officials to secure a $2.3 million aid-funded sewerage project in Sri Lanka in 2011, and a smaller power plant project in Bangladesh in 2007.

Leaked internal company emails also reveal claims from SMEC’s Sri Lankan manager in 2009 that then senior minister Maithripala Sirisena and one of his advisers allegedly requested a political “donation” before signing cabinet papers for a $1.82 million dam contract sought by SMEC. Mr Sirisena is now Sri Lanka’s President.

“The minister … wants to know whether SMEC could make a donation for the elections,” an email from the SMEC manager states about his meeting with Mr Sirisena.

The same email states: “[Mr Sirisena’s] Coordinating Secretary said this is the way it goes prior to signing the cabinet papers. He wants us to produce an amount/percentage on the contract value.”

In a statement overnight, Mr Sirisena said he had “no knowledge of the incident” and requested further details to “ascertain the involvement of any of his office staff”.

The President also said he would co-operate “in any investigation” in Australia and “will also instruct the relevant local authorities to investigate”.

The SMEC Sri Lankan manager also wrote he wanted to “inform the minister/co-ordinating secretary” of the size of a suspected kickback to be paid. In another email, the manager said he needed to “prioritise” certain payments to unnamed parties “since the signing of the contract would depend” on it.

In a statement, SMEC confirmed there was a “request for a political donation”.

But it said its internal investigation had found that no payment was ever made by the company in response, and the firm “continues to fully cooperate with the AFP”.

The iconic Snowy Mountains Engineering Company (SMEC) is the subject of a major AFP probe examining the firm’s overseas operations.

7.30 can reveal SMEC’s overseas staff allegedly bribed officials to secure a $2.3 million aid-funded sewerage project in Sri Lanka in 2011, and a smaller power plant project in Bangladesh in 2007.

Leaked internal company emails also reveal claims from SMEC’s Sri Lankan manager in 2009 that then senior minister Maithripala Sirisena and one of his advisers allegedly requested a political “donation” before signing cabinet papers for a $1.82 million dam contract sought by SMEC. Mr Sirisena is now Sri Lanka’s President.

“The minister … wants to know whether SMEC could make a donation for the elections,” an email from the SMEC manager states about his meeting with Mr Sirisena.

The same email states: “[Mr Sirisena’s] Coordinating Secretary said this is the way it goes prior to signing the cabinet papers. He wants us to produce an amount/percentage on the contract value.”

In a statement overnight, Mr Sirisena said he had “no knowledge of the incident” and requested further details to “ascertain the involvement of any of his office staff”.

The President also said he would co-operate “in any investigation” in Australia and “will also instruct the relevant local authorities to investigate”.

The SMEC Sri Lankan manager also wrote he wanted to “inform the minister/co-ordinating secretary” of the size of a suspected kickback to be paid. In another email, the manager said he needed to “prioritise” certain payments to unnamed parties “since the signing of the contract would depend” on it.

In a statement, SMEC confirmed there was a “request for a political donation”.

But it said its internal investigation had found that no payment was ever made by the company in response, and the firm “continues to fully cooperate with the AFP”.

{As the Vice-President of Total East Africa, Mr Javier Rielo, assured President John Magufuli that preparations for the construction of the 1,410-kilometre oil pipeline from Lake Albert in Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania are in good progress, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has shown interest in using the facility.}

Mr Rielo made the assurance in Dar es Salaam yesterday when he met with President Magufuli to brief him on the progress of work on the construction of the pipeline. He said that his company is determined to ensure that the project is successfully implemented.

The construction of the pipeline, with the capacity of transporting 200,000 barrels per day, will provide 1,500 direct employment and 20,000 indirect employments. Speaking after receiving the report, President Magufuli said he believed the project will be of great benefit to Tanzania, Uganda, Total Company and neighbouring countries.

He assured Mr Rielo of his government’s cooperation in implementing the project despite Tanzania’s geographical position being one of the advantages for the project.

Meanwhile, the DR Congo government has shown interest in using the pipeline for transporting its crude oil. DRC Minister In-charge of Hydrocarbons, Mr Ngoi Mukena, said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that his country has discovered a lot of oil and preferred to use the crude oil pipeline because the area where the oil has been found is close to it.

“I believe that if my country will succeed in using the pipeline, it will be beneficial to both countries in addition to being one way of strengthening our bilateral relations,” he remarked.

According to Mr Mukena, his country will start transporting 30,000 barrels per day, the amount to increase up to 100,000 barrel per day. The Minister for Energy and Minerals, Professor Sospeter Muhongo, said that the pipeline will transport not only crude oil from Uganda, which the DRC government has shown interest in using it.

He said that the Congolese government had shown interest even before the construction of the pipeline has started to allow Tanzania to consider its request when the work begins. Prof Muhongo said that upon completion, the pipeline will have the capacity of transporting 200,000 barrels per day, with Tanzania benefitting through taxes and tariffs from the companies, which will be using the pipeline.

In another development, Prof Muhongo reported that they have agreed to conduct joint exploration of oil and gas along Lake Tanganyika and share the revenue upon the discovery of the natural resources.

He explained that Lake Tanganyika is shared by four countries, including Tanzania, DRC, Burundi and Zambia and hence experts from the countries will convene several meetings between this month and October to see how the agreement can be implemented. In April, the government said that construction of the 1,403-kilometre pipeline is expected to be completed by June 2020.

The companies with stake in the discovered oil in Uganda include Total E&P of France, Tullow Oil of United Kingdom as well as China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

{Pte Michael Ayebare, has received a 10-months custodial sentence after he was convicted of failure to protect a war weapon.}

A UPDF officer attached to the 11th battalion based in the volatile Central African Republic (CAR), Pte Michael Ayebare, has received a 10-months custodial sentence after he was convicted of failure to protect a war weapon.

Pte Ayebare was part of the Ugandan contingent hunting for the elusive ICC-indicted LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony in the CAR. It is alleged that Pte Ayebare lost his weapon, PK Machine Gun No. 31155, with 100 bullets on January 16.

Prosecution led by Capt Musa Juuko alleged that Pte Ayebare left his gun in his house at around 7pm and went to Ayem Trading Centre in CAR. Capt Juuko told court that on return to the base, Pte Ayebare found his gun missing. A search was launched but the gun was never recovered.

The army charged him with failure to protect war material contrary to section 122 (1) & 2 (e) & 2 (i) of the UPDF Act No 7 of 2007. The soldier pleaded guilty to the charge after he was arraigned before the Division Military Court chaired by Col Olanya Ojara last Friday.

Pte Ayebare had earlier on admitted that his gun got lost but pinned an officer he identified as Lance Corporal Katerega. He told court that he left his gun with Katerega as he left for Ayem Trading Centre, a nearby local market in Obbo, CAR to buy food items. He claims that on return, Katerega denied knowing the gun’s whereabouts leading to his (Ayebare) arrest.

However, he later changed his statement and said he was responsible for the loss of the weapon.

{The governors have accused senators of abandoning their role as protectors of devolution.}

Governors have been rattled out of their complacency by senators flocking back home to seek county seats, sparking a flurry of campaigns in the devolved regions.

Senators are holding meetings and attending harambees and funerals where they criticise governors. Some have been holding meetings with youth, elders and women.

They mostly accuse governors of misusing public funds and failing to implement development projects.

Governors have accused senators of abandoning their role as protectors of devolution.

Senators eyeing governorships are Anyang Nyong’o (Kisumu), Chris Obure (Kisii), Hassan Omar (Mombasa), Boni Khalwale (Kakamega), Mike Sonko (Nairobi), Kiraitu Murungi (Meru) David Musila (Kitui), Kembi Gitura (Murang’a) and John Lonyangapuo (West Pokot).

The senators, most of them veteran politicians, are hoping to use their networks to oust the governors, most of whom are newcomers.

GRASSROOTS NEEDS

In Kisumu, Senator Nyong’o has teamed up with Nyando MP Fred Outa and has been meeting opinion leaders to seek their support.

Mr Outa wants to replace Prof Nyong’o in the Senate.

Prof Nyong’o has started campaigning in earnest and on Monday launched a short message service that he says will help him engage in an “interactive exchange of ideas on how to develop Kisumu County.”

“We fought for devolution for certain things to happen in the counties. The sole purpose of devolution was to have more resources at the grassroots but this has not been the case in Kisumu,” the senator told the Nation.

The former planning minister said he has developed a blueprint that will enable the people of Kisumu to fully benefit from devolution.

In Kisii, Senator Obure has teamed up with Charles Nyachae, the former chairman of the defunct Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, and Deputy Governor Joash Maangi against Governor James Ongwae.

The leaders recently led a delegation from the county to State House in Nairobi, sparking demonstrations in Kisii town.

Mr Obure, a harsh critic of Governor Ongwae’s administration, is seeking Kisii leaders’ endorsement to run for the seat.

‘WHERE THE MONEY IS’

But political analyst Barrack Muluka says the senators are seeking governorship “because that is where the money is”.

“The questions of accountability are not there. If you look at what has happened in the past four years, senators have been intimidating governors but nothing happens in terms of accountability,” he said.

He said senators have realised there was neither power nor money in the Senate.

“When they opted to run for [the Senate], they thought there was power there but have come to realise that even members of the National Assembly are more powerful than them,” he said.

In Kakamega, Senator Khalwale says he will kick out Governor Wycliffe Oparanya “for failing to ensure devolution is a success and benefits the public.”

“I believe I am the best bet for governor. The people are not enjoying the fruits of devolution that we fought for,” Dr Khalwale told the Nation.

In Mombasa, Senator Omar is promising to send Governor Hassan Joho home.